Examine the mind, the grand prerogative of man. Where is the mind of the foctus? Where that of the child just born? Do we not see it actually built up before our eyes by the actions of the five external senses, and of the gradually developed internal faculties?"-Now, as the mind, according to Mr. Lawrence, is merely the result of medullary structure, we cannot conceive why the foetus should be entirely destitute of it-we find the other animal functions, and which are the result of organization, go on; and that they are performed with both health and vigour. We would ask, therefore, why is there not a similar development of mind?-In the infant just born, the liver secretes bile, the stomach digests food, the heart and vascular system circulate the blood, and the lungs perform the function of respiration; whence does it happen that the brain is so far behind its associates in organization? Why are its functions delayed longer than those of other parts? Mr. Lawrence supposes that the growth of the intellectual powers-their perfection in manhood-decay in old age-and final annihilation in death-as he gratuitously assumes, are sufficient evi brain; we take it for granted, bene- | animal organs;-first shewing themvolently bestowed upon the former, if, selves when they are first developed― indeed, benevolence consists in ren- coming to perfection as they are perdering a being sensible of his mise- fected;-modified by their various afries and hard fate, when compared fections;-decaying as they decay, with that of his fellow-creatures:- and finally ceasing when they are de that while his neighbours are wantonly stroyed. sporting, and revelling in all the luxuries of life, he is destitute of the scanty means of a miserable existence; that without curtailing in any essential degree the comforts of his neighbours, Providence might have appropriated a small portion of their superfluities to supply his wants, and alleviate his sufferings ;—that while to the inferior animals, from which he differs only in a clearer perception of, and more exquisite sensibility to, his unhappy state, are allowed and afforded the means of supplying their wants, and gratifying their appetites, with whatever can contribute to these purposes, without the slightest pang or the least particle of remorse; unfortunate man alone is debarred from similar advantages by the stings of conscience, or restrained by laws from exercising the privileges of his more happy animal associates. Game is the prey of every animal which has strength and vigour to pursue it, except man, to some of whom this right is denied, by the exercise of that superior medullary developement by which he has been so benevolently distinguished. If the attributes of the Divine Being, as we are taught to believe, consist in superior wisdom, mercy, justice, and excellence, we must candidly confess, that if Mr. "Do we not trace it advancing by Lawrence's speculations be correct, a slow progress through infancy and the creation presents the most strange childhood, to the perfect expansion and unaccountable exercise of them of its faculties in the adult-annihisuch a medley as to exceed the utmost lated for a time by a blow on the head bounds of human fancy. Indeed, or the shedding a little blood in apowhen we compare the purely profes-plexy ;-decaying as the body declines sional with the metaphysical part of Mr. Lawrence's book, we are tempted to doubt their being the production of the same identical individual. The disparity in the accuracy and acuteness of the reasoning, is so glaring and conspicuous, as would fully justify such a conclusion; and it incontestably proves how much he is out of his element, when engaged in metaphysical disquisitions. At page 6th, we are presented with the following specimen of his reasoning. "On the other hand, I see the animal functions inseparable from the dence of their materiality. in old age;-and finally reduced to an amount hardly perceptible, when the body, worn out by the mere exercise of the organs, reaches, by the simple operation of natural decay, that state. of decrepitude most aptly termed second childhood."--p. 7. Mr. Lawrence evidently would infer from these paragraphs, that as the animal functions suffer derangement from the morbid affections of their respective organs, and the mind suffers in like manner from similar affections of the brain ; as the animal functions are those of their respective organs, so is mind the function of how is it that this secretion should be the brain. so extremely subtil? Does it bear the slightest resemblance, or even the most distant analogy, to any thing else? Really such doctrines lead to absurdities too gross, too glaring, to Mr. Lawrence, page 83, cautions us against arguments from analogy. We are well inclined to profit by the hint, and willing also to improve upon it; therefore we cannot assent to illa-be entertained even for a moment. tions from wrong and misrepresented principles-Cannot the youngest tyro in anatomy demonstrate the animal to be the functions of their respective organs? Can there be a doubt that the liver secretes bile? that the kidneys secret urine? or the glands of the mouth the saliva? But has Mr. Lawrence, or any other anatomist, demonstrated thought to be a secretion from the brain? After taking a view of the modern history of comparative anatomy, he forcibly recommends zoology and natural history as a very essential and important study. Let us assume thought to be a secretion from the brain, and examine its relation to other secretions. We find that the various organs separate their appropriate secretions from the blood, and that these secretions always present their peculiar characters, and by which, even when in a morbid state, they can be easily recognized. Nor can they be altered, suppressed, or augmented, by the will of the animal. They likewise bear certain relative proportions to the circulating mass from which they are separated, and they are material like the blood from which they are produced. Is this the case with thought, the assumed function of the brain? Has not man the most unlimited power over his thoughts? Are they not entirely subjected to his control? Do they bear any ratio to the quantity of blood circulating in the vessels of the brain? or does the heart obey the demands of the brain, and cause a greater influx of blood into the cerebral vessels upon extraordinary occasions? If this should be the case, what must become of all the other unfortunate parts of the body, when the brain makes some of its extraordinary demands? There are occasions in the House of Commons, upon which the whole circulating fluid in the Marquis of Londonderry, or Mr. Canning, would scarcely supply the brain for one column of their speech, as printed in the newspapers-but yet we find them, after an exertion of ten such columns, capable of entering immediately upon a totally new topic, with an undiminished fertility of ideas. Lastly, if thought, like all the other secretions from the blood, be material; "The resemblances which animals bear to ourselves in frame and actions, naturally lead us to ascribe to them our own feelings, to fancy that they are susceptible of our pleasures and pains, actuated by our desires and aversions, and impelled by the same motives or springs of action, and this excites in the mind of the youngest and most unlearned, a sympathetic interest, and a degree of curiosity, which are never felt in examining inorganic nature, or in contemplating its phenomena. None of the exhibitions in a fair are more crowded by young and old, the ignorant and the learned, than the collections of foreign and curious animals; no books are more generally read than descriptions of the form, actions, habits, instincts, and character, of living creatures.”—p. 38 and 39. We agree with Mr. Lawrence, that nothing can be more interesting than the phenomena of organic nature. The supreme wisdom, manifested in every gradation, affords an abundant harvest for the contemplative mind. We behold, even in the lowest works of nature, sufficient cause of wonder and admiration; but as we ascend in the scale, the mind is raised to the highest pitch of amazement. Mr. Lawrence's work plainly demonstrates that the opportunities afforded him of contemplating organized nature have not been neglected or thrown away. But what impressions have his observations produced on himself? How can we reconcile, with his general perspicuity and good sense, the following observations on different animals ? "When we see some sagacious and docile, capable of instruction, exhibiting mental phenomena analogous to our own-the genus or imperfect state of what, when more developed, is human intellect."-p. 44. We do not hesitate here to declare ourselves perfectly at issue with Mr. Lawrence; -we never observed nor heard of any thing, even like an approximation to the human intellect, in the lower orders of animals. What (we take it) he would designate as intellect, are merely the peculiar properties of the animals, born with them, and as natural to and inseparable from them as the distinctive properties of matter are from its various kinds. It is the peculiar nature of a greyhound to course a hare-of a pointer to point at a partridge—and these properties are as peculiar to them as inertia, gravity, or any other of its properties, are to unorganized matter. never was thought without a brain ?→→ Did Mr. Lawrence ever know of thought without a circulating system? or did he ever detect thought except in conjunction with an animal body? If then Mr. Lawrence's argument avail any thing-a heart or circulating apparatus is as essential to thought as a brain, and an animal body as requisite as either; and precisely the same arguments-the same sort of evidence which would lead us to infer thought to be the function of the brain-would also enable us to conclude that it was the function of the heart, or of an animal body-of each individually and separately; and of both conjointly. Strange absurdity! We are quite at a loss to understand Mr. Lawrence, when he says he cannot conceive life without an ani- Mr. Lawrence assumes, that the mal body. What would he define properties of inert or inorganic matter "vegetable life" to be? So obscure is are equally wonderful with the vital the distinction between vegetable and manifestations. "For those who animal life, that no accurate and think it impossible that the living orsufficient distinction has yet been sug-ganic structures should have vital gested. 66 properties without some extrinsic aid Mr. Lawrence endeavours to sup--although they require no such assistport his hypothesis by a kind of negative analogy. "There is no digestion without an alimentary cavity; no biliary secretion without some kind of liver; no thought without a brain."-page 57. This argument is evidently inadequate; suppose bile to be something like thought, but only manifested when a liver formed part of the structure in which bile was detected; would it thence follow that bile was the peculiar function or secretion of the liver? No, no more than it follows that thought is a secretion of the brain. Bile can be traced through its progress, and can be proved to be formed by the hepatic veins from the blood -but thought cannot be traced emanating from the vessels of the brain, and remaining stored in the ventricles till required. But further, the different secretions are substantiated,— they are matter, secreted from matter, by matter, similar to themselves; but is thought material? No-then how could it be secreted by matter from matter? What availeth it to say there ance for the equally wonderful affinities of chemistry, for gravity, elasticity, or the other properties of matter;-a great variety of explanations, suited to all tastes and comprehensions, has been provided."-page 78. Can Mr. Lawrence really mean what he here asserts? If Providence had endowed organized beings with the properties of matter only, all our actions must have been the result of fixed and established principles, over which we could have no control; we should have been purely automata ; and whenever it was necessary to effect any change, any deviation from the natural result, there must have been an immediate exercise of Almighty Power. As we think we have shewn the facts here advanced to be misrepresented, it is unnecessary to pursue this part of the subject further. (To be continued.) REVIEW.-Lady Jane Grey, and her Times. By George Howard, Esq. 8vo. pp. 400. London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones. 1822. THERE is scarcely any species of literary composition more pleasing than biography; but this pleasure is in a great measure diminished by the consideration, that there is scarcely any thing more difficult, than to obtain a faithful delineation of individual character. In the humble walks of life, every man has both his friends and his enemies; and by whomsoever among these the biography is undertaken, we may expect to find either some tints of colouring or some tincture of shade, with which impartiality could easily dispense. But when we ascend still higher among the ranks of mortals, surveying human nature in connection with thrones and sceptres, and perceive individuals either exalted by success, or depressed by misfortune, new obstacles present themselves to the biographer. While the means of furnishing a faithful narrative are in his power, political motives, party feelings, and popular opinion, exert their influence, and before the common tide which these occasioned has subsided, the shadows of oblivion gather round innumerable facts and incidents, which would give life to narrative, and in their joint operation furnish a fair development of cha racter. Lady Jane Grey is one of those celebrated, but unfortunate individuals, whose name is destined to live in history, amidst all the revolutions that are attendant upon empire; though for this celebrity, it is melancholy to add, that she is more indebted to the scaffold than to the throne. In collecting materials for the life of this unfortunate lady, Mr. Howard has manifested a considerable degree of industry, and his application has not been abandoned by success. So far as the lapse of time will allow, and the veils of obscurity can be removed, he has placed the character of Lady Jane Grey in an impartial light: and if the picture does not exhibit a fair resemblance, the fault must be attributed to the causes already noticed, and not to any partial disposition in the author. Through the whole of her eventful life, Lady Jane was rather unfortunate than criminal; and by suffering under the axe of the executioner, she has bequeathed the memory of her persecutors to the execration of posterity. This work, as its title imports, is not confined to the life of this unfortunate lady. It briefly delineates the characters of the principal individuals, who at that period held a conspicu ous rank in the nation, developing, at the same time, the ferocious spirit for which the age in which she lived was remarkably distinguished. Those who wish to see embodied in a short compass, that branch of English history, which, during this period encircled the throne of Britain, will find a fund of interesting matter in the volume before us. That the character of Lady Jane is drawn in so clear a light, as to preclude all objections and all diversity of opinion, we are not prepared to assert. Such a biography is not placed within the reach of mortals; but we feel no hesitation in avowing, that, should this volume be taken up and examined by an individual uninfluenced by former publications, his mind would instantly assent to the probability and plausibility of all the parts in her history, which the biographer has combined; and, while he felt indignant at her fanatic persecutors, he would sigh in pity over her unhappy doom. This work is not more instructive, than it is entertaining. It abounds with sketches of private history, which have all the charms that novelty and anecdote can communicate, illustrative of the times, and of the spirit to which they gave birth. It represents Lady Jane as lovely, learned, intelligent, and truly pious, but whose greatness of soul never shone with brighter emanations, than when it forsook the body on the fatal block. The printing department is well executed, and to such as delight in the history of royalty and its appendages, we doubt not that this book will be a valuable acquisition. We sincerely wish it, what we think it deserves-a rapid and an extensive scale. REVIEW.-Two Voyages to New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land. (Concluded from col. 573.) Happy as we feel ourselves in the contemplation of so much good being effected among the lowest class of society-the very concentration of infamy and pollution-by the vigilant attention of one or two individuals; it is a subject of the most acute anguish to every feeling mind, to think that after all the pains and all the labour which had been bestowed upon the convicts in these two voyages, to correct the habits and reform the vices; yet that on arriving at the end of their journey, (at Sydney,) a most lamentable source of mischief presented itself to the female convict on the very threshold of her exile. On the morning after the prisoners had been landed, our author found that many of them had spent the night in noise and indecent revelry, occasioned by beer and spirits, and which could not have been done without the knowledge of the keepers. The numbers of houses licensed for the sale of beer and spirits, besides those where the like are vended clandestinely, retard most powerfully the growth of moral reserve, and that rectitude of principle necessary to the existence of a well-ordered community. Here then is a constant running stream of licentiousness, which it is feared will long continue to characterize the infant colony, unless legislative means be applied to counteract it. If there be an individual who cherishes a spark of virtue, which pious reflection and holy desire were kindling into a flame, such a scene of continued iniquity before their eyes is calculated to extinguish it altogether. The guardians of public morals, being selected from the convicts, of course, rarely possess qualities superior to those over whom they are placed in authority. Hence the most valuable institutions must fail in their design, when upheld and supported by such materials: and although it is probable that a better system could not be devised than that adopted by the present governor; yet for want of probity and firmness in those who execute his views, the worst abuses must ensue. In fact, this is evidently the case, for the Sydney Gazette frequently announces the dismissal of those officers for misconduct. servant is assigned, is required by authority of the local government, to pay as wages £10 per annum, to a male, and £7 to a female, besides board and lodging. The male convicts who are not thus disposed of, are formed into gangs,which are stationed in different parts of the country, in government employ; such as making and repairing roads, and various other public works. Those who are employed at Sydney, and its vicinity, are lodged in a barrack, which is fitted for the accommodation of about 800 persons. There is also another building of the same kind at Emu-Plains, but on a smaller scale. The barrack at Sydney, is spacious and lofty, erected in an healthy and appropriate situation: it is thoroughly ventilated, and kept exceedingly clean. Since the erection of this barrack, the convicts are locked up regularly at eight o'clock at night, which is an advantage long desired, as it is a preventive against associating with the publichouse keepers, thieves, and receivers of stolen goods. They work from six in the morning till six in the evening, Saturday excepted, when they are allowed half a day to receive their weekly rations of provisions; and of course their labour must be much more productive to government than formerly. Various measures have been adopted to restrain the irregularities of convicts at large; and punishments of a summary nature are frequently imposed. Of these, the most severe, next to that of death, is transportation to the Coal River, which is ordered usually by his Honour the Judge Advocate, or a bench of Magistrates, for a term of years, or for life, as the enormity of the offence may require. This mode of punishment is very much dreaded by the convicts, because they are compelled to work in chains from sun-rise to sun-set, and are subject also to other restrictions of a highly penal description. But notwithstand ; The public-houses in Sydney, although only twenty-five in number, are evidently too numerous, in pro-ing the severity of this punishment, it portion to the population; and are as is frequently relaxed in degree as the much frequented as almost any of criminal shews signs of amendment those in the British metropolis. The and in very few instances is it found profits arising from these receptacles necessary to subject any of the conof vice, are so enormous, that the victs to a repetition of the sentence. persons who keep them are enabled to Punishment by flogging is sometimes accumulate in about three years, what resorted to, though it seldom exceeds they consider a fortune. 25 lashes. For females who commit the same offences, it is considered Every settler to whom a convict |
