3. Fragmentary Papers on Science and other Subjects
- Author:
By the late Sir Henri Holland, Bart. Edited by his Son, the Rev. Francis J
Holland. (Reviewed by Henry Sutherland, M.D., M.A. Oxon ‘ M.R.C.P. Lond.)
Why should we not all lead an ideal life, as did Sir Henry Holland ? Why should we all plod wearily on, year after year, in the same dull groove of daily labour ? How is it that we neglect to see the capitals, manners, and customs of other nations; the wonders of nature, science, and art, now so easily reached in distant foreign countries ? Is it that we have not the opportunity, or is it that we have not the will ? Is competition now so keen that we cannot afford to take even our necessary recreation ? Or do the very facilities of modern travel prove an obstacle to our setting forth and shaking off the dull routine of our daily business ?
In truth, there is no little danger in the present age of our becoming mere working machines, if we do not make some real efforts to eman- cipate ourselves from the monotonous round of the professional tread- mill. Surely if one of the busiest men in London was able to take his yearly holiday, and delight us with a record of its results, we might at least imitate, if only in an humble degree, this sensible example; and we may be assured that during the rest of the year our work would not suffer for it.
It is impossible to read an essay of Sir Henry Holland’s, upon whatever subject, without perceiving that his general education derived from these travels abroad peeps out at every chink and loophole in his writings.
It is not intended here to describe the life of this distinguished physician, but the fact is worth recording, that many of the Fragmen- tary Papers, now for the first time brought together, were written during his autumnal holidays; proving that he indeed acted up to some of his favourite maxims?”Le temps c’est la vie and “Levat lassitudinam laboris mutatio.”
It is impossible to resist quoting here a passage from Sir Henry Holland’s ” Recollections of Past Life,” which, although somewhat foreign to our present purpose, may yet give the key-note to the means by which these essays were so happily constructed, and may also serve to incite those amongst us who are disposed to improve ourselves to go and do likewise.
- Writing of the companionship of literary pursuits, he says: ?
” Often it has happened to me to he alone in places where solitude was rendered somewhat severe by the hardships or hazards of the road, and by the absence of all aid, were this required. At such times, and even in the more common case of long evenings at European city hotels, I have ever found great advantage in some occupation, embracing subjects and scenes wholly alien to those around me. The articles, chiefly scientific in kind, which during many successive years I contributed to the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews?one in the autumn of each year?served me here in admirable stead. I chose my subject before departure (generally one familiar from previous study), read the work or works to be reviewed, methodised fairly the matter in hand, and wrote the articles at such times and occasions of my journey as accident or mood of mind might suggest; using the sea voyage, which often came at the end of my yearly travel, to put together the several scraps written on the road, and filling up after my return any gaps left by this desultory method of composition. Such breach of continuity in Avriting is not without its advantages. Separate parts are often better moulded together after an interval of time than can be done by continuous composition. And in revision the wise maxim of Boileau, 1 Ajoutez quelquefois et souvent effacez,’ applies to prose as well as to poetrv, even in those matters of pure science where human thought and speculation are dealing with the great mysteries of the universe.”*
Recollections of Past Life. By Sir Henry Holland, Bart. Page 36.
The ” Recollections of Past Life ” were published when their illus- trious author was already advanced in his eighty-fourth year, and we learn from his son,* that in 1873, being then eighty-five, ” My father, perceiving in himself no intellectual decline, made up his mind to bestow upon the papers this 4 laborious revision,’ ” which is mentioned in the concluding chapters of his Recollections. This object Sir Henry Holland did not live to accomplish, but the Essays have been collected by his son, and published in the book which is the subject of this notice.
When it is stated that amongst the contents of this volume are found essays upon twenty-six different scientific subjects, all more or less abstruse, and all worthy of the deepest consideration, it may easily be understood that we have here neither time nor space to do more than glance at a few selected chapters. The essays which will prob- ably be most interesting to the psychologist are the following: ” Mental Operations in Relation to Time; ” ” Materialism as a Question of Science and Philosophy; ” ” Insanity; ” and ” Maury on Sleep and Dreams.”
The first and last of these four are distinguished by the attempt to place clearly before us those obscure metaphysical phenomena which have hitherto been shrouded in the mysterious and uncertain verbiage of philosophy. This attempt is most successful. It shows us to what extent we can be positively certain of the nature of thought, of will, of sleep, and of dreams. It demonstrates conclusively at what point we must draw the line of our investigation, and tells us in unmistakable language that in our pursuit of unknown truths we may advance thus far and no farther.
Nobody can doubt, after the perusal of these essays, that Sir Henry Holland was a philosopher in the truest sense of the term, and that he was, moreover, possessed of a vast fund of deep original thought. Nevertheless, his researches into intellectual phenomena were moderated by that good sense and self-restraint which he recommends us to adopt in all our studies, which prevented his being carried away by pursuits which he believed to be positively dangerous to mental health, when indulged in to an excessive extent. In his numerous writings he has accomplished some useful feats in mental gymnastics, which to his mind, braced up as it was by a variety of accomplishments and occupations, were but mere child’s play. Of these we shall speak in detail later on, in the hope that those who have not time to study these essays in full may be induced to carry out those experiments which are here described and recommended, and from which we may in future anticipate the most novel and interesting results. Mental Operations in Relation to Time.
The point upon which Sir Henry Holland insists in this chapter is that one thought and one only can be entertained at the same moment of time. That contrary opinions have been held on this subject throughout all ages it needs no great effort of memory to demonstrate. Many familiar sayings would seem to imply that if man has not two * Preface to the Fragmentary Papers, p. 6.
brains, he has at least two natures. ” The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak;” “The good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not that I do ;” ” Our good and our bad angel;” and other similar expressions, seem to predicate that two opposite trains of thought can be carried on in our minds at one and the same time, and that such a condition as ” association ” of ideas really exists. This chapter entirely opposes such a theory. Succession, in however rapid intervals of time?but still succession, and not association?is the on]y explanation of certain intellectual phenomena that can be admitted. Where apparently two lines of thought are being pursued at the same time, this is explained by the fact that certain actions, although complicated, may be carried on automatically, when they become habitual to us; as when a person plays a difficult piece of music on the piano, and at the same time carries on a conversation with a friend. One thought must follow another. Two thoughts cannot be originated at the same moment, nor can they advance pari passu. All states of being, physical and intellectual, are sequent to one another. All fluxions of thought and of organic life are not only sequent but infinitesimal in degree, and are, moreover, subject to the laws of an exact periodicity in their modes of action. Sir Henry Holland believed that more may be done analytically, by taking time as a basis, than in any other way.
The connection of will with the theory of the necessity of time for the production of thought and action is next explained. The will is defined to be ” that faculty through which the mind acts upon matter without, and especially upon that body with which it individually co-exists?a co-existence so mysterious that language applied to it is but a shelter to our ignorance.”
” Actions produced at first by express volition gradually assume from repetition much of the character and force of instincts.” “We will to walk, to talk, to read, to write. In the child each particular part of these acts requires a special direction of mind, an effort of will. As life goes on, and they become habitual from repetition, the mind may be said to relegate a part of its power to the bodily organs. It puts them into action, stops or controls them, but has no separate consciousness of these multitudinous motions, rapid almost to con- tinuity, methodised automatically, and synchronous for different organs.” ” It is on these automatic acts that I [Sir Henry Holland] believe mainly to depend the theory of a possible absolute synchronism of separate states or acts of mind.”
” Is it not a more exact as well as simpler conception of mental phenomena to regard their connection as one of series and succession rather than of synchronous or co-existing functions ? ‘ Next, in regard to the influence of the will upon the functions of mind, it is asked, ” How far by effort of mind can we govern the sequences of thought and those great functions of memory and associa- tion through which these sequences are especially manifested ? ” The answer to this question is involved in much obscurity. Even the question as to whether or no we think in ivords is as yet undecided. ” It is hard indeed to find any simple term wherewith to express the potentiality of the mind over its own operations.” “Here, again, the method of enquiry, by succession in time, seems to me [Sir Henry Holland] to go farthest in explanation of the phenomena.” The amount of power possessed by the mind in determining these successions is next discussed. And here a practical hint may be obtained by those who have the interests of insane patients at heart, although familiar enough to most psychologists.
Unbidden thoughts and emotions are to be displaced by mental effort or by external causes. These suggestions may surely be applied as a method of treating curable or alleviating incurable cases of mental disease. The physician should ascertain what bodily and intellectual exercises have been pursued by his patient in early life, and should endeavour, by proper appliances, to bring these external courses to bear appropriately upon each particular case. Attempts might also be made to restore the healthy function of mind by recommending such literary studies and accomplishments as have been known to previously interest and amuse the patient.
The power of the mind, however, in determining these mental conditions, is evidently a limited and fluctuating one. There is great difference of different minds as regards the power of governing these sequences of state. This faculty expresses in its degree the superiority of one man over another.
Thus it is seen that ” we are speaking at once of mental operations and of the power of the mind to change and control them.” ” But here, again, we are met and entangled by the new doctrine of unconscious cerebration”that succession of mental states, partly governed by the will, partly automatic from habit, or the influence of the external senses.” ” This hypothesis, of ‘ unconscious cerebration,’ supposes intellectual operations in which consciousness has no part, but which, nevertheless, evolve true logical results. Here we are called on to recognise an exclusion of mind from the highest function of mind.”
Reverting now to the especial enquiry concerning mental opera- tions in relation to time, it is found that it is an undoubted fact, that the operations of some men’s minds are more rapid in logical sequences than those of others ; that such an inequality has been shown to exist in the time required for transmission to the sensorium of actions on the organs of sense, and of volitions conveyed to the motor organs. We go but little beyond this material evidence in asserting that one mind is more rapid than another in the pure operations of thought, whether governed by the will or not.
Differences on these points occur not only in the minds of others, but in our own minds at different times. An interesting paragraph follows, showing how the operations of the intellect may be influenced by a series of mental gymnastics.
” I [Sir Henry Holland] have^ already spoken of the difficulty of thus turning the mind inwards upon its own acts and states. A yet greater difficulty is that of self-experiment upon the conditions?to try, for instance, what can be done by pure effort of will in determining the objects and sequences of thought which, in their common course, are so largely governed by automatic associations of former images and memories. An act of recollection may in some sort be called an exercise of the mind upon itself. But I liave sometimes in my own case made more explicit trial of this kind, making time a part and test of the experiment. Within a minute I have been able to coerce the mind, so to speak, into more than a dozen acts or states of thought, so incongruous that no natural association could possibly bring them into succession. In illustration I note here certain objects which, with a watch before me, I have just succeeded in compressing distinctly and successively within thirty seconds of time?the Pyramids of Ghizeh, the Ornithorhynchus, Julius Ctesar, the Ottawa Falls, the Rings of Saturn, the Apollo Belvedere. This is an experiment I have often made on myself, and with the same general result. I call it an effort, because it is felt as such, and cannot be long continued without fatigue.” The observation of the acts of the adult and cultivated intellect needs to be supplemented by a knowledge of the conditions of un- educated infancy and childhood ; of the intellectual imbecilities of old age; of the deficiencies and aberrations of the idiot and lunatic; of the mind of the rustic, or of the factory operative, his life a machine of manual labour. Admitting exceptions for certain forms of lunacy, we may presume the succession of mental states of perceptions, acts of reason and volitions, to be generally less rapid and their changes less various in these instances ; and what tells more in the intellectual com- parison, the power of the mind over its own sequent operations is feebler and less coercive. The differences may be of degree only, but they graduate between the intellect of an infant or idiot and that of a Newton or Shakspeare.
Materialism as a Question of Science and Philosophy. This chapter commences with an explanation of the term ” Materialism.”
” The materialist argues that no material change can occur in the nervous organisation without some corresponding change in the mental functions. By no effort or artifice of thought can we dissociate these portions of our common nature so as to feel and conceive what we call Mind singly in itself.”
” The materialist finds a certain aid to his argument in the strange differences of individual minds.”
The question, however, remains unanswered: Are these differences due to different cerebral organisation? Or is this organisation but the instrument to express and put into action the diversities in a part of our being to which no material epithet or description can apply ? Is the brain, which is in man more developed than in any other animal, in itself capable of generating those wonderful functions of perception, thought, feeling, and volition, which in their totality con- stitute the mind of man ? The answer to this question, Sir Henry Holland thinks to be that no such proof is possible, and that presump- tion is wholly against it. That we cannot give other explanation of the phenomena is no argument in a case where reason and conscious- ness are equally unable to lend any aid. Nothing that the most minute anatomy or physiology have taught us can bridge over that chasm?’ hiatus infranchissable, Cuvier wells calls it?which separates what alone we know of the properties of matter from the functions we individually know and feel of the qualities of mind.
The view of the incommensurability, as it has been called, of matter and mind, of body and soul, has been held by the philosophers of every age; always embarrassed, indeed, by terms vaguely defined, such as the vovg, pvx>), and -rryev/ia of the Greek schools, and the equivalent ambiguities of our own and other languages.
But the questions in hand are mainly the same, and the difference in dealing with them is chiefly that created by the severer methods of inductive enquiry. Abstract definitions of the soul and of matter are now submitted to tests which go far to exclude them from the pale of science.
Sir Henry Holland has concluded this essay as follows : ” I have spoken of the little that has been done by scientific discovery to furnish links between mind and matter. In one sense, indeed, they may seem to be further dissociated by those attainments of physical science which especially mark the mental capacity of man. The genius and intellectual power which have penetrated so deeply into the secrets of nature?measuring the distance of the stars and the velocity of light? predicting from the minute perturbations of one planet the existence and place of another yet unknown?detecting the presence of known terrestrial elements in the photosphere of the sun and even of the fixed stars?making electric wires, with a speed that mocks calculation, the medium of human intercourse across the widest oceans?these capacities, thus developed and exalted in their objects, point at some spirituality of nature which mere matter, in our understanding of it, can never reach. That we are unable to comprehend tbis nature and its complex relations to the material world is but one of the many similar confessions we are compelled to make when seeking to interpret the mysteries around us.” Insanity.
The remarks upon insanity are very practical and appropriate. ” The many definitions of insanity are the best proof of the little of practical value which has been gained from the attempt. If broad in principle, they are lost in particular applications. If resting on individuali- ties, these are so numerous that definitions can neither compass nor connect them. There are as many varieties of insanity as of human character, as many forms and degrees of disordered mind as of the intellectual and moral qualities in their sane state. The transitions from sanity to insanity, and the changes incident to the latter, are endlessly varied, yet even here we can generally recognise that law of continuity which so largely prevails in the world around us.”
” A recent classification of the forms of insanity, by Luderdorf, of Vienna, into aberrations by exaltation, by depression, and from weakness, may be considered among the best, simply because the least definite in details.” “The subject is one so beset with metaphysical and verbal subtleties that it is hard to find firm ground to stand upon; and the only suggestion which can be offered is that of eschewing all formal definitions, and connecting the question of sanity or insanity in each particular case, as far as possible, with some specific practical test.”
” One of the best as well as simplest tests of insanity is the inversion of some distinct habit of feeling or action, strikingly marked in the previous character of the individual; the more sudden and complete this inversion, the stronger the_ evident of unsound mind. Such proof can only occa- sionally be had, since insanity shows itself more frequently as an ?P haWt?r Mns-
The question of the material or spiritual origin of insanity and the differences between dreaming and madness are next touched upon and, finally, civilisation is said to aggravate this condition of human suffering.
Maury ok Sleep and Dreams. No outline of this chapter can give any idea of its extreme scientific beauty. ^ It should be read in full by all who are interested in this most thrilling subject.
Sir Henry Holland’s reason for taking Maury as a text was that he had zealously devoted himself to the subject for a long series of years having systematically made experiments upon himself. One of these was as follows:
To record a dream the moment a friend awaked him from sleep. A coadjutor was necessary, not only to awaken him, but to record the utterances of sleep, and such attitudes and movements of the body to be afterwards recorded in relation to the dreams.
Sir Henry Holland suggests, as the chances of error are great and the variations of temperament might affect results, that others should make similar experiments.
With regard to sleep and ^ dreams, they cannot be treated of separately. Still there are certain considerations which must be ad- mitted as possible grounds of distinction. We cannot prove that the conjunction of sleep and dreams is absolute and universal. There may be times and conditions of sleep in which there is a total inactivity of brain?a complete absence of those images and trains of thought which form the dream.
Another distinction, moreover, exists, for although sleep is a necessity of our nature, the same cannot be said of dreams.
The repose and restoration obtained from sleep would seem to be in an inverse ratio to the intensity of the dreams attending it. Frequent experience teaches us that what we call “unrefreshing nights” are attended by troublous dreams.
Is there, then, any condition or moment of sleep absolutely devoid of dreaming ? Positive proof of such a fact is wholly wanting, and the only evidence attainable is that derived from the memory of the dreamer, or the observations of those who watch him during those hours of which he has no remembrance. Aristotle puts the question why some sleep occurs with dreams, other sleep without; or if always dreaming, why some dreams are remembered, others not. ‘ In the memory or oblivion of dreams Ave trace their connection, with our physical organisation, and thus gain a step, though a slight one, to the better understanding of their nature.
Lord Brougham considers dreams an incidental, not a constant part of sleep?a sort of fringe edging its borders. Sir W. Hamilton, on the contrary, believes that no condition of sleep exists without dreaming. The question remains in abeyance for future research or hypothesis to work on.
Even in a fainting fit, it may be that the memory only is anni- hilated, and that the mind never actually ceases in its workings. Cases of unconscious cerebration, in which verses are said to have been made in the night, with no consciousness of the fact till they came to the morning memory, are not proved by evidence sufficiently conclusive. This question admits neither of proof nor disproof. The practical investigation of the subject is also liable to error, which is due to the many varieties of age and of temperament. One thing, however, is certain, and that is, that sleep undoubtedly restores the vital powers. The relation of nerve force to sleep is next con- sidered.
The velocity of the transmission of nerve force has been accurately ascertained; and this discovery warrants the hope that further research may enable us to estimate the amount or quantity of the nerve force existing at any given time.
Mr. Herbert Spencer tells us that, although the rate of repair may be as great by day as by night, the rate of loss is greater. Between this state (o? sleep) and the waking state, the essential distinction is a great result of waste. We have, therefore, a right to conclude that in what is called sleep we have present a force, an agent, generated within the body, exhausted in maintaining the functions of the bodyr and requiring periods of rest for its reproduction in adequate amount. A sleepless night proves the great function which sleep fulfils in the economy of life.
And, again, sleep protracted beyond the need of repair impairs the functions of the brain, and with them the vital powers.
Sleep is also not necessary to men alone, but to the lowest animals in the scale of creation. Even plants sleep. The lower animals also probably, dream, and notably the dog.
The complicated nature of sleep is next discussed. Sleep is not one state merely, but a multiplicity and a continuous succession of states, graduating from the first yawn of drowsiness to the most profound sleep.
Such a mode of regarding^ sleep brings its phenomena into closer relation with those of our waking existence.
It is impossible, indeed, for anyone at all observant of the facts to regard sleep as a single or simple function. We know that all parts of the body, and more especially the organs of sense, are affected and altered by it. Every organ may be said to have a sleep of its own. These are not merely affected in different degrees, at different times, but are differently affected in degree at the same time.
Bichat thus tersely expresses these facts: “Le sommeil general est l’ensemble des sommeils particuliers.”
The law o? continuity may possibly interpret some of these unex- plained phenomena. Interruptions affect the current of our thoughts, when awake, and why not also when we are asleep ?
Next, as to the influences of sleep on the human economy. The refreshing effects of sleep are not to be exactly estimated. One hour in one case may comprise as much of what is true sleep as two hours ?or many hours in another.
The natural and simple conditions of sleep may be studied by watching the moments of passage into sleep and the passage out of it. The most interesting part of such inspection is what may be termed the disseverment of the will from the organs habitually acted on by it. At the moment of waking volition is more awake than the instruments through which it acts.
In dropping off to sleep, Sir Henry Holland says that three or four ?alternations of sleep and waking may and do occur in a single minute ?of time; and again, the clironometry of sleep, that is, the power of awaking invariably at some one determinate hour, can be only explained by the admission of the facts of clironometry of life.
With regard to the other varieties of sleep, it is considered that somnambulism, in common with talking in sleep, is only a gradation of state, the retention of a certain voluntary power, and not a detached phenomenon.
We may further presume that somnambulism chiefly occurs during the time when the cerebral functions are already partially awake. The effects of opium, morphia, and other similar drugs are pro- duced by physical causes, but no known physical law can explain them.
Trance, catalepsy, and mesmeric sleep only differ in degree from reverie and absence of mind.
They all furnish examples of that disseverment, so to express it, of the sensorial functions, which leave a portion of them awake, while others lie in a state of slumber more or less profound.
” As regards mesmeric sleep, is there, we may ask, any such special form or mode of sleep as that denoted under this name produced by a certain subtle influence emanating from one person, and affecting, even without actual contact, the body of another ? We may say at once that neither in the sleep so produced, nor in the collateral effects assigned to it, do we find anything that has not kindred with the natural phenomena of sleep and dreams. AVe believe we might as well speak of sermon sleep, of rocking cradle sleep, of the sleep of an easy arm-chair, or of a dull book, as of mesmeric sleep.” …. ” And with regard to the power of the operator, we may at once state our belief that no such peculiar power exists.” Sir Henry Holland condemns spiritualism as a ” gross pretension,” and recommends as a useful substitute, that we should all keep an honest diary of our dreams.
Dreams leave traces on the brain, the same in kind, though perhaps less forcibly marked than those impressed by the sensations, emotions, and volitions of the waking state.
A multitude of sequent states may be, and actually are, crowded into short spaces of time, and dreams, like waking thoughts, must of course be different in different minds.
Sometimes we think more rapidly as well as more vividly than at others. If this be so, we may fairly presume the same as to the conditions of dreaming in different minds.
“What are the materials out of which dreams are formed? The obvious and sole answer is, from the sensations, ideas, emotions, acts7 and events of antecedent life. Nevertheless, ” the complete dream disregards all realities.” Regarding, then, the images of dreams, how- ever perturbed in order, as derived from those of daily life, we still have to ask the question whether this mimic imagery ever goes beyond, with inventions new to the senses. We think not. We may dream of the centaurs or the winged Assyrian bulls, as we have seen them in the British Museum, but Ave do not in our sleep create monstrosities of this kind.
All is disorder in the illusions of the night, but as the time of awakening approaches the sensorial powers are partly revived, and the dreams are more consecutive and consistent in the events they include. We may repeat our belief, that to this fact Ave must look for explana- tion of those singular stories of problems solved, verses composed, and arguments logically pursued during the hours of sleep.
Analogy is found in the Avandering of the thoughts Avhen aAvake, and the difficulty of remembering Avhat Ave have been thinking about during the last half-hour, or during even shorter spaces of time. It has been a question hoAV far the course and object of dreams can be changed by external stimuli applied to the several senses of the dreamer.
That they do have some effect there can be no doubt. We have more certainty as to the influence of the internal organs on the course and character of dreams. The digestive organs more espe- cially?disordered, it may be, by the dinner of the preceding day? betoken the hesterna vitia by troublous sensations and troubled dreams. Even posture, temperature, a hard or soft bed, have effect in modifying dreams. Such influences cannot be doubted, difficult though it is to bring the facts into strict evidence. Dreamland is not the land of logic or close scientific induction.
The effect of particular traits of character, of emotions and passions upon the dream, is obvious to the most careless observer. It is a saying of Sir Thomas BroAvn, ” Virtuous thoughts of the day lay up good treasures for the night.” Men act in sleep in some conformity to their Avakened senses. Dreams intimately tell us of ourselves. We remember to have read a sermon?and a very able one?inculcating the examination of dreams as a means of recognising and rebuking our faults. They do, in truth, often denote not merely the grave, but also those lighter shades of character Avhich are lost to our consciousness in the current and familiar events of the day.
Remote events, Avhich are forgotten Avhen aAvake, furnish the subjects of our dreams, as Avell as more recent ones, and all must have noticed that certain dreams recur to us frequently. With regard to the relation betAveen dreams and insanity, the folloAving distinctions are laid down.
The one condition is normal, and periodical only; the other is abnormal, and more or less permanent.
As to the causation of sleep, it may depend upon either a congestion of the venous blood, causing pressure on the brain; or upon a lessened quantity or force of the blood, especially of the arterial blood in the vessels. It may be safely assumed that we shall never discover by what alterations in the cerebral substance dreams are originated and composed.
Actions, analogous in kind, though variously altered in operation, occur alike in the sleeping and waking brain.
The many cases where sleep, or states closely akin to it, can be produced by causes in which the circulation is little, if indeed at all, concerned, but where the nervous system is directly and powerfully acted upon, suffice to show how important is the influence of the latter in connection with these complex and ever-changing phenomena.
It has been thought advisable in the preceding remarks to endeavour to bring before the reader the chief points of psychological interest in these chapters. Space does not permit us to give a fuller or more detailed analysis. Enough has been said, it is hoped, to entice the philosopher and the alienist to seek for more connected information at the fountain-head itself.
The moderation and gentleness of spirit displayed by their distin- guished author in this and in all his previous writings, completely disarm criticism. Where every sentence, paragraph, and chapter are so ably and lucidly handled, it is impossible to find fault. We can only indicate by this notice that there are certain parts of these essays which interest and amuse us more than others, and which fully justify our opinion that their author has in them maintained his well-earned reputation as a man of science, a philosopher, and a physician.
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