CRITES. I agree with you to a great extent, but not altogether.

"Est quâdam prodire tenus si non datur ultra."

I apprehend that the changes as to education, which are now in progress in this country, of which the principal result will be the introduction of new branches of study into our schools and colleges, will do much towards remedying the defects of the present system. Those who have it not in their power to excel in one thing will find that they may, nevertheless, excel in another; and each individual will naturally, and almost unconsciously, direct his attention to those subjects which are most congenial to his taste, and best adapted to the peculiar structure of his mind.

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THE SECOND DIALOGUE.

Mind and Matter. - Natural Theology. Views of Sir Isaac Newton. Reasons for regarding the Mental Principle as distinct from Organization. - The Influence of the one on the other not sufficiently regarded by Metaphysicians.-Relations of the Nervous System to the Mental Faculties. Speculations of Hook, Hartley, &c.-The Brain not a single Organ, but a Congeries of Organs cooperating to one Purpose. Physiological Researches of Magendie and Flourens. The different Capacities of Individuals for the Perception of Colours, Musical Sounds, &c., probably dependent on different Organization of the Brain. Supposed Connection of the Cerebellum with Locomotion. Is there an Organ of Speech? - Instances of Want of Speech in those who were neither Deaf nor Idiotic. Stammering. Memory. - Dr. Hook's Speculations. Affections of the Memory from Cerebral Disease or Injury. - Impressions on the Brain not sufficient for Memory, unless accompanied by Attention, which is an act of the Mind itself. The Nature of the Physical Changes which occur in connection with the Memory beyond the reach of our Observation and Capacities.

It was on the day following that of the foregoing discussion that our friend invited us to accompany him to a spot in the neighbourhood

D

which, from its greater elevation, afforded an extensive panoramic view of the whole of the surrounding country. Our road was by an easy ascent; the weather was fine; and, as we proceeded leisurely, we were able to combine the pleasures of conversation with those of breathing the fresh air and admiring the beauties of the scenery. When we had reached the summit of the hill, we were amply rewarded for the trouble of ascending it. It was one of those days which so frequently precede a fall of rain, when the transparency of the atmosphere renders distant objects unusually distinct, and apparently less distant than they really are. For twenty-five or thirty miles, on every side, the country lay before us, with its woods and meadows, villages and churches, as plain as if they had been represented on a map. The sun was at this time about two hours above the horizon, his beams being occasionally intercepted by some light clouds, the shadows of which sometimes fell on ourselves, and at other times were seen rapidly traversing the landscape below. A slender

moon, not more than three days old, was seen following the sun towards the west.

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"I never," said Eubulus, " find myself left to my own contemplations in a situation such as this without a feeling of wonder at myself and my own existence. Here am I, I mean I, who feel and think, pent up within the narrow dwelling of my own body, yet taking cognisance of things remote in space, not only of those which belong to our own world, but of those in the vast universe around us. Marvellous as this may be, let us wait but for a few hours, and we have what is still more marvellous. By the aid of a tube and a few glasses, I may become acquainted with other objects, suns and worlds, distant from us not only in space, but also in time, which I see not as they now are, but as they were many thousands of years before I myself was in existence. I do not say that such reflections prove more than may be proved in other ways, but they certainly impress my mind more strongly with the conviction that, as a percipient, conscious, and intelligent being, I belong to a mode of existence

wholly different from that of the senseless. bodies by which I am surrounded, and that (even independently of the evidence afforded by revelation) there is nothing unreasonable in the universal expectation of mankind (so universal, indeed, as to have almost the character of an instinct) that there is something in us which will remain, and be capable of perception and thought, and it may be of pure and high aspirations, when the gross material fabric with which it is now associated has become resolved into its original elements."

CRITES. I can perfectly enter into the sentiments which you have now expressed. The properties of mind are so wholly different from those of matter, the two are so completely asunder, that they do not admit even of the most distant comparison with each other, I can easily imagine that motion, gravitation, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, chemical attraction, have something in common; that they are (as, indeed, Mr. Grove has shown them to be) so far of the same essence as to be convertible into each other; but it is to me