brought to a perfect angle, nor that it should be perfectly circular, and therefore either of these extremes is a deformity. Now, something considerably removed from the perfect circle and the perfect angle, is the chin we have been most accustomed to see, and which, for that reason, we most approve of.' (p. 187.)

'Mr. Burke contends, and in my humble opinion with great success, that proportion is never of itself the original cause of beauty. It is the cause of beauty, as it is an indication of strength and utility in buildings,—of swiftness in animals,—of any feeling morally beautiful; and it is agreeable, as it is customary, in animals, or the proof of the absence of deformity; but no proportion of itself, and without one of these reasons, ever pleases. No man would contend Nature ever intended that 6 to 2, or 9 to 14, are perfection; that the moment a monkey could be discovered and brought to light, the length of whose ear was precisely the cube root of the length of his tail, that he ought to be set up as a model of perfect conformation to the whole simious tribe. Certain proportions are beautiful, as they indicate skill, swiftness, convenience, strength, or historical association; and then philosophers copy these proportions, and determine that they must be originally and abstractedly beautiful,— applying that to the sign, which is only true of the thing indicated by the sign.' (p. 190.)

Two of the best lectures in the volume are those entitled, Faculties of Animals and Men,' and 'Faculties of Beasts.' If one had picked up this portion of the manuscript by the road-side, one could have sworn to its authorship. How characteristic is the opening paragraph!

'I confess I treat on this subject with some degree of apprehension and reluctance; because, I should be very sorry to do injustice to the poor brutes, who have no professors to revenge their cause by lecturing on our faculties; and at the same time I know there is a very strong anthropical party,

who view all eulogiums on the brute creation with a very considerable degree of suspicion; and look upon every compliment which is paid to the ape, as high treason to the dignity of man.

-

There may, perhaps, be more of rashness and ill-fated security in my opinion, than of magnanimity or liberality; but I confess I feel myself so much at my ease about the superiority of mankind, I have such a marked and decided contempt for the understanding of every baboon I have yet seen, I feel so sure that the blue ape without a tail will never rival us in poetry, painting, and music,-that I see no reason whatever why justice may not be done to the few fragments of soul, and tatters of understanding, which they may really possess. I have sometimes, perhaps, felt a little uneasy at Exeter 'Change, from contrasting the monkeys with the 'prentice boys who are teasing them; but a few pages of Locke, or a few lines of Milton, have always restored me to tranquillity, and convinced me that the superiority of man had nothing to fear.' (p. 238.)

In an enumeration of the causes of man's superiority to the lower animals there occur the following singular yet apposite illustrations:

'His gregarious nature is another cause of man's superiority over all other animals. A lion lies under a hole in a rock; and if any other lion happens to pass by, they fight. Now, whoever gets a habit of lying under a hole in a rock, and fighting with every gentleman who passes near him, cannot possibly make any progress. Every man's understanding and acquirements, how great and extensive soever they may appear, are made up from the contributions of his friends and companions.'

'If lions would consort together, and growl out the observations they have made, about killing sheep and shepherds, the most likely places for catching a calf grazing, and so forth, they could not fail to improve; because they would be actuated by such a wide range of observation, and operating by the joint force of so many minds.

A third

method in which man gains the dominion over other animals, is, by the structure of his body, and the mechanism of his hands. Suppose, with all our understanding, it had pleased Providence to make us like lobsters, or to imprison us in shells like cray-fish, I very much question if the monkeys would not have converted us into sauce; nor can I conceive any possible method by which such a fate could have been averted. Suppose man, with the same faculties, the same body, and the hands and feet of an ox,-what then would have been his fate?' (pp. 267, 268.)

The fact seems to be, that though almost every quality of mind we possess, can be traced in some trifling degree in brutes; yet that degree, compared with the extent in which the same quality is observable in man, is very low and inconsiderable. For instance, we cannot say that animals are devoid of curiosity, but they have a very slight degree of curiosity they imitate, but they imitate very slightly in comparison with men; they cannot imitate anything very difficult; and many of them hardly imitate at all: they abstract, but they cannot make such compound abstractions as men do; they have no such compounded abstractions as city, prudence, fortitude, parliament, and justice: they reason, but their reasonings are very short, and very obvious: they invent, but their inventions are extremely easy, and not above the reach of a human idiot. The story I quoted from Bailly, about the ape and the walnuts, is one of the most extraordinary I ever read; but what a wretched limit of intellect does it imply, to be cited as an instance of extraordinary sagacity!' (p. 270.)

The whole of this interesting subject is treated with great power. Instinct-its nature and limits

-its resemblances to reason, and its dissimilarities from it the 'vain philosophies' which would exalt brutes to men or degrade men to brutes, or degrade brutes below themselves, even into mere machines, -are discussed in the spirit of true philosophy, and with the vivacity of genuine wit. Maintaining the

VOL. III.

just prerogatives of the 'sovereign of this lower world,' our author yet defends the claims of the subject brutes with an impartiality which may make the 'lion' cease to regret that his race have no painters.

the

In conclusion; though some may probably deem that this volume contains too much merriment for so grave a theme, and that philosophy is here masquerading it a little too freely for her character, fault, if fault it be, may well be pardoned. It is rarely indeed that metaphysics have thus transgressed. For one vessel (laden with a similar cargo) that rides too high in the water for want of ballast, there are a hundred whose weight sinks them to the water's edge, and thousands whose too ponderous freight has sent them to the bottom, before they were fairly launched. It is, in our judgment, a recommendation of these lectures that they may induce some to study Mental Philosophy who would otherwise never have studied it at all. He who cannot bear philosophy except in conjunction with a congenial gravity can find plenty of works to his mind.

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HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.*

ABOUT eleven years ago, in an article entitled 'Structure of the English Language,' we attempted to ascertain, with some approach to precision, the relations of Anglo-Saxon to modern English, and the extent to which the former modifies, or rather constitutes, the latter. It was shown that whether we look at a numerical comparison alone, or at the classes of words which Anglo-Saxon has given us, or at the degree in which it influences all our grammatical forms and most idiomatic constructions,—there is no comparison between the importance of this element and that of any other in our beautiful and copious, though very composite language. At the same time the magnitude and value,— absolutely, though not relatively,― of its classical element, were largely insisted upon.

Since the appearance of that article much has been done to illustrate the grammar and history of our language, and to imbue the minds of our youth with a just knowledge of both. These subjects were formerly much neglected in the study, not perhaps too

* Edinburgh Review,' Oct. 1850.

1. The English Language. By R. G. LATHAM, M. D. Second Edition, 8vo. London: pp. 581.

2. Elementary English Grammar for the Use of Schools, By R. G. LATHAM, M. D. Second Edition, 12mo. London: pp. 219. 3. The Rise, Progress, and Present Structure of the English Language. By the Rev M. HARRISON, A. M. 12mo. London pp. 381.