mental powers. He evinces, with complete success, the truth of these propositions :-that the periods for labour, by the operative population, ought to be abridged, so as to afford sufficient time for their cultivating their moral and rational faculties: that many of the miseries endured by the middle and upper classes, are consequences of departures from the moral law, in the present customs of society that nations, in order to attain the highest prosperity, should act towards each other on the principle of the supremacy of the moral sentiments; and that the civilization of savages will be more easily accomplished by pacific than by forcible measures.

:

The object of punishment for disobedience to the divine law, is to arrest the offender in his career of transgression; and in this way to save him from greater suffering. God's punishments of evil-doers, in this world, are beneficently designed for their own welfare, and to terminate their misery by death when the error is irreparable. Criminal laws are two often framed on the principal of animal resentment: hence, the inefficacy of these, from over-sight of the causes of crime and their being left to operate with unabated energy after the infliction. Every crime proceeds from the abuse of some faculty, and the tendency to abuse arises from three sources ;-from particular faculties being too powerful and spontaneously over active; from great excitement of these faculties by external causes; and from ignorance of what are uses, and what are abuses, of the mental faculties. Crime, then, can only be extinguished by the absolute removal of its causes; and, so long as punishment continues to be necessary, a moral chastisement is greatly to be preferred to animal retribution. These are the doctrines of Mr. Combe, and he demonstrates their truth and fitness with great perspicuity and eloquence.

Having unfolded several of the natural laws and their effects, and having shown that each of them is inflexible and independent in itself, and requires absolute obedience to its injunctions, Mr. C. next explains the mutual relationship among these laws, and adduces instances of their joint operation. These instances are wonderfully instructive and most apposite: they consist of a reference to the defects of the arrangements for jury-trial in Scotland-the great fires in Edinburgh, in 1824-shipwrecks, from ignorance or irrational conduct in commanders-Captain Lyon's unsuccessful attempt to reach Repulse-bay-the foundering of decayed and illequipped vessels at sea-and the mercantile distress that overspread Britain in 1825-6, which he regards as having originated in an excessive activity, combined with a general ascendancy, of the ani

VOL. IV.-NO. XVI.

P

mal and selfish faculties over the moral and intellectual powers. His illustration, taken from Captain Lyon's failure is singularly pathetic and beautiful. The moral law, he says, shines forth with delightful splendour, in the conduct of Captain Lyon and his crew, when in the most forlorn condition. Piety, resignation, and manly resolution, then animated them to the noblest efforts. On the principle, that the power of accommodating our conduct to the natural laws depends on the activity of the moral sentiments and intellect, and that the more numerous the faculties which are excited the greater is the energy imparted to the whole system-on this principle, he would say, that, while Captain L.'s sufferings were, in a great degree, brought on by infringements of the physical—his escape was materially promoted by his obedience to the moral-law; and that Providence, in the whole occurrence, proceeded on the broad and general principle which sends advantage uniformly as the reward of obedience to, and evil as the punishment of infringement of, each divinely instituted law of creation.

It has been remarked, that, although when viewed abstractedly, the natural laws appear beneficent and just, yet they are undeniably the cause of extensive, severe, and unavoidable suffering to individuals; so that, while, theoretically, the moral horizon seems to be cleared up, nevertheless, practically and substantially, the obscurity and intricacy remain undiminished. The author, in reply to this objection, observes-that, as the whole is but an aggregate of all the parts, if any natural institution, when viewed in its operation with regard to the race of beings, is found to be just and beneficent, it cannot well be cruel and unjust to individuals who are component parts of this aggregate; and, accordingly, he holds that his position admits of something approaching to a demonstration. He works out this demonstration in the form of certain imaginary cases of the suspension of various physical, organic, and social laws; and these inductions of his ideality are curious, amusing, and conclusive.

Introductively to his remarks on the "relation between science and scripture," Mr. Combe observes-that science, being an exposition of the Creators' works, it cannot be at variance with a correctlyinterpreted revelation of his will; and, by reasoning and authority, he shews the impropriety of testing science by the scriptural writings which were never intended to contain or expound a system of natural philosophy. New doctrines have been branded as impious, in all ages: even the primitive christians themselves were everywhere accounted a pack of atheists, and their religion the Atheism; they were denounced as mountebank impostors, and men of a despe

rate faction; and they were accused of sacrilege, sedition, and hightreason. Mr. Combe's favourite science of mind has not been exempted from the same sort of obloquy: nevertheless, it flourishes vigorously, and its benignant influences are extending to the utmost precincts of the civilized world. Its advocates expect that it will lead to a better interpretation of some parts of the Bible, and thus conduce eminently to the realization of pure practical christianity, by giving a new direction to the pursuits of the religious instructors of mankind. History exhibits the apostolic doctrine itself as becoming corrupted by the selfish or senseless inventions of men, and as exerting but little influence in improving the nations, until it came to be aided by the arts and sciences. Mr. C. uses a narration of the persecutions for witchcraft, in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, as an illustration of the inefficacy of Scripture, alone or not rightly interpreted, to produce a perfectly rational and moral conduct; and hence he infers the necessity of employing all our lights and all our powers in searching for the true meaning of the divine enunciations. In his essay to determine the relation between scripture and science, Mr. Combe explicitly disavows all intention or desire to depreciate the importance of The Bible: in his own words, he only very humbly endeavours to vindicate the study of the Creator's will in his works as in his word; to shew that the human mind needs illumination from both science and scripture, to direct our conduct towards virtue; and to prove that, without philosophical knowledge, we may grievously misunderstand and misuse the doctrines revealed in the sacred writings.

Supposing it to be true, what is the practical use of phrenology? Mr. C. devotes a section of his work to a solution of the question, and his observations on this head are every way worthy of attention and unprejudiced consideration. With much felicity of illustration and deduction, he defines the varied and comprehensive utility of this science, with reference to politics, legislation, education, morals, and religion; the professions, pursuits, exercises, and amusements of individuals. He concludes his admirable exposition of the advantages to be conferred on education by a right application of the new mental system, with the remarks that, by teaching mankind the philosophy of their own nature, and that of the world in which they live, and by proving to them the coincidence between this philosophy and Christian morality, as well as the inconsistency of their own institutions with both, they may then be induced to modify the latter, and to entrench the moral powers; and that when schools and colleges shall expound the various branches of science

as portions of the Creator's institutions, and when the busy scenes of life shall be so arranged as to become a field for the practice at once of our philosophy and our religion-then, after a long train of gradual advances, will man assume his high station as an intelligent and responsible being-then will the ascendancy of virtue and religion be more complete-and then will Christianity achieve her noblest triumph, and flourish, ever brightening, most glorious and immortal. J. K.

ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE NIGHTINGALE,

(Philomela luscinia,-Swainson ;)

BY EDWARD BLYTH, ESQ., TOOTING, SURREY.

[Concluded from our last number.]

What agencies affect the development of the migrative impulse.In matters of Natural History, nothing is more difficult than to arrive at sound general conclusions, to deduce universal laws, which shall not be liable to certain exceptions. It is so with the migration of birds, at least when we would attempt to refer the development of the migrative instinct to the mere agency of internal impressions. Thus, in most of the species (as in the Nightingale), the migratory impulse would seem, at least to all appearance, to be chiefly, if not wholly, influenced by change of temperature; in others (as in the common Grey Flycatcher), deficiency of food would seem also to be a predisposing cause; while others again (as the Cuckoo and the Swift) retire southward, as has been already mentioned, at the very hottest season of the year, and when their food would seem to be most abundant. The adult Cuckoos even leave us when in full moult, though none of the flying feathers, by the way, are shed till after they have left us; and so powerful is the migrative feeling in the common Swift, that this species has been several times known actually to forsake a late brood of half-fledged nestlings to leave the country. All the migratory small land birds perform their long journeys by night, choosing moonlight nights, and starting immediately as the moon rises. It is early in the morning only that they are observed to settle on the rigging of

vessels; by day they rest from their fatigue, and seek their food: and, in perfect conformity with this, the Nightingale, and the various migratory warblers, in confinement, very rarely evince any peculiar restlessness by day; but at night, more especially when a light is brought into the room where they are kept, they are like mad creatures, rapidly fluttering and flapping their wings, as if flying with their heads continually pointing upward, and every instant appearing as if about to spring into the air, which they now and then do with such violence that Nightingales (for instance) have been often known thus to fracture their skull against the wooden roof-work of their cage. Of course, food can have nothing to do with this, as birds in captivity have always a regular supply; their desire to migrate would seem to be wholly influenced by the temperature, every change to colder weather in the autumn, and generally during the winter, invariably occasioning this uneasiness, while the same is always induced by a change to warmer weather during the spring. When the temperature is more settled, they are more quiet; and although confined in a close and warm room, it is surprising how quickly they feel every change that takes place out of doors, which is sure to be indicated by their greater or less desire to migrate.

Various phenomena exhibited by migrant birds.-It is also worthy of remark that, in confinement, most of the species particularly exhibit this impulse in spring, in the exact order in which the wild birds arrive in the country; and that, in general, each kind becomes, in its turn, the most restless, precisely about a week or ten days before that particular species makes its first appearance in its proper haunts. In the wild birds, the migrative impulse seems always to be wholly dissipated by their long journey; for these, if captured upon their arrival, never evince it; whereas those which have lived in captivity through the winter continue to shew it, at intervals, during the greater portion of summer ;—that is to say, till they have discontinued singing, and are about to undergo their autumnal moult, from which time they do not again evince it till the proper season arrives for leaving the country. Migratory birds captured late in autumn exhibit it very strongly.

Which cannot be accounted for on any secondary principles.—The above numerous facts, which are deduced from the results of careful observations made through several consecutive years, would appear, in some instances, to be contradictory; the birds are affected by changes of temperature, and yet exhibit the migratory impulse in summer, when the required degree of temperature is arrived at;