" WHO shall decide when doctors disagree?" who can hope

to settle points in phrenology, when the respective leaders dispute amongst themselves ?—nay, by the skulls of GALL and SPURZ- HEIM. not ouly differ, but separate and cause divisions in the so- ciety ! "Non nostrum lentos componere lites:" but we may tell the origin of the difference, describe its nature, and pass judgment upon the literary merits of the pleading before us. GEORGE COMM is widely known as an able and zealous apostle of phrenology, and on indefatigable labourer in the cause of what be at least considers human improvement. His works on these subjects have bad a large circulation in Great Britain : one, if not more, has been reprinted in America, and translated into several Continental languages. WILLtAm Scorr is also a phrenologist not unknown to fame, although his circle of celebrity is somewhat narrow. He contributed to the Phrenolo- gical Journal; he was President of the Edinburgh Phrenological Suciety ; and, in short, he" rowed in the same boat" with GEORGE COMBE, till the latter began to "broach those doctrines on human responsibility, and other points, which were afterwards more fully developed in the Constitution of Man;" and GEORGE. not only re- maining unconvinced by the spoken arguments of WILLIAM, but continuing obdurate in spite of a " privately printed" reply to a private edition of the Constitution, WILLIAM " broke off the con- nexion," by withdrawing both from the Society and the Journal.

In the mean time, the first edition of the Constitution of Man appeared ; and Mr. SCOTT kept his eye upon it. But, noting that its merits did not outweigh its price, be regarded its slow circu- lation with a watchful indifference. When, however, the " Hen- derson Bequest,"* made it saleable by making it low-priced, "the case was altered ;" and it was pressed upon WILLIAM Scow by many friends, that he ought to answer GEORGE COMBE,—the points upon which an answer was chiefly desired being, the arch- heresarch's notions touching the Fall•of Man, and the supineness of the clergy with regard to phrenology. Such is the origin of this difference ; now for its nature.

In the early part of his hook, Mr. COMM intimated that there were two modes of looking at man. One considered him to have been created perfect, and to have degenerated from his original condi- tion; according to which theory, man's improvement must depend upon his restoration as nearly as possible to his former state, or, in theological language, upon his "regeneration." needier held that the world " contains within itself the elements of improvement, which time will evolve and bring to maturity ; " and on this theory the happiness of man will depend upon his advancement in physical and moral science. Mr. Comae avowed his prefer-

ence of the latter theory, as the most reasonable in itself, the most encouraging to human exertion, and the most consistent with historical experience. Drawing an illustration from geology, he instanced the successive stages of improvement that the earth had passed through before it attained its present state of perfec- tion; mid hence he inferred, that the analogies of creation sup- ported his viewF. Finally, he rated divines, with something of the zeal of an apostle, for not having recourse to the discoveries of phrenology, and to the moral truths to be deduced from the observation of the organic laws of our conformation, by which they could prove that vice and vim tue produce their temporal rewards and punishments,—instead of dwelling upen such comparatively remote and abstruse topics as the corruption of our nature and the new birth. To these opinions, and to several views which flow from the first of them, Mr. SCOTT is opposed ; and thereupon issue is joined.

It is not of course our intention to follow this harmonizer of Phrenology with Scripture through all his arguments; for it would lead us over more ground than the reader might like to travel,— commencing, as it does with the earliest state of the globe, run nine, through the condition of mankind in the world before the Flood, and investigating ancient history, ancient monuments, and ancient characters, to prove the former superiority and present degeneracy of man, and to establish the truth of "a golden age" existing at some remote period. Nor is this all, or nearly all. Mr. Scorr takes a view of the species in former and present times: touching upon the first propagation of Christianity, he endeavours to trace its effects, and to establish by facts the "efficacy of preach- ing :" and he examines in detail many of the arguments in the Constitution. He also devotes a chapter, respectively, to Mr. COMBE's phrenological objections to the Paradisaical existence of our first parents, drawn from the uselessness in such a state of the organs of Destructiveness and so forth; to his argument that death • Noticed in the Spectator, No, 335; 18th April 1835. is essential to man from his organic constitution, and must there- fore have occurred whether Adam had stood or fallen; to the theory that the pains of childhitth are not naturally necessary, but arise from the non-observance, through a long series of ages, of organic laws,—so that the peculiar sentence passed upon Eve may be defeated by proper discipline ; and to Mr. Cominfarefined notions on Criminal Legislation. The enumeration of Mr. Scores topics is not yet exhausted : he touches upon ethics, physics, theology, and divinity, besides turtling aside to have a ding at the Constitution of Man whenever he thinks lie has an opportunity to make a hit.

In a literary point of view, this book is unquestionably able in parts; but as a whole, it is not entitled to higher praise, perhaps, than that of verbal cleverness. We do not suppose Mr. Scow to be more anxious for victory than truth ; but he either argues as if he were so,or he is not capable of comprehending the full scope of " great argument." He watches for lax expressions, and tri- umphs, when he detects a slip,us if he had settled the controversy. Zeal frequently hurries GEORGE COmBE beyond the strict bounds of moderation, and makes him appear enthusiastic : the views of WILLIAM SCOTT are one-sided, or fall short, from prejudiced nar- rowness of mind. In terms he is guarded enough; hut. it is occa- sionally to be suspected, that the necessary withdrawing from the President's chair and the Phrenological Journal are pressing quite as much upon his mind as the danger to Revelation or the character of the clergy. Iii reasoning upon those points of his opponent's views which depend upon the Scripture narrative taken literally, it may readily he supposed that the advantage must be conceded to Mr. Scorn Neither discussing the iohereat truth or feasibility of Mr. anises theory, nor following out the opposite one to its legitimate conclu- sion, but standing upon the Mosaic account of the fall of man, Mr. SCOTT clearly convicts the theory of Mr. Comas: of difference with the received interpretation of Genesis. When he quits the sacra via of Scripture, the weakness of the human advocate is manifest ; and his narrowness of view, his superficial character, and his disingenuous sophistries are frequently made palpable. His leading argument will suffice as an instance. Mr. COMM, after stating " that the world contains within itself the elements of improvement, which time will evolve and bring to maturity, it having been constituted on the principle of a progressive sys- tem," referred, as we have said, to geology for analogous proof, and used the word "creations." Upon this term Mr. SCOTT raises a shout of triumph; asking, how the internal elements of a pro- gressive system can be reconciled with creation?—as if Mr. COMM had maintained the hypothesis of a self-producing world, or drawn any Atheistical distinction between a law of nature, and the will, in the language of theology, of the First Cause; or as if the globe were not far more perfect now than at its first creation, and had not reached this perfection by "a progressive system," every step, so far as we can learn, "evolving the ele- ments of improvement," which second causes brought to maturity.. Mr. COMBE had also referred to the history of man, to show that he is now in a state of greater improvement than in the earlier ages of the world; and this generally admitted truth Mr. SCOTT' undertakes to overturn. Mixing together, and very unfairly in such a case, the statements of sacred and the traditions of profane history, with the mere hypotheses of speculators, he first asserts point-blank what he cannot prove. He then maintains the early and absolute perfection of the Assyrian empires by the recorded grandeur of Babylon, and of Egypt by the surviving monuments. He asserts the superiority of the earlier Greeks; and (by an error, which we are loth to attribute to ignorance but which yet is too gross for impudence itself) instances their conduct in the very zenith of their glory—the defeats of DARIUS. and XERXES, and the Macedonian conquest of Persia. "The continence of Scipio ! the virtue of Cincinnatus ! the self-de- votion of Regulus !" (which last chiefly consisted in not breaking his parole)—are the proofs of early Roman perfection; as if these things did not occur some five hundred sears after the murder of Remus and the rape of the Sabines. Yet an examiner of less narrowness, a thinker of greater depth, would have considered the change of dynasties and the short duration of the Western Asiatic empires as telling sadly against their social and political "perfection ;" whilst the monstrous vices recogs. nized, if not encouraged by their religions, are evidence of any thing but of moral " perfection." The hanging-gardens of Babylon, the pyramids of Egypt, and the ruins of Thebes, prove the combination of vast numbers of labourers engaged to one end; they show a considerable degree of mechanical knowledge,, or great patience and boundless manual resources in employing what they had ; whilst the remains of Egyptian art are evidence of great technical skill, but a limited range of mental power, which infers, what our scanty knowledge of them supports—a stagnant state of civilization. A reflecting mind, moreover, could not have helped asking, of what use were most of these things? Were they undertaken with any other view—did they answer any other jurpose—than that of gratifying the caprice or the luxury of tyranny, or the pride of a foul superstition ? And such a mind would come to the conclusion, drawn long since, that they are evidence of a grinding despotism, and were the product of a severe political if not of absolute personal slavery. Looking, indeed, as far as one may look without presumption, at the profane history of the past, it seems not only to support, but to prove, a " pro- gressive system" analogous to the successive creations of geology.

The Egyptians—how, we know not, but the state of the Jews under Jacob, and the silence of Scripture, prove pretty clearly

that it was not inherited from Noah—attained a considerable but a

material and limited civilization. They imparted their mechani- cal improvements and the germ of intellectual progress to the Greeks ; and, having fulfilled their destiny, perished. The Phce- nicians, and their successors the Carthaginians, laid the founda- tions of commerce and discovery; but, from their sordid and nar- row views, incapable of raising any beneficial superstructure, they

were swept away in their turn. The Greeks themselves, from the limited extent of their territory, their internal jealousies, and, in

the language of GIBBON, their " selfish vanity," which looked down upon strangers as upon an inferior race, were ill calculated to spread improvement abroad upon the world. They carried art and literature to a point which has never again been reached ; they laid the basis or left the hints for much of mental and some- thing of physical science ; and, having answered the end of their existence, they yielded to the power of Rome. Combining some- thing from every nation, with the stern discipline of their arms, and the almost equal exactness of their civil executive, the Romans reduced to order and union the then accessible parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. From the Rhine and the Danube to the borders of the Sahara—from the Euphrates to the wall of Ha- drian — they established civilization, and a regular if an op- pressive government ; and they facilitated intercourse between remote regions. But monstrous evils were lurking under their universal empire. The purity of Christianity was corrupted by Pagan superstitions ; slavery, the relic of Mr. Scurf s golden age, was still depraving the lord and his victim ; political freedom was dead, and although freedom of thought was not altogether for- bidden, the mind seemed to have exhausted its materials. Rome had accomplished her task ; the world had need of a political and

a mental shock ; and they shortly came with the barbarian inva-

sions and the appearance of MAHOIVET. The latter in a great measure substituted a Theism for the odious and silly superstition and the singular heresies of the Greeks : his success eventually added something to art and something to science, and facilitated commerce with the remoter East. The overthrow of the Western Empire, and the consequent establishment of the Feudal, the Municipal, and the Chivalrous systems, with the fusing influence of the Romish Church, produced the mixed character of modern society, in which personal dignity, knightly courtesy, and the blended characteristics of the priest's grave learning and the quick intelligence and adaptability of the trader are not unhap- pily combined. These systems also gave rise to the present political condition of modern Europe; they were means, if they were not necessary causes, of the discovery and colo- nization of America and the Eastern Indies ; and they have added the German and Russian empires, the kingdoms of Poland and Denmark, and the countries beyond the Baltic, to the posses- sion of civilized man. We are not prophets—we deal only with the present and the past—we do not presume to speculate as to the permanence of the present system of things, or whether it in its turn must perish, to give rise to a further improvement in the condition of the race : but, looking at the extent and character of modern civilization, we are prepared to affirm, that in all its par- ticulars,—whether we regard the elevation of the species, the vir- tue and happiness of individuals, or the sum of the whole corn- bined,—the condition of mankind has " progressively " improved, since the times when CHEOPS built a pyramid for a monument, the fabled MUTIUS SCiEVOLA burnt his hand before PORSENNA, or the Assyrians practised their idolatrous rites to the delusion and punishment of God's chosen people ; whilst the only parts of the earth (save, probably, China and India) inhabited by any ex- cept barbarous savages, were the shores of the Mediterranean and the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates.

Nor are the arguments of Mr. SCOTT as to the perfection of religion much more convincing. This is not the place to discuss them at length ; but we may ask any rational person, whether, speaking humanly, religion herself has not improved since revela- tion was first thundered forth on Mount Sinai? The hard neces- sity of extirpating whole nations by indiscriminate massacre, is no longer an article of belief, or a necessary point of practice—a proof in itself of the improvement of mankind. The abrogation of the ceremonial and the promulgation of the practical law— the change from blind commands on the will to appeals to the reason and the affections—may be held as spiritual progression. But what a progressive improvement in the interpretation of its doctrines since the close of the apostolical age! We may want the zeal and self-denial of the primitive Christians and martyrs ; but we no longer indulge in their superstitions or their heretical errors ; our "Fathers" no longer corrupt the purity of doctrine by human in- fusion, or push their presumptuous speculations beyond the bounds of reverence and of decency. The absurd dogmas of the darker ages have been weeded ; their gross practices and bloody fanaticism are extinct. The persecuting spirit and fierce intolerance spring- ing out of the Reformation contests seem to be declining ; and, if there be not (which, in despite of the occasional crowds collected by spiritual mountebanks, we believe there is) more brotherly re- gard and toleration amongst the great bulk of Christians, there is at least less brute violence in persecution and greater simplicity of doctrine. These points are rather shirked by Mr. Scorr. He confines himself in a measure to a general enumeration of the moral improvements caused, in his opinion, by Christianity ; but as he cannot get over their slow progress for fifteen hundred years, he attributes our great comparative progression to the Reforma- tion,—a piece of more than Papal presumption, as it assigns to LUTHER a superiority over CHRIST.

To sink down at once from the spirit of history to the argil. ments of Mr. Scorr, here is one of his instances of modern moral advancement. It will be seen that he traces the improvement in the after-dinner behaviour of Auld Reale to the " divines," and not, as most others would, to the growing refinement of the age. Yet if record and tradition may be relied on, the " divines," at all events in England, have profited by it as much as any class, and wanted it not the least.

" Let those who recollect tell what was the state of manners in this our

Northern metropolis, among the higher and middle classes of society, not more than half a century ago. At that time, and for a long period previous, the classes I refer to universally indulged in practices now as universally pro- scribed. They did not, to be sure, cheat, lie, and steal ; but they did their utmost to injure their health and destroy theit intellects, by habitual and exces- sive drinking. Hardly an entertainment took place at which the majority of the male guests did not drink to intoxication. It was thought a disgrace to the landlord if any of them went away sober, and the mark of a mean and cowardly spirit, if any one attempted to shy his glass, or to escape the scene of inebriety. This feeling is graphically described by Sir Walter Scott in his novel of Waverley, in his account of the revels at the Baron of Bradwardine's ; and is alluded to by Burns, in the well-known lines,

"I'he first shall rise to gang awa', A silly coward loon is he;

The first beside his chair shall fa', Ile shall be king aiming us three.'

This picture is not overcharged ; on the contrary, the half is not told. It was then no disgrace to a gentleman to be seen, or to be carried home, in a state of intoxication. Now, it will be admitted, such things ate not merely rare, but we may say absolutely unknown. " But the physical part of the evil was not the worst. The conver-

sation at these nocturnal orgies was even more offensive to moral feeling than the liquor that was swallowed. The topics chosen, and the mode of treating them, were of the grossest description. Not boys, but grave, erious men, as they chirped over their cups,' endeavoured to outdo each other in a species of discourse that would not now he tolerated anywhere. Profanity was, in many cases, added to licentiousness ; and with many this became so much a habit, that they hardly ever opened their lips without taking their Maker's name in vain in the most blasphemous and absurd imprecations. This nuisance is also abated, and nothing of the kind is heard in any thing like civilized sociity. "It must not be supposed, however, that our ancestors were so grossly stupid, and so gratuitously wicked, as to love these enormities entirely for their own sake. Many of the men I speak of possessed superior talents, and convivial powers of a high order ; and amidst their gross licentiousness and profanity, displayed a degree of wild wit and reckless unrestrained humour, tempered by occasional appeals to better feelings, so as to render the whole not less seductive to the mind, than the wine that sparkled in the cup was tempting to the taste. All this is true ; and it may be not less true, that as our entertainments have become more decent, they have, in sonic degree, also become niore dull ; but this only enhances the merit of the victory that has undoubtedly been gained over a custom 'more honoured in the breach than the observance.'

" It followed, perhaps necessarily, from this state of manners, that among the professions called learned, particularly the gentlemen of the bar, the Sabbath was almost invariably and systematically devoted to secular employment. So little was it regarded by them as a day of rest, that it was actually chosen as being less liable to interruption for those parts of business requiring the closest and most unintermitted attention. Frequently also the evening was spent in a renewal of the same festive pleasures which had employed the rest of the week, and certainly with no more restraint on the ebullitions of social glee. "A worse evil than any I have mentioned prevailed within the above period. Men were then not satisfied with walking in the counsel of the ungodly,' and standing in the way of sinners ; ' but they set themselves, in many instances, in the 'chair of the scorner.' There were many at that time who prided them- selves in openly avowing their unbelief in and scoffing at the doctrines of reli- gion and the persons of its professors. in, worst of all nuisances is also com- pletely put down. Even the boldest unbeliever does not now venture publicly on a profane jest ; and if he has not learnt to respect religion, he at least does not openly insult the feelings of those who profess it. "All these gross, undeniable offences, which within these forty or fifty years were notoriously and habitually indulged in by many among the higher and wealthier classes of society, are now so entirely removed, that some will hardly believe them to have existed ; and I conceive it to be equally certain, that their removal has been mainly attributable to the zealous, able, and judicious efforts of our excellent divines."

The present volume may be considered either as an unneces- sary interference of a layman with Church affairs, or as a striking instance of the efficacy of the Voluntary principle. Eight years have now elapsed, since these notions, so destructive, we are told, to the authority of Revelation, were given to the world. During that period, not a voice was raised against them amongst all the appointed and paid expounders of Christianity. From the Arch- bishop in his palace, to the curate, the Dissenting minister, or the parish priest, in such lodgings as their stipends can procure, all has been mum amongst the slothful shepherds. The founders of a faith are of necessity stimulated by some higher motive than pecuniary reward; so it would seem are its defenders. The most redoubted opponent of LUTHER was the secular prince HARRY the Eighth. The only " Fidei Defensor" of the present age is WIL- LIAM Sc orr.