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By Charles Maclaren. 8vo. 9s. t THE ECLECTIC REVIEW, FOR JUNE, 1822. Art. I. i. Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons. By W. Law rence, F. R. S. Professor of Anatomy and Surgery to the College, &c. &c. 8vo. London. 1822. 2. General Indications, which relate to the Laws of Organic Life. A late very sagacious Philomath and Almanack-maker, whose astronomical knowledge of the heavens was unquestionable, strangely as he mistook their moral aspect, has been known to say, that he could never be brought to believe so great an absurdity as that one Being could uphold and govern all the worlds which he saw through his telescope. Young has said, 'An undevout astronomer is mad.' But if so, Astronomy has had a large proportion of madmen among her votaries. Those who would have been idolaters in Chaldea, have in Europe only been something worse atheists or infidels. And not Astronomy alone, but every department of Physical Science has exhibited the same perpctual struggle on the part of the wise men of this world, to exclude God from his own universe, either by the deification of matter, or by erecting it into a final cause. To annihilate, if possible, that vast, omnipresent, ever pressing idea of Deity, to bar it out from all the avenues of science, to hide from it, at least, behind the stupendous machinery of visible nature, has been the ceaseless effort of infidel mathematicians, infidel geologists, and infidel anatomists. And the greatest service which the utmost researches of science have rendered to the world, has been, to shew how utterly this is impracticable,-to illustrate at once the necessity and the truth of Divine Revelation; VOL. XVII. N. S. 20 necessary inasmuch as by no other means could human wisdom have found out God; true, because discoveries in science which could never have been calculated upon or conceived of by the authors of the sacred volume, have still furnished no one objection against its truth, which is incapable of a solution perfectly satisfactory to a devout inquirer. To an attempt of this flagitious nature, an attempt to convert Physiology into an engine of attack against Christianity, Mr. Lawrence's volume is indebted for all its notoriety. Had the Author honestly confined himself to his proper business as a lecturer, his name would probably never have been heard of out of the profession. Had he trusted to his abilities to conduct him to eminence by the more direct and honourable mode of scientific or literary attainments, he might have remained for life among the Too of able dissectors and phlebotomists. But, by proclaiming himself an infidel, he started at once into fame. There is no other way in which moderate talents can be made to go so far as in the service of scepticism; none in which the immediate return of distinction is so high in proportion to the intellectual capital. These French funds will yield from six to eight per cent. to the man of small means, while the same modicum of learning and ingenuity employed in the regular native channels, will procure for its possessor only lawful interest. We admit that this does not hold good universally. There are some circles in which a man would not be thought of much more highly on account of his discovering a contempt for religion. But Mr. Lawrence calculated well upon the character of his audience. He knew that, as the rival of Mr. Abernethy, he could escape from a disadvantageous comparison, only by becoming his antagonist, by leading off in a totally opposite direction. Could he but succeed in making Mr. Abernethy ridiculous, then, Mr. Lawrence might be respectable. He knew, too, that in the junior part of his audience, just let loose upon London at the expiration of their apprenticeship, there existed a strong predisposition to identify the sceptic with the philosopher; that many would be eager to attach themselves to the teacher who should hold out as a bonus to his scholars, an emancipation from the shackles of religious obligation. Those who have no love for religion, would gladly escape from its terrors. Besides which, there is something not a little flattering at once to the self-love and to the indolence of a half-read, half-thinking youth, in the idea of having a royal road opened to him, through the dissectingroom, to the whole circle of physical and metaphysical science. And how fascinating is even that professional enthusiasm which confessedly steps a little beyond the line of sobriety in estimating the importance of his favourite pursuit! For thus says Mr. Lawrence: I hope to have convinced you that the Zoological study of man, when grounded on a knowledge of his organization and functions, and enlightened by the analogies, the contrasts, and the various aids afforded by an acquaintance with the animal kingdom in general, is the only means by which a clear insight can be gained into human nature, into the physical and moral attributes, the comparative powers, the liability to change or modification of the individual, the race, or the variety, and consequently into the frame, capabilities, and destiny of the species. The principles furnished by such investigations are the safest guide in all branches of knowledge, of which man in any shape is the object; the only guide at least that can be trusted by those who are determined to resort to nature for themselves, rather than blindly adopt established doctrines, or take up the ready-made notions and clever systems, so kindly provided for those who are too indolent or too timid to exercise their own observation or reason on these important topics. Such inquiries, I will venture to add, afford the only light capable of directing us through the dark regions of metaphysics, the only clue to direct our course through the intricate mazes of morals. Can we hope to proceed safely in legislation, in public institutions, in education, without that acquaintance with the physical and moral qualities of the subject for whose benefit they are designed, which such investigations are calculated to supply? It is evident from this passage, for what description of audience these lectures were got up. Mr. Lawrence must, indeed, have formed a very contemptuous estimate of the mental endowments of his pupils, to suppose that this sort of rant would, not put his character in any peril, or awaken a misgiving in the minds of his embryo legislators, metaphysicians, and moralists, touching his sanity. We have not the slightest suspicion, that a man of his enlarged and philosophical mind could really give into this fanaticism. This foe to creeds, this believer in all unbelief, could never for a moment be the dupe of a chimera which outstrips in absurdity the wildest dogmas that have been palmed upon human credulity. Could we for a moment imagine him to be quite serious in asserting that comparative anatomy is the true key to morals and legislation, the safest guide in all branches of knowledge,'-we should cease to wonder at the reveries of the alchemist. They were sober and rational in comparison with the pretensions of our zoologico-ethical philosophers. But that Mr. Lawrence was not quite serious when he penned this rhapsody, is plain from his own language in another part of these Lectures. 'These sublime dogmas,' he says, speaking of the theological doctrine of the soul, and its separate existence," could never have been brought to light by the labours of the anatomist and physiologist. An immaterial and spiritual being could not have been discovered amid the blood and filth of the dissecting-room; and the very idea of resorting to this low and dirty source for a proof of so exalted and refined a truth, is an illustration of what we daily see, the powerful bias that professional habits and the exclusive contemplation of a particular subject give even to the strongest minds,—an illustration of that esprit de metier which led the honest currier in the threatened city to recommend a fortification of leather.' Now, although more than five hundred pages intervene between these two passages, and it is possible, therefore, that the Author might have changed his mind in the interim, or have forgotten what he had advanced, for there are other persons besides liars, of whom it holds good, that they need have strong memories,-yet, we rather imagine that both passages were designed to have a specific effect, and that presuming upon the ingenuousness of his auditory, he did not care to sacrifice to oratorical effect his own consistency. In the former passage, he only wished to throw ridicule on Mr. Abernethy, who has been so absurd as to carry with him into the dissecting-room, the deductions of reason, in order to interpret by them, the appearances which address themselves to our senses. In the latter paragraph, our Author means to shew, that there is no objection to discoveries respecting the nature of the soul and the fundamental principles of morals,' made amid the blood and filth of the dissecting-room, provided the sentiment thus brought to light, be as low and dirty as its source. The powerful bias of professional habits, is, he tells us, conspicuous in the man who confides more in the eye of ⚫ reason than in that of sense.' But no such influence is suspected to have warped his own mind, when he would erect Brooks's into a school of metaphysics and morals, and make us believe that zoology is the key to legislation. Or, perhaps, that bias is to be deprecated, only when it takes a direction in favour of established doctrines: it has a wise and salutary operation in the mind of the infidel physiologist. Mr. Daniel Pring's work, not having had the good fortune to be pirated, has by no means attracted the notoriety which a Chancery petition has conferred on that of Mr. Lawrence. Nor does it stand any chance of becoming popular out of the profession, being by far too profound for unscientific readers. We have often regretted that the good old custom of writing medical works in Latin, has, in this illiterate age, fallen into disuse. But if medical writers would but adopt Mr. Pring's style as their model, they need not employ a dead language. His English, to be intelligible to the vulgar, stands quite as much in |