been devoted to the study of man, his destiny and his
happiness. Uncontrolled in education, I learned to endure no mental
restraint, and, thrown upon my own resources in boyhood, difficulties
but strengthened the passion for philosophical knowledge. Yet more
formidable difficulties were found in the limited condition of human
science, alike in libraries and colleges.

Anthropology, my favorite study, had no systematic development, and
the very word was unfamiliar, because there was really nothing to
which it could justly be applied. Its elementary sciences were in an
undeveloped state, and some of them not yet in existence. Mental
philosophy was very limited in its scope, and had little or nothing of
a practical and scientific nature. The soul was not recognised as a
subject for science. The body was studied apart from the soul, and the
brain, the home of the soul, was enveloped in mystery--so as to leave
even physiological science shrouded in darkness, as the central and
controlling organ of life was considered an inaccessible mystery. In
studying medicine, it seemed that I wandered through a wilderness
without a compass and with no cardinal points.

Phrenology promised much, and I examined it cautiously. It struck me
at first as an unsatisfactory system of mental philosophy, and I
stated my objections before its most celebrated and venerable
champion, in public, who assured me that I would be satisfied by
further investigation. As it seemed a very interesting department of
natural science, I began by comparing the heads of my acquaintances
with the phrenological map, and discovering so many striking
coincidences that I was gradually satisfied as to its substantial
truth, and I do not believe that any one has ever thus tested the
discoveries of Gall and Spurzheim, without perceiving their _general_
correctness, while many, with less critical observation, have accepted
them as absolutely true.

My interest increased with the extent of my observations, until, for
several years, I abandoned practical medicine for the exclusive study
of the science of the brain in the great volume of nature, with the
doctrines of Gall as the basis of the investigation. As it was my
purpose to seek the deficiencies as well as the merits of the new
science, I tested its accuracy by the careful examination of living
heads and skulls in comparison with ascertained character, and with
the anatomy of the brain, not forgetting the self-evident