than himself the base quality of the clay which composed its statue, Metternich was the Austrian version of Talleyrand,a man whose meanness was at least equal to his mental activity and licentiousness of life. The principal events in the reign of Francis's son and successor, FERDINAND I. of Austria, will be fresh in the memory of our readers. They will call to mind his imbecility and incapacity for governing such a heterogeneous mass of states as had fallen to him by inheritance; his allowing himself to be a mere tool in the hands of Metternich, and a slave to the caprices of the Archduchess Sophia; his flight from Schönbrunn, when bad government and oppression had reached their climax, and produced their natural result in the insurrection of May, 1848; and his resignation, or rather deposition, in the following December, to make room for the boyish FRANCIS JOSEPH, the son of the Bavarian sister-in-law who had been his ruler and the evil genius of his reign. Ferdinand still survives to enjoy his otium in the Hradschin at Prague, while the masculine Archduchess exists at Ischl in a retirement regretted by none who had the misfortune to be under her command in former days. The present Emperor has not as yet done anything towards the fulfilment of the fair promises which he made when his beclouded uncle was dethroned in his favour. On the contrary he took the first opportunity of annulling that Constitution to which he so solemnly swore on his accession; and having played false with Hungary, and annihilated what little civil liberty existed in his dominions, he seems to have done his best, by the Concordat with the Pope and other ill-advised measures, to place himself and his subjects at the mercy of the Romish tyranny. What amcliorations of policy may result from his recent tour through his Lombardo-Venetian territories, remains yet to be seen: but little dependence can be placed on imperial promises lavished in a popularity-hunting visit. The tardy liberation of a few political prisoners, and the invitation to his refugee ex-subjects to come and live secure with them under the surveillance of the Austrian police, do not strike us as very promising auguries for the future. Yet we will venture to hope for the best. The Italians under the Austrian rule have shown so much constancy to their principles, and so much self-restraint amidst circumstances peculiarly trying to southern temperaments, that we cannot but believe that brighter days are approaching for them, if they only remain true to themselves. Over the whole Austrian Empire now rests the deepest shade of secular tyranny, aggravated by the new access of power accorded to the ultramontane priesthood: but the well-wisher to its people may draw comfort from the fact,—familiar to every tracer of the history of nations, that the proudest triumph of the Jesuits is invariably the immediate precursor of their deepest fall. Insanity, Disease, and Religion. 145 Into a full discussion of the present condition of Austria we cannot now enter. We trust that the attention of our readers will be drawn by this slight sketch to the exceedingly interesting annals of that Empire, and that by a study of these they will qualify themselves to help, by prayer and sympathy, those who are there striving and suffering for the cause of Protestantism and constitutional government. We regret that as yet we can refer them to no completer History than that of Coxe: but side by side with his prim and partisan-like pages may now be placed Dr. Vehse's volumes of striking incident and pleasant personal detail, to enliven the Archdeacon's dulness. We could, indeed, have wished for more frequent references to the sources from which the lively doctor derives his statements; but his principal authorities are unexceptionable, and from them he has culled much that will be new to English readers. The work is well translated by Mr. Demmler: the few inaccuracies in proper names, &c., will, we trust, receive due attention and correction in any future edition of the English version. ART. VI.—1. The Power of the Soul over the Body, considered in relation to Health and Morals. By GEORGE MOORE, M.D., Member of the Royal College of Physicians, &c. Third Edition. London: Longman and Co. 1846. 2. Essays on the Partial Derangement of Mind in supposed Connexion with Religion. By JOHN CHEYNE, M.D. Dublin: Curry and Co. 1843. 3. The Use of the Body in Relation to the Mind. By GEORGE MOORE, M.D. Second Edition. London: Longman and Co. 1847. AN event recently occurred in the northern capital, which not only startled that place like the shock of an earthquake, but also smote with doubt and trembling the hearts of many Christians throughout the land. And to the thoughtful mind this is not the least painful aspect of such a catastrophe as the death of the late Hugh Miller. The devout philosopher may be able, in the face of so tragic an event, to hold fast his deepest convictions of the promised shielding and sheltering power of Christ over His faithful servants; but the multitudes of simplehearted, pious men need to have this dark mystery, not indeed fully opened up to their comprehension, but brought within the reach of their godly confidence and faith. The philosophy of insanity must be presented to them in Christian terms. them the Christian of high profession and attainments stands forth as one to whom they are but too apt to look as a living exhibition of all the possible influences of the Gospel. They want to know how it was that the plague did come nigh his dwelling, since the promise made to every one that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, is that he shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty, who will, therefore, satisfy him with long life, and show him His salvation. The case was actually thus proposed to ourselves, as counter-evidence against the world's estimate of the goodness of one of the highest literary attainments and piety of the last generation, who was cut off by a supposed 'pestilence.' And, moreover, the fact alluded to has something like a terrible charm to certain minds which, we may suspect, have to struggle with temptatious of their own, for which they too would be glad to find an excuse in the force of outward circumstances, or constitutional tendencies of sufficient potency for secret justification. Having found it needful for private reasons to investigate the causes of what appeared to us to be not religious eccentricities, but forms of insanity, in cases brought under our own immediate observation, we think it may be important, at this time, to record them, not only in the hope of relieving some wounded sufferer under life's darker mysteries, but also of throwing a few rays of light upon the path of the professional spiritual guide, without which we believe his best efforts in certain cases will be misdirected, vain, and possibly productive of further mischief. We make no pretensions to scientific knowledge but such as we have obtained from the careful study of professional authors, who have investigated these topics for the benefit of non-professional readers. But careful observation has long convinced us, that, without some information of this kind, the spiritual guide goes forth incompletely equipped for his arduous and difficult duties. Psychology reveals to its few votaries the mysteries of the human mind; but it meddles not with the mysteries of its connexion with the body; and yet it is quite certain that mental operations are so essentially dependent upon bodily conditions, that mental aberrations, greater or less, cannot be satisfactorily explained but by means of this kind of knowledge. For not only is the body influenced by the mind, which most know, but also the spiritual mind is influenced, in its progress or deterioration, by the body, which fewer understand. Hence Dr. Moore has written upon the morality of the stomach. We are hedged in by laws which are really what the Median and Persian only pretended to be, unalterable. Men may modify or direct, but they cannot alter the laws by which the acorn becomes the oak. If the seed of the oak is cast on the sea, or set in the sands on its shore, or exposed to the atmosphere on a stone or on the hard soil, it will not grow; because it is subject to laws which all these circumstances violate. And similar remarks are applicable to every organized body with which the wants or the fancies of man induce him to deal. Steam and the Physical Laws, certain and inflexible. 147 electric fluid will obey him, if he will first of all obey them. Steam will do his bidding, if he will investigate the constitution of that most subtle machinery, in which alone the laws by which it is hedged in will permit it to work. And the electric fluid will pass under the ocean and carry his messages to earth's poles, if he will expend millions in inventing for it that machinery without which its marvellous powers will yield him no obedience. And, to follow up these cases a few steps further, for the sake of illustrating the maxim, that man and his world are hedged in by laws so stern and unyielding, that in other instances they either enforce obedience or result in death,-let us look at the ship richly freighted with human life and material wealth, which steam, obeying its own laws, is urging over the unwilling seas, winds and waves fighting together against its progress in vain. What a glorious vision for him whose thoughtful mind is stored with materials for filling up the vast chasm between the Indian's first rude attempt to make a road on the waters, and that gallant ship! On she sails, man's pride and glory and faith! An explosion more terrible than thunder shivers the goodly vessel into fragments. That fearful crash that shook the stout heart of every sailor on board,-that momentary climax of human misery, too awful and too profound for words to body forth, the floating spars, the sole remains of that noble vessel,what do they tell us? They simply tell us that some one of the laws by which steam is hedged in had been violated, and that it exacted death in some of its most terrible forms as the penalty. But, further, a machine may not only be destroyed at once, but also damaged, and so become more or less unfit to fulfil perfectly its functions. Or, there may be latent evils at work, counteracting some one of its laws, but so slowly that the fatal issue comes on at last almost unperceived. Such has been the origin of the destruction of some steam machinery. There has been a weak or faulty part overlooked or undervalued, which was, however, contrary to the laws by which steam (to employ the phrase of another) is hedged in; and when, in its certain march, the evil reached the prescribed degree, the engine was destroyed by the laws of its own steam. And this is strictly applicable to that organized machine which is hedged in with the unalterable laws of health and disease, of life and death,-the human body. Not only will some sudden and palpable disaster-the knife thrust into the heart-produce instant death, but there are other evils, fostered either by ignorance or a wilful violation of known laws, which will gradually but as surely prepare the body for premature destruction, or inefficiency, as the overlooked or disregarded mischief in the steam-machine. For just as we have seen mechanical instruments laid aside as useless, because some law of their constitu tion had been gradually violated, so have we seen human bodies prematurely laid aside as useless, for like causes, cither in the sick chamber or the lunatic asylum. And the two cases are philosophically, and not fancifully, parallel. Perhaps, indeed, (if we may protract yet further these introductory remarks, pleading the importance of the theme as the excuse,) there is no subject upon which even thinking men are content to remain in such ignorance, as the laws which 'hedge in' the human body. Nothing but this, we apprehend, can explain the large fortunes which have been so often made by the ignorant vendors of quack medicines to such confiding crowds of patrons. We ourselves knew one of this successful but ignorant class, who, after realizing a handsome fortune by one patent pill, died prematurely, as his qualified medical attendant affirmed, through gross ignorance of the commonest laws of his own stomach; and yet myriads had trusted him with theirs! We suppose that Goethe must have had such cases in his mind when he penned the hideous scene in Faust, in which father and son, both amateur doctors, administered their potions to multitudes, and destroyed them by höllischen Latwergen. The speaker tells Wagner that all this was done in pure ignorance, amidst the gratitude of the survivors. Ich habe selbst den Gift an Tausende gegeben, Sie welkten hin, ich muss erleben Dass man die frechen Mörder lobt.' And the experience of very many can trace prematurely ailing bodies to similar ignorance of physical laws. We have often considered, therefore, whether some elementary knowledge of the structure of the human body should not enter into general education. We think it was Milton who suggested, in his book on education, that every student should at least be taught to manage his digestive organs; in addition to this, such elementary information might be given as to the structure of the brain, as would save many in after life from daily tampering with its functions and powers, with the certain penalty before them of the mournful end of the suicide, or of the inmate of the lunatic asylum. This is thrown out for consideration, not because educated people in general are altogether without this kind of warning knowledge, but because there is always a great moral difference between that general knowledge of a danger which popular notions respecting it teach, and that which arises from the accurate teachings of science. But the ethical bearings of our subject are, perhaps, the most important of all. The melancholy stories of insanity which have been connected with and traced up to religion, demand such a clear statement of what insanity is, and does, or may occasion, as shall free man's noblest and best earthly heritage from so dreadful an accusation. And, fortunately, such statements have |