fice, More forced into it, than by his free will, he agreed, in consideration for his passage over, and of a certain sum of money paid in presents of honour, to enter into a treaty defensive and offensive with Henry V. against France. On the 15th of August the treaty was completed at Canterbury ;t and on the 24th Sigismund quitted England, after a stay here of four months. The costly jewels with which Henry had presented him on his departure were in scarcely more than a month afterwards pawned by Sigismund, according to his usual custom, with the money-lenders of Bruges, whither he had dispatched his faithful secretary and chronicier, Eberhard Windeck, when he found himself stopped at Calais for want of cash, to enable him to pursue his journey to Constance. The sum advanced on the jewels, at enormous interest, was 18,000 goldgulden. This loan, according to a note from Windeck, c. 52, p. 1114, was not repaid, and the jewels redeemed, until the end of the year 1417; principally with the money exacted from the people of Lubeck, as a fine for having expelled their magistrate. Eberhard Windeck was also charged with the office of redeeming the jewels. He brought them out of Flanders by stealth, as he was afraid of being plundered on the road.

The Justinger Berner-chronik, quoted by our author in p. 169, enumerates these jewels. "The King of England presented him [Sigismund] with two rubies, a diamond, and two pearls: these stones were valued at upwards of 40,000 crowns."

The somewhat lengthened notice into which we have been beguiled by the interesting nature of the subjects treated of in the earlier chapters of this second volume of our author's "History of the Emperor Sigismund," containing, as the volume does, not fewer than twenty-four chapters, and extending, with the appendix, to 487 pages, must plead for us in extenuation, for not, at this time, attempting to follow out in detail the remainder of the historical incidents treated of in the work before us. The present volume concludes with the "transactions in Hungary, and the war with the Turks and Venetians;" and, as a third volume is to complete the work, we shall, probably, at no very distant period, have occasion to resume our notice of "Sigismund."

Azais. De la Phrénologie, du Magnétisme, et de la Folie. Ouvrage dédié à la mémoire de Broussais. (Of Phrenology, Magnetism, and Madness. A work dedicated to the memory of Broussais.) 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1839.

We procured this book in the belief that it was a treatise upon Phrenology but we have been most egregiously disappointed. It is neither more nor less than a most absurdly ridiculous treatise

Windeck, c. 44, p. 1104. "So the Roman king was fain to flatter, and talk fair (schmaicheln) with the King of England, and make vows, and forgive, and deal softly with him, in order to get fairly away from him."

Rymer's Foedera, T. IV. P. IV. p. 171.

on materialism, composed (as the title may be taken as indicating) of a small portion of Phrenology, in one sense of the word, of a vast quantity of that silly stuff called Animal Magnetism, and of a still greater quantity of the third article mentioned in the title, namely, downright madness. Our first impulse was to toss the book into the fire. But second thoughts are sometimes best: we understand that this work has made some noise in Paris; and a short description of it may answer two purposes, first, save some of our readers from the disappointment which we have experienced ourselves, and, secondly, give them an idea of what passes for sound philosophy among a certain class of people in France at the present day. It may, indeed, be regarded, in some measure, as a sign of the times. M. Azaïs is angry that nobody will condescend to enter into controversy with him; though without much reason, as we conceive. Let us suppose some one to make a new theory of the universe, and take for his foundation the axiom that the moon is made of green cheese; what kind of argument could we oppose to such a system? Assuredly, we should do no more than laugh at it. Such is precisely the case with the book before us; and we shall therefore confine ourselves strictly to giving our readers a notice of its contents.

The author of this work is certainly a person who is possessed of a good conceit of himself, which indeed he does not attempt to deny. At the end of his second volume, he gives us a list of his works (Note de mes ouvrages) with a great deal of selfcomplacency, something in the style of William Cobbett, and he seems to think that all the evils which have existed in the world, since he began to write, are to be imputed to the small credit which his writings have hitherto obtained. He is especially indignant against the Académie des Sciences, because they have overlooked his claims and not elected him a member of their body, as well as against the successive ministers of Public Instruction, who have declined giving him a chair in the University, to profess his doctrines. Still he promises himself the "sweet consolation in his old age," that his principles cannot fail to establish themselves, and to change the face of the world. We will only add that Azaïs is a disciple of the infidel Broussais, and that he glories in having out-Broussais-ed Broussais himself. In his overweening confidence in his own wisdom, he despises the opinions of the wisest men of ancient or modern times, and he only alludes passingly to Christianity, as to a thing which had existed "avant la revolution.”

So much for our author: now let us turn to his book. The only approach to reasoning which it contains is a trite and shallow argument against the immateriality (we may very well say, existence) of the soul, which proves only that the person who advances it calculates largely on the simplicity of his readers. Mons. Azaïs, like a true member of the school to which he

belongs, professedly rejects all historical and all mental and intellectual, or, as some term them, psychological facts, and limits the foundation of his building to mere physical facts. Even of these latter, however, he neglects all that is positive and rational; and reserves nothing but a discordant mass of presumptions, made by himself, and utterly undeserving for a moment of the attention of any man possessed of common sense, with the delusions of a few weak and credulous minds, and the trickeries of certain cunning and designing men.

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The theory of M. Azaïs is by no means new: in different ages, and under somewhat different forms, it has been brought forward, and exposed, and laughed at, over and over again. He has taken what he calls a Universal Principle, (le Principe Universel,) a kind of nostrum, which causes, and explains, and sets to rights every thing. This wonderful instrument is the Principle of Expansion. Every thing, says Azaïs, expands from a centre. But here he meets with a serious obstacle in the system of our immortal Newton. Newton, however, fortunately for him, lived avant la revolution; and he drives him out of the field somewhat unceremoniously, and by a kind of sleight-of-hand. Newton taught that all bodies necessarily gravitate towards a centre, to which they are drawn by an attractive force: but, says Azaïs, Newton only formed his theory of the motion of the universe upon observations of facts; he wanted modern lights, (animal magnetism, &c.) and was not deep-minded enough to see into the causes of things: substitute expansion for attraction, throw away the notion of gravitation, and we shall get rid of the difficulty without interfering with the facts. M. Azaïs, in his exultation at the fancied success of this expedient, overlooks the circumstance that he is shooting very wide of his mark. Newton deduced his doctrine of attraction and gravitation from the comparison of the actual motions of the planetary bodies with the known and immutable laws of dynamics; and not an observation or calculation has been made by any one of the great men who have flourished since his time, which has not confirmed, in all its abstrusest details, what Newton taught. Attraction was not made by Newton. If, in the present state of things, it were possible to substitute with M. Azaïs the power of expansion for that of attrac tion in the universe itself, the whole would instantly be involved in utter ruin, and no other combination of powers which we can conceive possible, unless He who made the universe itself interfered, could keep the heavenly bodies in their places. We are willing to believe that M. Azaïs by no means looks forward to this consummation of his labours; but he must have a very strange notion of mathematics who supposes that positive and negative forces may be substituted for each other at discretion;*

M. Azaïs is very cautious of alluding to mathematics, and with good cause, but he does on one occasion venture to hint at his manner of appreciating them. After

and it shows us clearly the rashness of those people who will send abroad theories about things which they do not understand.

Having settled the affairs of the universe to his own satisfaction, M. Azaïs descends to the earth on which we live. Here the universal principle is still more visibly in action. The principle of expansion, according to this philosopher, where it meets with no obstacles, must act regularly and equally, and where this is the case all bodies must be spherical. This is the case with the earth itself; such also is the case with bubbles, which go on expanding, until, like his own system, they burst by reason of their emptiness. But, in all living bodies, there are various organic obstacles, which cause the expansion to act unequally; and hence arise (in plants) branches, leaves, flowers, and (in men) legs, arms, heads, noses, and all similar excrescences. As a visible proof of the truth of this theory, Azaïs calls our attention to the circumstance, that in their embryo state all living things possess a form more or less approaching to that of a sphere, and that they are then without any such excrescences, which only make their appearance afterwards. Yet can he be ignorant that observation shows us that this spherical form is not a quality of the embryo itself, which within contains, if we mistake not, in every instance the germ of the form which only requires to be developed; but that it is evidently given to it by a thoughtful Providence, as the form best calculated to preserve it from injury in its first tender stage of existence! Who would think of describing a hedgehog as an animal whose form resembles that of a ball, although it may often roll itself up into that form?

From the body, Azaïs goes on to the consideration of the soul, or, as he terms it, the intelligence. This is the strangest part of the whole system. The intelligence, he tells us, is a centre; it is a centre, not of attraction, but of repulsion,-of expansion. It is material, and is composed of a vast number of ideas, on which the principle of expansion is continually acting and shooting them out against external objects. The notion which M. Azaïs entertains about these ideas is somewhat mysterious; but, by his own theory, we must naturally conclude that their form is spherical. We may therefore define the intelligence to be "a machine which is constantly and spontaneously occupied in shooting out round balls,"-in fact, an instrument closely resembling Perkins's celebrated steam-gun. In children, the machine being weak, and wanting experience, it shoots at random, and without much force; but use breeds skill, and, as the boy becomes a man, he learns to direct the machine with more precision, and the balls are speaking of Algebra, as though he thought it was nothing but a, b, and x, y, he observes: L'Algèbre est bonne sans doute, mais la raison est bonne aussi."!! We would ask Monsieur Azaïs, what is Algebra, if it be not reason? However, he who confounds a man's mind with his body is very consistent in taking a science to be nothing but the arbitrary characters, perceptible to the eye, by which that science operates.

more certain to hit their mark. By this means he obtains more accurate notions of the things which come under his obser

vation.

The question naturally presents itself: What is it that sets this strange machine in motion so as to give us our peculiar propensities, and so produce the various phenomena of human life? Azaïs is ready with the answer, It is magnetism. To this are owing all our emotions of friendship or enmity, all our desires or dislikes, all our social influence over each other and over other things, all our imagination, mental powers, tastes, ingenuity; in a word, every thing depends upon animal magnetism, even language itself, which consists of nothing more than a series of sounds which we are driven to utter by the action of the principle of expansion, and which we learn by degrees to connect with the objects that are hit by the balls which are shot out by our intelligence or steam-gun! The passions also are but magnetic movements. Thus it is with love, to take an example from among those which Azaïs has more particularly investigated. When two persons of different sexes come within each other's magnetic influence, or, in other words, within the range of each other's steam-gun, there immediately follows an interchange of balls; it seems that the male gun carries farthest, and therefore he gives fire first, and commences the attack; the result, however, is always the same, for the lady, as carrying the weakest arms, is at last obliged, as the sailors express it, to "knock under." This, we suppose, is the reason why the poets are in the habit of talking about 66 amorous warfare." As we go on tracing the effects of the universal principle, we cannot but acknowledge its surpassing importance, for it not only influences single bodies, but it acts also upon the whole collective mass of society, and it thus causes the movements of nations. Taking the matter in this light, Azaïs lays claim to the character of a profound politician, and professes to have foreseen, by the application of his "principle," and to have pointed out, the way of preventing all the popular discontents and political embarrassments which have occurred in France since the revolution of 1830. According to his system, the late sanguinary affair of the 12th of May was nothing more than a sudden outbreak of magnetic action. It would have been fortunate for many poor wretches, if there had been no other balls fired than those which are propelled by the force of animal magnetism!

Our readers, we fear, will think that we are throwing away more space upon this book than it merits. We hold much the same opinion, and we will therefore pass over it quickly. Animal magnetism, the marrow of the system propagated by Azaïs, has made many converts in France. Some of them charitably brought it over here, and for a time it was received with open mouth by a few weak people, but even with them the delusion did not last