The Barbarian _Literati_ have often rested upon the Greeks as final in Metaphysics. Plato, whom they call Divine, was very generally followed in his notion respecting the eternal and independent existence of spirit and matter. But the newer men insist upon one substance only, and remove the Sovereign Lord so far back into the deeps of an Unknown, that he vanishes, or becomes an unintelligent and unconscious Cause. Here again reproducing the _Fate_ of remote antiquity. One school of Philosophers indulges in a curious form of materializing the mind. Pretending to fix all the mental and moral processes in the very substance of the brain, they declare that by a careful examination of the head, the exact qualities of the individual may be discovered! Some of these pretend to be teachers and _Indicators_--for fees, giving a precise chart to any one who wishes of the forces of the brain, so that he may order his affairs accordingly. They profess to tell parents in what art or business a child should be placed, and in what manner certain good qualities may be made to grow and bad ones to shrink! They say that over each thinking part of the brain rises a corresponding _bump_ [Ko-be], that these _bumps_ contain: some thoughts of music, some of hate, some of love, some of numbers, some of place, and so on. They make charts showing these bumps and the thoughts which lie beneath them! These they sell, marking the bumps (after examination) to show the person what he is. If, for instance, his _acquisitiveness_ (thoughts to take things) is a very large bump, he must develop a counteracting bump or he will assuredly become a thief! It is not quite clear how this development is to be brought about. Some carry this absurdity so far as to say that a man with bad bumps is not responsible--he ought rather to be regarded as an object to be cared for by the State. Before the bumps of the child be formed and hardened, _any_ form may be given to them, by applying a gentle and continuous pressure. Government, therefore, ought to have all children examined in youth, and apply to the heads the proper moulds! In this way a perfectly moral society would be assured! I refer to this nonsense as the only novel speculation among the Western Barbarians. And any one can readily discover in this, old notions moulded into a defined and material shape, to give charlatans [Qu-ak-st] an opportunity to plunder.