_Public opinion_, forsooth! And what is public opinion? What but an evanescent and a capricious thing—a fickle dame, ever varying, ever changing—that raises a man a hero and a demi-god to-day, and tramples him in the dust as a base wretch and outcast to-morrow? Look at the Protean aspects of public opinion in the different ages of the world, and among the different nations of the earth. Look at public opinion in the different epochs of the Roman empire, and of the Grecian states. Behold its changes. Look at it under the mighty Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Medean, and Persian dynasties. Compare public opinion at the present day in China, with that in the United States. Compare it among our rude Saxon forefathers, with that which prevailed in the days of William the Conqueror. And in English society, what mighty changes has it not undergone since the days of Henry the Eighth. Look at the changes produced on public opinion by a Solon, a Zoroaster, a Pythagoras, a Homer, a Socrates, or a Plato; an Alexander, a Cæsar, or an Alfred. See the tyrant bow its neck to the mild, but sublime influence of the Gospel, wherever it has been introduced. See it bend again before the influence of philosophy, science, and the arts, and, more especially, before improvements in our political and civil codes. And are we to be told, then, that, amid the full glare of light and knowledge which beams upon us, we are passively and submissively to bow to this capricious tyrant, and not dare to raise our voices against its cruel and absurd edicts? No. Reason forbids it; morality forbids it; Heaven forbids it. Let the light of science and morality, then, clear the mist from our eyes; and let us go on to _refine_ and _correct_ public opinion, until every vestige of barbarism and superstition are expunged from our herald-roll. And what is duelling but a vestige of barbarism that has too long formed a foul blot upon our national escutcheon? Mobile, March 12th, 1839. ARTICLE IV. REMARKS ON THE POSSIBILITY OF INCREASING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CEREBRAL ORGANS BY ADEQUATE EXERCISE OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. By Andrew Combe, M. D. (Continued from No. 6 of this Journal, page 191.) The next enquiry, and one of not less moment, is to discover _why the increase does not follow in every instance_? and what are the conditions which favour it? Multitudes of the young, engaged in the same mental exercise, manifest no proportionate increase of power or organ; and yet, if the rule holds good in one instance, there must be causes for every exception, and to these I shall now direct a few remarks, but necessarily of a crude and imperfect kind.