Over the intricate philosophy of mind, Creative Wisdom has thrown a veil, which we can never hope to draw aside. True, the beautiful mechanism of its _organ_, the brain, is apparent; and we can draw some analogies from inspection of the brain of a brute, and its progressive development in _fœtal_ life, in reference to comparative simplicity and complexity; but its phenomena are not, like most of the organic functions of the body, _demonstrable_. Now, although we know not the _mode_ of this mutual influence, the _seat_ of mind is a subject of almost universal belief; not that Aristotle, and Ætius, and John Locke, are our oracles on this point, although they have even identified the _spot_, terming the _ventricles_ the mind’s presence-chamber, while Descartes decided on the _pineal gland_. It is, however, into the _brain_ that the nerves of all the senses enter, or from which they emanate: the senses constitute the _media_ by which the mind gains its knowledge of the world, and therefore we regard the brain as its seat. We believe that the mind may possess _five_ faculties; perception, association, memory, imagination, and judgment, and their focus or concentration is in the brain. We may argue long on the _earthly_ nature of mind, contrasted with that of matter; yet, in the end, we commonly thus define it: _a combination of faculties, and their sympathy with the senses_. That to different parts of this organ are allotted different functions cannot be doubted, when we look at its varied structure, its intricate divisions, its eccentric yet uniform cavities, its delicate and almost invisible membranes; and, indeed, physiological experiments are proof of it. ASTR. Then there is some truth in the whimsical localities in the “Anatomy of Melancholy,” and the pictures of the tenants and apartments of the brain in the ingenious romance of the “Purple Island” of Fletcher. EV. Although I grant that these eccentric writers evince much reading, I am not sure that their impersonations (like the “Polyolbion” of Drayton,) do not tend to confuse, rather than elucidate, a natural subject. Of a plurality of organs in the brain, I have been convinced, even from my own knowledge and dissections. I have seen that very considerable portions of the _cerebrum_ may be removed, the individual still existing. The _vital_ functions may continue, the _animal_ functions are deranged or lost. The most extensive injuries of the brain, too, are often discovered, which were not even suspected; and the converse of this is often observed,—the diseases of the brain being commonly found in an _inverse ratio_ to the severity of the symptoms. When chronic tumours and _cysts_ of water are _gradually_ formed, the extreme danger is averted by the balancing power of the circulation of the brain’s blood; without which its incompressibility would subject it to constant injury.