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    EIGHT YEARS' WANDERINGS IN CEYLON. Eight...

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    History Of Psychological Method. The Pri...

    3 urto 1 w ^ id ^ Wi * , tlie = cloctrine pfthe phrenologists in its most abstract shape ,, is bvWiS cbln ^ aeiwitliAeir concrete embodiments of rt . Indeed the crudity « f ffieirDnilbsopity is suet , as may well make matty who to some extent agree with them r ^ ain ftoin any a ^ bwal- bf their agreement ; more especially when they are met by so great an unwillingness to listen to any criticisms on the detailed scheme rashly-promulgated as finally settled . To Teturn to Clall . " It is very noticeable that while carrying the Physiological Methdd further than his predecessors , he set himself decidedly juVninsi themand wnsinore truly psychological , in declaring that the

    Expe-, rfenW hypothesis woiild not suffice , but that / acuities vjere innate . It was necessary to take Mind as one factor in the sum ; experience alone would not do . Men were born with certain propensities , faculties . These depended on their organisation , not on education , which had only a modifying influence . GaU . was here on the threshold of a great truth . That he and his followers remained on the threshold was mainly owing to the erroneous direction into which , a premature systematisation led them , so that they abandoned both the physiological and the psychological Method , to ^ ive themselves to the observation of character , and its correspondence with

    certain external signs , thus giving up Physiology for Cramoscopy . The consequence has been that while the physiology of the nervous system has been advancing with extraordinary rapidity , scarcely a single phrenologist has been found among the neurologists ; and Phrenology can do nothing more than iterate what Gall said in defiance of every distinguished physiologist who has studied the subject . Nor has their Psychology made any real advance . In fact , Phrenology has become an Art . Gall , like Hartley , rendered science the collateral service of a definite hyp . othesis . To refute Gall the nervous system has been studied . No p hysiologist now—at least explicitly—denies that the mental manifestations correspond with the nervous structure ; and even the Metaphysicians are beginning to understand the Mechanism of the Senses , and some general laws of Nervous Action . That is to say , they acknowledge themselves beaten in the , long fight . However dear to them their cherished Entities of Mind and Will and Vital Principle , they have at length yielded to the force of evidence , and confess that properly to understand vital or psychial action they must study them as manifestations of an organism .

    The time is approaching when it will sound as absurd to talk of Mind without respect to the Nervous System , as it now sounds when we read of Stabl repudiating all chemical and anatomical researches as worse than useless in . medicine . We are far removed from the metaphysical method which explained all vital actions by means of a vital principle ; and we are approaching the day when we shall cease to explain mental actions by a mental principle . During the progress of the Physiological Method what has the metaphysical Method achieved ? Among pure metaphysicians , nothing . Among Metaphysicians tinctured with the positive method , real acquisitions in the way of psychological analysis . Hartley , for instance , gave us the law of Association . James Mill taught us the _ true principle of Naming . Adam Smith , Reid , Stewart , and Brown have certainly helped us , and Sir W . Hamilton has brought gigantic learning and a marvellous subtlety to help

    us through the labyrinthine way . For while Psychology is indebted to Physiology for its true Method and its amplest material , yet the chemist might as well attempt to explain vital action upon strictly chemical principles , its the physiologist to explain psychology on strictly physiological princip les . There is needed the union of psychial analysis with physiological observation ; otherwise Psychology remains simple Metaphysics or simple Physiology . Tliis union we find in Mr . Bain's Senses and ilie Intellect , and Mr . Herbert Spencer's Principles of Psychology . Mr . Bain , indeed , treats his subject more in the method of Natural History , is rather descriptive than analytical ; Mr . Spencer , on the contrary , is more analytical than descriptive . The two works should be studied together . In them will be found the natural outcome of the two great lines of speculation , physiological and psychological . _

    . ....... In « i future article we will endeavour to characterise more definitely the results which Mr . Spencer has reached , and g ive the reader an outline of the course of the investigation . The present article must be accepted as a digression .

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    Eight Years' Wanderings In Ceylon. Eight...

    EIGHT YEARS' WANDERINGS IN CEYLON . Eight Yearn' Wanderings in Ceylon liy S . W . Baker , Esq . Longman and Co . Prostrated by jungle fever after a twelvemonth ' s life of adventure , our author was compelled to proceed , for the snke of a more bracing climate , to the mountainous region of Newcra Ellia , the sanitarium of Ceylon . Grateful for the restoration of health , charmed by the beauty of the surrounding scenery , and tempted by the apparent fertility of the soil , Mr . Baker resolved to become a settler in this delightful spot , where , at the same time , he " could reside in a perfect climate , and oujoy the sports of the low country lit his own will . " lie accordingly purchased an extensive tract of land from Government , at the rate of twenty shillings an acre , and made arrangements , on a most extensive and complete scnle , for the establishment of ftn English village in the most lovely island in the Indian Ocean . At

    first , however , everything went wrong . A drunken vagabond of a groom contrived to upset a new carriage and a pair of fine Austialian horses down a precipice , to the serious injury of both the vehicle and the animals ; though thq driver , being ftacchi plenus , of course escaped unhurt . Nor was this his only , escapade , for being scnl down with an elephant to assist in drawing up the carriage / , he insisted upon the Mahout putting the huge beast into at ^ rot , and , kept up this pace for fifteen miles , when , finding thut the elephant would not be required , ho indulged somewhat frooly in libations of brandynndwater , and then forced the poor animal " up the steep pass for seven miles , tiUit . feJl down , and shortly ofter died . " ... " That afternoon , Mr . Porkea wn & bdng wheeled about tho bazaar in a wheelbarrow , insensibly drunk , by a brother emigrant who was also considerably elevated . " Misfortunes , however , never come alone : — ' , Many , wore the difficulties to contend against whan the first attempts wero made in

    agriculture at tfewera JESUia . ' Tsfo sooner were ~ theTo £ ts a fewlncheli aboye ^ wd than they were subjected to the nocturnal visits of elk and hbga in ^ sach numbers that they were almost -wholly destroyed . A crop of potatoes of about three acres on , the newly "l cleared forest land was totall y devoured by grubs . The bull and stock were nearly starved on the miserable pasturage of the country , and no sooner had the clover sprung up in the new clearings than the Southdown ram got hoven upon it , and died ; The two remaining rams , not having been aecustomed to much high living since their arrival at Newera Ellia , got pugnacious upon the clover , and in a pitched battle the Leicester ram killed the Cotswold—and remained solus . An epidemic appeared among the cattle , and twenty-six fine bullocks died within a few days ; five Australian horses died during the first year , and everything seemed to be going into the next world as fast as possible .

    But our author appears to have been of the right stuff for a colonist . After awhile , things changed for the better , and a gleam of sunshine lightened up his distant home . Finding that good beer could be made at that elevation—6200 feet above the sea—he established a small brewery , -The Leicester ram became the sire of a numerous and thriving offspring . His herd proved equally prosperous . The fields were green and his house comfortable , and a reading-room and a church arose in his immediate neighbourhood . As an agricultural experiment , however , the settlement proved an utter failure , owing to the natural poverty of the soil . In ancient times , indeed , the cultivation of the land was carried to a high degree of excellence , and a teeming population found ample means of subsistence where a few thinly-peopled villages now with difficulty avoid starvation . But then immense skill and labour were employed in supplying arid districts with water by artificial aqueducts , and a stubborn soil was compelled to produce abundant crops .

    From the remains of deserted water-courses of the first class , it is evident that more than fifty times the volume of water was then required that is in use at present , and in the same ratio must have been the amount of population . In those days rivers were diverted from , their natural channels ; opposing hills were cut through , and tho waters thus were led into another valley to join a stream flowing in its natural bed , whose course , eventually obstructed by a dam , poured its accumulated waters into canals which branched to various localities . Not a river in those times flowed in vain . The hill-sides were terraced out in beautiful cultivation , which are now waving with wild vegetation and rank lemon grass . The remaining traces of stone walls point out the ancient boundaries far above the secluded valleys now in cultivation . The nation has vanished ; and with it , the industry and perseverance of the era .

    The extinction of the ancient race is thus accounted for . The principal supply of ' water being derived from Newera Ellia , or the " Itoyal Plains , " whoever held that district was absolute master of the island . Mr . Baker , therefore , conjectures that during some intestine commotions the canals of irrigation have been cut ofi ^ and the low lands laid desolate . As rice was the staple article of food , and as abundant moisture is necessary for its production , the absence of water would speedily create a famine , and whole tribes be exterminated . And in such a climate the jungle rapidly closes around as men decay and labour becomes insufficient for the task of cheekin" - the rank luxuriance . The circulation of the air is thus impeded , and

    fatal diseases engendered . Cause and effect tell upon each other mutually . Men perish and the jungle invades the cultivated clearing , and as the open space is filled up the population dies away . From the ruins of ancient cities it is manifest that in the olden time the " Paradise of the East "—the beautiful " Lunka" of Hindoo mythology—must have been very densely inhabited . The remains of Anaradupoora , for instance , are spread over 256 square miles of ground , the said vestiges of a " noble city which stood within its walls in a square of sixteen miles . " At Pollanarua the Dagoba , or principal temple , raises its head 260 feet from its base .

    Two circular terraces , each of some twenty foet in height , rising one upon the other , with a width of fifty feet , and a diameter at tho base of about 250 , form the steplike platform upon which the Dagoba stands . These are ascended by broad nights of steps , each terrace forming a circular promenade around the Dagoba ; the whole having the appearance of white marble , being covered with polished stucco , ornamented with figures in bas-relief . The Dagoba is a solid mass of brickwork in thfe shape of a dome , -which rises from the upper terrace . Tho whole is covered with polished stucco , and surmounted by a gilded spire standing upon a square pedestal of stucco , highly ornamented with large figures , also in bas-relief ; this pedestal is a cube of about thirty feet , supporting tho tull gilded spire , which is surmounted by a golden umbrella . Around the base of the Dagoba on the upper terrace are eight small entrances with liighly ornamented exteriors . These arc the doora to eight similar chambers of about twelve feet square , in each of which is a small altar and carved golden idol .

    Such noble edifices could have been the work of no feeble or barbarous people . It is clear that tho ancient Cingalese had attained a considerable degree of civilisation , and that thoir numbers availed to carry out the conceptions of their genius and taste . The fnilure of a crop of rice changed the entire aspect of the island . The inhabitants perished by thousands , the towns became deserted , the reservoirs were neglected , the dams broken down . ; cultivation gave place to the jungle ; the boar , the elephant ^ and the elk resumed their sway in the forest ; and the most beautiful island m the world became one of tho moat useless and unproductive . No doubt , if the population ngain increase , tho former prosperity and abundance will also jfeturn . But what step .-i have been taken by the British Government to attain thie

    end ? It would be incredible , were it not in perfect consistency with the absurdities perpetrated in all other colonies and possessions of the British Crown the only measure hitherto adopted for tho encouragement of agriculture is tho reward of seven shillings for every elephant's tail brought to the proper oflicc ! Instead of restoring at a trifling outlay some of the splendid tanks constructed by their barbarous predecessors , and thus affording a nucleus to the native population , tho Government throwe ohotaoloa tn the way of even ICuropean colonisation . Tho upset price of land ta twenty shillings an aero , though it coBts seven timca that amount , to bring if into cultivation , besides the labour and expense of making roads for the conveyance of the produce to the nearest market . It would bo rathor to tlie advantage of tho country that the Und wcro huued « t a . iiur rental , or even given away in small lota , to encourage priv » to «>« cul » t * o « w ^ n public . enterprise is dormant . The construction oi rouda is a in "" e' ? ' g ?™™ benefit , and not merely of individual interest . It is , therefore , the duty of

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 27, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27101855/page/17/