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    lect of a man ; since every being forms a living whole of parts harmo * niously co-operating to one end * . ' This general statement is thus illustrated in the case of the ape . What constitutes the organic difference between our head and that of the ape?—the angle at which the head is inflected from the trunk .

    The ape has all the parts of the brain which man possesses , but he has them , in accordance with the structure of his skull , in a depressed position ; and this is so , because his head is fixed at a different angle , and he is not formed to go upright * As an immediate consequence , all his organic powers are differently developed : his head is neither so high , so broad , nor so long as ours ; the inferior senses are thrust forward with the lower side of the countenance , and it becomes the

    countenance of a brute , just as his depressed brain always continues only the brain of a brute : though the ape has all the parts of a human brain , yet he has them in another position and under a different relation t- ' We have thus far dipped into the physiology of Herder , which

    may not , perhaps , at the present day , be considered very profound , or probably in all its details very exact , in order to exhibit a specimen of his mode of treating such subjects , and also to observe , that from passages similar to those which have been just quoted , the celebrated Dr . Gall has been supposed by some to have taken the hint of his system of craniology

    Our limits will not allow , nor perhaps would the patience of our reads endure , a full and particular analysis of the multifarious contents of this work . We must be content , therefore , with tracing its general plan as we proceed , and with exhibiting and dwelling upon only those passages which possess , either from their

    eloquence or from the importance of the thoughts which they contain , a more than ordinary claim to notice . There is no idea which Herder repels with more indignation and disgust than that of identifying the human species with the inferior tribes of animals ; he omits no opportunity of showing how distinct and firm is the line of demarcation between men and brutes . It will not

    surprise us , therefore , to find his varied and discursive speculations on the physical organization of man terminating in the noble conclusion , that the end of his being is the cultivation of religion and morality ; that he is born for freedom and immortality . Upon these topics , as also on the influence of the domestic affections in refining and elevating human nature , there are some beautiful passages towards the close of the fourth book which we

    would fain quote , did not abundance of interesting matter lie before us , to which we must hasten on . We may observe , in passing , that Herder declines entering into any metaphysical proofs of the immortality of the sou ) , drawn from the supposed spirituality and simplicity of its nature ; and rejecting * as un ^ founded and inconclusive , Bonnet ' s well-known theory of preordained germs , judiciously postpones the consideration of this * Fourth Book , ii . p . 150 . f Ibid ., p . 149 .

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    4 t ^ The Philosophy of the Hi&tory of Mankind *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1832, page 40, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1804/page/40/