Mr. Lowell, having been minister to England, is profoundly reverenced in Boston for his social position. His position gives great weight to his suggestions. It is a moral power for the use of which he is responsible, but with which he has trifled. When a few earnest reformers thought that Mr. Gladstone’s grand statesmanship in preserving the peace of the world deserved to be recognized and honored by Americans, conservative, rank-worshipping Bostonians thought it would be indispensable to have Mr. Lowell’s co-operation, and waited his return from Europe. When Mr. Lowell was appealed to be had nothing to say,—he wanted rest! And Boston had nothing to say on that grand occasion, though Boston has a perfunctory Peace Society!

But now Mr. Lowell comes out to call forth Bostonians for his chosen themes, and what are they? The discussion of old English dramatists! If there is anything more dead and worthless than antiquated plays which are forgotten, what is it? If there is anything more worthy of the name of rubbish, pray let us know what it is. But Boston crowds to hear disquisitions which from men in a different social position would be voted a bore, and sits reverently and patiently to catch his feeble and to many, scarce audible utterances. Is not this the worship of triviality and trash! How different would have been the action of John Hancock, of Samuel Adams, of Fisher Ames, or of Wendell Phillips. The atmosphere of European courts is debilitating to American Republicanism, unless it be a profound sentiment of the heart. When my brother-in-law returned from his position as minister to Naples, I could see that he had learned to look upon the common people as a rabble, and to sympathize only with the aristocracy. Cassius M. Clay at St. Petersburg learned to sympathize with the Russians, but he returned with no impairment of his democratic principles. Return

The insane folly which assumes, without a particle of evidence, that everything depends upon mind, and that the brain, the body, and their environment, which is continually acting upon the entire man, are of no importance whatever, would not be worthy even of mere mention if it were not for the fact that this form of delusion has of late become so common, under the deceptive names of metaphysics, Christian science, and mind-cure, when the theory is simply an attempt to get rid of science and common sense. Return

The reader may naturally ask why have I not demonstrated this assertion before the scientific world. The reason is, that dogmatism rules in the sphere of natural science, and no communication would receive fair treatment which contravened the opinions of editors or the mass of prevalent opinion in colleges and scientific societies. It would be peremptorily rejected from our leading scientific magazine, the Popular Science Monthly. Return

I would merely mention, as a familiar example of such errors, that an enlightened student of phrenology called upon me yesterday, to whom phrenologists had given the character of avaricious selfishness and an incapacity for friendship, which indeed was the correct application of the old system, but was the reverse of his true character. The old system did not explain friendship correctly, and entirely mislocated the organ of avarice by placing it in the temples. The gentlemen had never before received a correct description from phrenologists he had visited. Return