senses' was for a long time distressing to him. He was able to see in the dark, but by day, his sight was at first, for want of use, very indistinct; and the gradual manner in which he acquired the proper use of the organs, and the power of judging of magnitudes and distances, resembled that in which apparently infants learn to see, and in which a blind person restored to sight attains to distinct perception. He continued, however, to see much better by twilight. After sunset, he once pointed out a gnat that was hanging in a distant spider's web. When, at the commencement of twilight, a common eye could not distinguish more than three or four stars in the sky, Caspar could already discern different groupes, and distinguish the stars of which they were composed. It has also been proved by experiments carefully made, that, in a perfectly dark night, he could distinguish such colours as blue and green from each other. So acute was his sight that, in anatomizing plants, he noticed subtile distinctions and delicate particles which had escaped the observation of others. Scarcely less acute or finely discriminative was his sense of hearing. But, of all his senses, that which was most troublesome was his smelling. It occasioned him for a long time constant suffering. What to us is scentless, was not so to him; and the most delicate and delightful odours, for instance the rose, inflicted not aromatic pain,' but disgust as well as suffering. All kinds of smells were more or less disagreeable to him; but what we call unpleasant, affected him with less aversion than perfumes. The smell of fresh meat, however, he found the most horrible; and in walking near a church-yard, the effluvia, of which his companion was insensible, affected Caspar so powerfully as to produce a shivering fit, succeeded by a violent perspiration. But the most extraordinary of his perceptions was his sensibility of the presence of metals, and his capacity of distinguishing them from each other by his feelings alone. From a great number of facts, the following instances of this singular property are selected. 6 In the autumn of 1828, he once accidentally went into a store filled with hardware, particularly with brass goods. He had scarcely entered, before he hurried out again, being affected with a violent shuddering, and saying that he felt a drawing in his whole body in all directions. A stranger who visited him, once slipped a piece of gold of the size of a kreutzer into his hand, without Caspar's being able to see it; he said immediately that he felt gold in his hand.-At a time when Caspar was absent, Professor Daumer placed a gold ring, a steel and brass compass, and a silver drawing pen, under some paper, so that it was impossible for him to see what was concealed under it. Daumer directed him to move his finger over the paper, without touching it; he did so; and by the difference of the sensation and strength of the attraction which these different metals caused him to feel at the points of his fingers, he accurately distinguished them all from each other, according to their respective matter and form.-Once, when the physician, Dr. Osterhausen, and the royal crown-fiscal, Brunner, from Munchen, happened to be present, Mr. Daumer led Caspar, in order to try him, to a table covered with an oil-cloth, upon which a sheet of paper lay, and desired him to say whether any metal was under it. He moved his finger over it, and then said, "There it draws!" " But, this time," replied Daumer, "you are, nevertheless, mistaken; for (withdrawing the paper) nothing lies under it." Caspar seemed, at first, to be somewhat embarrassed; but he put his finger again to the place where he thought he had felt the drawing, and assured them repeatedly, that he there felt a drawing. The oil-cloth was then removed, a stricter search was made, and a needle was actually found there. He described the feeling which minerals occasioned him, as a kind of drawing sensation, which passed over him; accompanied, at the same time, with a chill which ascended, accordingly as the objects were different, more or less up the arm; and which was also attended with other distinctive sensations. At the same time, the veins of the hand which had been exposed to the metallic excitation, were visibly swollen. Towards the end of December, 1828,-when the morbid excitability of his nerves had been almost removed,-his sensibility of the influence of metallic excitatives, began gradually to disappear, and was, at length, totally lost.' pp. 140-143. In fact, after he had learned to eat meat, his mental activity, and the quickness of his apprehension, as well as the preternatural acuteness of his sensual perceptions, were considerably lessened, while his physical strength and growth were as rapidly increased. Another remarkable circumstance was, the apparently instinctive facility with which he became, after a very few lessons, a most dexterous and fearless horseman. His obedience to all those persons who had acquired paternal authority over him, was unconditional and boundless, but with this remarkable limitation; it had no connexion in his mind with believing. Before he would acknowledge any thing to be certain or true, it was necessary that he should be convinced of it, either by the evidence of his senses, or by some reasoning adapted to his imperfectly developed powers of comprehension. Though in his temper he exhibited a childish kindness and gentleness, he brought with him from his dungeon not the shadow of a religious idea; and the unskilful and injudicious attempts made to impart religious notions to his mind, before his understanding was fitted to embrace them, were entirely fruitless. Professor Daumer at length succeeded in making him infer from his own consciousness, the existence of spirit, and the nature of the Divine Being. Caspar evinced great joy, when these subjects were explained to him, and said, that what was now told him was something real, whereas other people had never told him any thing upon that subject, that was right. In the same way, we apprehend, it must have been found easy, in the case of one who had undergone so remarkable and sudden a transition from a life of mere animal existence, the life of an oyster, in the solitude of his dungeon, to the previously inconceivable state of communion with external objects and human society,—to make him infer the possible existence of an upper and invisible world, and to teach him to conceive of the fact, that there are beings from whom we are separated by as thin a partition as that which shut up poor Caspar from the living world. It is gratifying to learn, that faith in 'God, and a hope in Providence founded on that faith,' have at length found entrance into a heart that so much needed consolation. He is now, we are told, in the true sense of the word, a pious man. He speaks with devotion of God, and is fond of reading books of rational edification. His intellectual attainments are not now distinguished by any thing very remarkable. He does not discover a spark of fancy or genius. His imagination appears to have been as it were extinguished; but he shews both accuracy and acuteness of judgement in all things which lie within the narrow sphere of his knowledge. In understanding a man, in knowledge and simplicity still a child, he no longer retains any thing that is extraordinary, but his extraordinary fate, his indescribable goodness, and the exceeding amiableness of his disposition.'. 6 6 Such is the description given us of this unfortunate victim of a cruelty which appears as unaccountable as atrocious. Why was such care manifested to preserve a life from extinction, which it was deemed necessary for any vile reason to bury in the darkness of the grave? What remaining feeling of compunction, what other conceivable motive could restrain poor Caspar's gaoler from being the murderer of his animal life, as well as of his intellectual being? These and a hundred other questions naturally suggest themselves, to which no answer can be given. An attempt to assassinate Caspar in Oct. 1829, from which he narrowly escaped, warrants the supposition that some individuals are still living, upon whom his history would fix the brand of infamy. But that history is written only in a book which will not be opened till the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed. Were not the main facts attested by such ample evidence, there are many points upon which incredulity might fix itself. That Caspar had been immured in his hole long enough to affect the formation of his bones, is certain; but could he have been kept there from absolute infancy? Was his mind always the blank which it appeared to be on his first introduction to the world? Or had it been reduced to that state by diabolical artifice? What must have been the effect of the opiates by which he appears to have been periodically laid in utter insensibility, and of those long and dreamless slumbers, upon his intellectual facul ties, if previously developed? Must they not have tended to reduce him to idiotcy? Is it not conceivable that all memory and knowledge might thus have become effaced? Might not this have been the object and expectation of those who consigned him living to his sepulchre? And may not the attempt at assassination have been instigated by the discovery that the design had not been fully accomplished; that he was not reduced to idiotcy; that his powers, though utterly dormant, were not destroyed; and by the fear that his extinguished recollections might yet come to life? But it is useless to start these speculations. Viewed as a psychological phenomenon, poor Caspar affords some interesting illustrations of the process of education we all pass through in infancy, and of the dependence of the internal faculties, as regards their development, upon external objects, as well as some other points interesting to the physiologist. To these we cannot now advert. One valuable lesson, however, all may derive from the perusal of the narrative: it should make us thankful for our childhood, and teach us to adore the wisdom of God, as conspicuous in that beautiful order in which the powers of our nature are successively and harmoniously developed, each stage being preparatory to the next, and gently melting into it, and every season of life having its own proper knowledge, business, and happiness. Let the youth without childhood' teach us how blessed a thing it is to have been a child. Art. VII. 1. Civil Establishments of Christianity, tried by their only authoritative Test, the Word of God. By Ralph Wardlaw, D.D., Glasgow. 8vo, pp. 52. Glasgow, 1833. 2. Extracts from Statements of the Difference between the Profession of the Reformed Church of Scotland, as adopted by Seceders; and the Profession contained in the New Testimony and other Acts, as adopted by the General Associate Synod; particularly on the power of the Magistrates respecting Religion. By Thomas M'Crie, D.D. Second Edition. pp. 52. Glasgow, 1833. 3. Church Establishments defended, with Special Reference to the Church of Scotland. By the Rev. C. J. Brown, Minister of Anderston Chapel. 12mo, pp. 236. Glasgow, 1833. 4. A Critique on Dr. Ralph Wardlaw's Sermon, "Civil Establishments of Christianity"; shewing that it is unfounded in Scripture, contradicted by Ecclesiastical history, and based on what is not true, and is alike repudiated by sound Criticism and conclusive Argument. By Alexander Fleming, A.M., Minister of Neilston. 8vo, pp. 118. Glasgow, 1833. 5. The Nursing Fathers and Mothers of the Children of the Church. A Sermon on Isaiah xlix. 22, 23. By Greville Ewing. 18mo, pp. 48. Price 8s. Glasgow, 1831. 6. Thoughts on Ecclesiastical Establishments, particularly the Established Church of Scotland. By a Layman. 8vo, pp. 80. Edinburgh, 1832. 7. The Church of England indefensible by Holy Scripture: being a Reply to several recent Defences of the Establishment, and especially to two Discourses by the Rev. J. Garbett, M.A., of Birmingham. By George Redford, M.A. 8vo. London, 1833. 8. The Dissenters and Church Reform. A Letter to the Rev. J. Arnold, D.D., Head Master of Rugby School, occasioned by his Pamphlet, entitled, Principles of Church Reform. By Vindex. Reprinted from the Northampton Free Press. 18mo, pp. 31. Price 6d. London, 1833. 9. On Ecclesiastical Establishments: an Address. By J. J. Davies. 8vo, pp. 96. Price 2s. 6d. London, 1832. 10. Self Defence, being an Answer to a Publication, entitled "War against the Church," &c., &c. By the Rev. William Chaplin. 18mo, pp. 23. Price 3d. Bishop's Stortford, 1832. THE chief seat of ecclesiastical war at the present moment is on the other side of the Tweed. Here, the controversy has seemed to languish, and the Church of England has been allowed a breathing time, during which she is being exhorted by her own prophets to repent and reform. But in Scotland, it is not Church Reform that is sought for, but just a doing away with the Ecclesiastical Establishment in toto. There, the dispute is not about vestments or formularies, confirmation or the burial service. No prelates lift their mitred heads in lordship over their brethren in the Scottish Establishment. The grounds of dissent are far less complicated there, than in this country; relating not so much to the polity or structure of the Church, or to any of its forms and practices, as to the corruptions which are believed to result inevitably from the unlawful connexion between the Church and the State. It is against Church Establishments as such, against any species of civil establishment of Christianity,' any compulsive' mode of supporting the teachers of religion, that Mr. Marshall, Dr. Wardlaw, Mr. Ewing, and their friends and colleagues, feel themselves conscientiously bound to raise their voicc in solemn protest. The formalism, the lethargy, the secret infi delity which have deplorably overspread the Church of Scotland may be traced, in their opinion, to its anti-Christian allianc with state patronage. The existence of the church establishment, believed to be a formidable barrier to the propagation of th 6 |