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Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
*In the affliction of these terrible dreams,
That shake us nightly: Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie

In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well;

Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,

Can touch him further!

The Lady, who is always represented as coaxing and encouraging her husband, soothing his agitations, and endeavouring to calm his terrors, answers,

Come on ;

Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial 'mong your guests to-night.

His reply shews his desire to conceal his inward feelings, while at the same time he betrays the consciousness of his guilty and degraded state :

So shall I, love; and So, I pray,

be you:

Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;

Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue :
Unsafe the while, that we

Must lave our honours in these flattering streams;

And make our faces vizards to our hearts,

Disguising what they are.

Lady M. You must leave this.

Macb. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! &c.

We need not follow him through the farther scenes of blood,-only to observe, that even to the last, though grown more inured to evil deeds, he no where shews that callousness and utter disregard of crime that is exhibited in Richard III. and some other wicked characters pourtrayed by the same masterly hand. To the end he is subject to the horrors of remorse, and these seem even partly to realize the sentence, which his conscience in its first exasperation denounced upon him, that he should sleep no more in peace.-The lady tells him,

You lack the season of all natures, sleep.

And afterwards, in her state of sleep-walking, when she shews in her own person that conscience will, in its own way, assault even the most callous, she intimates the state of terror in which he seems to have constantly lived:

"Hell is murky!-Fye, my lord, fye! a soldier, and afear'd? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?”—“No more of that, my lord,-no more of that,— you mar all with this starting."

We do not think it necessary to carry the analysis farther. We think it is evident, from this examination, both on the principles of phrenology, and on the acknowledged facts in the history of man, which are known to us independently of that science, that the character of Macbeth, as drawn by our immortal bard, so far from being out of nature, shews the deepest knowledge of the human heart, and is throughout perfectly natural. We have seen that it is not otherwise inconsistent than the nature of man is itself inconsistent,—and that the apparent inconsistencies are all reconcileable to a few plain and easily-understood principles, operated upon in certain obvious and intelligible ways, by the circumstances in which he is placed. The only feelings which seem to be possessed strongly, are love of approbation and cautiousness,— the rest both of the lower propensities and higher sentiments seem either so moderate in degree, or so equally balanced, that the character might have been turned either towards good or towards evil, according to the situation in which the individual was placed, or the example and persuasions of those who happened to be near him. Unfortunately such is the character of his lady, that the example and persuasions coming from her, and to which even some of his good propensities lend an additional force, all tend towards evil. This affords a key to the whole wavering in Macbeth's mind, his fall into irremediable crime, his consequent remorse and final ruin.

ARTICLE XII.

ON THE SKULLS OF THREE MURDERERS

In the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin.

A Swiss gentleman lately visited the Surgeons' Hall of Dublin, and was shewn into the Museum, where a number of skulls of persons who had been executed for murder was kept. The keeper of the Museum begged him to observe that the organs of destructiveness and of some other faculties were not more prominent in their skulls than in the skulls of the generality of men. The Swiss gentleman came afterwards to Edinburgh, where, having heard phrenology spoken of, he reported this observation. He chanced to repeat it to a phrenologist of this city, who immediately requested him to visit a collection, consisting of skulls of murderers and of virtuous individuals, and to point out those to which the Dublin skulls bore the nearest resemblance. The Swiss gentleman, after looking at several skulls, professed ignorance of the subject, and stated his inability to tell from recollection the precise appearance of the skulls in question. The phrenologist then shewed him the difference betwixt the skulls of murderers and of persons of mild dispositions, namely, that in the former the inferior and posterior parts were large in proportion to the anterior and superior, while in the latter these proportions were reversed;—but he could not say whether this rule held or not in the skulls in the Museum. Meantime the report which we have now mentioned got abroad, and the opponents of phrenology were already rejoicing over it as establishing a fact which the phrenologists would not dare to expiscate, and which would shew at once the unfounded nature of their science, and the mala fides of their proceedings in concealing all circumstances which militated against them.

The phrenologists, however, pursued a different course.

The gentleman alluded to immediately wrote to a friend in Dublin detailing the report, and adding, "I am cer

tain the statement does not correspond to the fact, other"wise nature's laws are different in Ireland from what they are in England, Scotland, and France. Would "you, therefore, be so good as see the skulls, and write me such an account of them as I may publish in the Phrenological Journal." The letter farther mentioned, that "Mr

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― (the Swiss gentleman) did not in the least impute to Mr S. the keeper of the museum, any hostile 'feeling towards phrenology, but said that the remark about "the development was made in answer to a question, and "that if it was not correct, the error arose entirely from the "circumstance of the keeper not being aware of the development which characterizes murderers."

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A speedy reply was obtained, to the following effect :

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"Dublin, 29th Sept. 1823. Immediately after receiving your last favour I procured "the measurements of the skulls in the college of Surgeon's "Museum, according to your wishes; as also the briefs used on "the trials of the individuals, whose history you desired to be "informed of, but postponed writing from day to day, in hopes "of being able to send you a paper fit to lay before the "Phrenological Society. I am, however, compelled, through "mere want of leisure, to abandon my intention.

"There are but three skulls of executed murderers in the "Museum; but perhaps Mr included in the number he "mentioned to you the casts (masks) of the same individuals "taken immediately after their execution. The first is the skull " of Matthew Osborne, who was executed in February 1821, "for the murder of his wife, by trampling on her, and striking "her on the head with a piece of timber. Six of her ribs were "broken, and crushed into her lungs. He fled, after locking "up the body in his room, but was found concealed in a house "in the neighbourhood, with the key in his pocket. He was "upwards of fifty; and, though his wife does not appear to "have been young, he was jealous of her; to excite his com"passion, she asked him if he was going to kill the mother of "his children, but he cursed her for a whore, and completed "the murder.

"The two others are the skulls of Bridget Butterly and "Bridget Ennis, who were tried in April 1821 for the murder "of Mary Thompson. The deceased lived with a gentleman "of this city, by whom she had two or three children. Bridget

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Butterly had previously lived with him as a servant, and it appeared that he had also a criminal connexion with her. "The prisoners watched the house in the forenoon of the day, "till they saw the gentleman leave it followed by his man"servant. After an interval Bridget Ennis knocked, and "stated to the maid-servant that her master had just met with 66 an accident in Henry-street, and desired her to bring him his great-coat. She set off with the coat, and immediately af"terwards the two women knocked at the door; it was opened "by Mrs Thompson. There was but a short parley until they "threw a handkerchief over her head, and dragged her down "the kitchen stairs, where they beat out her brains with the "kitchen poker. A knife and iron tongs were found in a bed "in an adjoining room, both bloody. They carried off a writing-desk and trunk, in which were bank-notes and property to a considerable amount. The same evening they were both seen dancing at a public-house. One of them (Ennis) was apprehended there. The other was detected "putting off a bank-note, of which she did not know the value. "The peace-officers, on searching her, found her gown clotted "with blood, particularly the sleeves, which were tucked up. "To account for the circumstance, she stated that her nose had "been bleeding. She was young, and rather handsome. Her companion was ordinary, and seemed elder; yet she stated "her age to be but twenty. Their unfortunate victim was "about the same age, and was described by the witnesses as a "beautiful creature. Her child, about three years old, was "found in the house covered with blood.

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"I believe I have detailed all the circumstances that it is now possible to learn, which can throw any light upon the charac"ter of these individuals. I made an effort to procure casts of "their skulls, but was disappointed. Nothing, however,

"could exceed the obliging attentions which I received from "Mr S, who assisted me in taking the measurements. "Had he sufficient leisure himself to make the casts I should "have had the satisfaction of sending them for your own ex"amination. I have a very deficient eye in judging of the 66 comparative size of the organs, and would not venture on the 66 attempt, as the chances are, I should mislead you. You may "depend, however, on the correctness of the following measure"ments."

Our correspondent gives a tabular view of the measurements, which we shall copy verbatim; but to enable the reader to understand its import, we shall add the measurements of the skulls of Gordon, who murdered the pedlar boy in Eskdale muir, and of Bellingham, who assassinated Mr Perceval, in both of which destructiveness and the ani

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