t was continued. In the opinion of the
honourable and venerable examinators, however, it was considered as
sufficiently decisive, and of much public importance. Its application to
prison discipline may ultimately be of value, where prisoners are
confined but for short periods, and where the cultivation of the mind,
and the growing capacity to receive and retain religious truth are
objects of importance.

In the experiment in 1828, made before the Lord Provost, Principal,
Professors, and Clergymen of Edinburgh, in the County Jail, a class of
criminals which had been formed three weeks before, and exercised one
hour daily, were thoroughly and individually examined without
intermission during nearly three hours. Our present extract from the
Report of that Experiment refers, not to the amount of knowledge
acquired by these persons during these three weeks, but to the capacity
which, at the end of that time, they were found to possess of acquiring
every sort of knowledge. This experiment was so far imperfect, as the
Examinators had no means of ascertaining the true state of their minds,
previous to the commencement of their exercises. But having, upon
enquiry found from the governor of the prison, that there had been no
selection, that all the individuals in the ward had been taken, and that
at the commencement of the experiment, they formed a fair sample of the
prisoners commonly under his charge,--the progress of this mental
cultivation during that short period, became a special object of
examination by the Reverend and learned individuals who conducted it.
Their Report of the Experiment bears, that "these individuals had been
taken without any regard to their abilities, and former acquirements,
and formed a fair average of the usual prisoners." In endeavouring to
ascertain the grasp of mind which these individuals possessed, and the
readiness with which they received and retained whatever was, even for
the first time, communicated to them, "it was mentioned, that a
gentlemen on the previous day, in order to try the capacity of mind
which they had attained, desired Mr Gall to catechise them upon a
section, consisting of fourteen verses, which they had not seen before,
and that, after just ten minutes' examination, one woman, who could not
read, repeated the whole distinctly in her own words. Dr Brunton
proposed, for a similar experiment, the parable of the 'talents,' with
which none was acquainted except one woman, who was