- — — ^bnmf of ^jMji nm- ; ^ ( TTHITEP STATE S 1 1 1 ' AMERICA. A*/W^V>W^ 'AfafiAfr >MWMm^^ ^M %^A/f%*A ** v A '■ AAa"; « aa A a,a;aa a a a a i •: ^ o * « a A a* ; : * fi * : : ; « n ■■" r " : :****££ ' & A r ft**-' 1- «aA A A - ~ A A * ' V »• & A' A ■ \*aaA '^a'A' A *^ ■ ' ■»*■•?*?£*"'; a** A /M "A A ^^AOa^AAW^^A f MORAL PHILOSOPHY; THE DUTIES OF MAN CONSIDERED IN HIS INDIVIDUAL, SOCIAL, AND DOMESTIC CAPACITIES. GEORGE COMBE. PROM THE REVISED AND ENLARGED EDINBURGH EDITION. NEW YORK : WILLIAM H. COLYER. NO. 5 HAGUE-STREET. 1 842. \* *V PREFACE The present work appears in the form of lectures, which were composed under the following circumstances : In 1832, an association was formed by the industrious classes of Edinburgh, for obtaining instruction in useful and entertaining knowledge, by means of lectures, to be delivered in the evenings after business-hours. These lectures were designed to be popular in regard to style and illustration, but systematic in arrangement and extent. I was requested to deliver a course on Moral Philosophy, commencing in No- vember, 1835,' and proceeding on each Monday evening, till April, 1836. Another evening in each week was devoted to Astronomy ; and two nights more to Chemistry. Thus, there were delivered twenty consecutive lectures on Moral Philo- sophy, on the Monday evenings ; fifty lectures on Chemistry, on the evenings of Tuesdays and Fridays ; and twenty -five lectures on Astronomy, on the Thursday evenings. The audience amounted to between five and six hundred persons of both sexes. In twenty lectures, addressed to such an audience, only a small portion of a very extensive field of science could be touched upon. It was necessary also to avoid, as much as possible, abstract and speculative questions, and to dwell chief- ly on topics simple, interesting, and practically useful. These circumstances account for the introduction of such subjects as Suretyship, Arbitration, Guardianship, and some others, not usually treated of in works on Moral Philosophy ; and also for the occasional omission of that rigid application of the principles on which the work is founded, to the case of every duty, which would have been necessary in a purely scientific treatise. These principles, however, although not always stated, are never intentionally departed from. A large number of my auditors had studied phrenology, and many of them had read my work on " The Constitution of Man :" I did not hesitate, therefore, to found the lectures on phrenological principles. As, however, they were not, in general, regular students of philosophy, but persons engaged in practical business, their recollection of the principles could not be entirely relied on, and it became necessary to restate these at considerable length. This is the cause of a more extensive repetition, in these lectures, of views already pub- lished in " The Constitution of Man," and in my phrenological writings, than, in ordinary circumstances, would have been admissible. The lectures were reported, by one of my hearers, in the Edinburgh Chronicle newspaper, and excited some attention. Still, however, I did not consider them worthy of being pre- sented to the public as a separate work, and they have not IT PREFACE. hitherto appeared in this form in Britain. I transmitted a copy of the " Reports " to a friend in Boston, U. S., when they were reprinted by Messrs. Marsh, Capen, and Lyon, in a small duodecimo volume. The entire edition was purchased by the American public ; and, encouraged by this indication of ap- proval, I sent, during my residence in America, for the original manuscript, (which 1 had left in Edinburgh,) and last spring pub- lished at Boston the entire lectures, with such additions and improvements as they appeared to stand in need of. Since my return to Scotland, 1 have subjected the volume to another revi- sion, and now offer an improved edition to the British public. I am aware that, in founding moral philosophy on phreno- logy, I shall appear to those persons who have not ascertained the truth of the latter science, to be putting forward mere conjectures as the basis of human duty. In answer to this objection, I respectfully remark, that scientific truths exist independently of human observation and opinion. The globe revolved on its axis, and carried the pope and seven cardinals whirling round on its surface, at the very moment when he and they declared the assertion of such a fact to be a damnable heresy, subversive of Christianity. In like manner, the brain performs its functions equally in those who deny, and in those who admit, their existence. I observe that in one anti-phrenologist, in whom the anterior lobe is small, the intellect is feeble ; and that in another, in whom it is large and well constituted, the intellect is powerful, alto- gether independently of their own belief in these facts. I have remarked, also, that when the brain of an anti-phrenologist has been diseased in a particular organ, he has become deranged in the corresponding faculty, notwithstanding his denial of all connexion between them. The fact, therefore, that many persons do not admit the truth of phrenology, does not neces- sarily render it an imaginary science. The denial by Harvey's contemporaries of the circulation of the blood, did not arrest the action of the heart, arteries, and veins. In phrenology, as in general physiology and other sciences, there are points still unascertained, and these may hereafter prove to be important ; but the future discovery of the func- tions of the spleen will never overturn the ascertained func- tions of the lungs or spinal marrow : and, in like manner, the ascertainment of the uses of certain unknown parts at the base of the brain, will not alter the ascertained functions of the anterior lobe and coronal region. I consider the phrenological principles on which I have founded the following lectures, to be established by such an extensive induction of facts, that, they will sustain the severest scrutiny and not be found want ing; and I shall, with becoming resignation, abide by the verdict of those, who, by study and observation, shall have rendered themselves competent to judge of their merits. Edinburgh, 1st October^ 1840. CONTENTS. LECTURE I. »N THE FOUNDATION OF MORAL SCIENCE. Questions distinct, What actions are virtuous ? and what con- stitutes them such? — Answer to the former comparatively- easy — Human constitution indicates certain courses of action to be right — Necessity for studying that constitution and its relations, in order to ascertain what renders an action virtuous or vicious— Conflicting opinions of philosophers on the moral constitution of man — Phrenology assumed as a valuable guide — Possibility of the existence of Moral Philo- sophy as a natural science — No faculty essentially evil, though liable to be abused — Deductions of well-constituted and well-informed minds to be relied on in moral science — Scripture not intended as an all-sufficient guide of conduct — Faculties revealed by phrenology, and illustrations of their uses and abuses — Adaptation of human constitution to ex- ternal nature — The objects of Moral Philosophy are, to trace the nature and legitimate sphere of action of our faculties and their external relations, with the conviction, that to use them properly is virtue, to abuse them, vice — Cause of its barren condition as a science — Bishop Butler's view of the supremacy of conscience acceded to — Those actions virtu- ous which accord with the dictates of the moral sentiments and intellect — Preceding theories imperfect, though partially- correct — Cause of this imperfection ; qualities of actions are discovered by the intellect, and the moral sentiments then decide whether they are right or wrong — Plan of the pre- sent course of lectures. Page 25-45 LECTURE II. ON THE SANCTIONS BY WHICH THE NATURAL LAWS OF MORALITY ARE SUPPORTED. Every law supposes a Lawgiver, and punishment annexed to transgression — God prescribes certain actions by our consti- tution, and He is therefore the Lawgiver — He supports his laws by rewards and punishments — Does He do so by special acts of providence ? — Or are his rewards and punishments certain consequences of good or evil, appointed by Him to follow from our actions ? — It is important to show that God dispenses justice in this world ; because we know no other, and if He be not just here, there is no natural and logical ground for inferring that He will be just in any ether world — Evidence that He does dispense justice here — His sup- posed injustice is apparent only — Philosophers have not understood the principles of His government --The indepen- I* VI CONTENTS. dent action of the several natural laws is the key to it — If we obey the physical laws, they reward us with physical advantages — If we obey the organic laws, they reward us with health — If we obey the moral laws, they reward us with mental joy — If we disobey any one of these laws, we are punished under it, although we observe all die others — There is more order and justice in the Divine Government in this world than is generally recognised. 45-65 LECTURE III. ADTANTAGES OF A KNOWLEDGE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF MO- RALS : DUTIES PRESCRIBED TO MANAS AN INDIVIDUAL I SELF CULTURE. The views in the preceding lecture accord with those of Bishop Butler — We go farther than he did, and show the natural arrangements by which the consequences mentioned by him take place — Importance of doing this — Certain relations have been established between the natural laws, which give to each a tendency to support the authority of the whole- — Examples — Duties prescribed to Man as an Individual con- sidered — The object of man's existence on earth is to ad- vance in knowledge, wisdom, and holiness, and thereby to enjoy his being — The glory of God is promoted by his accom- plishing this object — The first duty of Man is to acquire knowledge — This may be drawn from Scripture and from nature — -Results from studying heathen mythology and na- ture are practically different — Difference between the old and the new philosophy stated— Clerical opposition to these lectures. 66-83 LECTURE IV. PRESERVING BODILY AND MENTAL HEALTH, A MORAL DUTY ; AMUSEMENTS. The preservation of health is a moral duty — Causes of bad health are to be found in infringement of the organic laws — All the bodily organs must be preserved in proportionate vigour — The pleasures attending high health are refined and quite distinct from sensual pleasures — The habits of the lower animals are instructive to man in regard to health- Labour is indispensable to health — Fatal consequences of continued, although slight, infractions of the organic laws — Amusements necessary to health, and therefore not sinful — We have received faculties of Time, Tune, Ideality, Imita- tion, and Wit, calculated to invent and practise amusements Their uses and abuses stated — Error of religious persons who condemn instead of purifying and improving public .amusements * 83-101 CONTENTS. fi LECTURE V. ON THE DUTIES OF MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. Origin of the domestic affections — Marriage, or connexion for life between the sexes, is natural to man — Ages at which marriage is proper — Near relations in blood should not marry — Influence of the constitution of the parents on the children — Phrenology, as an index to natural dispositions, may be used as an important guide in forming matrimonial connex- ions — Some means of discovering natural qualities prior to experience, is needed in forming such alliances, because after marriage experience comes too late. 101-118 LECTURE VI. ON POLYGAMY I FIDELITY TO THE MARRIAGE VOW \ DIVORCE ! DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. Polygamy not founded in Nature — Fidelity to the marriage row a natural institution — Divorce — Objections to the law of England on this subject — Circumstances in which divorce should be allowed — Duties of parents — Mr. Malthus's law of population, and Mr. Sadler's objections to it, considered — Parents bound to provide for their children, and to preserve their health— Consequences of neglecting the laws of health. 118-136 LECTURE VII. ft is the duty of parents to educate their children — To be able to discharge this duty, parents themselves must be educated — Deficiency of education in Scotland — Means of supplying the deficiency — It is a duty to provide for children— Best provision for children consists in a sound constitution, good moral and intellectual training, and instruction in useful knowledge — What distribution of the parent's fortune should be made '? — Rights of parents and duties of children — Obedi- ence to parents — Parents bound to render themselves worthy of respect — Some children born with defective moral and in- tellectual organs — How they should be treated. 137-154 LECTURE VIII. Theories of philosophers respecting the origin of society — So- lution afforded by Phrenology — Man has received faculties, the spontaneous action of which prompts him to live in socie- ty — Industry is man's first social duty — Labour, in modera- tion, is a source of enjoyment, and not a punishment — The opinion that useful labour is degrading examined — The division of labour is natural, and springs from the faculties being bestowed in different degrees of strength on different individuals — One combination fits for one pursuit, and ano ther for another— Gradations of rank are also natural, and ▼HI CONTEXTS. arise from differences in native talents and in acquired skill — Gradations of rank are beneficial to all, 154-167 LECTURE IX. ON THE PAST, PRESENT, AND PROSPECTIVE CONDITIONS OF SOCIETY. The question considered, Why are vicious or weak persons sometimes found prosperous, while the virtuous and talented enjoy no worldly distinction ? — Individuals honoured and rewarded according as they display qualities adapted to the state of the society in which they live — Mankind hitherto animated chiefly by selfish faculties — Prospective improve- ment of the moral aspect of society — Retrospect of its previous conditions — Savage, pastoral, agricultural, and commercial stages ; and qualities requisite for the prosperity of individuals in each — Dissatisfaction of moral and intel- lectual minds with the present state of society — Increasing tendency of society to honour and reward virtue and intel- ligence — Artificial impediments to this — Hereditary titles and entails — Their bad effects— Pride of ancestry, rational and irrational — Aristocratic feeling in America and Europe — Means through which the future improvement of society may be expected — Two views of the proper objects of human pursuit ; one representing man's enjoyments as principally animal, and the other as chiefly moral and intellectual— The selfish faculties at present paramount in society — Consequences of this — Keen competition of indi- vidual interests, and its advantages and disadvantages — Present State of Britain unsatisfactory. 167-185 LECTURE X. THE CONSIDERATION OF THE PRESENT AND PROSPECTIVE CONDITION OF SOCIETY CONTINUED. Additional examples of bad results of competition of individual interests — Disadvantages attending the division of labour — Difficulty of benefiting one individual without injuring others — Instance of charitable institutions — Question, Whether the destruction of human life or of corn is the greater public calamity — State of the Irish peasantry — Impediments to the abandonment of luxuries by the rich — The leading ar- rangements of society at present bear reference to self- interest — Christianity cannot become practical while this continues to be the case — Does human nature admit of such improvement, that the evils of individual competition may be obviated, and the moral sentiments rendered supreme ? — Grounds for hope — Natural longing for a more perfect social condition — Schemes of Plato, SirT. More, the Primi- tive Christians, the Harmonites, and Mr. Owen. 186-198 CONTENTS. IX LECTURE XL THE CONSIDERATION OF THE PROSPECTIVE CONDITION OF SOCIETY CONTINUED. — DUTY OF MAINTAINING THE POOR. Reasons for expecting future human improvement — The brain improves with time, exercise, and the melioration of insti- tutions — Existing superior brains and minds prove the capa- bility of the race — The best men are the firmest believers in man's capability of improvement — Human happiness will increase with the progress of knowledge — Ignorance still prevalent — Many of our sufferings traceable to causes removable by knowledge and the practice of morality — This exemplified in poverty, and the vicissitude and uncer- tainty of conditions — Means by which human improvement may be effected — The interest of individuals closely linked with general improvement and prosperity — Examples in proof of this — Extensive view of the Christian precept, that we ought to love our neighbour as ourselves — Duty of attend- ing to public affairs — Prevention of war — Abolition of slave- trade — Imperfection of political economy in its tendency to promote general happiness — Proposal to set apart stated portions of time for the instruction of the people in their social duties, and for the discharge of them — Anticipated good effects of such a measure — Duty of endeavouring to . equalise happiness — Duty of maintaining the poor — Opposite views of political economists on this subject considered — ■ Causes of pauperism ; and means of removing them — These causes not struck at by the present system of management of the poor ; but, on the contrary, strengthened. 199-219 LECTURE XII. PAUPERISM AND CRIME. Causes of pauperism continued — Indulgence in intoxicating liquors — Causes producing love of these ; — Hereditary pre- disposition ; Excessive labour with low diet ; Ignorance — Effects of commercial convulsions in creating pauperism — Duty of supporting the poor — Evils resulting to society from neglect of this duty — Removal of the causes of pauperism should be aimed at — Legal assessments for the support of the poor advocated — Opposition to new opinions is no reason for despondency, provided they are sound— Treat- ment of criminals — Existing treatment and its failure to suppress crime — Light thrown by Phrenology on this subject — Three classes of combinations of the mental organs, favourable, unfavourable, and middling — Irresistible procli- vity of some men to crime— Proposed treatment of this class of criminals— Objection as to moral responsibility answered. 220-235 X CONTENTS. LECTURE XIII. TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS CONTINUED. Criminals in whom the moral and intellectual organs are con- siderably developed — Influence of external circumstances on this class — Doctrine of regeneration — Importance of attending to the functions of the brain in reference to this subject, and the treatment of criminals — Power of society over the conduct of men possessing brains of the middle class — Case of a criminal made so by circumstances — Expedien- cy of keeping certain men from temptation — Thefts by post- office officials — Aid furnished by Phrenology in selecting persons to fill confidential situations — Punishment of crimi- nals — Objects of punishment — Its legitimate ends are to protect society by example, and to reform the offenders — Means of effecting these purposes — Confinement — Employ- ment — Unsatisfactory state of our existing prisons — Moral improvement of criminals. 236-251 LECTURE XIV. DUTY OP SOCIETY IN REGARD TO THE TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. The punishment of criminals proceeds too much on the prin- ciple of revenge — Consequences of this error — The proper objects are the protection of society, and the reformation of the criminal — Means of accomplishing these ends — Confine- ment in a penitentiary till the offender is rendered capable of good conduct — Experience of the corrupting effects of short periods of imprisonment in Glasgow bridewell — Proposed conditions of liberation — Failure of the treadmill — American penitentaries — Wherein imperfect — Punish- ment of death may ultimately be abolished — Harmony of the proposed system of criminal legislation with Christianity — Execution of criminals — Transportation — Farther particu- lars respecting American prisons — Cerebral and mental qualities of criminals there confined-- Some of them incor- rigible — Objection as to destruction of human responsibility answered — Class of criminals susceptible of reformation — Means of effecting this — Results of solitary confinement considered— Silent labour system at Auburn. 252-270 LECTURE XV. DUTIES OF GUARDIANS, SURETIES, JURORS, AND ARBITRATORS Guardianship — A duty not to be declined, though its perform- ance is sometimes repaid with ingratitude— The misconduct is often on the part of the guardians — Examples of both cases — Particular circumstances in which guardianship may be declined — Duties of guardians — They should study, and sedulously perform, the obligations incumbent on them CONTENTS. li Property of wards not to be misapplied to guardians' own purposes — Co-guardians to be vigilantly watched, and check- ed when acting improperly — Care for the maintenance, education, and setting out in life, of the wards — Duty of suretyship — Dangers incurred by its performance — These may be lessened by Phrenology — Selfishness of those who decline to become sureties in any case whatever — Precau- tions under which suretyship should be undertaken — No man ought to bind himself that he may severely suffer, or to become surety for a sanguine and prosperous individual who merely wishes to increase his prosperity — Suretyship for good conduct — Precautions applicable to this — Duties of jurors — Few men capable of their satisfactory performance — Suggestions for the improvement of juries — Duties of arbitrators — Erroneous notions prevalent on this subject — Decisions of "honest men judging according to equity" — Principles of law ought not to be disregarded. 271-288 LECTURE XVI. GOVERNMENT. Various theories of the origin of government — Theory derived from Phrenology — Circumstances which modify the charac- ter of a government — Government is the just exercise of the power and authority of a nation, delegated to one or a few for the general good — General consent of the people its only moral foundation — Absurdity of doctrine of the Divine right of governors — Individuals not entitled to resist the govern- ment whenever its acts are disapproved by them — Rational mode of reforming a government — Political improvement slow and gradual — Advantages thence resulting — Indepen- dence and liberty of a nation distinguished — French govern- ment before and after the revolution — British government —Relations of different kinds of government to the human faculties — Conditions necessary for national independence . , (1.) Adequate size of brain ; (2.) Intelligence and love of country sufficient to enable the people to act in concert, and sacrifice private to public advantage — National liberty — High moral and intellectual qualities necessary for its attainment — Illustrations of the foregoing principles from history- -Republics of North and South America contrasted — The Swiss and Dutch — Failure of the attempt to intro- duce a free constitution into Sicily. 288-303 LECTURE XVII. DIFFERENT FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. Despotism ; the best form of government in a rude state of society — Mixed form of government — Interests of the many sacrificed under despotic and oligarchical governments, to those of the few — Bad effects of hereditary artificial rank in its existing shape — Rational pride of ancestry, and true Xli CONTENTS. nobility of nature— Arguments in favour of hereditary rank considered: (1.) That it presents objects of respect to the people, and accustoms them to deference and obedience ; (2.) That it establishes a refined and polished class, who, by their example, improve the multitude ; (3.) That there is a natural and universal admiration of it, proving it to be beneficial — Bad effects of entails, and of exclusive privi- leges and distinctions enjoyed by individuals or classes — Forcible abolition of hereditary nobility, entails, and mono- polies reprobated — Political aspect of the United States — Tendency of the mixed form cf government to unfairly promote the interests of the dominant class — This exem- plified in the laws of Britain, particularly those relating to the militia and the impressment of seamen — Democratic form of government — Adapted only to a state of society in which morality and intelligence have made great and general advancement — Greek and Roman republics no exception — Character of these republics — Small Italian republics of the middle ages — Swiss republics, particularly that of Bern — Democracy in the United States— No probability that the present civilized countries of Europe will ever become barbarous — Or that the United States will fall asunder or lose their freedom — Tendency of governments to become more democratic, in proportion as the people become more intelligent and moral— Groundless fears that ignorant mass- es of the people will gain the ascendency. 303-325 LECTURE XVIII. RELIGIOUS DUTIES OF MAN. Consideration of man's duties to God, so far as discoverable by the light of nature — Natural theology a branch of natural philosophy — Not superseded by revelation — Brown, Stew- art, and Chalmers quoted — Natural theology a guide to the sound interpretation of scripture — Foundation of natural religion in the faculties of man — Distinction between morals and religion — The Bible does not create the religious feel- ings, but is fitted only to enlighten, enliven, and direct them — Illustration of this view— Stability of religion, even amid the downfall of churches and creeds — Moral and religious duties prescribed to man by natural theology — Prevalent erroneous views of divine worship-Natural evidence of God's existence and attributes— Man's ignorance the cause of the past bar- renness and obscurity of natural religion— Importance of the Book of Creation as a revelation of the Divine Will. 326-344 LECTURE XIX. RELIGIOUS DUTIES OF MAN. 344-354 LECTURE XX. objections answered, 354-364 Appendix. 365-372 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. LECTURE I. ON THE FOUNDATION OF MORAL SCIENCE. Questions distinct, What actions are virtuous ? and what con- stitutes them such ? — Answer to the farmer comparatively easy — Human constitution indicates certain courses of action to be right— Necessity for studying that constitution and its relations, in order to ascertain what renders an action virtuous or vicious— Conflicting opinions of philosophers on the moral constitution of man — Phrenology assumed as a valuable guide — Possibility of the existence of Moral Philo- sophy as a natural science — No faculty essentially evil, though liable to be abused — Deductions of well-constituted and well-informed minds to be relied on in moral science — Scripture not intended as an all-sufficient guide of conduct — Faculties revealed by Phrenology, and illustrations of their uses and abuses — Adaptation of human constitution to ex • ternal nature — The objects of Moral Philosophy are, to trace the nature and legitimate sphere of action of our faculties and their external relations, with the conviction, that to use them properly is virtue, to abuse them, vice — Cause of its barren condition as a science — Bishop Butler's view of the supremacy of conscience acceded to — Those actions virtu- ous which accord with the dictates of the moral sentiments and intellect — Preceding theories imperfect, though partially correct — Cause of this imperfection ; qualities of actions are discovered by the intellect, and the moral sentiments then decide whether they are right or wrong — Plan of the pre- sent course of lectures. In an introductory discourse on Moral Philosophy, the lecturer unfortunately has few attractions to offer. His proper duty is, not to descant in glowing terms on the dig- nity of moral investigations, and on the extreme importance of sound ethical conclusions both to public and to private happiness ; but to give an account of the state in which his science at present exists, and of what he means to teach in his subsequent prelections. No subject can be conceived more destitute of direct attraction. I must beg your indul- gence, therefore, for the dryness of the details and the abstractness of the argument in this lecture. I make these 3 26 THE FOUNDATION OP observations that you may not feel discouraged by an appearance of difficulty in the commencement. I shall use every effort to render the subject intelligible, and I promise you that the subsequent discourses shall be more practical and less abstruse than the present. Our first inquiry is into the basis of morals regarded as a science ; that is, into the natural foundations of moral obligation. There are two questions — very similar in terms, but widely different in substance — which we must carefully distinguish. The one is, What actions are virtuous ] and the other, What constitutes them virtuous 1 The answer to the first question, fortunately, is not difficult. Most in- dividuals agree that it is virtuous to love our neighbour, to reward a benefactor, to discharge our proper obligations, to love God, and so forth ; and that the opposite actions are vicious. But when the second question is put — Why is an action virtuous — why is it virtuous to love our neighbour, or to manifest gratitude or piety 7 ? the most contradictory answers are given by philosophers. The discovery of what constitutes virtue is a fundamental point in moral philosophy ; and hence the difficulties of the subject meet us at the very threshold of our inquiries. It appears to me, that man nas received a definite bodily and mental constitution, which clearly points to certain objects as excellent, to others as proper, and to others as beneficial to him ; and that endeavours to attain these ob- jects are prescribed to him as duties by the law written in his constitution ; while, on the other hand, whatever tends to defeat their attainment is forbidden. The web-foot of the duck, for instance, clearly bespeaks the Creator's inten- tion that this creature should swim ; and He has given it an internal impulse which prompts it to act accordingly. The human constitution indicates various courses of action to be designed for man, as clearly as the web-foot indicates the water to be a sphere of the duck's activity ; but man has not received, like the duck, instincts calculated to prompt him, unerringly, to act in accordance with the adaptations of his constitution : — He is, however, endowed with rea- son, qualifying him to discover both the adaptations them- selves, and the consequences of acting in conformity with, or in opposition to, them : Hence, in order to determine, by the light of reason, what constitutes an action virtuous MORAL SCIENCE. 27 or vicious, he must become acquainted with his bodily and mental constitution, and its relations. Hitherto this know- ledge has been very deficient. Philosophers have never been agreed about the existence or non-existence even of the most important mental facul- ties and emotions in man — such as benevolence, and the sentiment of justice ; and being uncertain whether such emotions exist or not, they have had no stable ground from which to start in their inquiries into the foundations of virtue. Accordingly, since the publication of the writings of Hobbes, in the 1 7th century, there has been a constant series of disputes among philosophers on this subject. Hobbes taught that the laws which the civil magistrate enjoins are the ultimate standards of morality. Cud worth endeavoured to show that the origin of our notions of right and wrong is to be found in a particular faculty of the mind which distinguishes truth from falsehood. Mandeville declares that the moral virtues are mere sacrifices of self- interest made for the sake of public approbation, and calls virtue the "political offspring which flattery begot upon pride." Dr. Clarke supposes virtue to consist in acting according to the fitnesses of things. Mr. Hume endea- voured to prove that " utility is the constituent or measure of virtue." Dr. Hutcheson maintains that it originates in the dictates of a moral sense. Dr. Paley does not admit sucn a faculty, but declares virtue to consist " in doing good to mankind in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness." Dr. Adam Smith endeavours to. show that sympathy is the source of moral approbation. Dr. Reid, Mr. Stewart, and Dr. Thomas Brown, maintain the existence of a moral faculty. Sir James Mackintosh describes conscience to be compounded and made up of associations. Dr. Ralph Wardlaw, of Glasgow, in a work on Ethics, published in 1834, can see nothing in Conscience except Judgment. Here, then, we discover the most extraordinary conflict of opinion prevailing concerning the foundation of virtue. But this does not terminate the points of dispute among philosophers in regard to moral science. Its very existence, nay, the very possibility of its existence, as a philosophical study, is called in question. Dr. Wardlaw says, " Suppose that a chemist were desirous to ascertain the ingredients pf water. What estimate should we form of his judgment, *8 THE FOUNDATION OF if, with this view, he were to subject to his analysis a quantity of what had just passed in the bed of a sluggish river, through the midst of a large manufacturing city, from whose common sewers, and other outlets of impurity, it had received every possible contamination which, either by simple admixture or by chemical affinity, had become incor- porated with the virgin purity of the fountain ; and if, proceeding on such analysis, he were to publish to the world his thesis on the composition of water 1 Little less prepos- terous must be the conduct of those philosophers who derive their ideas of what constitutes rectitude in morals from human nature as it is. They analyze the water of the polluted river, and refuse the guide that would conduct them to the mountain spring of its native purity." — {Chris- tian Ethics, p. 44.) In these remarks Dr. Wardlaw evidently denies the possibility of discovering, in the constitution of the human mind, a foundation for a sound system of Ethics. He supports his denial still more strongly in the following words : " According to Bishop Butler's theory, human nature is ' adapted to virtue ' as evidently as * a watch is adapted to measure time? But suppose the watch, by the perverse interference of some lover of mischief, to have been so thoroughly disorganized— its moving and its subor- dinate parts and power so changed in their collocation and their mutual action, that the result has become a constant tendency to go backward instead of forward, or to go back- ward and forward with irregular, fitful, ever-shifting alterna- tion — so as to require a complete remodelling, and especially a readjustment of its great moving power, to render it fit for its original purpose ; would not this be a more appropriate analogy for representing the present character of fallen man ] The whole machine is out of order. The mainspring has been broken ; and an antagonist power works all the parts of the mechanism. It is far from being with human nature as Butler, by the similitude of the watch, might lead his readers to suppose. The watch, when duly adjusted, is only, in his phrase, ' liable to be out of order.' This might 6uit for an illustration of the state of human nature at first, when it received its constitution from its Maker. But it has lost its appropriateness now. That nature, alas ! is not now a machine that is merely ' apt to go out of order ;' it is out of order ; so radically disorganized, that the grand MORAL SCIENCE. 29 original power which impelled all its movements has been broken and lost, and an unnatural power, the very opposite of it, has taken its place ; so that it cannot be restored to the original harmony of its working, except by the interpo- sition of the omnipotence that framed it." (P. 126.) The ideas here expressed by Dr. Wardlaw, are enter- tained, with fewer or more modifications, by large classes of highly respectable men, belonging to different religious denominations. How, then, amid all this conflict of opinion as to the foundations, and even possibility of the existence, of moral science, is any approach to certainty to be attained 1 I have announced that this course of lectures will be founded on phrenology. I intend it for those hearers who have paid some attention to this science ; who have seen reasonable evidence that the brain consists of a congeries of organs — that each organ manifests a particular mental faculty — and that, other conditions being equal, the power of manifesting each faculty bears a proportion to the size of its organs. To those individuals who have not seen sufficient evidence of the truth of these positions, I fear that I have little that can be satisfactory to offer. To them, I shall appear to stand in a condition of helplessness equal to that of all my predecessors whose conflicting opinions I have cited. These eminent men have drawn their conclu- sions, each from his individual consciousness, or from ob- serving human actions, without having the means of arriving at a knowledge of the fundamental faculties of the mind itself. They have, as it were, seen men commit gluttony and drunkenness ; and, in ignorance of the functions of the stomach, have set down these vices as original tendencies of human nature, instead of viewing them as abuses merely of an indispensable appetite. Without phrenology I should find no resting-place for the soles of my feet ; and I at once declare, that, without its aid, I should as soon have attempt- ed to discover the perpetual motion, as to throw any light, by the aid of reason alone, on the foundations of moral science. The ground of this opinion, I have already stated. Unless we are agreed concerning what the natural consti- tution of the mind is, we have no means of judging of the duties which that constitution prescribes. Once for all, therefore, I beg permission to assume the great principles and leading doctrines of phrenology to be true ; and I 3* 30 THE FOUNDATION OF shall row proceed to show you in what manner I apply them to unravel the Gordian knot of Ethics, which at present appears so straitly drawn and so deeply entangled. I do not despair of revealing to your understandings principles and relations, resembling, in their order, beauty, and wis- dom, the works of the Deity in other departments of nature. First, then, in regard to the possibility of moral philoso- phy existing as a natural science. Dr. Wardlaw speaks of the human mind as of a watch that has the tendency to go backward, or fitfully backward and forward ; as having its mainspring broken ; and as having all the parts of the mechanism worked by an antagonist power. This descrip- tion might appear to be sound to persons who, without great analytic powers of mind, resorted to no standard ex- cept the dark pages of history, by which to test its truth : but the Phrenologist appeals at once to the brain, which is the organ of the mental faculties. Assuming that it is the organ of the mind, I ask, Who created it 1 Who endowed it with its functions 1 Only one answer can be given — It was God. When, therefore, we study the mental organs and their functions, we go directly to the fountain-head of true knowledge regarding the natural qualities of the hu- man mind. Whatever we shall ascertain to be written in them, is doctrine imprinted by the finger of God himself. If we are certain that those organs were constituted by the Creator, we may rest assured that they have all a legitimate sphere of action. Our first step is to discover this sphere, and to draw a broad line of distinction between it and the sphere of their abuses ; and here the superiority of our method over that of philosophers who studied only their own consciousness and the actions of men, becomes appa- rent. They confounded abuses with uses ; and because man is liable to abuse his faculties, they drew the conclu- sion, prematurely and unwarrantably, that his whole nature is in itself evil. Individual men may err in attempting to discover the functions and legitimate spheres of action of the mental organs, and dispute about the conclusions thence to be drawn ; but this imputes no spuriousness to the or- gans themselves, and casts no suspicion on the principle that they must have legitimate modes of manifestation. There they stand ; and they are as undoubtedly the work- manship of the Creator, as the sun, the planets, or the entire universe itself. Error may be corrected by more MORAL SCIEXCE. 31 accurate observations ; and whenever we interpret the con- stitution aright, we shall assuredly be in possession of di- vine truth. Dr. Wardlaw might as reasonably urge the disorder of human nature as an argument against the possibility of studying the science of optics, as against that of cultivating ethical philosophy. Optics is founded on the structure, func- tions, and relations of the eye ; and ethics on the structure, functions, and relations of the mental organs. Against optics he might argue thus : — " The eye is no longer such as it was when it proceeded from the hands of the Crea- tor ; it is now liable to blindness ; or if, in some more fa- voured individuals, the disorder of its condition does not proceed so far as to produce this dire effect, yet universal experience proves that human nature now labours under opaque eyes, squinting eyes, long-sighted eyes, and short- sighted eyes ; and that many individuals have only one eye. The external world also is no longer what it origi- nally was. There are mists which obscure the rays of light, clouds which intercept them, air and water which refract them ; and almost every object in creation reflects them. Look at a straight rod half plunged into water, and you will see it crooked. Can a science founded on such organs, which operate in such a medium, and are related to such objects, be admitted into the class of ascertained truths, by which men are to regulate their conduct 1" He might con- tinue, u Astronomy, with all its pompous revelations of countless suns, attended by innumerable worlds rolling . through space, must also be laid in the dust, and become a fallen monument of human pride and mental delusion. It is the offspring of this spurious science of optics. It pre- tends to record discoveries effected in infinite space by means of these perverted human eyes, acting through the dense and refracting damps of midnight air. Away with such gross impositions on the human understanding ! Away with all human science, falsely so called !" There would be as much truth in an argument like this, as in that urged by Dr. Wardlaw against moral philosophy, founded on the study of nature. The answer to these objections against optics as a science, is, that the constitu- tion, functions, and relations of the eye have been appointed by the Creator ; that, although some unsound eyes exist, yet we have received judgment to enable us to discriminate 32 THE FOUNDATION OF between sound eyes, and diseased or imperfect eyes. Again, we admit that mists occasionally present themselves ; but we ascertain the laws of light by observations made at times when these are absent. Certain media also unquestionably refract the luminous rays ; but they do so regularly, and their effects can be ascertained and allowed for. When, therefore, we observe objects by means of sound eyes, and use them in the most favourable circumstances, the know- ledge which we derive from them is worthy of our acceptance as truth. The parallel holds good, in regard to the mind, to a much greater extent than many persons probably imagine. The Creator has fashioned all the organs of the human mind, conferred on them their functions, and appointed to them their relations. We meet with some individuals, in whom the organs of the selfish propensities are too large, and the moral organs deficient : these are the morally blind. We eee individuals who, with moderate organs of the propensi- ties, have received large organs of Benevolence and Ve- neration, but deficient organs of Conscientiousness : these have a moral squint. But we meet also with innumerable persons in whom the organs of the propensities are moderate, and the moral and intellectual organs well developed ; who thereby enjoy the natural elements of a sound moral vision ; and who need only culture and information to lead them to moral truths, as sound, certain, and applicable to practice, as the conclusions of the optician himself. Revelation necessarily supposes in man a capacity of comprehending and profiting by its communications ; and Dr. Wardlaw's argument appears to me to strike as directly at the root of man's capacity to understand and interpret Scripture, as to understand and interpret the works and natural institutions of the Creator. Dr. Wardlaw, we have seen, discards natural ethics entirely, and insists that Scripture is our only guide in morals. Archbishop Whately, on the other hand, who is not less eminent as a theologian and certainly more distin- guished as a philosopher than Dr. Wardlaw, assures us that • 4 God has not revealed to us a system of morality such as would have been needed for a being who had no other means of distinguishing right and wrong. On the contrary, the inculcation of virtue and reprobation of vice in Scripture, gre jn such a tone as seem to presuppose a natural powex, MORAL SCIENCE. 33 or a capacity for acquiring the power to distinguish them. And if a man, denying or renouncing all claims of natural conscience, should practise, without scruple, everything he did not find expressly forbidden in Scripture, and think himself not bound to do anything that is not there expressly enjoined, exclaiming at every turn — ' Is it so nominated in the bond V he would be leading a life very unlike what a Christian's should be." In my humble opinion, it is only an erroneous view of human nature, on the one side or the other, that can lead to such contradictory opinions as these. I agree with Archbishop Whately. By observing the organs of the mind, then, and the men- tal powers connected with them, phrenologists perceive that three great classes of faculties have been bestowed on man. 1. Animal Propensities. 2. Moral Sentiments. 3. Intellectual Faculties. Considering these in detail, as I have done in my previous courses, and in my System of Phrenology, and as I now assume that all of you have done, we do not find one of them that man has made, or could have made, himself. Man can create nothing. Can we fashion for ourselves a new sense, or add a new organ, a third eye for instance, to those we already possess ] Impossible. All those organs, therefore, are the gifts of the Creator ; and in speaking of them as such, I am bound to treat them with the same reverence that should be paid to any of his other works. Where, then, I ask, do we, in contemplating the organs, find the evidence of the mainspring being broken % Where do we find the antagonist power, which works all the mechanism contrary to the original design 1 Has it an organ 1 I cannot answer these questions : I am unable to discover either the broken mainspring, or an organ for the antagonist power. I see, and feel — as who does not 1 — the crimes, the errors, the miseries of human beings, to which Dr. Wardlaw refers as proofs of the disorder of which he speaks ; but phrenology gives a widely different account of their origin. We observe, for example, that individual men commit murder or blasphemy, and we all acknowledge that this is in opposition to virtue ; but we do not find an 34 THE FOUNDATION OF organ of murder, or an organ whose office it is to antagonize all the moral faculties, and to commit blasphemy. We perceive that men are guilty of gluttony and drunkenness ; but we nowhere find organs instituted whose function is to commit these immoralities. All that we discover is, that man has been created an organized being ; that, as such, he needs food for nourishment ; that, in conformity with this constitution, he has received a stomach calculated to digest the flesh of animals and to convert it into aliment ; and that he sometimes abuses the functions of the stomach : and when he does so, we call this abuse gluttony and drunkenness. We observe farther, that in aid of his sto- mach, he has received carnivorous teeth ; and in order to complete the system of arrangements, he has received a propensity having a specific organ, prompting him to kill animals that he may eat them. In accordance with these endowments, animals to be killed and eaten are presented to him in abundance by the Creator. A man may abuse this propensity and kill animals for the pleasure of putting them to death — this is cruelty ; or he may go a step farther —he may wantonly, under the instigation of the same propensity, kill his fellow-men, and this is murder. But this is a widely different view of human nature from that which supposes it to be endowed with positively vicious and perverse propensities — with machinery having a tendency only to go backward, or to go alternately and fitfully back- ward and forward. Those individuals, then, who commit murder, abuse their faculty of Destructiveness by directing it against their fellow-men. We have evidence of this fact : The organ is found large in those who have a tendency so to abuse it, and in them, in general, the moral organs are deficient. Again, it is unquestionable that men steal, cheat, lie, blaspheme, and commit many other crimes ; but we in vain look in the brain for organs destined to perpetrate these offences, or for an organ of a power antagonist to virtue, and whose proper office is to commit crimes in general. We discover organs of Acquisitiveness, which have legiti- mate objects, but which, being abused, lead to theft ; organs of Secretiveness, which have a highly useful sphere of ac- tivity, but which, in like manner, when abused, lead to falsehood and deceit ; and so with other organs. These organs, I repeat, are the direct gifts of the Creator \ MO&AL SCIENCE. 3d and if the mere fact of their existence be not sufficient evidence of this proposition, we may find overwhelming proof in its favour by studying their relations to external nature. Those who deny that the human mind is constitu- tionally the same now as it was when it emanated from the hand of the Creator, generally admit that external nature at least is the direct workmanship of the Deity. They do not say that man, in corrupting his own dispositions, altered the whole fabric of the universe — that he infused into animals new instincts, or imposed on the vegetable kingdom a new constitution and different laws. They admit that God created all these such as they exist. Now, in survey- ing vegetable organization, we perceive production from an embryo — sustenance by food — growth, maturity, decay, and death — woven into the very fabric of their existence. In surveying the animal creation, we discover the same phenomena and the same results : and on turning to our- selves, we find that we too are organized, that we assimilate food, that we grow, that we attain maturity, and that our bodies die. Here, then, there is an institution by the Crea- tor, of great systems (vegetable and animal) of production, growth, decay, and death. It will not be doubted that these institutions owe their existence to the Divine will. If it be asserted that men's delinquencies offended the Deity, and brought his wrath on the offenders ; and that the present constitution of the world is the consequence of that displeasure ; philosophy offers no answer to this pro- position. She does riot inquire into the motives which in- duced the Creator to constitute the world, physical and mental, such as we see it ; but, in pointing to the existence and constitution of vegetables, of animals, and of man, she respectfully maintains that all these God did constitute and endow with their properties and relationships ; and that in studying them we are investigating his genuine workmanship. Now, if we find on the one hand a system of decay and death in external nature, animate and inanimate, we find also in man a faculty of Destructiveness which is pleased with destruction, and which places him in harmony with that order of creation : if we find on the one hand an external world, in which there exist — fire calculated to destroy life by burn- ing, water by drowning, and cold by freezing — ponderous and moving bodies capable of injuring us by blows, and a great power of gravitation exposing us to danger by falling; 36 THE FOUNDATION OF we discover also, in surveying our own mental constitution, a faculty of Cautiousness, whose office it is to prompt us to take care, and to avoid these sources of danger. Tn other words, we see an external economy admirably adapted to our internal economy ; and hence we receive an irresistible con- viction that the one of these arrangements had been design- edly framed in relation to the other. External destruction is related to our internal faculty of Destructiveness ; exter- nal danger to our internal faculty of Cautiousness. I have frequently remarked that one of the most striking proofs of the existence of a Deity, appears to me to be obtained by surveying the roots of a tree, and its relationship to the earth. These are admirably adapted ; and my argu- ment is this : — The earth is a body which knows neither its own existence nor the existence of the tree : the tree, also, knows neither its own qualities nor those of the earth. Yet the adaptation of the one to the other is a real and useful relation, which we, as intelligent beings, see and comprehend. That adaptation could not exist, unless a mind had conceived, executed, and established it ; the mind that did so is not of this world ; therefore, a Deity who is that mind, exists, and every time we look on this adaptation we see His power and wisdom directly revealed to us. The same argument applies, and with equal force, to the mental faculties and external nature. We see natural objects threatening us with danger, and we find in ourselves a faculty prompting us to take care of our own safety. This adaptation is assuredly divine ; but you will observe that if the adaptation be divine f the things adapted must also be divine : the external world threatening danger must have been deliberately constituted such as it is ; and the human mind must have been delibe- rately constituted such as it is ; otherwise this adaptation could not exist. Again, we find that the human body needs both food and raiment, and on surveying the external world we discover that in a great portion of the earth there are winter's barren frosts and snows. But in examining the human mind, we find a faculty of Construetiveness, prompting and enabling us to fabricate clothing ; and Acquisitiveness, prompting us to acquire and store up articles fitted for our sustenance and accommodation, so as to place us in comfort when the chill winds blow and the ground yields us no support. We dis- cover also, that nature presents us with numberless law MORAL SCIENCE. 37 materials, fitted to be worked up, by means of our faculties, into the -very commodities of which our bodies stand in need. All these gifts and arrangements, I repeat, are assuredly of divine institution ; and divine wisdom, goodness, and power, are conspicuously displayed in them ail. But you will ob- serve that individual men, by abusing the faculty of Con- structiveness, oftentimes commit forgeries, pick locks, and perpetrate other crimes ; and that by abusing Acquisitive- ness they steal. Here, then, is a wide difference between Dr. Wardlaw's views and mine, in regard to human nature. His broken mainspring and antagonist power are nowhere to be met with in all the records of philosophy ; while the crimes which he ascribes to it are accounted for by abuses of organs clearly- instituted by the Creator, having legitimate spheres of action, and wisely adapted to a world obviously arranged by Him in relation to them. Dr. Wardlaw appears to have studied human nature chiefly in the actions of men, and he has not distinguished between the faculties bestowed by the Creator, and the abuses of them, for which individual delinquents alone are answerable. If these views be well founded, moral philosophy, as a scientific study, becomes not only possible, but exceedingly interesting and profitable. Its objects are evidently to trace the nature and legitimate sphere of action of all our facul- ties, and their relation to the external world, with the con- viction that to use them properly is virtue, to abuse them is vice. These principles, if sound, enable us to account for the barren condition of moral philosophy, as a science. The numerous errors, the confusion and contradiction of previous moralists, are to be ascribed to their having no stable philosophy of mind. They possessed no knowledge of the organs of the mind, and no sufficient means of discriminating between what was natural and what incidental in human conduct. Sir James Mackintosh remarks, that " there must be primary pleasures, pains, and even appetites, which arise from no prior state of mind, and which, if explained at all, can be derived only from bodily organization ; for," says he, " if there were not, there could be no secondary desires. "What the number of the underived principles may be, is a question to which the answers of philosophers have been 4 38 TH2 FOUNDATION OF extremely various, and of which the consideration is not necessary to our present purpose. The rules of philosophi- zing, however, require that causes should not be multiplied without necessity." With all deference to Sir James Mackintosh's authority, I conceive that the determination of u the number of the underived principles " of mind, is the first step in all sound mental science, and especially in ethics ; and when he ad- mits that these " can be derived only from bodily organi- zation," it is unphilosophical in him to add, " that the rules of philosophizing require that causes should not be multiplied without necessity." Who would think of at- tempting either to multiply or diminish senses, feelings, or intellectual powers depending on " bodily organization,'' unless he could multiply and diminish, make and unmake, corresponding bodily organs at the same time 1 In my System of Phrenology I have presented you with a view of the underived faculties of mind, connected with specific organs, in so far as these have been ascertained ; I have endeavoured to point out the sphere of action of each, and to explain the effects of size in the organs on the power of manifesting the faculties. These points being assumed, an intelligible foundation is laid for ethical science. Bearing in mind the three great divisions of the human faculties into Animal Propensities, Moral Sentiments, and Intellectual Powers, let us attend to Bishop Butler's expo- sition of the groundwork of moral philosophy. Bishop Butler, in the preface to his Sermons, says, " It is from considering the relations which the several appetites and passions in the inward frame have to each other, and, above all, the supremacy of reflection or conscience, that we get the idea of the system or constitution of human nature. And from the idea itself it will as fully appear, that this our nature, i. e., constitution, is adapted to virtue, as from the idea of a watch it appears that its nature, i. e., constitution or system, is adapted to measure time. " Mankind has various instincts and principles of action, as brute creatures have ; some leading most directly and immediately to the good of the community, and some most directly to private good. " Man has several which brutes have not ; particularly reflection or conscience, an approbation of some principles or actions, and disapprobation of others. MORAL SCIENCE. 39 " Brutes obey their instincts or principles of action ac- cording to certain rules ; suppose the constitution of their body, and the objects around them. " The generality of mankind also obey their instincts and principles, one and all of them ; those propensions we call good, as well as the bad, according to the same rules, namely, the constitution of their body, and the external cir- cumstances which they are in. " Brutes, in acting according to the rules before-men- tioned, their bodily constitution and circumstances, act suitably to their whole nature. " Mankind also, in acting thus, would act suitably to their whole nature, if no more were to be said of man's nature than what has been now said ; if that, as it is a true, were also a complete, adequate account of our nature. " But that is not a complete account of man's nature. Somewhat farther must be brought in to give us an ade- quate notion of it ; namely, that one of those principles of action, conscience, or reflection, compared with the rest, as they all stand together in the nature of man, plainly bears upon it marks of authority over all the rest, and claims the absolute direction of them all, to allow or forbid their grati- fication : a disapprobation of reflection being in itself a prin- ciple manifestly superior to a mere propension. And the conclusion is, that to allow no more to this superior princi- ple or part of our nature, than to other parts ; to let it govern and guide only occasionally in common with the rest, as its turn happens to come, from the temper and circum- stances one happens to be in ; this is not to act conformably to the constitution of man ; neither can any human creature be said to act conformably to his constitution of nature, unless he allows to that superior principle the absolute authority which is due to it." — (Butler's Works, vol. ii. Preface.) I agree with Butler in thinking that certain of our fa- culties are intended to rule, and others to obey ; and that the belief that it is so, is intuitive in well-constituted minds. According to phrenology, the intellectual faculties per- ceive objects that exist, with their qualities, phenomena, and relations ; but they do not feel specific emotions. The organs of intellect lie in the ( anterior lobe of the brain. In the coronal region there are organs which manifest emotions or feelings, called the moral sentiments, viz., Benevolence, 40 THE FOUNDATION OF Veneration^ and Conscientiousness. The power in any in- dividual of experiencing each of these emotions bears a rela- tion to the size of its own organs. These emotions are felt to have a commanding authority conferred on them, so that whatever actions they denounce as disagreeable to them, are felt to be wrong, and whatever actions they feel to be agreeable, are pronounced to be right ; and we can give no other account of this order of our nature, except that it has pleased God so to constitute us. In applying these principles to our present subject, I ob- serve that the organ of Philoprogenitiveness, for example, exists, and that its function is to produce the love of chil- dren. This love carried into action may produce a variety of effects. It may prompt us to gratify every desire of the child, however fantastic, if the indulgence will give it plea- sure for a moment ; but when the intellect is employed to trace the consequences of this gratification, and sees that it is injurious to the health, the temper, the moral dispositions, and the general happiness of the infant, then Benevolence disapproves of that mode of treatment, because it leads to suffering, which Benevolence dislikes ; Conscientiousness disapproves of it, because it is unjust to the child to misdi- rect its inclinations through ignorant fondness ; and Vene- ration is offended by it, because our duty to God requires that we should improve all his gifts to the best advantage, and not prepare an infant for crime and misery, by culti- vating habits of reckless self-indulgence, regardless of all ultimate results. If, in any individual mother, Philoproge- nitiveness exists very large, in combination with weak organs of the moral sentiments and intellect, she may abuse this beautiful instinct by pampering and spoiling her children ; but it is an error to charge the conduct of an ill-constituted, and perhaps an ill-informed individual mind, against human nature in general, as if all its faculties were so perverted that they could manifest themselves only in abuses. My object will be to expound the courses of action to which we are prompted by all our faculties, and to subject them to the review of the intellect and moral sentiments acting in com- bination ; and I shall admit all actions to be virtuous or right which are approved of by these combined powers, and treat all as vicious or wrong which are disavowed by them ; and my doctrine is, that it is accordance with, the dictates of these combined facalties which constitutes certain actions MORAL SCIENCE. 41 virtuous, and discordance with them which constitutes other actions vicious. We are now able to understand the origin of the various theories of the foundation of virtue to which I alluded at the commencement of this lecture, and which have been the themes of so much discussion among philosophers. Most of the authors whom I have quoted recognise one of these three great foundations of virtue : According to them, 1st, All actions are virtuous which tend to promote th^ hap- piness of sentient and intelligent beings, and they are virtuous because they possess this tendency ; 2dly, All actions are virtuous which are conformable to the will of God, and they are so for this reason, and no other ; 3dly, All actions are virtuous which are in conformity with the dictates of our moral sense or moral faculty, which con- formity is the sole characteristic of virtue. The partisans of each of these foundations of virtue have denied the reality or sufficiency of the other foundations. These dif- ferences of opinion may be thus accounted for. The sentiment of Benevolence desires universal happi- ness, or the general good of all beings. When we wantonly sacrifice the happiness of any being, it is pained, and pro- duces uneasy emotions in our minds. Those philosophers who place the foundation of virtue in the tendency of the action judged of, to produce happiness, are right, in so far, because this is one foundation, but they are wrong in so far as they teach that it is the only foundation of virtue. In Tike manner the organ of Veneration desires to yield obedience to the will God, and it experiences painful emo- tions when we knowingly contravene its dictates. Those philosophers who place the essence of virtue in obedience to the will of God, are sound in their judgment, in so far as this is one essential foundation of virtue, but they err in so far as they represent it to be the only one. And, thirdly, Conscientiousness produces the feelings of duty, obligation, and incumbency. It desires to do justice in all things. It enforces the dictates of our other moral faculties. Benevolence, for instance, from its own consti- tution, desires to communicate happiness, and Conscien- tiousness enforces its dictates by proclaiming that it is our duty to act in conformity with them. It causes us to feel that we are guilty or criminal if we wantonly destroy or impair the enjoyment of anv being. It enforces also the 4* 42 THE FOUNDATION OF aspirations of Veneration, and tells us that we are guilty if we disobey the will of God. Farther, its own special function is to enforce justice, when our own rights or feel- ings, and those of other men, come into competition. Those philosophers who founded virtue in a moral sense, were right in so far as this faculty is one most important founda- tion of virtue ; but it is not the only one. Eich of the moral sentiments produces the feeling of right and wrong in its own sphere ; Benevolence proclaims cruelty to be wrong, and Veneration condemns profanity : But each is liable to err when it acts singly. There are men, for example, in whom Benevolence is very strong, and Conscientiousness very weak, and who, following the dic- tates of the former, without reference to those of the latter sentiment, often perpetrate great wrongs by indulging in an extravagant generosity at the expense of others. They are generous before they are just. Charles Surface, in the School for Scandal, is the personification of such a cha- racter. Veneration acting singly, is liable to sanction superstitious observances ; or acting in combination with Destructiveness, without Benevolence and Conscientious- ness, it may approve of cruel persecution for the sake of preserving the purity of the faith which it has embraced. I consider the virtue of an action to consist in its being in harmony with the dictates of enlightened intellect and of all the moral faculties acting in combination. The moral faculties often do act singly, and while they keep within the limits of their virtuous sphere, the dictates of all of them harmonize. We have a similar example in music. Melody and time both enter into the constitution of music, but we may have time without melody, as in beat- ing a drum ; or melody without time, as in the sounds of an JEolian harp. But the two faculties which take cognizance of melody and time are constituted so as to be capable of acting in harmony, when they are both applied to the same object. So it is in regard to the moral sentiments. If a man fall into the sea, another individual, having a large or- gan of Benevolence, and who can swim, may be prompted, by the instinctive impulse of benevolence, instantly to leap into the water and save him ; without, in the least, think- ing of the will of God, or the obligations of duty. But when we calmly contemplate the action, we perceive it to be one falling without the legitimate sphere of Benevolence. MORAL SCIENCE. 43 It is approved of by enlightened intellect, and is also con- formable at once to the divine will, and to the dictates of Conscientiousness. In like manner every action that is truly conformable to the will of God, or agreeable to Vene- ration, when acting within its proper sphere, will be found just and beneficial in its consequences, or in harmony also with Conscientiousness and Benevolence. And every just and right action will be discovered to be beneficial in its consequences, and also in harmony with the will of God. When one of these faculties acts independently of the other, it does not necessarily err, but it is more liable to do so, than when all operate in concert. This is the reason that any theory of morals, founded on only one of them, is generally imperfect or unsound. The idea of resolving morality into intellectual percep- tions of utility, into obedience to the will of God, or into any other single principle, has arisen, probably, from the or- gan of the mental faculty on which that one principle depends having been largest in the brain of the author of the theory, in consequence of which he felt most strongly the particu- lar emotion which he selected as its foundation. Those individuals, again, who deny that there is any natural basis for moral science, and who regard the Bible as the only foundation of moral and religious duty, are generally defi- cient in the organs either of Conscientiousness or Benevo- lence ; or of both ; and because they feebly experience the dictates of a natural conscience, they draw the inference that it is the same with all mankind. Another question remains — What means do we possess for discovering the qualities of actions, so that our mora? faculties may give emotions of approval or disapproval upon sound data \ For example — Veneration disposes us to obey the will of God, but how shall we discover what the will of God is ? It is the office of the intellect to do so. For instance — A young lady from England had been taught from her infancy that God had commanded her to keep Good Friday holy, and sacred to religious duties. When she came to Scotland for the first time, and saw no sanctity at- tached to that day, her Veneration was disagreeably affect- ed ; and if she also had treated the day with indifference, her conscience would have upbraided her. In a few weeks afterward, the half-yearly fast day of the church of Scot- land came round, and she felt no sanctity whatever to be attached to it ; her intellect had never been informed that 44 THE FOUNDATION OF either God or the church had appointed that day to be held sacred ; she desired to follow her usual occupations, and was astonished at the rigid sanctity with which the day was kept by the Scots. Here the intellect gave the information, and Veneration acted according to its lights. The intellect must be employed, therefore, to discover all the motives, relations, and consequences of the actions to be judged of, and the moral sentiments will give emotions of approval or disapproval, according to their aspect thus presented to them. In many ordinary cases no difficulty in judging occurs ; for instance, the mere perception of a fel- low-creature struggling in the water is sufficient to rouse Benevolence, and to inspire us with the desire to save him. But when the question is put, Is an hospital for foundling children benevolent 1 — if we look only at one result, (saving the lives of individual children,) we would say that it is ; but if the intellect observe all the consequences ; for in- stance, first, the temptation to vice afforded by provision being made for illegitimate children ; secondly, the mortality of the infants, which is enormous, from their being with- drawn from maternal care and intrusted to mere hireling keepers ; thirdly, the isolation of the children, so reared, from all kindred relationship with the rest of the race ; and, fourthly, the expense which is thrown away in this very questionable arrangement : I say, after the intellect has dis- covered and contemplated all these facts and results, the sentiment of Benevolence would not be gratified with found- ling hospitals, but would desire to apply the funds dedicated to them to more purely beneficent institutions. Without intellect, therefore, the sentiments have not knowledge ; and without moral sentiments, the intellect sees merely facts and results, but feels no emotions. If, then, this theory of our moral constitution be well founded, it explains the darkness and confusion of the opinions entertained by previous philosophers on the subject. Dr. Wardlaw's antagonist power is merely the animal pro- pensities acting with undue energy, and breaking the bounds prescribed to them by the moral sentiments and intellect. They will be most liable to do this, in those individuals in whom the organs of the propensities are large, and those of the moral sentiments deficient ; but there is no organ or faculty in itself immoral, or necessarily opposed to the moral sentiments, as Dr Wardlaw supposes. To be able, then, to discover what courses of action are MORAL SCIENCE. 45 at once beneficial in their tendency, agreeable to the will of God, and conformable to the dictates of Conscientiousness, we must use our intellectual faculties in examining nature. Believing that man and the external world are both the work- manship of the Creator, I propose, in the following lectures, to consider — 1st, The constitution of man as an individual ; and en- deavour to discover what duties are prescribed to him by its qualities and objects. 2dly, I shall consider man as a domestic being, and en- deavour to discover the duties prescribed to him by his con- stitution, as a husband, a father, and a child. 3dly, I shall consider man as a social being, and discuss the duties arising from his social qualities. This will involve the principles of government and political economy. 4thly, I shall consider man as a religious being, and dis- cuss the duties which he owes to God, so far as these are discoverable from the light of nature. LECTURE II. ON THE SANCTIONS BY WHICH THE NATURAL LAWS OP MORALITY ARE SUPPORTED. Every law supposes a Lawgiver, and punishment annexed to transgression — God prescribes certain actions by our consti- tution, and He is therefore the Lawgiver — He supports his laws by rewards and punishments — Does He do so by special acts of providence ? — Or are his rewards and punishments certain consequences of good or evil, appointed by Him to follow from our actions ? — It is important to show that God dispenses justice in this world ; because we know no other, and if He be not just here, there is no natural and logical ground for inf rringthat He will be just in any other world — Evidence that He does dispense justice here — His sup posed injustice is apparent only — Philosophers have not understood the principles of His government --The indepen- dent action of the several natural laws is the key to it — If we obey the physical laws, they reward us with physical advantages — If we obey the organic laws, they reward us with health — If we obey the moral laws, they reward us with mental joy — If we disobey any one of these laws, we are punished under it, although we observe all the others — There is more order and justice in the Divine Government in this world than is generally recognised. In my last lecture I endeavoured to point out the foun- dations on which Moral Phibsophy, inferred from the consti- 46 THE SANCTIONS OF tution of nature, rests. The mental organs and faculties being the gift of God, each must have a legitimate use and sphere of activity, though doubtless liable to be abused ; and the rule for discriminating between uses and abuses is, that every act is morally right which is approved of by the moral sentiments of Benevolence, Conscientiousness, and Venera- tion, operating along with enlightened intellect, while all actions disapproved of by these faculties are wrong. Such is the internal guide to morality with which man has been furnished. The next inquiry is, Whether the judgments of our moral and intellectual faculties are supported by any external authority in nature 1 Every law supposes a lawgiver, and punishment annexed to transgression. Certain courses of action being prescribed and forbidden by the very constitution of our faculties, God, who made these and their organs, is consequently the Lawgiver : but the question remains- Has he used any means to give sanction, in this world, to his commands revealed to us in nature 1 All are agreed that rewards and punishments have been established by God ; but as to the extent, manner, and time of dispensing them, very different opinions exist. By some it is conceived that God, like the human magistrate, watches the infringement of his laws in each particular instance, and applies punishment accordingly ; but that neither his punishments nor his re- wards are the natural effects of the conduct to which they have reference. Such is the view of the ways of Providence imbodied in Parnell's " Hermit ;" and many of us may recollect the pleasure with which we perused that represen- tation in our youth, and the regret which we felt, that ex- perience did not support the beautiful theory of the poet. A servant is described as having been thrown over a bridge by his companion, and drowned, which event at first shocks our Benevolence ; but we are then told that the servant in- tended that evening to murder a kind and indulgent master, and that his companion was an angel sent by God to prevent, and also to punish him for his intended crime. Another scene represents an hospitable rich man's son dying appa- rently of convulsions ; but we are told that it was an angel sent by God who suffocated him, unseen by the parents, to snatch him away from them, because their affections doated too fondly on him, and led them to forget their duty to heaven. These representations, of course, are fiction ; but it is THE LAWS OP MORALITY. 47 not difficult to trace notions of an essentially similar charac- ter, existing in the minds of many serious persons, and constituting their theory of the divine government of the world. The grand feature of this system is, that the pun- ishment does not follow from the offence by any natural bond of connexion, but is administered separately and directly by a special interposition of Providence. The servant's wicked design had no natural connexion with his falling over the bridge ; and the neglect of heaven, by the parents of the child, had no such natural relation to its physiological condition', that it should have been cut off in consequence of that sin. There are, as I have said, some religious per- sons who really entertain notions similar to these ; who believe that God, by special acts of providence, or particular manifestations of His power, rewards and punishes men's actions in a manner not connected, by any natural link of cause and effect, with their offences ; or, at least, so remote- ly connected that the link is not discernible by human sagacity. They conceive that this view imparts to the divine government a sublime mysteriousness, which renders it more imposing, solemn, and awful, and better calculated than any other to enforce obedience on men. To me, on the contrary, it appears to be erroneous, and to be a great fountain of superstition, at once derogatory to the dignity of the Divine Ruler, and injurious to the moral, intellectual, and religious character of His subjects. I shall, in a sub- sequent part of this lecture, state the reasons of this opinion. Another opinion entertained regarding the moral govern- ment of the world is, that God has revealed in the Scrip- tures every duty which He requires us to perform, and every action which He forbids us to do ; that He leaves us at full liberty, in this life, to obey or disobey these com- mands, as we please ; but that in the world to come He will call us to account, and punish us for our sins, or reward us for obedience. There are strong objections to this theory. Religious persons will at once recognise that the instruction communicated to man in the Scriptures may be classed under two great heads. The first class embraces events that occurred before the existing state of nature commenced, (such as the transactions in Paradise before the fall,) also events that transcend nature, (such as the resur- rection of Jesus Christ,) and events that are destined to occur when nature shall be no more, (such as the final judg- 48 THE SANCTIONS OF ment ;) together with certain duties (such as belief or faith) which are founded on these communications. In regard to all • of these, science and philosophy are silent, and the Bible is the only rule and direction that is possessed. The second head has reference r.o the practical conduct which man is bound to pursue with regard to the beings in the present world. The first objection, then, to the theory of the divine government last-mentioned, is, that the Bible, however complete with respect to the former department of instruction, really does not contain a full revelation of man's secular duties. In the last lecture I quoted a striking passage to this effect from Archbishop Whately. The Scriptures assume that man will use the intellect and moral faculties which have been bestowed on him, to discover and perform many duties relative to this life, which they have not fully un- folded. It is a very important duty to manage aright the physical education, as also the moral and intellectual train- ing, of children ; and yet the Bible contains no specific rules for discharging these duties. It tells us to train up a child in the way he should go, and that when he is old he will not depart from it ; but it does not describe, with practical minuteness, what that way is. If it does so, every incompe- tent schoolmaster, and every ignorant mother who injures her children through lack of knowledge, must have sadly neglected the study of the Bible. But even the most pious and assiduous students of Scripture differ greatly among themselves in regard to the training of their children ; so that the Bible must be either silent, or very obscure on this point. How many thousands of Christian parents neglect the physical education of their children altogether, and in consequence either lose them by death, or render them victims of disease ! Again, each sect instructs its children in its own tenets, and calls this the way in which they should go : yet, when we observe the discord and animosity that prevail among these children when they become men and women ; when we see the Protestant denouncing the Catholic as in error, the Catholic excommunicating the Protestant as a heretic, the Trinitarian designating the Uni- tarian as an infidel, and the Unitarian condemning the Trinitarian as superstitious ; we have proof, certainly, that the children, when old, do not depart from the way in which they have been trained : but we likewise see, that it is im THE LAWS OF MORALITY. 49 possible that all of them can have been trained in the right way, since otherwise there could not be such wide differ- ences and so much hostility between them. I can discover, therefore, in the Bible no complete code of secular duties, as this system assumes that there is. In my work on the " Constitution of Man," I have endeavoured to show that God Tntended that we should employ our mental faculties in studying His works, and by this means fill up the chapter of our secular duties, left incomplete in the Bible. A second objection to the theory in question is, that it essentially implies that God exercises very little temporal authority in the government of this world, reserving his punishments and rewards chiefly for a future life. One cause of this view seems to be, that most of the teachers of morals and religion have confined their attention to moral and religious duties, and often to their own peculiar and erroneous interpretation of these duties, instead of taking a comprehensive survey of human nature and of all the du- ties inscribed on its constitution. They have regarded life as monks do — not practically. They observed that some- times a man who believed and acted according to their notions of sound religion and sterling virtue, fell into worldly misfortune, lost his children prematurely by death, or was himself afflicted with bad health ; while other men, who believed and acted in opposition to their notions of right, flourished in health and wealth, and possessed a vigorous offspring ; and they hence concluded that God has left the virtuous man to suffer here, for his probation, intending to reward him hereafter ; and the wicked to prosper, with the view of aggravating his guilt and increasing the severity of his future punishment. They have rarely attempted to reconcile these apparent anomalies to reason, or to bring them within the scope of a just government on earth. It humbly appears to me that God does exercise a very stri- king and efficient jurisdiction over this world, and that it is chiefly our own ignorance of the manner in which he does so, that renders us blind to its existence and effects. It is of the greatest importance to establish the reality and efficiency of the divine government in this world ; be- cause a plausible argument has been reared on the contrary doctrine, and it has been maintained that there can be no reward and, punishment at all, if they are not administered in this life. The line of reasoning by which this view is 5 50 THE SANCTIONS OP supported is as follows : We can judge of God, it is said, only from his works. His works in this world are all that we are acquainted with. If, therefore, in our experience, in this life, we find that virtue goes unrewarded, and that vice triumphs, the legitimate inference is that it will always be so. Bishop Butler, indeed, in his celebrated " Analogy," has argued that, because God has not executed complete justice here, he must intend to do so hereafter, as justice is one of his attributes ; but Mr. Robert Forsyth, in his work on Moral Science, has stated the objection to this line of argument in strong terms. '• If," says he, " God has created a world in which justice is not accomplished, by what analogy, or on what grounds, do we infer that any other world of his creation will be free from this imperfec- tion 1" Butler would answer, " Because justice is an at- tribute of the divine mind." The opponents, however, reply, " How do you know that it is so 1 We know the Deity only through His works ; and if you concede that justice is not accomplished in their administration, the legi- timate inference is that justice is not one of His attributes : at least the inference that it is one of them is not logical." I have heard this last argument stated, although I have not seen it printed. It is of great importance to moral science to find a valid answer to these objections ; and the most satisfactory to my mind would be one which showed that the Divine Ruler actually does execute justice here, and that therefore we are entitled to infer that he will be just also hereafter ; and such, accordingly, is the argument which I respectfully pro- pose to maintain. When we obtain the right clew to the plan of the moral government of the world, many perplexi- ties will be found to disappear. In order to understand the divine government, we must know our own nature, the nature of the things and beings around us, and the relations subsisting among them. We have received propensities and sentiments urging us to act ; but they are blind impulses, and in this respect resemble the appetite for food. That appetite being active, we feel hunger and desire food ; but unless we employ our intellec- tual faculties to find edible substances, and also to discrimi- nate wholesome from unwholesome viands, we may either starve, or eat poison and die. We must, in like manner, employ our intellectual faculties to discover the means of THE LAWS OF MORALITY. 51 gratifying all our propensities and sentiments, and the most beneficial forms of doing so. To the lower animals reason has been denied, and they are impelled to act directly in a manner that is advantageous to them, without experience, and without any other guide than God's wisdom, operating, unknown to them, through the medium of their instincts. But to man is left a wider range of action. He has received knowing faculties to study external nature in its physical aspects, and reflecting intellect to study its active and pas- sive powers and the relations of the whole to himself. Regularity of action has been impressed on nature, so that man should not be bewildered in his studies and perplexed in his conduct ; the same causes, in similar circumstances, producing at all times the same effects. It is this principle of order which leads us to a right un- derstanding of the government of the world, and which fits it so admirably for being a school in which to exercise and improve all the faculties of man. Each object and being of nature, physical and animal, has received a definite con- stitution ; and while the circumstances in which it is placed continue unchanged, it acts invariably according to the laws of that constitution. The supposed anomalies in the divine government are apparent only, and form no exception to the Creator's attribute of justice, when properly under- stood. The key to them is the separate action of the dif- ferent departments of our own constitution and of external nature, or the independent operation of the natural laws. This doctrine is explained in the " Constitution of Man ;" and I here introduce it as the grand basis of our future inves- tigations. Viewing the world on this principle, we discover, 1st, That the laws which regulate the action of inani- mate matter operate purely as physical influences, indepen- dently of the moral or religious character of those whom they affect. If six persons be travelling in a coach, and if it break down through insufficiency of the axle, or any si- milar cause, they will be projected against external objects according to the impetus communicated to their bodies by the previous motion of the vehicle, exactly as if they had been inanimate substances of the same texture and mate- rials. Their vices or their virtues will not modify the phy- sical influences that impel or resist them. The cause of the accident is simply physical imperfection in the vehicle, and not the displeasure of God against the individual men for their sins. If one break a leg, another an arm, a third hia 52 THE SANCTIONS OP neck, and a fourth escape unhurt, the difference of result is to be ascribed solely to the difference of the mechanical ac- tion of the coach on their bodies, according to their differ- ences of size, weight, and position, or to difference in the objects against which they are projected; one falling against a stone, and another perhaps alighting on turf. The whole calamity in such a case is to be viewed sim- ply as a punishment for not attending to the physical laws ; in other words, for neglecting to have a coach sufficiently strong ; and it serves to render men who are in charge of coaches more attentive to this duty in future. The com- mon sense of mankind has led them to recognise this prin- ciple in their laws ; for in most civilized countries the pro- prietors of public conveyances are held answerable for damage occasioned by their insufficiency. It is recognised also in Scripture. " Think not," says Christ, " that those on whom the Tower of Siloam fell were sinners above all Israel." In other words, the Tower of Siloam, like all other edifices, stood, in the virtue of the law of gravitation, as long as its foundations were sound and its superstruc- ture firm ; and it fell when one or other of these gave way, without the least reference to the persons who were below it. The fall would have occurred equally, whenever these causes operated, whether any human beings had been under it or not, and also independently of the moral and religious qualities of these beings. If in the coach a profligate had been saved, and a valuable Christian killed, some persons would have wondered at the inscrutable ways of Providence : but both the bad and the good have received from the Creator organized bodies which require to be carefully protected from injury that they may live ; and the real lesson taught by this calamity is, that no moral or religious qualities will be admitted as an excuse for not preserving the body from injury by observing the physical laws. If a soldier were to appear at parade with the touch-hole of his musket rusted up. and, when ordered into confinement for this breach of discipline, were to refer to the profound respect with which he always treated his officers, to the brilliant state in which he kept the barrel of his gun, and to the small, obscure nature of the touch-hole, which made it escape observation ; the answer would be, that the object of his musket was to fire, and that a clear touch-hole was a primary and indispensable requisite to this end, the want of which could not be compensated for, or THE LAWS OP MORALITY. 53 supplied by respectful demeanour to his officer, by a brightly polished barrel, or by any other means whatever. A sound body is equally indispensable to Christian usefulness, as a clear touch-hole to a serviceable musket. I have elsewhere remarked, that if good men could sail in safety in unsound ships, or travel in dilapidated carriages, upborne by unseen ministers of heaven, on account of their holiness, the world would lapse into confusion ; and these good men themselves would soon find nothing provided for them but the most deplorably crazy conveyances, into which sinners could not with safety set a foot. The objection may naturally occur, that passengers have neither skill nor opportunity for judging of the soundness of ships and sufficiency of coaches, and that it is hard that they should suffer death and destruction from the careless- ness or incapacity of others who let out these articles to hire, or employ them in the public service. I shall unfold the answer to this objection at a subsequent part of the course. It falls under the social law. We avail ourselves of the good qualities of our fellow-men, and we must suf- fer from their defects when, without due regard to their qualifications, we intrust our interests or safety to their care. In so far, then, as pain, distress, and calamity, arise from the action of the physical laws, (which laws are numerous, and their operations extensive,) they ought to be viewed merely as punishments for not obeying these laws — punish- ments intended to stimulate us to greater attention in ob- serving them in future. They forcibly tell us, that if we wish to live in safety, we must habitually exercise our under- standings in accommodating our conduct to the agencies of the material objects around us. It seems irrational to suppose that God will hereafter reward good men for the sufferings which they bring upon themselves by neglecting to study and observe His own injunctions. The next class of natural laws to which I solicit your attention, is the organic. The foundation of these laws is laid in the constitution of our organized frame, and in the relations established between it and the external world. Thus, the blood is necessary, in order to furnish every part of our body with nutriment. It replaces decayed particles carried off by the absorbent vessels, and also stimulates the brain and other organs so as to enable them to perform their functions aright. But to render the blood capable of doing 5* 54 THE SANCTIONS OP this, it must be supplied with chyle from the stomach and oxygen from the lungs ; and hence a necessity arises for eating wholesome food and breathing pure air. The bones are composed of organized materials, and are supplied with certain vessels for their nutrition, and with others for the removal of their decayed particles ; and all of these act regularly, as the mechanism of a plant acts. The same observations apply to the muscles, the skin, the bloodves- sels, the brain, and all other portions of the body. The point of doctrine which it is of importance for U3 to keep in view at present is, that growth and decay, health and disease, pleasure and pain, in any one or in all of these parts, take place according to fixed rules, which are im- pressed on the organs themselves, and that the organs act invariably, independently, and immutably, according to these rules. For instance — if we neglect exercise, the circula- tion of the blood becomes languid, and then the bones, muscles, nerves, and brain, are not properly nourished ; the consequences of which are pain — loss of appetite, of strength, of mental vivacity and vigour — and a general feeling of unhappiness. If we labour too intensely with our minds, we exhaust our brains, impair digestion, and destroy sleep ; we soon render our brains, which are the organs of the mind, incapable of action ; and finally we are visited with lassitude, imbecility, palsy, apoplexy, or death. If we exercise our muscles too severely and too long, we expend an undue amount of the nervous energy of our bodies, and the brain becomes incapable of thinking and the nerves incapable of feeling, so that dulness and stupidity seize on our mental powers. It is, therefore, an organic law of God, inscribed on our constitution, and thereby as clearly proclaimed to our understandings as if it were written with His finger upon tables of stone — That we shall consume a sufficiency of wholesome food, and breath unvitiated air. And however moral our conduct — however constant our attendance in the house of prayer — however benevolent our actions may be — yet, if we neglect this organic law, punishment will be inflicted In like manner, if the laws of exercise be in- fringed — if, for instance, we overwork the brain — we are visited with punishment, whether the offence was committed in reclaiming the heathen, in healing the sick, in pursuing commerce, in gaming, or in ruling a state. If we overtask THE LAWS OF MORALITY. 55 the brain at all, it becomes exhausted, and its action is en- feebled ; and as the efficiency of the mind depends on its proper condition, the mental powers suffer a corresponding obscuration and decay. There is obvious reason in this arrangement also. If the brain were to flourish under excessive toil, in a good cause, and suffer under the same degree of exertion only in a bad one, the order of nature would be deranged. Good men would no longer be men ; they might dispense with food, sleep, repose, and every other enjoyment which binds them to the general company of mankind. But according to the view which I am expounding, we are led to regard the constitution, modes of action, and relations of our organized system, as all instituted directly by the Creator ; birth from organized parents, growth, decay, and death in old age, appear as inherent parts of our very frames, designedly allotted to us ; while pain, disease, premature decay, and early death, appear, to a great extent, to be the consequences of not using our constitutions properly. When, therefore, we see the children of good men snatch- ed away by death in infancy or youth, we should ascribe this calamity to these children having inherited feebly or- ganized bodies from their parents, or having, through igno- rance or improper treatment, been led to infringe the organic laws in their modes of life. The object of their death seems to be to impress on the spectators the importance of attend- ing to these laws, and to prevent the transmission of imper- fect corporeal systems to future beings. If we see the children of the wicked flourishing in health and vigour, the inference is, that they have inherited strong constitutions from their parents, and have not in their own lives seriously transgressed the organic laws. We have no authority from our philosophy for supposing that Providence, in removing the just man's children, intends merely to try his faith or patience, to wean him from the world, or to give occasion for recompensing him hereafter for his suffering ; nor for believing that the unjust man's family is permitted to flour- ish, with a view of aggravating his guilt by adding ingratitude for such blessings to his other iniquities, in order to augment his punishment in a future life. We see, in these results, simply the consequences of obedience and disobedience to the laws impressed by the Creator on our constitution. Mark, now, from how many perplexities and difficulties 66 THE SANCTIONS OP this principle delivers us. When the children of good men are healthy, this circumstance is regarded as agreeable to the notions which may reasonably be entertained of a just Providence. But when other men, not less excellent, have feeble children, who die prematurely and leave the parents overwhelmed with grief, the ways of Providence are regarded as inscrutable ; or, by way of reconciling them to reason, we are told that those whom God loveih he chasteneth. When, however, the wicked man's children die prematurely, this is regarded as a just punishment for the sins of the pa- rents : but sometimes they live long, and are prosperous ; and this is cited as an example of the long-suffering and loving kindness of God ! The understanding is confounded by these contradictory theories, and no conclusions can be drawn from the events applicable to our practical improve* ment. Accordingly, ministers of the gospel, among whom these heterogeneous notions of the divine government are prevalent, have not only neglected to teach God's natural laws to their flocks, but some of them have represented natural science as the hand-maid of infidelity, and especially phrenology as opposed to Christian truth. Yet, while they nave done so, they have not escaped the consequences of their neglect. Their discourses have been far less replete than otherwise they might have been, with useful practical instruction concerning the means of advancing the cause of virtue in this world ; and they have not felt at ease in their own minds regarding the stability and progress of religion. When they shall become the true expounders of God's will in regard to this world, (which at present, I am constrained to believe many of them are not,) — when they look at the independence of the natural laws — when they recognise the principle that obedience to each has its peculiar reward, and disobedience its appropriate punishment, they will find that their difficulties will greatly diminish. The man who obeys every law but one, is punished for his single infrac- tion ; and he by whom one only is obeyed, does not, on account of his neglect of all the others, lose the reward of his solitary act of obedience. It still remains quite true, that " those whom God loveth he chasteneth ;" because all the punishments inflicted for the breach of his laws are instituted in love, to induce us to obey them for our own good : but we escape from the con- tradiction of believing that he sometimes shows his love by THE LAWS OP MORALITY. 57 punishing men who obey his laws ; which would be the case if he afflicted good men by bad health, or by the death of their children, merely as trials and chastisements, inde- pendently of their having infringed the laws of their organic constitution. We escape also from another contradiction. The most religious persons who implicitly believe that disease is sent as a chastisement for sin, or in token of divine love, never hesitate, when they are sick, to send for a physician, and pay him large fees to deliver them as speedily as possible from this form of spiritual discipline. This is very incon- sistent on their parts. The physician, however, proceeds at once to inquire into the physical causes which have dis- ordered the patient's organization; he hears of wet feet, exposure to cold air, checked perspiration, excessive fatigue, or some similar influence, and he instantly prescribes physi- cal remedies j and is often successful in removing the disorder. In all this proceeding, the common sense of the patient and physician leads them to practise the very doctrine which I am expounding. They view the suffering as the direct consequence of the departure of some of the bodily organs from their healthy course of action, and they endeavour to restore that state. I am furnished with a new and striking illustration of the difference of practical result between the one and the other of these views of the divine administration of the world. When the cholera approached Edinburgh, a board of health was instituted under the guidance of -physicians. They regarded the cholera simply as a disease, and they viewed disease as the result of disordered bodily functions. They, therefore, urged cleanliness, supplied nourishing food to the poor, and provided hospitals and medicine for the infected ; and these means were, on the whole, surprisingly successful. Rome is at this moment threatened with the approach of cholera ; but the Pope and his Cardinals are pleased to view it not as a disease, but as a religious dispensation ; and what means do they use to prevent its approach 1 A friend in Rome, in a letter dated November 5, 1835, writes thus : — "A black image of the Virgin has lately been carried through the city by the Pope and all the Cardinals, for the express purpose of averting the cholera ; so you see we are in a hopeful way, if it should assail us." Every reflecting mind must see the superiority of the precautions used in the city 58 THE SANCTIONS OF of Edinburgh, over those practised in Rome ; yet the opi- nion that disease is the consequence of disordered bodily functions, and that the action of these functions is regulated by laws peculiar to themselves and distinct from the moral and religious laws, lies at the bottom of these different courses of action. My aim, you will perceive, is to bring our phi- losophy and our religious notions into harmony, and to render our practice consistent with both. The third great class of natural laws comprehends the moral, religious, and intellectual. These laws are founded in the constitution of our mental faculties and their relations. In the works on phrenology, the faculties are divided into three great classes, Animal Propensities, Moral Sentiments, and Intellectual Powers ; and the primitive functions, the spheres of activity, and the uses and abuses of each, are described, so far as these are ascertained. The ideas which I wish now to express are, that each of these faculties has objects beneficial to man related to it, which it desires to attain, and that there are laws regulating its action in attain- ing them ; that the faculties are so far independent of each other, that we may pursue the objects of one or more of them, and omit the pursuit of the objects of the others ; that the results of the action of the faculties are fixed and certain ; and that by knowing the primitive functions, the objects and the laws of our faculties, we may anticipate, with surprising accuracy, the general issue of any course of conduct which we may systematically pursue : Farther — that when we have acted in conformity with the dictates of the moral sen- timents and enlightened intellect, which are the ruling powers in our mental constitution, we shall find the issue pleasing and beneficial ; and that, when we have acted in opposition to their dictates, we shall reap sorrow and dis- appointment. I shall illustrate these principles by examples. The pro- pensity of Acquisitiveness desires blindly to acquire property, and this is its primitive function. If it act independently of intellect, as it does in idiots, and sometimes in children, it may lead to acquiring and accumulating things of no utility. If it be directed by enlightened intellect, it will desire to store up articles of real value. But it may act, either with or without the additional guidance of the moral sentiments. When it acts without that direction, it prompts the indivi- dual to appropriate to himself things of value, regardless of THE LAWS OF MORALITY. 59 justice and the rights of others. When acting in subordi- nation to the moral sentiments, it leads to acquiring property by means just and lawful. These, then, are three directions which the acquisitive propensity may follow ; but there are still a fourth and a fifth. It may act under the guidance of the moral senti- ments, so far as never to invade the rights of others, and yet its action may terminate in its own gratification, without any fixed ulterior object. Thus, when a talented merchant carries on a great extent of commercial dealings, and acquires thousands upon thousands of pounds, all in an honourable way, he may do so without ever contemplating any good or noble end to be accomplished by means of his gains. Or, fifthly, an individual may be animated by the desire to confer some substantial enjoyment on his family, his relatives, his country, or mankind, and perceiving that he cannot do so without wealth, he may employ his ac- quisitiveness, under the guidance of intellect and moral sentiment, to acquire property for the purpose of fulfilling this object. According to my perceptions of the divine government, there are specific results attached by the Creator to each of these modes of action of the propensity ; which result3 occur in virtue of the laws under which he has appointed the faculty to act. For example — When the propensity acts without intellect, the result, as I have said, is the ac- cumulation of worthless trash. We see this occur occa- sionally in adult persons, who are not idiots in other matters, but who, under a blind Acquisitiveness, buy old books, old furniture, or any other object of which they can obtain a bargain. I knew an individual who, under this impulse, bought, at a sale of old military stores, a lot of worn-out drums. They were set up at sixpence each, and looked so large to the eye for the money, that he could not resist bid- ding for them. He had no use for them, they were unsale- able, and they were so bulky that it was expensive to store them. He was, therefore, under the necessity of bestowing them on the boys in the neighbourhood ; who speedily made the whole district resound with unmelodious noises. In these instances, as no law of morality is infringed, the punish- ment is simply the loss of the price paid. When the propensity acts independently of justice and leads to stealing, the moral faculties of impartial spectators 60 THE SANCTIONS OP are offended, and prompt them to use speedy measures to restrain and punish the thief. When Acquisitiveness acts in conformity with intellect and justice, but with no higher aim than its own gratifica- tion, the result is success in accumulating wealth, but the absence of satisfactory enjoyment of it. The individual feels his life vanity and vexation of spirit, because, after he has become rich, he discovers himself to be without either object or possession calculated to gratify his moral and religious feelings, which must be satisfied before full happiness can be experienced. This is the direct result of the constitution of the mind ; for, as we possess moral facul- ties, moral objects alone can satisfy them ; and mere wealth is not such an object. When the aim of life is to communicate enjoyment to other beings, such as a family, relatives, or our fellow-citi- zens, and when Acquisitiveness is employed, under the gui- dance of moral sentiment and intellect, for the purpose of accomplishing this end, success will generally be obtained, and satisfaction will also be felt in success ; because, through the whole course of life, the highest powers will have pur- sued a noble and dignified object, fitted for their gratification, and employed Acquisitiveness in its proper and subordinate capacity as their ministering servant. I have mentioned that every faculty has a legitimate sphere of activity, and that happiness and duty consist in the proper application of them all. If we add to this, the principle, that we cannot attain the rewards or advantages attached to the proper employment of any faculty, if we omit to use it, we shall have another example illustrative of the order of the moral government of the world. For instance, as Pro- vidence has rendered property essential to our existence and welfare, and given us a faculty prompting us to acquire it ; if any individual, born without fortune, shall neglect to ex- ercise Acquisitiveness, and abandon himself, as his leading occupation, to the gratification of Benevolence and Vene- ration, in gratuitously managing public hospitals, in directing charity schools, or in preaching to the poor, he will suffer evil consequences. He must live on charity, or become poor and starve. Observe also, that, in pursuing such a course of action, he neglects justice as a regulating motive ; for if he had listened to Conscientiousness, it would have dic- tated to him the necessity either of making these pursuits THE LAWS OF MORALJTY. 61 his profession, and acting for hire, or of practising another profession, and following them only in intervals of leisure. St. Paul, in similar circumstances, wrought with his hands, and made tents, that he might be burdensome to no one. The practical idea which I wish to fix in your minds by this example is, that if we pursue objects related exclusively to Benevolence and Veneration, although we may obtain them, we shall not thereby attain objects related to Acquisitive- ness ; and yet, that the world is so arranged, that we must attend to the objects of all our faculties before we can fully discharge our duties, or be happy. Not only so, but there are modes appointed in nature by which the objects of our different faculties may be attained ; by pursuing which we are awarded with success, and by neglecting which we are punished with failure. The object of Acquisitiveness, for example, is to acquire things of use. But these cannot be reared from the ground, nor constructed by the hand, nor imported from abroad in exchange for other commodities, without a great expenditure of time, labour, and skill. Their value indeed is in general measured by the time, labour, and skill, expended in their production. The great law, then, which God has prescribed to govern Acquisitiveness, and by observing which he promises it suc- cess, is, that we shall practise patient, laborious, and skil- ful exertion, in endeavouring to attain its objects. " The hand of the diligent maketh rich," is the law of nature. When, however, men, losing sight of this divine law, resort to gaming and speculation, to thieving, cheating, and plun- dering, to acquire property ; when " they hasten to become rich," they " fall into a snare." Rum is the natural result of such conduct ; because, according to nature, wealth can be procured only by labour ; and although one acute, or strong, or powerful man may acquire wealth by cheating or plundering twenty or thirty honest and industrious citizens, yet, as a general rule, their combined sagacity and strength would, in the end, defeat and punish him ; while, if all, or even the majority, of men, endeavoured to procure wealth by mere speculation, stealing, and swindling, there would speedily be no wealth for them to acquire. The Scripture authoritatively declares, " Thou shalt not steal ; ;? but when a man with a strong Acquisitiveness and defective Conscientiousness enters into a great mer- cantile community, in which he sees vast masses of property 6 62 THE SANCTIONS OF daily changing hands, he often does not perceive the force of the prohibition : on the contrary, he thinks that he may, with manifest advantage, speculate, lie, cheat, swindle, per- haps steal, as a more speedy and effectual means of acquiring a share of that wealth, than by practising laborious industry. Nevertheless, this must be a delusion ; because, although God does not state the reason why he prohibits stealing, it is certain that there must exist a reason replete with wis- dom. He leaves it to human sagacity to discover the phi- losophy of the precept ; and it is the duty of the Christian teacher and moral philosopher to unfold to the understand- ings of the young, why it is disadvantageous, as well as sinful, to break the commandments of the living God. If I merely desire a child not to cross a certain path, it will feel curiosity on the one hand, struggling against filial reve- rence on the other. If I lead it to the path, and show to it a mighty gulf which would swallow it up, curiosity is sa- tisfied, and a sense of its own danger operates in aid of the injunction. Obedience is thereby rendered easier and more practicable. Thus it is also with moral duties. Whenever the philosophy of the practical precepts of the New Testa- ment shall be studied and taught in schools, in the domestic circle, and from the pulpit, the whole power of intellectual conviction will be added to the authority of the Scripture in enforcing them, and men will be induced by a clear percep- tion of their own interest in this world, as well as by their hopes and fears in relation to the next, to yield obedience to the laws of their Creator. What a glorious theme will such a philosophy afford to vigorous and enlightened minds for the instruction of the people ! Similar observations might be made in regard to the laws prescribed by nature for the regulation of all our faculties in the pursuit of their objects ; but your time does not per- mit me to offer more than the preceding illustration. If we look at the living world only in the mass, without knowing the distinct existence of the mental faculties, their distinct objects, and their distinct laws, the results of their activity appear to be enveloped in sad confusion : we see some moral and religious men struggling with poverty, and others prosperous in their outward circumstances ; some rich men extremely unhappy, while others are apparently full of enjoyment ; some poor men joyous and gay, others miserable and repining ; some irreligious men in possession THE LAWS OP MORALITY. 63 of vast wealth, while others are destitute of even the neces- saries of life. In short, the moral world appears to be one great chaos — a scene full of confusion, intricacy, and con- tradiction. But if we become acquainted with the primitive faculties, and their objects and laws, and learn that different individuals possess them from nature in different degrees of strength, and also cultivate them with different degrees of assiduity, and that the consequences of our actions bear an established relation to the faculties employed, the mys- tery clears up. The religious and rich man is he who ex- ercises both Veneration and Acquisitiveness according to the laws of their constitution ; the religious and poor man is he who exercises Veneration, but who, through deficiency of the organ, through ignorance or indolence, or some other cause, does not exercise Acquisitiveness at all, or not ac- cording to the laws by which its success is regulated. The rich man who is happy, is one who follows high pursuits related to his intellect and moral sentiments, as the grand objects of life, and makes Acquisitiveness play its proper, but subordinate part. The rich man who is unhappy, is he who, having received from a bountiful Creator moral and intellectual faculties, has never cultivated them, but em- ployed them merely to guide his Acquisitiveness ; the gra- tification of which he has made the leading object of his life. After he has attained that object, his moral senti- ments and intellect being left unprovided with objects, feel a craving discontent, which constitutes his unhappiness. I could proceed through the whole list of the faculties and their combinations in a similar way ; but it is unnecessary to do so, as these illustrations will, I hope, enable you to perceive the principle which I am anxious to expound. Let us now take a brief and comprehensive survey of the point at which we have arrived. If we are told that a certain person is extremely pious, benevolent, and just, we are entitled to conclude that he will experience within himself great peace, joy, and comfort, from his own dispositions ; because these enjoyments flow directly from the activity of the organs which manifest piety, justice, and beneficence. We are entitled farther to believe, that he will be esteemed and beloved by all good men who know him thoroughly, and that they will be disposed to pro- mote, by every legitimate means, his welfare and happiness ; because his mental qualities naturally excite into activity 64 THE SANCTIONS OP corresponding faculties in other men, and create a sympa- thetic interest on their part in his enjoyment. But if we hear that this good man has been upset in a coach, and has broken his leg, we conclude that this event has arisen from neglect of a physical law, which, being independent of the moral law, acted without direct relation to his mental qua- lities. If we hear that he is sick, we conclude that, in some organ of his body, there has been a departure from the laws which regulate its healthy activity, and (these laws also be- ing distinct) that the sickness has no direct relation to his moral condition. If we are told that he is healthy and happy, we infer that his organic system is now acting in accordance with the laws of its constitution. If we are told that he has been afflicted by the loss of an intelligent and amiable son, in the bloom of youth, we conclude either that the boy has inherited a feeble constitution from his parents, or that the treatment of his bodily system, in infancy and youth, has been, in some way or other, at variance with the organic laws, and that his death has been the consequence, which his father's piety could not avert. If, on the other hand, we know a man who is palpably cold-hearted, grasping, and selfish, we are authorized to conclude — first, that he is deprived of that delicious sun- shine of the soul, and all those thrilling sympathies with whatever is noble, beautiful, and holy, which attend the vivacious action of the moral and religious faculties ; and, secondly, that he is deprived of the reflected influence of the same emotions from the hearts and countenances of the good men around him. These are the direct punishments in this world, for his not exercising his moral and religious powers. But if he has inherited a fine constitution, or if he be temperate, sober, and take regular exercise, he may reap the blessing of health ; and if he does so, he must be regarded as enjoy- ing it as the reward of his compliance with the organic laws. There is no inconsistency in this enjoyment being permitted to him, because the moral and organic laws are distinct, and he has obeyed the laws which reward him. If his children have received from him a sound frame, and have been treated prudently and skilfully, they also may live in health ; but this, again, is the consequence of obedience to the same laws. If they have inherited feeble constitutions, or if their management have been at variance with these laws, THE LAWS OP MORALITY. 65 they will die, just as the children of good men in similar circumstances will do. If the selfish man pursue wealth according to the laws that regulate its acquisition, he will, by that obedience, become rich ; but if he neglect to exer- cise Acquisitiveness, or infringe these laws, he will become poor, just as the good man would do in similar circum- stances. It appears to me that, in these arrangements, we see the dictates of our moral and intellectual faculties clearly sup- ported by the order of external nature ; and hence we obtain evidence of an actual moral government existing in full force and activity in this world. In short, according to this view of the divine government, instead of there being confusion and a lack of justice in the administration of human affairs, there is the reverse— there is a reward for every species of obedience, and a punish- ment for every species of disobedience to the Creator's laws. In order to preserve our minds habitually under the impression of discipline, bur duties correspond to the diffe- rent parts of our constitution ; rewards and chastisements are annexed to each of them ; and so little of favouritism or partiality is shown, that, although we obey all the natural laws but one, we do not escape the punishment of in- fringing that single law — and, although we break them all but one, we are not denied the reward of that solitary in- stance of obedience. But you will perceive that, before you can comprehend this system of government, you must study and become acquainted with the objects in nature, by the action of which it takes place, whether- these be external, or consist of our own bodies and minds. If mankind have hitherto lived without this knowledge, can you wonder that the ways of Providence have appeared dark and contradictory'? And if by means of phrenology we have now discovered the constitution of the mind, and its relationship to our bo- dies and external nature ; if, moreover, physical science has largely opened up to us the constitution and laws of the objects by which we are surrounded and affected ; need we feel surprise that the dawn of a new philosophy begins to break forth upon our vision — a philosophy more consistent, more practical, and more consolatory, than any that has hitherto appeared 1 6* 66 LECTURE III. ADVANTAGES OP A KNOWLEDGE OF THE PRINCIPLES OP MO- RALS : DUTIES PRESCRIBED TO MANAS AN INDIVIDUAL: SELF CULTURE. The views in the preceding lecture accord with those of Bishop Butler — We go farther than he did, and show the natural arrangements by which the consequences mentioned by him take place — Importance of doing this — Certain relations have been established between the natural laws, which give to each a tendency to support the authority of the whole — Examples — Duties prescribed to Man as an Individual con- sidered — The object of man's existence on earth is to ad- vance in knowledge, wisdom, and holiness, and thereby to enjoy his being — The glory of God is promoted by his accom- plishing this object — The first duty of Man is to acquire knowledge — This may be drawn from Scripture and from nature — Results from studying heathen mythology and na- ture are practically different — Difference between the old and the new philosophy stated — Clerical opposition to these lectures. Having in the previous lectures considered what consti- tutes an action right or wrong, and also the punishments which attend neglect of duty, and the rewards which per- formance brings along with it, I proceed to remark, that the views there unfolded essentially correspond with those en- tertained by Bishop Butler, and which he has adopted as the groundwork of his treatise on the " Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion." " Now," says he, M in the pre- sent state, all which we enjoy, and a great part of what we suffer, is put in our own power. For pleasure and pain are the consequences of our actions ; and we are endued by the Author of our nature with capacities of foreseeing these consequences." " I know not that we have any one kind or degree of enjoyment, but by the means of our own ac- tions. And by prudence and care, we may, for the most part, pass our days in tolerable ease and quiet ; or, on the contrary, we may, by rashness, ungoverned passion, wilful- ness, or even by negligence, make ourselves as miserable as ever we please. And many do please to make them- selves extremely miserable ; *. e., they do what they know beforehand will render them so. They follow those ways, the fruit of which they know, by instruction, example, expe- rience^ will be disgrace, and poverty, and sickness, and un» PRINCIPLES OF MORALS. *67 timely death. This every one observes to be the general course of things ; though, it is to be allowed, we cannot find by experience that all our sufferings are owing to our own follies." (Part I. chap. 2.) The common sense of mankind yields a ready assent to this doctrine. We go farther than Bishop Butler, by show- ing the laws, or natural arrangements, according to which the consequences mentioned by him take place. This is a point of material moment in philosophy, and it leads me to remark that the grand difference between the exposition of moral science which I am now attempting to give, and those which have been presented by preceding inquirers, consists in this — that, hitherto, moralists generally have laid down pre- cepts without showing their foundation in our constitution, or the mode in which disregard of them is punished by the ordinary operation of natural causes. They failed in this, because they were imperfectly acquainted with the consti- tution of the mind, and because the independent operation of the different natural laws, expounded in my last lecture, was either unknown to them, or the consequences were not perceived. In their expositions of moral philosophy they resembled those who teach us to practise an art with- out explaining the scientific principles on which the practice is founded. It is my object to explain to you not only the practice of virtue, but the laws of our constitution on which it depends. The difference between Paley's moral philosophy, and that which I am now teaching, may be illustrated thus : a practical brewer is a man who has been taught to steep barley in cold water for a certain time, to spread it on a stone floor for so many hours, to dry it on a kiln, at which point it is malt ; to grind the malt, to mash it by pouring on it hot water, to boil the extract with hops, to cool it, to add yeast to it when cold, and to allow it to ferment for a certain number of days. A person of ordinary sagacity, who has seen these processes performed, will be able to re- peat them, and he may thereby produce ale. But all the while he may know nothing of the laws of chemical action, by means of which the changes are evolved. He will soon observe, however, that the fermentation of the worts goes on sometimes too rapidly, sometimes too slowly, and that he makes bad ale. By experience he may discover what he considers causes of these effects ; but he will frequently 68 PRINCIPLES OP MORAL9. find that he has been wrong in hi3 judgment of the causes, and he will do harm by his remedies. In short, he will learn that, although he knows the rules how to make good ale, the practice of them, with uniform success, surpasses his skill. The reason of his perplexity is this : the barley is organized matter, which undergoes a variety of changes, depending partly on its own constitution and partly on the temperature of the air, on the quantity of moisture applied to it, the thickness of the heap in which it is laid, and other causes, of the precise nature and effects of which he is ignorant. Farther ; the extract from the malt, which he wishes to ferment, is a very active and delicate agent, un- dergoing rapid changes influenced by temperature, elec- tricity, and other causes, of the operation of which also he knows nothing scientifically. If all the materials of his manufacture were passive, like stocks and stones, his practi- cal rules might carry him much farther toward uniform and successful results : but seeing that they are agents, and that their modes of action are affected by a variety of ex- ternal causes and combinations, he cannot securely rely on producing the effects which he wishes to attain, until he becomes scientifically acquainted with the qualities of his materials, and the modifying influences of the agencies to the operations of which they were exposed. After attain- ing this knowledge, he becomes capable of suiting his practice to the circumstances in which, at each particular time, he finds his materials placed. If he cannot yet command the result, it is a proof that his knowledge is still imperfect. This illustration may be applied to the subject of moral philosophy. In practical life we are ourselves active be- ings, and we are constantly influenced by agents, whose original tendencies and capacities differ from each other — who are placed in varying circumstances, and who are acted on and excited or impeded by other beings. It is a knowledge of their nature alone, that can enable us to un- derstand the phenomena of such beings occurring under the diversified circumstances in which they may be placed. And moreover, when the reason why a particular line of conduct should be adopted, and the precise way in which reward or punishment are linked as natural consequences of performance and neglect are known, there is a far higher probability of the duty being discharged than when a precept PRINCIPLES OP MORALS. 69 h our only motive to action. Mere rules may no doubt be apprehended and practised by superior minds ; but to the ordinary understanding, ignorant of their foundations and sanctions in nature, their importance and authority are far from being so evident as to impress it with a deep sense of obligation. A great musician may enable another, equally gifted, to feel the exquisite harmony of a certain composition ; but he will strive in vain to convey the same feeling of it to a person destitute of musical talent. By teaching the laws of harmony, however, to this individual, he may succeed in convincing his understanding' that, in the piece in question, these laws are observed, and that there can be no good music without such observance. Although the natural laws act separately and indepen- dently, in the manner pointed out in the immediately pre- ceding lecture, certain relations have been established between them, which tend to support the authority of the whole. In consequence of these relations, obedience to each law increases our ability to obey the others, and disobedience to one disables us to some extent for paying deference to the rest. The man, for example, who obeys the physical laws, places himself in a favourable condition to observe the or- ganic, the moral, and the intellectual laws. He is safe from personal injury, and he creates by his industry the elements of physical plenty, which are as important to the favourable action of his higher faculties, as air is to the lungs, or light to the eyes. By obeying the organic laws, in favourable circumstances, he ensures the possession of vigorous health ; and when we view the muscular system of man as the instrument provided to him by the Creator for operating on physical nature, and the brain as the means of acting on sentient and intelligent beings, we discover that organic health is a fundamental requisite of usefulness and enjoyment. We are led to see that the possession of it contributes in the highest degree to our obeying the physical laws, and also to our discharging our active duties, in other words, to our obeying the laws of morality and intellect. General obedi- ence to the organic laws, also, by preserving the body in a favourable condition of health, fits it for recovering in the best manner from the effects of injuries sustained by inad- 70 PRINCIPLES OF MORALS. vertent infringement of the physical laws. Disobedience to the organic laws, on the other hand, unfits us for obey- ing the other laws of our being. A student, for instance, who impairs his brain and digestive organs by excessive mental application and neglect of exercise, weakens his nerves and muscular system, in consequence of which he becomes feeble, and incapable of sustaining bodily action, in other words, in coping with the law of gravitation, with- out pain and fatigue. He becomes, also, more liable to disease. A man who breaks the organic laws by commit- ting a debauch, becomes, for a season, incapable of intel- lectual application. By obeying the moral and intellectual laws — that is r by exercising our whole mental faculties, according to the laws of their constitution, and directing them to their proper ob- jects — we not only enjoy the direct pleasure which attends the favourable action and gratification of all our powers, but become more capable of coping with the physical influ- ences which are constantly operating around us, and of bending them in subserviency to our interest and our will ; and also of preserving all our organic functions in a state of regulated vigour and activity. In short, if we obey the various laws instituted by the Creator, we find that they act harmoniously for our welfare, that they support each other, and that the world becomes a clear field for the active and pleasurable exercise of all our powers ; while, if we infringe one, not only does it punish us for the special act of disobedience, but the offence has the tendency to impair, to some extent, our power of obey- ing the others. So that we discover in the natural laws a system of independent, yet combined and harmonious ac- tion, admirably adapted to the mind of a being who has received not only observing faculties, fitted to study existing things and their phenomena, but reflecting intellect, calcu- lated to comprehend their relations, adaptations, and reci- procal influences. Thus, the first grand step in comprehending the principles of the Divine government is, to learn to look on the physical world as it actually exists, and not through the medium of a perverted imagination, or of erroneous assumptions ; and the second is, to compare it with the constitution of man, physical and mental, as designedly adapted to it. We shall not find that it is an elysium, and we know that we are not DUTIES OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 71 angels ; but we shall discover, that while the heavens declare the glory of the Creator, and the revolving firmament of suns and worlds proclaim His might, the elements and powers of man's mind and body, viewed in their tendencies and adap- tations, bespeak, in a language equally clear and emphatic, His intelligence, beneficence, and justice. Having thus expounded the general system of the Divine government, let us now consider the duties prescribed to us by our constitution and its relations. THE DUTIES PRESCRIBED TO MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. Descending to particular duties, we may first consider those prescribed to man as an individual, by his own con- stitution and that of the external creation. The constitution of man seems to show that the object of his existence on earth is to advance in knowledge, wisdom, and holiness ; and thereby to enjoy his being. Divines add, that another object is to " glorify." According to my views, obedience to the Divine laws — or, what is the same thing, performance of our duties — is the prime requisite ; then comes enjoyment ; and the glory of God is evolved as the result of these two combined. His wisdom and power are strikingly conspicuous, when we discover a system, appa- rently complicated, to be, in fact, simple, clear, beautiful, and beneficent : and when we behold His rational creatures comprehending His will, acting in harmony with it, repeat- ing all the enjoyments which His goodness intended for them, and ascending in the scale of being by the cultivation and improvement of their noble powers, the glory of God strikes every intelligent mind as surpassingly great. A deep con- viction then arises, that the means by which we can advance that glory, is to promote, where possible, the fulfilment of the Creator's beneficient designs, and sedulously to co-ope- rate in the execution of his plans. When the object of human existence is regarded in this light, it becomes evident that obedience to every natural law is a positive duty imposed on us by the Creator, and that infringement or neglect of it is a positive sin or transgression against His will. Hence, we do not promote the glory of God by singing His praises, offering up prayers at His throne, and performing other devotional exercises, if, at the same time^ by neglecting the physical, organic, and moral laws, we act in direct contradic- tion to His plan of government, and present ourselves before 72 DUTIES OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL, Him as spectacles of pain and misfortune, suffering ths punishment of our infringements of His institutions, instead of reaping enjoyment by obedience, as He intended that we should do. Every law of God, however proclaimed to us —whether made known by the Scriptures or by His works — has an equal claim to observance ; and as religion consists in revering God and obeying His will, it thus appears that the discharge of our daily secular duties is literally the ful- filment of an essential part of our religious obligations. It is only by presenting before the Creator our bodies in as complete a condition of health and vigour, our minds as thoroughly disciplined to virtue and holiness, and as replete with knowledge, and, in consequence, our whole being as full of enjoyment, as our constitution will admit of — that we can really show forth His goodness and glory. If these ideas be founded in nature, the first duty of man as an individual is obviously to acquire knowledge of himself and of God's laws, in whatever record these are contained. I infer this to be a duty, because I perceive intellectual powers bestowed on him, obviously intended for the purpose of acquiring knowledge ; and not only a wide range of action permitted to all his powers, corporeal and mental, with plea- sure annexed to the use, and pain to the abuse of them : but also a vast liability to suffer by the influence of the ob- jects and beings around him, unless, by means of knowledge, he accommodate his conduct to their qualities and action. And while he is thus circumstanced, he has received few instinctive directions for the guidance of his conduct ; so that he has only the alternative presented to him of using his reason, or of enduring evil. It has too rarely been inculcated that the gaining of knowledge is a moral duty ; and yet, if our constitution be so framed that we cannot securely enjoy life, and discharge our duties as parents and members of society without it, and if a capacity for acquiring it has been bestowed on us, its acquisition is obviously commanded by the Creator, as a duty of the highest moment. The kind of knowledge which we are bound to acquire is clearly that of God's will and laws, whether written in the Scriptures, or in the great book of creation. It is the office of divines to instruct you in the duties prescribed in the Bible ; and I confine myself to the department of nature. The ignorant man suffers many inconveniences and dia- DUTIES OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 73 tresse9 to which he submits as inevitable dispensations of Providence : his own health perhaps fails him ; his children are perverse and disobedient ; his trade is unsuccessful ; and he regards all these as visitations from God, as exam- ples of the chequered lot of man on earth. If he be religious, he prays for a spirit of resignation, and directs his hopes to heaven : but if the foregoing view of the divine adminis- tration of the world be sound, he ought to ascribe his suf- ferings, in great part, to his own ignorance of the scheme of creation, and to his non-compliance with its rules. In addition to his religious duties, he ought, therefore, to fulfil the natural conditions appointed by the Creator as antece- dents to happiness, and then he may expect a blessing on his exertions and on his life. Important, however, as the knowledge of nature thus ap- pears to be, it is surprising how recently the efficient study of it has begun. It is not more than three centuries since the very dawn of inductive philosophy ; and some of the greatest scientific discoveries have been made within the last fifty or sixty years. These facts tell us plainly that the race of man, like the individual, is progressive ; that it has its infancy and youth ; and that we who now exist, live only in the day-spring of intelligence. In Europe and America the race may be viewed as putting forth the early blossoms of its rational nature ; while the greater part of the world lies buried in utter darkness. And even in Europe it is only the more gifted minds who see and appreciate their true position. These, from the Pisgah of knowledge, gaze upon the promised land of virtue and happiness stretched out be- fore their intellectual eye ; distant, indeed, but not inacces- sible — and sufficiently near to permit them to descry, however faintly, its beauty and luxuriance. If the study of nature and nature's laws be our first duty as rational and accountable beings, a moment's reflection will satisfy you that the instruction hitherto generally given even to the young of the higher ranks, has been preposter- ous and unavailing for purposes of practical utility. If a boy be taught the structure, uses, and laws of health of the lungs, he will be furnished with motives for avoiding sudden transitions of temperature, excessive bodily and mental exertion, and sleeping in ill-ventilated rooms ; and, on the other hand, for supporting every measure for improving, the purity of the air in his. native city, for rendering churches, 7 74 DUTIES OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. theatres, lecture-rooms, and all places of public resort, mora accordant with the laws of the human constitution in regard to temperature and ventilation ; in short, this knowledge will enable him to avoid much evil and to accomplish much practical good. If he do not acquire it, he will be exposed, in consequence of his ignorance, to suffer from many of these external influences operating unknown to himself, and injuriously both on his mind and body. If, on the other hand, he be taught that Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf; that ^Eneas was the son of Venus, who was the goddess of love ; that in Tartarus were three Furies, called Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megcera, who sent wars and pestilence through the earth, and punish the wicked after death with whips of scorpions ; that Jupiter was the son of Saturn, and the chief among all the gods ; that he dwelt on Mount Olympus, and employed one-eyed giants called Cyclops, whose workshop was in the heart of Mount ^Etna, to forge thunderbolts, which he threw down on the world when he was angry — the youth learns mere poetical fancies, often abundantly ridiculous and absurd, which lead to no useful actions. As all the personages of the heathen my- thology existed only in the fancies of poets and sculptors, they are not entities or agents ; and do not operate in any shape whatever on human enjoyment. The boy who has never dedicated his days and nights to the study of them, does not suffer punishment for his neglect ; which he infal- libly does, for his ignorance of nature. Neither is he re- warded for acquiring such knowledge, as he is by becoming acquainted with nature, which always enables him to do something that otherwise he could not have done, to reap an enjoyment which otherwise he should have wanted, or to avoid an evil which otherwise would have overtaken him. Jupiter throws no thunderbolts on those who neglect the history of his amours and of his war with the giants ; the Furies do not scourge those who are ignorant that, accord- ing to some writers, they sprang from the drops of blood which issued from a wound inflicted by Saturn upon his father Coelus, and that, according to others, they were the daughters of Pluto and Proserpine ; and the she-wolf does not bite us, although we be not aware that she suckled the founders of Rome — or, to speak more correctly, that credu- lous and foolish historians have said so. But if we neglect the study of God's laws, evil and misery most certainly ensue. DUTIES OP MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 75 These observations, however, are not to be understood is an unqualified denunciation of classical learning. The sentiment of Ideality finds gratification in poetic fictions : 9ut it is absurd to cultivate it and the faculty of Language to the exclusion of others not less important ; and besides, t must be kept in view, that in the pages of the Book of Nature, as well as in those of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid, ample materials are to be found for the cultivation and gra- tification of a refined taste. In the past ages of the world, systematic instruction in nature, her laws, and her rewards and punishments, has been sadly neglected. Even the best educated classes have in general been left destitute of this knowledge. They have been instructed in classical literature, composed chiefly of elegant and ingenious fables ; while the people at large have been taught to read and write, and left at that point to grope their way to knowledge without teachers, without books, and without encouragement or countenance from their supe- riors. In no country have the occupations of society, and the plan of life of individuals, been deliberately adopted in just appreciation of the order of nature. We ought, there- fore, in reason, to feel no surprise that the very complex mechanism of our individual constitution, and the still more complicated relations of our social condition, frequently move harshly, and sometimes become deranged. It would have been miraculous indeed, if a being, deliberately framed to become happy only in proportion to his knowledge and morality, had found himself in possession of all the comforts and enjoyments of which his nature when cultivated is susceptible, while he was yet in profound ignorance of him- self, of the world, and of their mutual adaptations. As individuals, our sphere of intellectual vision is so limited, that we have great difficulty in discovering the in- dispensable necessity of knowledge to the discharge of our duties and the promotion of our happiness. We are too apt to believe that our lot is fixed, and that we can do ex- tremely little to change and improve it. We feel as if we were overruled by a destiny too strong for our limited powers to cope with : and, as if to give strength and permanence to this impression, the man of the world asks us, What benefit would scientific information confer on the labourer, whose duty consists in digging ditches, in breaking stones, or in carrying loads, all day long - % and when the day is done, 76 DUTIES OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. whose only remaining occupation is to eat, sleep, and propa- gate his kind 1 Or of what use is information concerning nature's laws to the shopkeeper, whose duty in life is to manage his small trade, to pay his bills punctually when due, and to collect sharply his outstanding debtc 1 If these were all the duties of the labourer and of the shopkeeper, the man of the world would be right. But we discover hi Ihe individuals who have these duties allotted to them, fa- culties capable of far higher aims, and we say that nature points out the necessity of cultivating them. The answer which we make to the foregoing questions is, that the scheme of life of the day-labourer and of the shopkeeper, as now cast, is far short of the perfection which it is capable of reaching, and which it was evidently designed by the Crea- tor to attain. It does not afford scope for the exercise of their noblest and best gifts, and it does not favour their steady advance in the scale of moral, religious, and intel- lectual existence. The objector assumes that these classes have already at- tained the limits of their possible improvement ; and if the case were so, the conclusion might be sound, that science will be useless to them. But if they be at present far from enjoying the full sweets of existence ; if their condition be capable of vast amelioration, without deranging the order of social life ; and if the knowledge of themselves and of nature be a means of producing these advantages ; then the duty of acquiring knowledge is at once fundamental and paramount — it lies at the foundation of all improvement. If the mass of the people be destined never to rise above their present condition of ignorance, want, and toil, we must abandon the idea that the attributes of justice and benevo- lence are manifested by God in this world. I am anxious to press this idea earnestly on your consi- deration, because it appears to me to constitute the grand difference between the old and the new philosophy. The characteristic feature of the old philosophy, founded on the knowledge, not of man's nature but of his political history, is, that Providence intended different lots for men, (a point in which the new philosophy agrees,) and that, in the divine appointment of conditions, the millions, or vast masses of the people, were destined to act the part onlv of industrious ministers to the physical wants of society, while a favoured few were meant to be the sole recipients of knowledge and DUTIES OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 77 refinement. In accordance with this principle, it is regard- ed not only as Utopian, but as actually baneful and injurious to the happiness of the industrious classes themselves, to open up to their minds high and comprehensive views of their own mental capabilities and those of external nature ; because, it is said that such ideas render them discontented with their condition, while the arrangements of the Creator have placed impassable barriers in the way of their ever ad- vancing beyond it. According to the old philosophy, there- fore, it is not a duty imposed on every individual to exercise his intellectual powers in extending his acquaintance with nature ; on the contrary, a labouring man fulfils his part completely when he acquires a knowledge of his moral and religious duties from the Bible, becomes master of his trade, and quietly and soberly practises the duties of his station, unmoved by ambition and unenlightened by science, till death consigns him to the grave. According to this philo- sophy, human nature is now stationary, or at least its ad- vances are conducted exclusively by the higher classes, or by Providence in ways incomprehensible to us and which need none of our assistance ; and so far as our influence is concerned, we ought to regard it as having already reached the summit level of improvement, and our greatest interest should be to prevent its flowing back into turbulence and vice. The new philosophy, on the other hand, or that which is founded on knowledge of man's nature, admits the allotment of distinct conditions to different men, because it recognises evident differences in their mental and bodily endowments ; but in surveying their faculties it discovers that all of them possess, in a greater or less degree, powers of observation and reflection calculated to observe and study nature ; the sentiment of Ideality prompting them to desire refinement and to long for perfect institutions ; the feeling of Benevo- lence desiring universal happiness ; the sentiment of Con- scientiousness rejoicing in justice ; and emotions of Hope, Veneration, and Wonder, causing the glow of religious de- votion to spring up in their souls, and their whole being to desire acquaintanceship with a God whom they may love, worship, and obey. And it proclaims, that beings so gifted were not destined to exist as mere animated machinery, lia- ble to be superseded at every stage of their lives by the steam-engine, the pulley, or the lever ; but were clearly in* 7* 78 DUTIES OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL, tended to advance in their mental attainments, and to rise higher in the scale of rational existence. This conclusion is absolutely irresistible, if the general idea of the divine administration of the world, communicated in my last lecture, be sound — that which regards all nature as proceeding under fixed, independent, but harmonious laws. Under such a system, the Creator speaks forth from every element of nature, and proclaims his will to every human being, that he must acquire knowledge or suffer evil. We may rest assured that the fulfilment of every necessary duty is compatible with enlarged mental attainments in all the race ; because the Creator has not bestowed capacities and desires on his creatures which their inevitable condi- tion renders it impossible for them to cultivate and gratify. There are humbler minds fitted to perform the humbler duties of life, and no cultivation of which they are capable, although greatly superior to that which they now enjoy, will carry them beyond them. But in a thoroughly moral and enlightened community, no useful office will be degrading ; nor will any be incompatible with the due exercise of the highest faculties of man. It is delightful to perceive that these views are gaining ground, and are daily more and more advocated by the press. I recommend to your perusal a work just published,* en- titled " My Old House, or the Doctrine of Changes," in which they are ably and eloquently enforced. Speaking of the purposes of God in the administration of the world, the author observes, that " the great error of mankind, on this subject, has at all times been, that feeling themselves, at least in the vast multitude of cases, to occupy (by the ordination of Providence, or by what they commonly consider as their unfortunate lot in life) but a very obscure and laborious sta- tion in the household, they are apt to think that it matters little with what spirit they advance to their toils — that they cannot be in a condition to give any appreciable advance- ment to the plans of the Master — and that, at any rate, if they do not altogether desert their place, and permit it to run into disorder, they have done all that can well be ex- pected from them, or that they are indeed in a condition to do, for the progressive good of the whole. Take, for in- stance, the condition of a person who, in the lowest and obscurest lot of life, is intrusted with the bringing up of a * 28th November, 1835. DUTIES OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 79 family — and how often do we hear from such persons the complaint, that all their cares are insufficient for the mo- ment that is passing over their heads — and that, provided they can obtain the mere necessaries of life, they cannot be required to look to any higher purposes which may be ob- tained their by cares. And yet, what situation in life is in reality more capable of being conducted in the most efficient and productive manner, or more deserving the nicest and most conscientious care of those intrusted with it 1 For, are not the hearts and understandings of the young committed to the immediate care of those who chiefly and habitually oc- cupy the important scenes of domestic life — and if they pay a due regard, not only to the temporal, but to the moral and intellectual interests of their charge — if they make home the seat of all the virtues which are so appropriately suited to it — if they set the example — an example which is almost never forgotten — of laborious worth struggling, it may be, through long years, and yet never disheartened in its toils— and if by these means they make their humble dwelling a scene of comfort, of moral training, and of both material and moral beauty, which attracts the eye and warms the hearts of all who witness it — how truly valuable is the part which such servants of the Master have been enabled to perform for the due regulation of all parts of his household — and when their day of labour is done, and the cry goeth forth, ' Call the labourers to their reward,' with what placid confidence may they advance to receive the recompense of their toils — and be satisfied, as they prepare themselves for 1 the rest that awaits them,' that, though their lot in life has been humble and their toils obscure, they have yet not been unprofitable servants, and that the results of their labours shall yet be ■ seen after many days.' " " The same style of thought may be applied to all the varied offices which human life, even in its lowest forms and most unnoticed places, can be found to present — and when these varied conditions and duties of the ' humble poor ' are so consider- ed, it will be found that a new light seems to diffuse itself over the whole plan of the divine kingdom — and that no task which the Master of the household can assign to any of his servants, is left without inducements to its fulfilment, which may prepare the labourer for the mosfcheerfuland delighted attention to his work." (P. 84.)* How important is know- * The reputed author of these sentiments is a clergyman of 80 DUTIES OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. ledge to the due fulfilment of the humble, yet respectable, duties here so beautifully described ! I conclude this lecture by observing that the duty of ac- quiring knowledge implies that of communicating it to others when attained ; and tnere is no form in which the humblest individual may do more good, or assist more effectually in carrying forward the improvement and happiness of man- kind, than in teaching them truth and its applications. I feel that I lie under a moral obligation to communicate to you (who, by your attendance here, testify your desire of instruction,) the knowledge concerning the natural laws of the Creator, which my own mind has been permitted to dis- cover. I learn that other instructors of the people have considered it to be their duty to denounce, as dangerous, the knowledge which is here communicated, and to warn you against it.* But I am not moved by such declama- tions. What I teach you, I believe to be truth inscribed by the hand of God in the book of nature ; and I have never been able to understand what is meant by a dangerous truth. All natural truth is simply knowledge of what the Creator has instituted and done ; and it savours of impiety, and not of reverence, to stigmatize it as injurious. The very oppo- site is the fact. Lord Bacon has truly said, that " there are, besides the authority of Scripture, two reasons of ex- ceeding great weight and force, why religion should dearly protect all increase of natural knowledge : the one because it leads to the greater exaltation of the glory of God ; for, as the Psalms and other Scriptures do often invite us to consider and to magnify the great and wonderful works of God, so if we should rest only in the contemplation of those which first offer themselves to our senses, we should do a the Established Church of Scotland ; and in May, 1839, the general assembly of that church appointed a committee of their number to inquire into the nature of his works, and to re- port whether he should be prosecuted for heresy ! This is one, among many instances, of the evils of an Established Church. Its position is immoveable ; and as it cannot advance with the stream of knowledge, it forms itself into a great barrier, to obstruct the current of human improvement. * These lectures were reported in one of the newspapers in Edinburgh, and, during the delivery of them, more than one of the clergy of the Established Church preached sermons against them. DUTIES OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 81 like injury to the majesty of God, as if we should judge of the store of some excellent jeweller by that only which is set out to the street in his shop. The other reason is, be- cause it is a singular help, and a preservative against un- belief and error ; For, says our Saviour, ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God ; laying before us two books or volumes to study, if we will be secured from error — first, the Scriptures, revealing the will of God ; and then the creatures, expressing his power." » We have seen, however, that not the poicer of God only, but also his will, is expressed in the constitution of M the creatures ;" and hence a double reason becomes manifest why it is our duty to study them. It would seem, therefore, that the instructors alluded to have assumed that it is not truth, but error, which is incul- cated in this place. If they had pronounced such an opi- nion after inquiry, and for reasons stated, I should have been ready to pause and reconsider my views ; but they have condemned us unheard and untried — assuming boldly that, because we teach ideas different from their own individual notions, we are necessarily in error. This assumption in- dicates merely that our accusers have not arrived at the same preceptions of the Divine government with ourselves — a result that will by no means be wondered at by any one who considers that they have not followed the course of inquiry pursued by us. There is, however, some reason for surprise, that their opinions should be advanced as un- questionably superior to, and exclusive of, those of other men, adopted after patient observation and thought, seeing that many of them are the emanations of a dark age in which the knowledge of Nature's laws did not exist, and that they are prohibited, under pain of forfeiting their livings, from changing their tenets, even although they should see them to be erroneous. I advance here, for your acceptance, no proposition based on the authority of my own discernment alone ; but submit each to your scrutiny and judgment. I enable you, as far as in me lies, to detect all the errors into which I may in- advertently fall, and ask you to embrace only the ideas which seem to be amply supported by evidence and reason. We are told by a great authority, to judge of all things by their fruits ; and, by this test, I leave the doctrines of this phi- losophy to stand or fall. What are the effects of them on 82 DUTIES OP MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. your minds 1 Do you feel your conceptions of the Deity circumscribed and debased by the views which I have pre- sented — or, on the contrary, purified and exalted 1 In the simplicity, adaptations, and harmony of Nature's laws, do you not recognise positive and tangible proof of the omnis- cience and omnipotence of the Creator — a solemn and impressive lesson, that in every moment of our existence, we live, and move, and have our being, supported by his power, rewarded by his goodness, and restrained by his jus- tice 1 Does not this sublime idea of the continual presence of God now cease to be a vague, and, therefore, a cold and barren conception ; and does it not, through the medium of the natural laws, become a deep-felt, encouraging, and controlling reality] Do your understandings revolt from such a view of creation, as ill adapted to moral, religious, and intelligent being? or do they ardently embrace it, and leap with joy at light evolving itself from the moral chaos, and exhibiting order and beauty, authority and rule, in a vast domain where previously there was great darkness, perplexity, and doubt 1 Do you feel your own nature de- based by viewing every faculty as calculated for virtue, yet so extensive in its range, that it has a sphere of action even beyond virtue, in the wild regions of vice, when it moves blindly and without control ] Or do you perceive in this constitution a glorious liberty — yet the liberty only of moral beings, happy when they follow virtue, and miserable when they lapse into sin ! In teaching you that every action of your lives has a consequence of good or evil annexed to it, according as it harmonizes with, or is in opposition to, the laws of God, do I promise impunity to vice, and thereby give a loose rein to the impetuosity of passion — or do I set up around the youthful mind a hedge and circumvallation, within which it finds itself in light, and liberty, and joy ; but beyond which lie sin and inevitable suffering, weeping, wailing, and ghashing of teeth? Let tke tree, I say, be known by its fruits. Look to heaven, and see if the doc- trines which I teach have circumscribed or darkened the attributes of the Supreme ; then turn your contemplation inward, and see whether they have degraded or exalted, chilled or inspired with humble confidence and hope, the soul which God has given you ; and by your verdict pro- nounced after this consideration, let the fate of the doctrines be sealed. In teaching them, be it repeated, I consider DUTIES OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 83 myself to be discharging a moral duty ; and no frown of men will tempt me to shrink from proceeding in such a course. If my exposition of the Divine government be true, it is a noble vocation to proclaim it to the world ; for the knowledge of it must be fraught with blessings and enjoy- ment to man. It would be a cold heart and a coward soul, that, with such convictions, would fear the face of clay ; and only a demonstration of my being in error, or the hand of the destroyer Death, shall arrest my course in proclaim- ing every portion of my knowledge which promises to aug- ment the virtue and happiness of mankind. If you partici- pate in these sentiments, let us advance and fear not — encouraged by the assurance, that if this doctrine be of man it will come to nought, but that if it be of God r no human authority can prevail against it ! LECTURE IV. PRESERVING BODILY AND MENTAL HEALTH, A MORAL DUTY . AMUSEMENTS. The preservation of health is a moral duty — Causes of bad health are to be found in infringement of the organic laws — All the bodily organs must be preserved in proportionate vigour — The pleasures attending high health are refined and quite distinct from sensual pleasures — The habits of the lower animals are instructive to man in regard to health — Labour is indispensable to health — Fatal consequences of continued, although slight, infractions of the organic laws — Amusements necessary to health, and therefore not sinful— We have received faculties of Time, Tune, Ideality, Imita- tion, and Wit, calculated to invent and practise amusements — Their uses and abuses stated — Error of religious persons who condemn instead of purifying and improving public amusements. The next duty of man, as an individual, is to apply his knowledge in preserving himself in health, bodily and men- tal. Without health he is unfit for the successful discharge of his duties. It is so advantageous and agreeable to enjoy sound health, that many persons will exclaim, " No prophet is needed to inform us that it is our duty and our interest sedulously to guard it ;" but many who treat thus lightly the general injunction, are grievously deficient in practical knowledge how to carry it into effect. It is true that every 84 PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY/. man in his senses, takes care not to fall into the fire or walk into a pool of water ; but how many valuable lives are put in jeopardy by sitting in wet clothes, by overtasking the brain in study or in the cares of business, or by too frequent- ly repeated convivialities ! In tracing to their source the calamities which arise to families and individuals from bad health and untimely death, attended by deep laceration of their feelings and numerous privations, it is surprising how many of them may be disco- vered to arise from slight but long continued deviations from the dictates of the organic laws ; so slight that at first scarcely any injurious or even disagreeable result was ob- served, but which gradually augmented until the most ruin- ous consequences were produced. Perhaps the victim was an ardent student, and, under the impulse of a laudable ambition to excel in his profession, studied with so much in- tensity and for such long periods in succession, that he overtasked his brain, and ruined his bodily health. His parents and relations, equally ignorant with himself of the organic laws, were rejoiced in his diligence, and forming fond expectations of the brilliant future that must, in their estimation, await one so gifted in virtuous feeling, in intellect, and in industry ; when suddenly he was seized with fever, with inflammation, or with consumption, and in a few days or weeks he was carried to the tomb. The heart bleeds at the sight ; and the ways of Providence appear hard to be reconciled with our natural feelings and expectations ; yet when we trace the catastrophe backward to its first cause, it is discovered to have had no mysterious or vindictive ori- gin. The very habits w r hich appeared to the spectators so amiable, and calculated to lead to such excellent attainments, were practically erroneous, and there was not one link want- ing to complete the connexion between them and the catas- trophe which all so seriously lament. Another cause by which health and life are frequently destroyed, is occasional reckless conduct, pursued in igno- rance of the laws of the human constitution. Take as an example the following case, which I have elsewhere given : A young man in a public office, after many months of se- dentary occupation, went to the country on a shooting ex- pedition, where he exhausted himself by muscular exertion, of which his previous habits had rendered him little capable : he went to bed feverish, and perspired much during the PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY. 85 night : next day he came to Edinburgh, unprotected by a great-coat, on the outside of a very early coach : his skin was chilled, the perspiration was checked, the blood received an undue determination to the interior vital organs, disease was excited in the lungs, and within a few weeks he was consigned to the grave. I received an interesting communication, in illustration of the topic which I am now discussing, from a medical gentleman well known in the literary world by his instructive publications. His letter was suggested by a perusal of the "Constitution of Man." "On four several occasions," says he, " I have nearly lost my life from infringing the organic laws. When a lad of fifteen, I brought on a brain fever, (from excessive study,) which nearly killed me ; at the age of nineteen I had an attack of peritonitis, (inflammation of the lining membrane of the abdomen,) occasioned by vio- lent efforts in wrestling and leaping ; and while in France, nine years ago, I was laid up with pneumonia, (inflammation of the lungs,) brought on by dissecting in the great galleries of La Pitie with my coat and hat off in the month of Decem- ber, the windows next to me being constantly open ; and in 1829 I had a dreadful fever, occasioned by walking home from a party, at which I had been dancing, in an exceeding- ly cold morning, without a cloak or great-coat. I was for four months on my back, and did not recover perfectly for more than eighteen months. All these evils were entirely of my own creating, and arose from a foolish violation of laws which every sensible man ought to observe and regu- late himself by. Indeed I have always thought — and your book confirms me more fully in the sentiment — that, by pro- per attention, crime and disease and misery of every sort, could, in a much greater measure than is generally believed, be banished from the earth, and that the true method of doing so is to instruct people in the laws which govern their own frame."* The great requisite of health is the preservation of all the leading organs of the body in a condition of regular and proportionate activity ; to allow none to become too languid, and none too active. The result of this harmonious activity is a pleasing consciousness of existence, experienced when * The author of this letter was Dr. Robert Macnish ; and 1 regret to say, that since it was written he has fallen a victim to another attack of fever. 8 86 PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY, the mind is withdrawn from all exciting objects and turned inward on its own feelings. A philosophical friend once remarked to me, that he never considered himself to be in complete health, except when he was able to place his feet firmly on the turf, his hands hanging carelessly by his sides, and his eyes wandering over space, and thus circumstanced, to feel such agreeable sensations arising in his mere bodily frame, that he could raise his mind to heaven, and thank God that he was a living man. This description of the quiet, pleasing enjoyment which accompanies complete health, appears to me to be admirable. It can hardly be doubted that the Creator intended that the mere play of our bodily organs should yield us pleasure. It is probable that this is the chief gratification enjoyed by the inferior animals ; and although we have received the high gift of reason, it does not necessarily follow that we should be deprived of the delights which our organic nature is fairly calculated to afford. How different is the enjoyment which I have de- scribed, arising from the temperate, active, harmonious play of every bodily function — from sensual pleasure, which results from the abuse of a few of our bodily appetites, and is fol- lowed by lasting pain ; and yet so perverted are human notions, in consequence of ignorance and vicious habits, that thousands attach no idea to the phrase bodily pleasure, but sensual indulgence. The pleasurable feelings spring- ing from health are delicate and refined ; they are the reward and the supports of virtue, and altogether incompati- ble with vicious gratification of the appetites. I am afraid that so widely do the habits of civilized life depart from the standards of nature, that this enjoyment is known, in its full exquisiteness, to comparatively few. Too many of us, when we direct our attention to our bodily sensations, experience, instead of it, only feelings of discomfort, anxiety, and dis- content, which make us fly to an external pursuit, that we may escape from ourselves. This undefined uneasiness is the result of slight, but extensive derangement of the vital functions, and is the prelude of future disease. The causes of these uneasy feelings may be traced in our erroneous habits, occupations, and physical condition ; and until society shall become so enlightened as to adopt extensive improve- ments in all these particulars, there is no prospect of their termination. It is instructive to compare with our own, the modes of PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY. 87 life of the lower animals, whose actions and habits are direct- ly prompted and regulated by the Creator, by means of their instincts ; because, in all circumstances in which our con- stitution closely resembles theirs, their conduct is really a lesson read to us by the Allwise himself. If, then, we sur- vey them attentively, we shall discover that the greatest care has been taken to prompt them to a course of action that shall produce this harmonious activity in all their vital organs, and thus ensure their possession of health. Animals in a state of nature are remarkably cleanly in their habits. You must have observed the feathered tribes dressing their plu- mage and washing themselves in the brooks. The domestic cat is most careful to preserve a clean, sleek, shining skin ; the dog rolls himself on grass or straw ; and you will see the horse, when grazing, do the same, if he has not enjoyed the luxury of being well curried. The sow, although our standard of comparison for dirt, is not deserving of this character. It is invariably clean, wherever it is possible for it to be so ; and its bad reputation arises from its master leaving it no sphere of existence except dunghills and other receptacles of filth. In a stable-yard where there is abun- dance of clean straw, the sleeping-place of the sow is un- soiled, and it makes great efforts to preserve it in this condition. Again — you will find that in a state of nature there has been imposed on the inferior animals, in acquiring their food, a degree of labour, which amounts to regular exercise of their corporeal functions. And, lastly, their food has been so adjusted to their constitutions, that they are well nourish- ed, but very rarely rendered sick through surfeit, or the bad quality of what they eat. I speak always of animals in a state of nature. The domestic cow which has stood in a house for many months, when first turned into a clover field, is sometimes guilty of committing a surfeit ; but she would not do so if left on the hill-side, and allowed to pick up her food by assiduous exertion. The animals, I repeat, are im- pelled directly by the Creator to act in the manner now described ; and when we study their organization, and see what is necessary to preserve it in health and enjoyment, we cannot fail greatly to admire the wisdom and benevolence displayed in their habits and constitution. Man differs from the brutes in this — that instead of blind instincts, he is furnished with reason, which enables him to 88 PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY. study himself, the external world, and their mutual rela- tions ; and to pursue the conduct which these point out as beneficial. It is by examining the structure, modes of ac- tion, and objects, of the various parts of his constitution, that man discovers what his duties of performance and ab- stinence in regard to health really are. This proposition may be illustrated in the following manner : The skin has innumerable pores and serves as an outlet for the waste particles of the body. The quantity of noxious matter ex- creted through these pores in twenty-four hours is, on the very lowest estimate, about twenty-four ounces. If the passage of this matter be obstructed, so that it is retained in the body, the quality of the blood is deteriorated by its presence, and the general health, which greatly depends on the state of the blood, suffers. The nature of perspired matter is such, that it is apt, in consequence of the evapora- tion of its watery portion, to be condensed and clog the pores of the skin ; and hence the necessity for washing the surface frequently, so as to keep the pores open and allow the perspiration to be freely performed. The clothing, moreover, must be so porous and clean, as readily to absorb and allow a passage to the matter perspired, otherwise the same result ensues as from the impurity of the skin, namely, the obstruction of the process of perspiration. Nor is this all. The skin is an absorbing as well as an excreting organ, so that foreign substances in contact with it are sucked into its pores and introduced into the blood. When cleanliness is neglected, therefore, the evil consequence is twofold ; first, the pores, as we have seen, are clogged, and the per- spiration obstructed ; and, secondly, part of the noxious matter left on the skin or clothing, is absorbed into the sys- tem, where it produces hurtful effects. From such an ex- position of the structure and functions of the skin, the necessity for cleanliness of person and clothing becomes abundantly evident ; and the corresponding duty of cleanli- ness is more likely to be performed by those who know the preceding details, than by persons who are impelled to performance by bare injunctions. In some parts of the east ablution of the body is justly regarded as a duty of religion : but it needs not to be told how extensively this duty is neglected in our own country. When men become enlightened, a warm bath, once a week at least, will be con- sidered one of the necessaries of life : those who are in the PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY. 89 habit of keeping their skin in a proper condition, by means of bathing and friction, will bear testimony to the increase of comfort and activity which is thus secured. I might, in like manner, describe the structure and modes of action of the bones, muscles, bloodvessels, nerves, and brain ; and demonstrate to you that the necessity of bodily and mental labour, of temperance, of attention to ventilation, clothing, and lodging, and of a great variety of other obser- vances, is written by the finger of God in the frame- work of our bodies. This, however, belongs to physiology ; and here I assume that you have studied and understand the leading facts of that subject. I limit myself to two obser- vations. First, Exercise of the bones and muscles is la- bour ; and labour, instead of being a curse to man, is a positive source of his well-being and enjoyment. It is only excessive labour that is painful ; and in a well ordered community there would be no necessity for such exertion as would be painful. Secondly, Exercise of the brain is mental activity, either intellectual, or moral, or animal, ac- cording to the faculties which we employ. Mental inac- tivity, therefore, implies inactivity of the brain ; and as the brain is the fountain of nervous energy to the whole system, the punishment of neglecting its exercise is great and severe — namely, feelings of lassitude, uneasiness, fear, and anxiety ; vague desires, sleepless nights, and a general consciousness of discomfort, with incapacity to escape from suffering ; all which poison life at its source and render it thoroughly miserable. Well regulated mental activity, combined with due bodily exercise, on the other hand, is rewarded with gay, joyous feelings, an inward alacrity to discharge all our duties, a good appetite, sound sleep, and a general con- sciousness of happiness that causes days and years to fleet away without leaving a trace of physical suffering behind. While moderate and proportionate exercise of all the bodily and mental functions is essential to health, it is equally indispensable to shun over-exertion and excessive mental excitement, if we desire to preserve this invaluable blessing. Owing to the constitution of British society, it is extremely difficult to avoid, in our habitual conduct, one or other of the extremes of indolence and over-exertion. Many persons, born to wealth, have few motives to exertion ; and such individuals, particularly females, often suffer grie- vously in their health and happiness from want of rational 8* 90 PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY. pursuits, calculated to excite and exercise their bodies and minds. Others, again, who do not inherit riches from their ancestors, are tempted to overwork themselves in acquiring them ; an expensive style of living is so general as to be felt by many to be almost unavoidable ; and to support it, they labour so incessantly that almost no leisure remains for the cultivation of their moral and intellectual powers, and for that repose of mind, and exercise of body, which are indispensable to health. Hence arise indigestion and other diseases ; and many, even after they have succeeded in acquiring wealth, feel uncomfortable and discontented. How many of us, after beginning our labours long before the sun at this season dawns upon our city, find it difficult to snatch even this late hour, at which we now assemble, from our pressing and yet unfulfilled business engagements I The same state of society exists in the United States of America, and the same effects ensue. Dr. Caldwell, one of the ornaments of that country, in his work on Physical Education, introduces some excellent remarks on the ten- dency of the embroilment of party politics and religious differences to over-excite the brain and produce insanity, and also dyspepsia or indigestion, which, says he, is more nearly allied to insanity than is commonly supposed. " So true is this," he adds, " that the one is not unfrequently converted into the other, and often alternates with it. The lunatic is usually a dyspeptic during his lucid intervals ; and complaints, which begin in some form of gastric de- rangement, turn, in many instances, to madness. Nor is this all. In families where mental derangement is heredi- tary, the members who escape that complaint are more than usually obnoxious to dyspepsia. It may be added, that dyspeptics and lunatics are relieved by the same modes of treatment, and that their maladies are induced, for the most part, by the same causes." The passions of grief, jealousy, anger, and envy, impair the digestive power ; and dyspepsia is often cured by abandoning care and business, and giving rest to the brain. It is chiefly for this reason that a visit to a watering-place is so beneficial. The agita- tions of commercial speculation and too eager pursuit ot wealth, have the same effect with party politics and reli- gious controversy in over-exciting the brain ; and "hence, in all probability, the inordinate extent of insanity and indi- gestion in Britain, and still more in the United States." PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY. 91 In opposition to these obvious dictates of reason, two objections are generally urged. The first is, that persons who are always taking care of their health, generally ruin it ; their heads are filled with hypochondriacal fancies and alarms, and they become habitual valetudinarians. The answer to this objection is, that all such persons are already valetudinarians before they begin to experience the anxiety about their health here described ; they are already nervous or dyspeptic, the victims of a morbid uneasiness of mind, which, for want of other objects, is at last directed toward the state of their health. They are essentially in the right, however, as to the main cause of their distress, for their anxiety certainly does proceed from disorder of their organic functions. Their chief error lies in this, that their care of health proceeds from an anxiety without knowledge, and leads to no beneficial result. They take quack medicines, or follow some foolish observances, instead of subjecting themselves patiently and perseveringly to a regimen in diet, and a regular course of exercise, amusement, and relaxation — the remedies dictated by the organic laws. This last procedure alone is what I call taking care of health ; and I have never seen any human being become an invalid or a hypochondriac from adopting it. On the contrary, I have known many individuals who, in consequence of this rational obedience to the organic laws, have ceased to suffer under the maladies which previously attacked them. The second objection is, that many persons live in sound health to a good old age, who never take any care of them- selves at all ; whence it is inferred that the safest plan is to follow their example and act on all occasions as impulse prompts, never doubting that our health, if we pursue this manly course, will take care of itself. In answer to this objection I observe, that constitutions differ widely in the amount of their native stamina, and consequently in the extent of tear and wear and bad treatment which they are able to sustain without being ruined ; and that for this reason, one individual may be comparatively little injured by a course of action which would prove fatal to another with a feebler natural frame. The grand principle of the philosophy which I am now teaching is, that the natural laws really admit of no excep- tions, and that specific causes, sufficient to account for the apparent exception, exist in every instance. Some of these 92 PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY. individuals may have enjoyed very robust constitutions, which it was difficult to subvert : others may have indulged in excesses only at intervals, passing an intermediate period in abstinence, and permitting the powers of nature to re- adjust themselves and recover their tone, before they com- mitted a new debauch ; while others may have led an extiemely active life, passing much of their time in the open air ; a mode of action which enables the constitution to withstand a greater extent of intemperance than it can resist with sedentary employment. But of one and all of these men we may safely affirm, that if they had obeyed the organic laws, they would have lived still longer and more happily than they did by infringing them : and in the course of my own observations, I have never seen an ex- ample of an individual who perseveringly proceeded in a course of intemperance, either sensual or 'mental — that is, who habitually overtasked his stomach or his brain — who did not permanently ruin his health, usefulness, and enjoy- ment ; I therefore cannot believe in the supposed excep- tions to the organic laws. One source of error on this subject may be traced to the widely prevailing ignorance which exists regarding the structure and functions of the body ; in consequence of which, danger is frequently present, although it may be unknown to those who thus unthinkingly expose themselves to its approach. If you have marked a party of young men proceeding in a boat on a pleasure-sail in the Frith of Forth, every one of whom is unacquainted with the currents, sand- banks, and rocks, visible and invisible, with which the Frith is studded, you may have seen them all gay, alert, full of fun and frolic ; and if the day was calm and the sea smooth, you may have observed them return in the evening well and happy, and altogether unconscious of the dangers to which their ignorance had exposed them. They may repeat the experiment, and succeed, by a fortunate combination of circumstances, again and again ; but how different would be the feelings of a prudent and experienced pilot, who knew every part of the channel, and who saw that on one day they had passed within three inches of a sunken rock, on which, if they had struck, their boat would have been smashed to pieces ; on another, had escaped by a few yards a dangerous sand-bank ; and on a third, had, with great difficulty, been able to extricate themselves from a current PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY. 93 which was rapidly carrying them on a precipitous and rocky shore. The pilot's anxiety would probably be fully justified at length, by the upsetting of the boat in a squall, its de- struction in a mist, or its driving out to sea when the wind aided an adverse current. This is not an imaginary picture. In my own youth, I happened to form one of such an inconsiderate party. The wind rose on us, and all our strength applied to the oars scarcely sufficed to enable us to pull round a point of rock, on which the sea was beating with so much force, that, had we struck on it, our frail bark would never have withstood a second shock. Scarcely had we escaped this danger, when we ran right in the way of a heavy man-of-war's boat, scudding at the rate of ten miles an hour before the wind, and which would have run us down, but for the amazing promptitude of her crew, who in an instant extended twenty brawny arms over the side of their own boat, seized ours, and held it above the water by main force, till they were able to clear away by our stern. The adventure was ter- minated by our being picked up by a revenue cutter, and brought safely into Leith harbour at a late hour in the eve- ning. I have reflected since on the folly and presumptuous confidence of that excursion ; but I never was aware of the full extent of the danger, until, many years subsequently, I saw a regular chart of the Frith, in which the shoals, sunken rocks, and currents were conspicuously laid down for the direction of pilots who navigate these waters. Thus it is with rash, reckless, ignorant youth in regard to health. Each folly or indiscretion that, through some combination of fortunate circumstances, has been committed without immediate punishment, emboldens them to venture on greater irregularities, until, in an evil hour, they are caught in a violation of the organic laws that consigns them to the grave. Those who have become acquainted with the structure, functions, and laws of the vital organs, see the conduct of these blind adventurers on the ocean of life, in the same light that our youthful voyage appeared to me after I had become acquainted with the chart of the Frith. There is an unspeakable difference between a belief in safety founded only on utter ignorance of the existence of danger, and that which arises from a knowledge of all the sunken rocks and eddies in the stream, and from a practical pilot's skill in steering clear away from them all. The pilot 94 PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY. is as gay and joyous as they ; but his joy arises from as- surance of safety ; theirs from ignorance of danger. He is cheerful, yet always observant, cautious, and alert. They are happy, because they are unobservant and heedless. When danger comes, he shuns it by his skill, or meets and conquers it. They escape it by accident, or perish unwit- tingly in a moment. The last observation which I make on this head is, that, in regard to health, Nature may be said to allow us to run an account-current with her, in which many small trans- gressions seem at the time to be followed by no penalty, when, in fact, they are all charged to the debit side of the account, and, after the lapse of years, are summed up and closed by a fearful balance against the transgressor. Do any of you know individuals, who, for twenty years, have persevered in frequent feastings, who all that time have been constant diners out or diners at home, or the soul of convivial meetings, prolonged into far advanced hours of the morning, and who have resisted every warning and admo- nition from friends, and proceeded in the confident belief that neither their health nor strength was impaired by such a course 1 Nature kept an account-current with such men. She had, at first, placed a strong constitution and vigorous health to their credit, and they had drawn on it day by day, believing that, because she did not instantly strike the ba- lance against them and withdraw her blessing, she was keeping no note of their follies. But mark the close. At the end of twenty years, or less, you will find them dying of palsy, apoplexy, water in the chest, or some other dis- ease clearly referable to their protracted intemperance ; or, if they escape death, you will see them become walking shadows, the ghosts of their former selves — in short, the beacons set up by Nature to warn others that she does not in any instance permit her laws to be transgressed with impunity. If sedulous instruction in the laws of health would not assist the reason and moral and religious feelings of such persons to curb their appetites, and avoid these consequences, they must be reckless indeed. At least, until this shall have been tried and failed, we should never despair, nor consider their case and condition as beyond the reach of improvement. It must be allowed, however, that the dangers arising to health from improper social habits and arrangements, cannot PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY. 95 be altogether avoided by the exertions of individuals acting singly in their separate spheres. I shall have occasion, hereafter, in explaining the social law, to point out that the great precept of Christianity (that we must love our neigh- bours as ourselves) is inscribed in every line of our con- stitution ; and that, in consequence, we must render our neighbours as moral, intelligent, and virtuous as ourselves, before we can reap the full reward even of our own know- ledge and attainments. As an example in point, I observe, that if there be among us any one merchant, manufacturer, or lawyer, who feels, in all its magnitude and intensity, the evil of an overstrained pursuit of wealth ; yet he cannot, with impunity, abridge his hours of toil, unless he can in- duce his rivals to do so also. If they persevere, they will outstrip him in the race of competition and impair his for- tune. We must, therefore, produce a general conviction among the constituent members of society, that Providence forbids that course of incessant action which obstructs the path of moral and intellectual improvement, and leads to mental anxiety and corporal suffering, and induce them, by a simultaneous movement, to apply an effectual remedy in a wiser and better distribution of the hours of labour, re- laxation, and enjoyment. Every one of us can testify, that this is possible, so far as the real, necessary, and advanta- geous business of the world is concerned ; for we perceive that, by a judicious arrangement of our time and our affairs, all necessary business may be compressed within many fewer hours than we now dedicate to that object, so as to allow us a reasonable space for mental cultivation, exercise, and amusement. I should consider eight hours a day an ample allowance of time for business and labour : this would allow us eight hours more for enjoyment, and eight for re- pose, a distribution that would cause life to flow more cheer- fully, agreeably, and successfully, than it can do under our present system of ceaseless competition and toil. It appears, then, from the foregoing considerations, that the study and observance of the laws of health is a moral duty ; this conduct being clearly revealed by our very con- stitution as the will of God, and being, moreover, necessary to the due discharge of all our other duties. We rarely hear from divines an exposition of the duty of preserving health, founded on our natural constitution ; because they confine themselves to what the Scriptures contain. The 96 PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY. Scriptures, in prescribing sobriety and temperance, modera- tion and activity, clearly coincide with the natural law on this subject : but we ought not to study the former to the exclusion of the latter ; for, by learning the structure, func- tions, and relations of the human body, we are rendered more fully aware of the excellence of the scriptural pre- cepts, and obtain new motives to observe them in our per- ception of the punishments by which, even in this world, the breach of them is visited. Why the exposition of the will of God, when strikingly written in the book of nature, should be neglected by divines, is explicable only by the fact, that when the present standards of theology were framed, that book was sealed and its contents were un- known. We cannot, therefore, justly blame our ancestors for the omission ; but it is not too much to hope that mo- dem divines may take courage and supply the deficiency. I believe that many of them are inclined to do so, but are afraid of giving offence to the people. By teaching the peo- ple to regard all natural institutions as divine, because the/ proceed from the Creator, this obstacle to improvement may, in time, be removed, and religion may be brought to lend her powerful aid in enforcing obedience to the natural laws. In my Introductory Lecture, I explained that Veneration, as well as the other moral sentiments, is merely a blind feel- ing, that needs to be directed by knowledge. In that lec- ture I alluded to the case of an English lady, who had all her life been taught to regard Christmas and Good Friday as holy, and who was greatly shocked at perceiving them, on her first arrival in Edinburgh, to be desecrated by ordi- nary business. Her Veneration had been trained to regard them as sanctified days ; and she could not immediately divest herself of pain at seeing them treated without any religious respect. I humbly propose, that in a sound edu- cation, the sentiment of Veneration should be directed to all that God has really instituted. If the structure and functions of the body were taught to youth, as God's work- manship, and the duties deducible from them were clearly enforced as his commands, the mind would feel it to be sin- ful to neglect or violate them ; and a great additional effi- cacy would thereby be given to our precepts of exercise, cleanliness, and temperance. Such instruction would come home to youth, enforced by the perceptions of the under- standing, and by the emotions of the moral sentiments • AMUSEMENTS A DUTY. 97 and they would be practically confirmed by the experience of pleasure from observance, and pain from infringement of them. The young, in short, would be taught to trace their duty to its foundation in the will of God, to discover that it is addressed to them as rational beings : at the same time, they would learn that this is no vain philosophy ; for they would speedily discern the Creator's hand rewarding them for obedience, and punishing them for transgression. As closely connected with health, I proceed to consider the subject of amusements, regarding which much diffe- rence of opinion prevails. When we have no true philoso- phy of mind, this question becomes altogether inextricable ; because every individual disputant ascribes to human nature those tendencies, either to vice or virtue, which suit his favourite theory, and then he has no difficulty in proving that amusements either are, or are not, necessary and ad- vantageous to a being so constituted. Phrenology gives us a nrmer basis. As formerly remarked, man cannot make and unmake mental organs, nor vary their functions and laws of action to suit his different theories and views. I observe, then, that every mental organ, by frequent and long-continued action, becomes fatigued, just as the mus- cles of the leg and arm become weary by long-protracted exertion. Indeed, it cannot be conceived that the mind, except in consequence of the interposition of organs, is sus- ceptible of fatigue at all. We can comprehend that the vigour of the fibres of the organ of Tune may become ex- hausted by a constant repetition of the same kind of action, and demand repose ; while the idea of an immaterial spirit becoming weary is altogether inconceivable. From this law of our constitution, therefore, it is plain that variety of employment is necessary to our welfare, and was intended by the Creator. Hence he has given us a plurality of faculties, each having a separate organ, so that some may rest, while others are actively employed. Among these various faculties and organs, there are several which appear obviously destined to contribute to our amusement ; a circumstance which (as Addison has remarked) " suffi- ciently shows us that Providence did not design this world should be filled with murmurs and repinings, or that the heart of man should be involved in gloom and melancho- ly." We have received a faculty of the ludicrous, which, when active, prompts us to laugh and to excite laughter 9 y» AMUSEMENTS A DUTY. in others : We have received organs of Tune and Time, which inspire us with the desire, and give us the talent, to produce music. Our organs of voluntary motion are so connected with these organs, that when we hear gay and vivacious music played in well marked time, we instinc- tively desire to dance ; and when we survey the effect of dancing on our corporeal frame, we discover that it is ad- mirably calculated to promote the circulation of the blood and nervous influence all over the body, and thereby to strengthen the limbs, the heart, the lungs, and the brain ; in short, to invigorate the health, and to render the mind alert, cheerful, and happy. To such of my audience as have not studied anatomy and physiology, and who are ignorant of the functions of the brain, these propositions may ap- pear to be mere words or theories ; but to those who have made the structure, functions, relations, and adaptations of the various organs a subject of careful study and contempla- tion, I feel assured that they will appear in the light of truths. If such they are, our constitution proves that amusement has been kindly intended for us by the Creator, and that therefore, in itself, it must be not only harmless, but abso- lutely beneficial. In this/as in everything else, we must distinguish between the use and abuse of natural gifts. Because some young men neglect their graver duties through an excessive love of music, some parents denounce music altogether as danger- ous and pernicious to youth ; and because some young ladies think more earnestly about balls and operas than about their advancement in moral, intellectual, and religious attainments, there are parents who are equally disposed to proscribe dancing. But this is as irrational as if they should propose to prohibit eating because John or Helen had been guilty of a surfeit. These enjoyments in due season and degree are advantageous, and it is only sheer ignorance and im- patience that can prompt any one to propose their abolition. The organs of Intellect, combined with Secretiveness, Imitation, and Ideality, confer a talent for acting, or for representing by words, looks, gestures, and attitudes, the various emotions, passions, and ideas of the soul ; and these representations excite the faculties of the spectators into activity in a powerful and pleasing manner. Farther, the Creator has bestowed on us organs of Constructiveness, Form, Size, Locality, and Colouring, which, combined with AMUSEMENTS A DUTY. 99 Imitation and Ideality, prompt us to represent objects in statuary or painting ; and these representations also speak directly to the mind of the beholder and fill it with delight- ful emotions. Here, then, we trace the origin of the stage and of the fine arts directly to nature. Again, I am forced to remark, that to those individuals who have not studied phrenology and seen evidence of the existence and functions of the organs here enumerated, this reference of the fine arts, and of the drama in particular, to nature, or, in other words, to the intention of the Creator, will appear unwar- ranted, perhaps irreverent or impious. To such persons I reply that, having satisfied myself by observation that the organs do exist, and that they produce the effects here de- scribed, I cannot avoid the conclusion in question ; and in support of it I may refer also to the existence of the stage, and to the delight of mankind, in all ages and all civilized countries, in its representations. If, therefore, the faculties which produce the love of the stage and the fine arts have been instituted by the Creator, we may rely on the inference that these have legitimate, improving, and exalting objects ; although, like our other gifts, they may be abused. The line of demarcation between their use and abuse may be distinguished by a moderate exercise of judgment. They are in themselves mere arts of representation and expression, a species of natural lan- guage, which may be made subservient to the gratification of the propensities, or of the moral and intellectual facul- ties. We may represent in statuary, on canvass, or on the stage, lascivious and immoral objects calculated to excite all the lower feelings of our nature ; and this is a disgrace- ful abuse : but we may also body forth scenes and objects calculated to excite, and by exciting to strengthen, the moral, religious, and intellectual powers, and to carry for- ward our whole being in the paths of virtue and improve- ment ; and this is the legitimate use of these gifts of God. The applications made of these powers, by particular nations or individuals, bear reference to their general men- tal condition. The ancient Greeks and Romans enjoyed very immoral plays, and also fights of gladiators and com- bats of wild beasts, in which men and animals tore each other to pieces, and put each other to death. Such scenes were the direct stimulants of Amativeness, Combativeness, and Destructiveness, and proclaim to us more forcibly than 100 AMUSEMENTS A DUTY. the pages of the most eloquent, veracious, and authentic historians, that these nations, with all their boasted refine- ment, were essentially barbarians, and that the moral senti- ments had not attained any important ascendency in the great mass of the people. In the days of Queen Elizabeth and Charles the Second* plays of a very indelicate character were listened to by the nobles and common people of Bri- tain, without the least expression of dissatisfaction : and this indicated a general grossness of feeling, and of manners, to be prevalent among them. Even in our own day we go to be spectators of plays of very imperfect morality and questionable delicacy ; and the same conclusion follows, that there still lurks among us no small portion of active animal propensity, and that the moral and intellectual facul- ties have not yet achieved the full conquest over our animal nature. But in these instances there is an evident pro- gression toward a more legitimate use of our native powers of amusement ; and I conclude from this fact, as well as from the powers having been bestowed by the Creator, that future generations will carry their applications to still higher and more useful objects. Nor is it too enthusiastic to hope, that some future Shakspeare, aided by the true philosophy of mind, and a good knowledge of the natural laws according to which good and evil are dispensed in the world, may yet teach and illustrate the philosophy of human life, with all the power and efficacy which lofty genius can impart ; and that a future Kemble or Siddons may proclaim such lessons in living speech and gestures to mankind. By looking for- ward to possibilities like these, we are enabled to form some notion of the legitimate objects for which a love of the stage was given, and of the improvement and delight of which it may yet be rendered the instrument. If there be any truth in the principles on which these remarks proceed, we cannot avoid lamenting that helpless (although well meaning and amiable) imbecility which, alarm ed at the abuses of amusements, decries them altogether. A few days ago, (December, 1835,) we saw an announce- ment in the public papers that the ladies directresses of the House of Industry of Edinburgh had declined to accept of money drawn at Mr Cooke's circus for the benefit of that charity, because it was against their principles to counte- nance public amusements. If I am warranted in saying that the Creator has constituted our minds and bodies to be AMUSEMENTS A DUTY. 101 benefited by amusements, has given us faculties specially- destined to produce and enjoy amusement, and has assigned a sphere of use and abuse to these faculties as well as to all others ; it is clearly injudicious m the amiable, the virtu- ous, the charitable, and the religious — in persons meriting our warmest sympathy and respect — to place themselves in an attitude of hostility, and of open and indiscriminate de- nunciation, against amusements founded on the laws of our common nature. Instead of bringing all the weight of their moral and intellectual character to bear upon the improve- ment and beneficial application of these institutions, as it is obviously their duty both to God and to society to do, they fly from them as pestilential, and leave the direction of them exclusively to those whom they consider fitted only to abuse them. This is an example of piety and charity smitten with a moral paralysis through ignorance, and with a fatal cowardice through want of discipline. Tn urging you to " try all things," and to distinguish between the uses and abuses of every gift, my ambition is to give you courage to maintain virtue, as well as knowledge to distinguish it ; to render you bold in advocating what is right, and to induce you, while there is an inch of reason and morality left to rest upon, never to abandon the field, whether of duty, instruction, or amusement, to those whom you consider the enemies of human happiness and virtue. Let us correct all our institutions, but not utterly extinguish any that are founded in nature. LECTURE V. ON THE DUTIES OF MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING, Origin of the domestic affections — Marriage, or connexion for life between the sexes, is natural to man — Ages at which marriage is proper— Near relations in blood should not marry — Influence of the constitution of the parents on the children — Phrenology, as an index to natural dispositions, may be used as an important guide in forming matrimonial connex- ions—Some means of discovering natural qualities prior to experience, is needed in forming such alliances, because after marriage experience comes too late. The previous lectures have been devoted to the duties incumbent on man strictly as an individual ; namely, the duties of acquiring knowledge and preserving his health. 9* 102 DUTIES OP MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. My reason for thus limiting his individual duties is, that I consider man essentially as a social being, and that, with the exception of his duties to God, which we shall subse- quently consider, he has no duties, as an individual, beyond those I have mentioned, any more than a particular wheel of a watch has functions independently of performing its part in the general movements of the machine. I mean by this, that although man subsists and acts uniformly as an individual, yet his faculties bear reference to other beings as their objects, and show that his proper sphere of life and action is in the society of these beings. You could not conceive a bee, with its present instincts and powers of co-operation, to be happy if it were established in utter loneliness, the sole occupant of an extensive heath or flower-bespangled meadow. In such a situation it might have food in abundance, and scope of action for such of its faculties as related only to itself ; but its social instincts would be deprived of their objects and natural spheres of action. This observation is applicable also to man. His facul- ties bear reference to other beings, and show that in their society Nature has intended him to live and act. His duties as a member of the social body are now to be treated of ; and first, his duties as a domestic being. The domestic character of man is founded on, or arises from, the innate faculties of Amativeness, Philoprogenitive- ness, and Adhesiveness.* These give him a desire for a companion of a different sex, for children, and for the society of human beings in general. Marriage results from the combination of these three faculties with the moral senti- ments and intellect, and is thus a natural institution. Some persons conceive that marriage, or union for life, is a yoke imposed upon man by the ecclesiastical or civil law only. This idea is erroneous. Where the organs above enumerated are adequately and equally possessed, and the moral and intellectual faculties predominate, marriage is a natural institution. It prevailed among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and exists among the Chinese and many other nations who have not embraced either Judaism or Chris- tianity. Indeed marriage, or living in society for life, is not peculiar to man. The fox, martin, wild cat, mole, eagle, * Dr. Vimont says that there is a special organ, next to Philo progenitiveness, giving a desire for union for life. DUTIES OP MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. 103 sparrow-hawk, pigeon, swan, nightingale, sparrow, swallow, and other creatures, unite in pairs for life.* After* the breeding season is past, they remain in union ; they make their expeditions together, and if they belong to animals which live in herds, the spouses remain always near each other. It is true that certain individuals find the marriage tie a restraint, and would prefer that it should be abolished ; also that some tribes of savages may be found, among whom it can scarcely be said to exist. But if we examine the heads of such individuals and tribes, we shall find that Amative- ness greatly predominates in size over Adhesiveness and the Moral Sentiments ; and such individuals are not proper standards by which human nature should be estimated. Viewing marriage as the result of man's constitution, we as- cribe to it a divine origin. It is a law written in our minds ; and, like all other divine institutions, it is supported by rewards and punishments peculiar to itself. The reward attached to it, is enjoyment of some of the purest and best pleasures of which our nature is susceptible ; and the punishment inflicted for inconstancy in it, is moral and physical degradation. Among the duties incumbent on the human race in rela- tion to marriage, one is, that the parties to it should not unite before a proper age. The civil law of Scotland allows females to marry at twelve, and males xat fourteen ; but the law of nature is widely different. The female frame does not, in general, arrive at its full vigour and perfection, in this climate, earlier than twenty-two, nor the male earlier than twenty-four to twenty-six. Before these ages, ma- turity of physical strength and of mental vigour is not, in general, attained, and the individuals, with particular excep- tions, are neither corporeally nor mentally prepared to be- come parents, or to discharge, v.ith advantage, the duties of heads of a domestic establishment. Their animal pro- pensities are strong, and their moral and intellectual or- gans have not yet attained their full development. Chil- dren born of such young parents are inferior in the size and quality of their brains, to children born of the same parents when arrived at maturity. Such children, having inferior brains, are inferior in dispositions and capacity. It is a common remark, that the eldest son of a rich family is gene- * Gall on the Functions of the Brain, vol. iii. p. 482. 104 DUTIES OP MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. rally not equal to his younger brothers in mental ability ; and this is ascribed to his having relied on his hereditary fortune for his subsistence, and not exerted himself in ob- taining education : but you will very generally find, in such cases, that the parents, or one of them, married in extreme youth, and that the eldest child inherits the imperfections of their immature condition. The statement of the evidence and consequences of this law belongs to physiology : here I can only remark, that if the Creator has prescribed ages, previous to which, mar- riage is punished by him with evil consequences, we are bound to pay deference to his enactments ; and that civil and ecclesiastical laws, when standing in opposition to his, are not only absurd, but mischievous. Conscience is misled by these erroneous human enactments ; for a girl of fifteen has no idea that she sins, if her marriage be authorized by the law and the church. In spite, however, of the sanction of acts of parliament and of clerical benedictions, the Crea- tor punishes seyerely if his laws be infringed. His punish- ments assume the following, among other forms : The parties, being young, ignorant, inexperienced, and actuated chiefly by passion, often make unfortunate selec- tions of partners, and entail lasting unhappiness on them- selves. They transmit imperfect constitutions and inferior dispo- sitions to their earliest born children. And They often involve themselves in pecuniary difficulties, in consequence of a sufficient provision not having been made before marriage. These punishments, being inflicted by the Creator, indi- cate that his law has been violated ; in other words, that marriage at a too early age is positively sinful. There ought not to be a very great disparity between the ages of the husband and wife. There is a physical and mental condition naturally attendant on each age, and per- sons whose organs are in corresponding conditions sym- pathize in their feelings, judgments, and pursuits, and there- fore form suitable companions for each other. When the ages are widely different, this sympathy is wanting, and the offspring also is injured. In such instances, it is generally the husband who transgresses ; old men are fond of marry- ing young women. The children of such unions often suffer grievously from the disparity. The late Dr. Robert Mac- DUTIES OF MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. 105 nish, in a letter addressed to me, gives the following illus- tration of this remark : " I know," says he, " an old gen- tleman, who has been twice married. The children of his fiFst marriage are strong, active, healthy people, and their children are the same. The offspring of his second mar- riage are very inferior, especially in an intellectual point of view ; and the younger the children are, the more is this obvious. The girls are superior to the boys, both physically and intellectually. Indeed, their mother told me that she had great difficulty in rearing her sons, but none with her daughters. The gentleman himself, at the time of his se- cond marriage, was upward of sixty, and his wife about twenty-five. This shows very clearly that the boys have taken chiefly off the father and the daughters off the mother." Another natural law in regard to marriage is, that the parties should not be related to each other in blood. This law holds good in the transmission of all organized beings. Even vegetables are deteriorated, if the same stock be re- peatedly planted on the same ground. In the case of the lower animals, a continued disregard of this law is almost universally admitted to be detrimental, and human nature affords no exception to the rule. It is written in our or- ganization, and the consequences of its infringement may be discovered in the degeneracy, physical and mental, of many noble and royal families, who have long and systema- tically set it at defiance. Kings of Portugal and Spain, for instance, occasionally apply to the Pope for permission to marry their nieces. The Pope grants the dispensation ; and the marriage is celebrated with all the solemnities of religion. The blessing of heaven is invoked on the union. The real power of his Holiness, however, is here put to the test. He is successful in delivering the king from the censures of the church, and the offspring of the marriage from the civil consequences of illegitimacy ; but the Crea- tor yields not one jot or tittle of his law. The union is either altogether unfruitful, or children miserably consti- tuted in body, and imbecile in mind, are produced ; and this is the form in which the Divine displeasure is announced. The Creator, however, is not recognised by his Holiness, nor by priests in general, nor by ignorant kings, as govern- ing, by fixed laws, in the organic world. They proceed as if their own power were supreme. Even when they have tasted the bitter consequences of their folly, they are far 106 DUTIES OP MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. from recognising the cause of their sufferings. With much self-complacency, they resign themselves to the events, and seek consolation in religion. " The Lord giveth," say they, " and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord ;" as if the Lord did not give men understanding, and impose on them the obligation of using it to discover his laws and obey them ; and as if there were no impiety in shutting their eyes against his laws, in pretending to dis- pense with them, and finally, when they are undergoing the punishment of such transgressions, in appealing to Him for consolation. It is curious to observe the enactments of legislators on this subject. According to the Levitical law, which we in this country have adopted, " marriage is prohibited between relations within three degrees of kindred, computing the generations through the common ancestor, and accounting affinity the same as consanguinity. Among the Athenians, brothers and sisters of the half-blood, if related by the father's side, might marry ; if by the mother's side, they were prohibited from marrying. The same custom," says Paley, " probably prevailed in Chaldea, for Sarah was Abra- ham's half-sister. * She is the daughter of my father,' says Abraham, ' but not of my mother ; and she became my wife.' Gen. xx. 12. The Roman law continued the prohibition without limits to the descendants of brothers or sisters."* Here we observe Athenian, Chaldean, and Roman legis- lators prohibiting or permitting certain acts, apparently ac- cording to the degree of light which had penetrated into their own understandings concerning their natural conse- quences. The real divine law is written in the structure and modes of action of our bodily and mental constitutions, and it prohibits the marriage of all blood-relations, diminish- ing the punishment, however, according as the remoteness from the common ancestor increases, but allowing mar- riages among relations by affinity, without any prohibition whatever. According to the law of Scotland, a man may marry his cousin-german, or his great niece, both of which connexions the law of nature declares to be inexpedient ; but he may not marry his deceased wife's sister, against which connexion Nature declares no penalty whatever. He might have married either sister at first without impro- priety, and there is no reason in nature, why he may not * Paley's Moral Philosophy, p. 228. DUTIES OF MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. 107 marry them in succession, the one after the other has died. There may be other reasons of expediency for prohibiting this connexion, but I mean to say that the organic laws con- tain no denunciations against it. In Scotland the practice of full cousins marrying is not uncommon, and you will meet with examples of healthy families born of such unions ; and from these an argument is maintained against the existence of the natural law which we are now considering. But it is only when the parents have both had excellent constitutions that the children do not attract attention by their imperfections. The first alli- ance against the natural laws brings down the tone of the organs and functions, say one degree ; the second two de- grees, and the third three ; and the perseverance in trans- gression ends in glaring imperfections, or in extinction of the race. This is undeniable, and proves the reality of the law. The children of healthy cousins are not so favoura- bly organized as the children of the same parents, if mar- ried to equally healthy partners, not at all related in blood, would have been. If the cousins have themselves inherit- ed indifferent constitutions, the degeneracy is striking even in their children. We may err in interpreting Nature's laws, but if we do discover them in their full import and consequences, we never find exceptions to them. Another natural law relative to marriage is, that the par- ties should possess sound constitutions. The punishment for neglecting this law is, that the transgressors suffer pain and misery in their own persons, from bad health, perhaps become disagreeable companions to each other, feel them- selves unfit to discharge the duties of their condition, and transmit feeble constitutions to their children. They are also exposed to premature death ; and hence their children are liable to all the melancholy consequences of being left unprotected and unguided by parental experience and affec- tion, at a time when these are most needed. The natural law is, that a weak and imperfectly organized frame trans- mits one of a similar description to offspring ; and, the children inheriting weakness, are prone to fall into disease and die. Indeed, the transmission of various diseases, founded in physical imperfections, from parents to children, is a matter of universal notoriety ; thus, consumption, gout, scrofula, hydrocephalus, rheumatism, and insanity, are well known to descend from generation to generation. Strictly 108 DUTIES OF MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. speaking, it is not. disease which is transmitted, but organs of such imperfect structure, that the)' are unable to perform their functions properly, and so weak that they are easily put into a morbid condition by causes which sound organs could easily resist. This subject also belongs to physiology. I have treated of it in the Constitution of Man, and it is largely expound- ed by Dr. A. Combe, in his work on physiology, and by many other authors. I trouble you only with the following illustrations which were transmitted to me by Dr. Macnish, who was induced to communicate them by a perusal of the Constitution of Man : "If your work," says he, "has no other effect than that of turning attention to the laws which regulate marriage and transmission of qualities, it will have done a vast service ; for on no point are such grievous er- rors committed. I often see, in my own practice, the most lamentable consequences resulting from neglect of these laws. There are certain families which I attend, where the constitutions of both parents are bad, and where, when anything happens to the children, it is almost impossible to cure them. An inflamed gland, a common cold hangs about them for months, and almost defies removal. In other fa- milies, w r here the parents are strong and healthy, the chil- dren are easily cured of almost any complaint. I know a gentleman, aged about fifty, the only survivor of a family of six sons and three daughters, all of whom, with the ex- ception of himself, died young, of pulmonary consumption. He is a little man, with a narrow chest, and married a lady of a delicate constitution and bad lungs. She is a tall, spare woman, with a chest still more deficient th?n his own. They have had a large family, all of whom die off regularly as they reach manhood and womanhood, in consequence of affections of the lungs In the year 1833, two sons and a daughter died within a period of ten months. Two still survive, but they are both delicate, and there can be no doubt, that, as they arrive at maturity, they will follow the rest. This is a most striking instance of punishment under the organic laws." As to the transmission of mental qualities, I observe, that form, size r and quality of brain descend, like those of other parts of the. body, from parents to children : and that hence dispositions" and talents, which depend upon the con- dition of the brain, are transmitted also — a fact which has DUTIES OF MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. 109 long been remarked, both by medical authors and by obser- vant men in general. The constitution of the mother seems to exercise the chief influence in determining the qualities of the children, particularly where she is a woman possessing a fine tempe- rament, a well organized brain, and in consequence an en- ergetic mind. There is perhaps hardly an instance of a man of distinguished vigour and activity of mind, whose mother did not possess a considerable amount of the same endowments ; and the fact of eminent men having so fre- quently children far inferior to themselves, is explicable by the circumstance, that men of talent often marry women whose minds are comparatively weak. "When the mother's brain is very defective, the minds of the children are fee- ble. " We know," says the great German physiologist Haller, " a very remarkable instance of two noble females who got husbands on account of their wealth, although they were nearly idiots, and from whom this mental defect has extended for a century into several families, so that some of all their descendants still continue idiots in the fourth and even in the fifth generation."* In many families, the qua- lities of both father and mother are seen blended in the children. " In my own case," says a medical friend, " I can trace a very marked combination of the qualities of both parents. My father is a large-chested, strong, healthy man, with a large, but not active, brain ; my mother was a spare, thin woman, with a high nervous temperament, a rather delicate frame, and a mind of uncommon activity. Her brain I should suppose to have been of moderate size. I often think that to the father I am indebted for a strong frame and the enjoyment of excellent health, and to the mother for activity of mind and excessive fondness for ex- ertion." Finally, it often happens that the mental qualities of the father are transmitted to some of the children, and those of the mother to others. It is pleasing to observe, that, in Wurtemberg, there are two excellent laws calculated to improve the moral and physical condition of the people, and which other states would do well to adopt. First, 4t It is illegal for any young man to marry before he is twenty-five, or any young woman before she is eighteen." Here the human legislator pays much more deference to the Divine Lawgiver, than he does * Elem. Physiol. Lib. xxix., Sec. 2, § 8. 10 110 DUTIES OF MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. in our country. Secondly, " A young man, at whatever age he wishes to marry, must show to the police and the priest of the commune where he resides, that he is able, and has the prospect, to provide for a wife and family." This also is extremely judicious. Another natural law in regard to marriage is, that the mental qualities and the physical constitutions of the parties should be adapted to each other. If their tastes, talents, and general habits harmonize, the reward is domestic felicity, the greatest enjoyment of life. If these differ so widely as to cause jarring and collision, what ought to be the palace of peace and the mansion of the softest affections of our nature, becomes a theatre of war ; and of all states of hos- tility, that between husband and wife is the most intermi- nable and incurable, because the combatants live constantly together, and have all things in common. The importance of this law becomes more striking when we attend to the fact, that, by ill assortment, not only are the parties themselves rendered unhappy, but their immoral condition directly affects the dispositions of their children. It is a natural law in regard to marriage, that the effects even of temporary departures from the organic laws descend to offspring produced during that state, and greatly injure their constitution. Thus — children produced under the in- fluence of inebriety, appear to receive an organization which renders them liable to a craving appetite for stimulating fluids. Children produced when the parents are depressed with misfortune and suffering under severe nervous debility, are liable to be easily affected by events calculated to induce a similar depression ; children produced when the parents are under violent excitement of passion, inherit a constitu- tion that renders them more liable to exhibit the same ten- dency : and hence, also, children produced when the parents are happy, moral, and under the excitement of the higher sentiments and intellect, inherit qualities of body and brain that render them naturally disposed to corresponding states of mind. I have stated various facts and authorities in sup- port of these views in the " Constitution of Man," to which I refer. These phenomena are the result of the transmission to the children of the mental organs modi6ed in size, com- bination, and condition, by the temporary condition of the parents. This law is subject to modifications from the in- fluence of the hereditary qualities of the parents, but its real existence con hardly be doubted. DUTIES OF MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. Ill In my second lecture I laid down the principle that man's Srst duty as an individual is, to acquire knowledge of him- self, of external nature, and of the will of God ; and I beg your attention to the application of this knowledge when ac- quired. If these organic laws relative to marriage be really instituted by the Creator, and if reward and punishment be annexed to each of them, of what avail is it to know these facts abstractly, and to be aware that we have correspond- ing duties, unless we know those duties in detail, and are enabled to perform theml What we want is, such a knowledge of the human constitution as will carry home to the understanding and the conscience in youth the law of God, written in our frames, and its results. We want also the sanction of public sentiment, religion, and civil enact- ments, to enforce the observance of that law ; and training, to render the observance of it habitual. In regard to the original constitutions of individuals about to marry, the knowledge of this can be attained only by the study of the structure, functions, and laws of the body. If anatorry and physiology, and their practical application, formed branches of general education, we should be led to view this subject in all its importance, and, where our own skill was insufficient to direct us, we should call in higher experience. It is a general opinion that all such knowledge would be useless, because marriage is determined by fancy, liking, passion, interest, or similar considerations, but never by reason. Phrenology enables us to judge of the force of this objection. It shows that the impulses to marry come from the instinctive and energetic action of the three organs of the domestic affections. They are large, and come into vigorous activity in youth, and frequently communicate such an influence to the other mental powers, as to enlist them all for the time in their service. The operations of these faculties, when acting instinctively and blindly, are dignified with various poetic names, such as fancy, affection, love, and so forth. They are extremely interesting to young men and young women, and not a little mysterious ; which quality adds much to their charms with many minds. But phreno- logy, without robbing them of one jot of their real fascina- tions, dispels the mystery and illusions, and shows them to us as three strong impulses, which will act either confor- mably to reason, or without its guidance, according as the understanding and moral sentiments are enlightened or left 112 DUTIES OF MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. in the dark. It shows us, moreover, disappointment and misery, in every form, and at every stage, as the natural consequence of defective guidance ; while happiness of the most enduring and exalted description is the result of the wise and just direction of them. Believing, as I do, that the Creator has constituted man a rational being, 1 am prepared to maintain that the very converse of this objection is the true view of human nature — namely, that average men, \{ informed and trained, could not avoid giving effect to the natural laws in forming mar- riages. I say average men ; because phrenology reveals to us that some human beings are born with animal organs so large, and moral and intellectual organs so small, that they are the slaves of the propensities, and proof against the dictates of reason. These individuals, however, are not very numerous, and they are not average specimens of the race. If, therefore, before the organs of the domestic affec- tions come into full activity, the youth of both sexes were instructed in the laws of the Creater relative to marriage ; if the sanctions of religion were added to the obligation of these laws ; and if the opinions of society were directed to enforcing them ; I cannot conceive it possible that, in ave- rage men, the propensities would act in disregard of all these guides. The idea implies that man is not rational, and that the Creator has laid down laws for him which he is incapa- ble, under any natural guidance, of obeying. This is absurd and incredible. I have introduced these remarks, to prepare the way for the observation, that, before the discovery of phrenology, it was impossible to know well the mental dispositions and capacities of individuals prior to experience of them in actions, and that there was, therefore, a great difficulty in the way of selection, on sound principles, of partners really adapted to each other, and calculated to render each other happy in marriage. I know that a smile is sometimes ex- cited when it is said that phrenology puts it in the power of individuals to act rationally in this respect, who could not be certain of doing so without its aid ; but it is my firm con- viction that it does so. Not only is there nothing irrational in the idea that phre- nology gives the power of obtaining the requisite knowledge, but, on the contrary, there would be a glaring defect in the moral government of the world, if the Creator had not pro- DUTIES OP MAN A3 A DOMESTIC BEING. 113 vided means by which human beings could ascertain, with reasonable certainty, the mental dispositions and qualities of each other, before entering into marriage. He has prompt- ed them, by the most powerful and fascinating of impulses, to form that connexion. He has withheld from them dis- criminating instincts, to enable them always to choose right ; and yet he has attached tremendous penalties to their errors in selection. If he have not provided some means, suited to the rational nature of man, to enable him to guide his impulses to proper objects, I cannot conceive how his govern- ment can be reconciled to Our notions of benevolence and justice. We must believe that he punishes us for not doing what he has denied us the capacity to do. It is well known, that no method of discovering, with reasonable success, the natural dispositions of human beings has hitherto existed. The general intercourse of society, such as is permitted to young persons of different sexes be- fore marriage, reveals, in the most imperfect manner, the real character ; and hence the bitter mortification and last- ing misery in whieh some prudent and anxious persons find themselves involved, after the blandishments of a first love have passed away, and when the inherent qualities of the minds of their partners begin to display themselves without disguise and restraint. The very fact that human affection continues in this most unhappy and unsuccessful condition, ought to lead us to the inference that there is some great principle relative to our mental constitution undiscovered, in which a remedy for these evils will be found. The fact that man is a rational creature — who must open up his own way to happiness by means of knowledge — ought to lead us, when misery is found to result from our conduct, to infer that we have been ignorant or reckless, and that we ought to seek new light, and take greater care in future. Far from its being incredible, therefore, that a method has actually been provided by the Creator, whereby the mental qualities of human beings may be discovered, this supposition appears to be directly warranted by every fact which we perceive, and every result which we experience, connected with his government of the world. If God has placed within our reach the means of avoiding unhappy mar- riages, and if we neglect to avail ourselves of his gift, then are we ourselves to blame for the evils we endure. I can- not too frequently remind you, that every fact, physical and 10* 114 DUTIES OP MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. moral, with which we are acquainted, tends to show that man is comparatively a recent inhabitant of this globe ; that, as a race, he is yet in his infancy ; and that you ought no more to be astonished at new and valuable natural institu- tions, calculated to promote human enjoyment and virtue, evolving themselves from day to day to our understandings, than you are at the obviously increasing intelligence of an individual as he passes from childhood to youth, and from youth to manhood. I am equally at a loss to discover any reason why it should be thought to be absurd, that the means of discriminating natural qualities should be presented to us through the medium of the brain. Dr. Thomas Brown has justly re- marked, that " to those who have not sufficient elementary knowledge of science, to feel any interest in physical truths, as one connected system, and no habitual desire of explor- ing the various relations of new phenomena, many of the facts in nature, which have an appearance of incongruity as at first stated, do truly seem ludicrous." It has been positively ascertained by measurement, that a head not more than thirteen inches in horizontal circum- ference is invariably attended by idiocy, unless the frontal region be disproportionably large. Dr. Voisin, of Paris, lately made observations on the idiots under his care at the Hospital of Incurables in that city, and found the proposi- tion uniformly confirmed, and that, c&teris paribus, the larger the head was, the more distinctly were the mental powers displayed. It is worthy of remark, that — almost as if to show an in- tention that we should be guided by observation of the size and configuration of the brain — the cerebral development is in man extensively indicated during life by the external aspect of the head ; while among the lower animals, on the contrary, this is much less decidedly the case. In the hog, elephant, and others, the form and magnitude of the brain are not at all discoverable from the living head. The brutes have no need of that knowledge of each other's dispositions which is required by man ; divine instincts lead them into the proper path ; and, as it is probable that a different ar- rangement has not been adopted in regard to man without an object and a reason, subsequent generations may con- template it with different eyes' from those with which it has been regarded in our day. DUTIES OP MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. 115 To illustrate the possibility of discriminating natural dis- positions and talents by means of observations of the head, I may be permitted to allude to my experience of the fact, and to refer particularly to my recent visit to the jail at New- castle. On the 28th of October, 1835, I visited that jail, along with Dr. George Fife (who is not a phrenologist) and nine other gentlemen. I examined the head of an individual criminal, and, before any account whatever was given, wrote down my own remarks. At the other side of the table, and at the same time, Dr. Fife wrote down an account of the character and conduct of the criminal, as disclosed by the judicial proceedings and the experience of the jailor. When both had finished, the writings were compared. It is sufficient to adduce three of the cases. " The first was a young man about twenty years of age, P. S. After stating the organs which predominated and those which were deficient in his brain, I wrote as follows : 4 My inference is, that this boy is not accused of violence ; his dispositions are not ferocious, nor cruel, nor violent ; he has a talent for deception, and a desire for property not regulated by justice. His desires may have appeared in swindling or theft. It is most probable that he has swindled ; he has the combination which contributes to the talent of an actor.' The remarks which Dr. Fife wrote were the following : ' A confirmed thief : he has been twice convicted of theft. He has never showm brutality, but he has no sense of honesty. He has frequently attempted to impose on Dr. Fife ; he has considerable intellectual talent ; he has at- tended school, and is quick and apt ; he has a talent for imitation.' " The next criminal was also a young man, aged eighteen, T. S. I wrote : ' This boy is considerably different from the last. He is more violent in his dispositions ; he has probably been committed for an assault connected with women. He has also large Secretiveness and Acquisitive- ness, and may have stolen, although I think this less pro- bable. He has fair intellectual talents, and is an improvable subject.' Dr. Fife wrote : 4 Crime, rape. * * * No striking features in his general character ; mild disposition ; has never shown actual vice.' " The third criminal examined was an old man of seventy- three, J. W. The remarks which I wrote were these : • His moral dispositions generally are very defective ; but 116 DUTIES OF MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. he has much caution. I cannot specify the precise crime of which he has been convicted. Great deficiency in the moral organs is the characteristic feature, which leaves the lower propensities to act without control.' Dr. Fife wrote : 'A thief; void of every principle of honesty; obstinate; insolent ; ungrateful for any kindness. In short, one of the most depraved characters with which I have ever been acquainted.' "* The two young men here described were rather well- looking and intelligent in their features, and if judged of simply by their appearance, would have been believed to be rather above than below the average youth of their own rank of life. Yet which of you will say, that if any relative of yours were to be addressed by men of the same dispositions, it would not be more advantageous to possess the means of discovering their real qualities, before marriage, and con- sequently to avoid them, than to find them out only by ex- perience ; in other words, after having become their victim 1 I add another illustration. Upward of ten years ago, I met, for a short time, with an individual who was about to be married to a lady with whom I was acquainted. In writing this piece of news to a friend at a distance, I de- scribed the gentleman's development of brain, and dispo- sitions ; and expressed my regret that the lady had not made a more fortunate choice. My opinion was at vari- ance with the estimate of the lover made by the lady's friends from their own knowledge of him. He was respec- tably connected, reputed rich, and regarded as altogether a desirable match. The marriage took place. Time wheeled in its ceaseless course ; and at the end of about seven years, circumstances occurred of the most painful nature, which recalled my letter to the memory of the gentleman to whom it had been addressed. He had preserved it, and after comparing it with the subsequent occurrences, he told me that the description of the natural disposition coincided so perfectly with those which the events had developed, that it might have been supposed to have been written after they had happened. I cannot here enter into the limitations and conditions under which phrenology Should be used for this purpose ; such discussions belong to the general subject of that science. My sole aim now is to announce the possibility * Phrenological Journal. DUTIES OP MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. 117 of its being thus applied. If yon will ask any lady who suffers under the daily calamity of a weak, ill-tempered, or incorrigibly rude and vulgar husband, and who, by studying phrenology, sees these imperfections written in large and legible characters in his brain, whether she considers that it would have been folly to have observed and given effect to these indications in avoiding marriage, her sinking and aching heart will answer, no ! She will pity the flippancy that would despise any counsel of prudence or treat with inattention any means of avoiding so great a calamity, and declare that, had she known the real character indicated by the head, she could not have consented to become the com- panion of such a man for life. In fact, we find that sensi- ble men and women in general do direct themselves in their matrimonial choice by the best knowledge which they pos- sess ; they avoid glaring bodily defects and openly bad characters ; and what is this but a complete recognition of the principle for which I am contending 1 My whole extra- vagance (if any of you consider me guilty of such) consists in proposing to put you in possession of the means of ob- taining more minute, accurate, and applicable knowledge, than is at present generally attained, in the belief that you will be disposed to act on that knowledge, as you show that you are anxious to do on that which has fallen already in your way. I am willing, therefore, to encounter all the ridicule which may be excited by these views, convinced that those laugh best who win, and that observance of them will render all winners, if they be founded, as I believe them to be, in the institutions of creation. I stand before you in a singular predicament. Lecturers on recognised science are hailed with rapturous encourage- ment, when they bring forward new truths ; and in propor- tion as these are practical and important, the higher is their reward. I appear, however, as the humble advocate of a science which is still so far from being universally admitted to be true, that the very idea of applying it practically in a department of human life, in which, hitherto, there has been no guide, appears to many to be ludicrous. It would be far more agreeable to me to devote my efforts to teaching you doctrines which you should all applaud, and which should carry home to your minds a feeling of respect for the judg- ment of your instruct er. But one obstacle prevents me from enjoying this advantage. I have been permitted to 118 ON POLYGAMY. become acquainted with a great and, until lately, an un* known region of truth, which appears to my own mind to bear the strongest impress of a divine origin, and to be fraught with the greatest advantages to mankind ; and, as formerly stated, I feel it to be a positive moral duty to sub- mit it to your consideration. All I ask is, that you will meet the communication with the spirit and independence of free-minded men. Open your eyes that you may see, your ears that you may hear, and your understandings that you may comprehend ; and fear nothing. LECTURE VI. ON POLYGAMY : FIDELITY TO THE MARRIAGE VOW : DIVORCE * DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. Polygamy not founded in Nature — Fidelity to the marriage vow a natural institution— Divorce — Objections to the law of England on this subject — Circumstances in which divorce should be allowed- Duties of, parents — Mr. Malthus's law of population, and Mr. Sadler's objections to it, considered — Parents bound to provide for their children, and to preserve their health— Consequences of neglecting the laws of health. The remarks in my last lecture bore reference to the constitution of marriage. Moralists generally discuss also the questions of polygamy, fidelity to the marriage vow, and divorce. On the subject of polygamy I may remark, that it is generally admitted by statistical authorities that the propor- tions of the sexes born are, thirteen males to twelve females. From the greater hazards to which the male sex is exposed, this disparity is, in adult life, reduced to equality ; indeed, with our present manners, habits, and pursuits, the balance among adults, in almost all Europe, is turned the otheij way, the females of any given age above puberty preponderating over the males. In some eastern countries more females than males are born ; and it is said that this indicates a de- sign in nature, that there each male should have several wives. But there is reason to believe that the variation from the proportion of thirteen to twelve is the consequence of departures from the natural laws. In the appendix to the " Constitution of Man " I have quoted some curious observations in regard to the determination of the sexes, in FIDELITY TO THE MARRIAGE VOW. 119 the lower animals ; from which it appears that inequality is the result of unequal strength and age in the parents. In our own country and race, it is observed, that when old men marry young females, the progeny are generally daughters ; and I infer that in the eastern countries alluded to, in which. an excess of females exists, the cause may be found in the superior vigour and youth of the females ; the practice of polygamy being confined to rich men, who enervate them- selves by every form of disobedience to the natural laws, and thereby become physically inferior to the females. The natural equality of the sexes, therefore, when the organic laws are duly observed, affords one strong indica- tion, that the Creator has not intended to institute poly- gamy ; and the same conclusion is strengthened by consi- dering the nature of the domestic affections. Harmonious gratmcationof the three faculties constituting the domestic group, in accordance with the moral sentiments and intel- lect, is necessarily attended with the greatest pleasure and the most advantageous results ; but this can be accom- plished only by the union of one male with one female. If the male have several wives, there is an excess of gratifica- tion provided for the cerebellum, and a diminution of grati- fication to Adhesiveness and Philoprogenitiveness ; for his attachment, diffused among a multitude of objects, can never glow with the intensity, nor act with the softness and purity, which inspire it when directed to one wife and her offspring. The females also, in a state of polygamy, must be deprived of gratification to their Self-Esteem and Ad- hesiveness, for none of them can claim an undivided love. There is injustice to the females, therefore, in the practice ; and no institution that is unjust can proceed from the Crea- tor. Farther, when we consider that in married life the pleasures derived from the domestic affections are unspeak- ably enhanced by the habitual play of the moral feelings, and that polygamy is fatal to the close sympathy, confidence, respect, and reciprocal devotion, which are the attendants of active moral sentiments — we shall be fully convinced that the Creator has not intended that men should unite them- selves to a plurality of wives. In regard to fidelity to the marriage vow, every argument tending to show that polygamy is forbidden by the natural law, goes to support the obligation of fidelity. As this point is one on which, fortunately, no difficulty or difference of 120 DIVORCE. opinion, among rational persons, exists, I shall not dwell on it, but proceed to the subject of divorce. The law of England does not permit divorce in any cir- cumstances, or for any causes. A special act of the legis- lature must be obtained in that country to annul a marriage, which rule of course limits the privilege to the rich ; and we may, therefore, fairly say that the law denies divorce to the great majority of the people. The law of Scotland permits divorce on account of infidelity to the marriage vow, and also on account of non-adherence, as it is called, or wil- ful desertion, by the husband, of his wife's society for a period of four successive years, The law of Moses per- mitted the Jewish husband to put away his wife ; and, under Napoleon, the French law permitted married persons to dis- solve their marriage by consent, after giving one year's judicial notice of their intention, and making suitable pro- visions for their children. The New Testament confines divorce to the single case of infidelity in the wife. The question now occurs — What does the law of nature, written on our constitutions, enact 1 The first fact that presents itself to our consideration is, that, in persons of well-constituted minds, nature not only institutes marriage, but makes it indissoluble except by death : even those lower animals which live in pairs exemplify permanent connexion. In regard to man, I re- mark, that where the three organs of the domestic affections bear a just proportion to each other, and where the moral and intellectual organs are favourably developed and culti- vated, there is not only no desire on either side to bring the marriage tie to an end, but the utmost repugnance to do so. The deep despondency which changes into one unbroken expression of grief and desolation, the whole aspect even of the most determined and energetic men, when thev lose by death the cherished partners of their lives ; and that breaking down of the spirit, profoundly felt, although meekly and resignedly borne, which the widow indicates when her stay and delight is removed from her for ever ; proclaim, in language too touching and forcible to be misunderstood, that, where the marriage union is formed according to na- ture's laws, no civil enactments are needed to render it in- dissoluble during life. It is clear that life-endurance is stamped upon it by the Creator, when he renders its con- tinuance so sweet, and its bursting asunder so indescribably D1V0KCE. 121 painful. It is only where the minds of both or one of the parties are ill constituted, or where the union is otherwise unfortunate, that any desire for separation exists. The causes which may lead married individuals to desire to ter- minate their union may be briefly considered. 1. If, in either of them, the cerebellum predominates greatly in size over Adhesiveness, Philoprogenitiveness, and the organs of the moral sentiments, there is a feeling of restraint in the marriage state, which is painful. To compel a virtuous and amiable partner to live in in- separable society with a person thus constituted, and to be the unwilling medium of transmitting immoral dispositions to children, appears directly contrary to the dictates of both benevolence and justice. Paley's argument against permit- ting dissolution of the marriage tie at the will of the hus- band is, that " new objects of desire would be continually sought after, if men could, at will, be released from their subsisting engagements. Supposing the husband to have once preferred his wife to all other women, the duration of this preference cannot be trusted to. Possession makes a great difference ; and there is no other security against the invitations of novelty, than the known impossibility of ob- taining the object." This argument is good, when applied to men with unfavourably balanced brains, viz., to those in whom the cerebellum predominates over the organs of Adhesiveness and the moral sentiments ; but it is unfound- ed as a general rule ; and the question is, whether it be desirable to deny absolutely, to the great body of the peo- ple, as the law of England does, all available means of dis- solving the connexion with such beings. It appears not to be so. The husband certainly ought not to have the power to dissolve the marriage tie at his pleasure ; but the French law seems more reasonable which permitted the parties to dissolve the marriage when both of them, after twelve months' deliberation, and after suitably providing for their children, desired to bring it to a close. The same argument applies to voluntary dissolution of marriage in cases of irreconcilable differences in temper and dispositions. " The law of nature," says Paley, " admits of divorce in favour of the injured party, in cases of adul- tery, of obstinate desertion, of attempts upon life, of out- rageous cruelty, of incurable madness,- and, perhaps, of personal imbecility; but bv no means indulges the same 11 122 DIVORCE. privileges to mere dislike, to opposition of humours, and in- clination, to -contrariety of taste and temper, to complaints of coldness, neglect, severity, peevishness, jealousy : not that these reasons are trivial, but because such objections may always be alleged, and are impossible by testimony to be ascertained ; so that to allow implicit credit to them, and to dissolve marriages whenever either party thought fit to pretend them, would lead in its effects to all the licen- tiousness of arbitrary divorces." "If a married pair, in actual and irreconcilable discord, complain that their happi- ness would be better consulted, by permitting them to de- termine a connexion which is become odious to both, it may be told them, that the same permission, as a general rule, would produce libertinism, dissension, and misery among thousands, who are now virtuous, and quiet, and happy, in their condition ; and it ought to satisfy them to reflect, that when their happiness is sacrificed to the operation of an unrelenting rule, it is sacrificed to the happiness of the community." If there be any truth in phrenology, this argument is a grand fallacy. iVctual and irreconcilable discord arises only from want of harmony in the natural dispositions of the parties, connected with differences in their cerebral organi- zations ; and agreement arises solely from the existence of such harmony. The natures of the parties in the one case differ irreconcilably ; but to maintain that if two persons of such discordant minds were permitted to separate, thousands of accordant minds would instantly fly off from each other in a like state of discord, is equally illogical as it would be to assert, that if the humane spectators of a street fight were to separate the combatants, they would forthwith be seized with the mania of fighting among themselves. In point of fact, the common arguments on this subject have been written in ignorance of the real elements of human nature, and are applicable only to particularly con- stituted individuals. Married persons may be divided into three classes : First, those whose dispositions naturally accord, and who, in consequence, are happy. Secondly, those in whom there are some feelings in harmony, but many in discord, and who are in the middle state between hap- piness and misery ; and thirdly, those between whose dispositions there is irreconcilable difference, and who are therefore altogether unhappy in each other's society. D1V0BCE. 123 Paley's views, if applied to persons who are bordering en the middle line of liking and dislike toward each other, would be sound. To hold up to such persons extreme difficulty or impossibility of obtaining a dissolution of the marriage tie, will present them with motives to cultivate those feelings in which they agree ; while to present them with easy means of terminating it, will lead to reckless ag- gravation of their quarrels. But this is only one class, and their case does not exhaust the question. Where the union is really accordant in nature, the facility of undoing it will not alter its character, nor produce the desire to destroy the happiness which it engenders. Where it is irremedia- bly unsuitable and unhappy, the sacrifice of the parties will not mend their own condition ; and as the happy are safe in the attractions of a reciprocal affection, the only persons who can be said to be benefited by the example of the in- separability of the wretched, are the class of waverers to whom I have alluded. I humbly think that Nature has at- tached not a few penalties to the dissolution of the mar- riage tie, which may have some effect on this class ; and that these, aided by proper legal impediments to the ful- filment of their caprices, might render the restraints on them sufficient, without calling for the absolute sacrifice of their completely unhappy brethren for the supposed public good. Such a conclusion is greatly strengthened by the consi- deration that the dispositions of children are determined, in an important degree, by the predominant dispositions of the parents ; and that to prevent the separation of wretched couples, is to entail misery on the offspring, not only by the influence of example, but by the transmission to them of ill-constituted brains — the natural result of the organs of the lower feelings being maintained in a state of constant activity in their parents by dissension. The argument that an indissoluble marriage tie presents motives to the exercise of grave reflection before forming it, would be worthy of some consideration, if persons con- templating marriage possessed adequate means of rendering reflections successful ; but while the law permits marriage at ages when the parties are destitute of foresight, (in Scot- land at fourteen in males, and at twelve in females,) and while the system of moral and intellectual education pur- sued in this country furnishes scarcely one sound element of information by which to guide the judgment in its choice, 124 DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. the argument is a mockery at once of reason and of human suffering. It appears to me that until mankind shall be in- structed in the views which I am now advocating, in so far as experience shall prove them to be sound, and shall be trained to venerate them as institutions of the divine will, and to practise them in their conduct, they will not possess adequate means of acting rationally and successfully in forming marriages. While so many sources of error en- compass them as at the present, they ought not to be de- prived of the possibility of escaping from the pit into which they may have inadvertently fallen ; and not only divorce for infidelity to the marriage vow, but dissolution of mar- riage by voluntary consent, under proper restrictions, and after due deliberation, ought to be permitted * Having now considered the general subject of marriage, I proceed to make some remarks on the duties of parents to their children. Their first duty is to transmit sound constitutions, bo- dily and mental, to their offspring ; and this can be done only by their possessing sound constitutions themselves, and living in habitual observance of the natural laws. Ha- ving already treated of this duty in discussing the constitu- tion of marriage, I need not here revert to it. It is of high importance ; because if great defects be inherent in chil- dren at birth, a life of suffering is entailed on them : The iniquities of the fathers are truly visited on the children, to the third and fourth generation, of those who hate God by disobeying his commandments written in their frames. It is sufficient here to condemn severely the selfishness of * The revised statutes of Massachusetts (chap. 76, sect. 5) permit divorce "for adultery," or defect "in either party, or when either of them is sentenced to confinement to hard labour in the state-prison, or in any jail or house of correction, for the term of life, or for seven years or more ; and no pardon granted to the party so sentenced, after a divorce for that cause, shall restore the party to his or her conjugal rights." This last is a just and humane provision ; for it is calculated for the relief of the innocent partner of a confirmed criminal. When will the law of England contain a similar enactment ? The class which makes the laws in Britain is not that which supplies criminals to jails or penal colonies, and it is often long before the mere dictates of humanity and justice prompt them to relieve an inferior order from an evil the pressure of which is not experienced by themselves. DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. 125 those who, for their own gratification, knowingly bring into the world beings by whom life cannot fail to be regarded as a burden. In the next place, parents are bound by the laws of na- ture to support, educate, and provide for the welfare and happiness of their children. The foundation of this duty is laid in the constitution of the mind. Philoprogenitive- ness, acting along with Benevolence, gives the impulse to its performance, and Veneration and Conscientiousness in- vest it with all the sanctions of moral and religious obliga- tion. When these faculties are adequately possessed, there is in parents a strong and never-slumbering desire to pro- mote the real advantage of their offspring ; and in such cases only intellectual enlightenment and pecuniary re- sources are wanting to ensure its complete fulfilment. Neglect of, or indifference to, this duty is the consequence of deficiency either in Philoprogenitiveness, in the moral organs, or in both ; and the conduct of individuals thus un- favourably constituted should not be charged against human nature in general. The views of Mr. Malthus on population may be adverted to in connexion with the duty of parents to support their family. Stated simply, they are these : — The productive powers of healthy, well-fed, well-lodged, and well-clothed human beings, are naturally so great, that fully two chil- dren will be born for every person who will die within a given time ; and as a generation lasts about thirty years, at the end of that period the population will of course be doubled ; in point of fact, in the circumstances here enu- merated, population is observed actually to double itself in twenty-five years. This rate of increase takes place in the newly-settled and healthy states of North America, inde- pendently of immigration. To become aware of the effects which this power of increase would produce in a country of circumscribed territory, like Britain, we need resort only to a very simple calculation. If, for example, Britain in 1800 had contained twelve millions of inhabitants, and this rate of increase had taken place, the population in 1825 would have amounted to twenty-four millions ; in 1850 it would amount to forty-eight millions; in 1875 to ninety-six mil- lions ; in 1900 to one hundred ninety-two millions ; and in 1925 to three hundred eighty- four millions ; and so on, always doubling every twenty -five years. Now Malthus 11* 126 DUTIES OP PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. maintained that food cannot be made to increase in the same proportion ; we cannot extend the surface of Britain, for nature has fixed its limits ; and no skill nor labour will suffice to augment the productive powers of the soil in a ratio doubling every twenty-five years. He, therefore, drew the conclusion that the Creator intended that human beings (in the absence of adequate means of emigration, and of procuring food from foreign countries) should restrain their productive powers, by the exercise of their moral and intel- lectual faculties ; in other words, should not marry until they are in possession of sufficient means to maintain and educate a family ; and he added, that if this rule were generally infringed, and the practice of marrying early and exerting the powers of reproduction to their full extent be- came common, in a densely-peopled country, Providence would check the increase by premature deaths, resulting from misery and starvation. This doctrine has been loudly declaimed against ; but the question appears very simple. The domestic affections are powerful, and come early into play, apparently to afford a complete guaranty against extinction of the race ; but along with them we have received moral sentiments and intellect, bestowed for the evident purpose of guiding and restraining them, so as to lead them to their best and most permanent enjoyments. Now, what authority is there from nature for maintaining that these affections alone are entitled to eman- cipation from moral restraint and intellectual guidance ; and that they have a right to pursue their own gratification from the first moment of their energetic existence to the last, if only the marriage vow have been undertaken and be observed 1 I can see no foundation in reason for this view. From the imperfections of our moral education, we have been led to believe, that if the priest only solemnize a mar- riage, and the vow of fidelity be observed, there is no sin, although there may be imprudence or misfortune, in rearing a family for whom we are unable to provide. But if we believe in the natural laws, as institutions of the Creator, we shall be satisfied that there is great sin in such con- duct. We know that nature has given us strong desires for property, and has fired us with ambition, and with the love of splendour and of many other objects ; yet no rational person argues that these desires may, with propriety, be gra- tified whether we have the means of legitimately doing so or DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. 127 not. Why, then, should the domestic affections form an ex- ception to the universal rule of moral guidance and restraint ? Mr. Sadler, a writer on this subject, argues, that marriages naturally become less prolific according as the population becomes more dense, and that in this way the consequences predicted by Malthus are prevented. But this is trifling with the question ; for the very misery of which Malthus speaks, is the cause of the diminution in the rate of increase. This diminution may be owing either to few children being born, or to many dying early. Now, the causes why few children are born in densely peopled countries are easily traced ; some parents, finding subsistence difficult of attain- ment, practise moral restraint and marry late ; others are infirm in health, or oppressed with cares and troubles, whereby the fruitfulness of marriages is diminished — but these are instances of misery attending on a dense state of population. Again, it is certain that the mortality of chil- dren is in such circumstances unusually great, but the causes of this mortality also are closely connected with density of population. If the opponents of Malthus could -show that there is a law of nature by which the productiveness of marriages is diminished in proportion to the density of the population, without an increase of misery, they would com- pletely refute his doctrine. This, however, they cannot do. A healthy couple, who marry at a proper age, and live in comfort and plenty, are able to rear as numerous and vigo- rous a family in the county of Edinburgh, which is densely peopled, as in the thinly inhabited county of Ross. Mr. Malthus, therefore, does well in bringing the domestic affec- tions, equally with our other faculties, under the control of the moral and intellectual powers. A reflected light of the intentions of nature in regard to man, may frequently be obtained by observing the lower animals. Almost all the lower creatures have received powers of increasing their numbers far beyond the voids made by death in the form of natural decay. If we consider the enormous numbers of sheep, cattle, fowls, hares, and other creatures, in the prime of life, that are annually slaughtered for human sustenance, and recollect that the stock of those existing is never diminished, we shall per- ceive that, if every one of these animals which is produced were allowed to live, in a very few years a general desola- tion, through scarcity of food, would overtake them all. It 128 DUTIES OP PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. is intended that these creatures should be put to death and used as food. Now man, in so far as he is an organized being, closely resembles these creatures, and in the instincts in question he is constituted exactly as they are. But he has obtained the gift of reason, and instead of being intended to be thinnej. by the knife and violence, like the animals, he is invited to increase his means of subsistence by his skill and industry, and to restrain his domestic affections by his higher powers whenever he reaches the limits of his food. As the mental organs may be enlarged or diminished in the course of generations by habitual exercise or restraint, it is probable that, in a densely peopled and highly cultivated nation, the organs of the domestic affections may diminish in size and activity, and that a less painful effort may then suffice to restrain them than is at present necessary, when the world is obviously young, and capable of containing vastly more inhabitants than yet possess it. The next duty of parents is, to preserve the life and health of their children after birth, and to place them in circumstances calculated todevelope favourably their physi- cal and mental powers. It is inconceivable to what extent human ignorance and wickedness cause this duty to be ne- glected. " A hundred years ago," says Dr. A. Combe, " when the pauper infants of London were received and brought up in the workhouses, amid impure air, crowding, and want of proper food, not above one in twenty-four lived to be a year old ; so that out of 2S00 annually received into them, 2690 died. But when the conditions of health came to be a little better understood, and an act of parlia- ment was obtained obliging the parish officers to send the infants to nurse in the country, this frightful mortality was reduced to 450, instead of 2600!" In 1781, when the Dublin lying-in hospital was imperfectly ventilated, " every sixth child died within nine days after birth, of convulsive disease ; and after means of thorough ventilation had been adopted, the mortality of infants, within the same time, in five succeeding years, was reduced to nearly one in twenty." Even under private and maternal care the mortality of infants is extraordinary. " It appears, from the London bills of mortality, that between a fourth and a fifth of all the infants baptized die within the first two years of their ex- istence. This extraordinary result is not a part of the Creator's designs ; it does not occur in the case of the DUTIES OP PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. 129 lower animals, and must therefore have causes capable of removal."* It is the punishment of gross ignorance and neglect of the organic laws. Before birth, the infant lives in a temperature of ninety-eight, being that of the mother : at birth it is suddenly ushered into the atmosphere of a cold climate ; and among the poorer classes through want, and among the richer through ignorance or inattention, it is often left very inadequately protected against the effects of this sudden change. In the earlier stages of infancy, im- proper food, deficient ventilation, deficient cleanliness, and want of general attention, consign many to the grave ; while in childhood and youth, great mischief to health and life are often occasioned by infringement of the organic laws. In a family which I knew in youth, two sons, of apparently promising constitutions, fell victims to consump- tion ; and both had slept during the years of youth in a very small bed-closet, with a window consisting of a single pane of glass, which was so near to the bed that it could never be opened with safety to their lungs during night. Breathing the atmosphere of so small an apartment for seven or eight hours in succession, directly tended to bring down the vigour of their respiatory organs, and to injure the tone of the whole system. The effect of this practice was to prepare the lungs to yield to the first unfavourable influence to which they might be exposed ; and accordingly, when such occurred, both fell victims to pulmonary disease. Similar cases are very abundant ; and the ignorance which is the root of the evil is the more fatal, because the errone- ous practices which undermine the constitution operate slowly and insidiously, and even after the results are seen, their causes are neither known nor suspected. For many years a lady known to me was troubled with frequent and severe headaches, which she was unable to get rid of ; but having been instructed in the functions of the lungs, the constitution of the atmosphere, and the bad effects of im- proper food and a sedentary life, she removed from the very confined bed-room which she had occupied for many years, to one that was large and airy, and began to take regular exercise in the open air, and to practise discrimination with respect to her food ; and since that time, nearly ten years ago, her general health has been vastly improved, and head- aches very seldom occur. * Physiology applied to Health and Education. 130 DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. When you study this subject with a view to practice, you will find that the principles which I laid down in the fourth lecture, are of great importance as guides — namely, that each organ of the body has received a definite consti- tution, and that health is the result of the/harmonious and favourable action of them all. Hence, it is not sufficient to provide merely airy bed-rooms for children, if at the same time the means of cleanliness be neglected, or their brains be over-exerted in attending too many classes and learning too many tasks ; the delicate brain of youth demands fre- quent repose. In short, a real practical knowledge of the laws of the human constitution is highly conducive to the successful rearing of children ; and the heart-rending deso- lation of parents, when they see the dearest objects of their love successively torn from them by death, ought to be viewed as the chastisement of ignorance or negligence alone, and not as proofs of the world being constituted un- favourably for the production of human enjoyment. Pa- rents, however, ought not, in this matter, to look to their own happiness merely ; they are under solemn obligations to the children whom they have chosen to bring into the world. Improper treatment in infancy and childhood, at which period the body grows rapidly, is productive of effects far more prejudicial and permanent than at any subsequent age ;* and assuredly those parents are not guiltless who wilfully keep themselves in ignorance of the organic laws, or, knowing these, refrain from acting in accordance with them in the rearing of their children. The latter have a positive claim (which no parent of right feeling will disregard or deny) on those who have forced existence upon them, that they shall do all in their power to render it comfortable. Perhaps some may think that the importance of obedience to the organic laws has been insisted on more than the sub- ject required. Such an idea is natural enough, consider- ing that an exposition of these laws forms no part of or- dinary education, and that obedience to them is enjoined by no human authority. There is no trace of them in the statute-book, none in the catechisms issued by authority of the churdh ; and you rarely, if ever, hear thern mentioned * The principles which should guide parents in the treat- ment of children are stated and enforced in Dr. A. Combe's work on the the Physiological and Moral Treatment of In fancy. DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. 131 as laws of God, by his servants who teach his will from the pulpit. Nay, even the general tongue of society, which allows few subjects to escape remark, is silent with regard to them. Hence, it is probable that the importance of obey- ing the organic laws may to some appear to be over-estimated in these lectures. But the universal silence which prevails in society has its source in ignorance. Physiology is still unknown to nineteen-twentieths even of educated persons, and to the mass it is a complete terra incognita. Even by medical men it is little studied as a practical science, and the idea of its beneficial application as a guide to human conduct in general is only now beginning to engage their attention. If to all this we add, that, until phrenology was discovered, the dependence of mental talents and disposi- tions on cerebral developement was scarcely even suspected — and that belief in this truth is still far from being univer- sal — the silence which prevails with respect to the organic laws, and neglect of them in practice, will not seem unac- countable. On this subject I would observe, that there is a vast dif- ference between the uncertain and the unascertained. It is now universally admitted, that all the movements of mat- ter are regulated by laws ; and that they are never uncer- tain, although the laws which they observe may, in some instances, be unascertained. The revolutions of the planets can be predicted, while those of some of the comets are as yet unknown ; but no philosopher imagines that the latter are uncertain. The minutest drop of water that descends the mighty fall of Niagara is regulated in all its movements by definite laws, whether it rise in mist and float in the at- mosphere to distant regions, there to descend as rain ; or be absorbed by a neighbouring shrub, and reappear as an atom in a blossom adorning the Canadian shore ; or be drunk up by a living creature, and sent into the wonderful circuit of its blood ; or become a portion of an oak, which at a future time shall career on the ocean. Nothing can be less ascertained, or probably less ascertainable by mortal study, than the motions of such an atom ; but every philo- sopher will, without one moment's hesitation, concede that not one of them is uncertain.* The first element of a philo- sophic understanding, is the capacity of extending the same * I owe this forcible illustration to Dr, Chalmers, having first heard it in one of his lectures. 132 DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. conviction to the events evolved in every department of nature. A man who sees disease occurring in youth or middle age, and whose mind is not capable of perceiving that it is the result of imperfect or excessive action in some vital organ, and that imperfect or excessive action is just another name for deviation from the proper healthy state of that organ, is not capable of reasoning. It may be true that, in many instances, our knowledge is so imperfect, that we are incapable of discovering the chain of connexion be- tween the disease and its organic cause ; but he is no phi- losopher who doubts the reality of the connexion. One reason of the obscurity that prevails on this subject in the mind of persons not medically educated, is ignorance of the structure and functions of the body ; and another is, that diseases appear under two very distinct forms — struc- tural and functional ; only the former of which is under- stood by common observers to constitute a proper malady. If an arrow be shot into the eye there is derangement of the structure, and the most determined opponent of the natural laws will at once admit the connexion between the blind- ness which ensues, and the lesion of the organ. But if a watchmaker or an optical instrument maker, by long-con- tinued and excessive exertion of the eye, have become blind, the disease is called functional ; the function, from being over-stimulated, is impaired, but frequently no altera- tion of structure can be perceived. No philosophic physio- logist, however, doubts that there is, in the structure, a change corresponding to the functional derangement, al- though human observation cannot detect it. He never says that it is nonsense to assert that the patient has become blind in consequence of infringement of the organic laws. It is one of these laws that the function of the eye shall be ex- ercised moderately, and it is a breach of that law to strain it to excess. The same principle applies to a great number of diseases occurring under the organic laws. Imperfections in the tone, structure, or proportion of certain organs, may exist at birth, so hidden by their situation, or so slight, as not to be readily perceptible, but not on that account the less real and important ; or deviations may be made gradually and imperceptibly from the proper and healthy exercise of the functions ; and from one or other cause, disease may invade the constitution. Religious persons terra disease DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. 133 occurring in this occult manner a dispensation of God's pro- vidence ; the careless name it an unaccountable event ; but the physician invariably views it as the result of imper- fect or excessive action of some organ or another, and he never doubts that it has been caused by deviations from the laws which the Creator has prescribed for the regulation of the animal economy. The objection that the doctrine of the organic laws which I have been inculcating is unsound, because diseases come and go, without uneducated persons being able to trace their causes, has not a shadow of philo- sophy to support it. I may err in my exposition of these laws, but I hope I do not err in stating that neither disease nor death, in early or middle life, can take place under the ordinary administrations of Providence, except when these laws have been infringed. My reason for insisting so largely on this subject, is a profound conviction of the importance of the organic laws. They are fundamental to happiness ; that is, the conse- quences of errors in regard to them cannot be compensated for, or removed by, any other means than obedience. I daily see melancholy results of inattention to their dictates. When you observe the husband, in youth or middle age, removed by death from the partner of his love and the other dear objects of his affections ; or when you see the mother at a similar age torn from her infant children, her heart bleeding at the thought of leaving them in the hand of the stranger while they most need her maternal care ; the cause of the calamity is either that the dying parent inherited a defective constitution in consequence of disobedience by his ancestors to the organic laws, or that he himself has in- fringed them grievously. If, therefore, we desire to diminish this class of calamities, we must study and obey the organic laws. As these laws operate independently of all others, we may manifest the piety of angels, and yet suffer if we neglect them. I repeat, then, that if there be any remedy on earth for this class of evils, it is obedience to the laws of our constitution, and this alone. Again, if we see the lovely infant snatched from the mother's bosom by the hand of death, while it caused every affection of her mind to thrill with joy, and fed her hopes with the fondest and brightest visions of its future talent, virtue, and success — let us trace the cause, and we shall find that the- organic laws have been infringed. If you see 12 134 DUTIES OP PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN". an aged man walking with heavy steps, and deeply dejected mein, the nearest follower after a bier adorned with white-^ it is a father carrying to the grave his first-born son, the hope and stay of his life, torn from him in the full bloom of manhood, when already he had eased the hoary head of half its load of care. The cause of this scene also is infringe- ment of the organic laws. Or open the door of some family parlour, where we ex- pect to meet with peace and joy, blessing and endearment, as the natural accompaniments of domestic life, and see discord, passion, disappointment, and every feeling that imbitters existence, depicted on the countenances of the inmates. The cause is still infringement of the organic laws. Two persons have married whose brains differ so widely that there is not only no natural sympathy between them, but absolute contradiction in their dispositions. This discord might have been read in their brains before they were united for life. Look on another scene. You may observe several per- sons of each sex, in middle life, gravely sitting in anxious deliberation. They are the respectable members of a nu- merous family, holding consultation on the measures to be adopted in consequence of one of their number having be- come insane, or having given himself up irreclaimably to drunkenness, or to some worse species of immorality. Their feelings are deeply wounded, their understandings are perplexed, and they know not what to do. The cause is still the same : the unfortunate object of their solicitude has inherited an ill-constituted brain ; it has yielded to some exciting cause, and he has lost his reason ; or he has given way to a headlong appetite for intoxicating liquors, in con- sequence of one or other of his parents having laboured under a similiar influence at the commencement of his ex- istence ; and it has now become an actual disease. The organic laws have been infringed ; and this scene also is a form in which the Creator indicates to his creatures that his laws have been trangressed. If you make a catalogue of human miseries, and inquire how many of them spring directly or indirectly from infringement of the organic laws, you will be astonished at its extent. If, then, these laws be fundamental — if the consequences of disobeying them be so formidable, and if escape be so impossible, you will forgive the anxiety with which I have DUTIES OP PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. 135 endeavoured to expound them. I might draw pictures the converse of all that I have here represented, and show you health, long life, happiness, and prosperity, as the rewards of obeying these and the other natural laws, and I should still be justified by philosophy ; but the principle, if admitted, will carry home these counter results to your own under- standings. I may farther remark, that all philosophy and theology which have been propounded by men ignorant of these laws, may be expected to be imperfect, and that there- fore we arrogate no undue superiority in refusing to yield the convictions of our own judgments to the dictates of their intellects, (however admirable in native vigour,) when they had no sound data on which to proceed. The events of human life, viewed through the medium of their principles, and of the philosophy which I am now expounding, must appear in very different lights. In their eyes many events appear inscrutable, which to us are clear. According to our view, an allwise and beneficent Creator has bestowed on us, the highest of his terrestrial creatures, the gift of reason, and has arranged the whole world as a theatre for its exercise. He has placed before us examples without number of his power, wisdom, and goodness, and left us to apply our faculties to study them and to act in harmony with them, and then to live and be happy, or to neglect them and to suffer. Each of you will approve of that system which appears to be founded in truth and to tend most to the glory of God. I ask no man to yield his conscience and his understanding to my opinions ; but only solicit liberty to announce what to myself appears to be true, that it may be received or rejected, according to its merits. In concluding, it is proper to add one observation. Man- kind have lived so long without becoming acquainted with the organic laws, and have, in consequence, so extensively transgressed them, that there are few individuals in civi- lized society who do not bear in their persons, to a greater or less extent, imperfections derived from this source. It is impossible, therefore, even for the most anxious disciples of the new doctrine, all at once to yield perfect obedience to these laws. If none were to marry in whose family stock, and in whose individual persons, any traces of serious departures from the organic laws were to be found, the civilized world would become a desert. The return to obe- dience must be gradual, and the accomplishment of it the 136 DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. result of time. After these laws are unfolded to a man's discernment, he is not guiltless if he completely disregard them, and commit flagrant violations of their dictates. We are all bound, if we believe them to be instituted by God, to obey them as far as is in oar power ; but we cannot com- mand all external circumstances. We are bound to do the best we can ; and this, although not all that could be de- sired, is often much ; nor shall we ever miss an adequate reward, even for our imperfect obedience. It is deeply mysterious that man should have been so created, as to err for thousands of years through ignorance of his own constitution and the laws under which he suf- fers or enjoys ; but it is equally mysterious that the globe itself underwent the successive revolutions revealed by geology, destroying myriads of living creatures, and extin- guishing whole races of beings before man appeared ! It is equally mysterious, also, why the earth presents such striking inequalities of soil and* climate — in some regions so beautiful, so delightful, so prolific ; in others so dreary, steril, and depressing ! It is equally mysterious that man has been created a mortal creature, living, even at the best, but for a season on earth, and then yielding his place to a successor, whose tenure will be as brief as his own. These are mysteries which reason cannot penetrate, and for which fancy cannot account ; but they all relate, not to our con- duct here, but to the will of God our maker in the creation of the universe. Although we cannot unravel the counsels of the Omnipotent, this is no reason why we should not study and obey his laws. What he has presented to us in creation, we are bound to accept with gratitude at his hand as a gift ; but in using it, we are called on to exercise our reason, the noblest of his boons ; and we may rest assured, that no impenetrable darkness will hang over the path of our duty, when we shall have fairly opened our eyes and our understandings to the study of his works. There is no difficulty in believing that man, having received reason, was intended to use it — that, by neglecting to do so, he has suf- fered — and that, when he shall duly employ it, his miseries will diminish ; and this is all that I am now teaching. It is inexplicable why we should not earlier have gone into the road tnat leads to happiness ; but let us not hesitate to en- ter it now, if we see it fairly opened before us. 137 LECTURE VII. It is the duty of parents to educate their children — To be able to discharge this duty, parents themselves must be educated — Deficiency of education in Scotland — Means of supplying the deficiency — It is a duty to provide for children — Best •provision for children consists in a sound constitution, good moral and intellectual training, and instruction in useful knowledge — What distribution of the parent's fortune should be made ? — Rights of parents and duties of children— Obe- dience to parents — Parents bound to render themselves worthy of respect — Some children born with defective moral and intellectual organs — How they should be treated. Next to the duty of providing for the physical health and enjoyment of their children, parents are bound to train and educate them properly, so as to fit them for the dis- charge of the duties of life. The grounds of this obliga- tion are obvious. The human body and mind may be viewed as a large assemblage of organs and faculties, pos- sessing native energy and extensive spheres of action, each capable of being used or abused, according as it is directed. The extent of range of these powers is a prime element in the dignity of man, yet it is this which renders education so important. As parents are the authors and guardians of the beings thus endowed, it is clearly their duty to train the faculties of those beings, and to direct them to their proper objects. "-To send an uneducated child into the world," says Paley, " is little better than to turn out a mad dog, or a wild beast, into the streets." To direct education properly, it is necessary to know the physical and mental constitution of the being to be edu- cated, and also the world in which he is to be an actor. Ge- nerally speaking, the former knowledge is not possessed, and the latter object is very little regarded by parents in the education of their children. How many parents are able to call up to their own minors any satisfactory view of the men- tal faculties, with their objects and spheres of activity, which they aim at training in their children 1 How many add to this knowledge an acquaintance with the physical constitution of the human being, and of the kind of treat- ment which is best calculated to develope favourably its energies and capabilities 1 Nay, who can point out even a body of professional teachers who are thus highly accom- plished 1 I fear none of us can do so 12* 138 DUTIES OP PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. I do not blame either parents or teachers for the present imperfect state of their knowledge ; because they were not themselves taught ; indeed, the information here described did not exist a few years ago, and- it exists but very imper- fectly still. Ignorance, therefore, is our misfortune, rather than our fault ; and my sole object in adverting to its mag- nitude is to present us all with motives to remove it While it continues so profound and extensive as it has hith- erto in general been, sound and salutary education can no more be accomplished, than you can cause light to shine forth out of darkness. Scotland has long boasted of her superior education ; but her eyes are now opening to the groundlessness of this idea. In May, 1835, Dr. Welsh told the nation, in the General Assembly, that Protestant Ger- many, and even some parts of Catholic Germany, are in that respect far before us. The public mind is becoming so much alive to our deficiencies, that better prospects open up for the future. The details of education cannot here be entered into ; but it may be remarked, that phrenology points out the necessity of training the propensities and sen- timents, as well as cultivating and instructing the under- standings of children. For accomplishing these ends, infant-schools on Mr. Wilderspin's plan are admirably adapted. The objects of education are — to strengthen each faculty that is too weak, to restrain those which are too vigorous, to store the intellect with moral, religious, scientific, and general knowledge, and to direct all to their proper objects. In cultivating the intellect, we should bear in view that ex- ternal nature is as direclly adapted to our different intellec- tual powers as light to the eye, and that the whole economy of our constitution is arranged on the principle that we shall study the qualities and relations of external objects, apply them to our use, and also adapt our conduct to their operation. The three great means of education are, domes- tic training, public schools, and literature or books. The first will be improved by instructing parents, and the second by the diffusion of knowledge among the people at large ; while the third is now — through the efforts of those philan- thropists who have given birth to really cheap moral and scientific literature (particularly ^Messrs. Chambers of Edin- burgh)— placed within the reach of every class of the com- munity. DUTIES OP PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. 139 Messrs. Chambers have lately added to their other means of instruction a series of cheap books on education, in which the lights of modern knowledge are brought together to illuminate and render practical this interesting subject. Europe is, at this moment, only waking out of the slumbers 01 the dark ages ; she is beginning to discover that she is ignorant, and to desire instruction. The sun of knowledge, however, is still below the horizon to vast multitudes of our British population ; but they are startled by a bright efful- gence darting from a radiant sky, and they now know that that light is the dawn of a glorious day, which will tend to terminate their troubled dreams of ignorance and folly. Let ns help to arouse them — let us lead them to pay their morn- ing orisons in the great temple of universal truth. When they shall have entered into that temple, let us introduce them to nature and to nature's God ; and let us hasten the hour when the whole human race shall join together, to celebrate his power, wisdom, and goodness, in strains which shall never cease till creation pass away ; for we know that the sun of knowledge, unlike the orb of day, when once risen, will never set, but will continue to emit brighter and brighter rays, till time shall be no more. In eternity, alone, can we conceive the wonders of creation to be completely unfolded, and the mind of man to be satiated with the ful- ness of information. In the present course of lecture, I am treating merely of duties ; and when I point out to you the foundation and extent of the duty of educating your children, it is all that I can accomplish. I cannot here discuss the manner in which you may best discharge this obligation. This in- struction can be obtained only by a thorough education of your own minds ; and the courses of lectures provided by the Philosophical Association are admirable auxiliaries to the attainment of this end. After you have become acquainted with anatomy and physiology as the keys to the physical constitutioii of man ; with phrenology as the developement of his mental constitution ; with chemistry, natural his- tory, and natural philosophy as expositions of the external world ; and with political economy and moral philosophy as the sciences of human action ; you will be in possession of the rudimentary or elementary knowledge necessary to enable you to comprehend and profit by a course of lectures on practical education, which is really the application of 140 DUTIES OP PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. this knowledge to the most important of all purposes, that of training the body to health, and the mind to virtue, in- telligence, and happiness. I hope that the directors of this association will hereafter induce some qualified lecturer to undertake such a course ; but I beg leave to express my humble conviction, that no error is more preposterous than that which leads many persons to suppose that, ivitlwut this preliminary or elementary knowledge, parents can be taught how to educate their children successfully. The process of education consists in training faculties and communicating knowledge ; and it appears to me to be about as hopeless a task to attempt to perform this duty by mere rules and directions, as it was for the Israelites to make bricks in Egypt with straw. I am the more anxious to insist on this point, because no error is more common in the practical walks of life, than the belief that a parent may be taught how to educate a child without undergoing the labour of educating himself. Many parents of both sexes, but particularly mothers, have told me, that if I would lecture on education, they would come and hear me, be- cause they considered the education of their children to be a duty, and were disposed to sacrifice the time necessary for obtaining instruction to discharge it. When I recom- mended to them to begin by studying physiology, chemistry, natural philosophy, and phrenology, at least to so great an extent as to be able to comprehend the nature of the body and mind which they proposed to train, and of the objects by which the mind and body are surrounded, and on which education is intended to enable them to act — they instantly- declared that they had no time for these extensive inquiries, and that information about education was what they wanted, as it alone was necessary to their object. I told them in vain that these were preliminary steps to any available knowledge of education. They were so ignorant of mind and of its faculties and relations, that they could not con- ceive this to be the case, and refused to attend these courses of instruction. If I could succeed in persuading you of the truth of this view, the permanence of this association and the success of its lectures would be secured ; because the industrious citizens of Edinburgh would prize it as a grand means of preparing their own minds for the important duty of educa- ting their children, and would no longer come hither merely DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. 141 to be amused or to pass an idle hour ; they would regard every science taught by this association as a step toward the attainment of the most important object of human life — that of training the yonng to health, intelligence, virtue, and enjoyment.* The next duty of parents is, to provide suitably for the outfit of their children in the world. If I am right in my fundamental principles, that happiness consists in well re- gulated activity of the various functions of the body and mind, and that the wcrld is designedly arranged by the Creator with a view to the maintenance of our powers in this condition of activity — it follows that a parent who shall have provided a good constitution for his child, preserved him in sound health, thoroughly educated him, trained him to some useful calling, and supported him until he have be- come capable of exercising that calling — will have dis- charged the duty of maintenance in its highest and best sense. I regard it as of much importance to children to give them correct views of the real principles, machinery, and objects of life, and to train thorn to act systematically in their habitual conduct. bat should we think of a merchant who should em- bark himself, his wife, family, and fortune, on board of a ship ; and who should take the command of it himself, and set sail on a voyage of adventure, without knowledge of navigation, without charts, and without having any particu- lar port of destination in view ] We should consider him as a lunatic ; and yet many men are launched forth on the sea of active life, as ill provided with knowledge and objects, as the individual here imagined. Suppose, however, our adventurous navigator to use the precaution of placing him- self under convoy, to attach himself to a fleet, and to sail when they sailed, and stop where they stopped, we should still lament his ignorance, and reckon the probabilities great of his running foul of his companions in the voyage, founder- ing in a storm, being wrecked on shoals or sunken rocks, or making an unproductive speculation even if he safely attain- ed a trading port. This simile appears to me to be scarcely an exaggeration of the condition in which young men in general embark in the business of the world. The great * I regret to mention that the hope expressed in the text of the permanence of the lectures of the Philosophical Associa- tion has not been realized. They have already ceased. 1840. 142 DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. mass of society is the fleet to which they attach themselves ; it is moving onward and they move with it ; sometimes it is favoured with prosperity, sometimes overtaken by adver- sity, and they passively undergo its various fates ; some' times they make shipwreck of themselves by running foul of their neighbours' interests, or by deviating from the course, and encountering hazards peculiarly their own ; but in all they do, and in all they suffer, they obey an impulse from without, and rarely pursue any definite object except the acquisition of wealth, and they follow even it without a systematic plan. If you consider that this moving mass called society is only a vast assemblage of individuals, nearly all equally ignorant, and that the impulses which they obey are merely the desires of the most energetic minds, pursuing, often blindly, their individual advantage, you cannot be surprised at the strange gyrations which society has so often exhibited. In rude ages, the lead- ers and the people loved " the pride, pomp, and circum- stance of glorious war," and they moved to the sound of the trumpet, and rejoiced in the clang of arms. In our day, the leaders steer to wealth and fame, and the mass toils after them as best it may. In one year a cotton mania seizes the leaders, and vast portions of the people are in- fected with the disease. In another year a mania for joint stock companies attacks them, and their followers again catch the infection. In these varying aspects of social movements we discover nothing like a well considered scheme of action, adopted from knowledge, and pursued to its results. The leaders, and the multitude appear equally to be moved by impulses which control and correct each other by collision and concussion, but in each of which thousands of individuals are crushed to death, although the mass escapes and continues to move forward in that course which corresponds to the direction of the last force which was applied to it. It appears to me that, by correct and enlarged knowledge of human nature, and of the external world, the young might be furnished with a chart and plan of life, suited to their wants, desires, and capacities, as rational beings, and which would enable them, if they possessed energy to be- come leaders, to steer the social course with greater preci- sion, safety, and advantage, than in bygone times : or, if they were humble members of the body politic, to shape DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. 143 thei* individual courses, so as in some degree to avoid the collisions and concussions which reckless ardour, in alliance with ignorance, is ever producing. A young man, if pro- perly instructed, should commence active life with a clear perception of the results to which the various courses of action submitted to his choice are calculated to lead, and the steps by which these results are in general evolved. This advantage, however, is rarely possessed, and the young are left to grope their way, or to join the convoy and sail with the fleet, as they prefer. Under the present system of instinctive and imitative action, one or other of two errors generally infects the youthful mind. If the parents have long struggled with pecuniary difficulties, and suffered under the depression of poverty, but ultimately, after much exertion and painful self-denial, have attained to easy circumstances — they teach their children almost to worship wealth, and at the same time fill their minds with vivid ideas of laborious exertion, sacrifices, difficulties, cares, and troubles, as almost the only occurrences of life. The idea of enjoyment is closely allied with that of sin ; and young persons thus trained, if they possess well constituted brains, often become rich, but rarely reap any reasonable satisfaction from their earthly existence. They plod, and toil, and save, and invest ; but cultivate neither their moral nor their intellectual faculties, and at the close of life complain that all is vanity and vexa- tion of spirit. The second error is diametrically the opposite of this one. Parents of easy, careless dispositions, who have either in- herited wealth, or been successful in business without much exertion, generally teach their children the art of enjoying life without that of acquiring the means of doing so ; and such children enter into trade or engage in professions under the settled conviction (not by their parents, perhaps, in direct terms, but insensibly instilled into their minds by ex- ample) that the paths of life are all level, clear, and smooth ; that they need only to put the machinery of business into mo- tion ; and that, thereafter, all will go softly forward, afford- ing them funds and leisure for enjoyment, with little anxiety, and very moderate exertion. Young persons thus instruct- ed, if they do not possess uncommonly large organs of Cau- tiousness and Conscientiousness, go gayly on in active life for a brief space of time, and then become the victims of a 144 DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. false system and of inexperience. They are ruined, and suffer countless privations. The errors of both of these modes of training the young should be avoided. After health, education, and virtuous habits, the best pro- vision that a parent can make for his son is, to furnish him with sound views of his real situation as a member of the social body. The Creator having destined man to live in society, the social world is so arranged that an individual, illuminated by a knowledge of the laws which regulate social prosperity, by dedicating himself to a useful pursuit, and fulfilling ably the duties connected with it, will meet with very nearly as certain a reward, in the means of subsistence and enjoyment, as if he raised his food directly from the soil. There are astonishing regularity and stability discoverable in the movements of the social world, when its laws of ac- tion are understood. The labourer, artisan, manufacturer, and professional practitioner, find the demands for their labour, goods, or other contributions to the social welfare, to follow one after another with constancy and regularity, so that, with ability, attention, and morality, they are very rarely indeed left unprovided for. It is of great importance to press home this truth on the minds of the young, and to open their understandings to a perception of the causes which operate in producing this result, that they may enter into active life with a just reliance on the wisdom and good- ness of the Creator, in providing the means of subsistence end enjoyment for all who discharge their social duties ; and yet with a feeling of the necessity of knowledge, and of the practice of that moral discipline which enforces ac- tivity and good conduct at every step, as the natural and in- dispensable conditions of success. In our own country, the duty of teaching sound and prac- tical views of the nature of man as an individual, and of the laws which regulate his social condition, to the young, has become doubly urgent since the passing of the reform act. Under the previous system of government, only the wealthy were allowed to exercise the political franchise ; and as education was a pretty general concomitant of wealtlvpower and knowledge (so far as knowledge exist- ed) were to a great degree united in the same hands. Now, however, when great property is no longer indispensable to the exercise of political power, it is necessary to extend and improve general education. The middle classes of this DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. 145 ■country have, in their own hands, the power of returning a majority of the house of commons ; and as the commons hold the strings of the national purse, and, when nearly unanimous, exercise an irresistible influence in the state, it is obvious that those who elect them ought to be educated and rational men. { In past ages, government has been conducted too often on short-sighted empirical principles, and rarely on the basis of a sound and comprehensive philosophy of man's nature and wants : hence the wars undertaken for futile and im- moral purposes ; hence the heavy taxes which oppress indus- try and obstruct prosperity ; hence, also, the restrictions, protections, and absurd monopolies, which disgrace the statute-book of the nation ; all which are not only direct evils, but are attended by this secondary disadvantage that they have absorbed the funds, and consumed the time and mental energy, which, under a better system, would have been dedicated to the improvement of national and public institutions. Henceforth the government of this country must be animated by, and act up to, the general intelligence of the nation ; but it will be impossible for it to advance to any considerable extent beyond it. Every patriot, there- fore, will find in this fact an additional motive to qualify himself for expanding the minds and directing the steps of the rising generation, that Britain's glory and happiness may pass, untarnished and unimpaired, to the remotest posterity of virtuous and enlightened men.* The question next arises, What provision in money or land is a parent bound to make for his children 1 To this no answer, that would suit all circumstances, can be given. As parents cannot carry their wealth to the next world, it must of course be left to some one ; and the natural feel- ings of mankind seem to dictate that it should be given to * The remarks in the text apply with still greater force to the United States of America. There the supreme political power is wielded by the mass of the people. No rational per- son will maintain that one ignorant man is a proper ruler for a great nation ; but additions to numbers do not alter the species. Twenty, or a hundred, or a thousand ignorant men, are not wiser than one of them ; while they are much more dangerous. They inflame each other's passions, keep each other's follies in countenance, and add to each other's strength. If the United States, therefore, desire to avoid anarchy and ruin, they •must educate the mass of their people. 13 146 DUTIES OP PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN those who stand nearest in kindred and highest in merit in relation to the testator. With respect to children, in ordi- nary circumstances, this cannot be questioned ; for it is* clearly the duty of parents to do all in their power to make happy the existence of those whom they have brought into the world. But difference of customs in different countries, and difference of ranks in the same country, render diffe- rent principles of distribution useful and proper. In Britain, a nobleman who should distribute £100,000 equally among ten children, would do great injustice to his eldest son, to whom a title of nobility would descend, with its concomi- tant expenses ; but a merchant who had realized £1^0,000, would act more wisely and justly in leaving £10,000 to each of ten children, than in attempting to found a family by entailing £82,000 on his eldest son, and leaving only £2000 to each of the other nine. I consider hereditary titles as an evil to society, and desire their abolition ; but while they are permitted to exist, the distribution of wealth should bear reference to the expenses which they necessa- rily entail on those who inherit them. The United States of America have wisely avoided this institution \ and by the laws of most of these states, an equal distribution of the family estate, real and personal, among all the children, ensues on the death of the parents. This practice appears to me to be wise and salutary. It tends to lessen that con- centration of all thought and desire on themselves and their families, which is the besetting sin of the rich, and it teaches them to perceive that the prosperity of their children is in- dissolubly linked with that of their country. As a general rule, parents ought to make the largest provisions for those members of their families who are least able, from sex, con- stitution, capacity, or education, to provide for themselves. In the lower ranks of life, where both sexes engage in labour, an equal distribution may, other circumstances being equal, be just ; in the middle ranks, in which it is the cus- tom for males to engage in business, but in which females do not, in general, labour — if the parents have a numerous family and moderate fortune, I should consider the sons amply provided for, by furnishing them with education and a calling ; while the property of the parents should be given chiefly to the daughters. It is impossible, however, as I have already hinted, to lay down rules that will be univer- sally applicable. DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. 147 It is a grave question whether the indefinite accumula- tion of wealth ought to be allowed ; but, however this may- be determined, there ought to be no restriction on the power of spending and disposing of property. Entails are a great abuse, introduced by Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation acting apart from Benevolence and Conscientiousness. The Creator has obviously intended that wealth should be en- joyed only on the condition of the exercise of at least ave- rage discretion by its possessor ; yet the object of entails is to secure it and its attendant influence to certain heirs, altogether independently of their intelligence, morality, and prudence. Laws have been enacted by which it is contem- plated that estates should be transmitted unimpaired from sire to son, through endless generations, although each pos- sessor, in hk turn, may be a pattern of vice and imbecility. But the law of Nature is too strong to be superseded by the legislation of ignorant and presumptuous men. The children of intelligent, virtuous, and healthy parents, are so well constituted as to need no entails to preserve their fa- mily estates and honours unimpaired ; while, on the other hand, children with immoral dispositions are prone, in spite of the strictest entail, to tarnish that glory and distinction which the law vainly attempts to keep in brightness. Ac- cordingly, many families, where a good mind descends, flourish for centuries without entails ; whereas others, in which immoral or foolish minds are hereditary, live in con- stant privation, notwithstanding the props of erroneous laws ; each immoral heir of entail mortgages his liferent right, and lives a beggar and an outcast from his artificial sphere of life. The organic laws afford the only means acknowledged by the Creator, of maintaining family possessions undis- solved ; and until men shall resort to obedience to them, as the means of preserving a great, virtuous, and flourish- ing posterity, they will in vain frame acts of parliament to attain this object. Parents have rights as well as duties in relation to their children. They are entitled to the produce of the child's labour during its non-age ; to its respect and obedience ;. and, when infirm, to maintenance, if necessary. These rights on the part of the parents imply corresponding duties incumbent on the children. The obligation on the children to discharge them, flows directly from the dictates of Vene» 148 DUTIES OF CHILDREN TO THEIR PARENTS. ration, Conscientiousness, and Benevolence. It has often been objected to phrenology that it presents no organ of filial piety. It points to the three moral organs as contri- buting to the fulfilment of duty to parents. Veneration- dictates reverence, respect, and obedience ; Conscientious- ness dictates gratitude, or a return for their care and affec- tion ; while Benevolence impels to the promotion of their happiness by every possible means. Adhesiveness binds ©Id and young in the bonds of reciprocal attachment. In the lower and middle ranks of life, the want of respect and obedience on the part of children is extensively com- plained of ; but the general cause of this evil is the want of sufficient knowledge and goodness in the parents to ren- der them really objects of respect to the higher sentiments ©f their children. The mere fact of being father or mother to the child, is obviously not sufficient to excite its moral affections.* The parent must manifest superior wisdom and intelligence, and also a disposition to promote its wel- fare ; and then respect and obedience will be the natural fruits. The attempt to render a child respectful and obe- dient by merely telling it to be so, is not less absurd than would be the endeavour to make it fond of music by assu- ring it that filial duty requires that it should love melody. We must present music itself to the faculty of Tune ; and in like manner the moral sentiments must be addressed by their appropriate objects.. Harsh conduct tends strongly to rouse the faculties of Combativeness, Destructiveness, and Self-Esteem ; while the Moral Sentiments can be excited only by rational, kind, and just treatment. As reasonably might a tyrannical father hope to gather figs from a bram- ble-bush, as to be loved and respected by his ill-treated children. If a parent desire to have a docile, affectionate, and intelligent family, he must habitually address himself to their moral and intellectual powers ; he must make them feel that he is wise and good — exhibit himself as the natu- ral object of attachment and respect ; and by average chil- dren, performance of these duties will not be withheld. * An American clerical Reviewer objected to the text, that it sets aside the Bible, which commands children to honour their father and mother without regard to their qualities. He forgets that the Scriptures require parents to adorn themselves with all the Christian virtues, and that the fifth commandment enviously implies that they have fulfilled this duty. DCTIES OF CHILDREN TO THEIR PARENTS. 149 If parents knew and paid regard to the mental and bodily constitution of the young, they would be far less frequently disobeyed than they actually are. Many of their commands forbid the exercise of faculties which in children pant for gratification, and which Nature intended to be gratified ; and the misery and disappointment consequent on balked desire have an effect very different from that of disposing to affection and obedience. The love of muscular motion, for instance, is irrepressible in children, and physiology proves that the voice of Nature ought to be carefully regard- ed ; yet the obedience of children to this instinct is, inmost cases, strictly prohibited, that the family or teacher may not be disturbed by noise ; faculties are called on to work which Nature intended to operate at a later period of life ; the health and happiness of the children are impaired ; and if the peevishness which ensues be unpalatable to the parents, they should ascribe the evil to their own irrational treatment. A friend, who is the father of several intelligent children, told me that, before he studied phrenology and the natural laws, he taught his children the shorter catechism, and re- quired their obedience on the strength of the fifth command- ment, " Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee," assuring them that God would punish them by pre- mature death if they disobeyed this commandment. God, he said, had power of life and death over all, and, as he was just, he would enforce his authority. The children soon learned, however, by experience, that this consequence did not actually follow : they disobeyed, and were threaten- ed ; but, finding themselves still alive, they disobeyed again. He was not successful, therefore, by this method, in en- forcing obedience. After becoming acquainted with the natural laws, he still taught them the commandment, but he gave a different ex- planation of it. You see, said he, that there are many ob- jects around you very dangerous to your lives : there is fire that will burn you, water that will drown you, poison that will kill you ; and, also, there are many habits and practices which will undermine the constitution of your vital organs ; such as your heart, your stomach, or your lungs, (explaining these at the same time,) and cause you to die ; as you have seen John and Janet, the children of Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Brown, die. Now, because I 13* 150 DUTIES OF CHILDREN TO THEIR PARENT*. am old, and have listened to my parents, and have studied and observed a great deal, I know what will injure you, and what will not, which you do not know yourselves ; and I am willing to communicate all my knowledge and experience to you, that you may avoid danger and not die, if you choose to listen to, and obey me : but, if you prefer taking your own way, and acting on your own ignorance, you will soon discover that God's threat is not an empty one ; you will come home some day, suffering severely from your own rashness and self-will, and then you will learn whether you were right in your disobedience ; you will then understand the meaning of the commandment to be, that if you obey your perents, and avail yourself of their knowledge and expe- rience, you will avoid danger and live ; if you neglect then- counsels, you will, through sheer ignorance and self-will, fall into misfortune, suffer severely, and perhaps die. He said that this commentary, enforced from day to day by proofs of his knowing more than the children did, was suc- cessful ; they became much more obedient, and entertained a higher respect both for the commandment and for him. It is a common practice with nurses, when a child falls and hurts itself, to beat the ground, or the table, against which it has struck. This is really cultivating the feeling of revenge. It gratifies the child's Self-Esteem and Destruc- tiveness, and pacifies it for the moment. The method of proceeding dictated by the natural law is widely different. The nurse or parent should take pains to explain the cause of its falling, and present it with motives to take greater care in future. The suffering would thus be turned to good account ; it would become, what it was intended by Provi- dence to be, a lesson to lead the child to wisdom and virtue — to patience, to circumspection, and to reflection. In ex- acting obedience from children, it should never be forgotten that their brains are very differently constituted from each other, and that their mental dispositions vary in a corres- ponding degree. The organ of Veneration, besides, is gene- rally late in being developed, so that a child may be stub- born and unmanageable under one kind of treatment, or at one age, who shall prove tractable and obedient under a different discipline, or at a future period. The aid which parents may derive from phrenology can hardly be over- rated. It enables them to appreciate the natural talents and dispositions of each child, to modify their treatment, DUTIES OP CHILDREN TO THEIR PARENTS. 151 and to distinguish between positively vicious tendencies (such as deceit, lying, and dishonesty) and other manifesta- tions, (such as stubbornness and disobedience,) which often proceed from misdirection of qualities that will prove ex- tremely useful in the maturity of the understanding. The reason for watchfulness and anxiety is much greater in the former than in the latter case ; because dishonesty, false- hood, and pilfering, betoken not only over-active organs of Secretiveness and Acquisitiveness, but a native deficiency of the controlling moral organs, which is a more serious evil. When the moral organs are adequately possessed, the perceptions of children regarding right and wrong aro naturally active and extremely acute ; and although indi- viduals with a large developement of the organs of the higher sentiments may commit aberrations in youth, under the impulse of the propensities, they will certainly improve as age and experience increase. Where the moral organs are very defective, the individual tends to deterioration of character in mature life. After the restraints imposed by parental authority are withdrawn, and respect for the world is blunted, persons deficient in these faculties are prone to become victims to their inferior feelings, and to disgrace themselves and bring sorrow on their connexions. As some individuals are really born with such deficien- cies of the moral organs as incapacitate them for pursuing right conduct, although they possess average intellect, and are free from diseased action of the brain ; and as there is no legal method of restraining them unless they commit what the law accounts crime ; great misery is often endured by their relatives in seeing them proceed from one step of folly and iniquity to another, until they are plunged into irretrievable ruin and disgrace. The phrenologist who dis- covers that the source of the evil lies in an imperfect de- velopement of the moral organs, views them as patients, and desires that physical restraint should be applied to pre- vent the abuses of their lower propensities, which they have not morality sufficient to command.* But there is no law * A writer in the New York Review stigmatizes the doctrine in the text, as being " calculated to weaken our sense of ac- countability, or shake our confidence in moral distinctions." He quotes from the " Reports " of these lectures the following words : 4< Extensive observation of the heads of criminals, and inquiry into their feelings and histories, place it beyond a doubt, 152 DUTIES OP CHILDREN TO THEIR PARENTS. authorizing their relatives to treat them in this manner against their inclinations. In the neighbourhood of Paris, however, Mons. Voison, an intelligent phrenologist, has opened an institution for the reception of patients of this description, who are still under parental authority, or that of guardians. He receives youths who are not labouring under any disease or derangement of their faculties, but whose organs are so unfavourably combined, that, when left to their instinctive impulses in ordinary society, and under the usual guidance, they cannot refrain from immorality. He pro- ceeds in his whole treatment on phrenological principles, openly and avowedly. In the first place, he withdraws ex- ternal temptation ; for the children live in an establishment apart from ordinary society. Secondly, he imposes restraint ; for each patient is attended constantly by a tutor, or supe- rior servant, who is chargeable with superintending his ac- that in many of them conscience is, and always has been, either very defective, or had literally no existence." " It is ex- tremely questionable whether society should punish severely those who err through moral blindness arising from deficiency of certain parts of the brain." The Reviewer does not propose to inquire whether this statement be borne out by facts or not; but at once assumes that it is not, and proceeds thus : " This is, indeed, ' a Revelation,' and there can be little doubt that at Sing-Sing and Auburn it would receive a most cordial recep- tion." As my motto is " res non verba" (facts not arguments,) I submit the following narrative to the consideration of the Re- viewer, and of other persons in a similar frame of mind to his. On the 22d October, 1839, 1 visited the state-prison of Con- necticut, at Wethersfield, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Gal- laudet, the Rev. Principal Totten, Dr. A. Brigham, and four or five other gentlemen, who had attended my course of lectures on phrenology, then nearly concluded at Hartford. I had illus- trated th£ doctrine in the text by the exhibition of numerous casts, and impressed on their minds the peculiar forms of de- velopement which distinguish the best from the worst consti- tuted brains. Mr. Pillsbury, the superintendent of the prison, brought a criminal into his office, without speaking one word concerning his crime or history. I declined to examine his head myself, but requested the gentlemen who accompanied me to do so, engaging to correct their observations, if they erred. They proceeded with the examination, and stated the inferences which they drew respecting the natural dispositions of the individual. Mr. Pillsbury then read from a manu- script paper, which he had prepared before we came, the cha- racter as known to him. The coincidence between the two DUTIES Or CHILDREN TO THEIR PARENTS. 153 tions at all times, and keeping a constant watch over him. Thirdly, he uses every active means to cultivate and strengthen the organs that are deficient, by exercise and in- struction. He and his partner, and his partner's wife, live among them and superintend the whole. The establish- ment is very recent, and its success is yet unascertained.* It has received some pupils from France, and already one from Britain. Similar institutions are much wanted in this country, and they ought to be established, and aided by the law. I know of numerous and most distressing examples of young persons going to utter and irreclaimable ruin both in property, health, and character, who by no human means, if not by such institutions, could have been saved. t My conviction is, that if parents have transmitted to their children well balanced and favourably developed brains, and if they have done their duty in training, educating, and was complete. This prisoner was withdrawn, another was introduced, and the same process was gone through, and with the same result in regard to him. So with a third, and a fourth. Among the criminals, there were striking differences- in intellect and in some of the feelings, which were correctly stated by the observers. These experiments, I repeat, were made by the gentlemen who accompanied me ; and as some of them were evangelical clergymen, of the highest reputation, I requested them to mani- pulate their heads. They did so, and inferred the dispositions from actual perception of the great deficiencies in the moral organs, and the predominance of the animal organs, in those individuals whom Mr. Piltebury pronounced to be, in his opinion, incorrigible ; for the question was solemnly put to him, by Dr. Brigham, whether he found any of the prisoners to be irreclaimable under the existing system of treatment, and he acknowledged that he did. One of the individuals who was examined had been tbirty years in the state-prison, under four different sentences, and in him the moral region of the brain was exceedingly deficient. I respectfully pressed upon the attention of the reverend gentlemen, that the facts which they had observed were institutions of the Creator, and that it was in vain for man to be angry with them, to deny them, or to esteem them of light importance. * I regret to hear that this institution was not successful, chiefly from very lax management. 1840. t The Houses of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents, in the United States, correspond, in some degree, to the institutions mentioned in the text as wanting, but they do not fulfil the whole requisites. 154 FORMATION OF SOCIETY. fitting them out in the world, they will rarely have cause to complain of ingratitude or want of filial piety. Where the brains of the children are ill constituted, or where training and education have been neglected or improperly conducted, the parents, in reaping sorrow and disappointment from the behaviour of their offspring, are suffering the natural conse- quences of their own actions ; and if these are punishments, they should read in them an intimation of the divine dis- pleasure with their conduct. In proportion to the develope- ment and cultivation of the moral and intellectual faculties, are gratitude and filial piety strongly and steadily manifested by children. In the middle ranks, and among the well- principled and respectable members of the lower ranks, it is rare to see parents left in destitution by their children who are at all capable of maintaining them ; but among the heartless, reckless, and grossly ignorant, it is not uncom- mon. The legal provision which must be made by the parish for the poor, has tended to blunt the feelings of many individuals in regard to this duty ; yet great and beautiful examples of its fulfilment are frequent, and we may expect that the number of these will increase as education and im- provement advance. Among the domestic duties I might enumerate the reci- procal obligations of masters and servants ; but as the gene- ral principles which ought to regulate the conduct of men as members of society apply also to this relationship, I shall not enter into them at present. LECTURE VIII. Theories of philosophers respecting the origin of society — So lution afforded by Phrenology — Man has received faculties the spontaneous action of which prompts him to live in socie ty — Industry is man's first social duty — Labour, in modera tion, is a source of enjoyment, and nnt a punishment — The opinion that useful labour is degrading examined — The division of labour is natural, and springs from the faculties being bestowed in different degrees of strength on different individuals — One combination fits for one pursuit, and ano- ther for another — Gradations of rank are also natural, and arise from differences in native talents and in acquired skill — *Gradations of rank are beneficial to all, I proceed now to consider those social duties and rights which are not strictly domestic. The first subject of in* FORMATION OP SOCIETY. 155 quiry is the origin of society itself. On this question many fanciful theories have been given to the world. It has en- gaged the imagination of the poet and the intellect of the philosopher. Ovid has described mankind as at first in a state of innocence and happiness during what is termed the golden age, and as declining gradually into vice and misery through the silver, brazen, and iron ages : " The golden age was first, when man, yet new, No rule but uncorrupted reason knew ; And with a native bent, did good pursue. Unforced by punishment, unawed by fear, His words were simple, and his soul sincere. ***** No walls were yet ; nor fence, nor moat, nor mound ', No drum was heard, nor trumpet's angry sound ; Nor swords were forged ; but void of care and crime. The soft creation slept away their time. ***** The flowers, unsown, in fields and meadows reigned, And western winds immortal springs maintained. In following years, the bearded corn ensued, From earth unasked, nor was that earth renewed. From veins of valleys milk and nectar broke, And honey sweating through the pores of oak." To this succeeded too rapidly the silver, the brazen, and the iron ages ; which last, the world had reached in the days of Ovid, and in which, unfortunately, it still remains. Rousseau, who was rather a poet than a philosopher, has written speculations " on the origin and foundations of the existing inequalities among men," which have powerfully attracted the attention of the learned. He informs us that he " sees man such as he must have proceeded from the hands of Nature, less powerful than some animals, less active than others, but, taking him on the whole, more ad- vantageously organized than any. He sees him satisfying his hunger under an oak, quenching his thirst at the first rivulet, finding his bed under the trees whose fruit had afforded him a repast, and thus satisfied to the full of every desire."* " It is impossible," continues he, " to conceive how, in tliis original condition, one man could have more need of * Discours sur L'Origine et les Fondemens d'Inegalite par- mi les Hommes. 4to. edit., Geneva, 1782, p. 48. 156 FORMATION OP SOCIETY. another than a wolf or an ape has of his fellows ; or, sup~ posing the need to exist, what motive could induce the other to satisfy it ; or how, in this latter case, the two could agree upon the terms of their social intercourse." From these premises Rousseau draws the conclusion, that " the first who, having enclosed a piece of ground, took upon himself to call it * mine,,'' and found individuals so foolish as to believe him, was the true founder of civil society." What crimes, what wars, what murders, what miseries and horrors, would he have spared to the human race, who, tearing up the land-marks, or filling up the ditches, had cried to his equals, ' Beware how you listen to this impostor ! You are undone if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all, and the soil to none !' " P. 87. The fundamental error in Rousseau's speculation is, that he endows man, in his primitive condition, with whatever faculties he pleases ; or rather he bestows upon him no principles of action but such as suit his own theory. Nu- merous antagonists have combated these speculations, and, among others, Wieland has written half a volume on the subject ; but their absurdity is so self-evident, that I do not consider it necessary to enter into any lengthened refuta- tion of them. The mistake of such theorists is, that they assume the mind to be altogether passive— to have no spon- taneous activity giving origin to wants or desires : they ascribe the creation of almost all our propensities and tastes to the circumstances in which they were first manifested. The ear, in a state of health, hears no sounds till excited by the vibrations of the air, and they imagine the mind to be similar in its constitution. This mode of philosophizing resembles that which should account for an eruption of Mount Vesuvius by ascribing it to the rent in the surface of the mountain, through which the lava bursts, instead of attributing it to the mighty ener- gies of the volcanic matter buried beneath its rocks. Other philosophers besides Rousseau have theorized on the constitution of society, without previously investigating the constitution of the human mind. Mr. Millar, in his " Observations concerning the Distinction of Ranks in So- ciety," proceeds at once " to show the effects of poverty and barbarism with regard to the passions of the sex, to the general occupations of a people, and the degree of considera- FORMATION OF SOCIETY . 157 tion which is paid to the women as member's of society," without at all inquiring into the innate tendencies and capacities of man, from which the facts which he wishes to account for proceed. However interesting such a work may be as a contribution to the natural history of man, it throws no light on the question, whence the conditions which it records have arisen 1 It leaves the mind unsatis- fied on the general and fundamental question, whether the whole aspect of society, such as it actually exists, has arisen from human institutions, aibitrary in their origin, and con- trollable by the human will ; or whether it has sprung in any degree, and, if so, how far, from instincts referable to nature itself. Lord Karnes, one of the shrewdest and most observant philosophers of the old school, has taken a more rational view of the origin of society. Perceiving that man has been endowed with natural aptitudes and desires, he founds upon these every institution which has been universal among mankind. He attributes the origin of society to " the social principle." Men became hunters from a natural appetite to hunt, and by hunting appeased their hunger. They became shepherds from seeing that it was easier to breed tame ani- mals than to catch wild ones, after hunting had made them scarce. Being shepherds, population increased, and ne- cessity made them desire an increase of food. They saw the earth in some climates producing corn spontaneously, and the idea arose that, by forwarding its growth and re- moving obstructing weeds, more corn would be produced ; and hence they became agriculturists. The idea of pro- perty sprang from the "hoarding appetite." Lord Kames ascribes the various institutions which exist in society to principles innate in the mind, and not to chance or factitious circumstances. Locke and some other writers have assigned the origin of society to reason, and represented it as springing from a compact by which individual men surrendered, for the gene- ral welfare, certain portions of their private rights, and sub- mitted to various restraints ; receiving, in return, protec- tion and other advantages arising from the social state* This idea also is erroneous. Society has always been far advanced before the idea of such a compact began to be entertained ; and even then it has occurred only to the 14 158 FORMATION OP SOCIETY. minds of philosophers. What solution, then, does phreno- logy offer] It shows that man possesses mental faculties endowed with spontaneous activity, which give rise to many desires equally definite with the appetite for food. Among these faculties are several which act as social instincts, and from the spontaneous activity of these society has obviously pro- ceeded. The phrenologist, then, follows in the same track with Lord Karnes ; but the advantage which he possesses over his lordship consists in the superior precision with which, by means of studying the organs of the mind, he has ascertained the faculties which are really primitive, with their functions and spheres of action, and also the effects of differences in the relative size of the organs in different individuals. From the three faculties of Amativeness, Philoprogeni- tiveness, and Adhesiveness, the matrimonial compact, as formerly stated, derives its origin. Adhesiveness has a yet wider sphere of action : it is the gregarious instinct, or propensity to congregate ; it desires the society of our fellow-men generally. Hence, its existence demonstrates that the Creator intended us to live in the social state. The nature and objects of other faculties besides Adhesiveness, lead to the same conclusion. Neither Benevolence, which prompts us to confer benefits — nor Love of Approbation, whose gratification is the applause and good opinion of others — nor Veneration, which gives a tendency to respect, and yield obedience to, superiors — nor Conscientiousness, which holds the balance wherein the rights of competing parties are weighed — has full scope, and a sufficiently wide sphere of action, except in general society : the domestic circle is too contracted for the purpose. The faculty of Conscientiousness, in particular, seems necessarily to imply the existence of the individual in the social state. To give rise to the exercise of justice and the fulfilment of duty, there must necessarily be two par- ties — the one to perform and the other to receive. Con- scientiousness would be as little useful to a solitary human being, as speech to a hermit ; while, even in the domestic circle, the faculties of Benevolence, Philoprogenitiveness, and Veneration, are more directly called into play than it. The head of the family bestows through affection and bounty ; the dependents receive with gratitude and respect ; FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 159 and the feeling of duty, on the part of either, rarely mingles its influence, when these other and more direct principles play with great and spontaneous energy. The sphere in which Conscientiousness is most directly exercised, is that in which the interests and inclinations of equals come into competition. Conscientiousness, aided by intellect, then determines the rights of each, and inspires them with the feeling that it is their duty to do so much, and to demand no more. Phrenology enables us to prove that Conscien- tiousness is not a factitious sentiment, reared up in society, as many moral philosophers and metaphysicians have taught — but a primitive power, having its specific organ. This fact is essential to my argument ; and in my " System of Phrenology" I have exhibited the evidence by which it is established. The adaptation of the intellectual faculties to society is equally conspicuous. The faculty of Language implies the presence of intelligent beings, with whom we may commu- cate by speech. The faculties of Causality and Com- parison, which are the fountains of reasoning, imply our coexistence with other intellectual beings, with whose per- ceptions and experience we may compare our own. With- out combination, what advance could be made in science, arts, or manufactures ] As food is related to hunger, and light to the sense of vision, so is society adapted to the social faculties of man. The presence of human beings is indispensable to the gratification and excitement of our mental powers in general. What a void and craving is ex- perienced by those who are cut off from communication with their fellows ! Persons who are placed in remote and soli- tary stations on the confines of civilization, become dull in intellect, shy, unsocial, and unhappy. The most atrocious criminals, when placed in solitary confinement, without work, lose their ferocity, feel subdued, and speedily lose their health and vigour. The cause is, that the stimulus yielded to their faculties by the presence of their fellow- men is wanting. In the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsyl- vania solitary confinement, with labour, has been tried, and it has been found to subdue the mind, without impairing the health ; the mind finding excitement in the work per- formed. In the prisons of Auburn and Sing-Sing, in the state of New York, criminals have been compelled to work in silence and without communication with each other., but 160 FORMATION OF SOCIETY. in society. They are locked up in solitary cells during night, and in the morning are marched, in solemn silence, into a great workshop, where they see each other, but in which no interchange of word, look, or sentiment is per- mitted. The presence of their fellow -creatures sustains the social faculties, and despondency is not induced. The restraint produces a softening of the feelings to a certain extent, which predisposes the mind to receive moral impres- sions ; while sufficient stimulus is, at the same time, afforded to the social sentiments to ward off too great a depression, amounting to disease. The balmy influence of society on the human mind may be discovered in the vivacious and generally happy aspect of those who live in the bosom of a family, or mingle freely with the world ; while the chilling effect of solitude is ap- parent in the cold, starched, and stagnant manners and ex- pression of those who refrain from associating with their fellow-creatures. A man whose muscular, digestive, respiratory, and cir- culating systems greatly predominate in energy over the brain and nervous system, stands less in need of society to gratify his mental faculties, than an individual oppositely constituted : he delights in active muscular exercise, and is never so happy as with the elastic turf beneath his feet and the blue vault of heaven over his head. But where the brain and nervous system are most energetic, there arise mental wants which can be gratified only in society, and residence in a city is felt indispensable to enjoyment : the mind flags and becomes feeble when not stimulated by col- lision -and converse with kindred spirits. In short, the social state is plainly as natural to man as it is to the bee, the raven, or the sheep. This question being set at rest, the duties implied in the constitution of society are next to be considered. The first duty imposed on man in relation to society is industry — a duty, the origin and sanction of which are easily discovered. Man is sent into the world naked, unprotected, and unprovided for. He does not, like the brutes, find his skin clothed with a sufficient covering, but must provide garments for himself ; he cannot perch on a bough or bur- row in a hole, but must rear a dwelling to protect himself from the weather ; he does not, like the ox, find his nourish- ment under his feet, but must hunt or cultivate the ground. FORMATION OP SOCIETY. 161 To capacitate him for the performance of these neces- sary duties, he has received a body fitted for labour, and a mind calculated to direct his exertions ; while the external world has been created with the wisest adaptation to his constitution. Many of us have been taught, by our religious instructors, that labour is a curse, and that the necessity for it was im- posed by God on man as a punishment for sin. I remarked in the first lecture, that whether sin was or was not the cause which induced the Almighty to constitute man such as we now see him, an organized being, composed of bones, muscles, bloodvessels, nerves, respiratory and digestive organs, and a brain calculated to manifest a rational mind — and to confer on eternal nature its present qualities, adapted to give scope and exercise to these powers — philo- sophy cannot tell ; but it humbly appears to me that, con- stituted as we actually are, labour, which, in its proper sense, means exertion, either bodily or mental, for useful purposes, is not only no calamity, but the grand fountain of our enjoyment.* Unless we exercise our limbs, what happiness can they afford to us 1 If we do not exercise them, they become diseased, and punish us with positive pain ; so that the duty of bodily exertion is a law of God, written in all our system as strikingly as if it were em- blazoned on the sky. Constituted as we are, it is not la- bour, but inactivity, which is an evil — that is, which is visited by God with suffering and disease. The misery of idleness has been a favourite theme of moralists in every age ; and its baneful influence on the bodily health has equally attracted the notice of the physician and of observers in general. Happiness, in truth, is nothing but the gratifi- cation of active faculties ; and hence, the more active our faculties are, within the limits of health, the greater is our enjoyment. " Life's cares are comforts ; such by heaven designed ; He that has none must make them, or be wretched. Cares are employments, and without employ The soul is on a rack, the rack of rest, To souls most adverse — action all their joy." * A prisoner in the jail of Ayr, on being permitted to labour, observed that " he never knew before what a pleasant thing work is."— Fifth Report of the Inspector of Prisons, p. 4. 14* 162 FORMATION OP SOCIETY. The prevalent notion, that labour is an evil, must have arisen from ignorance of the constitution of man, and from contemplating the effects of labour carried to excess. Bodily and mental activity, therefore, being the law of our nature and the fountain of our enjoyment, I observe, first, that they may be directed to useful or to useless purposes ; and they may be carried to excess. Exertion for the attain- ment of useful objects is generally termed labour ; and, because of its utility, men have, with strange perversity, looked upon it as degrading ! Exertion for mere capricious self-gratification, and directed to no useful end, has, on the other hand, been dignified with the name of pleasure, and is esteemed honourable. These notions appear to be injurious errors, which obtain no countenance from the natural laws. Indeed, the proposition ought to be reversed. Pleasure increases in proportion to the number of faculties employed, and it becomes purer and more lasting, the higher the facul- ties are which are engaged in the enterprise. The pursuit of a great and beneficial object, such as providing for a fa- mily, or discharging an important duty to society, calls into energetic action not only a greater variety of faculties, but also faculties of a higher order, namely, the moral sentiments and intellect, than those frivolous occupations, miscalled pleasures, which are directed to self-indulgence and the gratification of vanity alone. The reason why labour has so generally been regarded as an evil, is its very unequal distribution among individuals — many contriving to exempt themselves from all participation in it, (though not to the increase of their own happiness,) while others have been oppressed with an excessive share. Both extremes are improper ; and the hope may reasonably be indulged in, that when society shall become so far en- lightened as to esteem that honourable which God has rendered at once profitable and pleasant — and when labour shall be properly distributed, and confined within the bounds of moderation — it will assume its true aspect, and be hailed by all as a rational fountain of enjoyment. Regarding bodily and mental activity, therefore, as insti tutions of the Creator, I observe, in the next place, that, as man has been destined for society, a division of occupations is indispensable to his welfare. If every one were to insist on cultivating the ground, there would be no manufacturers, carpenters, or builders. If all were to prefer the exercise FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 163 of the constructive arts, we should have no agriculturists and no food. The Creator has arranged the spontaneous division of labour among men by the simplest, yet most effectual, means. He has bestowed different combinations of the mental faculties on different individuals, and thereby given them at once the desire and the aptitude for different occupations. Phrenology renders clear the origin of diffe- rences of employment. The metaphysicians treat only of general powers of the mind ; and, among the active princi- ples, enumerate ambition, the love of power, the love of kindred, and so forth, while their catalogue of intellectual faculties embraces only Perception, Conception, Abstraction, Attention, Memory, Judgment, and Imagination. Many of them deny that individuals differ in the degrees in which they possess these powers ; and ascribe all actual differences to education, association, habit, and a variety of similar causes. With their philosophy for our guide, we are called on to explain by what process of arrangement, or chapter of accidents, the general powers of Perception, Memory, Judg- ment, and Imagination, fit one man to be a carpenter, another a sailor, a third a merchant, a fourth an author, a fifth a painter, a sixth an engineer, and how each has a distinct liking for his trade. If this opinion be true, how comes it to pass that some who utterly fail in one pursuit, succeed to admiration in another 1 and whence is it that there was no jostling in the community at first, and that very little harsh friction occurs now, in arranging the duties to be performed by each individual member 1 We next require a solution of the problem by what cause one man's ambition takes the direction of war, another's that of agriculture, and a third that of painting or making speeches, if all their native apti- tudes and tendencies are the same, both in kind and degree ; how one man delights to spend his life in accumulating wealth, and another knows no pleasure equal to that of dissipating and squandering it. I do not detain you with the ingenious theories that have been propounded by the metaphysicians, as solutions of these questions, but come at once to the explanation afforded by the new philosophy. Phrenology teaches that man has received a variety of primitive faculties, each having specific spheres of action, and standing in specific relations to certain external objects, and that we take an interest in these objects 164 FORMATION OP SOCIETY in consequence of their aptitude to gratify our faculties. If a hare and a cat, for instance, were playing in the same field, and a mouse were to stray between them, the hare would see it pass without interest — while the cat's blood would be on fire, every hair would bristle, and it would pounce upon it to devour it. The cat possesses a carnivo- rous instinct, of which the mouse is the external object, and hence the source of its interest. The hare wants that instinct, and hence its indifference. Every sane individual of the human race enjoys the same number of faculties, but each power is manifested by means of a particular portion of the brain, and acts with a degree of energy, other things being equal, corresponding to the size of that part. These parts or organs are combined in different relative proportions in different individuals. Hence, the individual in whom Combativeness and Destructiveness are the largest organs, desires to be a soldier ; he in whom Veneration, Hope, and Wonder are the largest, desires to be a minister of religion ; he in whom Constructiveness, Weight, and Form are largest, desires to be a mechanician ; and he in whom Constructiveness, Form, Colouring, Imita- tion, and Ideality predominate, is inspired with the love of painting. The Creator, by bestowing on all the race the same number of faculties, and giving similarity to their constitu- tion, has fitted them for forming one common family. In consequence of our common nature, we understand each other's instincts, desires, talents, and pursuits, and are prepared to act in concert ; while, by giving superiority in particular powers to particular individuals, he has effectually provided for variety of character and talent, and for the division of labour. The division of labour, therefore, is not an expedient devised by man's sagacity, but a direct result of his consti- tution ; exactly as it is in the case of any of the inferior animals which live in society and divide their duties without possessing the attribute of reason. When we discover differences of combination in size existing in the cerebral organs in different individuals, we receive another proof that man has been created expressly to live and act as a social being. When we compare the corporeal frames of different individuals, we find that they differ in stature, strength, and FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 165 temperament ; some are strong, active, and energetic ; while others are feeble or sluggish. In a world in which the means of subsistence can be gained only by vigorous exertion, these differences alone would give rise to inferiority and superiority among individuals. But when we examine the brain, on which the mental qualities depend, we discover the differences between individuals, in regard to them, to be equally extensive and striking. In one man, the brain is large, the temperament is active, and the three regions of the animal, moral, and intellectual organs, are all favourably developed ; such a person is one of nature's nobility. He is endowed with native energy by his temperament, and mental power by his brain ; and he needs farther, only know- ledge, with a fair field of action, to attain the highest prizes which are offered by a bountiful Creator to human virtue, industry, and talent. Another individual has inherited from birth the lymphatic temperament, and is constitutionaily inert, or he has received a small brain, which is incapable of vigorous manifestations. In a scene where valuable objects can be attained only by capacity and energy, such a person must, of necessity, give place to him who has been favoured with higher endowments. A third individual, perhaps, has received several organs developed in a supe- rior degree, which fit him to acquire distinction in a parti- cular department of life ; but he is deficient in other organs, and is in consequence unfit to advance successfully in other walks. Such a man may, if he choose his vocation wisely in relation to his special endowments, assume a high station ; if unwisely, he may stand low in the scale of social consi- deration. These differences give rise to differences of rank. Gradations of rank being thus institutions of God, those men are wild enthusiastic dreamers, and not philosophers, who contemplate their abolition. This proposition, however, does not imply approval of artificial distinctions of rank, independent of natural endowments. These are the inven- tions of ignorant and selfish men ; they are paltry devices to secure, by means of parchments, the advantages of high rank, without the attributes which alone give a title to them under the laws of nature. As civilization and knowledge advance, these will be renounced as ridiculous, like the ponderous wigs, cocked hats, laced coats, and swords, of bygone centuries. It is unfortunate when a fool or rogue is the possessor of high rank and title ; for these attract tha 166 FORMATION OF SOCIETY. respect of many to his foolish or vicious deeds, and to hi« erroneous opinions. The Creator has instituted still another cause of social differences. In this world, man has received only faculties, or mere powers and capacities, and external nature has been adapted to them ; but he has not been inspired with intuitive knowledge of the best manner of applying his powers or with information concerning the qualities and adaptations of external objects, but been left to find out these by the exercise of his reason. Now, if we suppose that of twenty men whose brains, temperament, and bodily constitution, are alike, ten have sedulously applied their faculties to study nature, and to discover her capabilities, while the other ten have sought only pleasure in trivial pursuits, it is obvious that in all social attainments the former will speedily surpass the latter. If both classes wished to build a house, you would find the observing and reflecting men in possession of the lever, the pulley, the hammer, the axe, and the saw ; while the hunters and the fishers would be pushing loads with their hands, or lifting them with their arms, and shaping timber with sharp-edged stones. In civilized society the same results appear. Any individual who has learned how to use his natural powers to the best advantage — in other words, who has acquired knowledge and skill — is decidedly superior to him who, although born with equal native talents, has never been taught the best method of applying them. When we view the gradation of ranks such as Nature intended it to be, it presents itself as an institution beneficial to all. The man who stands at the bottom of the scale, does so because he is actually lowest either in natural endow- ments or in acquired skill ; and in that lowest rank he enjoys advantages far more numerous than those he could command by his talents, if he stood alone. He derives many advantages from the superior abilities and acquirements of his fellow-men. In point of fact, an able-bodied, steady, and respectable labourer in Britian, is better clothed, better fed, and better lodged, than the chief of a savage tribe in New South Wales. I anticipate that it will be objected, that although this may be a correct exposition of the origin of gradations of ranks, and that although, if the principles now explained were alone allowed to determine the station of individuals, THE PAST CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 167 none would have just cause of complaint, yet the practical result is widely different ; because weak, wicked, and indo- lent men, are often found in possession of the highest gifts of fortune and the loftiest pinnacles of rank ; while able, good, and enlightened individuals, stand low in the scale in regard to both. This subject is too extensive and important to be entered upon at this advanced hour, and I shall there- fore reserve it for our consideration in the next lecture. LECTURE IX. ON THE PAST, PRESENT, AND PROSPECTIVE CONDITIONS OF SOCIETY. The question considered, Why are vicious or weak persons sometimes found prosperous, while the virtuous and talented enjoy no worldly distinction? — Individuals honoured and rewarded according as they display qualities adapted to the state of the society in which they live — Mankind hitherto animated chiefly by selfish faculties — Prospective improve- ment of the moral aspect of society — Retrospect of its previous conditions — Savage, pastoral, agricultural, and commercial stages ; and qualities requisite for the prosperity of individuals in each — Dissatisfaction of moral and intel- lectual minds with the present state of society — Increasing tendency of society to honour and reward virtue and intel- ligence — Artificial impediments to this — Hereditary titles and entails — Their bad effects — Pride of ancestry, rational and irrational — Aristocratic feeling in America and Europe — Means through which the future improvement of society may be expected — Two views of the proper objects of human pursuit ; one representing man's enjoyments as principally animal, and the other as chiefly moral and intellectual — The selfish faculties at present paramount in society — Consequences of this — Keen competition of indi- vidual interests, and its advantages and disadvantages — Present state of Britain unsatisfactory. In the last lecture we considered the origin of society, of the division of labour, and of differences of rank. I proceed to discuss an objection which may be urged against some of the views then stated — namely, that occasionally persons of defective moral principle, though of considera- ble talent, and, in other instances, weak and indolent men, are found in possession of high rank and fortune, while able, good, and enlightened individuals stand low in the 168 THE PAST CONDITION OF SOCIETY. scale of public honour. Let us endeavour to investigate the causes of this anomaly, and to inquire whether the evil admits of a remedy. Man is endowed with two great classes of faculties, so different in their nature, desires, and objects, that he ap- pears almost as two beings conjoined in one. I refer to the animal propensities and moral sentiments. The pro- pensities have all reference to self-sustenance, self-gratifica- tion, or self-aggrandizement, and do not give rise to a single feeling of disinterested love or regard for the happiness of other beings. Even the domestic affections, w T hen acting independently of the moral sentiments, prompt us to seek only a selfish gratification, without regard to the welfare of the beings who afford it. Examples of this kind may be met with, every day, in the seductions and temporary alli- ances of individuals of strong animal passions and deficient morality. We observe, also, that parents, in an ecstasy of fondness for their offspring, inspired by Philoprogenitive- ness, sometimes spoil them, and render them extremely miserable ; which is just indulging their own affections, without enlightened regard for the welfare of their objects. When Combativeness and Destructiveness are active, it is to assail other individuals, or to protect ourselves against their aggressions. When Acquisitiveness is pursuing its objects, the appropriation of property to ourselves is its aim. When Self-Esteem inspires us with its emotions, we are prompted to place ourselves, and our own interests and gratifications, first in all our considerations. When Love of Approbation is supremely active, we desire esteem, glory, praise, or advancement, as public acknowledgments of our own superiority over other men. Secretiveness and Cautiousness, from which arise savoir faire and circum- spection, are apt allies of all the selfish desires. The other class of faculties alluded to, is that of the moral sentiments, Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscien- tiousness ; these take a loftier, a more disinterested and beneficent range. Benevolence desires to diffuse universal happiness. It is not satisfied with mere self-enjoyments. As long as it sees a sentient being miserable, whom it could render happy, it desires to do so ; and its own satis- faction is not complete till that be accomplished. Venera- tion desires to invest with esteem, and treat with deference and respect, every human being who manifests virtue and THE PAST CONDITION OP SOCIETY. 160 wisdom ; and to adore the Creator as the fountain of uni- versal perfection. Conscientiousness desires to introduce and maintain an all-pervading justice, a state of society in which the merits of the humblest individuals shall not be overlooked, but shall be appreciated and rewarded ; and in which the pretensions of the egotist and the ambitious shall be circumscribed within the limits of their real deserts. There are certain faculties which may be regarded as auxiliaries of these. Ideality desires to realize the perfect and the beautiful, in every object, and in every action. It longs for a world in which all things shall be fair, and lovely, and invested with the most perfect attributes of form, colour, action, and arrangement, and in which the human mind may manifest only dispositions in harmony with such a scene. Wonder desires the new and the untried, and serves to urge us forward in our career of improvement ; while the senti- ment of Hope smooths and gilds the whole vista of futurity presented to the mind's eye ; representing every desire as possible to be fulfilled and every good as attainable. j The intellectual faculties are the servants equally of both orders of faculties. Our powers of observation and reflec- tion may be employed in perpetrating the blackest crimes, or performing the most beneficent actions, according as they are directed by the propensities, or by the moral sentiments. We have seen, that among these faculties there are seve- ral which render man a social being ; and we find him, ac- cordingly, living in society, in all circumstances and stages of refinement. But, according as the ruling motives of a nation are deprived from the one class or the other, it is obvious that it will elevate very different characters to its highest places of honour and emolument. Where the selfish faculties have unbridled sway, rapine, fraud, tyranny, and violence prevail : on the other hand, a people in whom the moral sentiments are sufficiently vigorous, pursue private advantage with a constant respect to the rights of other men. In the former state of society, we should naturally expect to find selfish, ambitious, and unprincipled men, who are strong in mind and body, in possession of the highest rank and greatest wealth ; because, in the contention of pure selfishness, such qualities alone are fitted to succeed. In a society of men animated by the moral sentiments and intellect as their leading impulses, we should expect to find places of the highest honour and advantage occupied by the 15 170 THE PAST CONDITION OF SOCIETY, most intelligent and usefully active members of the com- munity ; because, in such a society, these qualities would be most esteemed. The former state of society characterizes all barbarous nations ; and the latter, which is felt by well- constituted minds to be the great object of human desire, has never been fully realized. By many, the idea of it is regarded as Utopian ; by others, its attainment is believed possible ; by all, it is admitted to be desirable. It is desired, because the moral sentiments exist, and because they in- stinctively long for the reign of peace, good will, refinement, and enjoyment, and are grieved by the suffering which so largely abounds in the present condition of humanity. The question is an important one, Whether man be des- tined to proceed, in this world, till the end of time, constantly desiring pure and moral constitutions, yet ever devoting him- self to inferior objects, and the unsatisfying labours of mis- directed selfishness, vanity, and ambition : or whether he will, at length, be permitted to realize his loftier conceptions and his best desires. The fact of the higher sentiments being constituent ele- ments of our nature, seems to warrant us in expecting an illimitable improvement in the condition of society. Unless our nature had been fitted to rise up to the standard which these faculties desire to reach, we may presume that they would not have been bestowed on us. They cannot have been intended merely to dazzle us with phantom illusions of purity, intelligence, and happiness, which we are destined for ever to pursue in vain. But what encouragement does experience afford for trust- ing that the future improvement of social arrangements will be such as to award rank only to merit ] Man is a pro- gressive being, and, in his social institutions, he ascends through the scale of his faculties, very much as an individual does in rising from infancy to manhood. In his social capacity he commences with institutions and pursuits related almost exclusively to the simplest of his animal instincts, and his most obvious intellectual perceptions. In their early condition, men are described by history as savages, wandering amid wide- spreading forests, or over extensive savannas, clothed in the skins of animals, drawing their chief subsistence from the chase, and generally waging bloody wars with their neighbours. This is the outward manifestation of feeble intellect and Constructiveness, of THE PAST CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 171 dormant Ideality, very weak moral sentiments, and active propensities. The skulls of savage nations present indica- tions of a corresponding developement of brain.* In this condition there is little distinction of rank, except the supe- riority conferred on individuals by age, energy, or courage ; and there is no division of labour, or diversity of employ- ment, except that almost all painful and laborious duties are imposed on the women. All stand so near the bottom Of the scale, that there is yet scarcely place for social distinctions. In the next stage, we find men congregated into tribes, possessed of cattle, and assuming the aspect of a commu- nity, although still migratory in their habits. This state implies the possession of implements and utensils fabricated by means of ingenuity and industry ; also a wider range of social attachment, and so much of moral principle as to prompt individuals to respect the property of at least each other in their own tribe. This is the pastoral condition, and it proclaims an advance in the developement of Intel- lect, Constructiveness, Adhesiveness, and the Moral Senti- ments. In this stage, however, of the social progress, there is still a very imperfect manifestation of the moral and in- tellectual faculties. Neighbouring tribes are feared and hated ; Acquisitiveness, unenlightened by intellect, and un- directed by morality, desires to acquire wealth by plunder, rather than by industry ; and the intellectual faculties have not yet comprehended the advantages of manufactures and of commerce. In this stage, men regard neighbouring tribes as their natural enemies — make war on them, spoil their substance, murder their males, and carry their females and children into captivity. They conceive that they crown themselves with glory by these achievements. In such a state of society it is obvious that those indi- viduals who possess, in the highest degree, the qualities most useful to the community, and most esteemed accord- ing to their standard of virtue, will be advanced to the highest rank, with all its attendant advantages and honours. Accordingly, in such a condition, great physical strength, a large brain and active temperament, with predominating Combativeness, Destructiveness, Self-Esteem, Love of Ap- probation, and Firmness, will carry an individual to the rank * Strong evidence of this fact is presented in Dr. Morton's work on the character and crania of the native America^ Jndians. 172 THE PAST CONDITION OF SOCIETY. of a chief or leader of his countrymen, with a very limited portion of morality and reflecting intellect. The next step in the progress of mankind is, the agri- cultural condition ; and this implies a still higher evolution of intellect and moral sentiment. To sow in spring with a view of reaping in autumn, requires not only economy and prudence in preserving stores and stock, and the exercise of ingenuity in fabricating implements of husbandry, but a stretch of reflection embracing the whole intermediate period, and a subjugation of the impatient animal propensities to the intellectual powers. To ensure to him who sows, that he shall also reap, requires a general combination in defence of property, and a practical acknowledgment of the claims of justice, which indicate decided activity in the moral senti- ments. Accordingly, we discover that the brains of nations in this state are more highly developed in the moral and intellectual regions, than those of tribes who are still savage. In order to reach the highest rank in this stage of society, individuals must possess a greater endowment of reflecting intellect and moral sentiment, in proportion to their animal propensities, than was necessary to attain supremacy in the pastoral state. When nations become commercial, and devote themselves to manufactures, their pursuits demand the activity of still higher endowments, together with extensive knowledge of natural objects, and their relations and qualities. In this condition, we perceive arts and sciences extensively culti- vated ; processes of manufacture of great complexity, and extending over a long period of time, successfully conduct- ed ; extensive transactions between individuals, living often in different hemispheres, and who probably never saw each other personally, carried on with regularity, integrity, and despatch ; laws devised, regulating the rights and duties of individuals engaged in the most complicated transactions ; and this machinery moving, on the whole, with a smooth- ness and regularity which are truly admirable. Such a scene is a high manifestation of moral and intellectual power ; and man, contemplated in this condition, appears, for the first time, really like a rational being. Phrenology shows that the organs of the superior faculties develope themselves more fully in proportion to the advances of civilization, and that they are, de facto, largest in the most moral and en- lightened nations. THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETV. 173 This is the stage at which society has arrived in our day, in a great part of Europe, and in the United States of Ame- rica. In other parts of the globe the inferior conditions still appear. But even in the most advanced nations, the triumph of the rational portion of man's nature is not complete. Our institutions, manners, desires, and aspirations, still partake, to a great extent, of the characteristics of the propensities. Wars from motives of aggrandizement or ambition, cruel laws, artificial restrictions calculated to maintain certain classes in possession of power and advantages to the ex- clusion of others, inordinate love of wealth, overweening ambition, and many other inferior desires, still flourish in vigour among us. In such a state of society it is impossi- ble that the virtuous and intelligent alone should reach the highest pinnacles of fortune. In Britain, that individual is fitted to be most successful in the career of wealth and its attendant advantages, who possesses vigorous health, industrious habits, great selfish- ness, a powerful intellect, and just so much of the moral feelings as to serve for the profitable direction of his animal powers. This combination of endowments would render self-aggrandizement and worldly-minded prudence the leading motives of his actions ; would furnish intellect sufficient to give them effect, and morality adequate to restrain them from abuses, and from defeating their own gratifications. A person so constituted feels his faculties to be in harmony with his external condition : he has no lofty aspirations after either goodness or enjoyment which he cannot realize ; he is satisfied to dedicate his undivided energies to the active business of life, and he is generally successful. He acquires wealth and distinction, stands high in the estimation of soci- ety, transmits comfort and abundance to his family, and dies in a good old age. His mind, however, obviously does not belong to the high- est class ; yet, being in harmony with external circumstances, and little annoyed by the imperfections which are every- where to be seen, it is one of that class which alone in the present social condition of Britain are reasonably happy and successful. This happens, because we are in that stage of our moral and intellectual progress which corresponds with the supremacy of the above-mentioned combination of facul- ties. In savage times, the rude, athletic warrior was the chief of his tribe ; and he was also, probably, the most happy, 15* 174 THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. because he possessed, in the greatest degree, the qualities necessary for success in his circumstances, and was deficient in all the feelings which could not, in them, obtain gratifica- tion. If he had possessed Benevolence, Ideality, Venera- tion, and Conscientiousness largely developed, he would have been unhappy, by the aspirations which they would have introduced into his mind, after higher objects and con- ditions than he could realize. The same rule holds good in our own case. Those individuals who have either too little of the selfish propensities or too much of the moral feelings, are neither successful nor happy in the present state of British society. The former cannot successfully maintain their ground in the great struggle for property which is going on around them ; while the latter, although they may be able to keep their places in the competition for wealth, are constantly grieved by the misery and imperfec- tion which they are compelled to witness, but cannot remove. They have the habitual consciousness, also, that they are labouring for the mere means of enjoyment, without ever reaching enjoyment itself ; and that their lives are spent, as it were, in a feverish dream. In these examples we observe, that society has been slowly but regularly advancing, so as more and more to elevate virtue and intelligence to public honour. The impediments to a just reward of individual merit do not, therefore, appear to be inherent in human nature, but contingent. There are, however, artificial impediments to the accomplishment of this end. Among these are hereditary titles of honour. The feudal kings of Europe early acquired, or assumed, the power of conferring titles of honour and dignity on men of distinguished qualities, as a mark of approbation of their conduct, and as a reward for their services to the state. To the conferring of a title of honour upon the man who has done an important service to his country, reason and morality have nothing to object. Hence arose the institu- tion of individual nobles. The favoured peer, however, naturally loved his offspring ; and without considering any consequences beyond his own gratification, he induced the king to add a right of succession, in favour of his children, to the honours and privileges conferred on himself for his me .its. We now know that if he himself had really been one of Natare's nobility, and if he had allied himself to a partner also possessing high qualities of brain and general THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 175 constitution, and if the two had lived habitually in accor- dance with the natural laws, he would have transmitted his natural nobility to his children ; and they, having the stamp of Nature's honour on them, would have needed no patent from an earthly sovereign to maintain them in their father's rank. But this law of Nature being unknown, or the noble, perhaps, having attained to distinction by one or two distin- guished qualities merely, which were much in demand in his own day, and being still deficient in many high endow- ments ; or having, from passion, love of wealth, ambition, or some other unworthy motive, married an inferior partner, he is conscious that he cannot rely on his children inheriting natural superiority, and he therefore desires to preserve to them for ever, by artificial means, the rank, wealth, titles, and power, which he has acquired, and which Nature in- tended to be the rewards solely of superior endowments. The king grants to the children a right of succession to the titles, rank, and dignity, and parliament authorizes the father to place his estates under entail ; by which means his heirs in succession, however profligate, imbecile, and unworthy of honour and distinction, continue to hold the highest rank in society, to exercise the privilege of hereditary legislation, and to draw the revenues of immense estates, which they may squander, or devote to the most immoral of purposes. In these instances legislators have directly contradicted Nature. All this, you will perceive, is following out the principle, that individual aggrandizement is the great object of each successive occupant of this world. The attempts, however, are not successful. They are productive, often, of misery, as every one knows who has observed the wretched condition in which many nobles and heirs of entail exist, whose profligacy and imbecility render them unfit for their artificial station. In regard to society at large, the result of such a practice is, that a false standard of consideration is set up, and the respect and admiration of the people are frequently directed to ridiculous customs sanctioned by nobles, and to other unworthy objects. Besides, it presents false objects of ambition to the industrious class of all grades. In propor- tion as one of them attains wealth, instead of devoting it, and the talents by means of which it was acquired, to the improvement and elevation of the class from which he has sprung, he becomes ashamed of it, is fired with the ambition 176 THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. of being created a noble, and is generally found wielding his whole energies, natural and acquired, in the ranks of the aristocracy against the people. If the distinctions in- stituted by Nature were left to operate by themselves, the effect would be, that the people at large would venerate in others, and desire themselves to become distinguished for, those qualities which are esteemed most highly according to their own moral and intellectual perceptions ; the standard of consideration would be rectified and raised in proportion to their advance in knowledge and wisdom ; and the removal of the obstruction to this advance, created by artificial and hereditary rank, would tend greatly to hasten the march of real improvement. We are told that, in the United States of America, where no distinct class of nobility exists, aristocratic feelings, and all the pride of ancestry, are at least as rampant as in Eng- land, where the whole framework of society is constituted in reference to the ascendency of an ancient and powerful aristocracy ; and I see no reason to doubt the statement. Difference of rank was instituted when the Creator bestowed different degrees and combinations of the mental organs on different men, and rendered them all improvable by educa- tion. It is natural, rational, and beneficial, therefore, to esteem and admire Nature's nobility ; men greatly gifted with the highest qualities of our nature, who have duly cultivated and applied them. The Creator, also, in confer^ ring on man the power to transmit his qualities and condition to his offspring, by means of his organization, has laid the foundation for our admiration of a long line of illustrious ancestors ; because this direction of ambition may become a strong assistant to morality and reason, in inducing men to attend to the organic laws in their matrimonial alliances, and in their general conduct through life. According to the doctrines expounded in a previous lecture, if two persons, both in possession of high mental and bodily qualities, were to marry, to observe the natural laws during their lives, to rear a family, and to train them also to yield steady obedi- ence to these laws in their conduct — the result would be, that the children would inherit the superior qualities of their parents, hold the same high rank in the estimation of society, . be prosperous in life, and, in short, be specimens of human nature in its best form and condition. If these children observe the organic laws in their marriages, and obeyed THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 177 them in their lives, the tendency of nature would be still to transmit, in an increasing ratio, their excellent endowments ta their children ; and their is no ascertained limit to this series. It would be a just gratification to Self-Esteem, to belong fco a family which could boast of a succession of noble men and women, descending through ten or twelve genera- tions ; and it would be an object of most legitimate ambition to be admitted to the honour and advantages of an alliance with it. This is the direction which the natural sentiments of family pride and admiration of ancestry will take, when- ever the public intellect is enlightened concerning the laws of our constitution. In times past, we have seen these two sentiments acting as blindly and perniciously as Veneration does, when, in the absence of all true knowledge, it expends itself in preposterous superstitions. It, however, is always performing its proper function of venerating, and is ready to take a better direction when it receives illumination; and the same will hold good with the two feelings in ques- tion. At a time when war and rapine were the distinguishing occupations of nobles, men were proud of their descent from a great warrior, perhaps a border chieftain, who was really only a thief and a robber on a great scale. At present, great self-congratulation is experienced by many individuals, be- cause they are descended from a family which received a patent of nobility five hundred years ago, and -has been main- tained, since that time, by means of entails, in possession of immense wealth, although during that period their annals may have commemorated as many profligates, imbeciles, and idiots, as wise and virtuous men. Many commoners, also, who have inherited sound brains and respectable characters from their own obscure but excellent ancestors, are ashamed of their humble birth, and proud of an alliance with this illustrious but immoral and imbecile stock. But all this is the result of gross misdirection of Veneration and Love of Approbation, which increasing knowledge will assuredly correct. It indicates an infatuation of vanity, compared with which, wearing bones in the nose, and tatooing the skin, are harmless and respectable customs. If, in a country like Britain, a family has preserved property and high rank for several generations, without a patent of nobility, and with- out entails, its members must have possessed, through suc- cessive generations, sound practical understandings and 178 THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. respectable morality ; and they are, therefore, really worthy of respect : and the fact that there are several (perhaps I might say many) such families, is a proof that artificial hereditary rank and entails are merely imperfect devices for accomplishing ends which can be attained effectually and beneficially by natural means alone. It forms no argument against these views, that in America there is as jealous a distinction of ranks, and as strong an admiration of ancestry, as in Britain ; because these feelings are admitted to be natural, while it is certain that the mass of American society is not more enlightened in regard to their proper direction, than our own countrymen. The founders of the American republic, however, were great and enlightened men, and they conferred a boon of the highest value on their posterity, when, by prohibiting artificial here- ditary ranks and titles, they withdrew the temptations to misdirected ambition which they naturally present. We thus account for the fact, that the best of men do not always attain the highest stations and richest social re- wards, first, by the circumstance of society being progres- sive, of its being yet only in an early stage of its career, and of its honouring in every stage those qualities which it prizes most highly at the time, although they may be low in the real scale of moral and intellectual excellence ; and secondly, by the impediments to a right adjustment of social honours presented by the institution of artificial and heredi- tary rank. It is an interesting inquiry, whether society is destined to remain for ever in its present state, or in some one ana- logous to it, or to advance to a more perfect condition of intelligence, morality, and happiness ; and if the latter be a reasonable expectation, by what means its future improve- ment is to be accomplished. In considering these questions, I shall attempt to dissect and represent, with some minute- ness, the principles which chiefly characterize our present social condition, and compare them with our faculties as revealed by the physiology of the brain. We shall, by this means, discover to what class of our faculties our exist- ing institutions are most directly related. If they gratify our highest powers, we may regard ourselves as having approached the limits of that perfection permitted by our nature ; if they do not gratify these, we may hope ftill tg a^yance. THE PRESENT CONDITION OP SOCIETY. 179 There are two views of human nature, both of which are plausible and may be supported by many facts and arguments. The first is, that man is essentially a mere superior animal, destined to draw his chief enjoyments from a regulated activity of his animal nature. I do not mean his mere sen- sual appetites* but the whole class of faculties common to him and the inferior creatures, and which have individual interests for their object. Life, for example, may be re- garded as given to us that we may enjoy the pleasures of sense, of rearing a family, of accumulating wealth, of ac- quiring distinction, and also of gratifying the intellect and imagination by literature, science, and the arts. According to this view, self-interest and individual aggrandizement would be the leading motives of all sensible men during life ; and the moral faculties would be used chiefly to control and direct these selfish propensities in seeking their gratifications, so as to prevent them from unduly injuring their neighbours, and endangering their own prosperity. There would be no leading moral object in life ; our enjoyments would not necessarily depend on the happiness and prosperity of our fellow-men ; and the whole duty of the higher sentiments would be to watch and direct the lower. The other view is, that man is essentially a rational and moral being, destined to draw his chief happiness from the pursuit of objects directly related to his moral and intel- lectual faculties, the propensities acting merely as the ser- vants of the sentiments, to maintain and assist them while pursuing their high and beneficent objects. History repre- sents man, in past ages, as having been ever in the former condition ; either openly pursuing the gratification of the propensities, as the avowed and only object of life, or merely curbing them so far as to enable him to obtain higher satis- faction from them, but never directly pursuing moral ends as the chief object of his existence. This is also our present condition. Even in civilized communities, each individual who is not born to hereditary fortune, enters into a vivid competition for wealth, power, and distinction, with all who move in his own sphere. Life is spent in one incessant struggle. We initiate our children into the system at the very dawn of their intelligence. We place them in classes at school, and offer them marks of merit and prizes to stimulate their am- bition ; and we estimate their attainments, not according to 180 THE PRESENT CONDITION OP SOCIETT. the extent of useful knowledge which they have gained, bat according to the place which they hold in relation to their fellows. It is proximity to being dux which is the grand dis- tinction, and this implies the marked inferiority of all below the successful competitor. On entering into the business of life, the same system is pursued. The manufacturer taxes his invention and his powers of application to the utmost, that he may outstrip his neighbours in producing better and cheaper commodities, and reaping a greater profit than they ; the trader keeps his shop open earlier and later, and promises greater bargains than his rival, that he may attract customers. If a house is to be built, or a steam-engine fitted up, a specification, or a minute description of the object wanted, is drawn up ; copies are handed to a number of tradesmen ; they make offers to execute it at a certain sum : and the lowest offerer is preferred. The extent of difference in these offers is enormous. I was one of several public commissioners, who received offers for building a bridge ; the highest of which was £21,036, and the lowest £13,749. Of six offers which I once received for building a house, the highest was £1975, and the lowest £1500. I have seen differences equally great for machinery and works of various kinds. I have made in- quiries to ascertain whence these differences arose, and found them accounted for by the following causes : — Sometimes an offer is made by a tradesman who knows himself to be insolvent, who, therefore, has nothing to lose, but who is aware that this state of his affairs is not publicly known, so that his credit is still good. As long as he can go on in trade, he has the means of supporting and educating his family, and every year passed in accomplishing this object is so much gained. He cam keep his trade in motion only by obtaining a regular succession of employment, and he secures this by underbidding every man who has a shilling of capi- tal. Bankruptcy is the inevitable end of this career, and the men who have property ultimately sustain the loss arising from his unjust and pernicious system ; but it serves his purpose for a time, and this is all that he regards. Another, and a more legitimate, cause of low bidding is the reverse of this. A trader has accumulated capital, and buys every article at the cheapest rate with ready money ; he is fru- gal, and spends little in his family ; he is active and sharp in his habits and temper, and exacts a gr-eat deal of labour THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 181 from his workmen in return for their wages. By these three circumstances combined, he is enabled to underbid every rival who is inferior to him in any one of them. I am in- formed that the difference in the cost of production to a master tradesman thus qualified, compared with one in dif- ferent circumstances and of different dispositions, is equal to 15 or 20 per cent. Viewed On the principle that the object of life is self- aggrandizement, all this order of proceeding appears to be proper and profitable. But if you trace out the moral effects of it, they will be found extremely questionable. The tendency of the system is to throw an accumulating burden of mere labour on the industrious classes. I am told that in some of the great machine manufactories in the west of Scotland, men labour for sixteen hours a day, sti- mulated by additions to their wages in proportion to the quantity of work which they produce. Masters who push trade on a great scale, exact the most energetic and long- continued exertion from all the artisans whom they employ. In such circumstances, man becomes a mere labouring ani- mal. Excessive muscular exertion drains off nervous energy from the brain ; and when labour ceases sleep ensues, unless the artificial stimulus of intoxicating liquors be applied, as it generally is in such instances^ to rouse the dormant mental organs and confer a temporary enjoyment. To call a man, who passes his life in such a routine of occupation — eating, sleeping, labouring, and drinking — a Christian, an immortal being, preparing, by his exertions here, for an eternity here- after, to be passed in the society of pure, intelligent, and blessed spirits — is a complete mockery. He is preparing for himself a premature grave, in which he shall be laid, exhausted with toil and benumbed in all the higher attributes of his nature, more like a jaded and ill-treated horse than a human being. Yet this system pervades every department of practical life in these islands. If a farm be advertised to be let, tenants compete with each other in bidding high rents, which, when carried to excess, can be paid only by their converting themselves and their servants into labouring animals, bestowing on the land the last effort of their strength and skill, and resting satisfied with very little enjoyment from it in return. By the competition of individual interests, directed to the acquisition of property and the attainment of distinction, the 16 182 THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. f practical members of society are not only powerfully stimu- lated to exertion, but actually forced to submit to a most jading, laborious, and endless course of toil ; in whichneither time, opportunity, nor inclination, is left for the cultivation -and enjoyment of the higher powers of the mind. The whole order and institutions of society are framed in harmony with this principle. The law prohibits men from using force and fraud in order to acquire property, but sets no limits to their employment of all other means. Our education and mode of transacting mercantile business support the same system of selfishness. It is an approved maxim, that secrecy is the soul of trade ; and each manu- facturer and merchant pursues his speculations secretly, so that his rivals may know as little as possible of the kind and quantity of goods which he is manufacturing, of the sources whence he draws his materials, or the channels by which he disposes of his produce. The direct advantage of this system is, that it confers a supeiiority on the man of acute and extensive observation and profound sagacity. He con- trives to penetrate many of the secrets which are attempted, though not very successfully, to be kept ; and he directs his own trade and manufacture, not always according to the current in which his neighbours are floating, but rather according to the results which he foresees will take place from the course which they are following ; and then the days of their adversity become those of his prosperity. The general effect of the system, however, is, that each trader stretches his capital, his credit, his skill, and his industry, to produce the utmost possible quantity of goods, under the idea, that the more he manufactures and sells, the more profit he will reap. But as all his neighbours are animated by the same spirit, they manufacture as much as possible also ; and none of them know certainly how much the other traders in their own line are producing, or how much of the commodity in which they deal the public will really want, pay for, and consume, within any specific time. The con- sequence is, that a superfluity of goods is produced, the market is glutted, prices fall ruinously low — and all the manufacturers who have proceeded on credit, or who have limited capital, become bankrupt, and the effects of their rash speculations fall on their creditors. They are, however, excluded from trade for a season — the other manufacturers restrict their operations, the operatives are thrown idle, or THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIET7. 183 their wages are greatly reduced. The surplus commodities are at length consumed, demand revives, prices rise, and the rush toward production again takes place ; and thus in all trades the pendulum oscillates, generation after generation, first toward prosperity, then to the equal balance, then toward adversity— -back again to equality, and once more to prosperity. The ordinary observer perceives in this system what he considers to be the natural, the healthy, and the inevitable play of the constituent elements of human nature. He dis- covers many advantages attending it, and some evils ; but these he regards as inseparable from all that belongs to mortal man. The competition of individual interests, for example, he assures us, keeps the human energies alive, and stimulates all to the highest exercise of the bodily and mental powers ; and the result is, that abundance of every article that man needs is poured into the general treasury of civilized life, even to superfluity. We are all interested, he continues, in cheap production ; and although we appa- rently suffer by an excessive reduction in the prices of our own commodities, the evil is transitory, and the ultimate effect is unmixed good, for all our neighbours are running the same career of over-production with ourselves. While we are reducing our shoes to a ruinously low priee, the stock- ing-maker is doing the same with his stockings, and the hat- maker with his hats ; and after we all shall have exchanged article for article, we shall still obtain as many pairs of stockings, and as many hats, for any given quantity of shoes, as ever ; so that the real effect of competition is to render the nation richer, and to enable it to maintain more inhabi- tants, or to provide for those it possesses more abundantly, without rendering any individuals poorer. The evils attend- ing the rise and fall of fortune, the heartbreaking scenes of bankruptcy, and the occasional degradation of one family and elevation of another, they regard as storms in the moral, corresponding to those in the physical, world ; which, al- though inconvenient to the individuals whom they over take, are, on the whole, beneficial, by stirring and purifying the atmosphere : and, regarding this life as a mere pilgrim- age to a better, they view these incidental misfortunes as means of preparation for a higher sphere. This representation has so much of actual truth in it, and such an infinite plausibility, that it is almost adventurous in 184 THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. me to question its soundness ; yet I am forced to do so, or to give up my best and brightest hope of human nature and its destinies. In making these remarks, of course I blame no individuals ; it is the system which I condemn. Indi- viduals are as much controlled by the social system in which they live, as a raft is by the current in which it floats. In all the systems which I have described, you will dis- cover no motives, higher than those furnished by the pro- pensities regulated by justice, animating the competing members of society in their evolutions. The grand object of each is to gain as much wealth, and, as its consequence, as much power and distinction to himself as possible : he pursues this object without any direct regard to his neigh- bour's interest or welfare ; and no high moral or intellec- tual aim elevates, ennobles, or adorns his career. The first effect is, that he dedicates his whole powers and energies to the production of the mere means of living, and he forces all his fellows to devote their lives to precisely the same pursuits. If leisure for moral and intellectual cultivation be necessary to the enjoyment of a rational, a moral, and a religious being, this is excluded ; for the labour is incessant during six days of the week, and the effect of this is to benumb his faculties on the seventh. If the soft play of the affections ; if the enjoyment of the splendid loveliness of nature and the beauties of art ; if the expansion of the intellect in the pursuits of science ; if refinement of man- ners ; if strengthening and improving the tone and forms of our physical frames ; and if the adoration, with minds full of knowledge and souls melted with love, of our most bounteous Creator, constitute the real objects of human life in this world, the end for which we live ; and if the fulfill ment of this end be the only rational idea of preparation for a higher state of existence ; then the system of action which we have contemplated, when viewed as the leading object of human life, appears stale, barren, and unprofitable. It no doubt supports the activity of our minds and bodies, and surrounds us with innumerable temporal advantages, not to be lightly valued ; but its benefits end here. It affords an example of the independence of the sevefal natural laws. The system is one in which the mind and body are devoted for ten or twelve hours a day, on six days in the week, to the production of those useful and ornamental articles which constitute wealth ; and in this end we are eminently sue* THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 185 cessful. Verily we have our reward ; fu* no nation in the world possesses so much wealth as Britain ; none displays such vast property in the possession of individuals of every rank ; none approaches her in the general splendour of living ; and none in the multitude of inhabitants who live in idleness and luxury on the accumulated fruits of industry. But still, with all the dazzling advantages which Britain de- rives from her wealth, she is very far from being happy. Her large towns are overrun with pauperism and heathen- ism ; and in many English counties, even the agricultural population has lately been engaged in burning corn-stacks and farm-offices, out of sheer misery and discontent. The overwrought manufacturers are too frequently degraded by intemperance, licentiousness, and other forms of vice. In the classes distinguished by industry and morality, the keen competition for employment and profit imposes excessive labour and anxiety on nearly all ; while the higher classes are often the victims of idleness, vanity, anbition, vice, ennui, and a thousand attendant sufferings of body and mind. The pure, calm, dignified, and lasting felicity which our higher feelings pant for, and which reason whispers ought to be our aim, is seldom or never attained. The present condition of society, therefore, does not seem to be the most perfect which human nature is capable of reaching ; hitherto man has been progressive, and there is no reason to believe that he has yet reached the goal. In the next lecture will be stated some grounds for expecting brighter prospects in future. 18* 186 LECTURE X. THE CONSIDERATION OF THE PRESENT AND PROSPECTIVE CONDITION OF SOCIETY CONTINUED. Additional examples of bad results of competition of individual interests — Disadvantages attending the division of labour — Difficulty of benefiting one individual without injuring others — Instance of charitable institutions — Question, Whether the destruction of human life or of corn is the greater public calamity — State of the Irish peasantry — Impediments to the abandonment of luxuries by the rich— The leading ar- rangements of society at present bear reference to self- interest — Christianity cannot become practical while this continues to be the case — Does human nature admit of such improvement, that the evils of individual competition may be obviated, and the moral sentiments rendered supreme ? — Grounds for hope — Natural longing for a more perfect social condition — Schemes of Plato, SirT. More, the Primi- tive Christians, the Harmonites, and Mr. Owen. I proceed to point out some additional examples of the results of the competition of individual interests. Apparently, the evils of the selfish system have the ten- dency to prolong and extend themselves indefinitely. We have seen, for example, that the institution of different em- ployments is natural, springing from differences in native talent and inclination. This leads to the division of labour, by which every person has it in his power to confine his exertions to that species of art for which he has the great- est aptitude and liking ; while 1 , by interchanging commodi- ties, all become richer. But, under the present system, this institution is attended with considerable disadvantages. "Workmen are trained to perform the minutest portions of labour on a particular article, and to do nothing else : one man can point a pin, and do no more ; another can make the pin's head, but finish no other part of it ; one man can make the eye of a needle, but can neither fashion the body nor point it. In preparing steam-engines, there are now even different branches of trade, and different workshops for the different parts. One person makes boilers, another casts the frame-work and heavy iron beams, a third makes cylinders, a fourth pistons, and so on ; and the person who furnishes steam-engines to the public, merely goes to these different workshops, buys the different parts of the skeleton, THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 187 and his own trade consists in fitting them together, and selling the engine entire. These arrangements produce commodities better and cheaper, than if one man made the whole needle or pin, or one manufactory fabricated the whole steam-engine ; but there is an attendant disadvantage, when we view the system in its moral effects. It rears an immense number of industrious men, who are utterly ignorant, except of the minute details of their own small department of art, and who are altogether use- less and helpless, except when combined under one employer. If not counteracted in its effects by an extensive education, it renders the workmen incapable of properly discharging their duties as parents, or members of society, by leaving them ignorant of everything except their narrow department of trade. It leaves them also exposed, by ignorance, to become the dupes of political agitators and fanatics, and renders them dependent on the capitalist Trained from infancy to a minute operation, their mental culture neglect- ed, and destitute of capital, they are incapable of exer- cising sound judgment on any subject, and of combining their labour and their skill for the promotion of their own advantage. They are, therefore, the mere implements of trade in the hands of men of more enlarged minds and more extensive property ; and as these men also compete keenly, talent against talent, and capital against capital, each of them is compelled to throw back a part of the burden on his artisans, demanding more labour, and giving less wages, to enable him to maintain his own position. * Nor does the capitalist escape the evils of the system. In consequence of manufacturer competing with manufacturer, and merchant with merchant, who will execute most work, and sell his goods cheapest, profits fall extremely low, and the rate of interest, which is just the proportion of profit corresponding to the capital employment in trade, becomes depressed. The result is, that the artisan's wages are lowered to the verge of a decent subsistence, earned by his utmost * I confine the observations in the text to the case of mecha- nics who are uneducated. If they receive a good education, the more monotonous their employment is, they have the more spare energy for thought. Weavers who have once entered on reading, generally become intelligent, for their labour absorbs a small portion of mind ; but if they have not been educated at all, they become dull and stupid, or unsettled and vicious. p8 THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. exertions ; the manufacturer and merchant are exposed to incessant toil and risk, and are moderately recompensed ; and the capitalist, who desires to retire from active business, and ljr# on the produce of his previous industry, in the form of interest, participates in their depression, and starves on the smallest pittance of annual return. Thus, selfish com- petition presents the anomaly of universal abundance co- existing with individual want, and a ceaseless struggle to obtain objects fitted chiefly to gratify our inferior powers. While the competition of individual interests continues to be the rule in society, the field even of benevolence itself is greatly limited. It becomes extremely difficult to do good to one individual, or class of individuals, without doing an equal injury to others. Nothing, for example, can at first sight appear more meritorious and beneficial, than the in- stitution of such charitable endowments as that of Heriot's Hospital, or the hospitals founded by the two Watsons, of this city ; in which children of decayed or deceased parents, belonging to the industrious classes, are educated, provided for, and set out in life. Yet objections to them have been stated on very plausible grounds. According to the princi- ples which I have endeavoured to expound in the preceding lectures, children do not, in general, become destitute, except in consequence of great infringement of one or more of the natural laws by their parents. If the parents died pre- maturely, they must, in most cases, (for accidents will happen, even with the utmost care,) have inherited feeble constitu- tions, or disobeyed, in their own conduct, the organic laws ; and the destitution of their children is the natural punish- ment of these offences. If the father have b*?en in trade, have failed, and fallen into poverty, he must have been de- ficient in some of the qualities cohabits necessary for success, and his destitution is the natural consequence! of these deficiencies. Now, amid the competition of individual in- terests, there is always a considerable number of meritori- ous persons, who, with great difficulty, are able to maintain themselves and their fami'ies in the station in which they were born, and who succeed in doing so, and in educating their children, only by submitting to incessant toil and great sacrifices of their own enjoyments. I have heard such persons make remarks like the following : " Do you see that young man? he was educated in Heriot's Hospital, and, by the influence of the managers of that institution, was THE PRESENT CONDITION OP SOCIETY. 189 received as an apprentice into a thriving mercantile esta- blishment, into which I had in vain endeavoured to get one of my sons introduced. He is now head-clerk. Well ! benevolence is not always justice : that boy's father was sporting his horse and gig, and living like a gentleman, while I was toiling and saving ; he fell from his gig and broke his neck, when he had drunk too much wine. At his death, his affairs were found to be in bankruptcy ; but he had good friends ; his children were taken into the hospitals, and here you see the end of it; his boy comes out of the hospital better educated than my sons, and, supported by the influ- ence of the managers, he prevents mine from getting into a good situation, by stepping into it himself: this, I say, may be benevolence, but it is not justice." This is not an imaginary dialogue ; I have heard the argument stated again and again, and I could never see a satisfactory answer to it. It would be crulty to abandon the children, even of the victims of such misconduct as is here described, to want, crime, and misery ; yet surely there must be some defect in the leading principle of our social institutions, when a benevolent provision for them reallv has the effect of ob- structing the path and hindering the prosperity of the children of more meritorious individuals. I have heard this line of argument pushed still farther. An acute reasoner often maintained in my presence, that if one hundred unmarried men and one thousand quarters of wheat were both in one ship, the loss of the men would be no public evil, while the loss of the wheat would be a real one. He maintained his position by arguing that in this country the competition for employment is so great, that the removal of one hundred individuals from any branch of labour would only benefit those who were left, by rendering the competition less arduous and their remuneration greater ; whereas the loss of one thousand quarters of wheat would necessarily lead to diminution of the diet of a certain num- ber of the poorest of the people. All the wheat which we possess, he said, is annually consumed ; if it be abundant, it is cheap, and the poor get a larger share : if it be scarce, it is dear, and the deficiency falls upon the poor exclusively : the loss even of one thousand quarters, therefore, would have stinted the poor, it may be only to a fractional, but still to a real extent, sufficient to establish the principle contended for ; sp that, continued my friend, British society is actually in 190 THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. that condition in which the loss of food is a greater public calamity than the loss of men. This argument appears to me to be sound in principle, although wire-drawn. The answer to it is, that our benevo- lent feelings, which, although obstructed under the selfish system, are not extinguished, would receive so much pain from seeing one hundred human beings deprived of the plea- sures of existence, that even the poor would cheerfully sacrifice many meals, to contribute to their preservation. If the events are contemplated apart from the pain or gratifica- tion which our benevolent feelings experience from them, and if the amount, of good and evil, not to the one hundred sufferers, but to the community at large, be solely regarded, the loss of men, in a country like this, does appear a smaller misfortune than the loss of food. Ireland affords a striking illustration. The purest philanthropist will confess, that a destroying angel, who in one night should slay a million of human beings, men, women, and children, in that country, would occasion infinitely less suffering, than would arise from any considerable deficiency in their potato crop.* I see it mentioned in the newspapers, that at this moment (June 1835) the peasantry in the west of Ireland are suffering all the horrors of famine through failure of their potato crop. Although corn is abundant, and is daily exported to Eng- land, they are too poor to purchase it. The Irish peasantry, habitually on the brink of starvation, and exposed to the greatest destitution, stand at one end of the agricultural scale, and the great landed proprietors of England, with revenues of .£100,000 per annum, and rolling in every kind of luxury, * There is more of benevolent arrangement in the tendency of barbarous tribes to wage furious wars with each other, than at first sight appears. The Irish peasantry, in general, were till lately barbarous in their minds and habits, and, but for the presence of a large army of civilized men, who preserved the peace, they would have fought with, and exterminated, each other. It is questionable whether the miseries that would have attended such a course of action would have exceeded those which are actually endured from starvation. The bane of Ire- land is, that her population has increased far more rapidly than her capital, morality, and knowledge. Where a nation is left to follow its own course this does not occur. Dissension keeps down the numbers, until intelligence, capital, and industry take the lead. England prevented the Irish from fighting, but she did little to improve them. THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 191 occupy the other. The hand-loom weavers of Britain, earn- ing five shillings a week by the labour of six days, of four- teen hours each, are at the base of the manufacturing system, while the Peels and Arkwrights, possessing millions of pounds, appear at the summit. There is something not agreeable to our moral sentiments, and not conformable to the brother-loving and wealth-despising precepts of Christianity, in a system of which these are the natural effects, and accord- ing to which, even benevolence cannot be manifested toward one human being without indirectly doing injury to another. Another example of the solidity and consistency of the prevailing system may be noticed. Many persons errone- ously imagine that there is no social obstacle to the rich leaving off their vanities and luxuries, and dedicating their surplus revenues to moral and religious purposes, and that great good would result from their doing so ; but the con- sequences, even of this virtuous measure, would, while the present system endures, prove highly detrimental to thou- sands of meritorous persons. Multitudes of laborious and virtuous families subsist by furnishing materials for the luxuries of the rich, and a change in the direction of theii expenditure would involve these families in ruin. Fluctua- tions in fashion, as taste varies, often occasion great tem- porary suffering to this class of the community, but a total abandonment of all luxurious indulgences, on the part of the wealthy, would involve them in irretrievable misfortune. We perceive, therefore, that the general arrangements of our existing social system evidently bear reference to the supremacy of our lower faculties. The pursuit of wealth at present generally ends in the gratification of Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation. The attainment of power and distinction in politics, in rank, or in fashion, is the Alpha and Omega of the machinery of our social system ; yet it does not produce general happiness. Every moral, and I may almost say religious, advantage is incidental to, and not a part of, the system itself. There are laws to compel us to pay taxes, for the maintenance of officers of justice, whose duty it is to punish crime after it is committed ; but there are no general laws to prevent crime by means of peniten- tiaries and of abundant and instructive schools.* There * The United States of America are happily free from this reproach. In their provisions for national education, and in the management of their prisons, they are greatly in advance of Britain. 192 THE PRESENT CONDITION OF SOCIETY*. are laws which tax us to support armies and navies for th6 purpose of fighting our neighbours ; but no laws to compel us to pay taxes for the purpose of providing, in our great cities, the humblest luxuries, nay, almost necessaries for the poor, such as baths to preserve their health, reading-rooms, or places of instruction and amusement, in which their ra- tional faculties may be cultivated and their comfort promoted after their days of toil are finished. There are taxes to main- tain the utterly destitute and miserably poor after they have fallen into that condition, but none to provide means for arresting them in their downward progress toward it. In short, the system, as one of self-interest, is wonderfully perfect. From the beginning to the end of it, prizes are held out to the laborious, intelligent, and moral, who choose to dedicate their lives out and out, honestly and fairly, to the general scramble for property and distinction ; but equal facilities are presented to all who are incapable of main- taining this struggle, to fall down, and sink to the lowest depths of wretchedness and degradation. When they have reached the bottom, and are helpless and completely undone, the hand of a meagre charity is stretched forth to support life, till disappointment, penury, and old age, consign them to the grave. The taxes occasioned by our national and immoral wars render us unable to support imposts for moral objects. Now, it is worthy of remark, that if the system of indi- vidual aggrandizement be the necessary, unalterable, and highest result of the human faculties as constituted by na- ture, it altogether excludes the possibility of Christianity ever becoming practical in this world. The leading and distin- guishing moral precepts of Christianity are those which command us to do to others as we would wish that they should do unto us ; to love our neighbours as ourselves ; and not to permit our minds to become engrossed in the pursuit of wealth, or infatuated by the vanity and ambition of the world. But if a constant struggle for supremacy in wealth and station be unavoidable among men, it is clearly impossible for us to obey such precepts, which must there* fore be as little adapted to our nature and condition, as the command to love and protect poultry, but never to eat them, would be to that of the fox. Instead, therefore, of divines teaching Christian morality, it would (if the system of com- petition of individual interests be the highest that our nature THE PRESENT CONDITION OP SOCIETY. 193 admits of) be wiser in them to follow the example of the political economists, and to suit their precepts to the human constitution. Political economists in general regard the existing forms and condition of society as the result of our natural faculties, and as destined to be the lot of man to the end of time. In perfect consistency with this view, they propose to provide for the increasing welfare of the race, by exalting the aim of the selfish principles, and directing them more beneficially by extended knowledge. They would educate the operative classes, and thereby confer on them mental energy, fortitude, and a rational ambition — after which it might be expected that they would not con- sent to labour, like the lower animals, merely for the hum- blest subsistence, but would consider decent comforts, if not simple luxuries, essential to their enjoyment, and demand wages adequate to the command of these, as the recompense of their industry and skill. As long, however, as the system of individual aggrandizement is maintained, it will be the interest of the class immediately above the operatives, and who subsist on the profits of their labour, to prevent the growth of improved notions and principles of action ; for the labourer is in the most profitable condition for his master's service when he possesses just intelligence and morality sufficient to enable him to discharge his duties faithfully, but so little as to feel neither the ambition nor the power of effectually improving his circumstances. And, accordingly, the maintenance of the labouring classes in this state of contentment and toil, is the beau ideal of practical philoso- phy with many excellent individuals in the higher and middle ranks of life. Under this system, the aim of the teacher of morality and religion is to render the operative classes quiet and industri- ous labourers, toiling patiently through this life in poverty and obscurity, and looking forward to heaven as their only place of rest and enjoyment. Under the selfish system, religion and morality do not aspire to the establishment on earth of what I regard as the truly Christian character — that in which each individual will find his neighbour's happiness an essential element in his own ; in which he shall truly love his neighbour as himself : and in which labour and the at- tainment of wealth shall not be the ends or objects of his existence, but simply the means of enabling him to live in comfort and in leisure, to exercise habitually his moral and 17 194 THE FUTURE CONDITION OP SOCIETY. intellectual faculties, and to draw from them his chief de- lights. According to the present system, the attainment of this condition is deferred till we arrive in heaven. Now, if human nature be capable of realizing this state on earth, it is a pity to postpone it till after death ; more especially, as there is every warrant, both in reason and scripture, for be- lieving that every step which we make toward it in this life, will prove so much of a real advance toward it hereafter. It is now time, however, to enter on the consideration of the main subject of the present lecture — the question, whether the human faculties, and their relations to external objects, admit of man ascending in the scale of morality, intelligence, and religion, to that state in which the evils of individual competition shall be obviated, and full scope be afforded for the actual supremacy of the highest powers. On contemplating man's endowments in a general point of view, nothing would appear more simple and easy than practically to realize the general and permanent supremacy of the moral powers. We have seen that aptitude for labour is conferred on him by the Creator, so that if he were en- lightened in regard to his own constitution and the sources of his own welfare, he would desire to labour for his own gratification, even independently of the reward, in the form of food, raiment, and physical abundance, which it is the means of procuring. Again, the earth, and the external world generally, are created with an admirable adaptation to his bodily and mental powers, so as to recompense him, by immense rewards, for a very moderate extent of exertion in applying them to his own advantage. Farther, man has been endowed with inventive and co-operative faculties, which confer on him a vast ingenuity, and render him cap- pable of impressing, not only the inferior animals, but fire, air, and water, into his service as labourers. And finally, he has received organs of Benevolence, prompting him to love all sentient beings, and to delight in their happiness ; organs of Conscientiousness, desiring to see universal justice reign ; organs of Ideality, which aspire after universal per- fection and loveliness ; with organs of Veneration, Wonder, and Hope, leading him to desire communion with God, and to rejoice in the contemplation of all that is pure, exalted, and beneficent. With such a constitution, and placed in such circum- stances, the wonder is that he has wandered in error and THE FUTURE CONDITION OP SOCIETY. 195 misery so long. The cause is rendered clear by phrenology. In addition to these high moral and intellectual endowments, man possesses animal propensities, which are blind, selfish instincts. They are necessary for his sustenance, and their organs are the largest, most active, and earliest developed in his brain. They are extremely prone to produce evil until they are directed and enlightened by his moral and intellectual powers. Man's ignorance of himself and of external nature, and his consequent inexperience of the attainments which he is capable of reaching, appear to have been the chief causes of his past errors ; and the following among other reasons authorize us to hope for better things hereafter. His pro- pensities, although strong, are felt by all to be .the inferior powers in dignity and authority. There is, therefore, in man a natural longing for the realization of a more perfect social condition than any hitherto exhibited, in which justice and benevolence shall prevail. Plato's " Republic " is the most ancient" recorded example of this desire of a perfect social state. Josephus describes the sect of the Essenes, among the Jews, as aiming at the same object. " The Essenes," says he, " despise riches, and are so liberal as to excite our admiration. Nor can any be found among thern who is more wealthy than the rest ; for it is a law with them, that those who join their order should distri- bute their possessions among the members, the property of each being added to that of all the rest, as being all bre- thren." — "They reject pleasure as evil ; and they look upon temperance and a conquest over the passions as the greatest virtue." — (War, ii. ch. 7.) In the days of the apostles, an attempt was made by the Christians to realize these princi- ples, by possessing all things in common. The same end is aimed at also by the Society of Friends, by the Harmonites of North America, and by the followers of Mr. Owen in Britain : Plato's Republic, and Sir Thomas More's Utopia, which was a similar scheme, were purely speculative, and have never been tried. The word " Utopian," indeed, is usually applied to all schemes too perfect and beautiful to admit of being reduced to practice. The Essenes laboured in agriculture and in various trades, and seem to have main- tained their principles in active operation for a considerable period of time. We are not told whether the primitive Christians formed themselves into an association for the 196 THE FUTURE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. purpose of producing wealth : so far as we are aware, they merely contributed their actual possessions, and then gave themselves up to religious duties ; and as their stores were soon consumed, the practice ceased. The Harmonites are stated to have been a colony of Moravians united under one or more religious leaders : in their own country they had from infancy been bred to certain religious opinions, in which they were generally agreed ; they had all been trained to industry in its various branches, and disciplined in practical morality ; and thus prepared, they emigrated with some little property, purchased a considerable territory in Indiana, which was then one of the back settlements of the United States, and proceeded to realize the scheme of common property and Christian brotherhood. They sustained many privations at first ; but in time they built a commodious and handsome village, including a church, a school-house, a library, and baths. They cultivated the ground, and carried on various manufactures ; but all laboured for the common good, and were fed and clothed by the community. They implicitly obeyed their chief pastor or leader, Mr. Rapp, who exer- cised a mild though despotic authority over them. They lived as families in distinct dwellings, and enjoyed all the pleasures of the domestic affections ; but their minds were not agitated by ambition, nor racked by anxiety about providing for their children. The latter were early trained to industry, co- operation, and religion ; and if their parents died, they were at once adopted by the community. The Harmonites were not distracted with cares about their old age or sickness, because they were then abundantly provided for. There was division of labour, but no exhausting fatigue : a fertile soil, favourable climate, and moral habits, rendered moderate exertion amply sufficient to provide for every want. There were natural distinctions of rank ; for all were subordinate to Mr. Rapp, and the individuals most highly gifted filled the most important offices, such as those of religious instructors, teachers, and directors of works, and were venerated and beloved by the other members accordingly ; but no artificial distinctions found a place. This community existed many years, enjoyed great prosperity, and became rich. Mr. Owen at last appeared, bought their property, and proceeded to try his own scheme. They then retired again into the wilder- ness, and recoitfmenced their career. At that time thev were about two thousand in number. THE FUTURE CONDITION OP SOCIETY. 197 Here, then, the vice and misery which prevail in common society were in a great measure excluded ; and though the external circumstances of the Harmonites were peculiarly favourable, their history shows what human nature is capable of attaining. The leading principle of Mr. Owen is, that human cha- racter is determined mainly by external circumstances ; and that natural dispositions, and even established habits, may be easily overcome. Accordingly, he invited all persons who approved of his scheme, to settle at New Harmony ; but as those who acted on his invitation had been trained in the selfish system, and were, in many instances, mere ignorant adventurers, they naturally failed to act in accor- dance with the dictates of the moral sentiments and intellect, and Mr. Owen's benevolent scheme proved completely un- successful. The establishment at Orbiston, in Lanarkshire, set on foot ten years ago by the admirers of that gentleman, fell closely under my personal observations ; and there the same disregard of the principles of human nature, and the results of experience, was exhibited. About three hundred persons, very imperfectly educated, and united by no great moral or religious principle, excepting the vague idea of co- operation, were congregated in a large building ; they were furnished with the use of two hundred and seventy acres of arable land, and commenced the co-operative mode of life. But their labour being guided by no efficient direction or superintendence, and there being no habitual supremacy of the moral and intellectual powers among them, animating each with a love of the public good, but the reverse — the result was melancholy and speedy. Without in the least benefiting the operatives, the scheme ruined its philanthropic projectors, most of whom are now either in premature graves, or emigrants to distant lands, while every stone which they reared has been razed to the foundation. These details are not foreign to the subject in hand. They prove, that while ignorance prevails, and the selfish fa- culties bear the ascendency, the system of individual interests is the, only one for which men are fitted. At the same time, the attempts above narrated show that there is in the human mind an ardent aspiration after a higher, purer, and happier state of society than has ever yet been realized. In the words of Mr. Forsyth, there is in some men " a passion for reforming the world ;" and the success of Mr. Rapp, at 17* 198 THE FUTURE CONDITION OP SOCIETY. Harmony, shows that whenever the animal propensities can be controlled by the strength of moral and religious princi- ple, co-operation for the general welfare and a vast increase of happiness become possible. As, however, individuals are liable to be led away on this subject by sanguine dispo- sitions and poetical fancies, our first object should be to judge calmly whether past experience does not outweigh, in the scale of reason, these bright desires and this almost solitary example, and teach us to regard them as dangerous phantoms, rather than indications of capabilities lying dor„ mant within us. Certainly the argument founded on expe- rience is a very strong one ; yet it does not seem to me to be conclusive — and as the question of the capabilities of human nature is one of great and preliminary importance, a statement will be given in the next lecture of the reasons which render it probable that man is still susceptible of improvement to an unascertained extent. Our opinions on this point must necessarily exercise a great influence on our ideas of social duty ; and the subject is, therefore, de- serving of the fullest consideration. 199 LECTURE XI. THE CONSIDERATION OF THE PROSPECTIVE CONDITION OF SOCIETY CONTINUED. — DUTY OF MAINTAINING THE POOR. Reasons for expecting future human improvement — The brain improves with time, exercise, and the melioration of insti- tutions — Existing superior brains and minds prove the capa- bility of the race — The best men are the firmest believers in man's capability of improvement — Human happiness will increase with the progress of knowledge — Ignorance still prevalent — Many of our sufferings traceable to causes removable by knowledge and the practice of morality— This exemplified in poverty, and the vicissitude and uncer- tainty of conditions— Means by which human improvement may be effected — The interest of individuals closely linked with general improvement and prosperity — Examples in proof of this — Extensive view of the Christian precept, that we ought to love our neighbour as ourselves — Duty of attend- ing to public affairs — Prevention of war — Abolition of slave- trade — Imperfection of political economy in its tendency to promote general happiness — Proposal to set apart stated portions of time for the instruction of the people in their social duties, and for the discharge of them — Anticipated good effects of such a measure — Duty of endeavouring to equalise happiness — Duty of maintaining the poor — Opposite views of political economists on this subject considered — Causes of pauperism ; and means of removing them — These causes not struck at by the present system of management of the poor ; but, on the contrary, strengthened. I proceed to state some of the reasons which render it probable that the capacity of man for improvement is greater than experience may, at first sight, lead us to suppose. In the first place, man is obviously progressive in the evolution of his mental powers. The developement of his brain appears to improve with time, exercise, and the me- lioration of his institutions. There is strong evidence that, in civilized nations in general, the moral and intellectual organs are larger, in proportion to the organs of the animal propensities, than they are in savages. The skulls of civi- lized and savage races, in the collection of the Phrenological Society, afford proofs of this fact.* It is equally certain, * Since the text was written, I have visited the United States of America, and seen large numbers of skulls of native Indians, and also living individuals of these races, and have found the statement in the text supported by this evidence. 200 THE FUTURE CONDITION OP SOCIETY. that individuals are fitted to institute, maintain, and enjoy, a highly moral and intellectual social condition, in proportion to the predominance of the organs of the superior sentiments and the intellectual powers in their brains. Many persons enjoying this combination may be found in all Christian countries. They are genuine philanthropists — good, pious, wise, long-suffering, and charitable. They see and lament the ignorance, selfishness, blindness, and degradation of the unenlightened masses of mankind, and would rejoice in institutions that would introduce peace and good will to men on earth, and the love of God into every mind. If the brains of a great majority of mankind could be brought up to that standard, and illuminated by knowledge, Christianity might be realized as a practical doctrine, which it has never yet generally been. The love of everything good, holy, exalted, and refined, would be strong and general ; and it seems reasonable to believe that the human intellect might succeed in discovering means of gratifying the aspirations of the moral faculties, in social habits, pursuits, and institu- tions. If, then, men possessing such brains exist, human nature must be capable of reaching this condition. As we are all of the same race, and regulated by the same laws, the excellent qualities exhibited by a few cannot be denied to be within the ultimate attainment of the majority. Farther — As the firmest believers in man's capability of improvement are those persons who themselves possess high moral developement of brain, they are inspired, in this faith, not by a demon, but by heaven ; for the moral sentiments are the God- like elements of our nature ; and the very fact that these ennobling expectations are entertained by men possessing the best moral affections, affords an indication ! that Providence intends that they should be realized. In proportion, then, as a large developement of the organs of the higher faculties becomes general, the conviction of the pos- sibility of improvement, and the desire for it, will increase.* See the most authentic descriptions of these skulls in Dr. Mor- ton's Crania Americana ; an admirable work, containing se- venty-eight drawings, of the size of life, of the skulls of native American Indians, with letter-press descriptions of the men- tal qualities of the tribes. * The failure of the disciples of Mr. Owen, at Orbiston, in Lanarkshire, maybe supposed to be a refutation of this remark ; but they followed the aspirations of their moral sentiments, THE FUTURE CONDITION OP SOCIETY. 201 Again — Man, as already mentioned, is clearly and un- deniably progressive in knowledge ; and this single fact authorizes us to rely with confidence on his future improve- ment. In proportion as he shall evolve a correct knowledge of the elements of external nature and of his own constitu- tion out of the dark chaos in which they have hitherto existed, will his means of acting wisely and advantageously for his own happiness be augmented. If we trace in history the periods of the direst sufferings of human nature, we shall find them uniformly to have been those of the most benighted ignorance, and phrenology confirms the records of history on this subject ; it shows us that the animal organs are the largest and most active, and that, in uncul- tivated men, they act blindly and with terrible energy, producing misery in every form. If the progress of know- ledge be destined to increase virtue and enjoyment, our brightest days must yet be in reserve, because knowledge is only at this moment dawning even on civilized nations. It has been well observed, that we who now live are only emerging out of the ignorance and barbarism of the dark ages ; we have not yet fully escaped. This is proved by the mass of uneducated persons everywhere existing;* by the imperfect nature of the instruction usually given ; without consulting the dictates of enlightened intellect. They believed that the good which they strongly desired could be at once realized, by measures suggested by the mere force of the desire, without fulfilling the preliminary natural conditions to success. They took a number of selfish and ignorant people, and expected that, by a few speeches and by living in a com- munity, they would alter their mental condition, and render them in the highest degree disinterested and moral. This was irrational, and failure was the natural result ; but this does not show that wiser means may not lead to happier ends. * State of Education in England. The register of marriages in England throws an incidental light upon the state of education. The parties married sign. their names, if they can write, and affix their marks, if they cannot. Judging by this criterion, it appears, that among 100 men who marry in England, the number unable to write is 33. Among 100 women, 49 ; and the mean of both, 41. As it is estimated that the number who marry annually is only about 3 per cent, of the persons marriageable, the data are too limited to afford sure results ; but in the absence of better evidence, they are well worthy of attention. With this qualification, we give the proportions for the different sections of the country. 202 THE FUTURE CONDITION OP SOCIETY. and by the vast multitude of prejudices which still prevail, even in the best informed classes of society. It is, in truth, an error to believe that even modern Europe is enlightened, in any reasonable meaning of the term. A few of her ablest men are comparatively well instructed, when tried by the standards of other ages ; but the wisest of them have the most forcible conviction that the field of their knowledge of nature, physical and mental, when compared with the va&t regions of territory still unexplored, is as a span to the whole terrestrial globe : and as to the multitude of mankind, their ignorance is like the loftiest mountain in extent, and their knowledge as the most diminutive mole-hill. The great body of the people are uninstructed in everything deserving the name of practical science. Neither our scheme of life, the internal arrangement of our houses, the plans of our towns, our modes of industry, our habits of living, our amusements and other ways of employing the small portion of leisure left to us by the calls of business, nor even the details and forms of our religious worship, have been instituted and adopted from any sound and systematic view of our own nature, or its wants and capabilities. The art of printing, and the great era of discovery in the arts Scholarship of England. Of one hundred of each sex who marry, the number who sign with marks is — Males. Females. Mean. South-eastern counties, . . 32 40 36 South midland do. . . 43 53 48 Eastern do. . . 45 52 48 South-western do. . . 31 47 39 Western do. . . 40 54 47 North midland do. . . 32 50 41 North-western do. . . 39 63 51 Yorkshire, 34 49 41 Northern do. . . 21 42 31 Monmouth and Wales, . . 48 70 59 The Metropolis, . . 12 24 18 The fact that 41 adults out of every 100 cannot write their names, is disgraceful to England, and to the church in parti- cular, whose especial duty it was, either to make provision for the education of the people, or to see that it was made by the state. The church, in its collective capacity, has in fact been always hostile to the diffusion of knowledge. — Review of the Registrar-General's Second Annual Report of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, for England, in Scotsman of 22d August, 1840. THE FUTURE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 203 and sciences, are still comparatively recent ; and the prac- tical application of them to increase the intelligence and happiness of the great mass of the people, with a view to realize Christian morality and its attendant enjoyments in this life, has yet been limited and imperfect. The external world is clearly constituted with the inten- tion that man should exert his highest faculties, illuminated by knowledge, and that his happiness should be thereby in- creased. Civilized man, with his numerous inventions, and his admirable command over physical and animal nature, ap- pears almost like a God, compared with the savages of New Holland, and other helpless tribes wearing the human form, without manifesting the human mind. When we survey the great ingenuity and value of our mechanical inventions, and consider to what extent they have increased our powers of producing the necessaries and elegancies of life, it is im- possible to doubt that the Creator, when he bestowed on us faculties which he foresaw would one day render us masters, to so great an extent, of his physical creation, in- tended that they should ultimately increase the happiness of all his children. He never could have designed them to be employed merely in carrying on a vast game of hazard, in which a thousand should be losers, and only one the fortu- nate gainer of the prize ; and yet, at this moment, when we regard, on the one hand, the condition of our operative manufacturing population, too generally pressed to the earth with poverty and toil, and on the other, a few men of superior talent, who, by combining the exertions, and accumulating the profits of the labour of these industrious classes, have become almost princes in fortune, we cannot deny that this is, to some extent, the use to which discoveries in art and science have been devoted. This, I say, cannot be the ultimate design of Providence ; and therefore I conclude, again, that we must be as yet only evolving our destinies ; that we are now in a state of transition, and advancing to higher morality and more universal enjoyment. Another reason for my conviction of human capability of improvement is, that, imperfect as our philosophical acquain- tance with ourselves and with external nature at present is, we are able to trace many of our sufferings to causes which are removable by knowledge and by the practice of moral duty. The evils of sickness and premature death may, in general, and with the exception of accidents, be t,raced to 204 THE FUTURE CONDITION OP SOCIETY feeble constitutions inherited from parents, or to direct dis- obedience of the organic laws in our own persons. If know- ledge of the causes of health and disease were generally diffused, and if the sanctions of religion and the opinion of society were directed toward enforcing attention to them, it is reasonable to believe that in every succeeding genera- tion, fewer and fewer parents would produce children with feeble constitutions, and fewer and fewer adults would cause their own deaths prematurely, by ignorant infringement of these laws. Poverty, and the consequent want of the necessaries and enjoyments of life, is another vast source of human suffer- ing. But who that traces the immeasurable fruitfulness of the earth, and the unbounded productiveness of human labour and skill, can doubt that if a higher-minded and more considerate population could be reared, who should act according to the dictates of an enlightened understanding and a sound practical morality, and establish wiser social arrangements — this source of suffering would also be dried up, or very greatly diminished ! Vicissitude, and uncertainty of condition also afflict thousands who are placed above the reach of actual want of food and raiment ; yet how much of these evils may be traced to the dark mysteriousness in which many involve their trade ; in consequence of which, each manufacturer is often in secret ruining both himself and his neighbour by over-production, without any of them being aware that he is the source of his own and his neighbour's calamities ; and how much evil may be ascribed to the grasping and gambling spirit, which prompts so many persons to engage in wild speculations, which a sound education in political economy might prevent ! Ills like these are certainly to some extent avoidable, by knowledge of the principles which govern commerce, and by the practice of prudence and morality by individuals. The last reason which I assigned for believing in the ca- pacity of man for improvement is, that he can scarcely move one step of advance in knowledge and morality, with- out a palpable melioration of his condition. If you will trace our countrymen through their various grades, of sa- vages, barbarians, chivalrous professors of love, war, and plunder, and of civilized citizens of the world, you will find the aggregate enjoyment of the people increased with every .„.- ruTURE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 205 extension of knowledge and virtue. This is so obvious and certain, that I forbear to waste your time by proving it in detail : we cannot reasonably suppose that the progress is destined to stop here. For all the reasons now assigned, I hope you will go along with me in the conviction, that improvement, not boundless, but so extensive that its limits are unknown, is within the teach of man. I shall now endeavour to point out the means by which this improvement may be carried into effect. The first step toward realizing this object, is to produce a general conviction of its possibility, which I have endea- voured in this and the preceding lectures to accomplish. The next is to communicate to each individual a clear per- ception of the advantages which would accrue to himself from such improvement, and a firm conviction of the im- possibility of individuals in general ever attaining to the full enjoyment and satisfaction of their highest and best faculties, except by means of social institutions founded on the basis of the moral and intellectual faculties. In order to support this last proposition, I solicit your attention, for a brief space, to our helpless condition as in- dividuals. In social and civilized life, not one of us could subsist in comfort for a day, without the aid and society of our fellow-men.* This position will not be generally dis- puted ; but the idea is almost universal, that if we only acquire property enough, we may command, by means of money, every object and every service that pur utmost fancies can desire. This, however, is a grave error. Has any of you ever been travelling, and lost or broken some ingenious and useful article which you were constantly using, purchased in London or Edinburgh ; and have you, on coming to a considerable village in the country, where you felt certain that you would be able to supply your want by a new purchase, found that you searched in vain 1 The general inhabitants of the district had not yet adopted the use of that article ; the shops contained only the things * Alexander Selkirk subsisted in solitude for four years, on the uninhabited Island of Juan Fernandez, in comfort, and even with enjoyment, after he had become accustomed to his situation ; but he had a fine climate and a fertile soil, with unbounded range for action ; and a human being left without aid in a civilized community, would be far more helpless and miserable. 18 206 TfiE FUTURE CONDITION OP SOCIETY. which they demanded ; and you speedily discovered that, however rich your purse might be in sovereigns, you could not advance beyond the sphere of enjoyment of the humbler people, into whose territory you had come. Or, during a residence in the country, do you take a longing for some particular book — not a rare or old work, but one on an im- portant and generally cultivated science, say Lyell's Geo- logy, or Murray's Chemistry — and repair to the circulating library of the country town 1 You search the catalogue for it in vain ! You go next to the best bookseller's shop, hut it is not there either. The bookseller looks into his London or Edinburgh correspondent's catalogue, finds the name and price at once, and offers to get the book for you by the next monthly parcel ; but in the meantime you receive a con- vincing proof that you cannot, without drawing on the stores of a more scientific population, advance, even intellectual- ly, before the general inhabitants of the country in which you are located ; because the means of doing so do not exist around you. If you proceed to survey the catalogue of the county circulating library, you will find that it contains chiefly the standard novels, with the current magazines, and such voyages and travels as have acquired a great popularity. With these you must rest contented, or draw your supplies from a district more advanced in intellectual culture. Now, the principle which is here illustrated holds good universally in social life. If you are a parent, and see the imperfections of the prevail- ing system of education, you cannot improve your condition until a teacher and a large number of parents shall have con- curred in certain views, and combined in the institutions of an improved seminary. Many applications have been made to me, for information where seminaries for rational education, particularly for females, were to be found ; but, until very recently, I could not tell ; because none such, to my know- ledge, existed. We have now several of these institutions in Edinburgh ; among others, the infant-school of Mr. and Miss Anderson, in Gayfield-square. Until these were insti- tuted, individual parents were compelled, by social necessity, to place their children in schools of which they did not approve, because they could find no better. Nay, enlight- ened teachers have told me that their schools are arrested in their progress, and retained in arrear of their own know- ledge and convictions of improvement, in consequence of the THE FUTURE CONDITION OP SOCIETY. 207 prejudices of parents rendering it unsafe for them to adopt new methods. The improved schools, so far as they exist, have been created only by the enlightenment of parents, by the aid of the press and general instruction. Is any of us convinced that human life is rendered unne- cessarily laborious by our present habits of competition, and does he desire to limit his hours of labour, and long ardently to enjoy more ample opportunity for exercising his moral and intellectual faculties'! — he soon discovers that while his neighbours in general shall continue to seek their chief happiness in the pursuit of wealth, or the gratification of ambition, he can accomplish little toward realizing his moral desires. He must keep his shop open as long as they do ; he must labour in his manufactory up to their full standard of time ; or if he be a member of a profession, he must devote as many hours to business as they ; otherwise he will be distanced in the race, and lose both his means of subsistence and his station in society. So true is this representation, that in my own day, many of the men who, without fortune, have embarked in public life, that is, who have taken the lead in public affairs, and devoted a large portion of their time to the business of the community, have ruined themselves and their families. Their competitors in trade, manufactures, or professional pursuits, were dedi- cating their energies to their private duties, while they were dividing their attention between them and the public service ; and they were, in consequence, ruined in their individual fortunes, and sank into obscurity and want. Yet it is certain, that the business of the state, or of a particular town, or city, ought to receive a due portion of attention from the inhabitants. This absolute dependence of individuals on the state of the social circle in which they live, extends through all the ramifications of existence. Does any individual entertain higher notions of moral and religious duty than are current in his own rank and age 1 — he will find, when he attempts %o carry them into practice, that he becomes an object of remark to all, and of dislike and hostility to many. Does any individual perceive the great foes to health and comfort, in narrow lanes, small sleeping apartments, and ill venti- liated rooms and churches, and desire to have them removed T — he can accomplish absolutely nothing, until he has con- yinced a vast multitude of his fellow-citizens of the reason^ 208 THE FUTURE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. ableness and advantage of his projected improvements, and induced them to co-operate in carrying them into effect. Does any of us desire to enjoy more rational public amuse- ments than those at present at our command 1 — he cannot succeed, unless by operating on the understandings and tastes of thousands. Perhaps the highest social pleasure of life is that of familiar converse with moral and intelligent friends ; but do we not all feel that, from the general absence of a cultivated taste and enlightened understanding, our social parties are in general cumbrous and formal displays of wealth and luxury, and much more occasions of ostenta- tion than of pleasing mental entertainment ! It is only by a higher general cultivation of the mind that this evil can be brought to an end. It is the want of mental resources that occasions this dull display. But perhaps the strongest proof of the close connexion between the public welfare and private interest, is afforded by the effects of any great political or commercial convul- sion. In 1825-6, we saw extensive failures among bankers, merchants, and manufacturers ; and how universal was the individual suffering through all classes ! Labourers could find no employment, and the shopkeepers who supplied them had few customers, and these unable to pay. The great manufacturers who supplied these classes with clothing and articles for domestic use were idle ; the house proprietor suffered for want of solvent tenants, and the landed proprie- tor found a dull and disadvantageous market for his produce. Contrast this picture with the condition of the country when the great branches of manufacturing industry are prosper- ous, and how different the happiness of individuals ! Thus it appears clear, that even under the present system of the pursuit of individual interest, the real welfare of each indi- vidual is much more closely connected with that of his neighbours than is generally recognised. This proves that a fundamental element of individual advantage is public prosperity. According to my humble conviction, therefore, the very first lesson relative to our social duties, which ought to be given to the young, is to open their understandings to this great fact in the moral administration of the world, that the law of Christianity, which commands us to love our neigh- bours as ourselves, is actually written in our constitution, individual and social, and is a maxim which must become THE FUTURE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 209 practical, before we can become truly prosperous and happy as individuals. The precept has been generally interpreted to mean that we should do specific acts of kindness to the individual men who live locally in our neighbourhood, or who are connected with us by ties of intimacy or kindred ; and the parable of the good Samaritan naturally tends to excite this idea : but, although this is unquestionably one, and a very important, application of it, the principle of the precept goes much farther. It enjoins us to arrange our social institutions and our whole practical conduct in such a manner as to render us all simultaneously, and, as nearly as may be, equally, happy ; and apparently our nature has been constituted to admit of this being done, with unspeakable advantage to all, whenever we shall thoroughly understand our constitution, its moral wants, and its capabilities. At present this prin- ciple is scarcely at all understood, and is certainly not generally acted on. A few years ago we used to hear the maxim often re- peated, that private persons had nothing to do with public affairs ; that their business was to mind their shops, their manufactories, their professions, and their families, and to leave public matters to public men. The evil consequences of the world having followed this rule in past ages, may be read in the wide aberrations of many of our laws and insti- tutions, and of our social condition, from the standards of reason and general utility. If you will peruse the pages of history, you will find wars often undertaken from the caprices of a single sovereign, which spread devastation and misery among millions of people. These could not have been waged if the millions of private persons on whom the cala- mities fell, had considered the public interest inseparably connected with their own, and had exercised an enlightened control over the actions of their rulers. Another instance is found in the history of the slave-trade. It proceeded from individual rapacity, and constituted the foulest blot that ever stained the fame of Britain. It enriched a few indi- viduals at the expense of every principle of humanity, and in defiance of every Christian precept. At no period was it approved of by the general voice of the people ; but each was too busy with his private affairs to be able to make a simultaneous and general effort to arrest its pernicious pro- gress. At last, growing intelligence and increasing mo- 18* 210 THE FUTURE CONDITION OP SOCIETY. rality, in the great body of the people, did produce this co-operation, and, after ages of crime and misery, it was extinguished, by the nation paying £20,000,000 for tho freedom of the slaves. If the British people had been able earlier to insist on the cessation of this odious traffic, how- much of human misery, besides the loss of the £20,000,000, would have been avoided ! If we trace narrowly the great causes why our rulers have been permitted to waste the public resources, and incur the national debt, which is now felt to form such a vast impediment to public improvement, we shall find that too often the individuals of the nation were calculating the private gain which hostilities would produce to them, in creating a demand for farm produce, for the maintenance of fleets and armies, for cloth for uniforms, or for iron for arms, and so on ; — utterly blind to the fact that the war was destroying the national resources, and that they themselves would, in the end, pay for all. Unfortu- nately the maxim that each of us should mind his private affairs, make gain of the public if he can, and leave public matters to public men, still reigns in too much vigour. The number of individuals is yet small, who take an enlightened interest in the social welfare : so much is this perceptible even in listening to mere discourses upon it, that I have seen my audience diminish in proportion as the lectures have left the interests of individuals and proceeded to those of the public. This indicates a limited capacity for thought. One of the most certain marks of a truly enlightened mind, is the power of comprehending the dependence of our indi- vidual welfare on public prosperity. I do not mean, of course, that each of us should become a political reformer, or a conservative, or a brawler about town politics, and about police regulations, as our chief business, to the neglect of our private duties. This would be preposterous, and would augment, not diminish, the evils of our social condition. What I wish to enforce is, the general conviction that our individual enjoyments, viewed in an enlarged light, are inseparably bound up with those of the society in which we move ; and that it is, therefore, both our interest and our duty, to study attentively the nature, objects, and practical results, of our social mechanism ; to compare them with our faculties ; and then to devote all the time and attention that may be necessary to bring our institutions and habits of life into accordance with our higher powers. THE FUTURE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 211 The advantages of acting on these views would be nu- merous and important. We should learn to regard public measures in their real relationship to general utility, and not through the distorting medium of our private interests and partialities. We should discover the incalculable power which society possesses to improve its own condition and institutions, whenever unanimity is attained ; and we should feel much more disposed than at present, to promote, with our moral influence, the ascendency of all such measures as are truly calculated to lead to public good, although benefit- ing ourselves only in our social capacity. Another effect of enlightened views of our social welfare being generally entertained, would be, that men o ( far higher moral and intellectual character would become candidates for offices of public trust and honour, because they would be certain of support from a moral and intelligent public. At present, the busy men in all the minor departments of political and public life, are too often those who are actuated by a rest- less vanity, or who expect to attain some selfish end through their public influence and connexions. From the general disbelief in disinterested motives, public men are at present frequently rewarded with obloquy and abuse, however zea- lously and uprightly they may discharge their official duties ; and this deters men of delicacy and of sensitive modesty from accepting official trusts. There are, fortunately, many exceptions, but I fear that there are also too many examples of this being the truth. The truly enlightened and disin- terested shrink from the means which selfishly ambitious men employ, not only to obtain, but to wield and preserve power ; and hence the field is left too entirely to them. The remedy for these evils is to educate the public at large into a perception of the real nature and importance of their social interests and duties. If I be correct in the opinion that the happiness of each individual is inseparably connected with that of the society in which he lives, and that the law that we must love our neighbour as ourselves really means, in its extensive sense, that general enjoyment can arise only from improved social habits and institutions — then I shall not be thought to be guilty of extravagance, when I remark, that in times past this view has rarely, to any practical end, been pressed on the attention of any class of society. Within the last fifty ©r sixty years political economy has been discussed on 212 THE FUTURE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. philosophical principles ; but the leading aim of the econo- mists has been to demonstrate the most effectual means of increasing wealth. The very title of the first valuable work on the subject in. this country, is "The Wealth of Nations," by Dr. Adam Smith. The principles which he expounded, it is true, embrace establishments for promo- ting religion and education, and other moral institutions ; and no one can value his labours, and those of his succes- sors, such as Ricardo, M'Culloch, and their followers, more highly than T do ; yet it is unquestionable that the great aim of all these writers has been to clear away the rubbish that impeded the play of our selfish faculties, and to teach the advantage of all laws and institutions that will permit every man's mind to follow its own bent, in search of its own happiness in its own way, restrained only by the obligation that he shall not directly injure or obstruct the prosperity of his neighbour. In the infancy of civilization and social institutions, this instruction is most valuable ; as is also the exposition of the natural laws by which the creation and diffusion of wealth are regulated ; so that these writers are worthy of all consideration as being useful in their day. But society must proceed in its course. It has augmented its wealth, while many persons doubt whether the increase of its happiness has, in all ranks, kept pace with that of its riches. What seems now to be wanted is, the know* ledge and adoption of principles allied to our moral, reli- gious, and intellectual faculties, which may enable us fully to profit by the labours of political economists and of our skilful artisans. The extent of the people's power tq improve their social condition is very great, if they could only be so far enlightened regarding the constituent elements of their own happiness, as to pursue it in a right direction, and in combination. The gigantic efforts of Britain in war afford an example of the prodigious effects, in the form of violence, which we are capable of producing by our combined wealth and mental energies. If our forefathers had dedi- cated to executing physical improvements and to instructing the people, the same ardour of mind, and the same extent pf treasure, which they squandered from the year 1700 to 1815 in war, what a different result would at this day have pre- sented itself ! If they had bestowed honours on the benefac- tors of the human race as they have done on its destroyers, bow different wpuld have been the direction of ambition ! THE FUTURE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 213 The next requisite for improving our social condition, is the command of time for the discharge of our social duties. One day in the week is set apart for teaching and practising our religious duties ; but in that day very little instruction is communicated, by our public and authorized teachers, touching the affairs of this world, and the laws by which the happiness of our social state may be best promoted. The other six days of the week are devoted to the advancement of our individual interests in the pursuit of wealth, or. as the Scripture designates it, to the collection of " the meat which perisheth." In the existing arrangements of society, our social duties do not appear to be at all recognised as incumbent on us. There are no seminaries for making us acquainted with them, and no time allotted for the practice of them. Those who discharge public duties, must either sacrifice to them the time which their competitors are devoting to their private interests, or overtask their minds and bodies by labouring when nature demands repose. Now, with all deference to existing opinions, I would hum- bly propose that a specific portion of time should be set apart for teaching in public assemblies, and discharging practically, our social duties, and that all private business should then be suspended. If half a day in the week were devoted to this purpose, some of the following consequences might be expected to ensue : In the first place, the immense importance of social institutions and habits to individual happiness would be brought home to all. It would be half a day dedicated to the consideration of the means by which we might practi- cally love our neighbours as ourselves : a public recognition of the principle, as one capable of being carried into practice, would, in itself, bend many minds toward realizing it. Secondly, such an arrangement would enable, and also excite, the people at large to turn their attention seriously to moral and social considerations, on which their interests so much depend, instead of considering it meritorious and advantageous to neglect thejn : and it would tend to remove thafc dense mass of ignorance and prejudice which offers a powerful obstacle to all improvement. If I be correct in thinking that individual men cannot realize the Christian precepts in their actions, while living in a society whose ruling motives are opposed to them, it is obvious that the rectification of our social habits is an indispensable prelude 214 THE FUTURE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. to the introduction of practical Christianity ; and how can these be rectified unless by instructing the people in the means of improving them 1 Thus the religious community are deeply interested in promoting the plan of reformation now proposed. Thirdly, the dedication of a specific portion of time to our social duties would leave leisure for truly virtuous and enlightened men to transact public business, without expo- sing themselves to be ruined by their competitors in the race of private interest. Under the present system, the selfish are enriching themselves while the patriotic are impoverish- ing their families by discharging their public duties. In short, either this or some other adequate means must be used, to communicate to men in general a correct and elevated view of their own nature, position, interests, and duties, as rational beings, with a view to induce them to improve their social habits, and also to afford faculties for the discharge of their public duties, before any substantial progress can be made in social improvement ; and without social improvement, individual morality and happiness never can be securely or permanently maintained. In the " Con- stitution of Man " I have endeavoured to show that the object of the Creator in bestowing on man the power of abridging labour by mechanical inventions, appears to be to give him leisure for cultivating his moral and intellectual powers ; and if this idea be right, there is no natural ob- stacle to the dedication of sufficient time to the purposes in question. Perhaps the notion will present itself to many persons, that, if the industrious classes were congregated to receive instruction in this manner, the result would be the formation of innumerable clubs and debating societies, in which viva- cious but ignorant men would lead their weaker brethren into mischievous errors, and imbue them with discontent. This would probably happen, if a sudden adoption of the plan took place, without previous preparation. At present, there is so great an ignorance of useful and sound social principles, that such unions would probably be abused ; but a young and rising generation may be prepared, by training and%du- cation, for comprehending and performing their social duties, and then leisure for the practice of these will lead only to good. So little attention has been paid to instructing the people MAINTENANCE OF THE POOR. 215 at large in their social duties, that I am not acquainted with a single treatise on the subject, calculated for popular use, except the 38th No. of " Chambers' Information for the People," which contains an excellent exposition of a variety of public duties ; but it is necessarily limited, in comparison with the vast extent of the subject. Nay, not only has no instruction in social duties been provided for the people, but the opinion has been veiy generally entertained that they have no such duties to discharge, except to pay taxes, and bear arms when balloted to serve in the militia ; and that they go entirely out of their sphere, when they turn their attention to public affairs. This appears to me to be a pre- posterous and fundamental error ; for the industrious classes, of all grades, are, if possible, more directly and strikingly affected by the good or bad management of public matters, or by our social condition, than the rich, in whose hands alone it has been imagined that the discharge of social duties should be placed. The operative tradesman and small shopkeeper absolutely rise or fall with every wave of public prosperity or adversity ; whereas, the landed pro- prietor and the great capitalist are able to weather many a social storm, with scarcely a perceptible abridgment of their enjoyment. After the people at large are enlightened, and thoroughly imbued with the love of justice and of their neighbours' hap- piness, another social duty will be. to carry into practice, by all moral means, the grand principle of equalising, as much as possible, the enjoyment of all — not by pulling down the fortunate and accomplished, but by elevating others, as nearly as may be, to an equality with them ; all privileges and artificial ranks which obstruct the general welfare ought to be abolished ; not violently, however, but gradually, and, if possible, by inducing their posses- sors to give them up, as injurious to the public and them- selves. The next social duty which I mention, relates to the maintenance of the poor. Much diversity of opinion pre- vails on the causes of poverty, the remedies of it, and the best means of managing the poor. Many political econo- mists have taught that there ought to be no legal provision for the poor, because the existence of a legal provision ope- rates as a direct stimulus to poverty ; it induces the indolent and vicious to relax their own efforts to earn the means of 216 CAUSES OF POVERTY. subsistence, and leads them to throw themselves unblush* ingly, and as a matter of right, on the public bounty. Other economists, especially in more recent days, have taught the very opposite doctrine, and given Ireland as an instance of unexampled poverty and misery, arising in consequence of there being in that country no legal provision for the poor ; and it is now proposed to enact poor-laws for Ireland. This proposal is based on the ground, that if the rich be not com- pelled to support the poor, they will entirely abandon the whole class from which the poor arise, and allow them to sink into the lowest depths of ignorance, misery, and degra- dation : whereas, if they be forced to maintain all the victims of these unhappy circumstances, they will be prompted by their own interest to use means for their social improvement, so as to prevent them from becoming an intolerable burden on themselves. Again, some political economists, of whom Dr. Chalmers is the chief, regard all compulsory assess- ments for the poor as injurious to society, and maintain that private benevolence, if fairly left to itself, is quite adequate to the discharge of the duty of providing for them. Other men, equally wise and experienced in the world, are altogether disbelievers in this alleged power of the principle of benevo- lence, and argue, that the only effect of relying on it would be to permit the avaricious to escape from all contribution, and to throw the burden of the poor entirely on the benevo- lent, who, in general, are overwhelmed with demands on their bounty. Scientific knowledge of human nature, and of the influence of external circumstances on happiness, cannot be general, when such widely different doctrines, regarding a question so momentous, are supported by men of equal profundity and respectability. The view of it which is presented by the new philosophy, is the following : The causes of that degree of poverty which amounts to destitution, are great defects in the body or mind of the in- dividuals who fall into this condition, or in both. The lame, the "deaf, and the blind, may be poor through bodily defects j and if so, they are the victims of the organic laws, and should be comfortably maintained by the more fortunate members of society. Their numbers are not great, in proportion to well-constituted men, and their maintenance would not be felt as a severe tax, if they were the only burdens on the CAUSES OF POVERTY. 217 benevolence of the community. The idiotic belong to the same class. All that society can accomplish in regard to such persons is, to support comfortably those who exist, and to use means to render their numbers as small as possible in future generations. This can be accomplished best by instructing the community at large in the organic laws, and presenting to them every intelligible motive to obedience. The most numerous class of destitute poor is that which springs from deficiency of size or quality in the brain, or in the intellectual region of it, not amounting to idiocy, but occasioning so much mental weakness that the individuals are not capable of maintaining their own place in the grand struggle of social existence. Persons so constituted often provide for their own wants, although with difficulty, during the vigorous period of their lives, and become helpless and a burden on the community in the wane of life. That the cause of their falling into destitution is essentially an im- perfection in their mental organs, any one may ascertain, by qualifying himself to distinguish well-constituted from ill-constituted brains, and then going into any of the charity workhouses or asylums for adults, and observing the heads and temperaments of their inmates. It is obvious, that teaching the organic laws and improving the external circumstances of society are the most feasible means for lessening the numbers of these unfortunate victims in future times. Another proof that these physiological defects lie at the root of the evil of poverty, may be obtained by observing the temperament, and size and forms of the heads, of the children of the higher and middle classes, and comparing them with those of the children of the poor, found in the parish charity workhouses. The latter children, with some exceptions, spring from parents who are the refuse or dregs of the community, and through whose feebleness and vices they become burdens on the parish. These children are palpably inferior in temperament, and in size or form of brain, to the offspring of parents of the middle and higher ranks ; and teachers who have been employed in schools consisting of children of these superior grades, and who have afterward been placed in charge of the children in public charities, have remarked an extraordinary difference of native capacity between the two ; the children of the pauper asylum being much less apt to learn. 19 218 CAUSES OF POVERTY. Now, these facts, although, as I have said, they go to the root of the evil, are generally unknown and unattended to. An accomplished manager of the poor of a parish, according to the present system, is a man who resists, to the very last extremity, every application for charity, and who, when re- sistance is no longer possible, obtains the greatest quantity of food and raiment for the smallest amount of money. Economy in contracts is the grand object ; and those mana- gers are covered with glory, who are able to reduce the as- sessment on the parish one-half per cent. Without mean- ing at all to depreciate the advantages of economy, I remark that this mode of management reminds me of the manner in which an old relative of my own coped with the rushes, which grew too abundantly in one of his fields. He employ- ed women, whom he hired at so many pence a day, to pull them up ; and if the wages of the women fell from lOd to 6d or 8d a day, he thought that he had managed the rushes to great advantage that year. But it so happened that the rushes, like the poor, constantly reappeared, and the labour of pulling them up never came to an end. At last, this excellent person died, and his son succeeded to the farm. This son had received a scientific education, and had heard the chemical qualities of soil, and of the various metals and minerals which are usually found incorporated with it, ex- plained by one professor ; and by another professor he had been taught the effect of these and of other circumstances on vegetation. He thus discovered that stagnant water is the parent of rushes ; and when he succeeded to the farm, he cut a deep drain through a high bank, obtained declivity to cause the water to flow from the field, and then constructed drains through it in every direction. By this means he dried the soil ; the rushes disappeared, and have never since been seen there ; the annual labour of pulling them up is saved, and the expense of it is devoted to farther improvements. So long as society shall neglect the causes of poverty, and omit to remove them, and so long as they shall confine their main efforts to making cheap contracts for supporting the poor, so long will they have a constant succession of poor to maintain. Nay, there is a great tendency in their proceedings to foster the growth of the very poverty which so grievously distresses them.* I have said that the chil- dren in the charity workhouses have generally low tempera- * See note on page 219. CAUSES OF POVERTY. 219 ments and inferior brains. Now, these qualities are the great parents of poverty. To prevent these children, therefore, from becoming paupers when they shall fall into the decline of life, and from rearing an inferior race, also bordering on pauperism, it would be necessary to improve, by every possi- ble means, their defective organization. This can be done only by supplying them with nutritious diet, and paying the utmost attention to their physical and mental training. By the present system, they are fed on the poorest fare, and their training is very imperfectly conducted. They look dull, inert, heavy, and lymphatic ; and are not fortified so much as they might be against the imperfections of their natural constitutions. In feeding pauper children with the most moderate quantity of the coarsest and cheapest food, means are actually taken to perpetuate the evil ; for bad feeding in childhood weakens the body and mind, and con- sequently diminishes the power of the individuals to provide for themselves. Attention, therefore, ought to be devoted, not merely to the support of existing paupers, but also to the means of preventing another crop from -springing up in the next generation. Our present system may be compared to that which the farmer would have pursued, if he had water- ed the field after pulling up the rushes, in order to assist na- ture in accomplishing a new growth. In making these observations, I beg to be understood as not blaming any particular managers of the poor for their proceedings, or accusing them of neglect of duty. The principles which I am now expounding have hitherto been unknown to these persons, and are not yet generally ac- knowledged by society at large. Public men, therefore, could not act on them. But believing them to be founded in na- ture, and to be highly important, I use the freedom to an- nounce them for general consideration, in the confidence, that if they be supported by facts, they will in time become practical ; and if they shall be shown not to be true, I shall rejoice in their incorrectness being discovered. One fact, at all events, cannot be controverted ; namely, that society has not yet discovered either the causes or the remedy of pover- ty : hence, I conceive the statement of new principles to be neither arrogant nor unnecessary ; leaving them, as I do, to stand or fall by the result of observation and experience.* * The preceeding lecture was written and delivered in 1835, and the views of pauperism which it contains were then gene- 220 LECTURE XII. PAUPERISM AND CRIME. Causes of pauperism continued — Indulgence in intoxicating liquors — Causes producing love of these ; — Hereditary pre- disposition ; Excessive labour with low diet ; Ignorance — Effects of commercial convulsions in creating pauperism — Duty of supporting the poor — Evils resulting to society from neglect of this duty — Removal of the causes of pauperism should be aimed at — Legal assessments for the support of the poor advocated — Opposition to new opinions is no reason for despondency, provided they are sound— Treat- ment of criminals — Existing treatment and its failure to suppress crime — Light thrown by Phrenology on this subject — Three classes of combinations of the mental organs, favourable, unfavourable, and middling — Irresistible procli- vity of some men to crime — Proposed treatment of this class of criminals — Objection as to moral responsibility- answered. In the immediately preceding lecture, I entered upon the consideration of the social duty of providing for the poor. The removal of the causes of pauperism, it was observed, ought to be attended to, as well as the alleviation of the misery attending it. One great cause of pauperism is bodily and mental defect ; and it was held that those so afflicted should be maintained by society. Another cause of pauperism, is the habit of indulging in the use of intoxicating liquors. This practice undermines the health of the whole nervous system, through which it operates most injuriously on the mind. The intoxicating fluid stimulates the nervous system directly, by its influence on the nerves of the stomach, and excites the whole organs of sensation, for the time, into more vivid action. Hence rally regarded as theoretical and unfounded. Subsequent events have not only proved them to be sound, but have strongly excited public attention to the painful fact that, in Scotland, pauperism has increased and is rapidly increasing. Professor Alison, in his two pamphlets " On the Management of the Poor in Scotland," has, in my opinion, demonstrated, by irrefraga- ble evidence, that the wretched pittances doled out to the poor in this country are inadequate to their comfortable subsistence, and that a continually increasing pauperism is the actual and inevitable consequence of the deep mental depression and phy-* sical degradation in which they habitually exist. 1840. CAUSES OF PAUPERISM. 221 the drunkard enjoys a momentary happiness ; but when the stimulus is withdrawn, the tone of the system sinks as far below the healthy state, as during intoxication it was raised above it. He then experiences a painful prostration of strength and vivacity, a feeling of deprivation, and a strong craving for a renewed supply of alcohol to recruit his ex- hausted vigour. During intoxication, the intellectual facul- ties are incapable of making any useful effort, while in the intervals between different debauches, the brain is so ex- hausted and enfeebled, that it is equally unfit to execute any vigorous purpose. The habitual drunkard thus sinks into the condition of a complete imbecile, and may become a burden on the industrious portion of the community for his maintenance.* The causes of individuals falling into these habits are various. One is a hereditary predisposition. If the parents, or one of them, have been habitually addicted to some vice, its consequences affect their physical constitution, and they transmit, a weakened and disordered organization to their children. This doctrine has been ridiculed, as if we taught that children are born drunk. They are no more born drunk than they are born in a passion ; but they certainly are born with conditions of brain that tend ultimately to produce in them a love of intoxicating fluids. Another cause of the tendency to drunkenness appears to be excessive labour with low diet. The nervous energy is exhausted through the medium of the muscles, and the stimulus of alcohol is felt to be extremely grateful, in restor- ing sensations of life, vigour, and enjoyment. This cause may be removed by moderating the extent of labour, and improving the quantity or the quality of the food. If alcohol * The phenomena attending the different stages of intoxi- cation appear to indicate that the brain is affected also directly in the following manner, although evidence is still wanting to render this view certain : Intoxicating liquors increase the action of the heart, and cause an increased flow of blood to the head. The first effect of this is, to stimulate all the organs into increased activity, and to produce feelings of vivacity and pleasure. The blood circulates most freely in the largest mental organs, because they have the largest bloodvessels. As intoxi- cation proceeds, the smaller organs become first overcharged with blood, and their functions are impaired. Hence the in- tellectual Dowers become first obscured, then the moral senti- ments, and lastly the propensities. 19* 222 CAUSES OP PAUPERISM. were withheld, and a nourishing diet supplied to such mefi, they would, after a few weeks, be surprised at the pleasurable feelings which they would experience from this better means of supplying the waste of their systems. An additional cause of intoxication is found in ignorance. When an individual enjoys high health and a tolerably well developed brain, he feels a craving for enjoyment ; a desire to be happy, and to be surrounded by happy friends. If he be uneducated and ignorant, his faculties want objects on which they may expand themselves, and he discovers that intoxicating liquors will excite his mind and give him a vivid experience, for the time, of the pleasures of which he is in quest. The bottle, for the sake of this artificial stimulus, is then resorted to, instead of the objects in nature rehted to the faculties, the study of which, and social intercourse with virtuous and enlightened men, were intended by the Creator as the natural excitements of the mind, calculated at once to render us happy, and to improve our external condition. This was the real source of the drunkenness which disgraced the aristocracy of Britain in the last gene- ration. I am old enough to have seen the last dying disgraces of that age. The gentlemen were imperfectly educated, had few or no mental resources, and betook themselves to drink- ing for the sake of mental stimulus, almost as a last resource. This view affords also an explanation of the fact that many professional men in the law and medicine, who reside in the provinces, fall into these pernicious habits. They do not find, in their limited sphere of duties, constant stimulus for their minds, and they apply to the bottle to eke out their enjoyments. A more extensive and scientific education is the most valuable remedy for these evils. We have seen higher cul- tivation barfish drunkenness from all the classes pretending to any rank or respectability in society, and the same effect may be expected to follow from the extension of education downward. The last causes of pauperism to which I advert, are the great convulsions which occur every few years in our manu- facturing and commercial systems, and which, by deranging trade, throw many individuals out of employment, give them the habit of relying on charity, and sink them so low in their habits and in their own estimation, that they never recover their independence. CAUSES OF PAUPERISM. 223 If, then, I am correct in the opinion, that the chief causes of pauperism are— first, a low temperament and imperfect developement of brain, attended with a corresponding men- tal imbecility, although not so great as to amount to idiocy ; secondly i, hereditary or acquired habits of intoxication, which impair the mind by lowering the tone of the whole nervous system ; thirdly, gross ignorance ; and fourthly, depression arising from commercial disasters — the question, whether the poor ought to be provided for by society, is easily solved. To leave them destitute would not remove any one of these causes, but tend to increase them all To allow our unhap- py brethren, who thus appear to be as frequently the victims of evil influences over which they have little or no control, as of their own misconduct, to perish, or to linger out a miserable existence unprotected and unprovided for, not only would be a direct infringement of the dictates of Benevo- lence and Conscientiousness, which should be our ruling feelings, and an outrage on Veneration (seeing that God has commanded us to succour and assist them) , but would tend directly to the injury of our own interests. The fact that the world is arranged by the Creator on the principle of dispensing happine.^ to the community in proportion to their obedience to the moral law, is here beau- tifully exemplified. By neglecting the poor, the number of individuals possessing deficient brains and temperaments is increased ; the number of drunkards is increased ; and the number of the ignorant is increased ; and as society carries these wretched beings habitually in its bosom ; as they prowl about our houses, haunt our streets, and frequent our high- ways, and as we cannot get rid of them, it follows, that we must suffer in our property and in our feelings, until we do our duty toward them. Nay, we must suffer in our health also, for their wretchedness is often the parent of epidemic diseases) which do not confine their ravages to them, but sweep away indiscriminately the good and the selfish, the indolent and the hard hearted, who have allowed the exciting causes to grow up into magnitude beside them.* * I have already adverted, on p. 219, to the destitute condi* tion of the poor, and its tendency to cause the increase of pauperism. Professor Alison, in his pamphlet " On the Ma- nagement of the Poor in Scotland," has shown that anothei of the consequences of their extreme want, is the prevalence of epidemic fevers among them in the large towns. This afflic- 2$4 MAINTENANCE OF THE POOR. On the other hand, by applying vigorous measures not only to maintain the poor, but to remove the causes of pauperism, all these evils may be mitigated, if not entirely removed. If a practical knowledge of the organic laws were once generally diffused through society, and a sound moral, re- ligious, and intellectual education were added, I cannot doubt that the causes of pauperism would be unspeakably diminished. Phrenology conveys a strong conviction to the mind that precepts or knowledge are not sufficient by them- selves to ensure correct conduct. The higher faculties of the mind must be brought into a state of sufficient vigour to be able practically to resist, not only the internal solicita- tions of the animal propensities, but the temptations pre- sented by the external world, before sound precepts can be realized in practice. Now, a favourable state of the organs, on the condition of which mental strength or feebleness in this world depends, is an indispensable requisite toward the possession of this vigour ; and as this fact has not hitherto been known — at least, has not been attended to — it seems to me probable that society does not yet know a tithe of its own resources for mitigating the evils which afflict it. The temperance societies are extremely useful in this respect. The substitution of comfortable food for intoxicating beve- rages has the direct tendency to benefit the whole nervous system, and to increase the vigour of the higher powers of the mind. Society at large should bend its whole ener- gies, directed by sound knowledge, toward the accomplish- ment of this end. tion is no longer confined to themselves. In 1839, the Fever Board and the Directors of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh reported, that, " notwithstanding every exertion, fever has kept its ground in this city ; and that on three different occasions within these twenty years, it has assumed the form of an ap- palling epidemic ; that its ravages have extend, while its ma- lignity has greatly increased — the mortality having risen from one in twenty to near one in six ; and it has passed from the dwellings of the poor to those of the rich, and prevailed extensively among families in easy and affluent circumstances ; that, within the last two years, it must have affected at least ten thousand of the population of the city." In 1838, one in thirty. Here we see the rich falling victims to disease originating in their own neglect of the poor. A more striking illustration of the mode of operation of the natural laws, and of the certainty of the punishment which is inflicted for infringing them, could not have been presented. MAINTENANCE OF THE POOK. 226 Holding it, then, to be clearly both the duty and the in- terest of society to provide for the poor, the next question is, How should this be done : by legal assessment, or by voluntary contributions 1 Phrenology enables us to answer this question also. The willingness of any individual to bestow charity depends not exclusively on the quantity of wealth which he possesses, but likewise on the strength of the benevolent principles in relation to the selfish in his mind. Now, we discover, by observation, that the organs of the benevolent and selfish feelings differ very widely in relative size in different individuals, and experience supports the conclusion which we draw from this fact, that their dis- positions to act charitably, or the reverse, are widely different. Not only so, but, as the leading principle of our present social system is the pursuit of self-interest, it may be stated, as a general rule, (allowance being alway s made for individual exceptions,) that those in whom the selfish feelings, with intellect and prudence, predominate, will possess most wealth ; and yet this very combination of faculties will render them least willing to bestow. Their wealth and benevolence will generally be in the inverse ratio of each other. This in- ference, unfortunately, is also supported by facts. It ha3 frequently been remarked that the humble classes of society, and also the poorer members of these classes, bestow more charity, in proportion to their incomes, than the very wealthy. To trust to voluntary contributions, therefore, would be to exempt thousands who are most able, but least willing, to bear the burden, and to double it on those who are most willing, but least able, to support it.* * Professor Alison has arrived at the same conclusions by means of practical observation. He says, " In following out this inquiry (into the condition of the poor) 1 have long since formed, and do not scruple to express, an opinion, which I cannot expect to be in the first instance either well received or generally credited in this country, viz., tkatthe higher ranks in Scotland do much less (and what they do, less systemati- cally, and therefore less effectually) for the relief of poverty and of sufferings resulting from it, than those of any other country in Europe which is really well regulated." And again, " many respectable citizens (of Edinburgh) never appear among the subscribers to any public charity, at the same time that they steadily withstand all solicitations for private alms, and thus reduce the practice of this Christian duty (charity) to the utmost possible simplicity." — On the Management of the Poor in Scotland, p. 11 and 23. 226 MAINTENANCE OP THE POOR. It appears to me that while the present principles of social action enjoy the ascendency, compulsory assessment is indispensable ; and I am inclined to carry it the length of assessing for the support of the poor in all their forms. There are voluntary societies for supporting the destitute sick, for maintaining a House of Refuge, the Deaf and Dumb Institution, the Blind Asylum, the Royal Infirmary, and many other charitable institutions. I have been told that these, and afl the other public charities of Edinburgh, are supported by about fifteen hundred benevolent individuals, many of whom subscribe to them all, and most of whom subscribe to several, while the remaining twenty thousand or thirty thousand of the adult population of the city and suburbs never contribute a farthing to these objects. In a sound social system this ought not to be the case. It is a social duty incumbent on us all to alleviate the calamities of our unfortunate, and even of our guilty, brethren ; and until our moral principles shall be so quickened, as to induce us all to discharge our shares of this duty voluntarily, we should be compelled to do so by law. I regret to say that one of the most striking examples of the undisguised predominance of the selfish principle is af- forded by the society to which I professionally belong. The members of the College of Justice are exempted, by an old act of parliament, from assessments for supporting the poor and providing for the clergy in this city. I shall consider the question of the church at a subsequent stage of this course, but in the meantime remark, that not the shadow- of a reason can be advanced for that exemption, in so far as regards the support of the poor ; yet the society of Writers to the Signet have repeatedly refused, although urgently requested to waive this privilege, and bear their proportion, along with the other citizens, of this Christian burden. It is encouraging, however, to the believers in the tendency of the moral sentiments to gain the ultimate ascendency to learn, that although in the society to which I allude, the minority was only eleven, or some such small number, on the first division which took place for foregoing the exemp- tion, yet, in consequence of discussion, it has increased at every subsequent division, and is now equal to very nearly one-half of the society ; so that I have no doubt that, in time, it will be voluntarily relinquished. On another point I am disposed to carry our social dutie8 MAINTENANCE OF THE POOR. 227 farther than is generally done. I regard the money applied to the maintenance of the poor as, at present, to a great extent wasted, in consequence of no efficient measures being adopted by society to check pauperism at its roots. If I am correct in ascribing it to a low temperament, imperfect developement of brain, habits of intoxication, ignorance, and commercial fluctuations, efficient means must be used to remove these causes, before it can either cease, or be effec- tually diminished ; and as the removal of them would, in the end, be the best policy for both the public and the poor, I am humbly of opinion that the community, if they were alive to their own interests, as well as to their duty, would supply the pecuniary means for laying the axe to the root of the tree, and, by a rational education, and elevation of the physical and mental condition of the lower classes of society, would bring pauperism to a close, or at all events diminish its present gigantic and increasing dimensions. Here the regret always occurs, that our senseless wars should have wasted so much capital that we must provide twenty- seven millions of pounds sterling, annually, for ever, to pay the interest on it ; a sum which, but for these wars, might have been applied to the moral advancement of society, and have carried a thousand blessings in its train. If our moral sentiments were once rendered as active as our propensities have been, and I fear still are, we should apply our public assessments to benevolent and beneficial objects, render them liberal in proportion to the magnitude of the work to be accomplished, and pay them with a hearty good will, because they would all return to ourselves in social blessings. The question is frequently asked, How are these princi- ples, even supposing them to be founded in nature, ever to be carried into execution, seeing that the opinions of society are strongly opposed to them * In answer, I appeal to the experience of the world. All new opinions are rejected, and their authors persecuted or ridiculed at first ; but, in all instances in which they have been true, they have been ultimately adopted. Galileo was imprisoned for proclaiming the first principles of a philosophical astronomy. Fifty year3 elapsed before his opinions made any perceptible pro- gress, but now they are taught in schools and colleges, and the mariner guides his ship by them on the ocean. It was the same in regard to the circulation of the blood, and it will be the same in regard to the application of the new 228 TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. philosophy to the social improvement of man. The present generation will descend, contemning it, to their graves, but, if it be true, we are sowing in young minds seeds that will grow, flourish, and ripen into an abundant harvest of practical fruits in due season. A thousand years are with the Lord as one day, and with society a hundred years are as one day in the life of an individual. Let us sedulously sow the seed, therefore, trusting that, if sound and good, it will not perish by the way-side, but bring forth fruits of kindness, peace, and love, in the appointed season. I forbear suggesting any particular plan by which the objects now detailed may be accomplished ; because no plan can become practical until the public mind be instructed in the principles, and convinced of the truth of the doctrines which I am now teaching ; and whenever they shall be so convinced, they will devise plans for themselves with infi- nitely greater facility and success than we can pretend to do, who live only in the dawn of the brighter day. The next social duty to which I advert, relates to the treatment of criminals, or of those individuals who commit offences against the persons or property of the members of the community. The present practice is to leave every man to the freedom of his own will, until he have committed an offence ; in other words, until he have seriously injured his neighbour ; and then to employ, at the public expense, officers of justice to detect him, witnesses to prove his crime, a jury to convict him, judges to condemn him, and jailers to imprison, or executioners to put him to death, according as the judges shall have decreed. It will be observed, that in all this proceeding, there is no inquiry into the causes which led to the crime, into the remedies for crime, or into the effects of the treatment administered on the offender, or on society ; yet every one of these points ought to be con- sidered, and clearly understood, before we can be in a condition to judge correctly of our social duties in regard to the treatment of criminals. As to the cause of crime, there is a stange inconsistency between our theological and legal standards on the proclivity of the human mind to evil. The articles of our church teach lis that the human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked ; while, legally, every man is regarded as being so completely a moral agent, that he can command not only his actions, but his inclinations and his will ; and TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 229 that hence, when a clear law, which his intellect can com- prehend, is laid down for his guidance, he is a just and pro- per subject for punishment if he infringe it. The premises and the conclusion in this last view are consistent with each other, and if this were a correct description of human nature, there would be no gainsaying the propriety of the practice. We should still, however, find a difficulty in accounting for our want of success in putting an end to crime ; for, if these principles of criminal legislation and punitive infliction be sound, it appears a strange anomaly that crime has every- where, and in every age, abounded most were punishment, especially severe punishment, has been most extensively administered, and that it has abated in all countries where penal infliction has become mild and merciful. There is, however, an error in this view of human nature, which phre- nology enables us to detect. It appears incredible, that in a well governed country like this, where detection and punishment are almost cer- tain to follow crime, any man should infringe the law, if he were not urged by impulses which obtain the mastery over conscience and reason. We need not waste time, however, in speculating on this subject, but may come at once to facts. As mentioned in a former lecture, the brain may be divided into three great regions ; those of the Animal Propensities, Moral Sentiments, and Intellectual Faculties. In some individuals the organs of the propensities bear the ascendency, in point of size, over those of the moral and intellectual faculties. Such men feel the impulses of passion very strongly, and are internally urged by vigorous selfish desires, which vehemently crave for gratification ; while, on the other hand, they possess only feeble glimpses of moral obligation, and a glimmering of intellectual perception. "When beings thus constituted are placed in a dense society, in which every man is struggling to acquire property and to advance his own fortunes, they commence the same career ; but they take the road that first presents itself to their own peculiar minds ; they are impatient to obtain gratification of their passions ; they feel few restraints from conscience or religion, as to the mode of doing so ; they are greatly deficient in intellectual capacity, in patience, per- severance, and acquired skill ; and from all these causes they rush to crime, as the directest method of realizing pleasure. 20 23U CAUSES OF CRIME. The class of minds which forms the greatest contrast to this one, is that in which the moral and intellectual or- gans decidedly predominate over those of the animal propen- sities. Individuals thus constituted have naturally strong feelings of moral and religious obligation, and vigorous in- tellectual perceptions, while the solicitations of their animal passions are relatively moderate. The third class is intermediate between these two. They have the organs of the propensities, of the moral sentiments, and of the intellectual faculties, nearly in a state of equili- brium. They have strong passions, but they have also strong powers of moral and religious emotion, and of intel- lectual perception. Fortunately, the lowest class of minds is not numerous. The highest class appears to me to abound extensively ; while the middle class is also numerous. The middle and the highest classes are at least as twenty to one, in compari- son with the lowest. I am aware that many of my present audience, who have not attended to phrenology, may regard these, not as facts, but as dangerous fancies and groundless speculations. To such persons I can only say, that if they will take the same means that phrenologists have taken, to discover whether these are truths in nature or not, they will find it as impos- sible to doubt of their reality, as of the existence of the sun at noon-day ; and there is no rule of philosophy by which facts should be disregarded, merely because they are un- known to those who have never taken the trouble to observe them. I respectfully solicit you to consider that the brain is not of human creation, but the workmanship of God, and that it is a most pernicious error to regard its functions and its influence on the mental dispositions with indifference. I therefore assume that the views now presented are founded in nature, and proceed to apply them to elucidation of eur social duties in the treatment of criminals. In the case of persons possessing the lowest class of brains, we are presented with beings whose tendencies to crime are naturally very strong, and whose powers of moral guidance and restraint are very feeble. We permit such individuals to move at large, in a state of society in which intoxicating liquors, calculated to excite and gratify their animal propensities, are abundant and easily obtained, and in which property, the great means of procuring pleasure, CAUSES OF CRIME. 231 is everywhere exposed to their appropriation ; we proclaim the law, that if they invade this property, or if, in the ecsta- sies of their drunken excitement, they commit violence on each other, or on the other members of the community, they shall be imprisoned, banished, or hanged, according to the degree of their offence ; and, in that condition of things, we leave them to the free action of their own faculties and the influence of external circumstances. It appears a self-evident proposition, that if such men are actuated by strong animal passions, (a proposition which few will dispute,) there must be an antagonist power, of some kind or other, to restrain and guide them, before they can be led to virtue or withheld from vice. Now, the well con- stituted members of society, judging from their own minds, assume that these individuals possess moral feelings and intellectual capacities adequate to this object, if they choose to apply them. On the other hand, the conviction forced on me by observation, not only of the brain, but of the lives and histories of great and habitual criminals, is, that they do not enjoy these controlling powers in an adequate degree to enable them successfully to resist the temptations presented by their passions and external circumstances. In treating of the foundations of moral obligation, I mentioned that I had repeatedly gone to jails, and requested the jailers to write down the character and crimes of the most distinguish- ed inmates of the prisons ; that, before seeing these, descrip- tions, I had examined their heads and written down the dispositions and probable crimes which I inferred from the developement of their brains, and that the two had remarka- bly corresponded. This could not have happened, unless the brain had in such cases a real influence in determining the actions of the individual. Especially, wherever the moral organs and the intellectual organs were very deficient, and the organs of the propensities large, I found the whole life to have been devoted to crime, and to nothing else. I saw a criminal of this description, who had been sent to the lunatic asylum in Dublin, in consequence of the belief that a life of such undeviating wickedness as he had led could result only frc a insanity ; for he had repeatedly undergone every species of punishment, civil and military, short of death, and had also been sentenced to death — all without effect. Yet the physician assured me that he was not in- sane, in the usual acceptation of the term ; that all his 232 CAUSES OF CRIME. mental organs and perceptions, so far as he possessed them, were sound, but that he had scarcely any natural capacity of feeling or comprehending the dictates of moral obligation, while he was subject to the most energetic action of the animal propensities whenever an external cause of excite- ment presented itself. In him the brain, in the region of the propensities, was enormously large, and very deficient in the region of the moral sentiments. The physician, Dr. Crawford, remarked, that he considered him most properly treated when he was handed over to the lunatic asylum, because, although his brain was not diseased, the extreme deficiency in the moral organs rendered him morally blind, just as the want of eyes would render a man incapable of seeing. In October, 1835, 1 saw another example of the same kind in the jail of Newcastle, in the person of an old man of 73, who was then under sentence of transportation for theft, and whose whole life had been spent in crime. He had been twice transported, and at the age of 73 was still in the hands of justice, to suffer for his offences against the law.* These are facts, and being facts, it is God who has ordained them. Phrenologists are no more answerable for them, or their consequences, than the anatomist is answerable for blindness, when he demonstrates that the cause of that malady is a defect in the structure of the eye. Blame ap- pears to me to lie with those persons who, under an infatua- tion of prejudice, refuse to examine into these most impor- tant facts when they are offered to their consideration, and who resolutely decline to give effect to them in the treatment of criminals. The question now presents itself, What mode of treat- ment does this view of the natural dispositions of criminals suggest? Every one is capable of understanding, that if the optic nerve be too feeble to allow of perfect vision, or * In October, 1839, I visited the state-prison of Connecticut, at Weathersfield, near Hartford, in presence of the Rev. Mr. Gallaudet, Principal Totten, and other gentlemen, and saw a man in whose head the moral organs were very deficient and the animal organs large. Mr. Pilsbury, the superintendent of the prison, stated that this man had passed thirty years of his life in the state-prison, under four several sentences, and that he had no doubt, that, if then liberated, he would in a week be again engaged in crime. TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 233 the auditory nerve too small to permit complete hearing, the persons thus afflicted should not be placed in situations in which perfect vision and hearing are necessary to enable them to avoid doing evil ; nay, it will also be granted, with- out much difficulty, that deficiency in the orgar of Tune nay be the cause why some individuals have no perception of melody ; and it will be admitted, that, on this account, it would be cruel to prescribe to them the task of learning to play even a simple air, under pain of being severely punished if they failed. But most people immediately demur when we assure them that some human beings exist, who, in con- sequence of deficiency in the moral organs, are as blind to the dictates of benevolence and justice, as the others are deaf to melody, and that it is equally cruel to prescribe to them, as the law does, the practice of moral duties, and then to punish them severely because they fail. Yet the con- clusion that this treatment is cruel is inevitable, if the pre- mises be sound. What, then, should be done with this class of beings 1 for I am speaking only of a class small in comparison with the great mass of society. The established mode of treating them by inflicting punishment has not been successful. Those who object to the new views, constantly forget that the old method has been an eminent failure — that is to say, that crime has gone on increasing in amount, in proportion as punishment has been abundantly administered ; and they shut their eyes to the conclusion which experience has established, that be the causes of crime what they may, punishment has not yet been successful in removing them, and that therefore it cannot, on any grounds of reason, be maintained to be of itself sufficient for this purpose. The new philosophy dictates that the idea of punishment, consi- dered as mere retribution, should be discarded. Punish- ment, in this sense, really means vengeance ; and the desire for inflicting it arises from an erroneous conception of the structure and condition of the criminal mind, and from the activity of our own passions, which are excited by the injuries inflicted on us by the actions and outrages of this class of persons. Our duty is to withdraw external temp- tation, and to supply, by physical restraint, that deficiency of moral control which is the great imperfection of their minds. We should treat them as moral patients. They should be placed in penitentiaries where they could be 20* 234 TREATMENT OP CRIMINALS. prevented from abusing their faculties, yet be humanely treated, and permitted to enjoy as much of liberty and comfort as they could sustain without injuring themselves or their fellow-men. They should be taught morality, knowledge, and religion, so far as their faculties enable them to learn ; and they should be trained to industry. This mode of treatment would render their lives happier than they could ever be were their persons left at large in society, and it would make them also useful. I consider the restoration of this class of persons to the possession of a moral self-control as nearly hopeless : they resemble those who are blind and deaf from irremediable defects in the organs of sight and hearing. If, however, by long restraint and moral training and instruction, they should ever become capable of self-guidance, they should be viewed as patients who have recovered, and be liberated, on the understanding that if they should relapse into immoral habits, they should be restored to their places in the asylum.* The objection is frequently stated that this doctrine abolishes responsibility ; but I am at a loss to comprehend the exact import of this objection. As formerly mentioned, the distinction between right and wrong does not depend on the freedom of the human will, as many persons suppose, but on the constitution of our faculties. Every action is morally right which gratifies our sentiments of Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness, enlightened by intellect ; and every action is wrong which outrages or offends them. Hence, if we see a furious madman or a mischievous idiot (whom no one supposes to be a free agent) burning a house or murdering a child, we are compelled, by our whole moral faculties, to condemn such actions as wrong, and to arrest the perpetrator of them in his wild career. Now, the case of the class of offenders which we have been discussing is precisely analogous. Like the madman, they act under the influence of uncontrollable passions, existing, in their case, in consequence of the natural predominance of certain * I have conversed on the subject of the irreclaimable dispositions of this class of criminals, with intelligent and humane superintendents of prisons in Britain and the United States of America, and they have expressed a decided convic- tion that there are prisoners whom no punishment will recall to virtue, but who, when liberated, constantly recommence their career of crime. TREATMENT OP CRIMINALS. 235 organs in the brain, and in his, from ascendency of the passions produced by cerebral disease. Society absolves idiots and the insane from punishment, and we only plead that the class of these unfortunate beings is really more extensive than the law at present recognises it to be. The actions of the morally insane, whom we wish to include in it, are without hesitation condemned, and we never doubt that we ought to stop their outrages, although we do not regard the men as guilty. The only question, therefore, is, By what means may their actions be most effectually arrested 1 The disciples of the old school answer, that thi3 may be best done by punishment ; but in doing so, they turn a deaf ear to the lessons of experience, which proclaim only the failure of this treatment in times past ; they close their understandings against the examination of new facts, which promise to account for that failure ; they assume, in oppo- sition to both philosophy and experience, that these men can act rightly if they choose, and that they can choose so to act ; and finally, by virtue of these prejudices, errors, and false assumptions, they hold themselves absolved from all obligation to alter their proceedings ; and without considera- tion for the real welfare either of society or of the offenders, they indulge their own animal resentment by delivering over the infringers of the law to jailers and executioners, to be punished ior doing what their defective mental constitution rendered it impossible for them to avoid committing. There is no wonder that crime does not diminish under such a form of administration. The disciples of the new philosophy, on the other hand, answer the question by appealing to experience ; by looking at facts ; by consulting reason ; by regarding the advantage at once of the criminal and of society : they say, that physical and moral restraint are the only effectual remedies for this great evil ; that these should be unhesitatingly applied — not vindictively, but in affection and humanity ; and that then the offences of this class of criminals will be diminished in number. There remain two other classes of minds to be considered in relation to criminal legislation — those whose organs of propensity, moral sentiment, and intellect, are pretty equally balanced, and those in whom the moral and intellectual faculties predominate ; but the consideration of these must be reserved till the next lecture. 236 LECTURE XIII. TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS CONTINUED. Criminals in whom the moral and intellectual organs are con- siderably developed — Influence of external circumstances on this class— Doctrrne of regeneration — Importance of attending to the functions of the brain in reference to this subject, and the treatment of criminals — Power of society over the conduct of men possessing brains of the middle class — Case of a criminal made so by circumstances — Expedien- cy of keeping certain men from temptation — Thefts by post- office officials — Aid furnished by Phrenology in selecting persons to fill confidential situations — Punishment of crimi- nals — Objects of punishment — Its legitimate ends are to protect society by example, and to reform the offenders — Means of effecting these purposes — Confinement — Employ- ment — Unsatisfactory state of our existing prisons — Moral improvement of criminals. The second class of heads to which I directed your attention, is that in which the organs of the animal propen- sities, of the moral sentiments, and of the intellectual faculties, are all large, and nearly in equilibrium. In such individuals the large organs of the propensities give rise to vivid manifestations of the animal feelings, but the large organs of the moral sentiments and intellect produce also strong impulses of moral emotion and of intellectual per- ception. In their practical conduct, therefore, they are, to a remarkable extent, the creatures of external circumstances. If one of them be born of profligate parents, and abandoned to idleness, intoxication, and crime, his whole lower organs will thus, from infancy, be presented with objects calculated to call them into vivid action, while his moral sentiments will receive no proportionate training. The intellectual faculties will be employed only in serving and assisting the propensities. They will be denied all rational and useful instruction, while they will be sharpened to perpetrate crime and to avoid punishment. An individual thus constituted and trained will become an habitual criminal, and he will be the more dangerous on account of the moral and intel- lectual faculties which he possesses. These will give him an air of intelligence and plausibility, which will enable him only the more successfully to deceive, or to obtain access DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION. 237 to places of trust in which he may commit the more extensive peculations. If, on the other hand, an individual thus constituted be placed from infancy in the bosom of a moral, intelligent, and religious family, who shall present few or no tempta- tions to his propensities, but many powerful and agreeable excitements to his higher faculties ; if he shall have passed the period of youth under this influence, and in early manhood have been ushered into society with all the advan- tages of a respectable character, and been received and cherished by the virtuous as one of themselves ; then his moral and intellectual faculties may assume and maintain the ascendency through life. If, again, an individual of this class have been religiously educated, but, at an early period of life, have left home, and been much thrown upon the world, that is to say, left to associate with persons of indifferent characters and disposi- tions, he may gradually deteriorate in his mental condition. In the prime of manhood and blaze of his passions, he may be not a little profligate and disreputable in his conduct : but, as he advances in life, the energy of the animal organs will begin to decay ; they will be exhausted by excessive indulgence ; the moral organs may recover an activity which has long been unknown to them ; his early religious impres- sions may resume their ascendency ; he may perhaps sustain afflictions in his health, in his family, or in his worldly circumstances ; (all which have a tendency, for the time, to quell the energy of the animal passions, and to allow the higher feelings freer scope for action ;) and, under the influ- ence of these combined causes and circumstances, he may come forth a repentant sinner and a reformed man. In religion his process is generally called regeneration. According to my observation, the men who are converted and reformed from habitual profligacy, and who continue, afterward, permanently moral and religious characters, all possess this combination of brain. They become profligates at first from the energetic action of large organs of the animal propensities ; and when they are converted, and con- tinue to be respectable Christians after their conversion, they act under the control of their moral and intellectual organs. I am aware that, in making this statement, I am treading on delicate ground ; because many sincere and excellent persons believe that these results flow from the influence 238 DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION. of the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit operates in re- generating sinners altogether independently of the laws of organization ; in short, that the influence is miraculous. Without questioning the influence of the Spirit in regene- ration, (a point of doctrine which is purely theological, and does not fall within the scope of these lectures,) I observe that the real question is, Whether the Spirit operates in harmony with, or without, reference and even in direct op- position to, the laws of organization 1 I feel myself con- strained by the dictates of truth to say, that my observations on actual eases lead to the conclusion, that the action is uniformly in harmony with these laws. The brain and its laws proceed from God himself. To believe, therefore, that God establishes laws in nature, and prescribes to the human understanding a certain line of action as obedience to them ; and at the same instant promises the influence of his Spirit in such a manner as to set therh all at nought, and to produce the same beneficial results without such obedience, seems to me little calculated to promote the glory of God, or to benefit the human race. Be it observed, that I do not at all dispute the power of God to operate independently of the natural laws : the very idea of his being omnipotent, implies power to do according to his pleasure, in all circumstances and times. My pro- position is simply this — that the age of miracles being past, it does not now please God to operate on the human mind either independently of, or in contradiction to, the laws of organization instituted by himself. This reduces the ques- tion, not to one respecting God's power, for we all grant this to be boundless, but to one of fact — whether it pleases Him actually to manifest his power over the human mind, always in harmony with, or sometimes independently of, and at other times in contradiction to, the laws of organization ; and cnis fact, like any other, must be determined by experi- ence and observation. Now, I humbly report the results of my own observation ; and say that, although I have seen a number of men of renewed lives, I have never met with one possessing a brain of the lowest character, who continued per- manently moral amid the ordinary temptations of the world. On the contrary, I have seen these regenerated men uni- formly to possess the brain in which the organs of the animal propensities, the moral sentiments, and the intellect, were all considerably developed ; so that in these instances th8 DOCTRINE OP REGENERATION. 239 influence of religion seemed to me to operate completely in harmony with the organic laws. That influence cast the balance in favour of the higher sentiments, gave them the permanent ascendency, and hence produced the regenerated character. These observations can be met, not by argument, but by counter facts. If any one will show me cases in which men, possessing the defective brains of idiots, or the diseased brains of insanity, have, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, been at once converted into rational and pious Christians, these will completely overthrow my conclusions ; because they will show unequivocally that it does please God, in some instances, to operate on the mind, even in our day, independently of, or in contradiction to, the laws of organi- zation. Nay, if examples shall be produced of men possess- ing the worst brains, becoming permanently, by the influence of religion, excellent practical Christians, I shall yield the point. But no such examples have yet been adduced. On the contrary, we see individuals whose heads are less than thirteen inches in circumference at the level of the eyebrows and occipital spine, continue irretrievable idiots through life ; and we see madmen continue insane until iheir brains are restored to health by natural means. Nay, farther, I was told by the late Rev. Dr. Andrew Thomson, who attend- ed Mary Mackinnon, the mistress of a brothel, while under sentence of death for murder, that he found it impossible, on account of a very great natural incapacity of mind, to convey to her any precise views or feelings of religion, or of the heinousness of her guilt, and that he was greatly grieved to observe, that nearly all that he said fell powerless, without making any impression on her mind, or if it did rouse any feeling, this lasted only for a moment. If you examine the developement of her head, as shown in the cast, you will find that the moral and intellectual organs are very deficient. She was, in regard to moral, intellectual, and re- ligious impressions, nearly in the same state in which a person who possesses an extremely small organ of Tune is in regard to melody. Either he does not perceive the melody at all, or, if he does, the impression dies instantly when the instrument has ceased to sound. Perhaps some of you may be of opinion that this is a discussion which belongs more to theology than to moral philosophy, and that a miscellaneous audience are not the 240 DOCTRINE OP REGENERATION. proper persons to whom to address remarks on so grave a subject. The question regarding what is the scriptural doctrine touching regeneration belongs to theology, and I avoid all discussion of it ; but assuming it to be the scrip- tural doctrine, the question, Does the Holy Spirit act in harmony with, or in contradiction to, the laws of organiza- tion 1 is one which belongs to philosophy. The question, indeed, is a fundamental one in moral philosophy ; because, if the laws of nature, on which alone philosophy rests, are liable, in the case of morals, to be traversed by divine influences operating independently of, or in contradiction to, them, moral philosophy can have no foundation. There maybe a theology comprising a code of moral duty, founded on revelation ; but assuredly there can be no philosophy of morals founded on nature. In like manner there can be no natural religion ; because all our scientific observations and conclusions would be constantly liable to be falsified, and rendered worse than useless, by a supernatural influence producing results entirely independent of, or in contradiction to, the causes which were presented in nature for the gui- dance of our understandings. This question, therefore, is not only important, but, as I have said, fundamental to a course of moral philosophy ; and I could not consistently avoid introducing it. Many theologians deny that any sound philosophy of morals can be drawn from the study of nature^ and found morals, as well as religion, exclusively on reve- lation. It appears to me that they err in this conclusion ; and that theology will be improved, when divines become acquainted with the natural constitution of the human facul- ties and their spheres of action. I beg you to observe, that, in the manner in which I submit this question to your consideration, it assumes a different aspect from that in which it generally appears. In the discussions which commonly take place on it, we find argu- ments and opinions stated against arguments and opinions ; and the result is generally mere unprofitable disputation. In the present case, I adduce facts — in other words, God's will written in his works ; and these are placed, not against the Bible, (for, be it observed, there is no declaration in scripture that the Holy Spirit operates independently of, or in contradiction to, the natural laws,) but against human inferences unwarrantably (as it appears to me) drawn from scripture, that this is the case. It is God's facts in nature TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 241 which we place against human inferences deduced from scripture ; and these inferences too, deduced at first, and now insisted on, by men who were, and are, entirely igno- rant of the facts in question. A second reason for introducing this subject is, that I consider it to be of great importance that religious persons should be correctly informed concerning the facts. If you examine the lists of the members of the most useful and benevolent societies all over the country, and especially of prison-discipline societies, you will discover that individuals distinguished for their religious character form a large and a highly influential proportion of them. These persons act boldly and conscientiously on their own principles ; and if, in any respect, their views happen to be erroneous, they become, by their very sincerity, union, and devotion, the most formidable enemies to improvement. In consequence of profound ignorance of the facts in nature which I have stated, this class of persons, or at least many of them, are alarmed at the doctrine of the influence of the brain on the mental dispositions, and oppose the practical application of the views which it dictates in criminal legislation and prison- discipline ; and they obstinately refuse to inquire into the facts, because they imagine that they have the warrant of scripture for maintaining that they cannot be true. This conduct is unphilosophical, and sheds no lustre on religion. It impedes the progress of truth, and greatly retards the practical application of the natural laws to the removal of one of the greatest evils with which society is afflicted. This is no gratuitous supposition on my part ; because I know, from the best authority, that within these few weeks ; when the prison-discipline society of this city was formed, religious men specially objected to the admission of an in- dividual into that society, because he was known to be a phrenologist and to hold the opinions which I am here ex- pounding : in other words, an individual who had studied and observed the Creator's laws in regard to the influence of the brain on the mental dispositions, was deliberately excluded from that society, lest he should induce it to act on the knowledge of these laws. You may judge of the wisdom of this proceeding. Thirdly, I introduce this subject because, from the exten- sive observations which have been made by Dr. Gall, Dr. Spurzheim, and their followers, during the last five and thirty 21 $42 PREVENTION OF CRIME. years, in many parts of the world, I have the most complete conviction that the facts which I now state are true, and that they will inevitably prevail ; and that, whenever they do prevail, the enemies of religion will be furnished with a new weapon with which to assail her, by the opposition which religious persons are now making to improvements in the treatment of criminals, in ignorance, as I have said, of these facts and of their inevitable consequences. They will point to that opposition, and proclaim, as they have often done, that religion sets herself forward as the enemy of all philosophy, and of every moral and social improvement which does not emanate from her own professors. Such an accusation will be most unfounded when directed against religion ; because it will be applicable only to a few religious men, or to some ill informed and dogmatical individuals ; but only the candid will give effect to this distinction, and it therefore becomes every sincere friend to the best and holiest of causes, not to give occasion to the scoffer to point the finger of contempt at it, by resisting truth. To return to the subject from which we have digressed, I observe, that in the case of this class of brains, in which the organs of the propensities, moral sentiments, and in- tellectual faculties, are nearly in equilibrium, society enjoys a great power in producing good or evil. If* by neglecting education, by encouraging the use of intoxicating liquors, by bringing on commercial convulsions attended with extreme destitution, society allow men possessing this combination of mental organs to be thrown back, as it were, on their animal propensities, it may expect to rear a continual suc- cession of criminals.* If, by a thorough and all-pervading * Moral training, such as is practised in Wilderspin's infant- schools, is of great importance as a means of directing the faculties to proper objects. And phrenology, when taught to children as the philosophy of their own minds, will greatly aid parents and teachers in communicating to them . correct and practical views of the proper spheres of action of their various faculties. While this sheet is in the press, 1 have observed an instance of the want of such knowledge and training lead- ing to painful results. A female servant, a cook, who fell under my notice, had a bilious and nervous temperament, which gave great mental activity, a large Alimentiveness, Destructiveness, and Acquisitiveness, with a very large Secretiveness. Along with these were combined a very superior developement of the intellectual organs, large Benevolence and Veneration, very large Love of Approbation, and full, but not large, Conscien- PREVENTION OF CRIME. 243 training and education, moral, religious, and intellectual ; by the best regulated social institutions, providing steady employment, with adequate remuneration ; and also by affording opportunities for innocent recreation ; this class of men shall be led to seek their chief enjoyments from their moral and intellectual faculties, and to restrain their animal propensities, they may be effectually saved from the pit of perdition, and prevented from invading the property and peace of society. It is from this class that the great body of criminals arises ; and as their conduct is determined, to a great extent, by their external circumstances, the only means of preventing them from becoming criminals is, to fortify their higher faculties by training and education, and to re- move external temptation by improvement, as far as possi- ble, of our social habits and institutions. There are instances of individuals committing crime, who do not belong precisely to either of the classes which I have described, but who have, perhaps, one organ, such as Acquisi- tiveness, in great excess, or another, such as Conscientious- ness, extremely deficient. These individuals occasionally commit crime, under strong temptation, although their dis- positions, in all other points, are good. I knew an individual, in the situation of a confidential clerk, who had a good intellect, with much Benevolence, Veneration, and Love of Approbation, but in whom a large organ of Secretiveness was combined with a great deficiency of Conscientiousness. His life had been respectable for many yea's, in the situa- tion of a clerk, while his duty was merely to write books tiousness. She was able to read and to write well, and had received in other respects an ordinary Scotch education ; but apparently no adequate moral training. Her immense Secre- tiveness, untrained to obey her higher powers, was the ruin of her mind. She habitually mystified, lied, and practised stra- tagems. She was an adept in complaisance and plausibilities, but, from long habits of deceit, she seemed incapable of relying on truth, even when it was her interest to do so. She became a confirmed drunkard, of a violent temper, and a thief. I have seen such a combination of the mental organs as this in per- sons in the middle ranks, whose conduct was respectable through life, and I can ascribe the difference only to the effects of training. If this individual had been early made acquainted with the nature and tendency of Secretiveness, Alimentiveness, Destructiveness, and Acquisitiveness, and had been trained to subject them to the guidance of the higher faculties, it is highly probable that she might have been saved from perdition. 1840 244 PREVENTION OF CRIME. and conduct correspondence ; but when he was promoted, and intrusted with buying and selling, and paying and receiv- ing cash, his moral principles gave way : and the temptation to which he yielded was not a selfish one. He was much devoted to religion, and began by lending his master's money, for a few days, to his religious friends, who did not always pay him back ; he then proceeded to assist the poorer bre- thren with it ; he next opened his house in great hospitality to the members of the congregation to which he belonged. These expenses speedily placed his cash so extensively in arrear, that he had no hope of recovering the deficiency by any ordinary means, and he then purchased lottery tick- ets, to a large amount, trusting to a good prize for his resto- ration to honour and independence. These prizes never came, and the result was, disclosure, disgrace, and misery. Now, the way to prevent crime, in cases like this, is to avoid presenting temptation to men whose defective moral organs do not enable them to withstand it. Phrenology will certainly come to the assistance of society in this course of proceeding ; because it affords the means of determining beforehand whether any great moral deficiency exists ; and after the present generation shall have been laid in the grave, the next will not be ashamed to apply it in so beneficial a manner. It is known that, notwithstanding every effort on the part of the chief officers of the post-office in Britain to select honest individuals for that department, numerous depredations take place in it ; so that a day never closes, on which one or more capital felonies have not been com- mitted, in abstracting money from letters. I called the attention of Sir Edward Lees, the enlightened secretary of the Edinburgh post-office, to the aid which phrenology might afford toward the remedy of this evil, by enabling the go- vernment to select individuals in whom the moral and in- tellectual organs so decidedly predominate over those of the animal propensities, that they would be free from internal temptations to steal, and of course be more able to resist the external temptations presented by their opportunities to do so. He visited the museum of the Phrenological Society, where I showed him the skulls and busts of many executed criminals, from Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and enabled him to compare them with the skulls and busts of virtuous men : he acknowledged that the difference was so palpable, that it was impossible to avoid the perception of it, PREVENTION OP CRIME. 245 Ehd that he could not see any sufficient reason why phreno- logy, if borne out by large experience, should not be applied in this manner ; but added, truly, that, being only a subor- dinate functionary, he had no power to carry so great an innovation into practice.* The reason I introduce these facts is, to press on your attention the dereliction of social duty which the better constituted members of society continue' to commit, while they neglect to use the light which Providence is here pre- senting to their eyes. If government, or individuals, place men in whom the animal faculties predominate, or in whom the balance between them and the moral powers only hangs in equilibrium, in external circumstances in which temptations are presented to the inferior faculties stronger than they are able to resist, a great portion of the guilt of their offences lies with those who thus expose them to trial ; and although the criminal law does not recognise this as guilt, the natural law clearly does so, for it punishes the offenders. The loss, annoyance, and sometimes ruin, which ensue from these depredations, are the chastisements for having placed impro- per persons in situations for which they were not qualified. It may appear hard, that these punishments should have been inflicted for so many generations, while men did not possess any adequate means of discriminating natural dis- positions, so as to be able to avoid them. This difficulty presents itself in regard to all the natural laws ; and the only answer that can be offered is, that it has pleased Pro- vidence to constitute man a progressive being, and to subject him to a rigid discipline in his progress to knowledge. Our ancestors suffered and died under the ravages of small-pox, until they discovered vaccination ; and we still suffer under cholera, because we have not yet found out its causes and remedies. There are merchants who employ phrenology in the selection of clerks, warehousemen, and other individuals in whom confidence must be placed, and they have reaped the advantages of its lights. * If the post-office and other public authorities would order accurate casts to be made from the heads of all their servants who are convicted of embezzlement, and compare them with the heads of those who hold the highest character for tried integrity, they would see a difference that would force them to believe in the influence of organization on the mental dispositions. 21* 346 TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. I may here remark, that the number of really inferior brains is not great ; and of all the countless thousands who are intrusted with property, and have the power of appro- priating or misapplying it, the number is comparatively small who actually do so. Still, those who do not know how to judge of dispositions from the brain, are left under an habitual uncertainty whether any particular individual, on whose fidelity their fortuhes depend, may be found, on some un- lucky day, to belong to the inferior order, when they had always regarded him as an example of the highest class. I repeat, then, that the first step toward preventing, and thereby diminishing, crimes, is to avoid placing men with inferior brains in external circumstances of temptation, which they are not calculated to resist. The second is, to give every possible vigour to the moral and intellectual faculties, by exercising and instructing them, so as to cast the balance of power and activity in their favour. And the third is, to improve, sedulously as possible, our social institutions, so as to encourage the activity of the higher powers, and diminish that of the inferior faculties, in all the members of society. The next question to be considered is, How ought men, having brains of this middle class, to be treated after they have yielded to temptation, infringed the law, and been con- victed of crime 1 The established method is, to confine them before trial in crowded prisons, in utter idleness, and in the society of criminals like themselves ; and after trial and condemnation, to continue them in the same society, with the addition of labour ; to transport them to New South Wales, or to hang them. In no aspect of European and Christian society are there more striking marks of a still lingering barbarism, than in this treatment of criminals. In almost no other institutions of society are there more glaring indications of an utter want of the philosophy of mind, than in the prisons of Britain.* But let us descend to particulars. We have seen that men of the middle class (and they are by far the most numerous of all the criminals) are led * The text was written in 1835-6, and an improvement has since taken place in the management cf British prisons. A prison act has been passed, appointing Boards for the direction of prisons in Scotland, and Mr. Frederick Hill, a gentleman distinguished for humanity and intelligence, has been named Inspector of them. TREATMENT OP CRIMINALS. 247 into crime in consequence of the ascendency, for the time, of their animal propensities ; but that, nevertheless, they possess, to a considerable extent, also moral sentiments and intellect. In treating them as criminals, we may have vari- ous objects in view. First ; our object may be revenge, or the desire to inflict suffering on them because they have made society suffer. This is the feeling of savages, and of all rude and naturally cruel minds ; and if we avow this as our principle of action, and carry it consistently into effect, we should erect instruments of torture, and put our criminals to a cruel and lingering death. But the national mind is hu- manized far beyond the toleration of this practice. I humbly think, however, that as we profess to be so, we ought utterly and completely to discard the principle of vengeance from our treatment, as unchristian, unphilosophical, and inexpedi- ent, and not to allow it to mingle covertly, as I fear it still does, with our views of criminal legislation. Or, secondly, our object may be, by inflicting suffering on criminals, to deter other men from offending. This is the general and populay notion of the great end of punishment ; and when applied to men of the middle class of faculties, it is not without foundation. Individuals who are strongly solicited by their animal propensities, and have a very great deficiency of the moral and intellectual faculties — that is to say, criminals of the lowest grade of brain — are not alive even to the fear of suffering ; and the terror of punishment scarcely operates on them. You will find them committing capital felonies, while they are attending the execution of their previous associates for similar offences. It appears to me, that even the terror of punishment scarcely produces an appreciable effect on the conduct of this class of men ; and some persons, drawing their observations from this class alone, have concluded, as a general rule, that suffering inflicted on one offender does not deter any other individuals from committing crime. But I respectfully differ from this opinion. Wherever the organs of the moral and reflecting faculties possess considerable developement, example does produce some effect ; and the higher the moral and intel- lectual faculties rise in power, the more completely effica- cious does it become. What one of us would not feel it as an enormous evil, to be dragged to prison ; to be locked up, night and day, in the society of the basest of mankind ; to be publicly tried at the bar of a criminal court, and subse- 248 TREATMENT OP CRIMINALS. quently transported as a felon to a distant colony 1 Mosi of us instinctively feel that death itself, in an honourable form, would be perfect bliss, compared with such a fate. If, therefore, any of us ever felt, for a moment, tempted to infringe the criminal law, unquestionably the contemplation of such appalling consequences of guilt would operate, to a considerable extent, in studying the steps of virtue. But the error is very great, of supposing that all men are constituted with such nice moral sensibilities as these. Superior minds feel in this manner, solely because their moral and intellectual organs are large ; and the same feel- ings do not operate, to the same extent, in the case of men possessing inferior brains. Laws have been enacted, in general, by men possessing the best class of brains, and they have erroneously imagined that mere punishment would have the same effect on all other individuals as it would have on themselves. While, therefore, I consider it certain, that the fear of punishment does operate beneficially on the waverers, I regard its influence as much more limited than is generally believed. In proportion to the talent of a man who has a tendency to commit crime, will be his power of anticipating the conse- quences of detection ; but in the same proportion will be his capacity of eluding them, by superior address in his criminal acts, and thus there is a counteracting influence even in the possession of intellect. The faculty chiefly addressed by the prospect of punishment is Fear, or Cau- tiousness ; and although, in some men, this is a powerful sentiment, yet, in many, the organ is deficient, and there is little consciousness of the feeling. On the whole, therefore, the conclusion at which I arrive on this point is, that the condition of convicted criminals should be such as should be felt to be a very serious abridgment of the enjoyments of moral and industrious men ; and this it must necessarily be, even under the most improved method of treating them ; but I do not consider it advisable that one pang of suffering should be added to their lot for the sake of deterring others, if that pang be not calculated to prove beneficial to themselves. Thirdly, our object in criminal legislation may be, at once to protect society by example, and to reform the offenders themselves. This appears to me to be the real and legi- timate object of the criminal law in a Christian coun- TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 249 try, and the question arises, How may it best be accom- plished ] A condemned criminal is necessarily an individual who has been convicted of abusing his animal propensities, and thereby inflicting evil on society. He has proved, by his conduct, that his moral and intellectual powers do not pos- sess sufficient energy, in all circumstances, to restrain his propensities. Restraint, therefore, must be supplied by external means ; in other words, he must, both for his own sake and for that of society, be taken possession of, and prevented from doing mischief; he must be confined. Now, this first step of discipline itself affords a strong inducement to waverers to avoid crime, because, to the idle and dissolute, the lovers of ease and pleasure, confinement is a sore evil ; one which they dread more than a severe but shorter infliction of pain. This measure is recommended, therefore, by three important considerations — that it serves to protect society, to reform the criminal, and to deter other men from offending. The next question that occurs is, How should the cri- minal be treated under confinement 1 The moment we understand his mental constitution and condition, the an- swer becomes obvious. Our object is to abate the activity of his animal propensities, and to increase the activity and energy of his moral and intellectual faculties. The first step in allaying the activity of the propensities is, to with- draw every object and communication that tends to excite them. The most powerfully exciting causes to crime are idleness, intoxication, and the society of immoral associates. In our British jails criminals in general are utterly idle ; they are crowded together, and live habitually in the so- ciety of each other ; intoxication being the only stimulus that is withdrawn. If I wished to invent a school or col- lege for training men to become habitual criminals, I could not imagine an institution more perfect for the purpose than one of our jails. Men, and often boys, in whom the propensi- ties are naturally strong, are left in complete idleness, so that their strongest and lowest faculties may enjoy ample leisure to luxuriate ; and they are placed in each other's society, so that their polluted minds may more effectually avail them- selves of their leisure in communicating their experience to each other, and cultivating, by example and precept, the pro- pensities into increased energy and more extensive activity. 250 TREATMENT OP CRIMINALS. The proper treatment would be to separate them, as much as possible, from each other ; and while they are in each other's society, to prevent them, by the most vigilant super- intendence, from communicating immoral ideas and impress sions to each other's minds. In the next place, they should be all regularly employed ; because nothing tends more directly to subdue the inordinate activity of the animal propensities than labour. It occupies the mind, and phy- siologically it drains off, by the muscles, from the brain, the nervous energy, which, in the case of the criminals, is expended by their large organs of the propensities. The greater the number of the higher faculties that the labour can be made to stimulate, the more beneficial it will be. Mounting the steps of a treadmill exercises merely the muscles, and acts on the mind by exhausting the nervous energy and producing the feeling of fatigue. It does not excite a single moral or intellectual faculty. Working as a weaver or shoemaker would employ more of the intellec- tual powers ; the occupations of a carpenter or black-smith are still more ingenious ; while that of a machine-maker stands higher still in the scale of mental requirement. Many criminals are so deficient in intellect, that they are not capable of engaging in ingenious employments ; hut my proposition is, that, wherever they do enjoy intellectual talent, the more effectually it is drawn out, cultivated, and applied to useful purposes, the more will their powers of self-guidance and control be increased. Supposing the quiescence of the animal propensities to be secured by restraint and by labour, the next object obviously is, to impart vigour to their moral and intellectual faculties, so that they may be rendered capable of mingling with society at a future period, without relapsing into crime. The moral and intellectual faculties can be cultivated only by addressing to them their natural objects, and exercising them in their legitimate fields. If any relative of ours possessed an average developement of the bones and mus- cles of the legs, yet had, through sheer indolence, lost the use of them and become incapable of walking, should we act wisely, with a view to his recovery, in fixing him into an arm-chair, from which it was impossible for him to rise 1 Yet, when we lock up criminals in prison, amid beings who never give expression to a moral emotion without its becoming a subject of ridicule ; when we exclude from then? TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 251 Society all moral and intelligent men calculated to rouse and exercise their higher faculties ; and when we provide no efficient means for their instruction ; do we not in fact as effectually deprive all their superior powers of the means of exercise and improvement, as we would do the patient with feeble legs, by pinioning him down into a chair 1 All this must be reversed. Effectual means must be provided for instructing criminals in duty and knowledge, and for exercising their moral and intellectual faculties. This can be done only by greatly increasing the numbers of higher minds that hold communion with them, and by encouraging them to read and to exercise all their best powers in every practicable manner. The influence of visiters in jails, in meliorating the character of criminals, is explicable on such grounds. The individuals who undertake this duty are, in general, prompted to it by the vivacity of their own moral feelings ; and the manifestation of these toward the crimi- nals excites the corresponding faculties in them into action. On the same principle, on which the presence of profligate associates cultivates and strengthens the propensities, does the society of virtuous men excite and strengthen the moral powers. By this treatment the offender would be restored to so- ciety with his inferior feelings tamed, his higher powers invigorated, his understanding enlightened, and his whole mind and body trained to industrious habits. If this would not afford society a more effectual protection against his future crimes, and be more in consonance with the dictates ef Christianity than our present treatment, I stand con- demned as a vain theorist ; but if it would have these blessed effects, I humbly entreat of you to assist me in subduing that spirit of ignorance and dogmatism which represents these views as dangerous to religion and inju- rious to society^ and presents every obstacle to their prac- tical adoption.* * The prisons in the United States of America are con- ducted in a manner greatly superior to those of Great Britain and Ireland ; but even they admit of improvement. I shall add some remarks on them to the next lecture. During my residence in the United States, from 1838 to 1840, an extraordinary number of instances of frauds, com- mitted by men holding high official situations, were announced in the public prints, and a vast extent of individual suffering 252 LECTURE XIV. DUTY OF SOCIETY IN REGARD TO THE TREATMENT OT CRIMINALS. The punishment of criminals proceeds too much on the prin- ciple of revenge — Consequences of this error — The proper objects are the protection of society, and the reformation of the criminal — Means of accomplishing these ends — Confine- ment in a penitentiary till the offender is rendered capable of good conduct — Experience of the corrupting effects of short periods of imprisonment in Glasgow bridewell — Proposed conditions of liberation — Failure of the treadmill — American penitentaries — Wherein imperfect — Punish- ment of death may ultimately be abolished — Harmony of the proposed system of criminal legislation with Christianity — Execution of criminals — Transportation — Farther particu- lars respecting American prisons — Cerebral and mental qualities of criminals there confined- Some of them incor- rigible — Objection as to destruction of human responsibility answered — Class of criminals susceptible of reformation — Means of effecting this — Results of solitary confinement considered — Silent labour system at Auburn. I proceed to consider the duty of the highest class of minds — or that comprising individuals in whom the moral and intellectual organs decidedly predominate over those of the inferior propensities — in regard to criminal legislation and prison-discipline. This class has received from Provi- dence ample moral and intellectual powers, with as much of the lower elements of our nature as are necessary for their well-being in their present sphere of existence, but not "so much as to hurry them into crime. Such individuals, therefore, have a great deal of power committed to them by the Creator, and we may be permitted to presume that he will hold them responsible for the use which they make of it. I regret to observe, that, through lack of knowledge, this class has hitherto fallen far short of their duty in the treatment of criminals. In my last lecture I remarked, that, as revenge is disavowed by Christianity, and con- demned also by the moral law of nature, we should exclude was the consequence. Such occurrences reflect disgrace on the society under whose institutions they so extensively pre- vail. The remarks on p. 260 are still more applicable to the United States than even to Britain. TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 253 h entirely, as a principle, in our treatment of criminals ; but that, nevertheless, it may be detected mingling, more or less, with many of our criminal regulations. I proceed to illus- trate this position, and to point out the baneful consequences which ensue. In committing men to prisons in which they shall be doomed to idleness — in compelling them to associate, night and day. with each other (which is the most effectual method of eradicating any portion of moral feeling left unimpaired in their minds) — and in omitting to provide instruction for them — society seems, without intending it, to proceed almost exclusively on the principle of revenge. Such treatment may be painful, but it is clearly not beneficial to the crimi- nals ; and yet pain, deliberately inflicted, without benefit to the sufferer, is simply vengeance. Perhaps it may be thought that this treatment will serve to render imprisonment more terrible, and thereby increase its efficacy as a means of deterring other men from offending. No doubt it will ren- der it very terrible to virtuous men — to individuals of the highest class of natural dispositions — because nothing could be more horrible to them than to be confined in idleness, amid vicious, debased, and profligate associates ; but this is not the class on whom prisons are intended to operate as objects of terror : these men have few temptations to be- come criminals. Those to whom prisons should be rendered formidable, are the lovers of pleasure, men enamoured of an easy dissolute life enlivened with animal excitement, not oppressed with labour, and not saddened by care, reflection, or moral restraint. Now, our prisons, as at present con- ducted, are not formidable to such characters. They pro- mise them idleness, the absence of care, and the stimulus of profligate society. On this class of minds, therefore, they lose, in a great degree, the character of objects of terror and aversion ; undeniably they are not schools of reform ; and they therefore have no recognisable feature so strongly marked on them as that of instruments of vengeance, or means employed by the higher minds for inflicting on their inferior brethren what, judging from their own feelings, they intend to be a terrible retribution, but which these lower characters, from the difference of their feelings, find to be no formidable punishment at all. Thus, through sheer ignorance of human nature, the one class goes on indulging its revenge, in the vain belief that it is deterring offenders ; 22 254 TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. while the other class proceeds in its career of crime, in nearly utter disregard of the measures adopted to deter it from iniquity ; and at this day, our whole measures are as far from being crowned with success as they were a century ago. If any class deserve punishment for these proceedings, I would be disposed to inflict it on the higher class, or on the men to whom a bountiful Creator has given judgment to understand, and moral sentiments to feel, the obligations of duty, and thereby ample ability to reclaim from vice and crime their less fortunate brethren, but who, through igno- rance, and the helplessness that accompanies it, leave this great duty undischarged. In point of fact, the natural law does punish them, and will continue to punish them until they discharge their duty as rational men and Christians. If we reckon up the cost, in the destruction of life and pro- perty, expenses of maintaining criminal officers, courts of justice, and executioners — and the pangs of sorrow, flowing not only from pecuniary loss, but from disgrace sustained by the relatives of profligate offenders — we may regard the sum-total as the penalty which the virtuous pay for their blind neglect of the rational principles of criminal legislation. If the sums thus expended were collected, and applied, under the guidance of enlightened judgment, to the con" struction and proper appointment of penitentiaries, one or more for each large district of the country, and if offenders were committed to them for reformation, it is probable that the total loss to society would not be greater than that of the present system, while the advantages would unspeaka- bly exceed those which now exist. In regard to the treatment of criminals when placed in such penitentiaries, I have already remarked, that, in the sentences pronounced under the present system, the prin- ciple chiefly, although unintentionally, acted on by the supe- rior class of society appears to be revenge. If a boy rob a till of a few pence, he is sentenced to eight day s r imprison- ment in jail ; that is, to eight days' idleness, passed in the society of accomplished thieves and profligate blackguards, at the end of which space he is liberated. Here the quantity of punishment measured out almost seems to be regulated by the principle, that the eight days' confinement causes a quantity of suffering equal to a fair vengeance for robbing the till. If a female steal clothes from a hedge, she is sentenced TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 255 to sixty days' confinement in bridewell, where she is forced to work, in the society of ten or a dozen profligates like her- self, during the day, and is locked up alone during the night. At the end of the sixty days she is liberated, and turned adrift on society. If a man commit a more extensive theft, he is committed to bridewell for three months, or perhaps transported ; the term of confinement and. the period of transportation bearing a uniform and, as far as pos- sible, a supposed just relation to the magnitude of the offence. The intention of this treatment is to cause a quantum of suffering sufficient to deter the criminal from repeatnig the offence, and others from committing similiar transgressions ; but we shall inquire whether these effects follow. If we renounce, altogether, the principle of vengeance as unchristian, we shall still have other two principles remain- ing as guides to our steps : first, that of protecting society ; and, secondly, that of reforming the offender. The principle of protecting society authorizes us to do everything that is necessary to accomplish this end, under the single qualification that we shall adopt that method which is most beneficial for society, and least injurious to the crimi- nal. If, as I have contended, the world be really constituted on the principle of the supremacy of the moral sentiments, we shall find, that whatever measures serve best to protect society, will also be most beneficial for the offender, and vice versa. In the view, then, of protecting society, any indi- vidual who has been convicted of infringing the criminal law, should be handed over as a moral patient to the managers of a well-regulated penitentiary, to be confined in it, not until he shall have endured a certain quantity of suffering, equal in magnitude to what is supposed to be a fair revenge for his offence, but until such a change shall have been effected in his mental condition, as may afford society a reasonable guaranty that he will not commit fresh crimes when he is set at large. It is obvious that this course of procedure would be humanity itself to the offender, compared with the present system, while it would unspeakably benefit society-. It would convert our prisons from houses of vengeance and of corruption into schools of reform. It would require how- ever, an entire change in the principles on which they are conducted. The views which I have expounded in this and the pre- 256 TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. ceding lecture are strongly elucidated and confirmed by a report of the state of the Glasgow bridewell in 1826, which I obtained from Mr. Brebner, the very enlightened and truly humane superintendent of that establishment : State of Crimes and Offences. I Year ending 31st Dec. 1825. Year ending 31st Dec. 1826. Commitments during the ) year, 5 Deduct recommitments of) same individuals in the > currency of the year, - ) Remains nett number of dif- ) ferent persons, - - - ) Whereof in custody for the > first time, - - - - ) Old offenders, 03 O 558 101 457 360 97 09 e fa 703 279 424 209 215 O E- 1261 380 881 569 312 w v**v v ^v*:;* Ww^ *V VV* 1 VW'»v w vv Wv v ^ v W"vV' vv V¥ f *W* f 'f ' Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Dec. 2004 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111 'v w v v* y^w^m WWMi^^ >vwv'>V V * ^^ iisttiift mlW*' /l 'v*vvW v ''*w ; «''' Wyj&J&J&yMd '■yjiyrj^t &Jt£tofiv* u ™ WW™*'- - .-- li&MMMtid