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NEW VIEWS
OT
PENITENTIARY DISCIPLINE,
כא.2
MORAL EDUCATION AND REFORM.
BY
CHARLES CALDWELL, M. D.
Philadelphia:
WILLIAM BROWN, PRINTER.
1829.


TO THE PUBLIC.
It is, in a particular manner, to that fair-minded and enlight
ened portion of the community, that class of liberal inquirers, who
think and examine before they decide, discover real errors or
faults before they condemn, and honestly endeavour to convince
and reform before they deride, mock, or denounce, and whose
judgment, therefore, when given, is the result of knowledge, con-
science, and good feeling, that the author of this pamphlet would
venture to address himself. To none others need he address him.
self, because he feels that he would do it in vain; nor does he.
deem the opinion of any others of the slightest value. An attempt
or rather pretence openly to decide on a subject without examine
ing it, is a meditated fraud on the public, which cannot fail to dis.
grace its author. It is a juggling effort to purchase consideration
and influence with counterfeit coin. It is one of the tricks of the
sciolist and demagogue in letters, to procure from the breath of
the million,” without a price, the rank perfume in which he de.
lights.
The individuals first referred to, being the only faithful votaries
of nature, the great storehouse of all that deserves the name of
knowledge, are the only sincere lovers, seekers, and patrons of
truth. They earnestly search after it from a desire to possess it, fond.
ly cling to it on account of its beauties, and industriously promote
it, because it is the sole fountain of general prosperity and human
happiness--the sure foundation of our welfare here, and the only
ground of our hope hereafter. It is in this class of society alone
that we find those whose approbation is real applause, whose dis-
approval is censure, and who are fairly entitled to the high deno.
mination of philanthropists and philosophers; and there alone that
we need look for the positive benefactors of the human race. By
inquirers thus liberal in their views, and fair and magnanimous in
their feelings, justice is done to every investigation, and charity
extended to every faithful disciple of nature, and student of truth.
Opinions are not obnoxious to them merely because they are new,
and in opposition to those that have long been prevalent, nor yet
on account of their authors or origin. They are examined on their
merits, judged of impartially, and adopted or rejected according
to the evidence on which they are founded. It is to men of this
description that the author looks for a fair estimate of the “Views'
presented in the following pages. And of their decision, when
deliberately pronounced, should it be even condemnatory, he
will not complain. He cheerfully recognizes in them the rightful
arbiters, in all cases where an award is to be given in science or
letters. If an appeal from their judgment be made, it can only be

iv
to the high tribunal of time and experience, before which every
cause must be finally tried, and will be righteously settled.
But there is another portion of the community, who take a deep
concern in the productions of the press, against whose decision, as
well as their competency and right to decide, the author feels him.
self privileged to protest. And unfortunately they constitute a
very numerous body. Nor do their influence and the mischief
they perpetrate arise less from their activity and vigilance, than
from their numerical force. They are that class of individuals
who judge in anticipation, pronounce before they think, and con-
demn without a hearing. That class who lay the rule and plummet
of authority to all intellectual movements aud performances; who,
if they think at all, think by precedent; and who cavil at every
new opinion, because it is new; or because they are unfriendly to
the source from which it proceeds. These are the champions of
"legitimacy" and " orthodoxy," the idolaters of “days gone by,"
and the sage and sturdy advocates of old opinions, institutions,
and measures, for no better reason than because they are old,
and that they have not examined them sufficiently to determine
whether they are true or false, useful or otherwise. Like tech-
nical whist-players, they obstinately “follow suit,” but show no
skill in the game of improvement.
It is this description of inquirers, or rather non inquirers, who
alone keep up the battle-cry and war of words against the science,
whose principles the author has endeavoured, in this memoir, to
apply to the improvement of Penitentiary discipline and moral
education. It is under the banner of this class, whose motto might
be, si juste seu injuste, semper condemnare, that all the foes of
Phrenology contend. But be their motto what it may, their uni.
versal practice is to condemn without examining, and, therefore,
to decide, of necessity, under a cloud of ignorance. So true is this,
that they never oppose or denounce Phrenology as it is, but as
they mismake it, by their unfounded representations. Their war
is with shadows of their own creation, not with the substance pre-
sented by the science. They construct spurious and misshapen
frost-work fabrics out of imaginary materials, to make a display
of their dexterity in dissolving and dissipating them, by the
flashes of their false wit, or the blaze of their ill-temper. They
are defied to show that, on any occasion, they have acted other-
wise. From Francis Jefferey to Sir William Hamilton abroad
(à vast descent!), and, in our own country, from Messrs. W-n
and P-day to the puniest understrapper in the antiphrenological
corps, they are challenged to adduce a single instance, where, by
fået or fair induction, they have attempted to oppose any of the
tenets arowed as true, by the school of Phrenology. For blun.
ders committed by those who profess themselves Phrenologists,
without a correct knowledge of the science, the school is not re-
4sponsible:
In making this assertion the author is serious, and has not
spoken without reflection and an effort to recollect. He repeats,

V
that he does not remember a single instance, in which Phronology
has been fairly and understandingly opposed. In attempting to
expose its fallacy, its adversaries expose only their own igno-
rance of it. The reason of this is obvious. They speak with.
out thinking, and condemn without studying. They were not
born Phrenologists, and have not made themselves so by educa.
tion. Hence their opposition to it is a tissue of blunders. So
true is this, that frequently, after foundering from one error and
absurdity into another, in attempting to state some of even the
fundamental tenets of Phrenology, they acknowledge their igno-
rance by asking, what the tenets are? To this the author has
been repeatedly a witness.*
Nothing is more common than for physicians and others, who
ought to be better informed, to observe very gravely, and, as
some may think, very knowingly, “We believe in the general
principles of Phrenology, but not in its details.” But a few years
ago those same sage and cautious gentlemen denounced it, " by
the lump," "s principles," and all. This they will not deny. But
times have changed, and they have changed their creed and their
tone. Phrenology has gained strength, and, in the same ratio,
have their opposition and hostility to it gained weakness. They
think by fashion, as they shape their apparel. They feel the
breeze of popular sentiment, with as much attention and accuracy,
as they do their patients' pulses, or as they examine the state of
respiration by means of the stethoscope, and "turn, and turn” as
it turns, yet " still go on.” Thus do they completely verify the
common adage, that those who “talk at random, should have
good memories.” Although they may forget, the world will re.
member.
But let them occupy their new ground undisturbed. What
have they gained by it? What are the meaning and force of their
objection to Phrenology? Literally nothing. In the " general
principles” of the science they avow their belief; and in that
avowal, they concede every thing. What are "principles?"
Generalizations of " details,” and nothing more. They are but
aggregates or classifications of recognized facts.
66 Details" are
parts, principles" the whole. Of Phrenology this is proverbially
true. By those who know the history of it, it is perfectly undere
stood, that, in all his discoveries, in developing the science, the
march of Gall was from “ details” to “principles,''--from indivi-
duals to generals-not the reverse. His method, like that of
Bacon, was strictly inductive. In this consisted his chief merit,
as a discoverer and a philosopher. Could he, then, out of fulse
He
* In making these remarks the author disavows all personal allusions.
speaks of the foes of Phrenology in mass. As far as his knowledge of the sub-
ject extends, they have either shown themselves utterly ignorant of the science,
or, in animadverting on it, intentionally misrepresented it. This is the dilem-
ma. The antiphrenologists are at liberty to select the horn on which they
prefer to be hung They cannot escape both.

vi
But to pur-
" details" construct true "principles ?" No antiphrenologist will
answer in the affirmative. No such alchemy pertained to Gall
or any of his followers. Nor did they ever profess it. It is by
their opponents that it is virtually professed. And to them be-
longs the task to reconcile the inconsistency, or to bear the bur-
den of it.
But they cannot reconcile it. As well may they attempt any
other impossibility; and as soon will they succeed in it. If the
“ general principles” of Phrenology are true, so are its “details."
If the parts be corrupt, the whole cannot be sound. The enemies
of the science, then, have but one alternative; to reject or receive
it in toto.
But wherefore is it that the opponents of Phrenology do not
believe in its “details?” The reply is easy. They have not
studied them, and do not, therefore, understand them. It is
praise enough for any one, to say of him, that he thoroughly un
derstands what he has carefully studied. What he has not thus
studied, no man ever yet understood, nor ever can.
sue “ details” is much more troublesome and laborious, than to
comprehend "principles” when completely established and clear-
ly enunciated. Hence the reason why, as relates to Phrenology,
gentlemen profess a belief in the latter and not in the former.
Let them first acquire a correct and thorough knowledge of the
latter, and then deny and subvert them, if they can. As soon
would they dream of denying, or attempting to subvert the facts
of the descent of ponderous bodies, the reflection of light, or the
pressure of the atmosphere. Why did the prince of Ceylon disbe-
lieve in the consolidation of water by cold? He was ignorant of
“ details.” Why have the Chinese denied the possibility of
throwing balls to a great distance, and with a destructive force, by
means of water acted on by fire? For the same reason, an igno-
rance of " details." Why did the world remain so long incredu-
lous of the identity of electricity and lightning, and of the com-
pressibility of water? Franklin and Perkins had not yet instructed
them in the requisite "details.” Away, then, with such idle af-
fectation of sagacity and wisdom! It is but a tattered covering
for a want of information ; a hackneyed apology for a neglect to
inquire. In truth, with men who make a pretence to knowledge,
"disbelief in details,” and an entire ignorance of them, are too
frequently synonymous expressions. As relates to the opponents
of Phrenology, this is certainly true. To know the details" of
that science, and to believe in them, are the same. No one has
ever thoroughly studied them, by a faithful examination of man as
he is, without arriving at a conviction of their truth."
* If such an instance has ever occurred, it has been in some individual whose
cerebral developments were unfavourable; in plainer English, whose head wat
badly formed Neither llomer's Thersites, whose cranium was “misshapen,"
nor any of Shakspeare's personages, with a foreheads villainously low," could
have been easily proselyted to the doctrines of Phrenology. The reason is ob.
vious. Their own heads would not have “passed muster.” Their belief, there.
furi, would have been self-condemnatory. And as no man is bound, in common
a

yii
In the city of Philadelphia, as well as in other parts of the
United States, especially among physicians, there are many firm
believers in Phrenology, who do not publicly avow it. The rea.
son of this silence is obvious and humiliating. Public sentiment
is against the science, daily papers are against it, and, at least, two
of our three Quarterly Reviews are against it, and the sentiments
of the third, perhaps, not very propitious to it. Under these
circumstances, physicians dare not avow their belief in it; in an ese
pecial manner they dare not become its active advocates, lest they
should be injured in their standing and business.
This, in an advanced period of the nineteenth century, is any
thing but honourable to our country, whose institutions breathe
the spirit of freedom, and which boasts itself the most enlightened
and liberal community on earth. It is persecution ; as truly so as
the condemnation of Socrates for his theological opinions, and the
imprisonment of Gallileo for his discoveries in astronomy. Nor
is it much less vindicative and cruel. Those who, at the present
period, could deliberately visit with poverty and distress an indi.
vidual and his family, on account of his predilection for a branch
of science, because not yet encouraged by popular favour, would
scarcely hesitate, in a different state of society, to compel him to
drink poison, or writhe in agony under the ministers of the Inqui-
sition.
But this notice, already much longer that it was intended to be,
must be brought to a close. A brief explanation, however, first
claims attention.
Is any one inclined to consider the title of this pamphlet am-
bitious and assuming? The author will only observe, that ho
had no intention to render it so. To all except Phrenologists
many of the views contained in it he believes to be new. His
only motive, therefore, in selecting the title, was to make it some.
what expressive of the character of the work. This should be the
object of every title, else it has no meaning, or a wrong one. He
cannot, therefore, discover any impropriety in that which he has
chosen.
The reader will perceive that the pamphlet is composed in the
manner of a review. The reason is, that it was prepared for one,
and intended for the pages of the American Quarterly of this
place. It was not, however, submitted to the inspection of the
Editor, from an apprehension, which was thought well-founded,
that his prejudices against Phrenology, of which he has never
manifested any knowledge, would induce him to reject it. In
publishing it, therefore, in its present form, it was not deemed re-
law, to give evidence against himself, neither is it very consistent with the laws
of human nature, for any one to believe, more especially to avow his belief, to
his own disparagement. As the hump-backed, knock-kneed, and bandy-legged
have an instinctive hostility to the science of gymnastics, it is scarcely to be ex.
pected that the flat heads, apple-beads, and sugar-loaf-heads will be favourably
disposed to that of Phrenology. Nor will those whose brains are so ponderous
behind and light before, that their heads seem in danger of tilting backward.

vii
of the press.
quisite to make any change in its review-like style. Whether the
American people will sustain an Editor of a public Journal, in the
indulgence of his prejudices, to the exclusion of fair discussion
from the pages of his work, experiment can alone determine.
And the sooner the question is settled the better. If such a cen-
sorship of Journals must exist, it should be generally known; and
it matters but little, whether it is administered by an individual, or
a body politic. Of the two evils, the latter would seem the least.
And whether all sentiments but those of 66 legitimacy” be pro-
scribed to support a tottering throne or a tottering theory, tho
act is an equal violation of the rights of literature and the freedom
Certuin Editors are known to contend, that they are privileged
to exclude from their papers and Journals all opinions at war with
their own, and to which they are, therefore, particularly opposed.
“We must not be expected, say they, to invite an enemy into
our houses, nor even to permit him to enter, for the purpose of con-
tending with, insulting, or in any way maltreating us." This is
a miserable illustration, and a worse argument, because the two
cases are totally dissimilar. His Journal is not the Editor's
castle. It belongs to the public-at least to his subscribers. It
is their hotel; and they have a right to enter it uninvited, and
receive in it all such fare as they choose to call for. And if it is
denied them, they will first complain, and then abandon. Such
is the law of the land, and those concerned will scarcely, it is
believed, be willing to dispense with the execution of it, even in
the case of the American Quarterly.
An Editor is the trustee and guardian of his Journal. He has
a right, therefore, to reject papers badly composed, treating of
subjects foreign from his plan, or containing sentiments likely to
prove offensive or injurious to the public. But he has no right
to refuse admission to an article, within his plan, merely because
the opinions it defends are opposed to his own.
Whether this pamphlet constitutes, from its subject, a paper
worthy of a place in the American Quarterly, the public has now
an opportunity to judge. And no offence is meant in expressing
a belief, that many of them can judge as correctly as the Editor.
In behalf of the production the author has no favour to ask, ex.
cept that it be read without prejudice, and serutinized he cares
not how severely. If it cannot sustain itself under that ordeal,
the sooner it is handed over to oblivion, the common executioner
in letters, the sooner will be cease to remember his misfortune in
having written il. He will only add, in explanation of certain
expressions in it, that it was composed last winter, during the
session of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, previously to the en:
actment of the existing law in relation to the new state prison
now rising in this city.
Philadelphia, May 14th, 1829.

NEW VIEWS, &c.
FOR THE NATIONAL GAZETTE.
A letter on penal law, and penitentiary discipline. By the
Honourable Edw. LIVINGSTON.
TO ROBERTS VAUX."
For reasons which are equally obvious and substantial, this
letter has attracted an unusual share of public attention, and
promises, we think, to lead to unusual results. It has awakened,
in the enlightened portion of the community, a more active
and earnest spirit of inquiry, touching the general subject of
it, and been the source of a more abundant production of
thought, on the particular topics it discusses, and the views it
presents, than are commonly elicited by articles of mere pri-
vate correspondence, or such as are intended for the columns of
a newspaper.
The object of the letter is of peculiar interest to the patriot
and philanthropist, and vitally important to the security and
well-being of cvilized man. Its author, who is rarely talented,
and extensively informed as a statesman, civilian, and coun-
sellor at law, has made it long a subject of profound investiga-
tion, the sentiments it contains are marked with great sagacity
and a thorough knowledge of human nature, and it is traced by
the pen of a powerful reasoner, and a disciplined scholar. In
its kind, it is a rich and masterly performance. As far as it
professedly enters into the important inquiry, to which it be-
longs, it is calculated, we think, to produce conviction in every
intellect that faithfully studies and fully comprehends it. It
abounds in the matured fruits of observation, experience, patient
and successful research, and deep reflection, the only sources of
valuable knowledge on such a subject. Many of its thoughts
may be regarded as lessons of practical wisdom, which will con-
tinue incontrovertible, as long as the nature of man shall
endure.
2

2
If it is a truth, sanctioned, at once, by reason, sound policy,
benevolent feeling, and the mild and merciful tenets of christia-
nity, that, wherever there exists a prospect of effecting them,
the improvement and reformation of convicts should be the
leading object of penitentiary discipline; improvement in know-
ledge, and reformation in industry, morals, and good conduct;
if this, we say, is true, it is no less so, that, as the letter fully
and satisfactorily sets forth, such changes can never be effected
by coercion and stripes; and the case is rendered more hope-
less, by the permission of intercourse between the prisoners.
There is in the constitution of human nature, implanted there
by the wisest of Beings, for the best of purposes, that which
rebels against all that is compulsory; which revolts indignantly
from arbitrary constraint; and which instinctively hates and
rejects even virtue itself, if sternly enforced by positive autho-
rity. Although his body is in chains, man feels within him
something that is free. Whether in the dungeon or the galley,
he proudly cherishes, as an original and exalted attribute of his
nature, the boon of mental free agency; the power to indulge
his thoughts, or to suspend them, to fix them steadily, or to
permit them to wander; and, if he is not degraded far below
the level of humanity, and the hope of reform, he obeys that
power, even under the stern and opposing command, enforced
by the threat and the lash, of the most inexorable task-master
the law can place over him. His moral and intellectual consti-
tution cannot be changed, by the mandate of authority, any
more than his physical; nor can he be taught any thing either
useful or virtuous, in opposition to his nature. If taught at all,
the process of instruction must be in strict conformity to the
principles of his being. He must himself will his own refor-
mation, before others can achieve it. And no sooner has he
honestly and deliberately willed it, than the task is more than
half performed. The great object of the reformer, then, is to
excite that will; to induce the culprit voluntarily and practi-
cally to prefer virtue to vice, morality to crime, reputation to
disgrace, and industry and independence to idleness and poverty.
It is not enough to produce a change in his mere outward ac-
tions, by making him labour against his will. That within
which dictates action must be changed, else the work of refor-
mation is yet to begin. But all this, as will more fully appear
hereafter, must be accomplished, not by coercion rendered
hateful by the scourge, but by education and discipline, made
acceptable, at least, if not desirable, by reason, principle, and
firmness, united to a benevolent and earnest wish, in the
teacher, to bestow a benefit, by rescuing a fellow-being from the

3
dominion of vice. Nor is it unimportant that the malefactor
have full confidence in the sincerity of this wish. The indivi-
dual who has convinced a criminal of his kind and ardent desire
to reform him, not as a punishment, nor to gratify himself, but
for his own welfare, and to restore him to society, has done not
a little to effect that reform.
On this topic, then, we deem the views of Mr. Livingston
correct, and beg leave earnestly to recommend them to public
consideration. The truth they inculcate constitutes the only
solid foundation of the reformation of culprits. If that truth be
neglected, the case is hopeless; and the sooner all spurious sys-
tems of reform are abandoned the better. They are but costly
hindrances of wiser measures.
To reform criminals is to improve them in morality and in-
dustry always, and in knowledge very generally; for vice and
ignorance are usually associated. Not only in our own country,
but in every other, whose history is known to us, penitentiaries
are peopled by the ignorant and the idle. In the nature of
things, such must be the case. If to this exceptions exist, they
are so few, as to be no infraction of the general rule. But we
need scareely add, that it is not possible to inculcate successfully
either morality or knowledge, to teach industry, or to impart
any other valuable quality, by corporeal punishment. It is a
law of nature, that the fruit must resemble the tree that bears
it. The product of ignominious means is itself ignominious.
An appeal, therefore, to the most ignoble and degraded feeling
of man, his craven dread of punishment, can never elevate him,
or render him better. On the contrary, although appearances
may speak, for a time, a different language, it cannot fail to
make him worse-more deceitful, with at least as much depra-
vity, and, therefore, less virtuous. Even the mock-saint, who
affects to embrace religion, from a dread of future suffering, but
adds hypocrisy to his former vices.
Crime, as will appear, in a subsequent analysis, is the product
of mere animal propensity, and not of any attribute that per-
tains to real humanity; not, we mean, of any of the nobler at-
tributes of man, which belong to him alone, as elevated over the
rest of the animal kingdom. Such attributes are, in their nature,
friendly to virtue, and tend to its promotion. To reform a
criminal, then, you must make him less of an animal, and
more of a human being. Strengthen his higher and better
qualities, at the expense of those that are leading him astray.
But this is not to be effected by blows. Such discipline culti-
vates no moral or intellectual faculty. It neither communicates
knowledge nor ministers to virtue. It excites smothered re-

4
sentment, hatred, and fear, awakens and nourishes a propensity
to revenge, and teaches caution, concealment, and practised
artifice, and there its influence ends. But these feelings being
purely animal, and the very reverse of all that is praiseworthy,
or that ministers to amendment, its direct and necessary ten-
dency is still more deeply and hopelessly to brutalize man, not
to reform him. It com pels the culprit to regard civil society,
by whose authority it is inflicted, as his avowed and inexorable
enemy, and, as an inevitable consequence, renders him the self-
sworn enemy of the human race. It degrades him, moreover,
in his own opinion; and, as already intimated, out of degrada-
tion nothing valuble can possibly arise. As well may you at-
tempt, by the infliction of stripes, to excite, in the sufferer,
pleasurable feelings, as either a virtuous emotion, or a praise-
worthy resolution. Or if, under the smarting of the lash, such
a seeming resolution be formed, it is as unstable as passion, and
as faithless as hypocrisy. It deceives even him who forms it.
Its violation, therefore, is as certain and speedy, as the occur-
rence of temptation united to opportunity. It is but a house
erected on the sand, which the first billow of passion will de-
molish. It, for a short period, deters from crime, but awakens
no disrelish of it.
But, from the practice of habitually inflicting on criminals the
punishment of the lash, there arises another evil, not much less
to be deprecated, to which Mr. Livingston has not adverted.
It is the deteriorating effect which it necessarily produces on
those who consent to engage in it, and become its ministers; its
inhumanizing influence on all who enlist themselves as punishers
by profession. If we are not greatly mistaken, it tends to the
extinguishment of all high, amiable, and honourable feelings in
the hirelings who pursue it, almost as inevitably as in the con-
victs who are the subjects of it. To morality, virtue, or any
praiseworthy sentiment or feeling it has no affinity. Being ex-
clusively the offspring of animal propensity, its unavoidable
effect is to brutalize those who are daily concerned in it. If it
does not render them actually criminal, it indubitably prepares
them for crime. In direct proportion as it makes them more of
animals, it makes them less of men. It is a foe to benevolence,
and, therefore, obliterates those fine sympathies and charities of
human nature, which are among the most valuable safeguards
of virtue.
From these causes arises the effect which Mr. Livingston so
justly condemns; the frequent perpetration of punishment on
convicts, by “underkeepers” when it is not perhaps deserved ;
or, at least, in a degree beyond what is deserved. This punish-

5
ment is often commenced from mere suspicion, and afterwards
continued and increased in severity, to gratify the angry passions
of those who inflict it. Nor does the outrage stop here. In
many instances, the unmerited and unmerciful chastisement is
pushed to such an extent, as to extort from him who is the sub-
ject of it a positive falsehood, as the only guard against its
continuance. For, when an underkeeper barely suspects a
criminal to have done, or said, or looked, any thing in violation
of order or law, the penalty of the whip is instantly inflicted,
without conviction or even trial. The subordinate officer is at
once informer, accuser, prosecutor, jury, judge, and executioner,
and proceeds to whip, to extort first a confession of a fault,
which has not, perhaps, been committed, and then to punish
still further, for its falsely but compulsorily acknowledged com-
mission.
A system of discipline like this, established for the professed
purpose of either meting out impartial justice to criminals and
convicts, or producing in them such a reform, as to prepare
them for the duties of orderly and valuable citizens, is unquali-
fied mockery. Human ingenuity could scarcely devise a scheme
more entirely calculated to debase man, confirm him in vice,
and unfit him for society, if he were not already unfitted. It
savours as little of wisdom and sound policy, as of benevolence
and clemency. It is utterly wanting in them all.
Were the convicts sentenced to confinement during life, like
the galley-slaves of Barbary, or those who formerly groaned
beneath their chains, in the mines of Spanish America, and the
object in view was merely to preserve order, and enforce
labour, within the walls of the penitentiary, such a plan of dis-
cipline would be well enough suited to such an end. But,
where reform is intended, and the criminals, after a term of
years, are to be let loose again on society, the system is calcu-
lated to infuriate them against man, to bind them more durably
to each other, by consociated suffering and mutual sympathy,
and train and harden them in their propensities to crime.
Such are the inferences we are compelled to draw from the
well-known principles of human nature; and observation and
experience confirm their truth. The histories of penitentiaries
and their inhabitants teach us, that offenders, dismissed from
those places of chastisement, after severe treatment, which they
considered tyrannical and unjust, have been too frequently, not
to use a stronger term, and say always, more confirmed in their
vicious propensities, and more inflexible in their course of male-
factions. They have returned, with increased voracity, to their
acts of felony, like famished wolves to their ravenous meal.

6
The discipline they have undergone has taught them deeper ar-
tifice, and more dextrous cunning, and rendered them doubly
dangerous to society. But it has never reformed them, and it
never can, until causes cease to be followed by their natural
effects, and produce the contrary. If rcformation has been ef-
fected in them at all, it has been by other means.
Mr. Livingston's remarks generally on the Auburn system
of penitentiary discipline, appear to us to be judicious and cor-
rect. We think, with him, that the seclusion of the convicts,
by night, each in his own dormitory, is a salutary measure. It
conforms, at once, to the principles of our nature, and the dic-
tates of experience. But we concur with him no less fully, when
he alleges, that their consociated labours, by day, are a fatal
drawback on the benefits derived from their separation at night.
To say the least, the latter cannot fail to be so nearly neutral-
ized by the former, that, under such training, the progress made
in reformation must be very limited. It can scarcely be worth
the trouble and cost of the experiment. We are told, that not-
withstanding the strictness and severity with which the ordi-
nances of the institution are executed, the wardens themselves
acknowledge that the march of reformation is feeble and slow.
They evenadd, that they have almost ceased to expect reforma-
tion. Hence the Auburn penitentiary is much more a place of
confinement, labour, and punishment, than of actual or even
meditated reform.
It is further true, as Mr. Livingston contends, that if the re-
formation of criminals be effected at all, it must be by seclusion
at night, and solitary labour by day, united to a suitable system
of instruction; but that neither the labour nor the instruction
must be compulsory, or associated, in any way, with the idea
of punishment. The former must be granted in a spirit of kind-
ness, as a relief, in solitude, from the sufferings of loneliness, and
the latter should be given when earnestly sought for, or as the
reward of good conduct. In this way, there is reason to believe
that much may be done; because the effort will be made in per-
fect conformity to the nature of man. And when that is the
case, and the plan is persevered in to the requisite extent, bad
and debased as we know convicts usually are, they are worse
than we think them, if many of them cannot be improved and
reformed, divorced from vice and wedded to virtue, and con-
verted from crime to praiseworthy action and useful lives.
We say many, but not all. As there are corporeal ma-
ladies which no treatment can heal or alleviate, so there are
mental debasements and profligacies which no human means can
remove, or even amend. They would seem to be incorporated

7
in the very texture of the soul, or at least to cling to it with such
strength of adhesiveness as nothing earthly can dissolve. Nor is
it the least important element of the science and process of peni-
tentiary training, to be able to predict what cases of convict-de-
pravity promise reform, and what ones are hopeless. On this
topic a few thoughts will be offered hereafter.
Mr. Livingston is of opinion, that if, before they have made
considerable progress in reformation, convicts are permitted to
associate with each other, either by day or by night, during re-
laxation or labour, no possible vigilance and rigour, on the part
of the keepers, can prevent them from holding such intercourse,
by words and signs, as will prove mutually corrupting. And
further, that every scheme of penitentiary discipline is defective
and insufficient, exactly in the degree in which it departs from
solitary confinement, and enforces labour by chains and stripes.
In both of these opinions we fully concur with him and con-
sider their correctness supported alike by reason and experience.
Nor do we deem his sentiments less true or valuable, when he
expresses his views of the interest and duty of Pennsylvania, in
relation to this important subject; her duty, not to herself alone,
but to the great and growing community, of which she forms a
part.
Enlightened by the wisdom, and influenced by the benevo-
lent spirit of her founder, that state was the first to propose a
rational plan for punishing and reforming criminals, by the same
process. For trying the efficiency of this plan, by actual experi-
ment, the only satisfactory test to which it can be brought, she
has lately incurred very heavy expenses, and erected, on an ex-
tensive scale, buildings peculiarly suitable to the purpose.
Discouraging representations of her plan having been made to
her, and another, deemed better, suggested as a substitute, it is
understood that she has been herself induced to doubt and pause.
This we consider a serious misfortune, not to herself alone, but
to the United States; nor to them alone, but to the civilized
world; for should her experiment succeed, as under the means
at her command, we feel persuaded it will, the civilized world
will, in time, participate largely of the propitious result. We
think, with Mr. Livingston, that she should feel a pride in per-
severing resolutely and strenuously in what she has so wisely
and benevolently begun; and in being the first to taste the ma-
tured fruit of the goodly scion, which she was the first to plant.
We trust, therefore, that her present pause, in a work so mo-
mentous to herself and the human race, will be of short duration.
Might we venture to address her to that effect, in the language
of advice, we would earnestly recommend to her to make it as

8
short as possible. The sooner she begins again, and the more
rapidly she proceeds, the sooner will she find cause to rejoice in
her policy, and exult in her success. The sooner will she look,
with peculiar delight, on her own criminals reformed, and re-
duced in number, and hear, with a degree of gratification but
little inferior, of similar improvements throughout the Union.
Should she abandon her scheme, and adopt another of less ef-
ficiency and usefulness, the amount of evil which the measure
can scarcely fail to produce would seem incalculable. The act
will be contagious. Her abandonment will deter other states
and communities from engaging in the plan of criminal reform,
and the experiment, if ever made, will scarcely, perhaps, be
made during the present century. In the mean time, as our
cities, in particular, and the country, in general, shall become
more densely populated, will our vices multiply, until, in the
demoralization of our people, our amount of crime, and the
crowdedness of our jails and penitentiaries, we shall equal the
nations of the old world.
We repeat, therefore, our anxious hope, that Pennsylvania
will not abandon and leave unfinished a work so important; but
that she will inflexibly pursue and satisfactorily complete it.
Thus, in the words of Mr. Livingston, will she have the satis-
faction and honour of being the first to solve, in a manner equally
fair and definitive, “the great question, whether convicts can-
not, by a judicious treatment, be reformed as well as punished,
by the same process; whether they may not be made examples
to follow in their lives after punishment, as they are examples
to avoid, in their conduct preceding it? Whether the whip is
the most proper instrument to inculcate lessons of religion, mo-
rality, industry, and science; and whether a man will love la-
bour the better, by having been forced, by the infliction or the
fear of the lash, to perform a certain quantity of it every day?"
Another hint, in the letter of Mr. Livingston, cannot, at the
present crisis, be too seriously pondered by the legislature of
Pennsylvania. As relates to the Auburn scheme of discipline, is
there not great danger, that the good it does, in maintaining
subordination among the convicts, and procuring from them a
certain amount of productive labour, may be attributed to a
wrong source? May it not, by a very natural mistake, be
ascribed to the imputed excellencies of the system itself, while,
in truth, it is derived almost entirely from the judicious and ef-
ficient mode, in which its ordinances are enforced by the war-
dens and keepers? We know that the most exceptionable form
of government may, by a wise, benevolent, energetic, and vigi-
lant ruler, be so administered, as to produce among its subjects

9
prosperity and happiness. In investigating this point, then, let
not the lines of the poet be forgotten,
“For forms of government let fools contest,
6 That which is best administered is best."
But the most important sentiment in Mr. Livingston's letter
remains to be mentioned. It is that which recommends the pro-
motion of education, and its general diffusion throughout the
community. To promote education, in the full and genuine
meaning of the term, is to promote every thing beneficial and
valuable to man; and to neglect it, is the reverse. Education is
the great fountain of earthly good, and the only efficient preven-
tiye of crime.
“ Train up a child in the way he should go, and, when he is
old, he will not depart from it." Let man, from his infancy be
competently instructed in knowledge, and disciplined in moral-
ity, religion, industry, and good manners, and states will find
but little use for codes of penal law, and systems of penitentiary
discipline. The fountains of vice being nearly dried up, the
peace and harmony of society will be preserved, and its general
welfare secured without them. Crime will be prevented, by
the prevention of that idleness and depravity from which it
arises. And it would be superfluous in us to proclaim the vast
superiority of prevention over cure. Crime is as truly the natu-
ral growth of ignorance and a want of suitable employment, as
weeds and bramble are of uncultivated ground. Till the ground
with judgment and industry, and its noxious growth gives way
to that which is salutary and profitable.
In like manner, to be secured from the dominion of evil pro-
pensities, and withheld from the perpetration of criminal acts,
man must have his intellect cultivated and improved, by suitable
education. Without this, vice, in all its forms, will rapidly in-
crease in our country, notwithstanding every effort to prevent it.
which wisdom, patriotism, and philanthropy can make. Penal
codes and penitentiary systems may be checks on its rankness,
but nothing more. Far from extinguishing it, they will afford
to the community but a feeble protection from its secret artifices,
and open assaults.
Thus far we have deemed it our duty to notice, and, in part,
analyze the very excellent communication from Mr. Livingston
to Mr. Vaux. The sum of it, in brief, is as follows:-
The Auburn penitentiary system is faulty, and ought not to
be adopted by the state of Pennsylvania. Criminals cannot be
reformed by corporeal punishment, and the dread of it. Nor
can they be reformed, in any way, if they are permitted to as-
3

10
sociate with each other promiscuously, or even in classes, either
by day or by night. That their reformation may be attempted,
with any reasonable prospect of success, they must be held in
absolute and permanent seclusion, permitted to labour, as a relief
from feelings of desolation, and receive suitable instruction, as
the reward of good behaviour, or in compliance with their own
earnest request. But nothing, by which they are expected to be
benefited, should be forced on them as a punishment. When,
in any number of them, satisfactory evidences of reform bave
appeared, and continued for a period deemed sufficiently long,
they may be permitted, under proper supervision, to mingle
with each other occasionally, as a special indulgence, and an
encouragement to perseverance in correct conduct. Sound edu-
cation, begun in childhood, and including the inculcation of
knowledge, morality, religion, industry, and good manners, con-
stitutes the only true and solid foundation, on which the pros-
perity and happiness of a people can rest.
Such are the contents of the communication by Mr. Living.
ston; and, considering that the article is but a private letter, of
moderate length, addressed to a friend, it will not be denied,
that they are as ample in amount, as they are interesting in their
nature, and important in their bearing.
But a subject of such extent and moment, as that to which
they relate, cannot be competently treated within the compass
of a few columns of a newspaper. To do it justice, a more ex-
tended and analytical exposition is necessary." Persuaded, then,
that the system of penitentiary discipline, by seclusion, labour,
and instruction, judiciously blended and faithfully administered,
is alone calculated to accomplish, by the same process, the true
ends of penal law, the punishment and reformation of the convict,
and the prevention of crime in others; and believing that by fur-
ther illustrations, and other views of it than have been heretofore
given, the practical excellencies of that system, and its superiority
over all others, may be more clearly demonstrated, its administra-
tion improved, and the system itself more effectually recommend
ed to general acceptance, and the patronage of the several states of
the Union; influenced by these considerations, we shall proceed
to a further analysis of the subject, drawing our lights from dif-
ferent sources, and endeavouring to establish our views on differ-
ent principles, and to strengthen and enforce them by arguments
other than those which have been generally employed by pre-
ceding writers.
To speak plainly, it is our intention now to endeavour to
show, and in this we are serious, that the principles of phreno-
logy coincide precisely with the sentiments of Mr. Livingston,

11
in setting forth the fitness of his favourite scheme of peniten-
tiary discipline, at once to punish and reform from crime, such
a being as man. Nor is the influence of those principles
limited to this. We trust we shall be able further to show, that
they throw much additional light on the subject, give to the
scheme the character and sanction of practical philosophy, and
thus increase the facilities and contribute not a little to the perfec-
tion of its administration. Were Mr. Livingston a professed phre-
nologist, and had his object been to write a recommendatory com-
ment on the science, he could scarcely have furnished a more ex-
press and forcible one than his letter contains.
We entreat the reader not to be startled at this
open
avowal
of our belief in phrenology, nor offended because we did not
make it sooner. Had any thing in Mr. Livingston's letter, or
in the nature of the subject of which it treats, demanded it of
us, we should have made the avowal at the commencement of
this article. For, although we do not profess enthusiastically
to glory in it, much less are we ashamed of our phrenological
creed.
In our belief of this science there is nothing voluntary; no-
thing which we could at option choose or refuse. It is the re-
sult of all-controlling necessity. It was forced on us by evi-
dence which we could not resist, and did not, therefore, reject.
On such evidence we would be willing to rest our belief in
christianity, including its high and solemn connexions with
our present comforts and our future hopes. Nor, as we con-
scientiously believe, would the candid and enlightened reader
fail to receive it as conclusive, and yield to its authority, had
we leisure, and were it expedient in us, to lay it fully before
him. Although this evidence did not come to us from above,
by any immediate act of revelation, we notwithstanding accept
it as pertaining to the “elder revelation,” because we regard it
as a response from Nature, who is the priestess of heaven, and
the oracle of its ordinances, acts, and purposes.
We ask the reader, then, to bear with us patiently, re-
press the curl which is perhaps rising on his lip, and listen to
our story. This request we are privileged to make of his cour-
tesy and good nature. But we address ourselves also to his
higher qualities. On the ground of his justice, candour, magna-
nimity, and self-respect, we entreat him to forget, while we are
discoursing to him, that phrenology has been denounced by the
bigoted, anathematized by the intolerant, abused by the discour-
teous, ridiculed by the witty, and laughed at by the million.”
We consider him intelligent, and need not, therefore, inform
him, that these several modes, in which different individuals ex-

12
press their feelings, pertain to temper rather than intellect.
They are neither tests of truth in those who practise them, nor
of error in that against which they are directed. They are mere
evidence that different persons feel, and think, and utter their
thoughts and fancies differently, each one according to his native
disposition and endowments, and his acquired habits, and no-
thing more. To this may be added, by way of appendix, that
such manifestations bespeak puerile conceit, rather than manly
research, and ill-nature, rather than good sense; and that they
indicate, in those who make them, some sinister and selfish
motive, rather than an honest love of truth, and much more fre-
quently than they expose error or fault in the persons or things
that are uncivilly assailed by them.
But we are not yet done with our appeals to the reader.
Having apprized him of some things which we wish him to
forget, we now present to him the reverse of the tablet, on
which are traced, for his inspection, a few points of remem-
brance.
Here again we address ourselves, at once, to bis magnanimi-
ty, justice, and hospitable feelings, and beg him to remember,
that phrenology comes to him as a stranger, well recommend-
ed, as he will presently perceive, and that, therefore, on the
ground of ordinary civility, to say nothing of a higher claim, it
is entitled to respectful treatment, until it is proved to be an im-
postor. He will also bear in mind, that if nothing new in science
be proposed, improvement is at an end. He will not, therefore,
condemn it merely because it has not a place in antiquated text
books.
We solicit him further to remember, that phrenology has
never yet been opposed, much less refuted, by established facts,
and honest
arguments;
that those who have most fiercely and per-
tinaciously railed at it, have been uniformly actuated by motives of
real or supposed interest in its rejection and overthrow; that every
one who has faithfully and attentively studied it, has become its
proselyte; that once prosely ted, no one has ever been known
to apostatize, but that all become, by further inquiry and in
progress of time, more fully and irrevocably convinced of its
truth; that when they have been induced to examine it, with
out prejudice, the most rigid inquirers and the closest reasoners,
have become most promptly and certainly its votaries; that in
the most intelligent circles of the most enlightened cities of
Europe-London, Edinburgh, Paris, Dublin, Vienna, Berlin,
Stockholm, and others, it is spreading with an impetus which
nothing can resist, and which, at present, there is scarcely an
attempt made to resist; that not a few of the most distinguished

13
divines, and very many of the ablest physiologists, naturalists,
and general philosophers of Europe are its disciples and advo-
cates; that of the men of real distinction in science, who once
opposed it, many are proselyted, and most of the others com-
pletely silenced; and that is applicability to the most important
purposes, in medicine, education, jurisprudence, legislation,
criticism, and taste, and to the solution of many curious and in-
teresting phenomena, not to be otherwise explained, pertaining to
individual man, to entire nations, and to the several varieties of
the human race, is clearly demonstrated, and universally admit-
ted by those who understand it. These things we respectfully ask
the reader to remember, assuring him that they are true. We
wish him further to remember, that phrenology has outlived
all the attacks made on it, by wit, ridicule, irony, abuse, de-
nunciation, and calumny; and not merely outlived them, but
prospered and spread very rapidly in spite of them. Like the
nut-tree, in the fable, it has even seemed to bear more and bet-
ter fruit on account of being stoned. If overthrown at all,
therefore, it must fall under weapons of assault altogether diffe-
rent from those that have been heretofore employed against it.
Another topic of remembrance which we would earnestly press
on the reader is, that, in our own country, many of our most
distinguished writers and teachers in medicine who affect to
condemn phrenology, are notwithstanding compelled, as their
lectures and publications evince, to adopt its views and employ
its language; and that the same thing is true of the physicians
of Europe. Nor are we willing he should forget, that if phre-
nology possesses the utilities here alleged of it, it may be useful
also in throwing light on penitentiary discipline; that, in fact,
it must be useful in every process, where a correct knowledge
of intellectual man is required. Above all, we entreat him
to remember, that he owes to himself, to justice, science,
candour, the institutions and customs of his country, and his love
of truth, not, in this land of right and trial by jury, to con-
demn a branch of knowledge unheard, and reject it unex-
amined, merely because it is denominated phrenology, and pur-
ports to be something new. The “Novum Organum” of
Bacon, and the Principia" of Newton, contained originally
many things that were new, and were, on that account, assailed
by stern denunciation. So, for the same reason, was christianity
itself, and every other improvement that has benefited man.
is true, we repeat, and the truth being important, will be borne
we hope, in permanent remembrance, that every improvement,
discovery, and invention, that have contributed pre-eminently
to the benefit of our race, have always, at first, had violent
It

14
opposition to encounter, while persecution has generally been
the fate of their authors. Nor is it possible for the case to be
otherwise while man shall retain his present temper. Every im-
portant discovery, invention, and improvement, must necessa-
rily find a foe in the pride of some, the self-interest of many, and
the prejudices of a still greater number. Let it never be for-
gotten, then, that wrath and denunciation are no more tests of
truth than wit and ridicule. In fine, we trust the reader will
remember, that we are honestly endeavouring to establish mo-
mentous truths, for the advancement of science, and to show
their applicability to practical purposes, for the promotion and
security of the welfare of society.
Thus remembering, we feel persuaded that he will bear us
company to the end of our discussion, listen attentively to all
we shall have to say, and decide on it candidly, according to its
worth. This compact being se ed, we have no further favours
to ask of his courtesy; and shall only add, that if, before he
knew us to be phrenologists, he found, in our sentiments, any
manifestations of sober reason and common sense, he will not be
likely to meet with less of those ingredients, in the pages we
have yet to submit to his perusal. “ Illo judice," therefore, we
shall proceed to our task.
Although to render our views fairly intelligible, some expo-
sition of principles will be necessary, we shall make that expo-
sition as brief as possible. In announcing principles, we shall
state nothing which we do not consider satisfactorily proved.
Phrenology treats of man only in his present compound capa-
city, constituted, as he is, of mind and body. Of his future
mode of existence and action, enjoyment or suffering, it takes no
cognizance, but leaves that, as a point of transcendentalism, to
the pleasure of Him who placed us here, and who will wisely
and beneficently dispose of us hereafter. Yet it fully recogni-
ses, as the reader will perceive, the necessity and value of mo-
rality and religion, and shows them to be attributes which, be-
yond all others, elevate and ennoble the human character.
The brain is the organ of the intellect; and according to the
size, form, and condition of that organ, is the strength, activity,
and peculiar character of the intellect. If the brain is excellent
in all its qualities, so is the intellect, and the reverse.
Without
the brain, the mind can no more perform an intellectual act,
than the brain can without the mind.
The condition of the brain, like that of the muscles and organs
of sense, can be altered and greatly improved by exercise. The
brain may be thus rendered much more powerful and adroit in
intellectual action, precisely as the eye can in vision, the ear in

15
hearing, and the muscles of voluntary motion in the functions
that pertain to them.
The entire business of education consists in improving the
condition of the brain, that process not being predicable of the
mind at all. To speak of educating the mind, as an abstract
and uncompounded substance, is to use words without attaching
to them any definite or intelligible meaning. All that education
can do, is to render the brain a better apparatus for the mind to
work with; and that is all that is necessary for the effecting of
intellectual improvement. Whether you sharpen and otherwise
improve the sword, or increase the vigour of the arm that wields
it, you deepen alike the wound it indicts.
The brain is not a single organ, but an aggregation or system
of individual and subordinate organs. Each subordinate organ
is the seat and instrument of a corresponding faculty of the in-
tellect, which cannot be manifested without its agency.
In the human intellect there are thirty-four primitive facul-
ties, distinct from each other, and independent in their functions.
There is, of course, in the brain, an equal number of subordi-
nate organs.
The faculties are divided into four sets or families, the animal
propensities, the moral sentiments, the knowing faculties, and
the reflecting faculties. The brain is divided into a correspond-
ing number of compartments, where the organs of these sets of
faculties exist together in aggregates or groups. It possesses,
therefore, an animal compartment, a moral compartment, a:
knowing compartment, and a reflecting compartment. In all
our dealings with the human family, as well as in the judgments
we pass on the characters of individuals, it is important to hold
this division in remembrance, and to be strictly observant of the
developments which correspond to it.
The animal compartment occupies the base of the brain,
reaching, in the occipital region, about half way towards the top
of the head, and, at the sides, rising a little above the top of the
It does not so extend to the front of the brain, as to con-
stitute any portion of the forehead.
Directly over the animal is placed the moral compartment,
occupying the entire top or roof of the brain, and the upper
parts of its sides.
The knowing compartment occupies the base of the brain in
front, from side to side, and reaches to about the middle of the
forehead, or a little higher.
The reflecting lies immediately over the knowing compart-
ment, forming the more elevated portion of the forehead.
Other things being alike, the strength and efficiency of any
ears.

16
single organ or set of organs, is in direct proportion to its size; and
its size can be ascertained by the dimensions and form of the head.
By an inspection of the head, therefore, a practised phrenologist
can tell which organ, or set of organs preponderates. And as is the
predominance of the organs, so is that of the faculties, unless
education has altered the balance. And it is education alone
that can thus alter it, by strengthening one or two sets of organs,
while the others remain unchanged.
Like all other parts of the body, the brain is most flexible, and
therefore most easily changed and improved in early life. With
the
progress
of years, its habits of action become more settled
and confirmed, until in manhood they are stubborn, and at a
period more advanced, unalterably fixed.
Out of the four compartments of the brain arise the four great
compound attributes which pertain to man, animal energy, moral
sentiment, knowledge, and the power of reflection. And accord-
ing to the predominance of one or more of these, is the form or
type of individual character. When they are all strong and
properly balanced, they confer on their possessor great power,
Does the animal compartment predominate? The individual
is characterized by mere animal energy, and very little else.
Does the moral compartment prevail ? his feelings, views, and
actions partake instinctively of moral purity and correctness.
The knowing compartment? he acquires very readily a know-
ledge of things, especially in their insulated or individual capa-
city. The reflecting? be delights in examining the relations of
things, and has powers peculiarly suited to that purpose.
It will be readily perceived, to what an extent the character
of man can be modified, by different degrees of strength in these
four attributes, and their various combinations. And when it is
recollected, that, as just stated, the attributes are compound, each
consisting of a number of subordinate ones, the modifications
that may be thus produced, will, to a contemplative mind, pre-
sent themselves in numbers beyond calculation. Hence arises
the infinite variety of our race, no two individuals being intel-
lectually alike.
From the four compartments of the brain, spring, as their na-
tive growth, all the vices and virtues, and all the knowledge and
wisdom which constitute, collectively, the human character.
If left without due and efficient control, the animal compart-
ment is the nursery of vice. Its propensities, when excessive, lead
directly to the commission of crime. An individual, therefore,
entirely uneducated, the animal compartment of whose brain
greatly predominates over the others, especially over the moral
and reflecting, is constitutionally prone to vice, and easily led into

17
it, by the influence of example. Such a being can be withheld
from profligate indulgences, only by early and sound education,
and habitual association with the moral and the virtuous.
Does the moral compartment alone, or do both the moral and
the reflecting predominate over the others? the individual has a
native and instinctive distaste of vice and grossness; and, unless
corrupted by a bad education, and profligate associations and
examples, or impelled by irresistible temptation, or stern neces-
sity, avoids crime, as a thing which he abhors, because it is en-
tirely out of harmony with his feelings, and because his habits
of reflection teach him that it is injurious both to himself and
others. It is those who are thus constituted, that, in the
words of the poet,
66
- Follow virtue, even for virtue's sake.”
encounter.
By sound education, such characters are doubtless improved in
their moral habits; but, if entirely uneducated, their conduct is
generally correct, and their lives free from revolting impurities.
There is yet another class of men, in the formation of whose
characters education manifests its highest influence, and, perhaps
we might add, its greatest usefulness. It is those in whom all
the developments are large, and the several compartments of the
brain in a state of well adjusted equipoise. Such individuals are,
in their deportment, moral or otherwise, according to their
training, and the strength of the temptations to vice which they
When their education is liberal and well-directed,
they can scarcely fail to attain to eminence, because they are
not only gifted in intellect, but endowed with superior energy and
moral worth. It is in persons of this description that we witness,
at times, the greatest discrepancy of conduct and character.
Their animal propensities being powerful, strong temptations
occurring, lead them often into improper indulgences, while,
under other circumstances, their career is brilliant, and their
conduct exemplary. This class of individuals presents, accord-
ing to the discipline received, and the incentives to action, very
striking instances of both virtue and crime.
Of itself, the knowing compartment of the brain gives no
inclination to either virtue or vice. Nor does it take any cog-
nizance of the consequences of action. It simply furnishes
knowledge to be employed by individuals, according to the pre-
dominance of their other compartments. The mere animal-man
makes use of his knowledge for the gratification of his propen-
sities. If these are ungovernable, he applies his knowledge to
vicious purposes. The mere moral-man appropriates his know-
4

18
ledge with praiseworthy intentions, but not always judiciously;
while the moral and reflecting-man takes counsel at once of
wisdom and virtue, and promotes, by his knowledge, the wel.
fare of his race.
That our exposition of this subject may be the more circum-
stantial, and our views in relation to it the better understood,
we deem it necessary to recite the names of several of the ani-
mal organs with their faculties, and a few of the moral.
In the animal compartment of the brain are found the organs
of Amativeness or sexual desire, Philoprogenitiveness or the love
of offspring, Adhesiveness or general attachment, Combativeness
and Destructiveness, whose names are their interpreters, Se-
cretiveness, the source of falsehood, treachery, intrigue, and
slander, * Covetiveness, which prompts to theft, robbery, and
all dishonesty in the acquisition of property, and Construc-
tiveness, the impulse to mechanical pursuits, accompanied
with a facility in becoming dexterous in them. It is to be
understood that these organs and propensities are essential
elements in the composition of man. In their nature, therefore,
there is nothing faulty. On the contrary, when duly regulated
in force, and kept within their proper sphere, they are exclu-
sively useful. It is only their excess and wrong direction that
hurry into crime.
It is the licentious indulgence more especially of three of
those propensities, aided by some of the others, as copartners
in guilt, that fills our jails with criminals, and our penitentiaries
with convicts. These are Amativeness, which singly leads to
rape ; combined with Destructiveness, to rape and murder, and
also, at times, to murder from jealousy; and with Secretiveness
to immoral intrigues between the sexes. Destructiveness, which
is the source of felonious homicide, in all its forms. If it be
combined with Combativeness, Cautiousness being small, the
murder is bold and open; if with Cautiousness and Secretiveness,
Combativeness being small, it is private assasination, perpetrated
often by the midnight dagger, or the poisoned cup. From the
same source proceed arson, and other modes of secret devasta-
tion by fire. Covetiveness, which seduces to the illegal and
felonious acquisition of property. When united to Combativeness,
the crime is robbery; to Combativeness, Cautiousness, and De-
structiveness, robbery and murder; to Secretiveness and Cautious-
ness, theft and pocket-picking; associate it with Constructive-
ness and Imitation, and the felony will be counterfeiting and
forgery, or perhaps lock-picking and stealing. In this organ
n In the production of “lreachery” and “slander" Destructiveness is also
concerned.

19
we find also the source of the ruinous vice of gambling. Has
the gambler associated with it full Combativeness, he plays
fairly and intrepidly. Has he in large development, Secretive-
ness and Cautiousness, with small Conscientiousness, his game is
wary, and apt to be fraudulent.
Combativeness and Secretiveness, the former by plunging into
riots, assaults, and other breaches of the peace, and the latter,
combined with Destructiveness, by urging to the perpetration of
slander, often crowd our courts of justice, but seldom, perhaps,
contribute to fill our jails. Yet is it true, that quarrels which
begin in Combativeness alone, often excite Destructiveness to
ungovernable rage, and terminate in murder. And slander not
unfrequently leads to breaches of the peace, by those who are
the subjects of it, and sometimes to the retaliation of death, by
violence, on its guilty authors.
Of these propensities the counterpoise is to be found chiefly
in the moral organs of Benevolence, Veneration, Conscientious-
ness, Firmness, Love of approbation, Hope, and Cautiousness,
The influence of Self-esteem is not always strictly moral,
although it is generally so. Causality, one of the reflecting
organs, throws its influence into the scale of virtue, by solemnly
warning of the consequences of vice. In a lower degree, Com-
parison operates to the same effect.
The question has been often agitated by metaphysicians, mo-
ralists, and divines, whether man is constitutionally rational, mo-
ral, and religious, or rendered so by dint of training ? in other
words, whether these attributes are natural or artificial? And,
in discussing the subject, great discrepancy of opinion, and no
less warmth of feeling, and asperity of temper have been mani-
fested.
If we are not mistaken, phrenology enables us to solve the
difficulty, and terminate the dispute.
That individual, in whom the animal compartment of the
brain greatly prodominates over the moral and reflecting, cannot
be accounted primitively either moral, rational, or religious.
He is constitutionally animal, and can be withheld from the li-
centious indulgence of his propensities, only by lack of opportu-
nity, or the influence of virtous education and example. If he
ever become moral, rational, and religious, the issue is to be at-
tributed to artificial influence.
But he whose brain is so happily composed, that its moral and
reflecting predominate over its animal compartment, is a being
constitutionally rational and moral. And as the moral organs of
Veneration, Conscientiousness, Wonder, and Hope are the natural
source of religious feeling, he may be regarded as also constitution.

20
ally religious. This sentiment is not at war with any tenet of the
christian religion ; nor, when fairly interpreted, can it be so
considered. Yet an attempt has been made to affix on it the
condemnatory stigma of infidelity.
Man must have a natural foundation and aptitude for religious
feeling, as well as for feelings of every other kind, else can he
never experience the emotion. The sentiment of piety is not a
factitious attribute, any more than the sense of vision, or the
feeling of physicial love. If it were, it would be much less
valuable and elevated than it is. It would indeed be complete-
ly destitute of value. Nor is this the worst. It would even deform
human nature, and render it as monstrous, as the addition of a
supernumerary leg or arm. In the entire composition of man
there is not a single factitious attribute. Feeling may be modi-
fied, but not created; cultivated, strengthened, and altered, but
not implanted. Of the faculties for acquiring knowledge and
wisdom, the same is true. They are all the growth of constitu-
tional provision ; the natural and necessary result of appropriate
organization. The constitution and frame of the intellect are as
positive and immutable as those of the body. As well may an
effort be made to add to human nature a new bone, muscle, or
gland, or even a new leg or arm, as a new feeling, sentiment, or
power of thought.
In rendering man religious, then, you but improve his nature,
precisely as you do by any other kind of education. Strictly
speaking, you do not regenerate it. It is human nature still,
composed of the attributes common to our race, ameliorated in
its condition. A saint is as much a human being as a sinner.
Regeneration, as applied to the conversion of man from evil to
good, is a metaphorical term. It is meant as an illustration, not
as an assertion of a positive fact. It means simply that the kin-
dred
groupe of moral organs and their faculties have gained a
complete and permanent ascendency over the animal, not that a
single new organ or faculty is created. Has the Deity bestowed
on man an organ for every other kind of feeling and sentiment,
and denied one for that of religion, the most important of all?
The very suspicion of so deep a neglect (for such, we think, it
might be correctly denominated) would be an irreverent not to
say a criminal accusation of the wisdom and goodness of heaven.
Nor is this all. Where accountability exists, there must exist
also a full power to perform all the duties required. Were the
organs of religion, then, withheld from us, we could not be, in
justice, religiously accountable. If we had not a native sentiment
recognizing a God, and leaning instinctively toward him, we
would be no more blamable for not adoring him, than are the

21
inferior animals. In fact, without such a sentiment and its ap-
propriate organ, we could not adore hin, any more than we
could see without an eye, or hear without an ear. To amelio-
rate man, then, is not to bestow on him any new powers, but to
cultivate, strengthen, and direct those which he already possesses.
The bounty of heaven has enriched him with all the faculties
necessary to promote his welfare in his present state of exist-
ence, and to secure it in another. Every successful effort to
convert or in any way improve him, must be made in perfect
conformity to his nature. An effort in opposition to it will as
certainly fail, as would an attempt to make water flow up hill,
by the power of gravitation.
In one point of view, every man is constitutionally religious,
because every one, whose brain is not idiotically defective, pos-
sesses the organs of Veneration, Conscientiousness, Wonder, and
Hope. This is as true, as that every one, not defectively organized,
possesses lungs and a heart. By the requisite training, then, every
one may be rendered, in some degree, practically religious. Our
meaning, therefore, in pronouncing some individuals constitu-
tionally religious, in preference to others, is, that from the pre-
ponderating
influence of their moral temperament, they have, by
nature, a much more vivid susceptibility of religious impression
and sentiment, and a greater proneness to religious observances
and duties, than those whose animal temperament predominates.
Their piety and devotion are instinctive, and all their natural
leanings toward virtue.
To the educated phrenologist we feel bound to apologize for
this very limited view of the nature and constitution of the human
intellect. And our apology is, that we mean to confine ourselves
strictly to what is essential to our object in preparing this paper.
Having now, therefore, as we persuade ourselves, premised what
is sufficient, we shall endeavour briefly to show its applicability
to moral education and penitentiary discipline; two processes
which are in many respects identical. Under the phrase “inoral
education, we mean to include the cultivation of the reflecting
faculties, they, as already mentioned, being calculated to act in
subserviency to that training.
It has been observed, in a preceding part of this article, that,
in common with every other kind of living organized matter,
the brain may be greatly strengthened, and rendered more adroit
and efficient in action, by means of exercise; and that it alone, and
not the mind, is improved by education. To educate the brain,
then, you must exercise it; and you may invigorate and improve
either of its compartments, or single organs, at pleasure, by suit-
able discipline. "That it may be suitable, we need scarcely add,

22
that this discipline must be adapted to the nature of the organ
or compartment to be improved.
The knowing compartment must be exercised chiefly by ob-
servation on external nature, its properties and changes, those
being the objects with which it is in harmony, and which excite
in it, therefore, the requisite action.
The reflecting compartment can be exercised only by contem-
plating, examining, and judging of the relations of things, such
as similitudes and dissimilitudes, aptitudes and inaptitudes, ana-
logies and contrasts, and precedences and sequences as cause and
effect.
The moral compartment must be exercised by moral impres.
sion and excitement. These are to be the result of a combined
influence, the reiteration of precept, practice, and virtuous
example. The latter might be denominated moral sympathy.
The danger, as respects the animal compartment, being that
it may run into excess, the correct education of it consists in
moderating and directing, not in pampering and strengthening
it. The true mode of effecting this will be mentioned pre-
sently.
It is to be understood, that the four compartments of the
brain are so independent of each other, that any one of them
may be exercised and strengthened, in its separate capacity,
without materially affecting the others. To dwell in contempla-
tion on the relations of things, does not necessarily involve
actual observation of the things themselves; and to obey moral
precept, and follow virtuous example, is a process essentially
distinct from both. We need scarcely add, that the animal com-
partment leading to mere animal indulgences, may be power-
fully and habitually exercised, to the entire neglect of the other
three.
As excitement and exercise strengthen single organs and en-
tire compartments, the converse is equally true. Inaction neces-
sarily weakens them, precisely as it weakens the muscles of
voluntary motion. Exercise exclusively or chiefly one compart-
ment, you strengthen it at the expense of the others, which
remain at rest. Exercise two compartments, they acquire
strength, while the other two are weakened. As respects our
present purpose, it matters not whether the weakness produced
is positive or comparative. It is, however, in reality, both. The
inactive compartments are enfeebled, in themselves; but much
more so, in relation to those that are kept in action. Thus may
the exercised compartments be made to govern the others, and
give character to the intellect.
It is the development and strength of a few single organs, or

23
of an entire compartment, that forms the ruling passion; and,
when not counteracted by other influences, that passion is in
constant exercise. It is often awake, when the other faculties
are asleep; and, unless under strong countervailing excitement,
the individual indulges it and submits to its control as habitually
and certainly, as the stream flows downward, or the needle turns
to the pole. In each case the law of nature producing the
effect is equally strong and immutable. As is the preponder-
ance of cerebral development, then, so is the preponderance of
this master feeling.
Does the animal compartment preponderate? purely animal
is the ruling passion. If the moral compartment preponderate,
the passion is moral; if the knowing, the individual is engross-
ed by observation, and the collection of facts; while in those
whose reflecting compartment bears sway, the ruling passion
clings to the relation of things. The individual is an analogist,
a metaphysician, or a wit, or he is devoted to sound analytical
philosophy. These several positions, had we leisure to dwell
on them, are as susceptible of proof, as any that are connected
with the philosophy of man.
It has been already observed, that the true counterpoise of the
animal compartment, and the preventive of its excesses, are to
be found in the influence of the moral and reflecting. In the
training and strengthening, then, of the two latter compartments,
so as to give them the control of the former, consists the pro-
cess of moral education. It need scarcely be added, that, to
insure its success this discipline should be practised on indivi-
duals, with a care, constancy, and force, corresponding to the
degrees of their animal temperament.
In early life, while the susceptibility of the brain is vivid,
and its flexibility unimpaired by habit, the process of education
of every description, is easily accomplished. Provided the
ordinary balance between the compartments of his brain exist,
a youth may be rendered moral with as much facility and cer-
tainty, as he can be rendered knowing. He can be taught to
love virtue and practice duty, as easily as he can be taught to read
and write. To teach him the latter, educate his knowing organs;
to teach him the former, his moral. To instruct him in the
relation of things, cultivate his organs of reflection. Sound and
confirmed moral habits, then, and a love of virtue, are as much
the result of education as a knowledge of arithmetic, music, or
dancing, and, in common cases, can be as readily imparted.
It is the idiot only that cannot be rendered moral. Nor is it
less impracticable to teach him reflection. The reason is obvi-
ous. His brain is wanting alike in the reflecting and moral

24
compartments. He is a mere animal, possessing none of the
intellectual characterictics of humanity. Destitute of the organ
of Veneration and its associates, he has no sentiment of re-
ligion. This amounts to proof that that organ is essential to
piety; and, that to exist at all, religion must be radicated in the
constitution of the intellect; or, more literally, in that of the
brain. Wherever the organ of Veneration exists, there is found
a sentiment of piety; wherever it is wanting, there is none.
Hence, throughout the human family, where the development
of the brain is not idiotically defective, a sentiment of venera-
tion for a God of some kind, is as natural and universal, as
the love of offspring, or sexual attachment.
A few words more on the condition and character of the idiot.
We have asserted, that he cannot be disciplined in morality or
religion, and assigned the reason. His brain is defective. Dissec-
tion proves it so. He possesses only the knowing compartment
in partial and slight development, and the animal compartment
often very fully developed. Hence nis proneness to animal in-
dulgences of the worst and most debasing kind, is frequently un-
controllable. His brain is unbalanced, from a want of both the
moral and reflecting organs, which alone can hold the animal in
check. The knowing compartment, as far as it extends, only
ministers to the gratification of the animal, by aiding its cunning,
and supplying it with means."
A human being largely developed in the animal and knowing,
and entirely wanting, or even greatly defective, in the two other
compartments, would be a monument of profligacy and vice, ut-
terly beyond the hope of reform. Such, as the figures of their
heads demonstrate, were the brutal developments of Caligula,
Caracalla, Nero, Vitellius, and Domitian, whose names are iden-
tified with human depravity; and such the development of
Alexander VI. the most blood-thirsty, treacherous, and profli-
gate Pontiff, that ever disgraced the See of Rome. To these
names might be added, were it necessary, a host of others of
the same description. In fact, no instance can be cited of a hu-
man monster, instinctively delighting in cruelty and blood, and
yet fully developed in the moral region of his brain. Mere
animals in appetite, such beings are the same in development.
If, then, it is impracticable to bestow on idiots a moral edu-
cation, on account of their defective cerebral organization, the
difficulty of conferring that boon on others, will be in proportion
* An entire want of certain organs is, as here stated, one cause of idiocy.
Another is the mal-organization of portions of the brain, or of the whole of
it, as in cases of inordinately large and deformed heads. Wrong organization
is as bad as deficiency.

25
to their approach to idiocy; in other words, in proportion to the
deficiency of the moral and reflecting, and the predominancy of
the animal compartment of their brain. Hence even in boys,
whose foreheads are unusually low, and the tops of their heads
flat or depressed, and the base of whose brain, from ear to ear,
is inordinately wide, with a very large amount of brain behind
the ear, we discover a ruling propensity to vice; or, at least, to
low and vulgar animal indulgences, which if not checked and
changed, must terminate in vice. Such boys have the true ruf-
fian development, and will, inevitably, become ruffians, unless
preserved by dint of education. Nor is such preservation an
easy task. Their ruling passion is animal, and inclines to gross
ness as naturally, as a ponderous body tends to the centre. Still
they may be saved by moral training, provided it be commenced
early, judiciously conducted, and inflexibly persevered in. But
if they remain uneducated and idle, and be exposed to the in-
fluence of bad example, they are inevitably lost. Their animal
habits will become, in a short time, so irrevocably confirmed, as
to baffle all redeeming efforts.
It is individuals of this description, that become the most
atrocious and irreclaimable malefactors. To the truth of this,
jails, penitentiaries, and places of public execution for deliberate
murder, and other forms of deep and daring crime, abundantly
testify. Although from strong temptation, corrupting example,
and other powerfully seductive influences, individuals of far dif-
ferent developments may be hurried into felony, and forced to
expiate their guilt on a gibbet; yet, search the records of public
executions, and it will be found, that where one individual, of
good moral developments, has suffered capital punishment, fifty,
at least, with ruffian heads, have surrendered up their lives to
offended justice. On the truth of this, the friends of Phrenology
might safely hazard the fate of the science. Observation con-
firms it.
We ourselves have never seen, either in Europe or America,
a deep, deliberate, and habitual malefactor possessed of a good
moral and reflecting development. Nor is there any thing either
new or extraordinary in the position we are defending. On the
contrary, it perfectly comports with the common sense and set-
tled belief of the enlightened and thinking portion of the world.
It is, in fact, we repeat, the result of observation, and the dictate
of a ruling instinct of our nature.
Works of moral fiction are confirmatory of this. In such
compositions, which, to be of any value, must be copies of life,
low-bred, consummate, and habitual villains, are always repre-
sented with ruffian heads. And if they were not thus repre-
5

26
sented, the incorrectness of the picture would be immediately
detected, and the production condemned, as false to nature. Nor
would it be a less condemnatory feature in it, to portray an ho-
nourable, magnanimous, and moral hero, with any other than a
lofty and expanded forehead, and a well-arched head.
The truth of these remarks is fully confirmed, by the writings
of Shakspeare and Sir Walter Scott. Even in the strong lined
delineations of Lord Byron, the vulgar ruffian has a vulgar head.
It is to the high-bred offender, who has been seduced to vice, by
deep-felt wrong, or some other powerfully corrupting influence,
that he has given the aspect and bearing of nobleness; a well
formed head, a lofty port, and an air of command, that awed his
inferiors. And on such individuals, although crimsoned with
blood, and blackened with every other species of guilt, he has
always conferred an elevation of sentiment, and a loftiness of
purpose and thought, corresponding exactly with their attributes
of form. Witness his representations of Conrad, Lara, Manfred,
Lambro, and others. In illustration of this topic, and in confir-
mation of our views of it, a few lines, from the Corsair, may be
aptly quoted-
66 Yet Conrad was not thus by nature sent
To lead the guilty-guilt's worst instrument--
His soul was changel, before his deeds had driven
Him forth to war with man, and forfeit heaven.
Warped by the world in disappointment's school,
In words too wise, in conduct there a fool;
Too firm to yield, and much too proud to stoop,
Doomed by his very virtues for a dupe."
In common, then, with those of every other great poet, such as
Homer's portrait of Menelaus, Virgil's delineation of Æneas,
Tasso's picture of Godfrey, and Milton's description of Adam,
and with those of every distinguished writer of moral fiction,
whether in prose or verse, the sketches of Lord Byron are
strictly phrenological, which is tantamount to calling them per-
fectly natural. And to that alone are they indebted for their
power to charm, and their imperishable reputation. Take from
them their phrenological truth, and you utterly destroy them.
As respects moral education and penitentiary discipline, then,
Phrenology throws light on two points of great importance. It
indicates the boys and youths that most deeply require such
education, to save them from vice, and the adult convicts, whose
characters place them beyond its influence. Its solemn injunc-
tions are, to discipline the former by every means that can con-
tribute to their improvement in morality and reflection, and to
protect society from the vices of the latter, by capital punish-
ment, or imprisonment during life. And for these purposes we

27
conscientiously believe that the truths of the science will yet be
employed, by the wisdom of lawgivers, and in improved systems
for the instruction of youth. And we further believe, that, when
thus employed, the benefits conferred on the community by the
practice, will be incalculably great, and that Phrenology will
then be lauded and cherished by the wise and the virtuous, as
earnestly and resolutely as it has been heretofore denounced by
the prejudiced and the uninformed. We venture in addition to
believe, even at the hazard of being deemed utopian and wild in
our anticipations, that the science is destined to create, in educa-
tion of every description, intellectual as well as moral, a new
and auspicious epoch. Our reason for this latter belief is, that
education can never be efficiently conducted and brought to per-
fection without an accurate knowledge of the constitution of the
human intellect, and that such knowledge is communicated by
Phrenology alone.
We shall now attempt to make a more direct application of
phrenological principles to the discipline of prisons, and to moral
education generally. But we deem it important to state pre-
viously a few facts, which occurred in England, and at sea, in
1526. They show, by experiment, not merely the applicability,
but the positive application, and the incalculable value of phre-
nological knowledge, to the concerns of jails, penitentiaries, and
other places where criminals are confined.
In the spring of 1826, one hundred and forty-eight male con-
victs were removed from prison, and confined in the ship England,
lying in the Thames, preparatory to their transportation to New
South Wales. Mr. James de Ville, of London, one of the most dis-
ciplined practical phrenologists of the day, undertook, at the sug-
gestion of Mr. Wardrop, a gentleman of high standing and profes-
sional distinction, to examine their heads and report on their cha-
racters. He had never before seen the convicts, nor even heard
their names. Nor had he the slightest knowledge of the particular
crime of which any one of them was convicted. In his report,
which he placed in the hands of G. Thompson, Esq., surgeon
of the ship, he specified the vicious propensity of each, and
designated distinctly all the desperadoes, whom he consider-
ed most dangerous, and likely to hatch and head conspi-
racies and mutinies during the voyage. He indicated, in par-
ticular, Robert Hughes, as pre-eminent over all the others, in the
atrocious qualities of the conspirator and the mutineer; the most
daring, artful, and treacherous, and also the most instinctively
blood-thirsty of the gang. He also pronounced of several of the
others, that they were much to be dreaded, and admonished the
captain and officers of the ship, to keep them under vigilant guard,
if not in strict confinement.

28
Subsequent events proved, that, of the hundred and forty-eight
convicts, Mr. de Ville was mistaken in his opinion and report of
but one. Nor, as will appear presently, could he be said to be
positively mistaken in relation even to him.
In the course of the voyage, a spirit of mutiny manifested it-
self several times among the criminals, who were, at length, dis-
covered to have formed a conspiracy to murder the officers, and
take possession of the ship. In every instance Hughes was the
leader, and his most active abettors were those whom Mr. de
Ville had represented as best qualified for such purposes.
The following is an "Extract from a letter of G. Thompson,
Esq., surgeon of the ship England, to James Wardrop, Esq.,''
dated, “ Sidney, October 9th, 1826."
“I have to thank you for your introduction to Mr. de Ville
and Phrenology, which I am now convinced has a foundation in
truth, and beg you will be kind enough to call on Dr. Burnett,
whom I have requested to show you my journal, at the end of
which is Mr. de Ville's report, and my report of conduct dur-
ing the voyage; and likewise to the depositions against some
of the convicts, who you, with your usual tactus eruditus, dis-
covered would give me some trouble during the voyage, and I
think the perusal of them will make you laugh, as they were
going to rip up the poor doctor, like a pig. De Ville is right
in every case except one, Thomas Jones; but this man can
neither read nor write, and being a sailor, he was induced to
join the conspiracy to rise and seize the ship, and carry her to
South America, being informed by Hughes, the ringleader,
that he should then get his liberty. Observe how de Ville has
hit the real character of Hughes, and I will be grateful to
de Ville all my life; for his report enabled me to shut up in
close custody the malcontents, and arrive here not a head
minus, which, without the report it is more than probable I
should have been. All the authorities here have become phre-
nologists, and I cannot get my Journals out of their offices
until they have perused and reperused de Ville's report, and
will not be in time, I am afraid, to send them by the Fairfield.”
See Edinb. Phrenol. Journal, Vol. IV. No. XV. p. 470.
Many facts of a similar character, several of them almost as
striking as the preceding, could be easily adduced from the
records of Phrenology. * On the whole of them we shall only
* For a knowledge of several very interesting and important facts of this de.
scription, the reader is referred to an account of Dr. Spurzheim's “Visit to
Hull” in December 1827. From an examination of the heads of prisoners
and convicts, he specified, with a promptitude and correctness which fur-

29
remark, that if they are insufficient so far to attract the atten-
tion, and enlist the feelings of the public, as to induce them to
make the science a subject of serious and deliberate study, a
voice from above, to the same effect, would be unavailing. In
fact, they are a voice from above; for they are truths proclaim-
ed by Nature, who is, at once, the priestess and oracle of
Heaven.
Shall we be told that, in the case ere alluded to, Mr. de
Ville pronounced on the characters of the convicts from the ex-
pressions of their countenances; that he judged, therefore, as
a physiognomist, not a phrenologist; and that any person
versed in observations on the human countenance, might have
been equally successful in indicating the leading propensities of
the prisoners? We reply that this is a mistake. In forming
his opinion Mr. de Ville did not depend on expression of coun-
tenance, but on the developments of the head. Had the coun-
tenances of the individuals been masked from the eyes down-
ward, he would have been equally successful in the discovery
of their characters.
Physiognomy is a mere appendage of Phrenology. The pre-
dominant passions, which have their appropriate seats in the
brain, produce, in time, by muscular action, their impress on
the countenance. But it is the passions only which thus act.
The strength of the knowing and reflecting faculties, i. e., the
amount of real intellect, is not indicated by muscular expression.
Hence physiognomy discloses but a part of the character, while
Phrenology gives the whole of it. The former may bespeak a
disposition to vice. But the latter points to the kind of vice,
and testifies to the competency to lead and excel in it.
To be rendered efficient and useful in the highest degree,
moral education must be conducted differently at different pe-
riods of life. In infancy and childhood, the entire moral com-
partment of the brain is not sufficiently developed to be compe-
tently instructed, and to give bias to character. Hence, until
near the age of puberty, man is not, in reality, a moral agent;
nor is he so considered, by the laws of our country.
But, fortunately for children, their organs of Adhesiveness
and Imitation are so far developed, as to be convertible into
nished matter of astonishment, the forms of vice to which they were addicted.
See Edinb. Phrenological Journal, Vol. V. No. XVII. p. 82.
For much additional information on the same topic we might further re-
fer to Dr. Gall's visit to the prison of Berlin, and the fortress of Spandau,
in April 1805. Besides the Doctor's view of this visit, given in his own
works, a brief account of it may be seen in the Foreign Quarterly Review,'
No. III. pp. 13, 14, 15.

30
sources of influence and control. By means of them, therefore,
if they cannot be rendered truly moral, in feeling and senti-
ment, they can be retained within the pale of practical or
rather formal morality and religion; they can, at least, be with-
held from much of the grossness of animal indulgence. Thus
will good habits of action be formed, and bad ones prevented, a
state of things calculated to prove highly advantageous in future
life.
Children are prone to imitation, especially where their feel-
ings of attachment are enlisted. They can be, therefore, easily
induced to follow the example and obey the precepts of those
whom they love. Thus can they be early led into the paths
of virtue; or rather secured in them, and prevented from stray-
ing into those of vice. It is now, therefore, in a particular
manner, that they should be taught, by example, and initiated
into the practice of moral conduct, even before they can feel
the force or appreciate the value of moral precept. To such
precept, however, they will cheerfully conform, when issued by
the lips of those that are dear to them.
In children are considerably developed two other organs, on
which their instructors may act with advantage. We allude to
Cautiousness and Love of approbation. These are the sources of
the apprehension of punishment and disgrace, and the love
of applause. In children that cannot be otherwise governed,
and restrained from vice, these feelings should be judiciously
called into action. Thus may early life be protected from habits
of practical depravity.
About the age of puberty the moral and reflecting compart-
ments of the brain are more fully developed. And it is now,
for the first time, that youth begin to feel strongly the impulse
of moral sentiment, realize the force of moral obligation, and
place a just estimate on moral conduct. Hence they are now
recognized, in judicial proceedings, as moral agents. And hence
it is by no means uncommon, for boys, who had been previously
vicious and unmanageable, to become now correct and docile.
The real foundation of moral education being now laid, in the
competent development of the moral constitution, the superstruc-
ture must be reared and finished, as heretofore mentioned, by
precept and persuasion, example and reason; by the active, ju-
dicious, and uninterrupted cultivation of the moral and reflect-
ing compartments of the brain. The study of Ethics is now
doubly useful. It expands and invigorates the intellect, and
strengthens the motives to praise worthy conduct.
For a time the pupil should be so hedged around by all things
that are virtuous, as to be completely protected from allurements

31
to vice. But as his moral habits increase in strength, it is expe-
dient that their competency be occasionally but judiciously tried,
by cautious exposure. In the course of his life, and the vicissi-
tudes of his fortune, temptations will present themselves; and
it is wise that he be opportunely disciplined in the practice of
resisting them. It is thus, that the body becomes fortified
against physical evils, by coming occasionally into contact with
them. Besides, the revolting aspect of profligacy and vice has
often the happy effect of strengthening moral habits, and con-
firming virtuous resolutions, in those who witness it. Hence
the importance that when youth encounter vicious example, it
should not approach them in a seductive form. If the pupil be
high-minded and aspiring, his sense of honour, and his love of
fame will become, at length, a guardian of his virtue. So will
his personal interest, as well as his feelings toward his family
and friends, whom he would not, without reluctance, offend or
disgrace. These considerations, with sundry others, on which a
want of time forbids us to dilate, should be strenuously inculca-
ted by the instructors of youth, as aids in the process of moral
education.
To the discipline of penitentiaries, where reform is the object,
most of the foregoing sentiments are applicable. If the convicts
are young, both in years and vice, and the moral and reflecting
compartments of their brains are even moderately developed, the
prospect is promising, that, by judicious treatment, they may be
perfectly reclaimed. If the developments just mentioned are
strong, their complete reformation is the more probable. Even
those who are advanced in years, and somewhat habituated to
crime, may be reclaimed from their vicious practices, if their
moral and reflecting developments are full. But, to insure entire
and permanent reform, their training must be well directed and
long continued.
In youthful offenders, possessing what we have denominated
the ruffian temperament—the forehead low, the top of the head
flat or depressed, the base of the brain, from the temporal region
backward, wide, and a large amount of it behind the ear—refor-
mation is always difficult, and sometimes, we apprehend, im-
practicable. The brain resembles too much that of the Carib,
who is perfectly animal, and never feels a virtuous emotion.
There exist some individuals who steal, and others who deceive
and lie, by a force of instinct, which seems irresistible. In
others, again, the instinct of Destructiveness is like that of the
tiger. * Nothing can appease it but blood. We possess the
In all these the basis of the brain, about its middle region from front to
back, is wide.

32
skull of a man, who was executed, at the age of about thirty, for
the last of nine murders, the whole of which he acknowledged
he had committed, from an inherent love of slaughter. He mur-
dered as an amateur. The flowing of blood he declared to be
delightful to him. Hence he never failed to cut, from ear to
ear, the throat of his victim. In the case of his last murder, he
would probably have escaped detection, had it not been for this
horrid sanguinary propensity. After having proceeded several
miles from the place of his felony, he turned back, to cut the
throat of him whom he had murdered, and was apprehended.
His whole animal compartment, but especially in the region of
Combativeness and Destructiveness, was unusually large.
Even, we say, when young, individuals of this description
should be subjected to a long, circumspect, and energetic course
of discipline. The utmost force of education should be tried to
strengthen the moral and reflecting organs, while they are yet
mutable, and give them an ascendency over the animal. In no
other way can beings thus organized ever be reclaimed. But if
they be advanced both in years and crime, the case is hopeless.
All attempts at their reformation, however praiseworthy in mo-
tive, might be almost pronounced the offspring of folly. Utter-
ly unavailing they must certainly prove. In such instances,
capital punishment, or imprisonment during life, is the only
measure by which society can be protected from the repetition
of their crimes.
Shall we be told that this would be unjust ? that convicts
should be punished according to the nature and amount of their
crimes, not according to their cerebral developments? We reply
that here, as in all other cases, experience, wisdom, and common
sense should suggest means, and direct practice. The paramount
end of judicial punishment is the protection of society. The
good of the many and the virtuous must prevail over both the
sufferings and the enjoyments of the vicious and the few. If, then,
it be established, on satisfactory evidence, that beings such as
we have described, cannot be reformed, they should be regarded
as feræ naturæ, and treated accordingly; confined in cages du-
ring life, or sentenced to the gibbet. Nor, as relates to the wis-
dom and justice of the policy, is it of the slightest moment,
whether their propensity to crime is the offspring of matter or
mind. It exists and is immutable; and society is entitled to
protection from its influence.
That they may be strengthened and prove fruitful, all the
organs
and compartments of the brain must be exercised in the
manner, and by the impressions, that are suited to their natures.
Inaction and sloth as certainly enfeeble them, as they do the

33
muscles. In strict solitary confinement, therefore, where day
follows day, week week, month month, and year year, in one
dreary, dead, and monotonous succession, without the least ex-
citement from instruction, it is idle to expect even the shadow
of amendment. As well might we expect improvement, without
exercise, in muscular dexterity and strength; or as well expect
the convict to acquire, with his hands bound and muffled, higher
excellence in penmanship, or an augmentation of manual dexte-
rity in any of the arts. Of such a course of discipline, or rather
want of discipline, deterioration is the inevitable effect. Moral
improvement does not consist in the mere absence of vicious
acts. It is something positive; something consisting in action;
and that action is of a specific kind. It is as much the product
of education, as improvement in mathematics, or any other
branch of knowledge. But education, to be productive and use-
ful, must be administered within the walls of a prison, precisely
as it is within those of a schoolhouse. The organs and faculties
of the pupils must be suitably exercised, according to the kind
of instruction required. If they are not, their march will be re-
trograde. They not only will not acquire more, but they will
lose what they already possess. This is a law of nature. It
appears to us, therefore, not a little singular, that highly intelli-
gent and practical men should have ever dreamt of reforming
criminals, by mere solitary confinement. Compel an atrocious
and habitual malefactor to labour in a cell, uninstructed, or to
remain there, without either labour or instruction, for twenty
years, and he will be no more moral or virtuous at the end of
his imprisonment, nor any more fitted to live peacefully and in-
nocently in society, than he was at the beginning of it. On the
contrary, it appears to us incontrovertible, that he will be more
depraved. His own thoughts and feelings are his only instruct-
ors, and they instruct him in nothing but vice. The school, in
which he has been so long disciplined, is one of positive immo-
rality and corruption. That this is true, appears, we think, from
the following considerations.
We have already stated, and now repeat, that, in high and
habitual offenders, the animal compartment of the brain prepon-
derates. Their ruling passion, therefore, is purely animal, and
inclines only to vice. Nor, when they are alone, will the entire
current of their feelings fail to follow it. In such beings, when
left to themselves, and surrendered up to the dominion of their
own depraved appetites and passions, it is proverbially true,
that
“Imagination plies her dangerous art,
And pours them all upon the peccant part."
6

34
Instead of dwelling on the obligations of morality, the beau-
ties and blessings of religion, the value of industry, and the
merit of good works, feelings, and sentiments, to which they are
as entire strangers, as the cannibal in his orgies, or the tiger in
his jungle, the bent of their souls will be toward their for-
mer courses of crime, and all their thoughts will be directed
to the devising of means for their more successful renewal, when
time shall have liberated them again, to disturb the repose, and
prey on the fruits, or otherwise assail the welfare of society.
Thus will their animal propensities alone be strengthened, at
the expense of their other faculties; every change in them will
be from deep to deeper depravity; and, at the expiration of
their confinement, they will issue forth on the community, more
consummate villains than they were at its commencement.
Thus, to habitual culprits, is solitary confinement, as already
mentioned, a school of vice. To the correctness of this repre-
sentation the well-known principles of human nature abundantly
testify. Leave to himself and his own imaginings, a thief or a
robber, long practised in the work of felony, and theft or rob-
bery, with new and improved schemes for perpetrating it, will
constitute exclusively the theme of his thoughts. If this is not
true, observation is fallacious, and all reasoning on the subject
nugatory.
To the reform of convicts, then, judicious and active educa-
tion is essential. And, to prove effectual, it must be the longer
continued, and the more strenuously pressed, in proportion as
the subjects of it are the worse organized, and the more invete-
rately practised in guilt. It is thus, that, at school, the dunce re-
quires, for his improvement in letters, more labour in the teach-
er, and a greater length of time, than the boy of sprightliness;
and that the wound, which has long festered, is more difficult to
heal than that which is fresh.
It is not unimportant to observe, that if, in addition to a large
animal development, the felon has also a large development of
the organ of Firmness, the prospect of his reform is the less
promising. The function of this organ, as its name indicates, is
to render the individual steady and inflexible in his opinions
and sentiments, whether true or false, and in his course of con-
duct, whether virtuous or vicious. It is situated immediately
under the sagittal suture, near its posterior extremity. Its large
development produces a fulness or protuberance of the skull
adjoining and directly above the point denominated, in common
language, the crown. Add this to what has been designated, as
the ruffian form of the head, and the development for vice and
depravity is complete.
It has been already observed, and is now repeated, as a mat-

35
ter of great moment, that where the reformation of the convict
is meditated, neither labour nor instruction must be enforced as
a task, or inflicted as a punishment. Every kind of employment
in which he is required to engage, must be not only voluntary
in him, but rendered agreeable to him. Whatever is enforced
by punishment or dread, is necessarily odious, and will be aban-
doned, in disgust, on the earliest opportunity. It will moreover
be subsequently remembered with increased abhorrence, and a
stronger resolution against its adoption. To man, in his present
cast of mind, even the felicities of Paradise would become offen-
sive, and be rebelled against, were they forced on him contrary
to his inclination. As heretofore stated, then, the convict should
be indulged in labour, as a relief and amusement in solitude, that
he may learn to love it on account of the gratification it affords
him, and the health he derives from it; and instruction should
be dispensed to him, on the same principles, and with the same
views. Nor should the labour be either degrading in kind, or
severe and oppressive, from the extent of the task. In either
case it will be hateful, and never become productive of indus-
trious habits. Hence a more hopeless instrument of reform than
the tread-wheel can scarcely be imagined. It may subdue for
the moment, but can never radically amend. On the contrary,
it engenders feelings unfavourable to virtue.
Culprits are but perverse and wicked children; and the more
deeply and exclusively you punish and disgrace them, you har-
den them the more, and render them the worse. Many a fro-
ward and stubborn boy is driven, by harsh treatment, into vice
and ruin, who, by mild and judicious training, might have been
bred up to industry, usefulness, and honour. In like manner,
the harshness and cruelty of an under-keeper, himself even lin-
gering on the borders of crime, and awaiting but a slight tempta-
tion, and a suitable opportunity, for the actual commission of it,
may confirm, in the convict, vicious propensities, which, by
proper discipline, might have been thoroughly corrected, and ren-
dered subservient to virtuous purposes.
In saying that the moral and religious instructors of criminals
should be themselves moral and religious, we shall probably be
regarded as uttering one of the tritest of truisms.
intend, by the position, more, perhaps, than is at first apprehend-
ed. Our meaning is, that the teachers should be constitution-
ally moral and religious; that both the moral and reflecting com-
partments of their brains, but especially the former, should be
fully developed.
That this opinion is both true and important, can be shown,
if we mistake not, on well settled principles; and we know,
But we

36
from observation, that, in analogous cases, experience has con-
firmed it.
It is a law of nature, as immutable as the pointing of the
needle to the pole, or the lapse of water down an inclined plane,
that the language and true expression of any organ or compart-
ment of the brain, in one individual, excite to action the corres-
ponding organ or compartment in another. This is the natural
and only ground of the influence of eloquence; and the true
reason why the passions are contagious.
One individual addresses another in the words and tones and
gesticulations of anger; or, to speak phrenologically, in the
language and manner of Combativeness. The consequence is
known to every one, and is felt to be natural. The same organ
is excited in the individual addressed, and he replies in the
same style. From artificial speech, and empty gesture, the par-
ties proceed to blows, which constitute the greatest intensity of
the natural language of the irritated organ; its ultima ratio, in
common men, as an appeal to arms is, in the case of monarchs.
Urged by Destructiveness, a man draws on his enemy or his
comrade, a sword or a dagger, and is instantly answered by a
similar weapon, in obedience to the impulse of the same organ.
This meeting of weapon with weapon is not the result of reason.
The act will
be performed as promptly and certainly, generally
much more so, by him whose reasoning powers are dull and
feeble, than by him in whom they are active and strong. It is
the product of instinct; the reply, in its native expression, of
the excited organ of Destructiveness, in the defendant, to the
expression of the same organ in the assailant.
When Demosthenes roused the Athenians to war with Philip,
he harangued them in the intense language, burning thoughts,
and bold and fierce gesticulations of Combativeness and Destruc-
tiveness combined. And had he not so harangued them, he
would never have impelled them to the field of Chæronea.
Under a mere argumentative address, or one dictated exclusive-
ly by the moral organs, they would have remained inactive; when
the object of the orator is to move and melt, he succeeds only
by adopting the language and natural expression of the softer
organs
which he desires to affect. If he wishes to command
tears, he sheds them. So true is the maxim, “ Si vis me flere,
dolendum est primum tibi ipsi."
Does one man wish to conciliate the friendship of another?
he mildly accosts him in the language of Adhesiveness, and thus
excites a kindred organ. And when the lover strives to propi-
tiate his mistress and gain her favours, he approaches and ad-
dresses her in the soft language and winning manner of the as-

37
sociated
organs
of Amativeness and Adhesiveness. This is the
philosophy of what the poets denominate the sympathy of souls;
the condition of an organ naturally and forcibly expressed, by
looks, words, or actions, or by all of them, in one person, pro-
ducing a similar condition of the same organ in another.
In further illustration of our principle, let us suppose a lover
to address his mistress in the language and manner of Comba-
tiveness, or an individual, intent on gaining the confidence of
another, to approach him with a naked dagger, and the menace
of Destructiveness. Would either succeed in his meditated ob-
ject? We know he would not. On the contrary, the former
would render himself an object of resentment and dislike, and
the latter would become the subject of a reciprocated assault,
and perhaps of a mortal injury. In phrenological terms, each
would be met and answered by the organ corresponding to that
whose language and manner he had mistakenly assumed.
Nor does this rule apply less forcibly to the moral organs,
than to those of the other compartments of the brain. The
very aspect of an educated individual with a large development
of morality and reflection, his forehead elevated and broad, and
the top of his head lofty and well arched, accompanied by the
impressive and commanding air and manner that never fail to
attend them, exerts over beholders a moral influence. Vice
and impiety shrink from his approach, and no profane or unbe-
coming language is heard, nor vulgar indecencies practised in
his presence. Is he in the pulpit? It is under his influence,
in particular, that “those who came to scoff, remain to pray.
Wherever he is, even wild riot and bacchanalian uproar are
settled and silenced, by the mild but imposing authority of his
appearance. These are the attributes which rendered so inde-
scribably attractive and overawing the aspect, air, and manner
of Washington.
This effect of piety and morality, manifested in the exterior
and deportment of an individual, is no less correctly than beau-
tifully depicted by Virgil, in his illustration of the authority of
Neptune, in quelling the fury of the ministers of Æolus, who
had disturbed his empire, by a violent tempest. The passage,
which is perfectly phrenological, is as follows:
“Ac veluti magno in populo cum sæpe coorta est
Seditio, sævitque animis ignobile vulgus ;
Jamque faces et saxa volant ; furor arma ministrat;
Tum pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quem
Conspexere, silent, arrectisque auribus adstant ;
Ille regit dictis animos, et pectora mulcet."

38
“ As when in tumults rise the ignoble crowd,
Mad are their motions, and their tongues are loud;
And stones and brands in rattling vollies fly,
And all the rustic arms that fury can supply;
If then some grave and pious man appear,
They hush their noise, and lend a listening ear;
He soothes with sober words their angry mood,
And quenches their innate desire of blood.”
DRYDEN
Whether we have regard to its poetical beauties, its graphical de
lineation, or its philosophical truth, there is scarcely to be found,
in any production, whether ancient or modern, a picture supe-
rior in merit to this.
Let the instructors in penitentiaries, then, be fully develop-
ed in the moral and reflecting organs of the brain. Their organs
of Benevolence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, and Hope, will
so express themselves, by appearance, manner, and words, as to
awaken, in the convicts, the requisite action in the same organs.
By their very language and general expression, independently
of the sentiments inculcated, Benevolence scothes and conciliates,
Conscientiousness solemnizes, Hope cheers with inviting pros-
pects, in case of reformation, Wonder gives sanctity and force
to inculcations of a belief in the existence of superior beings,
while Veneration elevates and directs the soul toward its God.
In the expression and eloquence of the latter organ, in parti-
cular, when highly excited, there is a sublimity of fervour and
force, which melts down and subdues even obduracy itself. No-
thing canting, boisterous, menacing, or loud; but a depth and
solemn majesty of undertone, united to a glowing upward look,
and an adoring attitude which nothing but the consummation of
far-gone depravity can resist. - The speaker does not merely re-
cite; he, at once, looks and acts the character he personates; and
we all know how important that is to deep effect, as well in
the pulpit, as on the stage.
How different is this, both in appearance and result, from that
miserable substitute for religious and moral teaching; that re-
volting caricature of piety, whining, coarse, obstreperous, and
denouncing, which so often assails us in places of worship; and
which has its source as exclusively in the animal organs, as the
uproar of the bacchanalian, the shout of battle, or the howling
of wolves ? This indecent storminess of instruction affects
alone the animal compartment of the brain, because, as just
stated, it is itself grossly animal; and we venture to assert, that
• A large development of the organ of Wonder or Marvellousness height-
ens not a little the tone of Veneration, and gives it more decidedly a hea.
venward direction.

39
never can.
no teacher or minister ever practised it, who was himself large-
ly developed in his moral and reflecting compartments; we
mean, in whom those compartments fairly predominated, and
gave character to the individual. On the truth of this we would
be willing to peril the fate of Phrenology. It is a cast of pulpit-
pugilists alone, with heads of the true ruffian mould, or nearly
approaching it, that deal in nothing but discourses of terror ;
who, in sermonizing, or otherwise teaching, exercise their Com-
bative and Destructive faculties, to drive their flocks into the
pale of their religion, precisely as they would employ a whip
or a goad, to drive sheep into a fold, or black cattle into their
stalls. Terror is their chief if not their only instrument of reform;
and a worse can scarcely be imagined. Their appeal is to
Cautiousness, the organ of the craven passion of fear, whose in-
fluence never infused morality or religion into any one, and
Their plea of conversion and worship is not grati-
tude for existence and all its enjoyments, nor yet the love of
moral purity and holiness, but the dread of punishment. They
would frighten sinners into Heaven, as a mere refuge from a
place of torment.
From teaching like this, which is the growth of the more de-
graded propensities of man, the convicts of a prison should be
carefully protected. Whatever seemingly useful effect it may
produce on them, is, to say the least of it, transitory and decep-
tive. Nor is this all. It unfits the mind for rational improve-
ment, and true reformation. No man, then, whose head in-
clines strongly to the ruffian form, should ever be employed as
an instructor of convicts. For his labours to prove successful
would seem impossible.
We cannot forbear expressing our sincere regret, that any in-
dividual, of such developments, should ever assume the office of
a public teacher of morality and religion. The pulpit is not his
proper sphere. Such is the incongruity of his aspect and de-
meanour with that sacred spot, that, when he is in it, the ap-
pearance presented is scarcely short of caricature. He resem-
bles the mock-hero of faree, whose office is to “split the ears of
the groundlings,” and make the “million laugh.” He does not
“look his character” and cannot, therefore act in it with impres-
sive and permanent effect. He is a baboon in regimentals, or Bruin
disfigured by a band and surplice. In fact, his teaching, like
his looks, has "no relish of salvation in it.” Hence his ministry
is fruitless, and perhaps we might add, profane and injurious.
To show that our views on this subject, are not singular,
but comport with long standing and high authority, we refer to
the heads of the Messiah, his beloved disciple, and Judas Isca-

40
riot, as delineated by Raphael, Michael Angelo, and others.
In the two former, but more especially in the first of them, we
find, united to large reflecting organs, the most finished speci-
men of moral development, that has ever been witnessed ;
while, in the head of him who betrayed his master, there is
nothing but the development of the animal and the ruffian.
The wonder is, that a being, with such a brain, should ever
have been trusted, or admitted, for a moment, into fellowship
with the pious.
Will it be objected, that these are fancy-heads, and not real
likenesses of the personages designated? We answer, it matters
not. Were the forms of the heads proved to be fictitious, the
the phrenological argument derived from them would lose none
of its force. The developments of the Messiah and the disci-
ple whom he loved, would still be expressive of morality and
piety, and that of Judas of incurable depravity.
Fancy-painting, like statuary, poetry, and all moral fiction,
must be true to life. If otherwise, it is worthless, and has no
reputation. Supposing the painters, then, to have cast the moulds
of the heads in their own imaginations, those moulds were but
copies of nature. Had they not learnt, in the school of obser-
vation, that a lofty and expanded forehead, and an elevated and
finely arched head, are indicative of reflection, morality, and
piety, and the reverse of falsehood, treachery, and vice, they
would not have represented the former attributes of figure as
characteristic of beings consummate in excellence, and the latter
of one matchless in guilt. Had those painters bestowed on the
head of the Messiah the same form, which they have given to
that of Judas, high as their reputation was, a blunder so
gross and unnatural would have ruined it. In the fanatical age
in which they lived, the act would have been probably con-
strued into impiety, and might have brought them to the stake.
We mean no irreverence in adding, because we feel none, but
the reverse, that had the Messiah presented such developments,
as those conferred on the apostolic traitor, his sermon on the
Mount, as well as his other teachings, would have been less im-
pressive than they were. It would not have been so likely to
have been declared of him, that he “spake as never man
spake.” There is no doubt, that that criticism related to his
manner, no less than his matter; and that it was alike true of
both. There was in the discourse as much of the eloquence of
piety and morality, as of the spirit and precepts.
That the experiment of moral instruction may be, in every
instance, fair and satisfactory, convicts should be sentenced to a
period of imprisonment and discipline proportioned, not alone

41
to the enormity of any single crime, but to their developments,
and age both in years and vice, and to the greater or less de-
pravity of their habits. The sentence should be accommodated,
as far as possible, to the time requisite for the criminal's refor-
mation.
Is he young both in years and felony, and are his develop-
ments promising ? his term of discipline may be the shorter,
although the crime he has committed is of a serious character.
But if more advanced in life, of worse developments, and more
practised in guilt, his time of imprisonment should be longer,
even under an offence of less magnitude. Nor ought distinctions
to terminate here. Were two youths or adults convicted of
crimes precisely alike, or even as accomplices in the same
crime, one of better, the other of much worse developments,
the latter should be sentenced to the longest discipline.
It ought never, however, to be forgotten, that very short
terms of training, even in the cases of the youngest culprits, and
for slight offences, are rarely productive of permanent good. A
boy must have habits of vice, or at least such as lean very strongly
toward it, of some continuance, before, by the commission of ac-
tual crime, he renders himself amenable to penal law. Effectu-
ally and permanently, therefore, to change such habits is the
work of time.
As relates to the offences of youth, we apprehend that the law
is defective. For a petty crime the discipline is so short, that
it amounts to neither reformation nor punishment. It rather
encourages the culprit to persevere in felony, than deters him
from it. *
Thus does he become ultimately habituated to crime.
Hence it has been found, by experience, in some of the houses
of correction, in Scotland, and elsewhere, that boys imprisoned
a few weeks only, for lighter crimes, have become more fre-
quently confirmed malefactors, and suffered death or transporta-
tion, than those, who, on account of deeper guilt, have been
sentenced to protracted terms of reform. Of this the cause is
sufficiently palpable. In the latter cases there was time allowed
for thorough reformation; while, in the former, the period of
confinement was too brief. The rule of reason and conscience
certainly is, never to let the culprit loose on society, until he
has manifested the most satisfactory evidences of reform. This
ment.
• Hence the importance of establishing, for the reformation of juvenile of-
fenders, houses of correction, on fair principles, and under competent govern.
The result of such establishments, if judiciously conducted, cannot
fail to be incalculably beneficial. It will prove one of the most efficient pre-
ventives of crime that has ever been devised. The reason is, that it will be in
perfect harmony with the principles of human nature.
7

42
yule should be observed in relation to young criminals as well
as old, and whether the offence is petty or otherwise.
If our codes of penal law do not give to those who execute
them a power to this effect, they ought to be amended. The
effort to reform should be judiciously accommodated, both in
manner and the period of its continuance, to the character of the
convict. Any thing short of this is legislative empiricism. To
attempt to reform all criminals by the same kind and continu-
ance of process, is as arrant quackery, as the attempt to cure all
diseases by the same remedy.
There are differences as numerous and striking in moral as in
physical constitutions and temperaments. Perhaps they are much
more numerous. By those, then, who would operate on them
skilfully and successfully, they must be alike studied and under-
stood, that the means employed may be accommodated to their
peculiarities. If this be not done, no useful result can ever be
attained in the treatment of either physical or moral derange-
ments. It need scarcely be added, that a system of discipline
embracing this principle, would be subject to perpetual mal-ad-
ministration and abuse, unless conducted with real abilty and
undeviating faithfulness and attention. It should, therefore, be
entrusted only to such men as possess wisdom and philanthropy,
energy, perseverance, a degree of vigilance and penetration
that no secrecy can escape, and a resolution and firmness that
no difficulties can subdue. Nor are these the only high qualities
which the governors and teachers in Penitentiaries should pos-
sess. They should be men endued with the spirit, and marked
with the air of authority and command, fearless of danger, undis-
mayed by rebellion, and personally bold and active in suppress-
ing it. Under such directors alone can any system for the re-
formation of criminals prove successful; for unless suitably ad-
ministered, a mere form of government, however excellent, is
a nullity.
We are told that a recommendation is abroad to shorten the
periods of penitentiary discipline, with a view to reduce the
number of convicts confined at the same time.
This is a mistaken policy. Its adoption, should it take effect,
will prove it so. Instead of diminishing the number of convicts
confined at once, it will eventually increase it. The only effec-
tual mode to lessen their number is to reform them, or put them
to death. To shorten the terms of their discipline will do neither.
But it will certainly lessen the probability of their reformation.
We repeat, that the period of training should be proportioned
to the difficulty of reform. Its requisite duration, therefore, can
be determined only by experiment, under the management of

43
suitable directors. As rationally might an attempt be made to
determine, by statute, the term for healing a physical as a mo-
ral malady. As heretofore intimated, reason would seem to
dictate, that there be entrusted to a competent board, a discre-
tionary power to prolong or shorten the period of training, ac-
cording to the progress of the convict in reformation.
It is not our purpose to treat of the details of a system of pe-
nitentiary discipline. A minute consideration of the subject
would involve an inadmissible protraction of this article. We
deem it necessary, however, to offer, in relation to it, a few
further remarks.
Convicts, although deeply depraved, are notwithstanding men,
and should be dealt with on the principles of human nature.
Unless for the soundest of reasons, and from motives the most
imperative, nothing should be either done or said to them, to de-
grade them further in their own estimation, or in the opinion of
others. Our feelings as men, united to our knowledge of the
human character, testify to the correctness of this sentiment, and
teach us the reason of it. A consciousness of degradation is an
incubus on the spirit, repressing all elevation of thought and
generosity of desire, and thus extinguishing in the culprit even
a wish to reform. Repeating to him perpetually, in its petrify-
ing accents, that the effort is useless, it renders him reckless, and
teaches him despair. It is for this reason, added to the resent-
ment and hatred it engenders, that, where reform is the object,
corporeal punishment is the most hopeless discipline.
To secure the confidence, and conciliate the attachment of the
offenders, should be a leading object with the teachers and go-
vernors. But this they can never effect by threatening, vitupe-
rative or contemptuous words, or the employment of the lash.
To express ourselves again in phrenological terms, if they wish
to excite in the prisoners the organ of Adhesiveness, and influ-
ence them by it, they must address them in its mild language,
and manifest toward them the deportment it produces. By this
course they can scarcely fail to get such a hold of their affec-
tions, and gain such an ascendency over them, as may be ren-
dered peculiarly operative in their amendment. The fallen con-
vict, who cannot be raised and moulded into something better,
by the benevolent and judicious efforts of a teacher or governor,
to whom he is attached, and whom he perceives to be earnestly
labouring for his good, is degraded below not only the hope, but
the deserving of reform. He is a moral lazar beyond even the
possibility of cure. His soul is indissolubly wedded to vice, and
his confinement should be for life.
On convicts, as on other men, the requisite knowledge, to-

44
gether with moral and religious instruction, should be inculcated
by books, conversation, admonition, exhortation, and example.
This training, made to alternate with suitable labour, should be,
at first, private. But those in whom satisfactory evidences of
amendment have appeared, may, as a reward for good conduct,
and a means of further reformation, be afterwards assembled
occasionally in a suitable apartment provided for the purpose,
and there receive instruction together.
In this way, if their amendment be genuine, their examples
will be mutually and highly beneficial. This living and human
association, contrasted with dead and lonely walls, will once
more awaken and cherish human feelings, recall something of
the long forgotten pleasures of existence, and confirm in the
penitents the resolutions which they may have already formed,
to render themselves worthy to live in communion and harmony
with their race.
If it is essential to the successful inculcation of moral and re-
ligious instruction, that it be rendered acceptable to those who
receive it, the same is true of habits of industry. Such habits,
however essential as compounds of reform, can never be ren-
dered permanent, by means that are justly offensive to the con-
victs. And every measure is justly offensive, that is either un-
natural, or unnecessarily severe.
The youthful adult, and even the man in years, look back,
with shuddering and abhorrence, on wanton severities which
had been practised on their childhood, and execrate the names
of those who perpetrated them. Nor will the criminal fail to
remember, with similar emotions, the cruelties inflicted on him
within the walls of a prison. And with the cruelties themselves
he will associate the ends they were intended to produce, and
regard them as objects of well-founded hatred. Thus will his
aversion from industry be confirmed. Such is human nature, and
such the motives which influence and the laws which govern it.
The reason why burdensome and offensive tasks, enforced by
severities, and other kinds of ill treatment, never contribute,
either to the reformation of criminals, or the improvement of
any one, is obvious. Harsh and galling discipline, of every
description, is essentially the product of the animal organs. It
is inflicted particularly by Combativeness and Destructiveness.
And those who enforce it seldom fail to accompany it with the
severe and offensive expression and manner of these organs.
Indeed in no other way can they accomplish their object. But,
as heretofore mentioned, it is a principle of our nature, that
whatever organs we openly exercise in our deportment toward

45
others, excite into similar action the corresponding organs in
them.
In convicts, then, who are compelled to labour in employ-
ments that are disagreeable to them, to perform tasks that are
excessive and burdensome, or who are subjected, by their
keepers, to any other indignities or wanton severities, the ani-
mal compartment of their brain, especially the organs of Comba-
tiveness and Destructiveness, are kept in a state of habitual ex-
citement. The perpetual resentment of such criminals, and
their deep desire of vengeance on their task-masters and tor-
mentors, engross their thoughts, absorb the better feelings of
their nature, and paralyze or cancel even the wish to reform.
But we need scarcely add, that from such a state of excitement
no improvement either in morals or industry can result.
the contrary, the effect, in relation to both, must be unfavour-
able.
On the subject of the diet of convicts, as an engine of
reform, we have been hitherto silent. Yet we do not deem
it unimportant. Feeding is a process exclusively animal, and
contributes, in no degree, either to purify or strengthen our
moral feelings in the abstract. But there exists not a doubt,
that the quantity as well as the quality of food has a palpable in-
fluence on the animal propensities. Simple and moderate fare
weakens, while a full and stimulating diet invigorates them.
An attempt to prove this would be superfluous. It is already a
maxim in morals, as well as in physiology. A conviction of
its truth is the result no less of observation, than of personal
experience. Our animal temperament, then, is strengthened,
and our moral comparatively weakened, by luxurious living.
From this, as respects convicts, the inference is plain. Let their
fare be as simple as possible, consisting chiefly of vegetables, .
and barely sufficient in quantity to preserve health, and the
amount of strength requisite for labour. Any thing beyond
this will prove injurious, by retarding reform.
A temporary but severe reduction of aliment, for
any
breach
of prison-rules, is one of the best modes of correction. Instead
of exciting the angry and vindictive passions, like the infliction
of stripes, it subdues them. It produces positive, not counterfeit
submission. This may be readily proved in the case of our
domestic animals. A vicious and refractory horse tolerates the
harness and submits to the rein, much more readily under a
spare, than under a full and pampering diet. On the same
ground will a disorderly convict yield obedience. His animal
propensities will be tamed and regulated, by withholding that
which contributes to inflame them.

46
Such are the sentiments, which, in the character of phrenolo-
gists, we have ventured to express on penitentiary discipline.
We confidently trust that an enlightened and liberal public will
not reject them, as visionary and useless, merely on account of
the science with which they are connected. All we ask, in
their behalf, is a severe but candid examination. Let that be
the test of their value, and the arbiter of their fate. If we are
not mistaken they are in fair accordance with the intellec-
tual constitution of man, and will be found to be the elements
of a better school of discipline in morality and industrious habits,
than has been heretofore established in the penitentiaries of our
country. As the elucidation and defence of general principles
has been our chief object, in the composition of this article, it is
not, we repeat, our purpose to enter into the details of either the
organization or administration of such an institution. That
business will be more fitly referred to the wisdom and experi-
ence of those who are practically versed in it. In the mean-
time, a few further remarks in illustration and proof of the
truths of Phrenology, will not, we trust, be deemed inadmissi-
ble.
We assert that, without perhaps being himself conscious of it,
every man of sound observation is instinctively a phrenologist.
He judges of the intellects and characters of individuals, at first
sight, by the forms and dimensions of their heads. That this
is true, as respects striking heads, admits of demonstration.
And if it is true of any, it is, to a certain extent, true of all.
The idiot head, the ruffian head, and the head of elevated mo.
rality and reflection can be mistaken by no one of common dis-
cernment. Even children notice them, and are sensible of their
indications. Nor is there the least difficulty in distinguishing
and interpreting heads of midway intermediate grades. Even of
those that more nearly approach each other, in size and figure,
the difference, although less obvious, is still perceptible; to the
acute and practised observer very palpably so. We venture to
assert, that these principles influence man, in many of his most
important transactions.
No enlightened and virtuous ruler, whether he be emperor,
king, prince, or president, ever selects, as a privy counsellor, a
chief justice, a minister of state, a foreign ambassador, or the
chief of any important department, a man who wears a ruffian
head. In proof of this, reference is fearlessly made to all high
and confidential officers, of this description, whose developments
are known to us. It will be found, on examination, that the
tops of their heads were lofty and well arched, and their fore-
heads elevated and broad. It is known that Washington was

47
one of the most accurate judges of men. He was rarely, if ever,
mistaken in his opinion of characters, or unfortunate in his ap-
pointments to office. And he selected, for his cabinet, and
other stations, where distinguished wisdom and virtue were re-
quired, some of the best moulded heads of the nation. The head
of Hamilton was a finished model of development, in the mo-
ral and reflecting compartments of the brain. So was that of the
Duke of Sully, the favourite counsellor of Henry IV., and per-
haps the most virtuous and enlightened minister that ever di-
rected the affairs of France. But to specify, on this subject,
would be an endless and perhaps an envious task. We repeat,
therefore, that, as far as facts are known, great and good rulers
never fail to place in stations of high trust, men whose moral
and reflecting compartments are full.
On the contrary, when a crafty and sanguinary tyrant resolves
on the assassination of those who are obnoxious to him, he places
the dagger in the hand of one, whose head is of the genuine
ruffian form. Of this cast are the heads of those who minister to
the vengeance of such dealers in blood as Nero, Domitian, and
Richard of England.
All public executioners by profession have ruffian heads. The
man of high moral and reflecting developments never accepts
such a revolting office. He turns instinctively from the sight of
agony and blood, which are attractive only to the
organ
of De-
structiveness.
The ruffian form of head belongs also to habitually mutinous
soldiers and sailors, and to all those who lead conspiracies con-
certed for purposes of rapine and murder.
An enlightened traveller loaded with wealth, about to com-
mence a long journey through an uninhabited country infested
by robbers, wishes to engage a few companions, with whom he
may be familiar, and in whom he can confide. A number of
strangers present themselves, alike in size, and muscular strength
and activity; but some of them possess large ruffian, and the
others fine moral and reflecting developments. Instinctively,
and without a pause, the traveller selects the latter as his asso-
ciates. The former, no correct judge of human nature will ever
choose as counsellors in difficulties, or as confidential friends.
There never yet existed, and, under the present constitution
of things, there never can exist, a minister of the gospel morally
and piously eloquent and impressive in the highest degree, with-
out a fine moral development. It is such development alone that
can give him that rich and fervid morality and devotion of con-
ception and feeling, without which the eloquence of the pulpit
is cold and barren.

48
A preacher with a ruffian development may have what the
world calls eloquence; but it is spurious and unproductive. He
may rant and rave, alarm, touch, and even draw tears; but all
is animal, and comparatively gross. He can never awaken, and
excite, to the highest pitch, sentiments of pure morality and vital
piety. He can never produce that opulent, engrossing, and
sublime devotion, which imparts to the subjects of it a lively
antepast of the enjoyments of a higher and holier state of
existence. Nor is any one susceptible of feelings so exalt-
ed and unearthly, unless his moral development is good.
As well might it be expected of him to see and hear, with inor-
dinate keenness, without any excellency of eye and ear.
The eloquence of every public speaker, then, must correspond
with his developments. So true is this, that'a disciplined phreno-
logist, who is at the same time a man of literary taste, can tell,
and has told the cerebral character of an orator, whom he had
never seen, and whose head he had never heard described, from
reading his discourses. The developments of the celebrated Dr.
Chalmers were thus indicated, by a phrenologist to whom he
was an entire stranger.
The eloquence of the aborigines of our country, on which
such extravagant eulogies have been bestowed, is the growth al-
most exclusively of the animal and knowing compartments of
the brain; the former of which those sons of the forest have in
very large, and the latter in sufficiently full development. To
the moral and reflecting compartments, in which the Indians
are strikingly deficient, it has but little affinity. To this even
the boasted speech of Logan is no exception.
Of all savage eloquence the same is true. Animal and fierce,
in its nature, it may move very deeply the animal feelings; but
it never awakens moral sentiment, nor exercises intensely the
organs of reflection.
Phrenology is as applicable to the inferior animals, as it is to
man, and derives from thence abundant evidence confirmatory
of its truth. Wherever we direct our view, we find ruffianism
and nobility.
In the family of the dog kind, the cur and the lurcher belong
to the former cast, and the mastiff and the Nowfoundland dog, to
the latter. Of the Cabaline race, the scrub is the ruffian, and
the Arab, the hunter, and the war-horse, animals of generous
and noble qualities. And the difference of cerebral development
and mental attributes that marks the specified varieties in these
two races of quadrupeds, resembles very closely that which ex-
ists between the human ruffian and the man of native morality.
Let it not be imagined that our condemnation of severities in

49
penitentiary discipline arises from motives of sickly sensibility,
either real or affected. We neither possess nor profess any maw-
kish sympathy in the sufferings of convicts. We have spoken,
on the subject, not from excited feeling, but deliberate judg-
ment.
Convicts of every description, but more especially those
whose guilt is deep, deserve severe treatment, could the chief
end of their panishment be promoted by it. But, for the rea-
sons already stated, we are persuaded it cannot.
Our sympathies, therefore, are for the innocent, not the guilty ;
for the community, not the condemned. To protect the latter
from aggression and wrong, we would protect the former from
all treatment, which, however justly inflicted, might prevent
their reformation. Could severity reform, and had we the pow-
er to direct it, the measure of it dispensed should be sufficiently
full. We would avoid cruelty, but execute justice with an un-
sparing hand. Even the life of the culprit should expiate his
guilt, could the public weal be promoted by the sacrifice. This
remark opens to us the subject of punishment by death, to which
we have heretofore but casually adverted. A few further
thoughts on it shall close this paper, which has been already
protracted far beyond its intended limits.
We well know that in various parts of the United States, but
perhaps more especially in the state of Pennsylvania, the tide of
public feeling is setting very strongly against capital punishment.
Its legitimacy, or rather the authority and right of the political
body to inflict it, is questioned by many, and denied by not a few.
As far as we have looked into the controversy, it appears to us
that the opposers of the lawfulness of punishment by death, rely,
for evidence to support their opinions, chiefly, if not entirely, on
their interpretation of the Old and New Testaments; at least on
some tenet or sentiment of religion. If they have attempted
seriously to sustain themselves, on any other grounds, their wri-
tings to that effect have escaped our notice. Their objection,
therefore, seems to be founded exclusively in their religious creed.
It is not our intention to analyze very critically this objection,
nor to attempt, with any earnestness, either to refute or confirm
it. We cannot perceive in it any marked pertinency to the
point at issue. We are greatly mistaken if it is not much more
the result of individual feeling, than of sound judgment or en-
lightened wisdom. On this, as on other subjects, men think ac-
cording to personal temperament, and early education.
The question, as to the right of government to inflict capital
punishment, is one of policy and natural law, not of religion.
Aware of this, and, as we apprehend, in recognition of it, the
8

50
Author of our religion has left behind him, on the subject, no
precept, either positive or fairly implied. As far, therefore, as
his teachings are concerned, the matter rests where it did before,
with the wisdom of lawgivers. The christian dispensation, then,
not forbidding it, it cannot be deemed an irreligious practice.
Nor from the mild and benevolent tenets of christianity can any
inference unfavourable to it be wn. That benevolence is
catholic in its character. Contemplating the greatest practicable
amount of good, it embraces the many rather than the few; the
community at large, rather than individuals. Much less can it
be converted, by construction and mistaken tenderness, into a
sbield for the vicious and worthless, in their annoyance of the
virtuous and the valuable. Such a construction would change
both its nature and effects, and transform it into cruelty.
Shall we be told, that it is wrong to cut off a sinner, in the
midst of his career of vice, because it deprives him of the chance
of repentance, and throws a barrier in the way of his salvation ?
We answer, that this is a point to be considered by the culprit
himself, rather than by society, which is suffering from his vices.
His guilt must not be made his sanctuary. His life must not be
spared, merely because it is a public evil. It must not be held
sacred and inviolable, because it is not only itself sinful, but is
leading others into sin. Quod probat nimis, probat nihil. If this
argument proves any thing, it certainly proves too much. Its
plain and undeniable import is, that the deeper the guilt, the
more carefully should the life of the guilty be preserved, lest,
by his death, his soul might be lost. We might even retort on
our antagonists and say, that the longer the guilty perseveres in
his guilt, the more signal will be his future punishment. Short-
en his life, therefore, to mitigate his torments. To say the least,
perseverance and inveteracy in sin, afford a bad prospect of re-
pentance and salvation.
If we refer to the theocracy of the Jews, the Deity himself
being the immediate lawgiver, the question assumes a very dif-
ferent aspect. Under that dispensation, capital punishment for
several crimes was not only permitted, but expressly enjoined
by Divine authority. And whatever might have been their
source, the Jewish laws, for the government of the community,
were as much a system of civil policy, as the laws of our own,
or of any other country. Supposing them of divine origin,
they were necessarily correct in all points, accommodated to the
nature and relations of man, and conferred on the body politic
no right over the individual, which was not both just and mer-
ciful in itself, and salutary in its effects. To contend in opposition
to this, is to pay but little respect to the authority of Heaven.

51
But the system of christianity has not altered the nature of
things. Justice and right are immutable; the same now that
they were in the beginning. What was just and right at the
foot of Mount Sinai, is equally so in the United States. If it
was correct, in the Jewish community, to take away the life of
a high malefactor, it is equally correct, in our own community.
Christianity has abolished only things that were local and tem-
porary, not universal and permanent; mere ceremonials, not
essentials. It has not altered either the nature of man, or the
principles that bind civil society together, and by the influence
of which alone it can maintain its existence. It has abrogated
nothing of the pre-established order and fitness of things. We
repeat, that what was right under the Jewish dispensation, is
right under the christian, unless rendered otherwise, by a posi-
tive prohibition.
We contend, then, that, provided wisdom and sound policy
sanction the act; in other words, provided the measure be
deemed, by those appointed to decide on it, best calculated to
protect society, and promote the public good, government has a
right to inflict on high offenders the punishment of death. This
right is not only consistent with the laws of nature; it is one of
them.
A civil community, considered as a body, is analogous to an
individual, and has the same privileges. But to the individual
the privilege of self-defence, adapted to circumstances, will not
be denied. Feeling and reason alike sanction it, and neither
the letter nor spirit of christianity forbids it. To preserve his
own life, or that of his friend, a man may take away the life of
a felonious enemy. So may he that of a robber, who is enter-
ing his house at night, with a view to pillage it by force,
and then set fire to it. A female has a right to defend her
honour, by the death of him who is about to violate it. To
these positions nothing, we think, but sophistry can be opposed.
Provided any means, more suitable and advantageous than the
death of the culprit, can be devised to prevent the meditated
mischief, they ought certainly to be adopted. But we are vin-
dicating right, not contending for expedience or policy.
Between the civil community and him who would subvert
its highest interests, if not destroy its very existence, the same
rights and relations subsist. Society must protect itself by such
means as comport best with its interests and necessities. Pro-
vided it can do this in no other way, it is fully justified in tak-
ing away the life of the offender. To deny this is to deprive
the community of the shield of natural law. It is to lay bare
to the dagger of the assassin the bosom of the innocent, to leave

52
female honour often unprotected, and to suffer the robber to riot
on the fruits of ruined industry. It is, in fact, to permit guilt
to triumph, by allowing the unsuspecting and the virtuous to
become the dupes and victims of the designing and the wicked.
As it seems undeniable, then, that society possesses the right
tó exact of criminals the penalty of death, the matter resolves
itself into a question of policy, and it belongs to lawgivers
to decide between it and other forms of punishment. We shall
only add the palpable truth, that, in every state and condition of
society, the same kind of penal policy cannot be equally wise
and salutary. Without capital punishment, it is doubtful, perhaps,
whether certain communities could maintain their existence,
while in others, a different form of correction may be generally
preferable. In this, as in all other human affairs, adaptation to
circumstances is the dictate of wisdon, and can be attained only
as the fruit of experience.
THE END.
ca
1829
Caldwell, Charles,