and all-wise God, and that the observance of these laws is a religious duty. God's Providence, in accordance with this view, consists in the regular action of His established laws, so that observance of them produces happiness, and infringement of them leads to the appropriate punishment.
The system of Phrenology which the author incorporated with his ethical teaching has been to many readers a hindrance rather than a help. The Editor has therefore, in this popular edition of the Work, retained only so much of that system, and of its terminology, as seemed to be warranted by the estimate of its scope and utility now adopted by men of science. The text has been carefully revised, and redundancies and unnecessary illustrations have been excised; but nothing has been omitted that seemed to be necessary to the continuity or the completeness of the argument.
Most of the Notes contained in previous editions have been retained, and a few have been added which the altered conditions of society rendered necessary.
A proof of the continued interest in George Combe's works is given in the recent bequest (1892) of Robert Cranston, Esq., formerly one of the magistrates of the City of Edinburgh, who in his trust disposition left “to the Society for the propagation of the works of George Combe, the sum of three hundred pounds." It will be the duty of the Combe Trustees to devote this fund to the purpose designed by the Testator.