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cause they are the best; and to imagine that He can be moved by prayers, oblations, or sacrifices, to vary his plan of government, is an impious thought, degrading the Deity to a level with ourselves.' His Lordship's opinion relative to the advantage of public worship, shows that he did not conceive the foregoing view of prayer to be in the least inconsistent with its reasonableness and utility. 'The principle of devotion,' he says, 'like most of our other principles, partakes of the imperfection of our nature; yet, however faint originally, it is capable of being greatly invigorated by cultivation and exercise. Private exercise is not sufficient. Nature, and consequently the God of Nature, require public exercise or public worship; for devotion is communicative, like joy or grief; and, by mutual communication in a numerous assembly, is greatly invigorated. A regular habit of expressing publicly our gratitude and resignation never fails to purify the mind, tending to wean it from every unlawful pursuit. This is the true motive of public worship; not what is commonly inculcated -that it is required from us as a testimony to our Maker of our obedience to his laws: God, who knows the heart, needs no such testimony.' *

In closing this chapter, I may observe, that many excellent and sincere Christians, to whom I am most anxious to avoid giving offence, labor under great disadvantages in judging of the truth and importance of several of the views stated in this Work, in consequence of their entire ignorance of the functions of the brain, and the laws of its activity. Many of them have been educated in the belief, that human nature is entirely corrupt and wicked; and when, in consequence of private or public devotion, they become conscious of vivid love to God and benevolence to men, and of aspirations after general purity and excellence, springing up in their minds, they ascribe these emotions exclusively to the direct influence of the Divine Spirit,— without being in the least aware of the extent to which a

* Sketches, B. iii. Sk. 3. Ch. iii. § 1.

large development of the moral organs, combined with an active temperament, contributes to this effect. The phrenologist, in contemplating these organs operating in excess, or in a state of disease, obtains light on this subject which other persons cannot reach. Mere excess in size and activity leads to fanaticism and a persuasion of inspiration, such as occurred in Bunyan, Swedenborg, and the late Edward Irving. I examined the head of the Rev. Edward Irving before he had become known to the public, and noted the organs of Imitation, Wonder, Ideality, Veneration, Self-Esteem, Conscientiousness, and Firmness as large: Wonder, Self-Esteem, and Firmness predominated; and these appear to have attained almost to diseased activity in the latter years of his life. Diseased activity produces belief in actual communication with Heaven. Christianity cannot fail to be benefited by the light which Phrenology is shedding on the organs in health as well as in disease.*

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*See on this subject Dr. Andrew Combe's Observations on Mental Derangement, pp. 184-189; System of Phrenology, section on Wonder; Remarks on Demonology and Witchcraft, in the Phren. Jour. vi. 504; and, in the 44th and 45th Numbers of the same Journal, Observations on Religious Fanaticism, illustrated by a Comparison of the Belief and Conduct of noted Religious Enthusiasts with those of Patients in the Montrose Lunatic Asylum. By W. A. F. Browne, Esq. Medical Superintendent of that Institution.'

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CONCLUSION.

THE question has frequently been asked, What is the practical use of Phrenology, even supposing it to be true? A few observations will enable us to answer this inquiry, and, at the same time, to present a brief summary of the doctrine of the preceding work.

Prior to the age of Copernicus, the earth and sun presented to the eye phenomena exactly similar to those which they now exhibit; but their motions appeared in a very different light to the understanding.

Before the age of Newton, the revolutions of the planets were known as matter of fact; but mankind was ignorant of the principle of their motions.

Previously to the dawn of modern chemistry, many of the qualities of physical substances were ascertained by observation; but their ultimate principles and relations were not understood.

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Knowledge, as I observed in the Introduction, may be made beneficial in two ways either by rendering the substance discovered directly subservient to human enjoyment; or, where this is impossible, by modifying human conduct in harmony with its qualities. While knowledge of any department of nature remains imperfect and empirical, the unknown qualities of the objects comprehended in it may render our efforts either to apply or to act in accordance with those which are known, altogether abortive. Hence it is only after ultimate principles have been discovered, their relations ascertained, and this knowledge systematized, that science can attain its full character of utility. The merits of Copernicus and Newton consist in having rendered this service to astronomy.

Before the appearance of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, man

kind were practically acquainted with the feelings and intellectual operations of their own minds, and anatomists knew the appearances of the brain. But the science of mind was very much in the same state as that of the heavenly bodies prior to the times of Copernicus and Newton.

First, no unanimity prevailed among philosophers concerning the elementary feelings and intellectual powers of man. Individuals deficient in Conscientiousness, for instance, denied that the sentiment of justice was a primitive mental quality: others, deficient in Veneration, asserted that man was not naturally prone to worship, and ascribed religion to the invention of priests.

Secondly, The extent to which the primitive faculties differ in strength, was matter of dispute, or of vague conjecture; and, concerning many attainments, there was no agreement among philosophers whether they were the gifts of Nature or the results of mere cultivation.

Thirdly, Different modes or states of the same feeling were often mistaken for different feelings; and modes of action of all the intellectual faculties were mistaken for distinct faculties.

Fourthly, The brain, confessedly the most important organ of the body, and that with which the nerves of the senses, of motion, and of feeling directly communicate, had no ascertained functions. Mankind were ignorant of its uses, and of its influence on the mental faculties. They indeed still dispute that its different parts are the organs of different mental powers, and that the vigor of each faculty bears a proportion, cæleris paribus, to the size of its organ.

If, in physics, imperfect and empirical knowledge renders the unknown qualities of bodies liable to frustrate the efforts of man to apply or to accommodate his conduct to their known qualities,-and if only a complete and systematic exhibition of ultimate principles, and their relations, can confer on science its full character of utility,—the

same doctrine applies with equal or greater force to the philosophy of man.

The science of POLITICS embraces forms of government, and the relations between different states. All government is designed to combine the efforts of individuals, and to regulate their conduct when united. To arrive at the best means of accomplishing this end, systematic knowledge of the nature of man seems highly important. A despotism, for example, may restrain some abuses of the propensities, but it assuredly impedes the exercise of reflection, and other of the highest and noblest powers. A form of government can be suited to the nature of man only when it is calculated to permit the legitimate use, and to restrain the abuses, of all his mental feelings and capacities: and how can such a government be devised, while these faculties, with their spheres of action and external relations, are imperfectly ascertained? Again, all relations between different states must also be in accordance with the nature of man, to prove permanently beneficial; and the question recurs, How are these to be framed while that nature is a matter of conjecture? Napoleon disbelieved in a sentiment of justice as an innate quality of the mind, and, in his relations with other states, relied on fear and interest as the grand motives of conduct: but that sentiment existed, and, combined with other faculties which he outraged, prompted Europe to hurl him from his throne. If Napoleon had comprehended the principles of human nature, and their relations, as forcibly and clearly as the principles of mathematics, in which he excelled, his understanding would have greatly modified his conduct, and Europe would have escaped prodigious calamities.

LEGISLATION, civil and criminal, is intended to regulate and direct the human faculties in their efforts at gratification; and laws, to be useful, must accord with the constitution of these faculties. But how can salutary laws be enacted, while the subject to be governed, or human nature, is not accurately understood? The inconsistency

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