George Combe, The constitution of man. 3rd American edition, Boston, 1834. 
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THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS

By

GEORGE COMBE.

Vain is the ridicule with which one sees some persons will divert themselves finding lesser 
pains considered as instances divine punishment. There is no possibility of answering or 
evading the general thing here intended, without denying all final causes.— Butler's Analogy.

THIRD AMERICAN EDITION

Boston

ALLEN AND TICKNOR.

1834.

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

THE author of the following work is known in this country by his  Essays on Phrenology. Few men in Great Britain have discovered  more sincere devotion to this subject itself, or more zeal in communicating it to others, than Mr. Combe. He shows every where in  what he has written on phrenology a full conviction that his  favourite science is founded in nature; that it will aid the study and  progress of intellectual philosophy; that for want of its aids this philosophy has hitherto necessarily been imperfect; that, in short,  phrenology is susceptible of a wide and useful application, and is destined to exert an important influence over the whole circle of human interests.

The following essay on the Constitution of Man is founded on  phrenology; at least, the phrenological classification of the human  faculties is adopted by the writer as the basis of his observations.  This can hardly be objected to. To those who have studied phrenology it will be a recommendation; and to those who know it only by name, sufficient is brought into view in the volume to give them a general notion of a science which has engaged many able minds,  and which in its measure belongs to the intellectual labours of the age. Mr. Combe does not appear to use it, in order to make converts  to the phrenological faith; but rather brings it in to promote the great  object of his present publication. This object is human happiness in  an extended use of the term. He says, in amount, to lessen misery and  increase happiness is his great purpose, and to accomplish this, his  labour has been to discover as many of the contrivances of the  Creator, for effecting beneficial purposes as possible; and  secondly to point out in what manner by accommodating our conduct to these contrivances we may attain one great end of our  being.  

iv	PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

In prosecution of this design, Mr. Combe’s first inquiries are directed to the external world. He regards things first, as they are; and secondly, the purposes of their creation. These inquirers involve many very interexting views relating to the world without us; the actual condition of things; their mutual influences, whether remote or near; whether contingent or necessary. The circumstances under which phenomena take place, or with the author, the established and constant modes or processes according to which phenomena are produced, are laws, rules of action; and the first part of his work treats of natural laws. In the second chapter, Mr. Combe treats of the constitution of man, and its relation to external things. In the first place man is regarded as a physical being, compossed of physical elements, and to a certain extent, and under like circumstances, exhibiting like phenomena with the objects of the external material world. In the next place he is viewed as an organized being, and the laws of his organization, together with the correspondences and differences between these and the natural laws are pointed out. The moral and intellectual constitution of man are treated under precisely similar aspects. The whole subject is developed with great skill, and made clear and interexting by a great variety of very happy illustrations.

The main design of this work is never lost sight of. This is to make men happier and better,—to show how the human race may be as happy as the constitution of man actually fits it to be. To do this, the author assumes that this constitution was designed to harmonize perfectly with itself in all its parts; and also with the whole creation so far as it is capable of being brought  into relations with it. In the next place he labours to show that in order to the accomplishment of this design, sufficiently varied and active powers have been committed to man, and if he fail of the happiness for which he was designed here, it is not because he wants capacity of felicity, but because he has misused the powers with which he
has been blessed. Human happiness then consists in an exact accordance of all the laws which are in operation within us, and again of these with all the laws which govern the external world. Human misery is the direct and necessary consequence of an infringement of these laws, or of some of them. The same skill is shown in treating this part of the work which has been noticed as charac-

v	PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

tevizing the other. The same felicity of illustration is every where discoverable. The earnestness of truth is the prevailing characteristic, and a truly benevolent purpose marks every page.

Mr. Combe’s work should be placed with those, of which so many, within a few years have appeared, which are devoted to the absorbing topic of Education. It treats of moral, intellectual, and physical education. This is not formally done under so many distinct heads. But the whole course of reasoning of the author, and the whole array of his illustrations, have it always obviously in view to show how the highest cultivation of each of these may be most surely brought about.

The publishers have printed this edition from a belief that there is much in the work to interest the community. It has novelty to reward the general inquirer, and it presents the well known under novel aspects. There is one class amongst us who may study it with much advantage. Scholars are referred to, a class here too small to form a distinct order with habits of their own, and who insensibly fall into those which although not mischievous to the multitude on the score of health, too often make ill health the portion of the sedentary student, and bring upon him premature decay. To all classes it is recommended, and the various learning and acuteness of the author well fit him to write a book which addresses instructions to the whole community.

1*

PREFACE.
______

THIS Essay would not have been presented to the public, had  not I believed that it contains views of the constitution, condition, and prospects of Man, which deserve attention; but , I trust, are not ushered forth with anything approaching to a presumptuous spirit. I lay no claim to originality of conception. My first notions of the natural laws were derived from an unpublished manuscript of Dr. Spurzheim, with the perusal of which I was honoured some years ago; and all my inquiries and meditations since have impressed me more and more with a conviction of their importance. The materials employed lie open to all. Taken separately, I would hardly say that a new truth has been presented in the following work. The parts have all been admitted and employed again and again, by writers on morals, from SOCRATES down to the present day. In this respect, there is nothing new under the sun. The only novelty in this Essay respects the relations which acknowledged truths hold to each other. Physical laws of nature, affecting our physical condition, as well as regulating the whole material system of the universe, are universally acknowledged, and constitute his elements of natural philosophy and chemical science. Physiologists, medical practitioners, and all who take medical aid, admit the existence of organic laws; and the science

viii	PREFACE.

of government, legislation, education, indeed our whole train of conduct through life, proceed upon the admission of laws in morals. Accordingly, the laws of nature have formed an interexting subject of inquiry to philosophers of all ages; but, so far as I am aware, no author has hitherto attempted to point out, in a combined and systematic form, the relations between these laws and the constitution of Man; which must, nevertheless, be done, before our knowledge of  them can be beneficially applied. The great object of the following Essay is to exhibit these relations, with a view to the improvement of education, and the regulation of individual conduct.

But, although my purpose is practical, a theory of Mind forms an essential element in the execution of the plan. Without it, no comparison can be instituted between the natural constitution of man and external objects. Phrenology appears to me to be the clearest, most complete, and best supported system of Human Nature, which has hitherto been taught; and I have assumed it as the basis of this Essay. But the practical values of the views now to be unfolded does not depend on Phrenology. This theory of Mind itself is valuable, only in so far as it is a just exposition of what previously existed in human nature. We are physical, organic, and moral beings, acting under the sanction of general laws, let the merits of Phrenology be what they may. Individuals will, under the impulse of passion, or by the direction of intellect, hope, fear, wonder, perceive, and act, whether the degree in which they habitually do so, be ascertainable on phrenological principles or not. In as far, therefore, as this Essay treats of the known qualifies of Man, it may be instructive even to those who contema Phrenology as unfounded; while it can prove

PREFACE	ix

useful to no one, if it shall depart from the true elements of mental philosophy, by whatever system these may be expounded.

I have endeavoured to avoid all religious controversy. ‘The object of Moral Philosophy,' says Mr. STEWART, 'is to ascertain the general rules of a wise and virtuous conduct in life, in so far as these rules may be discovered by the unassisted light of nature; that is, by an examination of the principles of the human constitution , and of the circumstances in which Man is placed.'* By following this method of inquiry, Dr. HUTCHESON, Dr. ADAM SMITH, Dr. REID, Mr. STEWART, and Dr. THOMAS BROWN', have, in succession, produced highly interexting and instructive works on Moral Science; and the present Essay is a humble attempt to pursue the same plan, with the aid of the new lights afforded by Phrenology.

Edinburgh, 9th June, 1828.

* Outlines of Moral Philosophy, p, 1.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

ON NATURAL LAWS, . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

CHAPTER II.

OF THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN; AND ITS RELATION TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS, . . . .16
Section I.	Man considered as a Physical Being, .						 17
	II. Man considered as an Organized Being,
	III. Man considered as an Animal—Moral—and Intellectual Being,			24
	IV. The Faculties of Man compared with each other; or the supremacy of the Moral Sentiments and Intellect,  28
	V. The Faculties of Man compared with External Objects,				46
	VI. On the sources of Human Happiness, and the conditions requisite for maintaining it, . . 69
	VII. Application of the Natural Laws to the practical arrangements of Life, . . . . . 	65

CHAPTER III.

TO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE MISERIES OF MANKIND REFERABLE TO INFRINGEMENTS OF THE LAWS OF NATURE,										71

Section I.	 Calamities arising from infringements of the Physical Laws, . . . . . . . 71
	II. On the Evils that befall Mankind, from infringement of the Organic Laws, . . . . 78
	III. Calamities arising from infringement of the Moral Law,	141
	IV Moral advantages of Punishment,				178

xii	CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE COMBINED OPERATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS,  181
CONCLUSION,					197
_________

APPENDIX.

	Note I. Natural Laws, [Text, p. 1.l . . . .		. 207
	II. Organic Laws, [Text, p. 76.l . . .	.	211
	III. Death, Decreasing Mortality, [Text, p. 128.l	. 216
	IV. Moral Law, [Text, p. 159l	.	.	.	219

ESSAY

ON THE

CONSTITUTION OF MAN,

AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS.

CHAPTER I.

ON NATURAL LAWS.

A STATEMENT of the evidence of a great intelligent First Cause is given in the ' Phrenological Journal,' and in the ‘System of Phrenology.' I hold this existence capable of demonstration. By NATURE, I mean the workmanship of this great Being, such as it is revealed to our minds by our senses and faculties.

In natural science, three subjects of inquiry may be distinguished. 1st. What exists? 2dly. What is the purpose or design of what exists; and, 3rdly. Why was what exists designed for such uses as it evidently subserves? For example,—it is matter of fact that arctic regions and torrid zones exist,—that a certain kind of moss is most abundant in Lapland in mid-winter,—that the rein-deer feeds on it, and enjoys high health and vigour in situations where most other animals would die; further, it is matter of fact that camels exist in Africa,—that they have broad hooves, and stomachs fitted to retain water for a length of time, and that they flourish amid arid tracts of sand, where the rein-deer would not live for a day. All this falls under the enquiry, What exist? But in contemplating the foregoing facts, it is impossible not to infer that one 
2

2 ON NATURAL LAWS.

object of the Lapland moss is to feed the rein-deer, and one purpose of the deer is to assist man: and that, in like manner, broad feet have been given to the camel to enable it to walk on sand; and a retentive stomach to fit it for arid places in which water is not found except at wide intervals These are enquiries into the use or purpose of what exists. In like manner, we may enquire, What purpose do sandy deserts and desolate heaths subserve in the economy of nature? In short, an enquiry into the use or purpose of any object that exists, is merely an examination of its relations to other objects and beings, and of the modes in which it affects them; and this is quite a legitimate exercise of the human intellect. But, 3dly. we may ask, why were the physical elements of nature created such as they are ? Why were summer, autuma, spring, and winter introduced? Why were animals formed of organized matter ? These are inquiries why what exists was made such as it is, or into the will of the Deity in creation. Now, man's perceptive faculties are adequate to the first inquiry, and his reflective faculties to the second; but it may well be doubted whether he has powers suited to the third. My investigations are confined to the first and second, and I do not discuss the third.

A law, in the common acceptation, denotes a rule of action; its existence indicates an established and constant mode, or process, according to which phenomena take place; and this is the sense in which I shall use it, when treating of physical substances and beings. For example, water and heat are substances; and water presents different appearances, and manifests certain qualities, according to the altitude of its situation, and the degree of heat with which it is combined. When at the level of the sea, and combined with that portion of heat indicated by 32° of Fahrenheitys thermometer, it freezes or becomes solid; when
combined with the portion denoted by 212o of that instrument, it rises into vapour or steam. Here, water and heat

ON NATURAL LAWS.	3

were the physical elements of nature created such, as are the substances,—the freezing and rising in vapour are the appearances or phenomena presented by them; and when we say that these take place according to a Law of Nature, we mean only that these modes of action appear, to our intellects, to be established in the very constitution of the water and heat, and in their natural relationship to each other; and that the processes of freezing and rising in vapour are their constant appearances, when combined in these proportions, other conditions being the same.

The ideas chiefly to be kept in view are, 1st. That all substances and beings have received a definite natural constitution; 2dly. That every mode of action, which is said to take place according to a natural law, is inherent in the constitution of the substance, or being, that acts; and, 3dly, That the mode of action described is universal and invariable, wherever and whenever the substances, or beings, are found in the same condition. For example, water, at the lever of the sea, freezes and boils, at the same temperature, in China and in France, in Peru and in England; and there is no exception to the regularity with which it exhibits these appearances, when all its conditions are the same: For caeteris paribus is a condition which pervades all departments of science, phrenology included. If water be carried to the top of a mountain 20,000 feet high, it boils at a lower temperature than 212o, but this again depends on its relationship to the air, and takes place also according to fixed and invariable principles. The air exerts a great pressure on the water. At the level of the sea the pressure is nearly the same in all quarters of the globe, and in that situation the freezing points and boiling points correspond all over the world; but on the top of a high mountain the pressure is much less, and the vapour not being held down by so great a power of resistance, rises at a lower degree of heat than 212°. But this change of appearances does not indicate a change in the constitution of the water and the heat, but only a variation of the circumstances in which

4 ON NATURAL LAWS.

they are placed; and hence it is not correct to say, that water boiling on the tops of high mountains, at a lower temperature than 212o, is an exception to the general law of nature: there never are exceptions to the laws of nature; for the Creator is too wise and too powerful to make imperfect or inconsistent arrangements. The error is in the human mind inferring the law to be, that water boils at 212o in all altitudes; when the real law is only that it boils at that temperature, at the level of the sea, in all countries; and that it boils at a lower temperature, the higher it is carried, because there the pressure of the atmosphere is diminished.

Intelligent beings exist, and are capable of modifying their actions. By means of their faculties, the laws impressed by the Creator on physical substances become known to them; and, when perceived, constitute laws to them, by which to regulate their conduct. For example, it is a physical law, that boiling water destroys the muscular and nervous systems of man. This is the result purely of the constitution of the body, and the relation between it and heat; and man cannot alter or suspend that law. But whenever the human intellect perceives the relation, and the consequences of violating it, the mind is prompted to avoid infringement, in order to shun the torture attached by the Creator to the decomposition of the human body by heat.

Similar views have long been taught by philosophers and divines. Bishop BUTLER, in particular, says:—' An Author of Nature being supposed, it is not so much a deduction of reason as a matter of experience, that we are thus under his government, in the same sense as we are under the government of civil magistrates. Because the annexing pleasure to some actions, and pain to others, in our power to do or forbear, and giving notice of this appointment beforehand to those whom it concerns, is the proper formal notion of government. Whether the pleasure or pain which thus follows upon our behaviour, be owing to the Author of Nature's acting upon us every moment

ON NATURAL LAWS.	5

which we feel it, or to his having at once contrived and executed his own part in the plan of the world, makes no alteration as to the matter before us. For, if civil magistrates could make the sanctions of their laws take place, without interposing at all, after they had passed them, without a trial, and the formalities of an execution; if they were able to make their laws execute themselves, or every offender to execute them upon himself, we should be just in the same sense under their government then as we are now; but in a much higher degree and more perfect manner. Vain is the ridicule with which one sees some persons will divert themselves, upon finding, LESSER PAINS CONSIDERED AS INSTANCES OF DIVINE PUNISHMENT. THERE IS NO POSSIBILITY OF ANSWERING OR EVADING the general thing here intended, WITHOUT DENYING ALL FINAL CAUSES. For, final causes being admitted, the pleasures and pains now mentioned must be admitted too, as instances of them. And if they are, if GOD annexes delight to some actions, with an apparent design to influence us to act so and so, then he not only dispenses happiness and misery, but also rewards and punishes actions. If, for example, the pain which we feel upon doing what tends to the destruction of our bodies, suppose upon too near approaches to fire, or upon wounding ourselves, be appointed by the Author of Nature to prevent our doing what thus tends to our destruction; this is ALTOGETHER AS MUCH AN INSTANCE OF HIS PUNISHING OUR ACTIONS, and consequently of our being under his government, as declaring, by a voice from Heaven, that, if we acted so, He would inflict such pain upon us, and inflict it whether it be greater or less’.*

If, then, the reader keep in view that GOD is the creator; that Nature, in the general sense, means the world which He has made; and, in a more limited sense, the particular

*BUTLER’S Works, vol. i. p. 44. Similar observations by other authors will be found in the Appendix, No 1.

6	ON NATURAL LAWS.

constitution which he has bestowed on any special object, of which we may be treating, and that a Law of Nature means the established mode in which that constitution acts, and the obligation thereby imposed on intelligent beings to attend to it, he will be in no danger of misunderstanding my meaning.

Every natural object has received a definite constitution, in virtue of which it acts in a particular way. There must, therefore, be as many natural laws, as there are distinct modes of action of substances and beings, viewed by themselves. But substances and beings stand in certain relations to each other, and modify each other's action in an established and definite manner, according to that relationship; altitude, for instance, modifies the effect of heat upon water. There must, therefore, be also as many laws of nature, as there are relations between different substances and beings.

It is impossible, in the present state of knowledge, to elucidate all these laws: countless years may elapse before they shall he discovered; but we may investigate some of the most familiar and striking of them. Those that most readily present themselves bear reference to the great classes into which the objects around us may be divided, namely, Physical, Organic, and Intelligent. I shall therefore confine myself to the physical laws, the organic laws, and the laws which characterise intelligent beings.

1st. The Physical laws embrace all the phenomena of mere matter; a heavy body, for instance, when unsupported, falls to the ground with a certain accelerating force, in proportion to the distance which it falls, and its own density; and this motion is said to take place according to the law of gravitation. An acid applied to a vegetable blue colour, converts it into red, and this is said to take place according to a chemical law.

2dly. Organised substances and beings stand higher in the sale of creation. and have properties peculiar to them-

ON NATURAL LAWS.	7

selves. They act, and are acted upon, in conformity with their constitution, and are therefore said to be subject to a peculiar set of laws, termed the Organic. The distinguishing characteristic of this class of objects, is, that the individuals of them derive their existence from other organized beings, are nourished by food, and go through a regular process of growth and decay. Vegetables and Animals are the two great subdivisions of it. The organic laws are different from the merely physical. A stone, for example, does not spring from a parent stone; it does not take food from its parent, the earth, or air; it does not increase in vigour for a time, and then decay and suffer
dissolution, all which processes characterise vegetables and animals. The organic laws are superior to the merely physical. For example, a living man, or animal, may be placed in an oven, along with the carcass of a dead animal, and remain exposed to a heat, which will completely bake the dead flesh, and yet come out alive, and not seriously injured. The dead flesh is mere physical matter, and its decomposition by the heat instantly commences; but the living animal is able, by its organic qualities, to counteract and resist to a certain extent, that influence. The expression Organic Laws, therefore, indicates that every phenomenon connected with the production, health, growth, decay, and death of vegetables and animals, takes place with undeviating regularity, whenever circumstances are the same. Animals are the chief objects of my present observations.

3dly. Intelligent beings stand still higher in the scale than merely organised matter, and embrace all animals that have distinct consciousness, from the lowest of the inferior creatures up to man. The great divisions of this class are into Intelligent and Animal—and into Intelligent and Moral creatures. The dog, horse, and elephant, for instance, belong to the first class, because they possess some degree of intelligence, and certain animal propensities, but

8  ON NATURAL LAWS.

no moral feelings; man belongs to the second, because he possesses all the three. These various faculties have received a definite constitution from the Creator, and stand in determinate relationship to external objects: for example, a healthy palate cannot feel wormwood sweet, nor sugar bitter a healthy eye cannot see a rod partly plunged in water straight, because the water so modifies the rays of light, as to give to the stick the appearance of being crooked; a healthy Benevolence cannot feel gratified with murder, nor a healthy Conscientiousness with fraud. As, therefore, the mental faculties have received a precise constitution, have been placed in fixed and definite relations to external objects and act regularly, we speak of their acting according to rules or laws, and call these the Moral and Intellectual Laws.

In short the expression ‘laws of nature,' when properly used, signifies the rules of action impressed on objects and beings by their natural constitution. Thus, when we say, that by the physical law, a ship, sinks when a plank starts from her side, we mean, that, by the constitution of the ship, and the water, and the relation subsisting between them, the ship sinks when the plank starts.

Several important principles strike us very clearly in attending to the natural law, viz. 1st. Their independence of each other; 2dly. Obedience to each of them is attended with its own reward, and, disobedience with its own punishment; 3dly. They are universal, unbending, and invariable in their operation; 4thly. They are in harmony with the constitution of man.

1. The independence of the natural laws may he illustrated thus;—A ship floats because a part of it being immersed, displaces a weight of water equal to its whole weight, leaving the remaining part above the fluid. A ship, therefore, will float on the surface of the water as long as these physical conditions are observed; no matter although the men in it should infringe other natural laws;

ON NATURAL LAWS.	9

as, for example, although they should rob, murder, blaspheme, and commit every species of debauchery; and it will sink whenever the physical conditions are subverted, however strictly the crew and passengers may obey the other laws here adverted to. In like manner, a man who swallows poison, which destroys the stomach or intestines, will die, just because an organic law has been infringed, and because it is independent of others, although the man should have taken the drug by mistake, or been the most pious and charitable individual on earth. Or, thirdly, a man may cheat, lie, steal, tyrannise, and in short break a great variety of the moral laws, and nevertheless be fat and rubicund, if he sedulously observed the organic laws of temperance and exercise, which determine the condition of the body; while, on the other hand, an individual who neglects these, may pine in disease, and be racked with torturing pains, although at the very moment, he may be devoting his mind to the highest duties of humanity.

2. Obedience to each law is attended with its own reward, and disobedience with its own punishment. Thus the mariners who preserve their ship in accordance with the physical laws, reap the reward of sailing in safety; and those who permit its departure from them, are punished by the ship sinking. Those who obey the moral law, enjoy the intense internal delights that spring from active moral faculties; they render themselves, moreover, objects of affection and esteem to moral and intelligent beings, who, in consequence, confer on them many other gratifications. Those who disobey that law, are tormentsd with insatiable desires, which, from the nature of things, cannot be gratified; they are punished by the perpetual craving of what ever portion of moral sentiment these possess, for higher enjoyments, which are never attained; and they are objects of dislike and malevolence to other beings in the same condition as themselves, who inflict on them the evils dictated by their own provoked propensities. Those who

10	 ON NATURAL LAWS.

obey the organic laws, reap the reward of health and vigour of body and buoyancy of mind; those who break them are punished by sickness, feebleness, and languor.

3. The natural laws are universal, invariable, and unbending. When the physical laws are subverted in China or Kamschatka, there is no instance of a ship floating there more than in England; and, when they are observed, there is no instance of a vessel sinking in any one of these countries more than in another. There is no example of men, in any country, enjoying the mild and generous internal joys, and the outward esteem and love that attend obedience to the moral law, while they give themselves up to the dominion of brutal propensities. There is no example, in any latitude or longitude, or in any age, of men who entered life with a constitution in perfect harmony with the organic laws, and who continued to obey these laws throughout, being, in consequence of this obedience, visited with pain and disease; and there are no instances of men who were born with constitutions at variance with the organic laws, and who lived in habitual disobedience to them, enjoying that sound health and vigour of body, that are the rewards of obedience.

4. The natural laws are in harmony with the whole constitution of man, the moral and intellectual powers being supreme. For example, if ships had sunk when they were in accordance with the physical law, this would have outraged the perceptions of Causality, and offended Benevolence and Justice; but as they float, the physical is, in this instance, in harmony with the moral and intellectual law. If men who rioted in drunkenness and debauchery, had thereby established health and increased their happiness, this, again, would have been in discord with our intellectual and moral perceptions; but the opposite result is in harmony with them.

It will be subsequently shown, that our moral sentiments desire universal happiness. If the physical and organic

ON NATURAL LAWS.	11

laws are constituted in harmony with them, it ought to follow that the natural laws, when obeyed, conduce to the happiness of moral and intelligent beings, who are called on to observe them; and that the evil consequences or punishments resulting from disobedience, are calculated to enforce stricter attention and obedience to the laws, that these beings may escape from the miseries of infringement, and return to the advantages of observance. For example, according to this view when a ship sinks, in consequence of a plank starting, the punishment ought to impress upon the spectators the absolute necessity of having every plank secure and strong, before going to sea again, a condition indispensable to their safety. When sickness and pain follow a debauche, they serve to urge a more scrupulous obedience to the organic laws, that the individual may escape death, which is the inevitable consequence of too great and continued disobedience to these laws, and enjoy health, which is the reward of opposite conduct. When discontent, irritation, hatred, and other mental annoyances, arise out of infringement of the moral law, this punishment is calculated to induce the offender to return to obedience, that he may enjoy the rewards attached to it.

When the transgression of any natural law is excessive, and so great that return to obedience is impossible, one purpose of death, which then ensues, may be to deliver the individual from a continuation of the punishment which should then do him no good. Thus, when, from infringement of a physical law, a ship sinks at sea, and leaves men immersed in water, without the possibility of reaching land, their continued existence in that state would be one of cruel and protracted suffering; and it is advantageous to them to have their mortal life extinguished at once by drowning, thereby withdrawing them from further agony. In like manner, if a man in the rigour of life, so far infringes any organic law as to destroy the function of a vital organ, the heart, for instance, or the lungs, or the brain, it

12	 ON NATURAL LAWS.

is better for him to have his life cut short, and his pain put an end to, than to have it protracted under all the tortures of an organic existence without lungs, without a heart, or without a brain, if such a state were possible, which, for this wise reason, it is not.  

I do not intend to predicate anything concerning the perfectibility of man by obedience to the laws of nature. The system of sublunary creation, so far as we perceive it, does not appear to be one of optimism; yet benevolent design, in its constitution, is undeniable. PALEY says,  ‘Nothing remains but the first supposition, that GOD, when he created the human species, wished them happiness, and made for them the provisions which he has made, with that view and for that purpose. The same argument may be proposed in different terms: Contrivance proves design; and the predominant tendency of the contrivance indicates the disposition of the designer. The world abounds with contrivances; and ALL THE CONTRIVANCES which we are acquainted with, are directed to beneficial purposes.' —PALEY’S Mor. Phil. Edinb. 1816, p. 51. My object is to discover as many of the contrivances of the Creator, for effecting beneficial purposes, as possible; and to point out in what manner, by accommodating our conduct to these contrivances, we may lessen our misery and increase our happiness.

I do not intend to teach that the natural laws, discernible by unassisted reason, are sufficient for the salvation of man without revelation. Human interests regard this world and the next. To enjoy this world, I humbly maintain, that man must discover and obey the natural laws; for example, to ensure health to offspring, the parents must be healthy, and the children after birth must be treated in conformity to the organic laws; to fit them for usefulness in society, they must be instructed in their own constitution, —in that of external objects and beings, and taught to act rationally in reference to these. Revelation does not com-

ON NATURAL LAWS.	13

municate complete or scientific information concerning the best mode of pursuing even our legitimate temporal interests, probably because faculties have been given to man to discover arts, sciences, and the natural laws, and to adapt his conduct to them. The physical, moral, and intellectual nature of man, is itself open to investigation by our natural faculties; and numerous practical duties resulting from our constitution are discoverable, which are not treated of in detail in the inspired volume; the mode of preserving health, for example; of pursuing with success a temporal calling; of discovering the qualities of men with whom we mean to associate our interests; and many others. My object, I repeat, is to investigate the natural constitution of the human body and mind, their relations to external objects and beings in this world, and the courses of action that, in consequence, appear to be beneficial or hurtful.

Man's spiritual interests belong to the sphere of revelation; and I distinctly declare, that I do not teach, that obedience to the natural laws is sufficient for salvation in a future state. Revelation prescribes certain requisites for salvation, which may be divided into two classes; first, faith or belief: and, secondly, the performance of certain practical duties, not as meritorious of salvation, but as the native result of that faith, and the necessary evidence of its sincerity. The natural laws form no guide as to faith; but so far as I can perceive, their dictates and those of revelation coincide in all matters relating to practical duties in temporal affairs.

It may be asked, whether mere knowledge of the natural laws is sufficient to insure observance of them ? Certainly not. Mere knowledge of music does not enable one to play on an instrument, nor of anatomy to perform skilfully a surgical operation. Practical training, and the aid of every motive that can interest the feelings, are necessary to lead individuals to obey the natural laws. Religion, in particular, may furnish motives highly conducive to this

14 	ON NATURAL LAWS.

obedience. But, it must never be forgotten, that although mere knowledge is not all-sufficient, it is a primary and indispensable requisite to regular observance; and that it is as impossible, effectually and systematically to obey the natural laws without knowing them, as it is to infringe them with impunity, although from ignorance of their existence. Some persons are of opinion that Christianity alone suffices, not only for man's salvation, which I do not dispute, but for his guidance in all practical virtues, with out knowledge of, or obedience to, the laws of nature; but from this notion I respectfully dissent. It appears to me, that one reason why vice and misery, in this world, do not diminish in proportion to preaching, is, because the natural laws are too much overlooked, and very rarely considered as having any relation to practical conduct.

Connected with this subject, it is proper to state, that I do not maintain that the world is arranged on the principle of Benevolence exclusively: my idea is, that it is constituted in harmony with the whole faculties of man; the moral sentiments and intellect holding the supremacy. What is meant by creation being constituted in harmony with the whole faculties of man, is this. Suppose that we should see two men holding a third in a chair, and a fourth drawing a tooth from his head:—While we contemplated this bare act, and knew nothing of the intention with which it was done, and of the consequences that would follow, we would set it down as purely cruel; and say, that, although it might be in harmony with Destructiveness, it could not be so with Benevolence. But, when we were told that the individual in the chair was a patient, the operator a dentist, the two men his assistants, and that the object of all the parties was to deliver the first from violent torture, we would then perceive that Destructiveness had been used as a means to accomplish a benevolent purpose; or, in other words, that it had acted under the supremacy of moral sentiment and intellect, and we would approve of the transac-

ON NATURAL LAWS.	15

tion. If the world were created on the principle of Benevolence exclusively, no doubt the toothache could not exist; but, as pain does exist, Destructiveness has been given to place man in harmony with it, when used for a benevolent end.

To apply this illustration to the works of providence; I humbly suggest it as probable, that if we knew thoroughly the design and whole consequences of such institutions of the Creator, as are attended with pain, death, and disease, for example, we should find that Destructiveness was used as a means, under the guidance of Benevolence and Justice, to arrive at an end in harmony with the moral sentiments and intellect; in short, that no institution of the Creator has pure evil, or destructiveness alone, for its object. In judging of the divine institution, the moral sentiments and intellect embrace the results of them to the race, while the propensities regard only the individual; and as the former are the higher powers, their dictates are of supreme authority in such questions. Further, when the operations of these institutions are sufficiently understood, they will be acknowledged to be benefical for the individual also; although, when partially viewed, this may not at first appear to be the case.

The opposite of this doctrine, viz. that there are institutions of the Creator which have suffering for their exclusive object, is clearly untenable; for this would be ascribing malevolence to the Deity. As, however, the existance of pain is undeniable, it is equally impossible to believe that the world is arranged on the principle of Benevolence exclusively; and, with great submission, the view now presented reconciles the existance of Pain with that of Benevolence in a natural way, and the harmony of it with the constitution of the human mind, renders its soundness probable.

16 	CONSTITUTION OF MAN

CHAPTER II.

OF THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN, AND ITS RELATIONS TO
EXTERNAL OBECTS.

LET US, then, consider the Constitution of Man, and the natural laws to which he is subjected, and endeavour to discover how far the external world is arranged with wisdom and benevolence, in regard to him. Bishop BUTLER, in the Preface to his Sermons, says, ‘It is from considering the relations which the several appetites and passions in the inward frame have to each other, and, above all, the SUPREMACY of reflection or conscience, that we get the idea of the system or constitution of human nature. And from the idea itself, it will as fully appear, that this our nature, i.e. constitution, is adapted to virtue, as from the idea of a watch it appears, that its nature, i.e. constitution or system, is adapted to measure time.

‘Mankind has various instincts and principles of action, as brute creatures have; some leading most directly and immediately to the good of the community, and some most directly to private good.

'Man has several, which brutes have not; particularly reflection or conscience, an approbation of some principles or actions, and disapprobation of others.'

‘Brutes obey their instincts or principles of action, according to certain rules; suppose, the constitution of their body, and the objects around them.'

‘The generality of mankind also obey their instincts and principles, all of them, those propensities we call good, as well as the bad, according to the same rules, namely, the constitution  of their body, and the external circumstannces which they are in.'

AND ITS RELATIONS.	17

‘Brutes, in acting according to the rules before mentioned, their bodily constitution and circumstances, act suitably to their whole nature.

‘Mankind also, in acting thus, would act suitably to their whole nature, if no more were to be said of man’s nature than what has been now said; if that, as it is a true, were also a complete, adequate account of our nature.

‘But that is not a complete account of man's nature. Somewhat further must be brought in to give us an adequate notion of it; namely, that one of those principles of action, conscience, or reflection, compared with the rest, as they all stand together in the nature of man, plainly bears upon it marks of authority over all the rest, and claims the absolute direction of them all, to allow or forbid their gratification;—a disapprobation on reflection being in itself a principle manifestly superior to a mere propension. And the conclusionis, that to allow no more to this superior principle or part of our nature, than to other parts; to let it govern and guide only occasionally, in common with the rest, as its turn happens to come, from the temper and circumstances one happens to be in; this is not to act conformably to the constitution of man: neither can any human creature be said to act conformably to his constitution of nature, unless he allows to that superior principle the absolute authority which is due to it.'—Butler’s Works, vol. ii. Preface. The following Essay is founded on the principles here suggested.

SECTION I.

MAN CONSIDERED AS A PHYSICAL BEING.

The human body consists of bones, muscles, nerves, blood-vessels, besides organs of nutrition, of respiration, and of thought. These parts are all composed of physical elements, and, to a certain extent, are subjected to the 

18 	MAN CONSIDERED AS 

physical laws of creation. By the law of gravitation, the body falls to the ground when unsupported, and is lialble to be injured, like any frangilble substance; by a chemical law, excessive cold freezes, and excessive heat dissipates its fluids; and life, in either case is extinguished.

To discover the real effect of the physical laws of nature on human happiness, we would require to understand, 1st. The physical laws themselves, as revealed by mathematics, natural philosophy, natural history, and their subordinate branches; 2dly. The anatomical and physiological constitution of the human body; 3dly. The adaptation of the former to the latter. These expositions are necessary, to ascertain, the extent to which it is possible for man to place himself in accordance with the physical laws, so as to reap advantage from them, and also to determine how far the sufferings which he endures, fail to be ascribed to their inevitable operation, and how far to his ignorance and infringement of them. To treat of these views in detail, would require separate volumes and I therefore confine myself to a single instance as an illustration of the mode in which the investigation might be conducted.

By the law of gravitation, heary bodies always tend towards the centre of the earth. Some of the advantages of this law are, that objects remain at rest when properly supported so that men know where to find them when they are wanted for use; walls, when erected of sufficient thickness and perfectly perpendicular, stand firm and secure, so as to constitute edifices for the accommodation of man. Water deseends from the clouds, from the roofs of houses, from streets and fields, and precipitates itself down the channels of rivers, turns mill-wheels in its course, and sets in motion the most stupendous and useful machinery; ships move steadily through the water with part of their hulls immersed, and part rising moderately above it, their masts and sails towering in the air to catch the inconstant breese; and men are enabled to descend from heights, to

A PHYSICAL BEING.	19

penetrate by mines below the surface of the ground, and by diving-bells beneath that of the ocean.

To place man in harmony with this law, the Creator has bestowed on him bones, muscles, and nerves, constructed on the most perfect principles of mechanical science, which enable him to preserve his equilibrium, and to adapt his movements to its influence; also intellectual faculties, calculated to perceive the existance of the law, its modes of operation, the relation between it and himself, the beneficial consequences of observing this relation, and the painful results of infringing it.

Finally, when a person falls over a precipice, and is maimed or killed; when a ship springs a leak and sinks; or when a reservoir pond breaks down its banks and ravages a valley, we ought to trace the evil back to its cause, which will uniformly resolve itself into infringement of a natural law, and then endeavour to discover whether this infringement could or could not have been prevented, by a due exercise of the physical and mental powers bestowed by the Creator on man.

By pursuing this course, we shall arrive at sound conclusions concerning the adaptation of the human mind and body to the physical laws of creation. The subject, as I have said, is too extensive to be here prosecuted in detail, and I am incompetent, besides, to do it justice; but the more minutely any one inquires, the more firm will be his conviction, that in these relations admirable provision is made by the Creator for human happiness, and that the evils which arise from neglect of them, are attributable, to a great extent, to man's not adequately applying his powers to the promotion of his own enjoyment.

20	MAN CONSIDERED AS

SECTION II:

MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ORGANIZED BEING.

MAN is an organised being, and subject to the organic laws. An organised being is one which derives its existence from a previously existing organised being, which subsists on food, which grows, attains maturity, decays, and dies. The first law, then, that must be obeyed, to render an organised being perfect in its kind, is that the germ, from which is springs, shall he complete in all its parts, and sound in its whole constitution. If we sow an acorn, in which some vital part has been destroyed altogether, the seedling plant, and the full grown oak, if it ever attain to maturity, will be deficient in the lineaments which were wanting in the embryo root; if we sow an acorn entire in its parts, but only half ripened or damaged, by damp or other causes, in its whole texture, the seedling oak will be feeble, and will probably die early. A similar law holds in regard to man. A second organic law is, that the organised being, the moment it is ushered into life, and so long as it continues to live, must be supplied with food, light, air, and other pysical aliment requisite for its support, in due quantity, and of the kind best suited to its particular constitution. Obedience to this law is rewarded with a vigourous and healthy. development of its powers; and in animals, with a pleasing consciousness of existence and aptitude for the performance of their natural functions; disobedience to its is punished with feebleness, stinted growth, general imperfection, or death, A third organic law, applicable to man, is, that he shall duly exercise his organs, this condition being an indespensible requisite to health. The reward of obedience to this law, is enjoyment in the very act of excercising the functions, pleasing consciousness of existence, and the acquisition of

AN ORGANISED BEING.	21

numberless gratifications and advantages, of which labour, or the exercise of our powers, is the procuring means: disobedience is punished with derangement and sluggishness of the functions, with general uneasiness or positive pain, and with the denial of gratification to numerous faculties.

Directing our attention to the constitution of the human body, we perceive that the lower of reproduction is bestowed an man, and also intellect, to enable him to discover and obey the conditions necessary for the transmission of a healthy organic frame to his deseendants; that digestive organs are given to him for his nutrition, and innumerable vegetable and animal productions are placed around him, in wise relationship to these organs.

Without attempting to expound minutely the organic structure of man, or to trace in detail its adaptation to his external condition, I shall offer some observations in support of the proposition, that the due exercise of the osseous, muscular, and nervous systems, under the guidance of intellect and moral sentiment, and in accordance with the physical laws, contributes to houman enjoyment; and, that neglect of this exercise, or an abuse of it, by carrying it to excess, or by conducting, it in opposition to the moral, intellectual, or physical laws, is punished with pain.

The earth is endowed with the capability of producing an ample supply for all our wants, provided we expend muscular and nervous energy in its cultivation; while, in most climates, it refuses to produce if we withhold this is labour and leave it waste. Further, the Creator has presented us with timber, metal, wool, and countless materials, which, by means of muscular power, may be converted into clothing, and all the luxuries of life. The fertility of the carth, and the demands of the body for food and clothing, are so benevolently adapted to each other, that, with rational restraint on population, a few hours’ labour each day from every individual capable of labour, would suffice to furnish all with every commodity that could really add to enjoment.

22	MAN CONSIDERED AS

In the tropical regions of the globe, for example, where a high atmospheric temperature quantum the quantum of muscular energy, the fertility and productiveness of the soil are increased in a like proportion, so that less labour suffices. Less labour, also, is required to profide habitations and raiment. In the colder latitutudes, muscular energy greatly increased, and there much higher demands are made upon it. The earth is more sterile, the rude winds require firmer fabrics to resist their violenee, and the piercing frosts require a thicker covering to the body.

Further, the food afforded by the soil in eash climate is admirably adapted to the maintenaces of the organic constitution in health, and to the supply of the muscular energy requisite for the particular wants of the situation. In the Arctic Regions no farinaceous food ripeus; but on putting the question to Dr. Richardson, how he, accustomed to the bread and vegetables of the temperate regions, was able to endure the pure animal diet, which formed his only support on his expedition to the shores of the Polar Sea along with Calitain FRANKLIN, he replied, that the effects of the extreme dry cold to which they were exposed, living, as they did, constantly in the open air, was to produce a desire for the most stimulating food they could obtain; that bread in such a climate was not only not desired, but comparatively impotent, as an articic of diet; that pure animal food, and the fatter the better, was the only sustenance that maintained the tone of the corporeal system, but that when it was abundant (and the quantity required was much greater than in milder latitudes), a delightful vigour and buoyancy of body and mind were enjoyed, that rendered life highly agreeable. Now, in beautiful harmony with these wants of the human frame, these regions abound, during summer, in countless herds of deer, in rabbits, partringes, ducks, in short, in game of every description, and fish: and the flesh of these dried, constitutes delicious food in

AN ORGANIZED BEING.	23

winter, when the earth is wrapped in one widespread covering of snow.

In Scotland, the climate is moist and cold, the greater part of the surface is mountainous, but admirably adapted for raising sheep and cattle, while a certain portion consists of fertile plains, fitted for farinaceous food. If the same law holds in this country, the diet of the people should consist of animal and farinaceous food, the former decidedly predominating. As we proceed to warmer latitudes, we find the soil and temperature of France less congenial to sheep and cattle, but more favourable to corn and wine; and the Frenchman inherits a native elasticity of body and mind, that enables him to flourish in vigour on less of animal food, than could be requisite to preserve the Scottish Highlander in a like gay and alert condition, in the recesses of his mountains. The plains of Hindostan are too hot for the sheep and ox, but produce rice and vegetable spices in prodigious abundance, and the native is healthy, vigorous and actire, when supplied with rice and curry, and becomes sick, when obliged to live upon animal diet. He, also, is supplied with less muscular energy from this species of food, and his soil and climate require far less laborious exertion than those of Britain, Germany, or Russia.

So far, then, the external world appears to be wisely and benevolently adapted to the organic system of man; that is, to his nutrition, and to the developement and exercise of his corporeal organs; and the natural law appears to be, that all, if they desire to enjoy the pleasure attending sound and vigorous muscular and nervous systems, must expend in labour the energy which the Creator has infused into these organs. A widd choice is left open to man, as to the mode in which he shall exercise his nervous and muscular systems. The labourer, for example, digs the ground, and the squire engages in the chase. The penalty of neglecting this law debility, bodily and mental, lassi-

24 MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN.

tude, imperfcct digestion, disturbed sleep, bad health, and, if carried to a cerlain length, death. The penalty for over-exerting these systems is exhaustion, mental incapacity, the desire of strong artificial stimulants, such as ardent spirits, general insensibility, and grossness of feeling and perception, with disease and shortened life. Society has not recognised this law, and in consequence, the higher orders despise labour, and suffer the first penalty; while the lower orders are oppressed with toil, and undergo the second. The penalties serve to provide motives for obedience to the law, and whenever it is recognised, and the consequences are discovered to be inevitalbe, men will no longer shun labour as painful and ignominious, but resort to it as a source of pleasure, as well as to avoid the pains inflicted on those who neglect it.

SECTION III.

MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ANIMAL—MORAL—AND INTELLECTUAL BEING

IN the third place, man is an animal—moral—and intellectual being. To discover the adaptation of these parts of his nature to his external circumstances, we must first know what are his various animal, moral, and intellectual powers themselves. Phrenology, gives us a view of them, drawn from observation; and as I have verified the inductions of that science, so as to satisfy myself that is the most complete and correct exposition of the Nature of Man which has yet been given, I adopt its classification of faculties as the basis of the subsequent observations. According to Phrenology, then, the Human Faculties are the following:

MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN.	25

Order I. FEELINGS.

Genus 1. PROPENSITIES—Common to Man with the Lower Animals.

1. Amativeness;—Produces sexual love.

2. Philoprogenitiveness.—Uses: Love of offspring.—Abuses: Pampering and spoiling children.

3. Concentrativeness.—Uses: It gives the desire for permanence in place, and for permanence of emotions and ideas in the mind.—Abuses: Aversion fo move abroad; morbid dwelling on internal emotions and ideas, to the neglect of external impressions.

4. Adhesiveness.—Uses: Attachement; friendship, and society result from it.—Abuses: Clanship for improper objects, attachment to worthless individuals. It is generally large in women

5. Combativeness.—Uses: Courage to meet danger, to overcome difaculties, and to resist attacks.—Abuses: Love of contention, and tendency to provoke and assault.

6. Destructiveness.—Uses: Desire to destroy noxious objects, and to kill for food. It is very discernible in carnivorous animals.—Abuses: Cruelty, desire to torment, tendency to passion, rage, harshness and severity in speech and writing.

7. Constructiveness.—Uses: Desire to build and construct works of art.—Abuses: Construction of engines to injure and destroy, and fabrication of objects to deceive mankind.

8. Acquisitiveness.—Uses: Desire to possess, and tendency to accumulate, articles of utility, to provide against want.—Abuses: Inordinate desire for property; selfishness; avarice.

9. Secretiveness.—Uses: Tendency to restrain within the mind the various emotions and ideas that involuntarily present themselves, until the judgement has approved of giving them utterance; it also aids the artist and the actor in giving expression; and is an ingredient in prudence.—Abuses: Cuning, deceit, duplicity, lying, and, joined with Acquisitiveness, theft.

Genus II. SENTIMENTS.

	I. 	Sentiments common to Man with the Lower Animals.

10. Self-Esteem.—Uses: Self-interest, love of independence, personal dignity.—Abuses: Pride, disdain, overweening conceit, excessive selfishness, love of dominion.

26.	MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN.

11. Love of Approbation.—Uses: Desire of the esteem of others, love of praise, desire of fame and glory.—Abuses: Vanity, ambition, thirst for praise independent of praiseworthiness.

12. Cautiousness.—Uses: It gives origin to the sentiment of fear, the desire to shun dnager, to circumspection; and it is an ingredient in prudence.—Abuses: Excessive timidity, poltroonery, unfounded apprehensions, despondancy, melancholy.

13. Benevolence.—Uses: Desire of the happiness of others, universal charity, mildness of disposition, and a lively sympathy witht enjoyment of all animated beings.—Abuses: Profusion, injurious indulgence of the appetites and fancies of others, prodigality, facility of temper.

	II.	Sentiments proper to Man.

14. Veneration.—Uses: Tendency to worship, adore, venerate, or respect whatever is great and good; gives origin to the religious sentiment.—Abuses: Senseless respect for unworthy objects consecrated by time or situation, love of antiquated customs, abject subserviency to persons of authority, superstition.

15. Hope.—Uses: Tendency to expect and to look forward to the future with confidence and reliance it cherishes faith.—Abuses: Credulity, absurd expectations of felicity not founded on reason.

16 Ideality.—Uses: Love of the beautiful and spendid, the desire of excellence, poetic feeling.—Abuses: Extravagance and absurd enthusiasm, preference of the showy and glaring to the solid and useful, a tendency to dwell in the refions of fancy, and to neglect the duties of life.

Wonder.—Uses: The desire of novelty, aadmiration of the new, the unexpected, the grand, and extraordinary.—Abuses: Love of the marvellous, astonishment,—Note. Veneration, Hope and Wonder, combined, give the tendency to religion; their abuses produce superstition and belief in false miracles, in prodigies, magic, ghosts, and all supernatural absurdities.

17. Consciousness.—Uses: It gives origin the the sentiment of justice, or respect of the rights of others, openness to conviction, the love of truth.—Abuses: Scrupulous adherence to noxious principles when ignorantly embraced, excessive refinement in the views of duty and obligation, excess in remorse, or self-condemaation.

18. Firmness.—Uses: Determination, perseverance, steadiness of purpose.—Abuses: Stubborness, infatuation, tenacity in evil.

MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN.	27

Order II. INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES.

Genus 1. EXTERNAL SENSES.

Feeling or Touch. 
TASTE.
SMELL.
HEARING.
LIGHT.

Uses: To bring man into communication with external objects, and to enable him to enjoy them.—Abuses: Excessive indulgence in the pleasures arising from the senses, to the extent of impairing the organs and debilitating the mind.

Genus II.	INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES—which percieve existence.

19. IDIVIDUALITY—Takes cognizance of existance and simple facts. 
	EVENTUALITY—Takes cognizance of occurences and events.
20. FORM—Renders man observant of form.
21. SIZE—Renders man observantn of dimensions, and aids perspective.
22. WEIGHT—Communicates the perception of momentum, weight, resistance, and aids equilibrium.
23. COLOURING—Gives perception of colours.

Genus III. INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES—which percieve the relations of external objects.

24. LOCALITY—Gives the idea of space and relative position.
25. ORDER—Communicates the love of physical arrangement.
26. TIME—Gives rise to the perecption of duration.
27. NUMBER—Gives a turn for arithmetic and algebra.
29. TUNE—The sense of melody arises from it.
29. LANGUAGE—Gives a facility in acquiring a knowledgeof arbtrary signs to express thoughts—a facility in the use of them— and a power of inventing them.

Genus IV. REFLECTING FACULTIES—which compare, judge, and descriminate.

30. COMPARISION—Gives the power of discovering analogies and resemblances.
31. CAUSAI.ITY—to trace the dependence of phenomena, and the relation of cause and effect.
32. WIT—Gives the feeling and the ludicrous.
33. IMITATION—To copy the manners, gestures, and actions of others, and nature generally.

28	SUPREMACY OF THE

The first glaces at these faculties suffices to show, that they are not all equal in excellence and elevation; that some are common to man with the lowea animals; and others peculiar to man. In comparing the human mind, therefore, with its external condition, it becomes an object of primary importance tn discover the relative subordination of these different orders of powers. If the Animal Faculties are naturally or nessarily supreme, then external nature, if it be wisely constituted, may be expected to bear direct reference, in its arrangements, to this supremacy. If the Moral and Intellectual Faculties hold the ascendeney, then the constitution of external nature may be expected to be in harmony with them, when predominant. Let us attend to these questions.

SECTION IV.

THE FACULTIES OF MAN COMPARED WITH EACH OTHER; OR THE SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT.

According to the phrenological theory of human nature, the faculties are divided into Propensities common to man with the lower animals, Sentiments common to man, with the lower animals, Sentiments proper to man, and intellect. Every faculty stands in a definite relation to certain external objects;—when it is internally active it desires these objects;—when they are presented to it they excite it to activity, and delight it with agreeable sensations. Human happiness and misery are resolved into the gratification or denial of gratification of one or more of our active faculties, before described, of the external senses, and the feelings connected with our bodily frame. The faculties, in themselves, are mere instincts; the moral sentiments and intellect are higher instincts than the animal propensities Every faculty is good in itself, but all are liable to abuse.

	MORAL SENTIMENTSNTS AND INTELLECT.	29

Their manifestations are right only when directed by enlightened intellect and moral sentiment. In maintaining the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, I do not consider them suffcient to direct conduct by their mere instinctive suggestion. To fit them to discharge this important duty, they must be illuminated by knowledge of science and of moral and religious duty; but whenever their dictates, thus enlightened, oppose the solicitations of the propensities, the latter must yield, otherwise, by the constitution of external nature, evil will inevitably ensue. This is what I mean by nature being constituted in harmony with the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect. Let us consider the faculties themselves.

The first three propensities, Amativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, and Adhesiveness, or the group of the domestic affections, desire a conjugal partner, offspring, and friends; the obtaining of these affords them delight,—the removal of them occasions pain. But to render an individual happy, the whole Faculties must be gratified harmoniously, or at least the gratification of one or more must not offend any of the others. For example, suppose the group of the domestic affections to be highly interested in an individual, and strongly to desire to form an alliance with him, but that the person so loved is improvident and immoral, and altogether an object which the faculties of Self-esteem, Love of Approbation, Benevolence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, and Intellect, if left dispassionately to survy, his qualities, could not approve of; then, if an alliance be formed with him, under the ungovernable impulees of the former faculties, bitter days of repentance must necessarily follow, when these begin to languish, and the latter faculties recieve offence from his qualities. If, on the other hand, the domestic affections are guided by intellect to an object pleasing to the latter powers, these themselves will be gratified, they will double the delights afforded by the former faculties, and render the enjoyment permanent.

30	 SUPREMACY OF THE

The great distinction between the animal faculties and the powers proper to man, is, that the object of the former is the preservation of the individual himself, or his family; while the latter have the welfare of others, and our duties to God, as their ends. Even the domestic affections, amiable and respectable as they undoubtedly are when combined with the moral feelings, have self as their object. The love of children, springing from Philoprogenitiveness, when acting alone, is the same in kind as that of the miser for his gold; an intense interest in the object, for the sake of the gratification it affords to his own mind, without regard for the object on its own account. This truth is recognised by Sir WALTER SCOTT. He says ‘Elspatys ardent, though selfish affection for her son, incapable of being qualified by a regard for the true interests of the unfortunate object of her attachment resembled the instinctive fondness of the animal race for their offspring; and, diving little farther into futurity than one of the inferior creatures, she only felt that to be separated fromHamish was to die.'*

In man, this faculty generally acts along with Benevolence, and a disinterested desire of the happiness of the child mingles along with, and elevates the mere instinct of, Philoprogenitiveness; but the sources of these two affections are different, their degrees vary in different persons, and their ends also are dissimular.

The same observation applies to the affection proceeding from Adhesiveness. When this faculty acts alone, it desires, for its own satisfaction, a friend to love; but, if Benevolence do not act along with it, it cares nothing for the happiness of that friend, except in so far as his welfare may be necessary to its own gratification. The horse feels melancholy when his companion is removed; but the feeling appears to be one of uneasiness at the absence of an ob-

*Chronicles of Cannongate, vol. i. p. 281.

	MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT.	31

ject which gratified his Adhesiveness. His companion may have been led to a richer pasture, and introduced to more agreeable society; yet this does not assuage the distress suffered by him at his removal; his tranquillity, in short, is restored only by time causing the activity of Adhesiveness to subside, or by the substitution of another object on which it may exert itself. In human nature, the effect of the faculty, when acting singly, is the same; and this accounts for the fact of the almost total indifference of many persons who were really attached, by Adhesiveness, to each other, when one falls into misfortune, and becomes a disagreeable object to the Self-esteem and Love of Approbation of the other. Suppose two persons, elevated in rank, and possessed of aflluence, to have each Adhesiveness, Self-esteem, and Love of Approbation large, with Benevolence and Conscientiousness moderate, it is obvious that, while both are in prosperity, they may really like each other's society, and feel a reciprocal attachment, because there will be mutual sympathy in their Adhesiveness, and the Self-esteem and Love of Approbation of each will be gratified by the rank and circumstances of his firiend; but imagine one of them to fall into misfortune, and to cease to be an object gratifying to Self-esteem and Love of Approbation; suppose that he becomes a poor friend instead of a rich and influential one, the harmony between their selfish faculties will be broken, and then Adhesivness in the one who remains rich will transfar its affection to another individual who may gratify it, and also supply agreeable sensations to Self-esteem and Love of Approbation,—to a genteel friend, in short, who will look well in the eye of the world.

Much of this conduct occurs in society, and the whining complaint is very ancient, that the storms of adversity. disperse friends just as the winter winds strip leaves from the forest that gaily adorned it in the sunshine of summer; and many moral sentences are pointed, and episodes finely

32	SUPREMACY OF THE 

turned, on the selfishness rual corruption of ar human nature. But such friendships were attachments founded on the lower feelings, which, by their constitution, are selfish, and the desertion complained of is the fair and legitimate result of the principles an which both parties acted during the gay hours of prosperity. It we look at the head of SHERIDAN, we shall percieve a large Adhesiveness, Self-esteem, and,Love of Approbation, with deficient reflecting organs, and moderate Conscientiousness. He has large Individuality, Comparison, Secretiveness, and Imitation, which gave him talents for observation and display. When these caused him a brilliant reputation, he was surrounded by friends, and he himself probably felt attachment in return. But his deficient morality prevented him from loving his friends with a true, disinterested, and honest regard; he abused their kindness and, as he sunk into, powerty and wretchedness and ceased to be an honour to them, or to excite their Love of Approbation, they almost all deserted him. But the whole connexion was founded on selfish principles; SHERIDAN honoured them, and they flattered SHERIDAN and the abandonment was the natural consequence of the cessation of gratification to their selfish feelings. I shall by-and-by point out the sources of a loftier and a purer friendship, and its effects.

To proceed with the propensities: Combativeness and Destructiveness also are in their nature purely selfish. If aggression is committed against us, Combativeness draws, the sword and repels the attack: Destructiveness inflicts, vengeance for the offence; both feelings are obviously the very opposite of benevolence. I do not say, that, in themselves, they are despicable or sinful; on the contrary, they are neeessary, and when legitimately, employed, highly useful; but still self is the object of their supreme regard.

The next organ is Acquisitiveness; and self is eminently its object. It desires blindly to possess, is pleased with accumulating, and suffers great uneasiness in being de-

	MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT.	33

prived of its objects. It is highly useful, like all other faculties for Benevolence cannot give many until away until Acquisitiveness have acquired. There are friendships, particularly among mercantile men, founded on Adhesiveness and Acquisitiveness, just as in fashionable life they are founded on Adhesiveness and Love of Approbation. Two individuals fall into a course of dealing, by which each reaps profit by transactions with the other: this leads to intimacy, and Adhesiveness probably mingles its influence, and produces a feeling of actual attachment. The moment, however, that the Acquisitiveness of the one suffers the least inroad from that of the other, and their interests clash, they are apt, if no higher principle unite them, to become bitter enemies. lt is probably that, while these fashionable and commercial friendships last, the parties may profess great reciprocal esteem and regard, and that, with a rupture takes place, the one who is depressed, or disobliged, may recall these expressions and charge them as hypocritical; but they really were not so: each probably felt from Adhesiveness and gratified Love of Approbation something which he coloured over, and perhaps believed to be disinterested friendship; but if each would honestly probe his own conscience, he would he obliged to acknowledge that the whole basis of the connexion was selfish; and hence, that the result is just what every man ought to expect, who places his reliance for happiness chiefly on the lower propensities.

Secretiveness is also selfish in its nature; for it suppresses feelings that might injure us with other individuals, and desires to find out secrets that may enable its possessor to guard self against hostile plots or designs. In itself it does not desire, in any respect, the benefit of others.

Self-esteem is, in its very essence and name, selfish; it is the love of ourselves, and the esteem of ourselves par excellence.

Love of Approbation, although many think otherwise, is

34 	SUPREMACY OF THE

also in itself a purely selfish feeling. Its real desire is applause to ourselves, to be esteemed ourselves, and if it prompt us to do services, or to say agreeable things to others, it is not from love of them, but purely for the sake of obtaining self-gratification.

Suppose, for example, we are acquainted with a person who has committed an error in some public duty, who has done or said something that the public disapprovs of, and which we see to be really wrong, Benevolence and Conscientiousness would prompt us to lay before our freind the very head and front of his offending, and conjure him to forsake his error, and publicly make amends:—Love of Approbation, on the other  hand, would either render us averse to speak to him on the subject, lest he should be offended, or prompt us to extenuate his fault, and represent it as either positively no error at all, or as extremely trivial. If we analyze the motive which prompts to this course, we shall find that it is not love of our friend, or consideration for his welfare, but fear lest, by our presenting to him disagreeable truths, he should feel offended at us, and deprive us of the gratification afforded to our Love of Approbation by his good opinion: in short, the motive is purely selfish.

Another illustration occurs. A manufacturer in a country town, having acquired a considerable fortune by trade, applied part of it in building a princely mansion, which he furnished in the richest and most expensive style of fashion. He asked his customers, near and distant, to visit him when calling on business, and led them into a dining-room or drawing-room that absolutely dazzled them with its magnificence. This excited their wonder and curiosity, which was precisely the effect he desired; he then led them over his whole apartments, and displayed before them his grandeur and taste. In doing so, he imagined that he was conferring a high pleasure on them, and filling their minnds with an intense admiration of his greatness; but the real effect was very diffarent. The motive of his con-

	MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT.	35

duct was not love of them, or regard for their happiness or welfare; it was not Benevolence to others that prompted him to build the palace; it was not Veneration, nor was it Conscientiousness. The fabric sprung from Self-esteem and Love of Approbation combined, no donbt, with considerable Intellect and Ideality. In leading his humble brethren in trade through the princely halls, over the costly carpets, and amidst the gilding, burnishing, and rich array, that everywhere met their eyes, he exulted in the consciousness of his own importance, and asked for their admiration, not as an expression of respect for any real benefits conferred upon them, but as the much relished food of his own selfish vanity.

Let us attend, in the next place, to the effect of this display on those to whom it was addressed. To gain their esteem or affection, it was necessary to manifest towards them real Benevolence, real regrard, and impartial justice; in short, to cause another individual to love us, we must make him the object of the moral sentiments, which have his good and happiness for their end. Here, however, these were not the inspiring motives of the conduct, and the want of them would be instinctively felt. The customers, who possessed the least shrewdness, would ascribe the whole exhibition to the vanity of the owner, and they would either pity or hate him; if their own moral sentiments predominated, they would pity; if their Self-esteem and Love of Approbation were paramount, these would be offended at his assumed superiority, and would rouse Destructiveness to hate him. It would only be the silliest and the vainest who would be at all gratified; and their satisfaction would arise from the feeling, that they could now return to their own circle, and boast how great a friend they had, and in how grand a style they had been entertained, —this display being a direct gratification of their owa Self-esteem and Love of Approbation, by their identifying themselves with him. Even this picture could ba reaped only

36	SUPREMACY OF THE

where the admirer was so humble in rank as to entertain no idea of rivalship, and so limited in intellect and sentiments as not to perceive the worthlessness of the qualities by which he was captivated.

In like manner, when persons, even of more sense than the manufacturer here alluded to, give entertainments to their friends, they sometimes fail in their object from the same cause. They wish to show off themselves as their leading motive, much more than to confer real happiness upon their acquaintances; and, by the irreversible law of human nature, this must fail in exciting good will and pleasure in the minds of those to whom it is addressed, bcause it disagreeably affects their Self-esteem and Love of Approbation. In short, to be really successful in gratifying our friends, we must keep, our own selfish faculties in due subordination, and pour out copious streams of real kindness from the higher sentiments, animated and elevated by intellect; and all who have experienced the heartfelt joy and satisfaction attending an entertainment conducted on this principle, will never quarrel with the homeliness of the fare, or feel uneasy about the absence of fashion in the service.

Cautiousness is the next faculty, and is a sentiment instituted to protect self from danger, and has clearly a regard to individual safety as its primary object.

This terminates the list of the feelings common to man with the lower animal,* and which, as we have seen, have self preservation as their leading objects. They are given for the protection and advantage of our animal nature, and, when duly regulated, are highly useful, and also respectable, viewed with reference to that end; but they are sources 

*Benevolence is stated in the works on Phrenology as common to man with the lower animlas; but in them it appears to produce rather passive meekness and good nature, than actual desire for each other’s happiness. In the human race, this last is its proper function; and, viewed in this light, I here treat of it as exclusively a human faculty.

	MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT.		37

of innumerable evils when allowed to usurp the ascendeney over the moral faculties, and to become the leading springs of our social intercourse.

I proceed to notice the moral sentiments which constitute the proper human faculties, and to point out their objects and relations.

Benevolonces has no reference to self. It desires purely and disinterestedly the happiness of its object; it loves for the sake of the person beloved; if he be well, and the sunbeams of prosperity shine warmly around him, it exults and delights in his felicity. It desires a dillusion of joy, and renders the feet swift and the arm strong in the cause of charity and love.

Veneration also has no reference to self. It looks up with a pure and elevated emotion to the being to whom it is directed, whether God or our fellow-men, and delights in the contemplation of their venerable and admirable qualities. It desires to find out excellence, and to dwell and feed upon it, and renders self lowly, humble, and submissive.

Hope spreads its gay wing in the boundless regions of futurity. It desires good, and expects it to come; “ it incites us to aim at a good which we can live without ;" its influence is soft, soothing, and happy; but self is not its direct or particular object.

Ideality delights in perfection from the pure pleasure of contemplating it. So far as it is concerned, the picture, the status, the landscape, or the mansion, on which it abides with intensest rapture, will be as pleasing, although the property of another, as if all its own. It is a spring that is touched by the beautiful wherever it exists; and hence its means of enjoyment are as unbounded as the universe is extensive.

Wonder seeks the new and the striking, and is delighted with change; but there is no desire of appropriation to self in its longings.

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Conscientiousness stands in the midway belween self and other individuals. It is a regulator of our animal feelings, and points out the limit which they must not pass. It desires to do to another as we would have another to do to us, and thus is a guardian of the welfare of our fellow men, while it sanctions and supports our personal feelings within the bounds of a due moderation. It is a noble feeling; and the mere consciousness of its being bestowed upon us, ought to bring home to our minds an intense conviction that the Author of the universe is at once wise and just.

Intellect is universal in its application. It may become the handmaid of any of the faculties; it may devise a plan to murder or to bless, to steal or to bestow, to rear up or to destroy; but, as its proper use is to observe the different objects of creation, to mark their relations, and direct the propensities and sentiments to their proper and legitimate enjoyments, it has a boundless sphere of activity, and, when properly exercised and applied, is a source of high and inexhaustible delight.

Keeping in view the great difference now pointed out between the animal and properly human faculties, the reader will perceive that these consequences follow from the constitution of these powers: First, All the faculties, when in excess, are insatiable, and, from the constitution of the world, never can be satisfied. They indeed may be soon satisfied on any particular occasion. Food will soon fill the stomach; indulgence will speedily assuage Amativeness; success in a speculation will render Acquisitiveness quiescent for the moment: a triumph will satisfy for the time Self-esteem and Love of Approbation; a long concert will fatigue Tune; and, too long a discourse afflict Causality. But after repose they will all renew their solicitations. They must all therefore be regulated; and, in particular, the lower propensities, from having self as their primary object, and being blind to consequences, do not set limits to their own indulgence; and hence lead to

MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT	39

misery to the individual, and injury to society, when allowed to exceed the limits prescribed by the superior sentiments and intellect.

As this circumstance attending the propensities is of great practical importance, I shall make a few observations in elucidation of it. The births and lives of children depend upon circumstances, over which unenlightened men have but a limited control: and hence an individual, whose supreme happiness springs from the gratification of Philoprogenitiveness will, by the mere predominance of that propensity, be led to neglect or infringe the natural laws, on which the lives and welfare of children depend, and which can be observed only by active moral and intellectual faculties. Hence he will be in constant danger of anguish and disappointment, by the removal of his children, or by their undutiful conduct and immoral behaviour. Besides, Philoprogenitiveness, acting along with Self-esteem and Love of Approbation, would, in each parent, desire that his children should possess the highest rank, the greatest wealth, and be distinguished for the most splendid talents. Now the highest, the greatest, and the most splendid of any qualities, necessarily imply the existance of inferior degrees, and are not attainable except by one. The animal faculties, therefore, must be restrained in their desires, and directed to their objects by the human faculties, by the sentiments of Conscientiousness, Benevolence, Veneration, and Intellect, otherwise they will inevitably lead to disappointment. In like manner, Acquisitiveness desires wealth, and, as nature affords only a certain number of quarters of grain annually, a certain portion of cattle, of fruit, of flax, and other articles, from which food, clothing, and wealth, are manufactured; and as this quantity, divided equally among all the members of a state, would afford but a moderate portion to each, it is self-evident that, if all desire to acquire and possess a large amount, ninety-nine out of the hundred must be disappointed. This disappointment,

40	SUPREMACY OF THE 

from the very constitution of nature, is inevitalde to the greater number; and when individuals form schemes of aggrandisenent, originating from desires communicated by the animal faculties alone, they would do well to keep this law of nature in view . When we look around, we see how few make rich; how few suceeed in accomplishing all their lofty anticipations for the advancementof their children; how few attain the summit of ambition, compared with the multitudes who fall short. Love of Approbation and Self-esteem, when unregulated, desire the highest station of ambition; but, as these faculties exist in all men, and only one can be greatest, they will prompt one man to defeat the gratification of another. All this arises, not from error and imperfection in the institutions of the Creator, but from blindness in men to their own nature, to the nature of external objects, and to the relations established between these; in short, blindness to the principles of the divine administration of the world.

Secondly. The animal propensities being inferior in their nature to the human faculties, their gratifications, when not approved of by the latter, leave a painful feeling of discontent and dissatisfaction in the mind, occasioned by the secret disclaimation of their excessive action by the higher feelings. Suppose, for example, a young person to set out in life, with the idea that the great object of existence is to acquire wealth, to rear and provide for a family, and to attain honour and distinction among men; all these desires spring from the propensities alone. Imagine him to rise early and sit up late, to put forth all the energies of a powerful mind in buying, selling, and making rich, and that he is successful: it is obvious, that, in prompting to this course of action, Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness, had no share; and that, in pursuing it, they have not received direct and intended gratification; they would have anxiously and wearily watched the animal faculties, longing for the hour when they were to say

	MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT.		41

Enough; their whole occupation, in the mean time, being to restrain them from such gross extravagances as would have defeated their own ends. In the domestic circle, again, a spouse and children would gratify Philoprogenitiveness and Adhesiveness, and their advancement would please Self-esteem and Love of Approbation; but here also the moral sentiments would act the part of mere spectators and sentinels to impose restraints; they would receive no direct enjoyment, and would not be recognised as the fountain of the conduct. In the pursuit of honour, suppose an office of dignity and power, or high rank in socicty, the mainsprings of exertion would still be Self-esteem and Love of Approbation, and the moral sentiments would be compelled to wait in tiresome vacuity, without having their energies called directly into play, so as to give them full scope in their legitimate sphere.

Suppose, then, this individual to have reached the evening of life, and to look back on the pleasures and pains of his past existance, he must feel that there has been vanity and vexation of spirit,—the want of a satisfying portion; and for this suffcient reason, that the highest of his faculties have been all along scarecly employed. In estimating, also, the real affection and esteem of mankind which he has gained, he will find it to be small or great in exact proportion to the degree in which he has manifested, in his habitual conduct, the lower or the higher faculties. If society has seen him selfish in his pursuit of wealth, selfish in his domestic affections, selfish in his ambition; although he may have gratified all these feelings without positive encroachment on the rights of others, they will still look coldly on him, they will feel no glow of affection towards him, no elevated respect, no sincere admiration; he will see and feel this, and complain bitterly that all is vanity and vexation of spirit. But the fault has been his own; love, esteem, and sincere respect, arise, by the Creator's laws, not from contemplating the manifestations of plodding, selfish facul-

42	SUPREMACY OF THE 

ties, but only from the display of Benevolence, Veneration, Justice, as the motives And end of our conduct; and individual supposed has reaped the natural and legitamate produse of the soil which he cultivated, and eaten the fruit which he has reared.

Thirdly. The higher feelings, when directed by enlightend intellect, have a boundless scope for gratification; their least indulgence is delightful and their highest activity is bliss; they cuase no repentence, leave no void, but render life a scene at once of perfect; tranquility and sustained felicity; and, what is of such importance, conduct proceeding from their dictates carries in its train the highest gratification to the animal propensities themselves, of which the latter are suscetible. At the same time, it must observed, that the sentiments err, and lead also to evil, when not regulated by enlightened intellect; that intellect in its turn must give due weight to the existence and desires of both the propensities and sentiments, as elements in the human constitution, before it can arrive at sound conlusions regarding conduct; and that rational actions and true happiness flow from the gratification of all the faculties in harmony with, each other; the sentiments and intellect bearing the directing sway.

This proposition may be shortly illustrated. Imagine an individual to commence life, with the thorough conviction that the higher sentiments are the superior powers, and that they ought to be the sources of his actions, the first effect would be to cause him to look habitually outward on other men and on his Creator, instead of looking inward on himself as the object of his highest and chief regard. Benevolence would shed on his mind the conviction, that there are other human beings as dear to the Creator as he, as much entitled to enjoyment as he, and that his duty is to seek no gratification to himself which is to injure them; but, on the contrary, to act so as to confer on them, by his daily exertions, all the services in his power. Veneration

	MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT.		43

would give a strong feeling of reliance on the power and wisdom of God, that such conduct would conduce to the highest gratification of all his faculties; it would add also an habitual respect for his fellow men, as beings deserving his regard, and to whose rensonable wishes he was bound to yield a willing and sincere obedience. Lastly, Conscientiousness would prompt him to apply the scales of rigid justice to his animal desires, and curb and restrain each so as to prevent the slightest infraction on what is due to his fellow men.

Let us traee, then, the operation of these principies in ordinary life. Suppose a friendship formed by such an individual: has first and fundamental principle is Benevolence, which inspires with a sincere, pure, and disinterested regard for his friend; he desires his welfare for his friend's sake; next Veneration reinforces this love by the secret and grateful acknowiedgment which it makes to Heaven for the joys conferred upon the mind by this pure emotion, and also by the habitual deference which it inspires towards our friend himself, rendering us ready to yield where compliance is becoming, and curbing our selfish feelings when these would intrude by interested or arrogant pretensions on his enjoyment; and thirdly, Conscientiousness, ever on the watch, proclaims the duty of making no unjust demands on the Benevolence of our friend, but of limiting our whole intercourse with him on an interchange of kindness, good offices, and reciprocal affection. Intellect, acting along with these principles, would point out, as an indispensable requisite to sush an attachment, that the friend himself should be so far under the influence of the sentiments, as to be able, in some degree, to meet them; for, if he were immoral, selfish, vainly ambitious, or, in short, under the habitual influence of the propensities, the sentiments could not love and respect him ; they might pity him as unfortunate, but love him they could

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not, because this is impossible by the very laws of their constitution.

Let us now attend to the degree in which such a friendship would gratify the lower propensities. In the first place, how would Adhesiveness exhult and rejoice in such an attachment! It would be overpowersd with delight, because, if the intellect were convinced that the friend habitually acknowledged the supremacy of the higher sentiments, Adhesiveness might pour forth all its ardour, and cling to its object with the closest bonds of affection. The friend would not encroach on us for evil, because his Benevolence and Justice would oppose this; he would not lay aside restraint, and break through the bonds of affection by undue familiarity, because Veneration would forbid this; he would not injure us in our name, person, or reputation, because Conscientiousness, Veneration, and Benevolence, all combined, would prevent such conduct. Here then Adhesiveness, freed from the fear of evil, from the fear of deceit, from the fear of dishonour, because a friend who should habitually act thus, could not possibly fall into dishonour, would be at liberty to take its deepest draught of affectionate attachment; it would receive a gratification which it is impossible it should attain, while acting in combination with the purely selfish faculties. What delight, too, would such a friendship afford to Self-esteem and Love of Approbation! There would be an internal approval of ourselves, that would legitimately gratify Self-esteem, because it would arise from a survey of pure motives, and just and benevolent actions. Love of Approbation also, would be gratified in the highest degree; for every act of affection, every expression of esteem, from such a friend, would be so purified by Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness, that it would form the legitimate food on which Love of Approbation might feast and be satisfied; it would fear no hollowness beneath, no tattling

	MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT.		45

in absence, no secret smoothing over for the sake of mere effect, no envyings, and no jealousies. In short, friendship founded on the higher sentiments, as the ruling motives, would delight the mind with gladness and sunshine, and gratify all the faculties, animal, moral, and intellectual, in harmony with each other.

By this illustration, the reader will understand more clearly what I mean by the harmony of the faculties. The fashionable and commereial friendships of which I spoke, gratified the propensities of Adhesiveness, Love of Approbation, Self-esteem, and Acquisitiveness, but left out, as fundamental principles, all the higher sentiments;—there was, therefore, a want of harmony in these instances, an absence of full satisfaction, an uncertainty and changeableness, which gave rise to only a mixed and imperfect enjoyment while the friendship lasted, and to a feeling of painful disappointment, and of vanity and vexation, when a rupture occurred. The error, in such cases, consists in founding attachment on the lower faculties, seeing they, by themselves, are not calculated to form a stable basis of affection, instead of building it on them and the higher sentiments, which afford a foundation for real, lasting, and satisfactory friendship. In complaining of the vanity and vexation of attachments springing from the lower faculties exclusively, we are like men who should try to build a pyramid on its smaller end, and then, lament the hardness of their fate, and speak of the unkindness of Providence, when it fell. A similar analysis of all other pleasures founded on the animal propensities chiefly, would give similar results. In short, happiness must be viewed by men as connected inseparably with the exercise of the three great classes of faculties, the moral sentiments and intellect exercising the directing and controlling sway, before it can be permanently attained.

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SECTION V.

THE FACULTIES OF MAN COMPARED WITH EXTERNAL OBJECTS

HAVING considered man as a physical being, and briefly adverted to the adaptation of his constitution to the physical laws of creation; having viewed him as an organised being, and traced the relations of his organic structure to his external circumstances; having taken a rapid survey of his faculties, as an animal, moral, and intellectual being,—with their uses and the forms of their abuse,—and having contrasted these faculties with each other, and discovered the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, I proceed to compare his faculties with external objects, in order to discover what provision has been made for their gratification.

1. AMATIVENESS is a feeling obviously necessary to the continuance of the species; and one which, properly regulated, is not offensive to reason;—opposite sexes exist to provide for its gratification.*

2. PHILOPROGENITIVENESS is given,—and offspring exist.

3. CONCENTRATIVENESS is coinferred,—and the other faculties are its objects.

4. ADHESIVENESS is given,—and country and friends exist.

5. COMBATIVENESS is bestowed,—and physical and moral obstacles exist, requiring courage to meet and subdue them.

6. DESTRUCTIVENESS is given,—and man is, constituted with a carnivorous stomach, and animals to be killed and eaten exist. Besides, the whole combinations of creation are in a state of decay and renovation. In the animal kingdom almost every species of creatures is the prey of some other; and the faculty of Destructiveness places the human mind in harmony with the order of creation. Destruction makes way for renovation, 

* The nature and sphere of activity of the phrenological faculties is explained at length in the ‘System of Phrenology,’ to which I beg to refer. Here I can only indicate general ideas.

	COMPARED WITH EXTERNAL ORJECTS.	47

and the act of renovation furnishes occasion for the activity of our powers; and activity is pleasure. That destruction is a natural institution is unquestionable. Not only has nature taught the spider to construct a web for the purpose of ensnaring flies, that it may devour them, and constituted beasts of prey with carnivorous teeth, but she has formed even plants, such as the Drosera, to catch and kill flies, and use them for food. Destructiveness serves alsl to give weight to indignation, a most important defeusive as well as vindicatory purpose. It is a check upon undue encroachment, and tends to constrain mankind to pay regard to the rights and feelings of each other. When properly regulated, it is an able assistant to justice.

7. CONSTRUCTIVENESS is given,—and materials for constructing artificial habitations, raiment, ships, and various other fabrics that and to the enjoyment of life, have been provided to give it scope.

8. ACQUISITIVENESS is bestowed,—and property exists capable of being collected, preserved, and applied to use.

9. SECRETIVENESS is given,—and our faculties possess internat activity requiring to be restrained, until fit occasions and legitimate objects present themselves for their gratification; which restraint is rendered not only possible but ageeable, by the propensity in question. While we suppress and confine one feeling within the limits of our own consciousness, we exercise and gratify another in the very act of doing so.

10. SELF-ESTEEM is given,—and we have an individual existence and individual interests, as its objects.

11. LOVE OF APPROBATION is bestowed,—and we are surrounded by our fellow men, whose good opinion is the object of its desire.

12. CAUTIOUSNESS is given,—and it is admirably adapted to the nature of the external world. The human body is combustible, is liable to be destroyed by violence, to suffer injury from extreme wet and winds, &c.; and it is neceseary for us to be habitually watchful to avoid these sources of calamity. Accordingly, Cautiousness is bestowed on us as an ever watchful sentinel, constantly whispering, 'Take care.' There is ample acope for the legitimate and pleasurable exercise of all our faculties, without running into these evils, provided we know enough, and are watchful enough; and, therefore, Cautiousness is not overwhelmed with intolerable terrors. It serves merely as a warder to excite us to beware of suddon and unexpected

	48	FACULTIES OF MAN

danger; it keeps the other faculties in their post, by furnishing a stimulus to them to observe and trace consequences, that safety may be insured; and, when these other faculties do their duty in proper forms, the impulses of Cautiousness are not painfiul, but the reverse: they communicate a feeling of internal security and satsfaction, expressed by the motto Semper paratus; and hence this faculty appears equally benevolent in its design, as the others which we have contemplated.

Here, then, we perceive a beautiful provision made for supporting the activity of, and affording Legitimate gratification to, the lower propensities. These powers are conferred on us clearly to support our animal nature, and to place us in harmony with the external objects of creation. So far from their being injurious or base in themselves, they possess the dignity of utility, and the estimable quality of being sources of high enjoyment, when legitimately indulged. The phrenologist, therefore, would never seek to extirpate, nor to weaken them too much. He desires ouly to see their excesses controlled, and their exercise directed in accordance with the great institutions and designs of the Creator.

The next class of faculties is that of the moral sentiments proper to man. These are the following:

BENEVOLENCE is given,—and sentient and intelligent beings are created, whose happiness we are able to increase, thereby affording it its scope and delight. It is an error to imagine, that creatures in misery are the only objects of benevolence, and that it has no function but the excitement of pity. It is a wide-spreading fountain of generous feeling, desiring for it, gratification not only the removal of pain, but the maintenance and augmentation of positive enjoyment; and the happier it can render its objects, the more complete are its satisfaction and delight. Its exercise, like that of all the other facultics is a source of great pleasure to the individual himself and nothing can be conceived more admirably adapted for affording it scope, than the system of creation exhibited on earth. From the nature of the human faculties, each individual, without injuring himself, has it in his power to confer prodigious bene-

COMPARED WITN EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 	49

fits, or, in other words, to pour forth the most copious streams of benevolence on others, by legitimately gratifying their Adhesiveness, Constructiveness, Acquisitiveness, Love of Approbation, Self-esteem, Cautiousness, veneration, Hope, Ideality, Conscientiousness, and their Knowing and Reflecting Faculties. 

VENERATION.—The legitimate object of this faculty is the Divine Being; and I assume here, that phrenology enables us to demonstrste the existance of God. The very essay in which I am now engaged, is an attempt at an exposition of some of his attributes, as manifested in this world. If we shall find contrivance, wisdom, and benevolence in his works, unchangeableness, and  no shadow of turning in his laws; perfect haromony in each departmeat of creation, and shall discover that the evils which afflict us are much less the direct objects of his arrangements than the consequences of ignorant neglect of institutions calculated for our enjoyment,—then we shall acknowledge in the Divine Being an object whom we may love with our whole soul, reverence with the deepest emotions of veneration, and on whom Hope and Conscientiousness may repose with a perfect and unhesitating reliance. The exercise of this sentiment is in itself a great positive enjoyment, when the object is in harmony with all our other faculties. Further, its activity disposes us to yield obedience to the Creator’s laws, the object of which is our own happiness; and hence its exercise is in the highest degree provided for. Revelation unfolds the character and intentions of GOD where reason cannot penetrate, but its doctrines do not fall within the limits prescribed to this Essay.

HOPE is given,—and our understanding, by discovering the laws of nature, is enabled to penetrate into the future. This sentiment then, is gratified by the absolute reliance which Causality warrants us to place on the stability and wisdom of the divine arrangements; its legitimate exercise, in reference to this life is to give us a vivifying faith, that while we suffer evil, we are undergoing a chastisement for having neglected the institutions of the Creator, the object of which punishment is to force us back into the right path. Revelation presents to Hope the certainty of a life to come; and directs all our faculties is points of Faith.

IDEALITY is bestowed,—and not only is external nature invested with the most exquisite lovelinese, but a capacity for moral and intellectual refinement is given to us, by which we may rise in the scale of excellence, and at every step of our progress reap direct enjoyment from this sentiment. Its constant desire is

	50	FACULTIES OF MAN

for ‘something more excellent still :’ in its own immediate impulses it is delightful, and external nature and our own faculties respond to its call.

WONDER prompts to admiration, and desires something new. When we contemplate man endowed with intellect to discover a Diety and to comprehend his works, we cannot, doubt of Wonder being provided with objects for its intensest exercise; and when we view him placed in a world where all old things are constantly passing away, and a system of renovation is incessantly proceeding, we see at once how vast a provision is made for the gratification of his desire of novelty, and how admirably it is calculated to impel his other faculties to activity.

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS exists,—and it is necessary to prove that all the divine institutions are founded in justice, to afford it full satisfaction. This is a point which many regard as involved in much obscurity: I shall endeavour in this Essay to lift the veil, for to me justice appears to flow through every divine institution.

One difficulty, in regard to Conscientiousness, long appeared inexplicable; it was, how to reconcile with Benevolence the institution by which this faculty visits us with remorse, after offences are actually committed, instead of arresting our hands by an irresistible veto before them, so as to save us from the perpetration altogether. The problem is solved by the principle, that happiness consists in the activity of our faculties, and that the arrangement of punishment after the offence is far more conducive to activity than the opposite. For example; if we desired to enjoy the highest gratification of Locality, Form, Colouring, Ideality, and Wonder, in exploring a new country, replete with the most exquisite beauties of scenery and most captivating natural productions, and if we found among these, precipices that gratified Idealityin the highest degree, but which endangered life when we advanced so near as to fall over them, and neglected the law of gravitation, whether would it be most bountiful for Providence to send an invisible attendant with us, who, whenever we were about to approach the brink, should interpose a barrier, and fairly cut short our advance, without requiring us to bestow one thought upon the subject, and without our knowing when to expect it and when not,—or to leave all open, but to confer on us, as he has done, eyes fitted to see the precipice, faculties to comprehend the law of gravitation, Cautiousness to make us fear the infringe ment of it, and then to leave us to enjoy the scene in perfect safety if we used these powers, but to fall over and suffer pain

	COMPARED WITH EXTERNAL OBJECTS.	51

by bruises and death if we neglected to exercise them ? It is obvious that the latter arrangement would give far more scope to our various powers; and if active faculties are the sources of pleasure, as will be shown in the next section, then it would contribute more to our enjoyment than the other. Now, Conscientiousness punishisg after the fact, is analogous in the moral world, to this arrangement, in the physical. If Intellect, Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness,do their parts, they will give distinct intimations of disapprobation before commission of the offence, just as Cautiousness will give intimations of danger at sight of the cliff; but if these are dieregarded, and we fall over the moral precipice, remorse follows as the punishment, just as pain in the chastisement for tumbling over the physical brink. The object of both institutions is to permit and encourage the most vigorous and unrestricted exercise of our faculties, in accordance with the physical, moral, and Intellectual laws of nature, and to punish us only when are tranegress these limits.

FIRMNESS is bestowed,—and the other faculties of the mind are is objects. It supports and maintains their activity, and gives determination to our purposes.

The next Class of Faculties is the Intellectual.

The provisions in external nature for the gratification of the Senses of Hearing, Seeing, Smelling, Taste, and Touch, or Feeling, are so obvious that it is unnecessary, to enlarge upon them.

INDIVIDUALITY and EVENTUALITY, or the powers of observing things that exist, and occurrences, are given, and ‘all the truths which Natural Philosophy teaches, depend upon matter of fact, and that is learned by observation and experiment, and never could be discovered by reasoning at all.’ Here, then, is ample scope for the execise of these powers.

FORM,
SIZE,
WEIGHT,
LOCALITY,
ORDER,
NUMBER,

are bestowed, 

and the sciences of Geometry, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geography, Chemistry, Botany, Mineralogy, Zoology, Anatomy, and various others, exist, as the fields of their exercise. The first three sciences are almost the entire products of these faculties; the other result chiefly from them, when applied on external objects.

52	SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS;

COLOURING,
TIME,
TUNE, 

 are given, 

and these, aided by Constructiveness, Form, Locality, Ideality, and other faculties, find scope in Painting, Sculpture, Poetry, anl the other fine arts.

LANGUAGE is given,—and our faculties inspire us with lively emotions and ideas, which we desire to communicate by its means to other individuals.

COMPARISON,
CAUSALITY,
WIT,

exist,

and these faculties, aided by Individuality, Form, Size, Weight, and others already enumerated, find ample gratification in Natural Philosophy, in Moral, Political, and Intellectual Science, and their different branches.

IMITATION is bestowed, and everyehere man is surrounded by beings and objects whose actions and appearances it may benefit him to copy.

SECTION VI.

ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, AND THE
CONDITIONS REQUISITE FOR MAINTAINING IT.

HAVING now given a rapid sketch of the Constitution of Man, and its relations to external objects, we are prepared to inquire into the sources of his happiness, and the conditions requisite for maintaining it.

The first and most obvious circumstance which attracts attention, is, that all enjoyment must necessarily arise from activity of the various systems of which the human constitution is composed. The bones, muscles, nerves, digestive and respiratory organs, furnish pleasing sensations, directly or indirectly, when exercised in conformity with their nature; and the external senses, and internal faculties, when excited, supply the whole remaining perceptions and emotions, which, when combined, constitute life and rational existance. If these were habitually buried in sleep, or constitutionally inactive, life, to all purposes of

	CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT.	53

enjoyment, might as well be extinct; for existance would be reduced to mere vegetation, without Consciousness.

If, then, Wisdom and Benevolence have been employed in constituting Man, we may expect the arrangements of creation, in regard to him, to be calculated as a leading object to excite his various powers, corporeal and mental, to activity. This, accordingly, appears to me to be the case; and the fact may be illustrated by a few examples. A certain portion of nervous and muscular energy is infused by nature into the human body every twenty-four hours, and it is delightful to expend this vigour. To provide for its expenditure, the stomach has been constituted so as to require regularly returning supplies of food, which can be obtained only by nervous and muscular exertion; the body has been created destitute of covering, yet standing in need of protection from the elements of Heaven; but this can be easily provided by moderate expenditure of corporeal strength. It is delightful to repair exhausted nervous and muscular energy, by wholesome aliment; and the digestive organs have been so constituted, as to perform their functinns by successive stages, and to afford us frequent opportunities of enjoying the pleasures of eating. In these arrangements, the design of supporting the various systems of the body in activity, for the enjoyment of the individual, is abundantly obvious. A late writer justly remarks, that ‘a person of feeble texture and indolent habits has the bone smooth, thin, and light; but nature, solicitous for our safety, in a manner which we could not anticicipate, combines with the powerful muscular frame a dense and perfect texture of bone, where every spine and tubercle is completely developed.’  ‘As the structure of the parts is originally perfected by the action of tho role, the function or operation of the part is made the stimulus to those vessels. The cuticle on the hand wears away like a glove; but the pressure stimulates the living surface to force successive layers of skin under that which is wearing,

54	SOURCES FOR HUMAN HAPPINESS;

or, as anatonsists call it, desquamating; by which they mean, that the cuticle does not change at once, but comes off in squmae or scales.'

Directing our attention to the mind, we discover that Individuality, and the other Perceptive Faculties, desire, as their means of enjoyment, to know existence, and to become acquainted with the qualities of external objects; while the Reflecting Faculties desire to know their dependencies and relations. ‘There is something,' says an eloquent writer, 'positively agreeable to all men, to all, at least whose nature is not most grovelling and base, in gaining knowledge for its own sake. When you see anything for the first time, you at ones derive some gratification from the sight being new; your attention is awakened, and you desire to know more about it. If it is a piece of workmanship, as an instrument, a machine of any kind, you wish to know how it is made; how it works; and what use it is of. If it is an animal, you desire to know where it comes from; how it lives; and what are its dispositions, and generally, its nature and habits. This desire is felt, too, without at all considering, that the machine or the animal may ever be of the least use to yourself practically; for, in all probability, you may never see them again. But you feel a curiosity to learn  all about them, because they are new and unknown to you. You, accordingly make inqueries; you feel a gratification in getting answers to your questions, that is, in receiving, information, and in knowing more,—in being better informed than you were before. If you ever happen again to see the same instrument or animal, you find it agreeable to recollect having seen it before, and to think that you know something ahout it. If you see another instrument or animal, in some respects like it, but divering in other particulars, you find it pleasing to compare them together, and to note in what they agree, and in what they differ. Now, all this kind of gratification is of a pure and disinterested nature and has no refer-

	CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT. 	55

ence to any of the common purposes of life; yet it is a pleasure—an enjoyment. you are nothing the richer for it; you do not gratify your palate, or any other bodily appetite; and yet it is so pleasing that you would give something out of your pocket to obtain it, and would forego some bodily enjoyment for its sake. The pleasure derived from science is exactly of the like nature, or rather it is the very same.'* This is a correct and forcilbe exposition of the pleasures attending the active exercise of our intellectual faculties.

Supposing the human faculties to have receivted their preseut constitution, two arrangements may be fancied as instituted for the gratification of these powers. 1st. Infusing into them at birth intuitive knowledge of every object which they are fitted ever to comprehend; or, 2dly. Constituting them only as capacities for gaining knowledge by exercise and application, and surrounding them with objects bearing such relations towards them, that, when observed and attended to, they shall afford them high gratification; and, when unobserved and neglected, they shall occasion them uneasiness and pain; and the question occurs, Which mode would be most condusive to enjoyment? The general opinion will be in favour of the first; but the second appears to me to be preferable. If the first meat we had eaten had forever preventend the recurrence of hunger, it is obvious that all the pleasures of satisfing a healthy appetite would have been then at an end; so that this apparent bounty would have greatly abringed our enjoyment. In like manner, if, our faculties being constituted as at present, intuitive knowledge had been communicated to us so that, when an hour old, we should have been thoroughly acquainted with every object, quality, and relation that we could ever comprehend, all provision for the sustained activity of many of our faculties would have been

* Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science, page 1.

56	SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS

done awaJr with. When wealth is acquired, the miser's pleasure in it is diminished. He grasps after more with increasing avidity. He is supposed irrstional in doing so; but he obeys the instinct of his nature. What he possesses, no longer satisfies Acquisitiveness; it is like food in the stomach, which gave pleasure in eating, and would give pain were it withdrawn, but which, when there, is attended with little positive sensation. The Miser's pleasure arises from the active state of Acquisitiveness, and only the pursuit and obtaining of new treasures can maintain this state. The same law is exemplified in the case of Love of Approbation. The gratification which it affords depends on its active state, and hence the necessity for new incense, and higher mounting in the scale of ambition, is constantly experienced by its victims. NAPOLEON, in exile, said ‘Let us live upon the past:' but he found this impossible; his predominating, desires originated in Ambition and Self-esteem; and the past did not stimulate these powers, or maintain them in constant activity. In like manner, no musician, artist, poet, or philosopher, would reckon himself happy, however extensive his attainments, if informed, Now you must stop, and live upon the past; and the reason is still the same. New ideas, and new emotions, best excite and maintain in activity the faculties of the mind, and activity is essentinl to enjoyment. If these views be correct, the consequences of imbuing the mind with intuitive knowledge, would not have been unquestionably beneficial. The limits of our acquirements would have been reached; our first step would have been our last; ever, object would have become old and familiar; Hope would have had no object of expectation; Cautiousness no object of fear; Wonder no gratification in novelty; monotony, insipidity, and mental satiety, would apparently have been the lot of man.

According to the view  now advanced, creation, in its present form, is more wisely benevolently adapted to

CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT.	 57

our constitution than if intuitive instruction had been showered on the mind at birth. By the actual arrangement, numerous noble faculties are bestowed; their objects are presented to them; these objects are naturally endowed with qualities fitted to benefit and delight us, when their uses and proper applications are discovered, and to injure and punish us for our ignorance, when their properties are misunderstood or misapplied; but we are left to find out all these qualities and relations by the exercise of the fac.ulties themselves. In this manner, provision is made for ceaseless activity of the mental powers, and this constitutes the greatest delight. Wheat, for instance, is produced by he earth, and admirably adapted to the nutrition of the body; but it may be rendered more grateful to the organ of taste, more salubrious to the stomach, and more stimulating to the nervous and muscular systems, by being stripped of its external skin, ground into flour, and baked by fire into bread. Now, the Creator obviously pre-arranged all these relations, when he endowed wheat with its properties, and the human body with its qualities and functions. In withholding congenital and intuitive knowledge of these qualities and mutual relations, but in bestowing faculties of Individuality, Form, Colouring, Weight, Constructiveness, &c. fitted to find them out; in rendering the exercise of these faculties agreeable; and in leaving man, in this condition, to proceed for himself,—he appears to me to have conferred on him the highest boon. The earth produces also hemlock and foxglove ; and, by the organic law, those instances, if taken in certain moderate quantities, remove diseases; if in excess, they occasion death: but, again, man's observing faculties are fitted, when applied under the guidance of Cautiousness and Reflection, to make this discovery; and he is left to make it in this way, or suffer the conesequences of neglect.

Further, water, when elevated in temperature, becomes steam; and steam expands with prodigious power; this

58	SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS

power, confined by muscular energy, exerted on metal, and directed by intellect, is capable of being converted into the steam-engine, the most efficient, yet humble servant of man. All this was clearly pre-arranged by the Creator; and man's faculties were adapted to it; but still we see him left to observe and discover the qualities and relations of water for himself. This duty, however, must be acknowledged as benevolently imposed, the moment we discover that the Creator has made the very exercise of the faculties pleasurable, and arranged external qualities and relations so beneficially, that, when known, they carry a double reward in adding by their positive infuence to human gratification.

The Knowing Faculties, as we have seen, observe the mere external qualities of bodies, and their simpler relations. The Reflecting Faculties observe relations also; but of a higher order. The former, for example, discover that the soil is clay or gravel; that it is tough or friable; that it is wet, and that excess of water impedes vegetation; that in one season the crop is large, and in the next deficient. The reflecting faculties take cognizance of the causes of these phenomena. They discover the means by which wet soil may be rendered dry; clay may be pulferized; light soil may be invigorated; and all of them made more productive; also the relationship of particular soils to particular kinds of grain. The inhabitants of a country who exert their knowing faculties of their soil, their reflecting faculties in discovering its capabilities and relations to water, lime, manures, and the various species of grain, and who put forth their muscular and nervous energies in accordance with the dictates of these powers, receive a rich reward in a climate improved in salubrity, in an abundant supply of food, besides much positive enjoyment attending the exercise of the powers themselves. Those communities, on the other hand, who neglect to use their mental faculties and muscular and nervous energies,

CONDITIONS FOR MANTAINING IT.	 59

are punished by ague, fever, rheumatism, and a variety of painfitl affections, arising from damp air; are stinted in food; and, in wet seasons, are brought to the very brink of starvation by total failure of their crops. This punishment is a benevolent admonition from the Creator, that they are neglecting a great duty, and omitting to enjoy a great pleasure; and it will cease as soon as they have fairly redeemed the blessings lost by their negligence, and obeyed the laws of their being.

The winds and waves appear, at first sight, to present insurmountable obstacles to man leaving the island or continent on which he happens to be born, and to his holding intercourse with his fellows in distant climes: But, by observing the relations of water to timber, he is able to construct a ship; by observing the infuence of the wind on a physical body placed in a fluid medium, he discovers the use of sails; and, finally, by the application of his faculties, he has found out the expansive quality of steam, and traced its relations until he has produced a machine that enables him almost to set the roaring tempest at defiance, and to sail straight to the stormy north, although its loudest and its fiercest blasts oppose. In these instances, we perceive external nature admirably adapted to support the mental faculties in habitual activity, and to reward us for the exercise of them.

It is objected to this argument, that it involves an inconsistency. Ignorance, it is said, of the natural laws, is necessary to happiness, in order that the faculties may obtain exercise in discovering them;—nevertheless, happiness is impossible till these laws shall have been discovered and obeyed. Here, then, it is said, ignorance is represented as at ones essential to, and incompatible with enioyment. The same objection, however, applies to the case of the bee. Gathering honey is necessary to its enjoyment; yet it cannot subsist and be happy till it has gathered honey, and therefore that act is both essential to, and incompati-

60	SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS

ble with its gratification. The fallacy lies in losing sight of the natural constitution both of the bee and of man. While the bee possesses instinctive tendencies to roam about the fields and flowery meadows, and to exert its energies in labour, it is obviously beneficial to it to be furnished with motives and opportunities for doing so; and so it is with man to obtain scope for his bodily and mental powers. Now, gathering knowledge is to the mind of man what gathering honey is to the bee. Apparently with the view of effectually prompting the bee to seek this pleasure, honey is made essential to its subsistence. In like manner, and probably with a similar design, knowledge is made indispensable to human enjoyment. Communicating intuitive knowledge of the natural laws to man, while his present constitution continues, would be the exact parallel of gorging the bee with honey in midsummer, when its energies are at their height. When the bee has completed its store, winter benumbs its powers, which resume their vigor only when its stock is exhausted, and spring returns to afford them scope. No torpor resembling that of winter seals up the faculties of the human race; but their ceaseless activity is amply provided for. First, The laws of nature, compared with the mind of any individual, are of boundless extent, so that every one may learn sonsething new to the end of the longest life. Secondly, By the actual constitution of man, he must make use of his acquirements habitually, otherwise he will lose them. Thirdly, Every individual of the race is born in utter ignorance, and starts from zero in the scale of knowledge, so that he has the laws to learn for himself.

These circumdances remove the apparent inconsistency. If man had possessed intuitive knowledge of all nature, he would have had no scope for exercising his faculties in acquiring knowledge, in preserving it, or in communicating it. The infant would have been as wise as the most revered sage, and forgetfulness would have been necessarily excluded.

	CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT.	61

Those who object to these views, imagine that after the human race has acquired knowledge of all the natural laws, if such a result be possible, they will be in the same condition as if they had been created with intuitive kowledge; but this does not follow. Although the race should acquire the knowledge supposed, it is not an inevitable consequence that each individual will necessarily enjoy it all; which, however, would follow from intuition. The entire soil of Britain belongs to the landed proprietors as a class; but each does not possess it all; and hence every one has scope for adding to his territories; with this advantage, however, in favour of knowledge, that the acquisitions of one do not impoverish another. Further, although the race should have learned all the natural laws, their children would not intuitively inherit their ideas, and hence the activity of every one, as he appears on the stage, would be provided for; whereas, by intuition, every child would be as wise as his grandfather, and parental protection, filial piety, and all the delights that spring from difference in knowledge between youth and age, would be excluded. 3d, Using of acquirements, is, by the actual state of man, essential to the preservation as well as the enjoyment of them. By intuition all knowledge would be habitually present to the mind without effort or consideration. On the whole, therefore, it appears that man's nature being what it is, the arrangement by which he is endowed with powers to acquire knowledge, but let to find it out for himself, is both wise and benevolent.

It has been asked, ‘But is there no pleasure in science but that of discovery? Is there none in using the knowledge we have attained ? Is there no pleasure in playing at chess after we know the moves?’ In answer, I observe, that if we know beforehand all the moves that our antagonist intends to make and all our own, which must be the case if we know everything by intuition, we shall have no pleasure. The pleasure really consists in discovering the

62	SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS

intentions of our antagonist, and in calculating the effects of our own play; a certain degree of ignorance of both of which is indispensable to gratification. In like manner, it is agreeable first to discover the natural laws, and then to study ‘the moves’ that we ought to make, in consequence of knowing them. So much, then, for the sources, of human happiness.

In the second place, To reap enjoyment in the greatest quantity, and to maintain it most permanently, the faculties must be gratified harmoniously: In other words, if, among the various powers, the supremacy belongs to the moral sentiments, then the aim of our habitual conduct must be the attainment of objects suited to gratify them. For example, in pursuing wealth or fame as the leading object of existsence, full gratification is not afforded to Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness, and, consequently, complete satisfaction cannot be enjoyed; whereas, by seeking knowledge, and dedicating life to the welfare of mankind and obedience to God, in our several vocations, these faculties will be gratified, and wealth, fame, health, and other advantages, will flow in their train, so that the whole mind will rejoice, and its delights will remain permanent as long as the conduct continues to be in accordance with the supremacy of the moral powers and the laws of external creation.

Thirdly, To place human happiness on a secure basis, the laws of external creation themselves must accord with the dictates of the moral sentiments, and intellect must be fitted to discover the nature and relations of both, and to direct the conduct in coincidence with them.

Much has been written about the extent of human ignorance; but we should discriminate between absolute incapacity to know, and mere want of information arising from not having used this capacity to its full extent. In regard to the first, or our capacity to know, it appears probable that, in this world, we shall never know the essence,

	CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT.	63

beginning, or end of things; because these are points which we have no faculties calculated to reach. But the same Creator who made the external world constituted our faculties, and if we have sufficient data for inferring that His intention is, that we shall enjoy existance here while preparing for the ulterior ends of our being; and if it be true that we can be happy here only by becoming acquainted with the qualities and modes of action of our own minds and bodies, with the qualities and modes of action of external objects, and with the relations established between them; in short, by becoming thoroughly conversant with those natural laws, which, when observed, are prearranged to contribute to our enjoyment, and which, when violated, visit us with suffering, we may safely conclude that our mental capacities are wisely adapted to the attainment of these objects, whenever we shall do our own duty in bringing them to their highest condition of perfection, and in applying them in the best manner.

lf we advert for a moment to what we already know, we shall see that this conclusion is supported by high probabilities. Before the mariner's compass and astronomy were discovered, nothing would seem more utterly beyond the reach of the human faculties than traversing the enormous Atlantic or Pacific Oceans; but the moment these discoveries were made, how simple did this feat appear, and how completely within the scope of human ability! But it became so, not by any addition to man's mental capacities, nor by any change in the physical world; but by the easy process of applying Individuality, and the other knowing faculties, to observe, Causality to reflect, and Constructiveness to build; in short, to perform their natural functions. Who that, forty years ago, regarded the small-pox as a scourge, devastating Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, would not have despaired of the human faculties ever discovering an antidote against it ? and yet we have lived to see this end accomplisbet by a simple exercise of Individu-

64	SOURCES OF HAPPINESS.

ality and reflection, in observing the effcets of, and applying vaccine inoculation. Nohing appears more coompletely beyond the reach of the human intellect than the cuase of volcanoes and earthquakes; and yet some approach towards its discovery has recently been made.*

Sir ISSAC NEWTON observed, that all bodies which refracted the rays of light were combustible, except one, the diamond, which he found to possess this quality, but, in which he was not able by any powers he possessed, to burn. He did not conclude, however, from this, that the diamond was an exception to the uniformity of nature. He inferred that, as the same Creator made the refracting bodies which he was able to consume and the diamond, and proceeded by uniform laws, the diamond would in all probability, be found to be combustible, and that the reason of its resisting his power, was ignorance on his part of the proper way to produce its conflagration. A century afterwards, chemists made the diamond blaze with as much vivacity as Sir Isaac Newton had done a wax candle. Let us proceed, then, on an analogous principle. If the intention of our Creator was, that we should enjoy existence while in this world, then He knew what was necessary to enable us to do so; and He will not be found to have failed in conferring, on us powers fitted to accomplish His design, provided we do our duty in developing and applying them.The great motive to exertion is the conviction, that increased knowledge will furnish us with increased means of doing good,—with new proofs of benevolence and wisdom in the Great architect of the Universe.

The human race may be regarded as only in the beginning of its existence. The art of printing is an invention comparatively but of yesterday, and no imagination can yet conceive the effects which it is destined to produce. Phrenology was wanting to give it full efficacy, especially 

*Vide Codier, in Edin. New Phil.. Journ. No. VIII. p. 273.

PRACTICAL ARRANNGEMENTS OF LIFE.	65

in moral science, in which little progress has been made for centuries. Now that desideratum is supplied, may we not hope that the march of improvement will proceed in a rapidly accelerating ratio? 

SECTION VII.

APPLICATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS TO THE
PRACTCAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE.

IF a systemm of living and occupation were to be framed for human beings, on the exposition of their nature, which I have now given, it would be something like this. 

1st. So many hours a day would require to be dedicated by every individual in health, to the excercise of his nervous and muscular systems, in labour calculated to give scope to these functions. The reward of obeying this requisite of his nature would be health, and a joyous animal existence; the punishment of neglect is disease, low spirits, and death. 

2dly. So many hours a day should be spend in the sedulous empolyment of the knowing and  reflecting faculties; in studying the qualities of external objects, and their relations; also the nature of all animated beings, and their relations; not with the view of accumulating mere abstract ad barren knowledge, but of enjoying the positive pleasure of mental activity, and of turning every discovery to account, as a means of increasing happiness, or alleviating misery. The leading object should always be to find out the relationship of every object to our own nature, organic, animal, moral, and intellectual, and to keepthat relationship habitually in mind, so as to render out acuirments directly gratifying to our various faculties. The reward of this conduct would be an incalculably freat increase of

66	APPLICATION OF NATURAL LAWS TO

properties of external objects, together with a great accession of power in reaping ulterior advantages, and in avoiding disagreeable affections.

3dly. So many hours a day ought to be devoted to the cultivation and gratification of our moral sentiments; that is to say, in exercisiug these in harmony with intellect, and especiatly in acquiring the habit of admiring, loving, and yielding obedience to the Creator and his institutions. This last object is of vast importance. Intellect is barren of practical fruit, however rich it may be in knowledge, until it is fired and prompted to act by moral sentiment. In my view, knowledge by itself is comparatively worthless and impotent, compared with what it becomes when vivified by elevated emotions. It is not enough that Intellect is informed; the moral faculties must simultancously co-operate; yielding obedience to the precepts which the intellect recognises to be true. One way of cultivating the sentiments would be for men to meet and act together, on the fixed principles which I am now endeavouring to unfold, and to exercise in each other in mutual instruction, and in united adoration of the great and glorious Creator, the several faculties of Benevolence, Veneration, Hope, Ideality, Wonder, and Justice. The reward of acting in this manner would be a communication of direct and intense pleasure to each other; for I refer to every individual who has ever had the good fortune to pass a day or an hour with a really benevolent, pious, honest, and intellectual man, whose soul revelled with adoration of his Creator, whose intellect was replenished with knowledge of his works, and whose whole mind was instinct with sympathy for human happiness, whether such a day did not afford him the most pure, elevated, and lasting gratification he ever enjoyed. Such an exercise, besides, would invigorate the whole moral and intellectual powers, and fit them to discover and obey the divine institutions

PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE.		67

Phrenology is highly conducive to this enjoyment of our moral and intellectual nature. No faculty is bad, but, on the contrary each, when properly gratified, is a fountain of pleasure; in short, man possesses no feeling, of the legitimate exercise of which an enlightened and ingenuous mind need be ashamed. A party of thorough practical phrenologists, therefore, meets in the perfect knowledge of each other's qualities; they respect these as the gifts of the Creator, and their great object is to derive the utmost pleasure from their legitimate use, and to avoid every approximation to abuse of them. The distinctions of country and temperament are broken down by unity of principle; the chilling restraints of Cautiousness, Self-esteem, Secretiveness, and Love of Approbation, which stand as barriers of eternal ice between human beings in the ordinary intercourse of society, are gently removed; the directing sway is committed to Benevolence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, and Intellect; and then the higher principles of the mind operate with a delightful vivacity unknown to persons unacquainted with the qualities of human uature.

Intellect also ought to be regularly exercised in arts, science, philosophy, and observation.

I have said nothing of dedicating hours to the direct gratification of the animal powers; not that they should not be exercised, but that full scope for their activity will be included in the employments already mentioned. In muscular exercises, Combativeness, Destructiveness, Constructiveness, Acquisitiveness, Self-esteem, and Love of Approbation, may all be gratified. In contending with and surmounting physical and moral difficulties, Combativeness and Destructiveness obtain vent; in working at a mechanical employment, requiring the exertion of strength, these two faculties, and also Constructiveness and Acquisitiveness, will be exercised; in emulation who shall accomplish most good, Self-esteem and Love of Approbation will obtain scope. In the exercise of the moral faculties, sev-

68	APPLICATION OF NATURAL LAWS TO

eral of these and others of the animal propensities, are employed; Amativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, and Adhesiveness, for example, acting under the guidence of Benevolence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, Ideality, and Intellect receive direct enjoyment in the domestic circle. From proper direction also, and from the superior delicacy and refinement imparted to them by the higher powers, they do not infringe the moral law, and the moral law, and leave no sting or repentance in the mind.

Finally, a certain portion of time would require to be dedicated to taking of food and sleep.

All systems hitherto practised have been deficient in providing for one or more of these branches of enjoyment. In the community at Orbiston, formed on Mr. Owen’s principles, music, dancing, and theatrical entertainments were provided; but the people soon tired of these. They had not corresponding moral and intellectual instruction. The novelty excited them, but there was nothing substantial behind. In common society, very little either of rational instruction or amusement is provided. The neglect of innocent amusement is a great error.

If there be truth in these views, they will afford answers to two important questions, that have puzzled philosophers in regard to the process of human improvement. The first is, why should man have existed so long, and made so small an advance in the road to happiness ?* If I am right in the fundamental proposition, that activity in the faculties is synonymous with enjoyment of existance,—it follows that it would have been less wise and benevolent towards man, constituted as he is, to have communicated to him intuitively perfect knowledge, thereby leaving his mental powers with diminished motives to activity, than to bestow on him faculties endowed with high susceptibility of action,

* In offaring a solution of this problem, I do not inquire why man has received his present constitution.

PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE.		69

and to surround him with scenes, objects, circumstances, and relations, calculated to maintain them in ceaseless excitement; although this latter arrangement necessarily subjects him to suffering while ignorant, and renders his first ascent in the scale of improvement difficult and slow. It is interesting to observe, that, according to this view, although the first pair of the human race had been created with powerful and well balanced faculties, but of the same nature as at present; if they were not also intuitively inspired with knowledge of the whole creation, and its relations, their first movements as individuals would have been retrograde; that is, as individuals, they would, through pure want of information, have infringed many natural laws, and suffered evil; while, as parts of the race, they would have been decidedly advancing; for every pang they suffered would have led them to a new step in knowledge, and prompted them to advance towards a much higher condition than that which they at first occupied. According to the hypothesis now presented, not only is man really benefited by the arrangement which leaves him to discover the natural laws for himself, although during the period of his ignorance, he suffers much evil from unacquaintance with them; but his progress towards knowledge and happiness must from the very extent of his experience, be actually greater than can at present be conceived. Its extent will become more obvious, and his experience itself more valuable, after he has obtained a view of the real theory of his constitution. He will find that past miseries have at least exhausted countless errors, and he will know how to avoid thousands of paths that lead to pain; in short, he will then discover that errors in conduct resemble errors in philosophy, in this, that they give additional importance and practicability to truth, by the demonstration which they afford of the evils attending departures from its dictates. The grand sources of human suffering at present arise from bodily disease and mental distress, and, in the next

70	APPLICATION OF NATURAL LAWS.

chapter, these will be traced to infringement, through ignorance or otherwise, of physical, organic, moral, or intellectual laws, which, when expounded, appear in themselves calculated to promote the happiness of the race. It may be supposed that, according, to this view, as knowledge acumulates, enjoyment will decrease; but ample provision is made against this event, by withholding, intuition from each generation as it appears on the stage; each successive age must acquire knowledge for itself; and, provided ideas are new, and suited to the faculties, the pleasure of acquiring them from instructors, is only second to that of discovering them, for ourselves; and, probably countless ages may elapse before all the facts and relations of nature shall have been explored, and the possibility of discovery exhausted. If the universe be infinite, knowledge can never be complete.

The second question is, Has man really advanced in happiness, in proportion to his increase in knowledge? We are apt to entertain erroneous notions of the pleasures enjoyed by past ages. Fabulists have represented them as peacefull, innocent, and gay; but if we look narrowly at the condition of the savage and barbarian of the present day, and recollect that these are the states of all individuals previous to the acquisition of knowledge, we shall not much or long regret the pretended diminution of enjoyment by civilization. Phrenology renders the superiority of the latter condition certain, by showing it to be a law of nature, that, until the intellect is extensively informed, and the moral sentiments assiduously exercised, the animal propensities bear the predominat say; and that wherever they are supreme, misery is an inevitable concomitant. Indeed, the answer to the objection that happiness has not increased with knowledge, appears to me to be found in the fact, that until phrenology was discovered, the nature of man was not scientifcally known; and in consequence, that not one of his institutions, civil or domestic, was correctly founded on the principle of the supremacy of the moral sentiments,

INFRINGEMENTS OF PHYSICAL LAWS.		71

or in accordance with the other laws of his conditution. Owing to the same cause, also, much of his knowledge has necessarily remained partial, and inapplicable to use; but after this science shall have been appreciated and applied, clouds of darkness, accumulated through long ages that are past, may be expected to roll away, as if touched by the rays of the meridian sun, and with them many of the miseries that attend total ignorance or imperfect information.*

CHAPTER III.

TO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE MISERIES OF MANKIND REFERABLE TO INFRINGEMENTS OF THE LAWS OF NATURE?

In the present chapter, I propose to inquire into some of the evils that have affected the human race; also whether they have proceeded from abuses of institutions benevolent and wise in themselves, and calculated, when observed, to promote the happiness of man, or from a defective or vicious constitution of nature, which he can neither remedy nor improve.

SECTION I.—CALAMITIES ARISING FROM INFRINGEMENTS
OF THE PHYSICAL LAWS.

THE proper way of viewing the Creator's institutions, is to look, first, to their uses, and to the advantages that flow

* Readers who are strangers to phrenology, and the evidence on which it rests, may regard the obsevations in the text as extravagant and enthusiastic; but I respectfully remind them, that, while they judge in comparative ignorance, it has been my endaevour to subject it to the severest scrutiny. Having found its proofs irrefregable, and being convinced of its importance, I solicit their indulgance in speaking of it as it appears before my own mind. 

72	CALAMATIES ARISING FROM

from observance of them; and, secondly, to their abuses, and the evils consequent thereon.

In Chapter II., some of the benefits conferred on man, by the law of gravitation, are enumerated; and I may here advert to the evils originating from that law, when human conduct is in opposition to it. For example, men are liable to fall from horses, carriages, stairs, precipices, roofs, chimneys, ladders, masts, to slip in the street, &c., by which accidents life is frequently altogether extinguished, or rendered miserable from lameness and pain; and the question arises, Is human nature provided with any means of protection against these evils, at all equal to their frequency and extent.

The lower animals are equally subject to this law; and the Creator has bestowed on them external senses, nerves, muscles, bones, an instinctive sense of equilibrium, the sense of danger, or cautiousness, and other faculties, to place them in accordance with it. These appear to afford sufficient protection to animals placed in all ordinary circumstances; for we very rarely discover any of them, in their natural condition, killed or mutilated by accidents referable to gravitation. Where their mode of life exposes them to extraordinary danger from this law, they are provided with additional securities. The monkey, which climbs trees, enjoys great muscular energy in its legs, claws, and tail, far surpassing, in proportion to its gravitating tendency, or its bulk and weight, what is bestowed on the legs and arms of man; so that, by means of them, it springs from branch to branch, in nearla complete security against the law in question The goat, which browses on the brinks of precipices, has received a hoof and legs, that give precision and stability to its steps. Birds, which are destined to sleep on branches of trees, are provided with a muscle passing over the joints of each leg, and stretching down to the foot, which, being pressed by their weight, produces a proportionate contraction of their claws,

INFRINGEMENT OF PHYSICAL LAWS.	73

so as to make them cling the faster, the greater their liability to fall. The fly, which walks and sleeps on perpendicular walls, and the ceilings of rooms, has a hollow in its foot, from which it expels the air, and the pressure of the atmosphere on the outside of the foot holds it fast to the object on which the inside is placed. The sea-horse, which is destined to climb up the sides of ice-hills, is provided with a similar apparatus. The camel, whose native region is the sandy deserts of the torrid zone, has broad spreading hooves to support it on the loose soil. Fishes are furnished with air bladders, by dilating and contracting of which they can accommodate themselves with perfect precision to the law of gravitation.

In these instances, the lower animals, under the sole guidance of their instincts, appear to be placed admirably in harmony with gravitation, and guaranteed against its infringement. Is man, then, less an object of love with the Creator ? Is he alone left exposed to the evils that spring inevitably from its neglect? His means of protection are different, but when understood and applied, they will probably be found not less complete. Man, as well as the lower animals, has received bones, muscles, nerves, an instinct of equilibrium,* and organs of Cautiousness; but not in equal perfection, in proportion to his figure, size, and weight, with those bestowed on them:—The difference, however, is far more than compensated by other organs, particularly those of Constructiveness and Reflection, in which he greatly surpasses them. Keeping in view that the external world, in regard to man, is arranged on the principle of supremacy in moral sentiments and intellect, we shall probably find, that the calamities suffered by him from the law of gravitation, are referable to predominance of the animal propensities, or to neglect of proper exercise of his intellectual powers. For example, when coaches

* Vide Essay on Weight, Phrenology Journ. vol. ii. p. 412.

74	CALAMATIES ARISING FROM

break down, ships sink, men fall from ladderos, &c., how generally may the cause be traced to decay in the vehicle, the vessel, or ladder, which a predominating Acquisitiveness alone prevented from being repaired; or when men fall from houses, scaffolds, or slip on the strect, &c., how frequently should we find their muscular, nervous, and mental energies, impaired by preceding debaucheries; in other words, by predominance of the animal faculties, which, for the time, diminished their natural means of accommodating themselves to the law from which they suffer. Or, again, the slater, in using a ladder, assists himself by Constructiveness and Reflection; but, in walking along the ringe of a house, or standing on a chimney, he takes no aid from these faculties; he trusts to the mere instinctive power of equilibrium, in which he is inferior to the lower animals, and, in so doing, clearly violates the law of his nature, that requires him to use reflection, where instinct is deficient. Causality and Constructiveness could invent means by which, if he slipped from a roof or chimney, his fall might be arrested. A small chain, for instance, attached by one end to a girdle round his body, and the other end fastened by a hook and eye to the roof, might leave him at liberty to move about, and break his fall, in case he slipped. How frequently, too, do these accidents happen, after disturbance of the faculties and corporeal functions by intoxication ?

The objection will probably occur, that in the gross condition in which the mental powers exist, the great body of mankind are incapable of exerting habitually that degree of moral and intellectual energy, which is indispensable to observance of the natural laws; and that, therefore, they are, in point of fact, less fortunate, than the lower animals. I admit, that, at present, this representation is to a considerable extent just; but nowhere do I perceive the human power exercised and instructed, in a degree at all approaching to their limits. Let any person recollect of how much great-

INFRINGEMENTS OF PHYSICAL LAWS		75

er capacity for enjoyment and security from danger he has been conscious, at a particular time, when his whole mind was filled with, and excited by, some mighty interest, not only applied to, but founded in, morality and intellect, than in that languid condition which accompanies the absence of elevated and enobling motives, and he may form some idea of what man is capable of reaching when his powers shall have been cultivated to the extent of their capacity, At the present moment, no class of society is systematically instructed in the constitution of their own minds and bodies, in the relations of these to external objects, in the nature of these objects, in the natural supremacy of the moral sentiments, in the principle that activity in the faculties is the only source of pleasure, and that the higher the powers, the more intense the delight; and, if such views be to the mind, what light is to the eyes, air to the lungs, and food to the stomach, there is no wonder that a mass of inert mentality, if I may use such a word, should everywhere exist around us, and that countless evils should spring from its continuance in this condition. If active moral and Intellectual faculties are the natural fountains of enjoymeat, and the external world is created with reference to this state; it is as obvious that misery must result from animal supremacy and intellectual torpidity, as that flame, which is constituted to burn only when supplied with oxygen, must inevitably become extinct, when exposed to carbonic acid gas. Finally, if the arrangement by which man is left to discover and obey the laws of his own nature, and of the physical world, be more conducive to activity, than intuitive knowledge, the calamities now contemplated appear to be instituted to force him to his duty; and his duty, when understood, will constitutes delight.

While, therefore, we lament the fate of individual  victims to the law of gravitation, we cannot condemn that law itself. If it were suspended, to save men from the effects of negligence, not only would the proud creations of hu-

70	CALAMATIES ARISING FROM

man skill loiter to their base, and the human body rise from the earth, and hang midway in the air, but our highest enjoyments would be terminated, and our faculties become positively useless, by being deprived of their field of exertion. Causality, for instance, teaches that similar causes will always, caeteris paribus, produce similar effects; and, if the physical laws were suspended or varied, to accommodate man's negligcace or folly, it is obvious that this faculty would be without an object, and that no definite course of action could be entered upon with confidence in the result. If, then, this view  of the constitution of nature were kept steadily in view, the occurrence of one accident of this kind would suggest to Reflection means to prevent others.

Similar illustrations and commentaries might be given, in regard to the other physical laws to which man is subject; but the object of the present Essay being merely to evolve principles, I confine myself to gravitation, as the most obvious and best understood.

I do not mean to say, that, by the mere exercise of intellect, man may absolutely guarantee himself sgainst all accidents; but only that the more ignorant and careless he is, the more he will suffer, and the more intelligent and vigilant, the less; and that I can perecive no limits to this rule. The law of most civilized countries recognizes this principle, and subjects owners of ships, coaches, and other vehicles, in damages arising from gross infringements of the physical laws. It is unquestionable that the enforcement of this liability has increased security in travelling in no trifling degree.

SECTION II.

OR THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND, FROM INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS.

AN organzied being, I have said, is one which derives its existence from a previoudy existing organized being,

INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.		77

which subsists on food, grows, attains maturity, decays and dies. Whatever the ultimate object of the Creator, in constituting organized beings, may be, it will scarcely be denied, that part of His design is, that they should enjoy their existance here; and, if so, every particular part of their system will be found conducive in its intention to this end. The first law, then, that must be obeyed, to render an organized being perfect in its kind, is, that the germ from which it springs shall be complete in all its parts, and sound in its whole constitution; the second is, that the moment it is ushered into life, and as long as it continues to live, it shall be supplied with food, light, air, and every physical aliment necessary for its support; and the third law is, that it shall duly exercise its functions. When all these laws are obeyed, the being should enjoy pleasure from its organized frame, if its Creator is benevolent; and its constitution should be so adapted to its circumstances, as to admit of obedience to them, if its Creator is wise and powerful. Is there, then, no such phenomenon on earth, as a human being existing in full possession of organic vigour, from birth till advanced age, when the organized system is fairly worn out ? Numberless examples of this kind have occurred, and they show to demonstration, that the corporeal frame of man is so constituted, as to admit the possibility of his enjoying organic health and vigour, during the whole period of a long life. In the life of Captain COOK it is mentioned, that 'one circumstance peculiarly worthy of notice is, the perfect and uninterrupted health of the inhabitants of New Zealand. In all the visits made to their towns, where old and young, men and women, crowded about our voyagers, they never observed a single person who appeared to have any bodily complaint; nor among the numbers that were seen naked, was ones perceived the slightest eruption upon the skin, or least mark which indicated that such an eruption had formely existed Another proof of the health of these people in the fa-

78 	CALAMITIES ARISING FROM

cility with which the wounds they at any time receive are healed. In the man who had been shot with the musket ball through the fleshy part of his arm, the wound seemed to be so well digested, and in so fair a way of bemy perfectly healed, that if Mr. COOK had not known that no application had been made to it, he declared that he should certainly have inquired, with a very interested curiosity, after the vulnerary herbs and surgical art of the country. An additional evidence of human nature's being untainted with disease in New Zealand, is the great number of old men with which it abounds. Many of them, by the loss of their hair and teeth, appeared to be very ancient, and yet none of them were decrepit. Although they were not equal to the young in muscular strength, they did not come in the least behind them with regard to cheerfulness and vivacity. Water, as far as our navigators could discover, is the universal and only liquour of the New Zealanders. It is greatly to be wished that their happiness in this respect may never be destroyed by such a connexion with the European nations, as shall introduce that fondness for spiritous liquors which had been so fatal to the Indians of North America.'—Kippis' Life of Captain Cook. Dublin, 1783, p. 100.

Now, as a natural law never admits of an exception; for example, as no man ever sees without eyes, or digests without a stomach, we are entitled to say, that the best condition in which an organized being has ever been found, is fairly within the capabilities of the race. A human being, vigorous and healthy from the cradle to the grave, could no more exist, unless the natural constitution of his organs permitted it, of design, than vision could exist without eyes. Health and vigour cannot result from infringement of the organic laws; for then pain and disease would be the objects of these laws, and beneficence, wisdom, and power, could never be ascribed to the Creator, who has eatablished them. Let us hold, then, that the organized

	INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.	79

system of man, in itself—admits of the possibility of health, vigour, and organic enjoyment, during the full period of life; and proceed to inquire into the causes why these advantages are not universal.

One organic law, is, that the germ of the infant being must be complete in all its parts, and perfectly sound in its condition, as an indispensable requisite to its vigorous developement, and full enjoyment of existance. If the corn that is sown is weak, wasted, and damaged, the plants that spring from it will be feeble, and liable to speedy decay. The same law holds in the animal kingdom; and I would ask, has it hitherto been observed by man ? It is notorious that it has not. Indeed, its existance has been either altogether unknown, or in a very high degree disregarded by human beings. The feeble, the sickly, the exhausted with age, and the incompletely developed, through extreme youth, marry, and, without the least compunction regarding the organization which they shall transmit to their offspring, send into the world miserable beings, the very rudiments of whose existance are tainted with disease. If we trace such conduct to its source, we shall find it to originate either in animal propensity, intellectual ignorance, or more frequently in both. The inspiring motives are generally mere sensual appetite, avarice, or ambition, operating in the absence of all just conceptions of the impending evil. The punishment of this offence is debility and pain, transmitted to the children, and reflected back in anxiety and sorrow on the parents. Still the great point to be kept in view, is, that these miseries are not legitimate consequences of observance of the organic laws, but the direct chastisement of their infringement. These laws are unbending, and admit of no exception; they must be fulfilled or the penalties of disobedience will follow. On this subject profound ignorance reigns in society. From such observatios as I have been able to make, I am convinced that the union of certain temperaments and combinations of mental

80	CALAMATIES ARISING FROM

organs in the parents, are highly conducive to health, talent, and morality in the offspring, and vice versa, and that these conditions may be discovered and taught with far greater certainty, facility, and advantage, than is generally imagined. It will be time enough to conclude that men are naturally incapable of obedience to the organic laws, after their intellects have been instructed, their moral sentiments trained to observance of the Creator's natural institutions, as at once their duty, their interest, and a grand source of their happiness; and they have continued to rebel.

A second organic law regards nutriment, which must be supplied of a suitable kind, and in due quantity. This law requires also free air, light, cleanliness, and attention to every physical arrangement by which the functions of the body may be favoured or impaired. Have mankind, then, obeyed or neglected this institution ? I need scarcely answer the question. To be able to obey institutions, one must first knou them. Before we can know the organic constitution of our body, we must study that constitution, and the study of the human constitution is anatomy and physiology. Before we can be acquainted with ity relations to external objects, we must learn  the existance and qualities of these objects, (unfolded by chemistry, natural history, and natural philosophy,) and compare them with the constitution of the body. When we have fulfilled these conditions, we shall be better able to discover the law which the Creator has instituted in regard to our organic system. It will be said, however, that such studies are impracticable to the great bulk of mankind, and, besides, do not appear much to benefit those who pursus them. They are impracticable only while mankind prefer founding their public and private institutions on the basis of the propensities, instead of that of the sentiments. I have mentioned, that exercise of the nervous and muscular systems is required of all the race by the Creator's fiat, that if

INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.		81

all, who are capable, would obey this law, a moderate extent of exertion, agreeable and salubrious in itself, would suffice to supply our wants, and to surround us with every beneficial luxury; and that a large portion of unemployed time would remain. The Creator has bestowed on us Knowing Faculties, fitted to explore the facts of these sciences, Reflecting Faculties to trace their relations, and Moral Sentiments calculated to feel interest in such investigations, and to lead us to reverence and obey the laws which they unfold, and, finally, he has made this occupation, when entered upon with the view of tracing His power and wisdom in the subjects of our studies, and of obeying His institutions, the most delightful and invigorating of all vocations. In place, then, of such a course of education being impracticable, every arrangement of the Creator appears to be prepared in direct anticipation of its actual accomplishment.

The second objection, that those who study these sciences are not more healthy and happy, as organized beings, than those who neglect them, admits also of an easy answer. Parts of these sciences are taught to a few individuals, whose main design in studying them is to apply them as means of acquiring wealth and fame; but they have nowhere been taught as connected parts of a great system of natural arrangements, fraught with the highest influences on human enjoyment; and in no instance have the intellect and sentiments been systematically directed to the natural laws, as the grand fountains of happiness and misery to the race, and trained to observe and obey them as the Creator's institutions.

A third organic law, is, that all our functions,shall be duly exercised; and is this law observed by mankind ? Many persons are able, from experience, to attest the severity of the punishment that follows from neglecting to exercise the nervous and muscular systems, in the lassitude, indigestion, irritibility, debility, and general uneasi-

82 	CALAMATIES ARISING FROM

ness that attend a sedentary and inactive life. But the penalties that attach to neglect of exercising the brain are much less known, and, therefore, I shall notice them more at length. How often have we heard the question asked, What is the use of education ? The answer might be illustrated by explaining to the inquirer the nature and objects of the various organs of the body, such as the limbs, lungs, eyes, and then asking him if he could perceive any advantage to a being so constituted, in obtaining access to earth, air, and light. He would, at onee, declare, that they were obviously of the very highest utility to him, for they were the only conceivable objects, by means of which these organs could obtain scope for action, which action we suppose him to know to be pleasure. To thosc, then, who know the constitution of the intellectual and moral powers of man, I need only say, that the objects introduced to the mind by education, bear the same relation to them that the physical elements of nature bear to the nerves and muscles; they afford them scope for action, and yield them delight. The meaning which is commonly attached to the word use in such cases, is how much money, influence, or consideration, will education bring; these being the only objects of strong desire with which uncultivated minds are acquainted; and they do not perceive in what way education can greatly gratify such propensities. But the moment the mind is opened to the perception of its own constitution and to the natural laws, the great advantage of moral and intellectual cultivation, as a means of exercising the faculties, and of directing the conduct in obedience to these laws, becomes apparent.

But there is an additional benefit arising from healthy activity of brain, which is little known. The brain is the fountain of nervous energy to the whole body, and different modifications of that energy appear to take place, according to the mode in which the faculties and organs are affected. For exemple, when misfortune and disgrace im-

INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 	83

pend over us, the organs of Cautiousness, Self-esteem, Love of Approbation, &c., are painfully excited; and then they transmit an impaired or a positively noxious nervous influence to the heart, stomach, intestines, and thence to the rest of the body; the pulse becomes feeble and irregular, digestion is deranged, and the whole corporeal frame wastes. When, on the other hand, the cerebral organs are agreeably affected, a benign and vivifying nervous influence pervades the frame, and all the functions of the body are performed with more pleasure and completeness. Now, it is a law, that the quantum of nervous energy increases with the number of cerebral organs roused to activity. In the retreat of the French from Moscow, for example, when no encmy was near, the soldiers became depressed in courage, and enfeebled in body, they nearly sunk to the earth through exhaustion and cold; but no sooner did the fire of the Russian guns sound in their ears, or the gleam of their bayonets flash in their eyes, than new life seemed to pervade them. They wielded powerfully the arms, which a few moments before, they could scarecly carry or trail on the ground. No sooner, however, was the enemy repulsed, than their feebleness returned. The theory of this is, that the approach of the combat called into activity a variety of additional faculties; these sent new energy through every nerve, and while their vivacity was maintained by the external stimulus, they rendered the soldiers strong beyond their merely physical condition. many persons have probably experieneed the operation of the same principle. When sitting feeble and listless by the fire, we have heard of an accident having occurred to some beloved friend, who required our instantaneous aid, or an unexpected visitor has arrived in whom our affections were bound up, in an instant our lassitude was gone, and we moved with an alertness and animation that seemed surprising to ourselves. The cause was the same; these events roused Adhesiveness, Benevolence, Love of Appro-

84	CALAMATIES ARISING FROM.

bation, Intellect, and a variety of faculties, which were previously dormant, and their influence invigorated the limbs. DR. SPARMANN, in his Voyage to the Cape, mentions, that 'there was now again a great scarcity of meat in the wagon; for which renson my Hottentots began to grumble, and reminded me that we ought not to waste so much of our time in looking after insects and plants, but give a better look out after the game. At the same time, they pointed to a neighbouring dale overrun with wood, at the upper edge of which, at the distance of about a mile and a quarter from the spot where we then were, they had seen several buffaloes. Accordingly, we went thither; but though our fatigue was lessened by our Hottentots carrying our guns for us up a hill, yet we were quite out of breath, and overcome by the sun, before we got up to it. Yet, what even now appears to me a matter of wonder is, that as soon as we got a glimpse of the game, all this languor left us in an instant. In fact, we each of us strove to fire before the other, so that we seemed entirely to have lost sight of all prudence and caution.'—' In the mean time, our temerity, which chiefly proceeded from hurry and ignorance, was considered by the Hottentots as a proof of spirit and intrepidity hardly to be equalled.'

It is a part of the same law that the more agreeable the mental stimulus, the more benign is the nervous influence transmitted to the body.

If we imagine a man or woman, who has received from nature a large and tolerably active brain, but who has not enjoyed the advantages of a scientific or extensive education, so as to feel an interest in moral and intellectual pursuits for their own sake, and who, from possessing wealth sufficient to remove the necessity for labour, is engaged in no profession, we shall find a perfect victim to infringement the natural laws. The individual ignorant of these laws, will, in all probability, neglect nervous and muscular execise , and suffer the miseries arising from impeded cir-

85	INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.

culation and impaired digestion; in entire want of every object on which the energy of his brain might be expended, its stimulating influence on the body will be withheld, and the effects of muscular inactivity tenfold aggravated; all the functions will, in consequence, become enfeebled; lassitude, uneasiness, anxiety, and a thousand evils, will arise, and life, in short, will become a mere endurance of punishment for infringement of institutions, calculated, in themselves, to promote happiness and afford delight, when known and obeyed. This fate frequently overtakes uneducated females, whose early days have been occupied with business, or the cares of a family, but which occupations have ceased before old age had diminished corporeal vigour; it overtakes men also, who, uneducated, retire from active business in the prime of life. In some instances, these evils accumulate to such a degree that the brain itself gives way, its functions become deranged, and insanity is the result.

It is worthy of remark, that the more elevated the objects of our study, the higher in the scale are the mental organs which are exercised, and the higher the organs the more pure and intense is the pleasure; and hence, a vivacious and regularly supported excitement of the moral sentiments and intellect, is, by the organic law, highly favourable to health and corporeal vigour. In the fact of a living animal being able to retain life in an oven that will bake dead flesh, we see an illustration of the organic law rising above the purely physical; and, in the circumetance of the moral and intellectual organs transmitting the most favourable nervous influence to the whole bodily system, we have an example of the moral and intellectual law rising higher than the mere organic.

No person after having his intellect and sentiments imbued with a perception of, and belief in, the natural laws, as now explained, can poasibly desire idleness, as a source of pleasure ; nor can he possibly regard muscular exertion

86	CALAMATIES ARISING FROM

and mental activity, when not carried to excess, as anything elsc than enjoyments kindly vouchsafed to him by the benevolence ofthe Crentor. The notion that moderate labour and mental exertion are evils, can originate only frorn ignorance, or from viewing the effcets of over-exhaustion as the result of the natural law, and not as the punishment for infringement of it.

If, then, we sedulously inquire, in each particular instance, into the cause of the sickness, pain, premature death, and general derangement of the corporeal frame of man, which we see around us, and endeavour to discover whether it has originated in obedience to the physical and organic laws, or sprung from infringement of them, we shall be able to form some estimate how far bodily suffering is justly attributable to imperfections of nature, and how far to our own ignorance and neglect of divine institutions.

The foregoing principles being of much practical importance, may, with propriety, be elucidated by a few cases of actual occurrence. Two or three centuries ago, various cities in Europe were depopulated by the plaguc, and, in partirular, London wss visited by an awful mortality from this cause, in the reign of Charles the Second. The people of that agc attributed this scourge to the inscrutable decrees of Providence, and some to the magnitude of the nation's moral iniquities. According to the views now presented, it must have arisen from infringement of the organic laws, and been intended to enforce stricter obedience to them in future. According to this view, there was nothing inscrutable in its cuases or objects, which, when clearly analysed, appear to have had no direct reference to the moral condition of the peoplo: I say direct reference to the moral condition of the people, because it would be easy to show, that the physical, organic, and all the other natural laws, are connected indirectly, and constituted in harmony, with the moral law; and that infringement of the one often leads to disobedienes to another, and brings a

	INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.		87

double punishment on the offender. But, in the mean time, I observe that the facts recorded in history exactly correspond with the theory now propounded. The streets of London were excessively narrow, the habits of the people dirty, and no adequate provision was made for removing the filth unavoidably produced by a dense population. The great fire in that city, which happened soon after the pestilence, afforded an opportunity of remedying, in some degree, the narrowness of the streets; and the habits of increasing cleanliness abated the filth; these changes brought the people into a closer obedience to the organic laws, and no plauge has since returned. Again, till very lately, thousands of children died yearly of the small-pox, but in our day, vaccine inoculation saves ninety-nine out of a hundred, who, under the old system, would have died. The theory of its operation is not known, but we may rest assured, that it places the system more in accordance with the organic laws, than in the cases where death ensusd. A gentleman, who died about ten years ago at an advanced period of life, told me, that six miles west from Edinburgh, the country was so unhealthy in his youth, that every spring the farmers and their servants were seized with fever and aguc, and required regularly to undergo bleeding, and a course of medicine, to prevent attacks, or restore them from their effects. At the time, these visitations were believed to be sent by Providence, and to be inherent in the constitution of things; after, however, said my informant, an improved system of agriculture and draining was established, and vast pools of stagnant water formerly left between the ridges of the field were removed,dunghills carried to a distance from the houses, and the houses themselves made more spacious and commodious, every system of ague and marsh fever disappeared from the district, and it became highly salubrious. In other words, as soon as the gross infringement of the organic laws was abated by a more actitve exertion of the muscular and intellectual powers" of man, the

88	 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM

punishment ceased. In like manner, how many calamities occurred in coalpits, in consequence of infringement of a physical law, viz. by introducing lighted candles and lamps into places filled with hydrogen gas, that had emanated from seems of coal, and which exploded, scorched, and suffocated the men and animals within its reach, until Sir Humphrey Davy discovered that the Creator had established such a relation betwixt flame, wireganze, and hydrogen gas, that by surrounding the flame with gauze, its power of exploding hydrogen was counteracted. By the simple application of a covering, of wire-ganze, put over and around the flame, it is prevented from igniting gas beyond it, and colliers are now albe to carry, with safety, lighted lamps into places highly itmpregnated with infammable air. I have been informed, that the accidents from explosion which still occasionally occur in coal mines, arise from neglecting to kecp the lamps in perfect condition.

It is needless to multiply examples in support of the proposition, that the organized system of man, in itself, admits of a healthy existance from infancy to old age, provided its germ has been healthy, and its subsequent condition has been uniformly in harmony with the physical and organic laws; but it has been objected, that although the human faculties may perhaps be adequate to discover these laws, and to record them in books, yet they are totally incapable of retaining them in the memory, and of formally applying them in every act of life. If, it is said, we could not move a step without calculating and adjusting the body to the law of gravitation, and could never eat a meal without a formal rehearsal of the organic laws, life would become oppressed by the pedantry of knowledge, and rendered miserable by petty observances and trivial details. The answer to this is, that all our faculties are adapted by the Creator to the external world, and act instinctively when their objects are placed in the proper light before them. For example, in walking on a footpath in the country during 

INFRINNGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.	89

day, we are not conscious, in adjusting our steps to the inequalities of the surface, of being overburdened bar mental calculation. In fact, we perfiorm this adjustment with so little trouble, that we are not aware of having made any particular mental or muscular effort. But, on returning at night, when we cannot see, we stumble, and discover, for the first time, how important a duty our faculties had been performing during day, without our having adverted to their labours. Now, the simple medium of light is sufficient to bring clearly before our eyes the inequalities of ground; but to make the mind equally familiar with the nature of the countless objects, and their relations, which abound in external nature, an Intellectual light is necessary, which can be struck out only by exercising and applying the knowing and reflecting faculties; but the moment that light is obtained, and the qualities and relationships in question are perceived by its means, the faculties, so long as the light lasts, will act instinctively in adapting our conduct to the nature of the objects, just as in accommodating our movements to the unequal surface of the ground. It is no more necessary for us to go through a course of physical, botanical, and chemical reasoning, before we are able to abstain from eating hemlock, after its properties are known, than it is to go through a course of mathematical demonstration, before lifting the one foot higher than the other, in ascending a stair. At present, physical and poltical science, morals and religion, are not taught as parts of one connected system; nor are the relations between them and the constitution of man pointed out to the world. In consequence, theoretical knowledge and practice are often widely separated. Some of the advantages of the scientific education now recommended would be the following.

In the 1st place, the physical and organic laws, arhen truly discovered, appear to the mind as institutions of the Creator, wise and salutary in themselves, unbending in

90	CALAMITIES ARISING FROM

their operation, and universal in their application. They interest our Intellectual faculties, and strongly impress our sentiments. The necessity of obeying them, comes upon us with all the authority of a mandate of God. While we confine ourselves to a mere recommendation to beware of damp, to observe temperance, or to take exercise, without explaining the principle, the injunction carrics only the weight due to the authority of the individual who gives it, and is addressed to only two or three faculties. Veneration and Cautiousness, for instance, or Self-love in him who receives it. But if we are made acquainted with the elements of the physical world, and with those of our organized system,—with the uses of the different parts of the latter, and the conditions necessary to their healthy action,—with the causes of their derangement, and the pains consequent thereon: and if the obligation to attend to these conditions be enforced on our moral sentiments and intellect, when the motives to observe the physical and organic laws, as well as the power of doing so, will be prodigiously increased. Before we can dance well, we must not only know the motions, but our muscles must be trained to execute them. In like manner, to enable us to act on precepts, we must not only comprehend their meaning, but our intellects and sentiments must be disciplined into actual performance. Now, the very act of acquiring connected scientific information concerning the natural world, its qualities, and their relations, is to the intellect and sentiments what practical dancing is to the muscles; it invigorates them; and, as obedience to the natural laws must spring from them, exercise renders it more easy and delightful.

2. It is only by being taught the principle on which consequences depend, that we see the invariableness of the reaults of the physical and organic laws; acquire confidence in, and respect for the laws themselves; and fairly endeavour to accommodate our conduct to their operation. Dr. JOHNSON defines ‘principle' to be 'fundamental truth;

INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.		91

original postulate; first position from which others are deduced ;' and in these senses I use the word. The human, faculties are instinctively active, and desire gratification; but Intellect itself must have fixed data, on which to reason, otherwise it is itself a mere impulse. The man in whom Constructiveness and weight are powerful, will naturally betake himself to constructing machinery; but, if he be ignorant of the principles of mechanical science, he will not direct his efforts to as important ends, and attain them as successfully, as if his intellect were stored with these. Principles are deduced from the laws of nature. A man may make music by the instinctive impulses of Time and Tune; but there are immutable laws of harmony; and, if ignorant of these, he will not perform so invariably, correctly, and in good taste as if he knew them. In every art and science,there are principles referable solely to the constitution of nature, but these admit of countless applications. A musician may produce gay, grave, solemn, or ludicrous tunes, all good of their kind, by following the laws of harmony; but he will never produce one good piece by violating them. While the inhabitants west of Edinburgh allowed the stagnant pools to deface their fields, some seasons would be more healthy than others; and, while the cause of the disease was unsuspected, this would confirm them in the notion that health and sickness were dispensed by an overruling Providence, on inscrutable principles, which they could not comprehend; but the moment the cause was known, it would be found that the most healthy seasons were those that were cold and dry, and the most sickly those that were warm and moist; and they would then perceive, that the superior salubrity of one year, and unwholesomeness of another, were clearly referable to one principle, and would be both more strongly prompted, and rendered morally and intellectually more capable of applying the remedy. If some intelligent friend had merely told them to drain their fields, and remove their

92	EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM

dunghills, they would not probably have done it; but whenever their intellects were enlightened, and their sentiments roused, to appreciate the advantages of adopting, and disadvantages of neglecting, the improvement, it became easy.

The truth of these views may be still further illustrated by examples. A young gentleman of Glasgow, whom I knew, went out, as a merchant to North America. Business required him to sail from New York to St. Domingo. The weather was hot, and he, being very sick, found the confinement below deck, in bed, as he said, intolerable; that is, this confinement was, for the moment, more painful than the course which he adopted, of laying himself down at full length on the deck, in the open air. He was warned by his fellow passengers, and the officers of the ship, that he would inevitably induce fever by this proceeding: but he was utterly ignorant of the physical and organic laws; his intellect had been trained to regard only wealth and present pleasure as objects of real importance; it could perceive no necessary connexion between exposure to the mild and grateful sea breeze of a warm climate and fever, and he obstinately refused to quit his position. The consequence was, that he was rapidly taken ill, and lived just one day after arriving at St. Domingo. Knowledge of chemistry and physiology would have enabled him, in an instant, to understand that the sea air, in warm climates, holds a prodigious quantity of water in solution, and that damp and heat, operating together on the human organs, tend to derange their healthy action, and ultimately to destroy them entirely: and if his sentiments had been deeply imbued with a feeling of the indispensable duty of yielding obedience to the institutiong of the Creator, he would have actuallar enjoyed, not only a greater desire, but a greater power of supporting the temporary inconvenience of the heated cabin, and might, by possibility, have escaped death

Captain MURRAY, R. N. mentioned to Dr. A. COMBE, that, in his opinion, most of the bad effects of the climate

INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.	 93

of the West Indies might be avoided by care and attention to clothing; and so satisfied was he on this point, that he had petitioned to be sent there in preference to the North American station, and had no reason to regret the change. The measures which he adopted, and their effects, are detailed in the following interesting and instructive letter:

		'Assynt, April 22, 1827.

	‘MY DEAR SIR,

' I should have written to you before this, had I not been anxious to refer to some memorandums, which I could not do before my return home from Coul. I attribute the great good health enjoyed by the crew of his Majesty's ship Valorous, when on the West India station, during the period I had the honour of commanding her, to the following causes. 1st, To the keeping the ship perfectly dry and clean; 2dly, To habituating the men to the wearing of flannel next the skin; 3dly, To the precaution I adopted, of giving each man a proportion of his allowance of cocoa before he left the ship in the morning, either for the purpose of watering, or any other duty he might be sent upon and, 4thly, To the cheerfulness of the crew.

The Valorous sailed from Plymouth on the 24th December, 1823, having just returned from the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland, where she had been stationed two years, the crew, including officers, amounting to l50 men. I had ordered the purser to draw two pairs of flannel drawers, and two shirts extra for each man, as soon as I knew that our destination was the West Indies; and, on our sailing, I issusd two of each to every man and boy in the ship, making the officers of each division reaponsible for the men of their respective divisions wearing these flannel during the day and night; and, at the regular morning nine o'clock musters, I inspected the crew personally; for you can hardly conceive the difficulty I have had in forcing some of the men to use flannel at first; although I

944	 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM

never yet knew one who did not, from choice, adhere to it, when once fairly adopted. The only precaution after this, was to see that, in bad weather, the watch, when relieved, did not turn in, in their wet clothes, which the young hands were apt to do, if not looked after; and their flannels were shifted every Sunday.

'Whenever fresh beef and vegetables could be procured at the contract price, they were always issued in preference to salt provision. Lime juice was issued whenever the men had been fourteen days on ship's provisions; and the crew took their meals on the main deck, except in very bad weather.

‘The quarter and main decks were scrubbed with sand and water, and wet holy stones, every morning at daylight. The lower deck, cock-pit, and store-rooms were scrubbed every day after breakfast, with dry holy stones and hot sand, until quite white, the sand being carefully swept up, and thrown overboard. The pump-well was also swabbed out dry, and then scrubbed with holy stones and hot sand; and here, as well as in every part of the ship which was liable to damp, Brodiestoves were constantly used, until every appearance of humidity vanished. The lower deck and cock-pit were washed ones every week in dry weather; but Brodiestoves were constantly kept burning in them, until they were quite dry agnin.

'The hammocks were piped up, and in the nettings, from 7  A.M. until dusk, when the men of each watch took down their hammocks alternately, by which means, only one half of the hammocks being down at a time, the tween decks were not so crowded, and the watch relieved was sure of turning into a dry bed on going below. The bedding was aired every week, once at least. The men were not permitted to go on shore in the heat of the sun, or where there was a probability of their getting spiritous liqours; but all hands were indulged with a run on shore, when out of reach of such temptation.

INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.	95

' I was employed on the Coast of Caraccas, the West India Islands, and Gulf of Mexico; and in course of service, I visited Trinidad, Margarita, Cocha, Cumana, Nueva Barcelonn, Laguira, Porto Cabello, and Maracaibo, on the coast of Caraccas; all the West India Islands, from Tobago to Cuba, both inclusive; as also, Caracao and Aruba, and several of those places repeatedly; also to Vera Cruz and Tampico, in the Gulf of Mexico, which you will admit must have given a trial to the constitutions of my men, after two years amongst the icebergs of the Labrador, without an intervening summer between that icy coast and the coast of Caraccas; yet I arrived in England on June 24th, without having buried a single man or officer belonging to the ship, or indeed having a single man on the sick list; from which I am satisfied that a dry ship will always be a healthy one in any climate. When I
command of the Recruit, of 18 guns, in the year 1809, I was sent to Vera Cruz, where I found the —46, the— 42, the — 18, and gun-brig; we were joined by the — 36, and the —18. During the period we remained at anchor (from 8 to 10 weeks), the three frigates lost from 30 to 50 men each, the brigs 16 to 18, the — most of her crew, with two different commanders; yet the Recruit, although moored in the middle of the squadron, and constant intercourse held with the other ships did not lose a man, and had none sick. Now, as some of the ships had been as long in the West Indies as the Recruit, we cannot attribute her singular healthy state to seasoning, nor can I to superior cleanliness, because even the breeches of the carronades, and all the pins, were polished bright in both — and — , which was not the case with the Recruit. Perhaps her healthy state may be attributed to cheerfulness in the men; to me never allowing them to go on shore in the morning, on an empty stomach; to the use of dry sand and holy stone for

96	EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM

the ship; to never working them in the sun; perhaps to accident. Were I asked my opinion, I would say that I firmly believe that cheerfulness contributes more to kecp a ship's company healthy, than any precaution that can be adopted; and that, with this attainment, combined with the precautions I have mentioned, I should sail for the West Indies, with as little anxiety as I would for any other station. My Valorous fellows were as cheerful a set as I ever saw collected together.'

Suppose that two gontlemen were to ascend one of the Scottish mountains, in a hot summer day, and to arrive at the top, bathed in perspiration, and exhausted with fatigue. That one of them knew intimately the physical and organic laws, and that, all hot and wearied as he was, he should button up his coat closer about his body, wrap a handkerchief about his neck and continue walking, at a quick pace, round the summit, in the full blaze of the sun. That the other, ignorant of these laws, should eagerly run to the base of a projecting cliff; stretch himself at full length on the turf, under its refreshing shade; open his vest to the grateful breeze; and, in short, give himself up entirely to the present luxuries of coolness and repose;—the former, bv warding off the rapid chill of the cool mountain air, would descend with health unimpaired; while the latter would carry with him, to a certainty, the seeds of rheumatism, consumption, or fever, from permitting perspiration to be instantaneously checked, and the surface of the body to be cooled with an injurious rapidity. I have put these cases hypothetically, because, although I have seen and experienced the benefits of the former method, I have not directly observed the opposite. No season, however, passes in the Highlands, in which some tragedy of the latter description does not occur; and, from the minutest information that I have been able to obtain, the cause have been such as are here described.

INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.		97

I shall conclude these examples by a case which is illustrative of the points under consideration, and which I have too good an opportunity of observing in all its stages.

An individual in whom it was my duty as well as pleasure, to be greatly interested, had resolved on carrying Mr. OWEN’S views into practical effect, and got an establishment set agoing on his principles, at Orbiston, in Lanarkshire. The labour and anxiety which he underwent at the commencement of the undertaking, gradually impaired an excellent constitution; and, without perceiving the change, he, by way of setting an example of industry, took to digging with the spade, and actually worked fourteen days at this occupation, although previously unaccustomed to labour. This produced haemoptysis. Being unable now for bodily exertion, he gave up his whole time to directing and instructing the people, about 250 in number, and for two or three weeks spoke the whole day, the effusion from his lungs continuing. Nature rapidly sunk under this irrational treatment; and at last he came to Edinburgh for medical advice. When the structure and uses of his lungs were explained to him, and when it was pointed out that his treatment of them had been equally injudicious as if he had thrown lime or dust into his eyes, after inflammation, he was struck with the extent and consequences of his own ignorance, and exclaimed, How greatly he would have been benefited if one month of the five years which he had been forced to spend in a vain attempt at acquiring a mastery over the Latin tongue, had been dedicated to conveying to him information concerning the structure of his body, and the causes which preserve and impair its functions. He had departed too widely from the organic laws to admit of an easy return; he was seized with inflammation of the lungs, and with great difficulty got through that attack; but it impaired his constitution so grievously, that he died, after a lingering illness of eleven months. He acknowledged, however, even in his severest pain, that he

98	EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM

suffered under a just law. The lungs, he saw, were of the first-rate importance to life, and their proper treatment was provided for by this tremendous punishment, inflicted for neglecting the condtions requisite to their health. Had he given them rest, and returned to obedience to the organic law, at the first intimation of departure from it, the door stood wide open and ready to receive him; but, in utter ignorance, he persevered for weeks in direct opposition to these conditions, till the fearful result ensued.

This last case affords a striking illustration of the independence of the different institutions of the Creator, and of the necessity of obeying all of them, as the only condition of safety and enjoyment. The individual here alluded to, was deeply engaged in a most benevolent and disinterested experiment for promoting the welfare of his fellow creatures; and superficial observers would say that this was just an example of the inscrutable deerees of Providence, which visited him with sickness, and ultimately with death, in the very midst of his most virtuous exertions. But the institutions of the Creator are wiser than the imaginations of such men. The first principle on which existence on earth, and all its advantages depend, is obedience to the physical and organic laws. The benevolent Owenite neglected these, in his zeal to obey the moral law; and, if it were possible to dispense with the one, by obeying the other, the whole theatre of man's existance would speedily become deranged, and inolved in inexplicable disorder.

Having traced bodily suffcrings, in the case of individuals, to neglect of, or opposition to the organic laws, by their progenitors or by themselves, I next advert to another set of calamities, that may be called social miserics, and which obviously spring from the same causes; but of which latter fact complete evidence was not possessed until Phrenology was discovered. And, first, in regard to evils of a domestic nature ;—One fertile source of unhappiness arises from persons uniting in marriage whose tempers, talents,

INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.		99

and dispositions do not harmonize. If it be true that natural talents and dispositions are connected by the Creator with particular configurations of brain, then it is obviously one of His institutions that, in forming a compact for life, thesc should be attended to.* If we imagine an individual endowed with the splendid cerebral developement of RAPHAEL, under a mere animal impulsc, uniting himself for life with a female, possessing a brain like that of MARY MACINNES,† which by no possibility, could sympathise with his, this proceeding would be as direct an obstacle to happiness, as if a man were to surround himself with ice to rcmove scnsations of cold. Until Phrenology was,discovered, no natural index to mental qualities, that could be practically relied on was possessed, and each individual was left to his own sagacity in directing his conduct; but the natural law never bended one iota to accommodate itself to that state of ignorance The Creator having bestowed on mankind faculties fitted to discover Phrenology, having constituted them so that their greatest enjoyment should consist in activity, framed his institutions in such a way as to confer happiness when they were discovered, and observed, and to carry punishment when unknown and infiringed, as an arrangement at once benevolent and wise for the race. If it be the fact, that natural talents ami dispositions are indicated by cerebral developement; and if an individual, after this truth reaches his mind, shall form a connexion fitted to occasion him sorrow, it is obvious he must do so from one of two causes, either from contempt of the effects of developement of brain, and a secret belief that he may evade its consequences, which is just contempt of an organle law, and disbelief in its consequences; or, secondly, from the predominance of avarice, or some animal or other feeling precluding his yielding obedience to what he sees to

* See Appendix, Note 2.
† Casts of these heads are sold in the shops, and will be found in
many Phrenological collections.

100	EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND 

lge an institution of the Creator. In either case, he must ab de the consequences; and although these may be grievous, they cannot be complained of as unjust. In the play of the Gamester, Mrs. Beverly is represented as a most excellent wife, acting habitually under the guidance of the moral sentiments and intellect; but she is married to a lgeing who, while he adores her, reduces her to beggary and misery. His sister utters an exclamation to this effect:— Why did just heaven unite such an angel to so heartless a thing! The parallel of this case occurs too often in real life; only it is not 'just Heaven' that makes such matches, but ignorant and thoughtless human beings, who imagine themselves absolved from all obligation to study and obey the natural laws of Heaven, as announced in the general arrangement of the universe. Phrenology, will put it in the power of mankind to mitigate these evils, when they choose to adopt its dictates as a practical rule of conduct.

The justice and benevolence of rendering the individuals themselves unhappy who neglect this great institution of the Creator, become more striking when in the next place, we consider the effects, by the organic law, of such conduct on the children of these ill-assorted unions.

Physiologists, in general, are agreed, that a vigorous and healthy constitution of body in the parents, communicates existance, in the most perfect state, to the offspring,* and many observers of mankind, as well as medical authors, have remarked, also, the transmission, by hereditary descent, of mental talents and dispositions.

Dr. KING, in speaking of the fatality which attended the House of Stuart, says, 'If I were to ascribe their calamities to another cause (than an evil fate), or endeavour to account for them by any natural means, I should think the,

*Very young hens lay small eggs; but a breeder of fowls will never set these to be hatched, because the animals produced would be feeble and imperfectly doveloped. They select the largest and freshest eggs, and endeavour to rear the healthiest stock possible.

INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.	101

were chiefly owing to a certain obstinacy of temper, which appears to have been hereditary and inierent in all the Stuarts, except Charles II.

It is well known that the caste of the Brahmins is the highest in point of intelligence as well as rank of all the castes in Hindostan; and it is mentioned by the missionaries as an ascertained fact, that their children are naturally more acute, intelligent, and docile, than the children of the inferior castes, age and other circumstances being equal.

Dr. GREGORY, in treating of the temperaments in his Conspectus Medicinae Theoreticae, says, ‘Hujusmodi varietates non corpori smodo, verum et animi quoque, plerumque congenitae, nonnunquam haereditariae, observantur. Hoe modo parentes saepe in proles reviviscunt; certe parentibus liberi similes sunt, non vultum modo et corporis formam, sed animi indolem, et virtutes, et vitia. Imperiosa gens Claudia diu Romae floruit, impigra, ferox, superba; eadem illachrymabilem Tiberium, tristissimum tyrennum, produxit; tandem in immanem Caligulam, et Claudium, et Agrippinam, ipsumque demum Neronem, post sexcentos annos, desitura.'*—Cap. i. sect. 16.

Phrenology reveals the principle on which these phenomena take place Mental talents and dispositions are determined by the size and constitution of the brain. The brain is a portion of our organized system, and as such, is subject to the organic laws, by one of which its qualities are transmitted by hereditary descent. This law, however, faint or obscure it may appear in individual cases, becomes absolutely undeniable in nations. When we place the collection of Hindoo, Charib, Negro, New Holland, North American, and European skulls, possessed by the Phrenological Society, in juxtaposition, we perceive a na-

* Parents frequently live again in their offrpring. It is quite certain that children resemble their parents, not only in countenance and and the form of their body but also in their mental dispositions, in their virtues and vices, &c.

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tional form and combination of organs in each actually obtruding itself upon our notice, and corresponding with the mental characters of the respective tribes; the cerebral development of one tribe is scen to differ as widely from that of another, as the European mind does from that of the New Hollander. Here, then, each Hindoo, Chinese, and Charib obviously inherits from his parents a certain general type of head; and follows each European. If, then, the general forms and proportions are thus so palpably transnsitted, can we doubt that the individual varicties follow the same rule, modified slightly by causes peculiar to the parents of the individual? The differences of national chracter are equally conspicuous as those of national brains, and it is surprising how permanently both endure. It is observed by an author in the Edinburgh Review, that ‘the Vicentine district is, as everyone knows, and has been for ages, as integral part of the Venitian dominions, professing the same religion, and goverened by the same laws, as the other continental provinces of Venice; yet the English character is not more different from the French, than that of the Vicentine and his other neighbour, the Veronese, is hardly less remarkable.’—No. Ixxxiv. p. 459.

If then, form, size, and constitution of brain, are transmitted from parents to children, if these determine natural mental talents and dispositions, which in their turn exercise the greatest influence over the happiness of individuals through the whole of life, it becomes extremely important to discover according to what laws this transmission takes place. Three principles present themselves to our consideration, at the first aspect of the question. Either in the first place, the constitution and qualities of brain, wbich the parents themselves inherit at birth, are transmitted absolutely, as that the children, sex following sex, are exact copies, without variation or modification, of the

INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.	103

one parent or the other; or, secondly, the natural and inherent qualities of the father and mother combinc, and are transmitted in a modified form to the offspring; or, thirdly, the qualities of the children are determined jointly by the constitution of the stock, and by the faculties which predominate in power and activity in the parents, at the particular time when the organic existance of each child commences.

Experience shows that the first cannot be the law; for, as often mentioned, a real law of nature admits of no exceptions, and it is well established, that the minds of children are not exact copics, without variation or modification, of those of the parents, sex following sex. Neither can the second be the law, because it is equaly certain that the minds of children, although sometimes, are not always, in talents and dispositions, perfect modifications of those of the father and mother. If this law prevailed, no child would be a copy of the father, none a copy of the mother, nor of any collateral relation, but each would be invariably a compound of the two parents, and all the children would be exactly alike, sex only excepted. Experience shows, that this cannot be the law. What, then, does experience say to the third idea, that the mental character of each child is detcrmined by the particular qualities of the stock, combined with those which predominate in the parents, when its existence commenced.

I have already adverted to the influence of the stock, and shall now illustrate that of the condition of the parents, when existance is communicated.

A strong illustration, in the case of the lower animals, appeared in the Edinburgh Review, No. lxxxiv. p. 457.

'Every one conversant with beasts,' says the reviewer,' knows, that not only their natural, but that many of their required qualities, are transmitted by the parents to their offspring. Perhaps the most curious example of the latter act may be found in the pointer.

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'This animal is endowed with the natural instinct of winding game, and stealing upon his prey, which he surprises, having first made a short pause, in order to launch himself upon it with more security of success. This sort of semicolon in his proceedings, man converts into a full stop, and teaches him to be as much pleased at seeing the bird or beast drop by the shooter's gun, as at taking it himself. The staunchest dog of this kind, and of the original pointer, is of Spanish origin, and our own is derived from this race, crossed with that of the foxhound, or other breed of dog, for the sake of improving his speed. This mixed and factitious race, of course, naturally partakes less of the true pointer character; that is to say, is less disposed to stop, or at least he makes a shorter stop at game. The factitious pointer is, however, disciplined in this country, into staunchness; and, what is most singular, THIS QUALITY IS, IN A GREAT DEGREE, INHERITED BY HIS PUPPY, who may be seen earnestly standing at swallows or pigeons in a farm yard. For intuition, though it leads the offspring to exercise his pareatys faculties, does not instruct him how to direct them. The preference of his master afterwards guides him in his selection, and teaches him what game is better worth pursuit. On the other hand, the pointer of pure Spanish race, unless he happen to be well broke himself, which in the south of Europe seldom happens, produces a race which are all but unteachable, according to our notions of a pointer’s business. They will make a stop at their game, as natural instinct prompts them, but seem incapable of being drilled into the habits of the animal, which education has formed in this country, and has rendered, as I have said, in some degree, capable of transmitting his acquirements to his descendants.

' Acquired habits are hereditary in other animals besides dogs. English sheep, probably from the greater richness of our pastures, feed very much together; while Scotch shecp are obliged to extend and scatter themselves over their hill.

INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.	105

for the better discovery of food. Yet the English sheep, on being transfarred to Scotland, keep their old habit of feeding in a mass, though so little adapted to their new country; so do their descendants; and the English sheep not thoroughly naturalized into the necessities of his place till the third generation. The same thing may be observed as to the nature of his food, that is observed in his mode of seeking it. When turnips were introduced from England into Scotland, it was only the third generation which heartily adopted this diet, the first having been starved into an acquieseence in it.'

In These instances, long continued impressions on the parents appear to have at last effected change of disposition is the offspring.

'We have seen,' says an author whom I have already quoted, 'how wonderfully the bee works—according to rules discovered by man thousands of years after the insect had followed them with perfect accuracy. The same little animal seems to be acquainted with principles of which we are still ignorant. We can, by crossing, vary the forms of cattle with astonishing nicety; but we have no means of altering the nature of an animal, once born, by means of treatment and feeding. This power, however, is undeniably possessed by the bees. When the queens-bee is lost, by death or otherwise, they choose a grub from among those who are born for workers; they make three cells into one, and, placing the grub there, they build a tabe round it; they afterwards build another cell, of a pyramidal form, into which the grub grows: they feed it with peculiar food, end tend it with extreme care. It becomes, when tranesformed from the worm to the fly, not a worker, but a queen-bee.’—Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science, p. 33. It is difficult to conceive that man will ever possess such a power as this last.

Men, however, as an organized being, is aubject to laws similar to those which govern the organization of the lower

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animals. Dr. PRITCHARD, in his researches into the Physical History of Mankind, has brought forward a variety of interesting facts and opinions on this subject of transmission of hereditary qualities in the human race. He says, 'Children resemble, in feature and constitution, both parents, but, I think more generally the father. In tne breeding of horses and oxen, great importance is attached, by experienced propagators, to the male. In sheep it is commonly observed that black rams beget black lambs. In the human species, also, the complexion chiefly follows that of the father; and I believe it to be a general fact, that the offspring of a black father and white mother is much darker than the progeny of a white father and a black mother.'— Vol. ii. p. 551. These facts appear to be to be referable to both causes. The stock must have had some influence, but the mother, in all these cases, is not impressed by her own colour, because she does not look on herself; while the father's complexion must strikingly attract her attention, and may, in this way, give the darker tinge to the offspring.*

Dr. PRITCHARD states the result of his investigations to be, First, That the organization of the offspring is always modelled according to the type of the original structure of the parent; and, Secondly,That changes, produced by external causes in the appearance or constitution of the individual are temporary; and, in general, acquired charachters are transient; they terminale with the inglividual, and have no influence on the progeny.'—Vol. ii. p. 536. He supports the first of these propositions by a variety of facts occurring in the porcupine family,'  ‘in the hereditary nature of complexion,' and, ‘in the growth of supernumerary fingers or toes, and corresponding deficiencies.' MAUPERTUS has mentioned this phenomenon; he assures us, that there were two families in Germany, who have been

* Black hens lay dark-coloured eggs.

INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.	107

distinguisiled for several generations by six fingers on each hand, and the same number of toes on each foot,’ &c. He admits at the same time, that the second proposilion is of more difficult proof, and that an opinion contrary to it ‘has been maintained by some writers, and a variety of singular facts have been related in support of it.' But many of these relations, as he justly observes, are obviously fables.

In regard to the foregoing propositions, I would observe, that a manifest distinction exists between transmission of monstrosities, or mutilations, which constitute additions to, or abstractions from, the natural lineaments of the body, and transmission of a mere tendency in particular organs to a greater or less developement of their natural functions. This last appears to me to be influenced by the state of the parents, at the time when existance is communicated to the offspring. On this point Dr. PRITCHARD says, ‘The opinion which formerly prevailed, and which has been entertained by some modern writers, among whom is Dr. DARWIN, that at the period when organization commences in the ovum, that is, at or soon after the time of conception, the structure of the fetus is capable of undergoing modification from impressions on the mind or senses of the pareot, does not appear altogether so improbabie. It is contradicted, at least, by no feat in physiology. It is an opinion of very ancient prevalence, and may be traced to so remote a period, that its rise cannot be attributed to the speculations of philosophers, and it is difficult to account for the origin of such a persuasion, unless we ascribe it to facts which happened to be observed.' p. 556.

A striking and undeniable proof of the effect on the character and dispositions of children, produced by the form of brain transmitted to them by hereditary descent, is to be found in the progeny of marriages between Europeans, whose brains possess a favourable developement of the moral and intellectual organs, and Hindoos, and native

103 	EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM

Americans, whose brains are inferior. All authors agree, and report the circumstance as singularly striking, that the children of such unions are decidedly superior in mental qualities to the native, while they are still inferior to the European parent. Captain FRANKLIN says, that the half-breed American Indians 'are upon the whole a good looking people; and where the experiments have been made, have shown much expertness in learning, and willingness to be taught; they have, however, been sadly neglected,, p. 36. He adds, ' It has been remarked, I do not know with what truth, that half breeds show more personal courage than the pure breeds.' Captain BASIL HALL, and other writers on South America, mention that the offspring of native American and Spanish parents, constitute the most active, vigorous, and powerful portion of the inhabitants of these countries; and many of them rose to high commands during the revolutionary war. So much is this the case in Hindostan, that several writers have already pointed to the mixed race there, as obviously destined to become the future sovereigns of India. These individuals inherit from the native parent a certain adaptation to the climate, and from the European parent a higher developement of brain, the two combined constituting their superiority.

Another example of the same law occurs in Persia. In that country, it is said that the custom has existsd for ages among the nobles, of purchasing beautiful female Circassian captives, and forming alliances with them as wives. It is ascertained that the Circassian form of brain stands comparatively high in the developement of the moral and intellectual organs.* And it is mentioned by some travellers, that the race of nobles in Persia is the most gifted in

*In Mr. W. ALLAN’S picture of the Circassian Captives, the form of the head is said to be a copy from nature, taken by that artist, when he visited the country. It is engraved by Mr. JAMES STEWART with great beauty asd fidelity, and may be consulted as an example of the superiority of of Circassian development of the brain.

	INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS.	109

natural qualities, bodily and mental, of any class of that people; a fact diametrically opposite to that which takes place in Spain, and other European countries, where the nobles intermarry constantly with each other, and set the organic laws altogether at defiance

The degeneracy and even idiocy of some of the noble and royal families of Spain and Portugal, from marrying nieces, and other near relations, is well known; and defective brains, in all these cases, are observed.

The father of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, says Sir WALTER SCOTT, ' is stated to have possessed a very handsome person, a talent for eloquence, and a vivacity of intellect, which he transmitted to his son.' 'It was in the middle of civil discord, fights, and skirmishes, that CHARLES BONAPARTE married LAETITIA RAMOLINI, one of the most beautiful young women of the island, and possessed of a great deal of firmness of character. She partook of the dangers of her husband during the years of civil war, and is said to have accompanied him on horsebadek on some military expeditions, or perhaps hasty flights, shortly before her being delivered of the future Emperor.'—-Life of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, vol. iii. p. 6.

The murder of DAVID RIZZIO was perpetrated by armed nobles, with many circumstances of violence and terror, in the presence of MARY, Queen of Scotland, shortly before the birth of her son, afterwards JAMES the First of England. The constitutional liability of this monareh to emotions of fear, is recorded as a characteristic of his mind; and it has even been mentioned that he started involuntarily at the sight of a drawn sword. Queen MARY wea not deficient in courage, and the STUARTS, both before and after JAMES the First, were distinguished for this quality; so that he was a marked exception to the dispositions of his family. NAPOLEON and JAMES form striking contrasts; and it may be remarked that the mind of NAPOLEON’S mother appears to have risen to the danger to which she was exposed, and

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braved it; while the circumstances in which Queen MARY was placed, were calculated to inspire her with fear alone.

Further evidence of the same law may still be mentioned. ESQUIROL, the celebrated French medical writer in adverting to the causes of madness, mentions that many children whose existance dated from periods when the horrors of the French Revolution were at their height turned out subsequently to be weak nervous and irritable in mind extremely susceptible of impressions, and liable, by the least extraordinary excitement to be thrown into absolute insanity. Again, in a case which fell under my observation the father of a family was sick, had a partial recovery, but relapsed declined and in two months died. Seven months after his death a son was born, of the full age; and the origin of whose existance was referable to the period of the partial recovery. At that time, and during the subsequent two months, the faculties of the mother were in the highest state of excitement, in ministering to her husband, to whom she was greatly attached; and, after his death, the same excitement continued to operate, for she  was then loaded with the charge of a numerous family, but not depressed; for her circumstances were comfortable. The child is now more than ten years old; and, while his constitution is the most delicate, his development of the mental organs, and the natural activity of these is decidedly the greatest of the family. Another illustration of the same law is found in the fact, that when two parties marry very young the eldest of their children generally inherits a less favourable developement of five moral and intellectual organs, than those produced in more mature age,—which is in exact correspondence with the doctrine, that the animal faculties in men, in general, are most vigorous in early life, and will then be most readily transmitted to offspring. Indeed, it appears difficult to account for the wide varieties in the form of the brain in children of the same family, unless on the principle that the organs which predominate in ac-

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tivity and vigour in the parents, at the time when existance is communicated, determine the tendency of corresponding organs to develope themselves largely in the children. lf this is really the law of nature, as there is great reason for believing, then parents, in whom combativeness and destructiveness are in habitual activity will transmit these organs, in a state of high developement and excitement, to their children; and those in whom the moral and intellectual organs exist in supreme vigour, will transmit these in greatest perfection.

This view is in harmony with the fact that children generally, although not universally, resemble the parents in their mental qualities; because the largest organs being naturally the most active, the general and habitual state of the parents will be strongly marked by those which predominate in size in their own brain; and on the principle of predominance in activity and energy causing the transmission of similar qualities to the offspring, the children will, in this way, very generally resemble the parents. But they will not always do so; because, even ~IAR! H,c~xars, in whom the moral and Intellectual organs were extremely, deficient, might have been exposed to external influences, which, for the time being might have excited things to unwanted vivacity, and, according to the rule, as now opinined, ~ shild, ~Inting its existence from that period, might have inherited a higher organization of brain than her own. Or, a person with A very excellent moral developement, might, by some particular occurrence, have his animal propensities roused to unwonted vigour, and his moral sentiments thrown, for the time, into the shade; and any offspring connected with that condition, would prove inferior to himself in the developement of the moral organs, and greatly surpass him in the size of those of the propensities.

I do not present these riears as ascertained phrenological science, but as inferences strongly supported by fact, and

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consistent with known phenomena. If we SUPPOSE them to be true, they will greatly strengthen the motives for preserving the habitual supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, when, by doing so, improved moral and intellectual capacities may be conferred on offspring. If it be true that this lower world, so far as man is concerned, is framed to harmonize with the supremacy of the higher faculties of the mind, what a noble prospect would this law open up of the possibility of man ultimately becoming capable of placing himself more fully in accordance with the Divine institutions, than he bas hitherto been able to accomplish; and, in consequence, of reaping numberless enjoyments that appear destined for him by his Creator, and avoiding thousands of miseries that now render his life a series of calamities. The views here expounded also harmonize with the second principle of this Essay, namely, That, is activity in the faculties is the fountain of enjoyment, the whole constitution of nature is designedly framed to call on them for ceaseless exertion. What hope for observation, reflection, the exercise of moral sentiments, and regulating of animal impulse, does not this picture of nature present!

I cordially agree, however, with Dr. PRITCHARD, that this subject is still inrolged in very great obscurity. 'We know not,' says he, ‘by what means any of the facts w'o temark are effected; and the utmost we can hope to attain, is, by tracing the connexions of circumstances, to learn from what combinations of them we may expect to witness particular results.'—Vol. ii. p. 542. But much of the darkness may be traced to the past ignorance of mankind concerning the functions of the brain. If we consider that it has all along been the most important organ of our system; that, from is office, mental impressions must almost necessarily have exercised a powerful influence over the developement of is parts, and that the relative size of these determines the predominance of particular talent

HEREDITARY QUALITIES. 113

and dispositions; but, nevertheless, that all past observations have been conducted without the knowledge of these principles; it will not appear marvellous that merely confusion and contradiction have existed in the results drawn. At the present moment, accordingly, almost all that phrenologists can pretend to accomplish, is, to point out the mighty void; to offer an exposition of its causes; and to state such inferences as their own very limited observations have hitherto enabled them to deduce. If ar from pretend. ino to be in possession of certain and complete knowledge on this subject, I am inclined to think, that, although every conjecture now hazarded were true, several centuries of observation will probably be required to render the principles completely practical. At present we have almost no information concerning the effects, on the children, of different temperaments, of different combinations in the cerebral organs, of differences of age, &c., in the parents.

It is astonishing, however, to what extent mere pecuniary interests excite men to investigate and observe the Natural Laws, sad how small an influence motal and rational considerations exert in leading them to do ao. Before a common insursnce company will undettake the riek of paying £100, on the death of an individual, they require the following questions to be anewered by credible and intelligent witnesses:

'1. How long have you known Mr. A. B.?

'2. Has he had the gout ?

'3. Has he had a spitting of blood, asthme, consumption, or other pulmonarar complaint ?

'4. Do you consider him at.all prediaposed to se' ol. these complainte ?

' 6. Hes he been affected with fits, or mental derangement ?

' 6. Do you think his constitution perfectly good, in tho common aceeptation of the term ?

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'7. Are his habits in every respect strict regular and temperate ?

'8. Is he at present in good health ?

‘9. Is there andhing in 09 fore', habits of living, or business, which you are of opinion may shorten his life ?

‘10. W hat complainte are his lamily most subject to ?

' 11. Are you aware of any reason wby an insurance might not with safety be cilected on l~is Jite ?

A man and woman about to marry, lntve in the general case, the health and happiness of live or more l~uman tee" ings depeuding on their attention to consideration, essentialig the same as the foregoing, and yet how much less scrupulous are they than the mere speculaturs in nsoney?

There is no moral difHeulty in admitting and admiring the wisdom and benevolence of the institution, by which good qualifies are transmitted from parents to children; but it is lrequently held as unjust to the latter, that they should inherit parental dsheicncics, aml so be ~nade to sufler for sins which they did not commit. In solving this difficulty, I must again refer to the supremacy of the moral sentiments, as the theory of the constitution of the world. The animal propeusities are all scitish, and regard only the immediate and apparent interest of the individusl; while the higher sentiments deligTht in that which communicates the greatest quantity of enjoyment to the greatest number. Now, let us suppose the law of hereditary descent to be abrogated altogether, that is to say, that each indi\idual of the race at birth were endowed with fixed natural qualities. arithout the slightest reference to what his parents had been, or done;—this form of constitution nould Obvio

cut off erer, possibility of improvement in the race. Every phrenologist knows, that the New Hollanders, Charibs, and other savage tribes, are distinguished by great deficiencies in the moral and intellectual organs.* If, however it 

* This fact is demonstrated by specimens in most Phrenological Museums.

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be true, that considerable devclopement of intellectual organs is indispensabic to the comprehensico of science, end the practice of virtue, it would, on the present suppositios, be impossible to raisc the acw Hollanders, as a people, one step higher in capacity for intelligence and virtue than they now are. We might cultivate eac!, generation up to the ldnit of its powers, but there the improvement, and a ow one it would be, would stop; for the next generation, being produced with brainH ctiunily deficient ID the moral and h~teilectual regions, no principle of increasing amelio. ration would exist. the sarnc remarks are appHeable to every tribe of mankingl. If we assume modern Europeans as the standard, then, if the law of hereditary desceDt were abro~ated, CYery deficicncy that at this moment is attributable to imperfect or disproportionate developement of larain, yould be irremediabic, and continus as long as the race existsd. Each generation might be cultivated till the summit Ic~cl of its canacitics was attained, but there each suc" ceeding generat would remain. When we contrast with this prospect the very opposite effects flowing from the law of here(3itary transmission of qualities in an iiicreasing ratio, the whole advantages are at ones pereei\ed to be on the side of the latter constitution. According to this rule, the children of the individuals who have obe~ed the organic, the moral, and the intellectual laws, would start from the highest level of their parents, not only in acquired knowledge, but in consequence of that very obedienee, they would inherit an enlarged developement of the moral and iotellectual organs, and thereby enjoy an increasing capability of discovering and obeying the Creator's institutions This improvement, will, no doubt, have its limits; but it may probably extend to that point at which man will be capable of placing himeelf in harmon' with the natural laws. The effort necessery to nsaintain himself there, w1U still provide for the activity of bis facultiea

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2dly. We may suppose the law of hereditary descent to be limited to the transmission of good, and abrogated as to the transmission of bad rlualities; and it may be thouO~ht that this arrangement would be more benCYolent and just. There are objections to this vieW' however, which do not occur at ones to the mind. We see as matter of fact, that a vicious and debased parent is actually defeetire in the moral and intellectnal organs. Now, if his chihlren should take up exactly the same developement as himself, this ~ould be transmission of imperfections, which is the very pointobjected to; or, if he ·`ere to take up a de~e10pe. ment fixed by nature, and not at all referable to that of the parent; this would render the uhole race stationsry in their first condition, without the possibiJity of improvement in their capacities, which also we have seen would be an evil greatly to be depracated.

3dly. The bad developen.ent might be supposed to transmit, by hereditary descent, a good develorement; but this would set at naught the supremacy of ju. ..ce and Benevolence; it would reader the consequences of contempt for, and violation of the divine laws, and of obedience to them, in this particular, pracisely alike. The debauchee, the cheat, the murderer, and the robber, would, according to this view, be able to look upon the prospects of their prosperity, with the eame confidence in their welfare and happiness, as the pious and intelligent Christian, who had sought to know God and to obey his institutions during his wholelife. Certainl,v noindividual, in whom the higher sentiments prevail, will for a moment regard this imagined change as an' improvement on the Creator's arrangeweot~ What a host of motives to moral and religious conduct rould at ones be withdrawn, ~'ere such a spectacle of di vine goverDmeDt exhibited to the mind. In proportion a~ the brain is improved, the aptitude of man for discovering u~d obe~ing the D.tural laws will be ivereased. For es

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ample, it appears to me that the native American savages and native New Hollanders, cannot, with their preseDt brains, adopt E:uropean civilization. The reader will find in the Phreuological Collections specimens of their akulla, and, on comparinO~ them with those of Europeans, he will observe that, in the former, the organs of reflecting intellect, Ideality, Conscientiousness, and llenevolence, are greatly inferior in size to the same organs in the latter. If, by obeyinO~ the organic laws, the moral and intellectual or gans of these savages could be considerably enlarged, they would llesire civilization, and would adopt it when offared. If this view be well founded, all mesns used for their cultivation, which are not calculated at the 6ame time to imprme their cerebral OrganizQtion, will be limited in their effects by the narrm, capacities attending their present de. velope me a t. In youth , al l the organs of the body are more susecptihle of modification than in advanced age; and hence the effects of education on the young may arise from the greater susceptibility of the brain to impressions at that period than later.

4thly. It may be aupposed that human happiness would have been more completely secured, by endowing all individuals at birth with that degree of de`-clopement of the moral and intellectual organs, which would have best fitted them for discovering and obeying the Creator's institutions, and bypreventina all aberrations from this standard; just as the lower animals appear to have raccived instincts and ca pacitieS, adjusted with the most perfect wisdom to their conditions. Two remarks occur on this supposition. First; We are not competent at present to judge correctly how far the developement actually bestowed on the human race, is, or is not, wisely adapted to their circumstances; for there may, by possibility, be departments in the great ~stem of human society, exactly suited to all existing forma of brain, not imperfect through diaease, if our knolvl. edge were sufficient to discover them. The want of

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natural index to the mental dispositions and capacitics of individuals, and of a philosophical theory of the constitu. tion of society, has hitherto prachtded the possibility of arriving at sound conclusions on this question. It appears to me probal,!e, that while there may be great room for impro~ement in the talents and dispositions of vast numbers of individuals, the imperfections of the race in general may not be so great, as we, in our present state of igno" rance of the aptitudes of particular persons for particular situations, are prone to in far llu t, secondly, on the prin. ciple that activity in the faculties is the fountain of enjoy. ment, it may be considered whether additional motives to the exercise of the moral and Intellectualpowers, and, conserinently, greater happiness, are not eonfarred by lea`ing men, within certain ldnits, to regulate the talents and tendencies of their deseendants, than by endowing each individual with the best qualities, independently of the conduct of his parents.

On the whole, therefore, there seems reason for concluding', that the actual institution, by wEich bothgood and had qualtities. are transmitted is, fraught with hi~,lger advanta~cs to the race, than the abrogation of the law of trans" mission altogether; or than the supposed chanbe of it, by which bad men would transmit good qualities to their children The actual law, wHen viewed by the moral sen. timents and intellect, both in its principles and consequen. ees, appears beneficial and expe'~ient. When an individual sufferer, therefore, complains of its operation, he regards it through the animal faculties alone; his aelf-love is annoy

~ In using the popular expression. ~ gond qoditic8, and ~ bed qualities'' I do not mean to in si a uate, that any of the te',nenciea bevtowed on msa are e'~entially bad in themecives. Destructivenc58 and Acquisirivenees' for ez~'nple, are, when properly directed, unquestionsbly good; but the! bec~me the ~ourees Or evil, when their orgin' are too Large, in propor t~oo to those of the moral sentimenta and intollect. By bed qudities, therecore, I alwa'. mean eilber disea~e, or unfavoureble proportion' smonl

the different organs.

HEREDITARv QUALISIZS. 114

ed, and he carries his thoughts no further. He never stretches his mind forward to the consequences to mankind at large, if the law which grieves him were reveraed. The animal faculties regard nothing bevond their own immedinte and apparent interest, and they do not even discern it correctly, for no arrangement that is beneficial for the race can be injurious to individuals, if its operations in regard to them were distinctly traced.

The abrogation of the rule, therefore, under which they complain, would, we may be certain, bring ten thousand times greater e~ils, even upon themselres, than its continuance.

On the other hand, an individual sufferet under an hereditary pain, in whom the moral and intellectual faculties predominate, who should see the principle and consequences of the institution of hereditary descent, as now explained, would not murmur at them as unjust; he would bow with submission to an institution, which he perecived to be fraught with blessings to the race, when it was known and observed, and the very practice of this reverential acquie~ cence would be ao delightful, that it would diminish, in a great degree, the severity of the evil. Besides, he would see the door of merey standing widely open, and inviting hiv return; he would perceive that every atep which he made in his own person towards exact obedience to the Creator's institutions, would remove by so much tHe vrganic penalty transmitted through his parents' tranegremiona, and that his posterity would reap the full benefita of his more dutiful observance.

It may be objected to the law of hereditary tranemiseior' 0f organic qualities, that the children of a blind and lamo father have aound cyes and limbs: But, in the 1st place, these defecta are geusrally the reault of accident ot div ease, occurring either during pregnaDey, or posterior to birth, and aeldom or never the operation of nature; and, eonsequently' the original physical principlea temeining

120 TRANSMISSION OF

entire in the constitution, the bodily ingperfections are not transmitted to the pro~cn,r. 2dly. Where the defects are congenite or constitutionsl, it frequently happens that they are transmitted through successive generations. This is exemplified in deaGness, in blindness, and even in the possession of supernumerary fingers or tocs. The reoson why such peculiarities are not transmitted to all the progeny, appears to be simply that, in general, only one parent is de. fectire. If the father, for instance, be blind or deaf, the mother is generally fres from that imperfection, and her influence naturally extends to, and modifies the result in, the progeny.

If the law of hereditary transmission of mental qualities be, as now explained, dependent on the organs in highest excitement in the parents, it will account for the varicties, along with the general resemldance, that occur in children of the same marriaoc. It will account also for the circum. ~tance of genius being sometimes transmitted and sometime~ not. Unless both parents possess the developemeats aml tem perament of genius, the law would not certainly transmit These qualities to the children; and even although both did posses~ these endowments, thew would be transmitted only on condi tion of the perents obeyino the organic laws, one of which forbids that excessive exertion of the mental and corporeal functions, which exhausts and debilitates the system; an error almost universally committed by persons enclowed with high original talent, under the present condition ol. igno. rance of the natural laws, and erroneous fashions and insti. tutionsof society. The supposed law \rould be disproved by cases of weak, imbecile, and ~icious children, being born to parents whose own constitution and he bits hnd been in the highest accordance u ith the organic, moral, and intellectua lawe; but no such casea have hitherto come under my obser ration.

Further; afier hirth, it is quite certain that the organs most actire jD the parente have a decided tendenc' to

HEREDITARV QUALITIES. 121

cau se and in cre ase in the si z e of correspond ing orgaDs in the children, by habitually exciting and exercisiag them, ubich favours their growth. According to this law, habitual severity, chiding, and imperious conduct, proceeding from orer-active Self-esteem and Destructiveness in the pusnts, rouse these faculties in the children, produce hatred and resistance, and increase the aclirity of the same organs, while those of the moral sentiments and intellect are left in a state of apathy.

Rules, however, are best taught by examples; and I shall, therefore, proceed to mention some facts that bave fallen under my own notice, or been communicated to me from authentic sources, illustrative of the practicel cong quences of infringing the law of hereditary desceat.

A man, aged about fifty, possessed a brain, in which the animal, moral, and knowing intellectual organs were all strong, but the reflecting weak. He was pious, but de~titute of education; he married an unheaJthy youn' womeD, deficient in moral developement, but of considereble fores of charaoter; and sereral children were born. The father and mother were far from being happy; and, when the children attained to eighteen or twenty years of age, they were adepts in every species of immorality and profligac'; they picked their futher'o pockets, stole his goods, and got thRm sold back to him, by accompHees, for money, which tvas spent in betting and cock-fighting, drinking, and low debauchery, The father was heavily grieved; bul know. ing only two tesources, he beat the children severely as long as he was able, and prayed for them; his own words were, that ' if, R0= th~, it pleased the Lord to make rem ~els of wrath of them, the Lord'a will must just be dono.' I mention this last obserration, not in jest, bu,t in great seriousnes'. It tvas impossible not to pity the unhapp' fathor; yet, who that sees the institutions of the Creatar to be in themselres wise, but in thb instance to h"e been directly ariolated, will not aclmowledge that the bitter ws

122 51ISERIES AnIsIND rROM NEaLECT

of the poor old man were the consequenecs of his own ig. norance; and that it was an erroneous view of the divine administration, `~,hich led him to overloo~ liis own mistakes, and to attribute to the Almiobty the purpose of mak. ingr vessels of wrsth of his children, as the only explana tion which he could give of their wicked dispositions, Who that sees the cause of his misery must not lament that his piety should not have been culiobtened by philosophy, and directed to obedience, in the first instance, to the organic institutions of the Creator, as one of the prescribed conditions, u ithout observance of which he hnd no titlo to expect a blessino upon his offspring.

In another instance, a man, in whom the animal organs, particularly those of Combativeness and Destructiveness, were very large, but with a pretty fair moral and intellectual developement, married, against her inclination, a younar woman, fashionably and showily educated, but with a very decided deficiency in Conscientiousness. They soon became unhappy, and eve,1 blows were said to have passed betareen them, :'lthough they belonged to the middle rank of life. The mother, in this case, employed the cl~ildren to deceive and plunder the father, nud, latterly, spent the produce in drink. The sons inherited the deficient morolity of the mother, and the ill temller of the father. The family fireside became a theatre of war, and before the sons attained majority, the father was glad to get them re. moved from his house, as the only means by wbich he could feel eten his life in safe~y from their violence; for they had by that time retaliated the blows with which he had ti~ited them in theit younger years; and he stated that he actualb considered his life to be in danger from hb own offspring.

In another family, the mother possesses an excellent de. telopement of the moral and intellectual orgo.ns, while, is the father, the animal otgane predominate in great excess. She hu been the unhapp, ~ictim of ceaseless misfettuna'

	OF OneANIC LAWS IN MARRI.\GE.	123

originating from the misconduct of her husband. Some of the children have inherited the father's brain, and some the mother's; and of the sons whose heads resemble the father's, several have died through mere debauchery and profligacy under thirty years of age; whereas, those who resemble the mother are alive and little contaminated,even amidst all the disadvantages of evil example.

On the other hand, I am not acquainted with a single instance in which the moral and intellectual organs predominated in size, in both father and mother, and whose external circumstances also permitted their general activi. ty, in which the ~ohole children did not partake of a moral and intellectual character, difTering slightly in degrees of excellence one from another, but all presenting the decided predomin ance of ; he hum an over the animal facul ties.

There are well-known examples of the children of religious and moral fathers exhibiting dispositions of a very inferior description; but in all of these instances that I have been able to observe, there has been a large developement of the animal organs in the one parent, which was just controlled, but not much more, by the moral and intellectual powers: and in the other parent, the moral organs did not appear to be in large proportion. The unfortunate child inherited the large animal developement of the one, with the deCective moral developement of the other; and, in this way, was inferior to both. The way to satisfy one's self on this point, is to exansine the heads of the parents. In all such cases, a large base of the brain, which is the region of the animal propensities, will arerar probably be found in one or other of them.

Another organic law of the animal kingdom desenes attention; viz. that by which marriages betwixt blood relations tend decidedly to the deterioration of the physical and mental qualities of the offipring. In Spain kings marr, their nieces, and in this countq, first and second COUBinS marry without scruple; dthough every philosophical pb,

124 OROANIC LAWS.

eiologist will deelare that this is in direct opposition to the institutions of nature. This law holds also in the vegetable kingdom. ' A provision, of a very si:nple kind, is, in some ceses, made to prevent the malo and female blossom~ of the same plant from breeding together, this being found to hurt the breed of vegetables, just as breeding in and in does the breed of animala It is contrived, that the dust shall be shed by the male blossom before the female is ready to be affected by it, so that the impregnation must be performed by the dust of some other plant, and in this way the breed be crossed.'—Objeeds, 4.c. of Science, p. 33.

On the same principle, it is found highly advantngeous in agriculture not to sow grain of the same stock in constant succession on the same soil. In individual ingtances, if the soil and plants are boti~ possessed of great vigour and the highest qualities, the same kind of grain may be reaped in succession twice or thrice, with less Perceptible deterio. ration than where these elements of reproduction are feeble and imperGect; and the same thing appears in the animal kingdom. If the firat individuals connected in near relationship, who unite in marriage, are uncommonly robust, and possess very favourably developed brains, their offspring may not be 8s much deteriorated below the com. mou standard of the country as to attract particular atten tion, and the law of nature is, in this instance, supposed not to hohl; but it does hold, for to a law of nature there never is an exception. The offspring are unilbrmly inferior to what they ~oould hauc been, if the parents had united with strangers in blood of equal vigour and cere bral deuclopement. Whenever there jg any remarkable deficiency in parent who are related in blood, these appear in the most marked and aggrarated forms in the offspring The fact is eo well known, and 8s easily ascertained, that I forbear to enlarge upoa it. So much for miserie~ UiBing from neglect of the orgaDic laws in forming the ~;c conspa"

CIIOICE or 8ZRVANTS, ECS.

la5

I proceed to advert to those evils which arise from overlooking the operation of the same laws in ordinary relations of society.

How many little annoyances arise from the misconduct of servants and dependents in tarious departments of life; how many losses, and sometimes ruin, arise from dishonesty and knavery in confidential clerks, partner~, and agents. A mereantile house of great reputation, in Lon don, wes ruined and became bankrupt, by a clerk having embezzled a prodigious extent of funds, and absconded to America; another company in Edinburgh, was talked of about a year ago, which had sustained a great loss by a similar piece of dishonesty; a company in Paisley was ruined by one of the partners having collected the funds, and eloped with them to the United States; and lately, eeveral bankers, and other persons, suffered severely in Edinburgh, by the conduct of an individual, some time connected with the public press. If it be trus, then, that the mental qualities and dispositions of individuals are indicated and influenced by the developement of their brains, and that their actual conduct is the result of this developement, operated upon by their external circumstances, including in this latter every moral and intellectual influence coming from without, i, it not obvious, that one and all of the evils here enumerated flowed from infringement of the natural institutions, that is to say, from having placed hu" man beings decidedly deficient in moral or intellectual qualities in situations where these were required in a higher degree than they possessed them t

If any man were to go to sea in a paper boat, which the very fluidity of the element would dissolre, no one would be surprised at his being drouned: and, in like manner, if the Creator has constituted the brain so as to exert a great influence on the mental dispositione, and if, nevertheleu, men us pleased to treat this fact with neglect and con" tempt, and to place individuals, naturally deficiont in tho

126 t)RGANIC LAWS.

moral organs, in situations where a great degree of these sentiments is required, they have no cause to be surprised if they suffer the penalties of their own nsisconduct, in be" ing plundered and defrnuded.

Although I can state, from experience, that it is possible, by tho aid of Phrenology, to select individual~ whose moral and intellectual qualities may be rshed on, yct, the ex. tremely limited extent of our practical knowledge in this respect fails to be confessed. To be able to judge aceurately what combination of natural talents and dispositions in an individual will best fit him for any given employnscat, we require to have seen a variety of combinations tried in that particular department, and to have noted their effects. It is iropossible, at Icast for me, to anticipate with unerring certainty, what These cflects w ill be: but I have ever found nature constant; and after ones discovering, by experience, an assortment of qualities suited to a particular duty, I have found no subsequent exception to the rule. Cases in which the predominance of particular regions of the brain, as the moral and intellectual, is very decided, present few. estdifaculties; although' even in them, the very deficicncy of an i m a1 organs may sometimes inca pacitate an ind iv idual for important stations; but whero the three classes of or. gans, the animal, moral, and intellectual, are acarlyin equilibrio, the most opposite results may ensus by external circumstances exciting the one or the other to decided predominance in activity.

Having now adverted to calamities by external violence, —to bad health,—unhappiness in the domestic circle, ari~ ing from ill-advised unions, and viciously disposed children, —to the evils of placing individuals, as serva'~ts, clerks, partners, public instructers, &c., in situations to which they are not auited, by their natural qualities, and traced all of them to infringements or neglect of the physical or organic 1~6, I proceed to advert to the last, and what is reckoned the greatest of all calamitieB, D£ASH, sad wbich itself i6

DEATH. 127

obviously a part of the organic law. Baron Cunea, after stating that the world we inhabit was at first duid, and that highly cryetalline recks were deposited before animal or vegetable life began, has demonstrated, that then came the lowest ordera of zoophytes and of vegetable~, next fishes and reptiles, and trees in vast forests, giving origin to our present beds of coal, then quadrupeds and birde, and shelb and plants, resc',~bli,ry tho~e of the present aars, but all of which, as specics, have utterly perished from the earth; next came allavial recks, containing bones of mammothey &c., and la~t of all came man. (CUvIER'S Preface to his Ossemens Fossiles, and papers by Dr. FLE51ING in CHA~ ~sEns ~ Journal.) This shows that destruction of vegetable and animal life were institutions of nature before man became an inhal~itant of the globe. It is beyond the com. pass of philosophy to explain toly the world was 6s constituted. I therefore make no inquiry why death wu insti tuted, and refar, of course, only to thedissolution of organ ized bodies, and not at all to the etate of the ~oul or rnind after its separation from the body. These belong to Rerclation.

Let US first view the dissolution of the body abetractedly from personal consideratione, u a mere oatural urrang. ment. Doath, then, appear6 to be a result of the constitu tion of all organized lgeings; for the very definition of the genus, is, that the individuals grow, attain maturiiy, decay, and die. The human imagination cannot conceive how the former part of this series of movements could exist without the latter, as long as 6pace is necessary to corpor~al existance If all the vegetable and animal productions of nature, from creation downwards, had grown, atteined maturity, and there remained, this world would not have been capable of containing one thousandth

part of them; ao that, on this.earth, decaying and dying appear indispeneably necessary to admit of reproduction and growth. Viewed abatractedly, then,organized beings Iite as long u

128 OROANIC LAWS,

health and vigour continus; but they are subjected to a process of decay, which impairs grndually all their func tions, and at last terminates in their dissolution. Now, in the vegetable world, the effect of this law, is, to surround us with young forests, in place of the monotony of everlast ing stately full grown w~ds, standing forth in awful end. Iess majcsty, without variation in leaf or bough;—with the rernal bloom of the meadows, changing gracefully into the vigour of summer, and the maturity of autuma;—with the rose, first simply and dsheately budding, next fresh and lovely in its blow, and then rich and luxuriant in its perfect condition. In short, when we advert to the law of death, as instituted in the vegetalde organized kingdom, and as related to our own faculties of Idealily, Wonder, ~c., which desire and delight in the very changes which death introduces, we without hesitation exelaim, that all is wisely, admirably, and wonderfully made. Turning, again, to the animal kingdon,, the same fundamental principle prevails. Death removes the old, the worn out, and decayed, and, in their place, the organic law introduces the ,voung, the gay, and the ~ igorous, to tread the stage with increased agility and delight.

This transfar of existance may readily be granted to be beneficial to the young; but, at first sight, it aplgears the opposite of benevolent to the old. To have lived at all, is felt as giving a right to continus to liwe; and the quss tion arises, how can the institution of death, as the result of the organic law, be reconciled with Benevolence and lustice t

In treating of the supremacy of the sentiments, I point ed out, that the grand distinction between them and the propensities, consist ID this, that the former are disinterested, generous, and fond of the general good, and the latter altogether selfish ;a their desires. It is obvious, that death, ae an inatitution of the Creator, must afFect theso t~o elu~ of faculties in the moet diverent maDner.' The

DEATH. 129

propensities, being confined in their gratification toself, and having no reference to the welfare of any other creature, a being endowed only with them and reRecting intellect, and enabled, by the latter, to discoter death and its consequences, would regard it aS the most appalling of vi~itations, and would see in it only utter extinction of all enjoy ment. The lower animals, then, whose whole being is composed of the inferior propensities, and several kno~oingg faculties, would see death, if they could at all anticipate it, only in this light. So tremendously fenrful would it appear to them, as the extinauisher of every pleasure whish they had ever felt or could conceive, that we may eafely predicate, that the bare prospect of it would render their lives arretched, and that nothing could compensate the agonies of terror, with which an habitual consciousness of it would inspire them. But, by depriving them of re,~ceting organs, the Creator has kindly and effectually preserved them from the influence ol. this evil. He has thereby rendered them completely blind to its existance. There is not the least reason to bsheve, that any one of the lower animab, while in health and vigour,has the slightest conception that it is A mortal creature, any more than a tres has that it will ·He. In consequence, it lives in as full enjoyment of the preeent, as if it were assured of every agreeaL,le sensation being eternal Death always takes the individual by eurprise, whether it comes in the form of violence, suppfessing life in youth, or of slou decay by age; therefore, it really operates in their case as a transfarence of existance from one being to another, without consciousness of the lose in the one which dies. Let us, however, trace the operation of death, in regard to the lower animab, a little more in de~il.

It will not be disputed, that the world is ealeulated to eootain and eupport only a definite Dumber of liying creatures, that the lower animab have raccired from nature powers of reproduction far bevond what ja necessu~ to aup

13s ORGANIC LAWS.

ply the waste of life, by natural decay, and that they do not possess intellect sudicieut to restrain their numbets within the limits of their means of subsistence. IIere, therefore, is an ins~itution in which destruction of lia, to a great extent, is necessarily implied. Philosoyby cannot teil why death was instituted at first, but, according to the views maintained in this E:ssay, us should expect to find it con. nected with, and regulated by, benCYolenceand justice; that is to say, that it should not be iniHeted for the sole pur pose of extinguishing the Hec of individuals, to their damage, without any other result; but that the ges~eral system under which it takes place should be, on the whole, favourable to the enjoyment of the race; and this accordingly is the fact. Violent death, aml the devouring of one animal by another, are not purely benerolent, because pure benCYolence would never inflict pain; but they are instnuces of destruction guided by benevolence; that is, wherever death proceeds under the institutions of nature, it is accompanied with en. joyment or t>cneficial consequences to one sct of animals or another. Herbivorous animals are exceedingly prolific, yet the supply of vegetable food is limited. Ilence, after multipiging for a few years, extensive starvation, the most pain. ful and lingering of all dealhs, and the most detrimental to the race, would inCYitably cusus; but carnivorous animal~ have been instituted who kill and eat them; and by this means not only do carnivorous animals reap the pleasures of life, but the number~ of the berbivorous are restrained within such limits, that the individuals among them enjo, exietence while they live. The destroycrs, again, are limited in their turn. The moment thew become too numerou., and carry their devastations too far, their food fails them, end, in their confHets for the suppHes that remain, they ex. tinguish each other, or dic of starvation. Nature seem, arerse from inflicting death extensively by starvation, pro. bably because it impeire the constitution long before it ex. tioguishe' life, und has the tendency to produce degeneraC'

DZATII. 131

in the race. It may be remarked, also, 8peculatively, that herbirorous animals must have existsd in considerable numbers before the carnivorous began to exercise their func" tions; for many of the former rnust ·He, that one of the lat. ter may lire; if a single sheep and a single tiger had been placed together at first, the tiger would have eaten up the sheep at a few meals, and died itselfof ~tarvation, in a brief epace alterwards. In natural decay, the organs are worn out by mere age, and the animal einks into gradual ingensil~ility, unconscious that dissolution awaits it. Further, the wolf, the tiger, the lion, and other beasts of prey, P~sti tuted by the Creator as instruments of violent death, are provided, in addition to Destructivenens, with large organs of Cautiousness and Secretiveness, that prompt them to eteal upon their victims with the unexpected suddenne~s of a mandate of annihilation, and they are impelled also to inflict death in the most instantaneous and least painful method; the tiaer and lion spring from their cover with the rapidity of a thunderbolt, and one blow of their tremendous paws, inflicted at the junction of the head with the neck, produces instantaneous death. The eagle is taught to strike its sharp beak into the spir~e of the birds which it devours, and their agony endures scareely for an instant. It has been objected, that the cat pluys with the unhappy mouse, and prolongs its tortures; but the cat that does so, is the pampered and well fed inhabitant of a kitchen; the cat of nature is too eager to devour, to indulge in such luxurious gratifications of Destructiveness and Secretivenes~ It kills in a moment, and eat0. Here, then, is sctusily ~ regularly organized process for withdrawing individuals of the lower animals £rom existance, almost by ~ fiat of de" ~truction, and thereby making way for a suceeulon of other occupants.

Man is not so mereiful towarde the lower creaturea: but he might be so. Suppose the sheep in the hands of man ~ere to be guillotined, a~d not maltrested befote its oxecu.

132 OROANIC LAWd.

tion, the creature would never know that it hnd ceased to lire. And, by the l;'w which I have alrendy explained, man does not with impunity add one unnceessary pang to the death of the lower animals. In the brutal buteber who inflicts torments on calves, sheep, and cattle, whilo driving them to the slaugl~ter, and who puts them to death in the way supposed to be most conducire to the gratification of his Acquisitiveness, such as bleeding them to denth, by euceessive stages, prolonged for days, to whiten their flesh, —the animal faculties of Destructiveness, Acquisitiveness, Self-esteem, &c., predominate so decidedly in activity, over the moral and Intellectualpowers, that he is necessarily ex cluded from all the enjoyments attendant on the supremacy of the human [aculties; he, besides, goes into society under the inRucnce of the same base coml~ination, and suffers at every hand animal retaliation, be that he does not escape with impunity for his outrages a~ainst the moral law. ITere, then, are can perceive nothing malerolent in the institution of death, in so far as regards the lower animals. A pang certainig does attend it; but while Destructiveness must be recognised in the pain, Benevolence is equally perecpti ble in its effects.

I mentioned formerl,v, that the organic law rises above the physical, and the moral and intellectual law abo~c the organic; and the present occasion affords an additional il. lustration of this fact. Under the physical law, no remedial process is instituted to arrest, or restore, against the consequences of infringement. If a mirror falls, and is smashed, by the physical law it remains crer after in frag ments; if a ship sinks, it Hes still at the bottom of the ocean, chained down bw the law of gravilation. Under the orgaDic law, on the other hand, a distinct remedial prace" is established If a tres is blown oarer, every root that re. mains in the grouDd will double its exertions to preserve life; if a branch is loppod off, new branches will shoot out in is place; if a leg in aD animal is broken, the bono will

DEATH.  13:l

reunite; if a muscle is severed, it will groar together; if an artery is obliterated, the acighbouring arteries will en. Large their dimensions, and perform is functiong The Creator, however, not to encourage animals to abuse this benevolent institution, has established pain as an attendant on infringement of the organic law, and made them suffer for the ~iolation of it, even while he reatores them. It is under this law that death has raccived its organio pang~ Instant death is not attended with pain of any Perceptiblo duration; and it is only when a lingering death occurs in youth and middle age, that the suffering is severe; dissolu. tion, however, does not occur at these periods as a direct and intentional result of the organic laws, but as the consequence of infringement of them under the fair and legitimate operation of these laws, the individual whose constitution was at first sound, and whose life has been in accordance with their dictates, rives till old age fairly wears out his orgnaized frame, and then the pana of expiratioa is little Perceptible.. The pains of premature death, then, are the punishments of infringement of the organic law, and the object of that chastisement probably is to imprese

~ The following table' is copied ftom an intererting uticle by ar. William Fra~er, on the llistaq and Constitution of Benefit or l'riently Societier, publighed in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for Oclober, 1827, ant b deduced from Returoe by Frieodly Societie. is Scotland for various ycere, from 175s to 1821. It shoare hoar much riclt oe" is dependent on age.

Average Annual Sickness of each Individual.

Age. Weeks and Decimals. Weeks. 	   Days.  Hours.   Proportion of Sick Members.
Under 20	0.3797	0	2		16	1 in 136.96
20-30	0.5916	0	4	3			1 ... 87.89
30-40	0.6865	0	4		19	1...  75.14
40-50	1.0273	1	0	4	1 ...  50.61
60-60	1.8806	1	6	3	1 ...  27.65
60-70	5.6337	5	4		10	1 ...  9.23
Above 70	16.5417	16	3		19	1 ...  3.14

134 OnGANIC L~Iw8.

upon us the aceessity of obeying them that we mar live, and to prevent our abusing the remedinl process inherent to a great extent in our constitution.

Let us now view death as an institution appointed to man. If ithe trus, that the organic constitution of man, wLen sounA in its clements, and preserved in accordance with the organic laws, is fairly calculated to endure in health from infancy to old age, and that death when it occurs during the enrly or middle periods of life, is the consc. qucnces of departures from the physical and organic laws, it follows, that, e~cn in premature death, a benevolent prin" ciple is disceruilde. Altigough the temedial process restores animals from moderate injuries, yet the ·ery nature of the organic law must placen lingit to it. If life had been preserved, and health restored, after the brnin land been blown to atoms, by a bomb shell, as effectually as a leg that is broken, and a finoer that is cut are healed, this ~ould have been an actual abrogation of the organic law; and all the curbs which that law imposes on the lower pro pensities, and all the incitements ~ hich the obscrvance of it affords to the hiaher sentiments, and intellect, ~ould have been lost. The limit, then, is this; that any departure from the law against ubich restoration is permitied, shall be moderate in extent, and shall not involve, to a great degree, any organ essential to lipe, such as the larain, the lungs, the stomach, or intestines. The very maintenance of the law, with nil its advantages, requires that restoration from griCYous derangement of these organs should not be permitted. lvhen we reflect on the hereditary transmission of qualities to children, we clearly perceive benevolence to the race in the institution, which cuts short the life of a ~ individual in whose person esscatial organs are so deeply diseased by departures from the organic law, as to be bearond the limits of the remedial process; for the extensioo of the punishment of his errors over as innumerable posterity is thereby prerented. In prematu~e

DEATH. 135

death, then, we see two objects accomplished; first, the individual sufl.crer is withdrawn from agonies which eoul`1 serve no beneficial end to himself; he has transgressed the limits of recoicry, and prolonged life would be protract. ed miscry; secondly, the race is guaranteed from the fu. ture transmission of his disease by hereditary descent.

The discipic of Mr. OwEN, formerly alluded to, who had grievously transgressed the organic law, and su~ered a pun" ishment of equal intensity, observed, when in the midst of his agony,—' I,hilosophers have urged the institution of death, as an argument against divine goodness, but not one of them could experience, for five minutes, the pain which I now endure, without looking upon it as a most mereiful arrangement. I have depatted from the natural institutions, and suffer the punishment; but, in death, I see only the Creator's benCYulent hand, ~tretched out to terminate my agonies, when they cease to serve any bene" ficial end.' On this principle, the death of a feeble and sickly child is an act of merey to it. It withdraws a being, in whose person the organic laws have been riolated, from useless suffering; cutting short, thereby, also, the transmission of its imperfections to posterity. If, then, the or. ganic institutions which inflict psin and disease as punishments for transgressing them, are foanded in benevolence and wisdom i and, if death, in the early and middle periods of life, is an arrangement for withdrawing the trang gressor from further suffering, after returo to obedience is impossible, and protecting the race from the consequences of his errors, it also is in itself wive and benevolent.

This, then, leaves us only death it~ old age as a natural and unavoidable institutioa of the Creator. It will not be den jed, that, if old persons, when their powers of enjoyment are fairly exhau~ted, and their cup of pleasure full, could be removed from this world, as we have supposed the lower animals to be, in an instant, and without pain or coneciousness, to make way for a fresh a.Dd rigorous of~pring,

136 oRa~te Laws.

about to run the career which the old have terminated, there would be no lack of benevolence and justice in the arrangement. At present, while we live in habitual ignorance and acglect of the or~anic institutions, death probe. bly comes upon us with more pain and agony, even in advanced life,than might be its legithnate accompaniment, if we placed ourselves in accordance with these; so that we are not now in a condition to ascertain the naturalquan" tum of pain necessarily attendant on death. Judging from analooy; us may conclude, that the close of a lono life, founded at first, and anerwards spent, in accordance with the Creator's laws, \rould not be accompanied with great organic sufl.ering, but that an insensible decay would steal upon the senses. Be this, however, as it may, I observe, in the next place, that as the Creator has bestowed on man animal faculties that fear deatl', and reason that carries home to him the conviction that he must cHe, it is an inter. exting inquiry, \\'hether he has provided any natwral means of rshef, from the conscelusnces of this combination of terrors ~ He has bestowed moral senthnents on man, and arrangea the whole of his existance on the principles of their supremacy; and these, when duly culti~ated and enlightened, are calculated to withdraw from hUn the terror, of death, in the same manuer as unconsciousness of its existance saves the longer animals from its horrors.

In regard to the longer animals killed by violence, if reason secs, on the one hand, a momentary pan3 in parting with life, it perecives the continued existance and enjoyment of beasts of prey, as an advantage attending it on the other, so that every animal that is devoured ministers to the cootiinued life of another. Theprocess is still one of a transfar of existance

In regard to man, again, the moral sentiments and intellect perceive,

1st. That Amaliveness, Philoprogenitiveness, and .4d. heeiver~, ~ provided with direct objects of gratificatioo

ORGANIC I^WB. 137

in consequence of the institution of death. If the same individusls had lived here forever, there would have been no field for the enjoyment that flows from the domestic union, and the rearing of o~spring. The very institution of these propeasities prove, that producing and rearing youno, form part of the design of creation; and the BUC" cessive production of young appears necessuily to impl' remoral of the old.

C'dly. All the other faculties would have been limited in theirgratifications. enuceive, for a moment, how much exercise is afl.orded to our intellectual and moral powers, in acquiring lmowledgte, communicating it to the woung, and in prowding for their enjoyments; ~50, what a dm ligl~tful exercise of the higher aentiments is implied in the h~tercourse between the aged and the young; all which pleasures would have been unknown, if there had been no ~oung in existance, which there could not have been, with out a succession of individuals.

3~11g. Constituted as man is, the successioo of indiridu als withdraws beings whose physical and mental constitu tions have run their course, and become impaired in sensi bility, and substitutes, in their place, fresh and vigorous mind3 and bodies, far better adepted for the enjoyment of creation.

4thly. If I am right in the position, that the orgenie laws transmit, in an increasing ratio, the qualities most actire in the parents to their offspring, the law of BUCE

~ion provides for a far higher degree of improvement in the race than could ever have been reached bar the permanenct of a single generation.

Let us inquire, then, how the moral sentiments are af fected by death in old age, a~ a natural institution.

Benevolence, glowing with 8 disinterested desire for the diffusion and boundle" increase of enjoyment, uttere no tomplaint against death in old age, u a transfarence of existance~from ~ being impaired in its capacity for useful.

1;~8 OREANIC LAWS.

ness and pieasure, to one laresh and vigorous in all its pow. ers, and fitted to carry forward, to a l~P7lger point of im. provement, every beneficial measure previou~iy begun. Conscientioususss, if thoroughly enliglitened, perceives no infringement of justice in a gusst, satiated with enjoyment, being ealled on to retire from the banqust, to permit a stramTer with a koener and more youthl~ul np~>etite to par~ take; and Veneration, wlgen instructed by intellect that this is the institution of the Creator, and made acquah~ted uithitsobjects,bows inhumble acquieseenceto the law. Now, if these powers have acquired, in any individual, that complete supremacy which they are ciearly intended to hold, he will be placed by them as mucli above the terror of death as a natural institution, as the lower anknals are, by being ignorant of its existance. And unless the case were so, man would, by the very knowledye of death, be rendered, during his whole ripe, more miserable than they.

In these observations, I have said nothing of the pros" pects of a future existence as a palliatire of the e~ils of dis" solution, because I was bound to regard death, in the first instance, as the result of the or`'nnic law, and to treat of it as such. But no one who considers that the prospects of a life to come, are directly addressed to veneration, Hope, Benevolence, and Intellect, can fail to perceive that this consolation also is elearly founded on Ihe principie, that supremacy in the sentiments j~ intended by the Creator to proteet man from its terrors.

The true view of death, then, as a natural institution, is, that it is an essentiel part of the very system of organiza. tion; that birth, growing, and arriving at maturity, ascompletely ~mply decay, and death in old age, es morning and noon ~mpl, evening and night, as epring and summer im ply herrest, or as the source of a river impHes a termination of it. Besides, organized beings are constituted by the Creator to be the food of other organized beinge, ~o th8t some must die that others may live. Man, for iostance.

ORGANIC LAWS. 1 3f ~

eannot live on stores, or earth, or water, which are not organized, but on vegetable and animal substances; so that deatl' is as much, and as essentially, an inherent part of organization as life itself. If vegetables, animals, and men, had been destined for a duration like that of the mountains,—instead of ereating a primitive pair of each, and endowing these with extensive powers of reproduction, ~o as to usher into existance young beings to grow up to maturity by insensible degrees, we may presume, from analogy, that the Creator would have furnished the world with its definite complement of living beings, perfect at first in all their parts and functions, and that these would have remained, like hills, uithout diminution, and without ~nerease.

To prevent, then, all chance of being misapptshended, I repeat, that I do not at all allude to the state of the soul or mind, aQer death, but merely to the dissolution of organized bodies; that, according to the soundest view which I am able to obtain of the natural law, pain and death in youth and middle agc, in the human species, are consequences of depatture from the Creator's laws; while death in old age, by insensible decay, is an essential and opparently indispensable part of the system of organized existance; that this arrangement admits of the euceession of individuals, substituting the young and vigorous for the feeble and decayed; that it is directly the means by which organized beings lire, and indirectly the means bar which Amativeness, Philoprogenitivenes6, and a variety of our other faculties obtain gratification; that it admits of the race ascending to a great extent io the scale of im provement, both in their organic and mental gualities; that the moral sentimenb, when supreme in activitar, and enlightened by intellect, so as to perceive its design and consequences are calculated to place man is harmon' with it; while religion addresse' its consolation to the ume ~culties. and completes what reason leaves undone.

1

14s oRasNle LAWS.

If the views now unfolded be correct, death, in old age, uih never 1-,e abolished, as long as man continuss an organized being; but pain and premature tIcath will con atantly decrease, in the exact ratio of bis obedience to the physical and organic lawu It is interexting to observe, thatthere is already some crideuce of th.is process being actually in progress. About seventy ~eare ago, tabics of the average duration of life, in Enerland, were compiled for the use of the Life Insuraty~ce Co,npanies; and from them it appears, that the average of life was tl en twentyeight years; that is, 100s persons being born, and the years which each of them lired beino added toocther, and dirided by 1000, gn`-e twent)eight to cach. lly racent tables, it appears that the arerage is now thirtytwo ~ears to each; that is to say, by superior morality, cleanliness, knowledge, and geaeral obedience to the Creator's institutions, fewer individuals now perish in infaucy, youth, and middle age, than did seveoty yeats ago. Some per. sons have said, that the diverence arises frong errors io compiling the old tables, and that the au,oerior badbits of the people are not the cause. It is probable, however, that there may be a portion of truth in bo~h viCWB. There mey be some errors in the old tables, but it is quite natural that increasino knouledge and stricter obedience to the organic laws, should diminish the number of premature deaths. If this idea be correct, the arerage duration of life should go on increasiog; and our successors, two ceoturica hence, may probably attain to an arerage of forty ~eard, and then ucribe to errors io our tabics our loar arerage of thirt3te taro..

^ While the abovs pansph ar" in the prerr, an ioterestios article or~ tho'Diminishe,d Mor~alit, is Eoglendy appeared in the aobmeB

·c~epaper, of 1sth April, 1828. It coi,neides ari~b the viowa of tyse t~ezl; end, u it p'ocooda oa eciontlfic date, Pu priated in the `\ppeadiz

11 ns

	INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW.	141

SECTION Ill.

CALAMITIES ARISING FROM INFRINGMENT OF THE
MORAL LAW.

WE come now to consider the Moral Law, whieh is proclaimed by the higher sentiments and intellect acting harmoniously, and holaing the animal propensities in sub" jection. In surveying the moral and religioua codes of difarent nations, and the moral and religious opiniona of different philosophers, every reflecting mind must have been struck with their dwersity. Phrenology, by demon. ~trating the diR-erences of combination in their faculties, enables us to account for these varieties of sentiment. The code of morality framed by a legislatsr, in whom De. structiveness, Secretivenesa, Acquisitiveness, and Self~e~ teem were large, and Conscientiousness, Benovolence, and Veneration small, would be very different from one instituted by another lawgiver, in whom this combination wac reversed In like manner, a system of religion, founded by an indiaridual, in whom Destructiveness, Wonder, and Cautiousness ~ere very large, and Veneration, Benevolence, anil Conscientiousness deficient, would present views of the Supreme Being widely dissimilar to those which would be promulyated by a peraon in whom the last three faculties and intellect decidedly predominated. Phrenol. Ogy shows, that the particular code of morality and religion, rohich is most conspictely in harmony ~oith the ~ohole facultic' of the indivi~al, will necessaril' appear to him to be the best, ~ohile he refar$ only to the dictate, of hi, in" dioidual mingl, a$ the ~tandard of right and sorong. But if u~e are able to chow, that the ~ohole feh~me of czternal creation is arransed in "rmo~ ~oitA certain priacipic', isprefareace to oticn, ao that enjogment floars upon the individual Grom arithout, ~ben his conduct is ~ confiarmi

14n CALAMITIES ARISING FROM

ty with them, and that evil overtakes him when he departs from them, we shah then ob~iously prore, that the fornser is the morality and religion established by the Creator; and that indi`-idual men, who su~'port dilberent codes, must necessarily be deluded IJv impericetions in their own minds. That constitution of mind, also, may be pronounced to be the best, which har,nonizes most completely with the morality and religion established by the Creator's arrangements. In this view, morality beco,`'es a s~ience, and departures from its dictates may be demonstrated as practical folHes, injurious to the real interest and happinoss of the individual, just as errors in logic are capable of refutation to the understanding. Before we can be in a condition to perceive this, il is obvious that we must know, first, The nature of man, physical, anhnal, moral, and intellectual; secondly, The relations of the different parts of that nature to each other; and, thirdly, TJ~e relationship of the whole to God and external object3. The present Essay is an attempt, (a very feeble and imperfect one indeed,) to arrive, by the aid of phrenolowy, at a demonstration ot morality as a science. The interests dealt with in the investigation are so elevatino, and the effort itself is so delightful, that the attempt carries its ovrn reward, however unsuccessful in its own results.

Assuming, then, that, among the faculties of the mind, the higher sentiments and intellect hold the natural supremacy, I shall endeavour to show, that obedience to the dictates of these powers is rew arded w ith pleasing emotions in the mental faculties thernselges, and with the most beneficial external consellusnces; whereas disobedience is followed by deprivation of these emotions, by painful feelings within the mind, and great external e~il.

First. Obedience is attended by pleasimv emotions in the faculties. It is scarecly necessary to dwell on the circurnstance, that ever, propeusity, sentiment, and intellectual faculty, when gratified in harinony with all the rest,

r

I~'FRIN'GE)IEN'T OF ~IORAL "`r.

is a fountain of pleasure. Elow many exquisii joy arise from Philopro:'v,enitiveness, Adhesivend itiveness, Constructiveness, Love of Approbatio esteem, when gratifiedin accordance with the timents; who that has ever poured forth the as Hope, Ideality, Wonder, and Veneration, directy ject in whom Intellect and Conscientiousness al has not e~perienced the deep delight of such

Or, who is a stranger to the grateful pleasures a active Benevolence ? '3'urning to the intel what pleasures are afforded by the seenery o painting, poetry, and music, to those who poss bination of faculties related to those studies ? rich a feast does not philosophy yield to those high reflecting, organs, combined with C ness and Conscientiousness? The reader i therefore, to keep steadily in view, that these

wards are attached by the Creator to the act of our faculties, in accordance with the mora that one punishment, clear, ob~ious and un fHeted on those who neglect or infringe the law tion of these pleasures. This is a consideratic attended to; because manl;ind, in general,

habitual neglect of the moral law, that they ha partial extent, experienced its rewards, and do enjoyment they are deprived of by its infring fore its full measure can be judged of, the m instructed in its own constitution, in that of

jects, and in the relationship established betJ them, and between it and the Creator. Until distinct perception of these truths is obtained, cannot enjoy repose, nor act in full vigour c while, for example, our forefather's regarded ; v ers, to which they were sulljected, froM deficien their fields, and the outra`,es on person and prof ent on the wars war~ed by the Enolish af~aP,

113

~e thrills of
iss, Acquis
n, and Self
moral sen
pirations of
3d to an ob"

. .
,so reJoleec

~n exereice I ttending an ect, again, nature, by

ss the comAnd how he possess centrativerequssted,

~xquisite re
ive exereice
l law; and
eniable, in

. , .

, 39 aepr'~an very little ive in such e,toa very ot know the ment. Bend must be 3xternal obveen it and a tolerably the faculties r harn1ony: e marsh fet draininar Of erty, attendst the Scots,

144 CALAMITIES ARISINo FROl!

or by one feudal lord against another, even on their own soil , not as pu a ishmen to for particu lar in fringements of the organic and moral laws, to be romoved by obedicace to these laws, but as inscrutable dispensations of God's providence, which it bshoved them meckly to endure, but not to avert,—so long as such notions were entertained, the full enjoyment which the moral and intellectual faculties were fairly calculated by the Creator to afford, could not be experienced. Benevolence \rould pine in dissatisfac tion; Veneration would flag in its devotions, and Conscientiousness would suggest endless surmises of disorder and injustice in a scheme of creation, under which such evils occurred, and ~ere leR without a remedy; the full tide of moral, religious, and intellectual enjoyment could not possibly flow, until views, more in accordance with the constitution and desires of the moral faculties were obtained. The same evil affHets mankind still to a prodigious extent. How is it possible for the Ilindoo, blussulman, Chinese,or the native American, while they contim~e to worship deitieq, whose qualities outrage Benevolence, Ven" eration, and Conscientiousness,—and remain in profound ignorance of almost all the Creator's natural institutions, in consequence of infringing which they sufl.er punishmeat w~thout ceasing, to form even a conception of the gratifications wbich the moral and intellectual nature of man is calculated to enjoy, when exercised in harmony with the Creator'~ real character and institutions ? This operation of the monl law is not the less real, because many do not recognize it. Sight is not a Iess excellent gill to those wEo see, because some men born blind have no conception of the extent of pleasure and advantoge from which the arant of it cuts them off.

The qualities manifested by the Creator may be infarred from the works of creation; but it is obvious, that, to ar. rite atthe soundest views, we would require to know hi~ inatitutions thoroughby. To 4 grosdy ignorant people, who

	INFRlNGEMENT OF MORAL LAW.	145

suffer hardly from transgression of his laws, the Deity will appear infinitely more severe and mysteriow than to an e'dightened nation ~'ho kno~y them, avoid the penalties of i a fri ageme a t, and trace the principles of his gorern ment through many parts of his works. The charaeter of the Divine Ileing, under the natural system, will thus goon rising in exact proportion as his works ahall be understood. The low and miserable conceptions of God formed by the vulyar Greeks and Romans, were the reflections of their own ignorance of naturaI, moral, and political acience. The discovery and imprOvement of phrenology must nece~ sarily have a great effect on natural religioo. Before phre nology was known, the moral and intellectual constitution of man was unascertained;—in consequence, the relations of external nature towards it could not be competently judged of; and, while these were involved in obscuritar, many of the ways of Providence must have appeared mara" terious and severe, which in themselves are quite the reversc. Again, as bodily suffering and mental perplexity would bear a proportion to this ignorance, the character of God would appear to the natural eye in that condition, much more unfavourable than it will do after these cloude of darkness shall have passed away.

Some persons, in their great conceroment about a future life, are liable to overlook the practical direction of the mind in the present. When we consider the nature and objects of the mental faculties, we perceive that a gteat number of them have the most obvious and undeniable reference to this liGo; for example Amativeneas, Philopro. genitiveness, Combativenese, Destructivene - , Acquisitiveness' Sectetiveness, CautionsDese, Self eeleem, and Love of Approbation, with Size, Form, Colour, weight, Tune, Wit, and probably other faculties, stand in such CYident relationship to this particular world, with is moral and physical arrangements, that if they were not capable of egitimate application here, it would be difficult to us~ a 11

146 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM

reason for their being bestowed on us. We possess also Be. nevolence, Veneration, Hope, Ideality, Wonder, Conscientionsness, and reflecting Intellect, all of which nspear to be particularly adapted to a higher sptere. But the important consideration is, that here on carth these two sets of faculties are coml~ined; and on the same principle that led Sir ISASC ~'EwTO~ to infar the combustibility of the diamond, I am disposed to expect that the external world, vLen its constitution and relations shall be sufFiciently un. derstood, will be found to be in harmony with all our faculties, and of course that the character of the Deity, as unfolded by the works of creation, will - -

gratify our moral and Intellectualpowers, i
knowled~e advances. The strur.nar`. of th"

rnore and more in proportion as

_O ~ "..~. ~ l,~ ~`ruclure of ule eye is admirably adapted to the laws of 1ight; that of the ear to the laws of sound; that of the museics to the laws of gravitation; and it would be strange if our mental constitution was not as wisely adapted to the general order of the external world.

This principle, then, is unirersal, and admits of no exception, That inactivity and want of power, in c~ery faculty, 15 attended with deprivation of the pleasures attendaut on IL9 V1vaCIOUS exercise. I-`e who is SO deficient in Tune that he cannot disth~guish rnelody, is cut off from a vast sourceofgratification enjoyed by l~im who pOSSC9SES that organ v'gorous and highly cultivated; and the same principle holds in the case of every other organ and faculty. Criminals Dnd profligates of every description, therefore, from the very constitution of human nature, are excluded from great enjoyments attending virtue; and th~s ~s the first nalural punishment to which they are ineritably liable. Persons al90, who are ignorant of the constitutions of their own minds, and the relations between external objects, not only suffer many direct evil9 on thiB account; but, through the consequent inactivity of their faculties, are besides, deprived of many exalted enjOJ,

	INFnINESHeNT OP lSORAL LAW.	147

ments. The works of creation, and the character of the Deity, are the legitimate objects of our highestpoarers; and hence he wlio is blind to their qualities loses nearly the whole benefit of his moral and intellectual existance. If there is any one to whom these gratifications are unknown, or appear trivial, he mu.st either, to a very considerable degree, be still under the dominion of the animal propensities, or his views of the Creator's character and institutions, must not be in harmony with the natural dictates of the moral sentiments and intellect.

Ilut, in the second place, as the world is arranged on the principle of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, observance of the moral law is attended with external advantages, and infrialrement of it with positive evil consequences; and, from this constitution, arises the sec~ and natural punishment of misconduct.

Let u5 trace the advantages of obedience.—In the domestic cireic; if we preserve habitually Benevolence, Conscientiousuess, Veneration, and Intellect supreme, it is quite undeniable, that we shall raise the moral and intel Iectual faculties of children, serrants, and assistants, to lore us, and to vield us willing seryice, obedience, and aid. Our commands will then be reasonable, mild, and easily executed, and the commeres will be that of love. With our eriuals, again, in socicty, what would we not give for a friend in whom we were perfectly convinced of the supre" macy of the sentiments; what love, confidence, and delight, would we not repose in him ? To a merchant, physician, lawyer, magistrate, or an individual in an' public employment, how invaluable would be the habitua1 supre" macy of the sentiment ~ The Creator has given difl'erent talents to difl.erent individuals, and limited our powers, ao that we execute any work best by confining our attention to one department of labour,—an arrangement which amOuntS to a direct institution of separate traces and pro fe~iong Under the natural laws, then, the manutusturer

1118 CALAMITIES ARIBlNO FRO31

may pursus his ca11ing ·vith the entire nsprobation of nil the moral sentiments, for he is dedicatP,; his taleuts to supply the wants of his fellow men; and how much more success. ful will be not lge, if his every wish is accompanied by the desire to act benevolently and honestly towards those who are to consuare and pay for the products of his labours He cannot gratify his Aceluisititeness half so successfully by any other method. The same remark appHes to the merchant, the law~er, and physician. The lawyer and physician, whose whole spirits breathe a disinterested desire to consult, as a paramount object, the best interests of their cHents and paticats, not only obtain the direct reward of gratil.,ing their own moral faculties, which is no slight enjoyment, but they reap a positive gratification to their Sell:esteem and Love of Approbation, in a high and well founded reputation, and to their Acquisitivenese, in increasing emolument, not grudgingly paid, but willingly offared, from nsinds that feei the worth of the scrvices bestowed.

There are three conditions required by the moral and intellectual law, which must all be observed to ensure its rewards; 1st. The department of industry selected must be really useful to human beings: Benevolence densnods this; 2dly. The quantum of labour bestoared must bear a just proportion to the natural demand for the commodity produced; Intellect requires this; and, 3dly. In our 80. cial connexions, we must imperatively attend to the organic law, that different individuals possess different developements of the brain, and in consequence different natu ral talents and dispo~itions, and ~e must rely on each only to the extent warranted by his natural endowment.

If, then, an individual has received, at birth, a sound organic constitution, and favourably developed brain, and if he 1ive in accordance with the physical, the organic, the moral, and intellectual laws, it appears to me that, is the Coostitutioll of the world, he hes racciared an assurance

	INFnlNGEMENT OF MOnAL LAW.	149

firom the Creator, of provision for his animal uants, and a high enjoyment in the legitimate exercise of his rarious mental powera

I have already observed, that, before we can obey the Creator's institutions, we must know them, and that the science which teaches the physical IAWS IS natural philo~ phy; that the organic laws belong to the department of anatomy and physiology; and ~ now add, that it is the business of the political economists to unfold the kinds of industry that are really necessary to the welfare of mankingl, and the degrees of labour that will meet with a just reward. The leading object of political economy, as a science, is to increase enjoyment, by directing the application of industry. To attain this end, however, it is ob. viously necessary that the nature of man,—the constitution of the physical world,—and the relations between these, should be known. Hitherto, the knowledge of the first of these elementary parts has been very deficient, and, in con. sequence, the whole superstructure has been weak and un. productive, in comparison of what it may become, wheo founded on a more perfect basis. Political economists have never dreamt, that the world is arranged on the principle of supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect; and, consegusntly, that, to render man happy, his kading pur" suits must be such as ~oill c~ereisc and gratify these po~ocrs, and that his life will necessarily be miserable, if deroted entively to the production of wealth. They have proceeded on the notion, that the accumulation of wealth is the Summu'n bonum; but all bistory teaches, that national bap. piness does not increase in propor~ion to national riches; and until they shall perceive and teach, that intelligence and morality are the toundation of all lasting prosperity, they will never interest the great body of mankind, nor give a valuable direction to their efforts.

If the viewe contained in the present Essay be sound, it will become a leading object with future ma~tore in that

150 CALAMITIES AnlSINO FRO3I

science, to demonstrate the necessity of civilized man lim_ itina his physical, and increasing l~is moral and intellectual occupations, as the only means of saving himself from ceaseless punishment under the nalural laws.

The idea of nsen, in general, being taught natural philosophy, anatomy, and phJsiology, political ceonomy, and the other sciences that expound the natural laws, has been enecred at, as utterly absurd and ridiculous. But I nould ask, in what occupations are buman beings so urgently engaged, that they hwe no Ici~ure to bestow on the study of the Creator's laws ~ A course of natural philosophy would occupy sixty or seventy hours in the deli~cry; a course of anatomy and physiology the same; and a course of phrenology can be delivered pretty fully in forty hours I These, twice or thrice repeated would serve to initiate the studeat so that he could afiterwards advance in the same pathey by the aid of observation and books. Is libe, then, so brief, and are our hours so urgently occupied by higher and more important duties that we cannot afford those pittances of thne to learn the laws that regulate our existance! No. The only diificulty is in ob~nining the desire for the knowledge; in sceing the necessity and advantage of it, and then time will not be wanting. No idea can be more preposterous than that of human beings having no time to study and obey the natural institutions. These laws punish so severely when neglected, that they cause the ofl-cader to lose ten fold more ti me in undergoi ag h is ch asti seme nt. th an would be requisite to obey them. A gentleman extensively engaged in business, whose nerrous and digestive systems have been impaired by neglect of the oraranic laws, was desired to wall; in the open air at least one hour a-day; to repose from all exertion, bodily and mental, for one full hour after breakfast, and another full hour after dinuer, because the brain cannot expend its energy in 1hinking and in a~ding digestion at the same time; and to practice moderation in diet; which last he regularly obserted; but he

	INFR1NGEMZNT OF MonAL LAW.	151

laughed at the very idea of his having three hours a-day to spare for attention to his health. The reply was, that the organic laws admit of no exception, and that he must either obey them, or take the consequences; but that the time lost by the punishment would be double or treble that requisito for obedience; and, accordingly, the fact was so. Jnsteod of his attending an appointment, it is quite usual for him to send a note, perhaps, at two in the aRernoon, in these terms:—I was so distressed with headache last night, that I never closed my eyes, and to-day I am still ineapable of being out of bed.' On other occasions, he ;B out of bed, but apologizes for incapacity to attend to busi" ness, on account of an intolerable pain in the region of the stomacl,. In short, if the hours lost in these painful sufferings were added together, and distributed over the days when he is able for duty, he would find them far outnumber those which would suffice for obedience to the organic laws, and with this diffarence in the results, by neglect he loses both his hours and his enjoyment; whereas, by obe. die'~ce, he would be rewarded by aptitude for busine - , and a pleasing consciousness of e~cistence.

We shall understand the operation of the moral and intellectual laws, however, more completely, by attending to the evils which arise from neglect of them.

As to IND1vlDUAL8. At present, the almost universal persuasion of civilized man, is, that happiness consists in the possession of wealth, power, and external splendour; objects related to the animal faculties and intellect much more than to the moral sentiments. In consequence, each individual sets out in the pursuit of thePe as the chief business of his life; and, in the ardour of the chase, he recognizes no limitations on the means which be may employ, except those imposed by the municipal law. He does not perceive or acknowledge the existsnes of natural laws, determining not only the sourcea of his happiness, but the steps by which it may be attained From this moral and

152 CALAMITIES ARISING FROI~

intellectual mindness, merelasnts and manufacturers, in numberless instances, hasten to be ricla lgeyond the course of nature; that is to say, tlacy engage in c~ater,urises far exceeding the extent of tlacir capital, or capacity; they place tlaeir property in tlae hands of del~tors, w laose natural talents and morality are 8s low, that tlacy ouglat aCYer to lasve been trusted witla a shilling; the; send their goods to sea with out insuring them, or leave them uninsured in tlacir own warshouses; they ask pecuniary accomaaodation from other merchnots, to enable they'a to carry on their undue spec. ulations, and become security for tlaem in return, and both fall in consequence of blh~dly following acquisiliveness to extremities; or they livC in splendour and extravagance, far beyond the estent of the natural return of their capital and talents. In every one of these instances, the calanaity is obviously the consegusnce of i~afringemeot of tlae moral and intellectual law. The lawyer, medical practitioner, or probationer in tlae chureh, who is ;aisappoi~ated in his roward, will be found erroneously to have placed hinaself in a pro. fession, for which his natural talonts and disposilions did not fit laim, or to have pursued his vocation under the guidance chiefly of the lower prope~asitics, preGeri~ag selfishuess to honourable regard for the i~aterests of his employcrs. Want of success in These professions, appears 1s me to be owing, in a high degree, to three causes; first, Tlac larain being too snasll, or consli~utionally lymphatic, 8s tlast the mind does not act with sufficicut cacrgy to make an impression; secondly, some particular organs indispensably requisite to success, being very deficient, as Langunge, or Causal~ty, in a lawyer, the first rendering him incapable of ready utterance, and the second destitute of that intuitive sagacity, which sees at a gla~ace tlae bearing of the facts and principles founded on by his ad~ersary, 8s as to estimate the just infarences that follow, and to point tlaem out. A 14wyer, who is weak in this power, appears to his cHent like ~ pibt arho does wt know the shoals sand the reck~

	INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW.	1~

His deficiency is perceived whenever difficulty preseots itself, and he is pronounced unsafe to take charge of great interests; he is then passed by, and sufl.ers the responsi" bility of an erroneous choice of profession; or, thirdly, Pre" dominance of the animal and aelftsb faculties. l~he cHeDt and the patient discriminate instinctively betweeo the cold, pithless, but pretending manner of Acquisitivenesa and Love of ~\pprobation, and the unpretending, genuine warmth of Itenevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness; and they discover very speedily that the intellect inspired by the latter sees more clearly, and manages more successfullar, their interests, than when animated only by the former; the vic" tim of selfishness either never rises, or sinks, wondering why his merits are neglected.

In all these instances, the failure of the nserehant, and the ba d su ces ss of the l awyer, a c. are the consequencea of having infiringed the natural laws; so that the evil they sufler is the punishment for having failed in a great duty, not only to socicty, but to themselves.

The greatest difaculties, bowever, present themselvea, in tracing7 the operation of the moral and intellectual laws, in the wide field of social life. An individual ma,' be made to comprshend how, if he commits an error, he should suffer a particular punishment; but when calamity orertal~s whole classes of the consmunity, each person ahsolves himself from all shave of the brame, and regards himself as eimply the victim of a general but inscrutable vioitation. Let us, then, examine brieny the Social Law.

In regarding the human faculties, we perceive that Dum berless gratifications spring from the social stase. The muscles of a single individual could not rear the habitations, build the ships, forge the nuchors, construct the mach~ery, or, in ahort, produce the countless en3oyments that etery

here surround us, in consequence of men being constituted, 8s as instinctively to combine their powers and skill, to obtain a commou end. Here, then, are prodigious advul-

CALAMITIES ARISINO FnO31

sages resulting directly from the social law; but, in the nest place, socinl intercourse is the means of affording direct gratification to a variety of our mental faculties. If we live in solitude, the propensitics of Amativeness, Philo. prog',enitiveness, Adhesiveness, Love of Approbation, the sentiments of llene, oleuce, Veneration, Conscieationsaess, Wonder, Language, and the reflecthary faculties, would be deprived, some of them absolutely, and others of them acarly, of all opportunitics of gratification. The social law, then, is the source of the hUghest delights of our nature, and its institution indicates the greatest benetolence and wisdom towards us, in the Creator.

Still, trou ever, this law does not suspead or subvert the laws instituted for man as an individusl. If we ima`,ine an individual to go to sea for his own gratification in a ship, the natural laws require that his inteilectual faculties shall be instructed in navigation, also in the nature of the coasts and seas which he traverses; that he shall know and avoid the shoals, currents, and eddies; that he shall trim his canvas in proportion to the gale; and that his animal faculties shall be so much under subjection to his moral sentiments, that he shall not abandon himself to drunkenness, slotl,, or any animal indulgence, when the natural laus require him to be watchful at his duty. If he obey the natural laws, he will be safe as an individusl; and if he disobey thern he will be drowned.. Now, if a erew and passengers desire to avail thensselves of the social law, that is, to coml~h~e their powers and activity under one leader or chicf, by do" ing which they may sail in a large ship, have anspic stores of provisions, divide their labour, enjoy each other'B socicty, ~c., and if at the same time they fulfil the moral and intellectual laws, by placing, in the situation of captain, an

. . .

~ I ~nP. st present the qusetion of ~torme, which he could not horeeee, as thesa feu under the head of ignorenco Or natural 1~s, which ala.1 be "b~q~ontl' dusovored.

	INFRINaEMENT OF MORAL "W.	1"

individual fully qualified for that duty, they will enjoy the roward in sailing safely, and in comfort; if they disregard these laws, and place an individual in charge of the ship, whose Intellectuafaculties are weak, whose animal pro. pensities are strong, whose moral sentiments are in abeyance, and who, in consequence, habitually neglects the natural laws, then they will sutfar the penalty in being wrecked.

I know it will be objected that the crew and passengers do not appoint the captain; but, in every case, except im. pressment in the British navy, they may go in, or stay out, of a particular sl~ip, as they discover the captain to possess the natural r~ualities or not. This, at present, I am aware, nincty-nine indiyiduals out of the hundred never inquire into; but 6s do ninety-nine out of the hundred neglect many of the other natural laws, and su~er the penalty, because their moral and intellectual faculties have never yet been instructed in their existance and effects, or trained to obeerve and oboy them. But they have the power from nature of obeying them, if properly taught and trained; and, besPles, I give this merely as an illustration of the mode of operation of the social law.

Another example may be given. By employing servants, the labours of life are rendered less burdensome to the master; but he must employ individuals who know the moral law, and who possess the desire to act under it; otherwise, as a punishment for neglecting this requisite, he may be robbed, cheated, or murdered in bed. Phrenology presents the means of observing this law, in a degree quite unattainable without it, by the facility which it affords of discovering the natural talents and dispositions of individuals.

By entering into copartnerships, merchants, and other persons in business, may extend their employment, and gain advantages beyond tigose they could reap, if labour" ing as individual~ Bul, by the natural law. each must

15t; CALAMITIES ARI61NG FRO..d

take care that his partner knows, and is inclined to obey, the moral and intellectual law, as the only condition on which the Creator ~ill permit him securaly to reap the a~ ranta~cs of the social compact. If a partner in Chh~a is deficient in intellect and moral sentiments, another in Lon don may be utterly ruined. It is said that this is the in. nocent suffering for or along with the guilty; but it is not so. It is an example of a person seeking to obtain the adrant~cs of the social law, without coneeiving himself bound to obey the conditions required by it; the first of which is, that those indivhluals, of whose services he avails himself, shall observe the moral and intehcetual laws.

Let us now advert to the calamities which overtake whole classes of men , or COM )S UN ITI ES, under the social law, trace their ori~in, and see how far they are attributa ble to infringement of the Creator's laws.

If I am right in representing the whole faculties of man as intended by the Creator to be gratified, and the moral sentiments and intellect, as the higHer and direct ing powers, with which all natural h~s~itutions are in har mony; it folloars, that if large communi~ies of men, in their systematic conduct, habitually seek the gratification of the inferior propensitics, and allow either no part, or too small and inadequate a part, of their time to the reg ular employment of the higher powers, they will act in direct opposition to the natural institutions; and will, of course, suffer the punishment in sorrow and disappoint ment. Now, to confine ourselves to our own country, it is certain that, until within these few years, the labouring population of Britain were not taught that it was any part of their duty, as rational creatures, to restrain theit propeosities, so as not to multiply their numbers beyond the demead for their labours, and the supply of food for their offspring; and up to the prgsent hour this most ob~ ''o" ar~d important doctrins is not admitted by one in

INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW, 157

thousand, and not acted upon as a practical principle by one m ten thousand of those whose happiness or misery depeuds on observance of it. The doctrine of AIALTHUS' that ' population cannot go on perpetually increasing, without pressing on the limits of the means of subsistence, and that a check of some kind or other mu~t, sooner or later, be opposed to it,' just amounts to this,—that the mean s of su bsisten ce are not susceptible of such rop id and ualimited increase as population, and in consequence that the Amative propensity must be restrained by reason, otherwise it will be checked by misery. This principle is in accordance with the views of human nature maintained in this Essay, and appHes to all the faculties; thus Philoprogenitiveness, when indulged in opposition to reaFon leads to spoiling children, which is followed directly by miscry both to ti:cm and their parents. Acquisitiveness, when uncontrolled by reason, leads to avarice or theft, and these again carry suffering in their train.

But so far from attending to such views, the lives of the inhabitants of Ilritain generally are devoted to the &c. quisition of wealth, of power and distinction, or of animal pleasure; in other words, the great object of the labouring classes, is to live and gratify the inferior propeDsiHes; of the mereantile and manufacturing population, to gratify Acquisitiveness and Self-esteem; of the more iatelligent class of gentlemen, to gratify Self-esteem and Love of Ap. probation, in politicaJ, literary, or philosophical eminence; and of another portion, to gratify Lowe of Approbation, by eupremacy ID fashion; and these gratifications are sought by means not in accordance with the dictates of the higher sentiments, but lar the joint aid of the intellect and propensities. If the supremacy of moral sentiment and inteDect be the natural law, then, as olten obeerred, ever, circumstance connected with humanlife must be in har" lasay with it; that is to say, first, After rational restraillt On population, u~d wi~b the proper usa of the machinor7,

158 CALAMITIES ARIS1Na FROM

such moderate labour as will leare ampic time for the sys. tematic exercise of the higher powers, will suffice to provide for human wants: and, secondly, If this exercise be neglected, and the time vwhich ought to be dedicated to it employed in labour to gratify the propeusities, direct CYi will ensus; and this accordingly appears to me to be ex actly the result.

By means of machinery, and the aids derived from science, the ground can be cultivated, and every imaginabic necessary and h~xury produced in ampic abundance, by a moderate expenditure of labour by any population not in itself superabundant. If men were to stop whenever they had reached this poh~t, and dedicate the residus of each day to moral and intellectual pursuits, the consequence would be, re;~dy and steady because not overstock. ed, markets. Labour, pursusd till it provided abundance, but not redundant superfluity, wonhl meet with a certain and justreward: and would yichl niso, a vast increaseof happiness; for no joy equals that which springs 1.rom the moral sentiments and intellect excited by the contempla tion, pursuit, and observance, of the Creator's institutions. Further, morality would be improved; for men being hap" py,wouldecase to be vicious; and, lastly, There would be improvement in the organic, moral, and Intellectualea pababilitics of the race; for the active, moral and intel lectual organs in the parents wonkl increase the volume of these in their ofl.spring; so that each generation would start not only with greater stores of acquired knowledge than their predecessors possessed, but with higher natursl capabilities of turning these to :~ceount.

Before merchants and manutuctuvery can be expected to act in this manner, a great change must be effected in their sentiments and perecptions; but so was a striking rerolution effected in their ideas and practices of the ten antrJ west of Edinburgh, when they removed the stagoaDt POOIB between each ringe of laDd, and banished agus from

I.NFWNCE5IENT OF MORAL LAW.

their district. If any reader will compare the state of Scotland during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centurics, correctly and spiritedly represented in Sir WALTER SCOTT’S Tales of a Grandfather, with its present condition, in regard to knowledge, morality, religion, and the comparative ascendency of the rational over the animal part of our nature, he will perceive so great an improvement in later times, that the commencement of the millennium itself, in five or six hundred years hence, would scares be a greater advance beyond the present, than the present isover the past. If the laws of the Creator be really what are here represented, and if they were ones taught as elementary truths to every class of the community, and the sentimeot of Veneration called in to enforce obedience to them, a set of new motives and principles would be brought into play, calculated to aceelerate the change; especially if it were seen, what, in the next place, I proceed to show, that the consequenees of neglecting these laws are the most serious visitations of suffering that can w ell be imagined. The labouring population of Britain is taxed with exertion for ten, twelre, and some even fourteen hours a day, exhausting their muscular and nervous energy, so as utterly to incapacitate them, and lea~ing, besides, no leisure, for moral and intellectual pursuits The consequence of this is, that all markets are overstocked with produce; prices first fall ruinously low; the operatives are then thrown idle, and leit in destitution of the necessaries of life, until the surplus produce of their formerly excessive labours, and perhaps something more, are consumed; after this takes place, prices rise too high in consequence of the supply falling rather below the demand; the labourera resume their toil, on their former sy~ tem of excessive exertion; they again overstock the mar" ket, and again are thrown idle, and suffer dreadful misery.

In 1825~7 we witnessed this operation of the natural awa la!rge bodies ot. stanring and unemphyed labourere

159
lyO CALAMITIES ARIFINO FnOM

were then supported on charity. How many hours did they not stand ic'ile, and how much of excessive toil would notthese hours have rsheved, if distributed over the periods when they were overworked ? The results of that exeessiveexertion were seen in the form of untenanted houses, of shapeless piles of goods decaying in wnrshouses, in short, in every form in which misapplied industry could go to ruin. These obserwations are strikingly illustrated by the following olHeial report, copied from the public netvspapers:

' State of the Unemplo, ed Operstivee, re.natent in E:dinburgh, who are sul~plied with work by a Committee, constituled for that pur. pose, accordin-~ to A list made up on Wednesday, the 14th bInreh, 8~27.

The number of unemployed operatires who have been remit. ted b,, the C~nloyittec for ~ork, up to the 14th of AInreh are 1481 'And the number of cases they have rejected, nfter hwidy been particularly investignted, for being bati charactere, giv. ins in fialec stutenscuts, or being only a shorttime out of work, &c. ~c. ere 446

a ~ I~J

~ Besidea those, BeVErDl hUndre0H hnvc heen rejected by the Com.

mittee, HB, from the appHeantH' own PtatemeRt, tiley wero not con.
Bidered M CMEB eotitled to receive rshef, and were not, therefore'
remitted fior inveetigation.
The wages allowed is 5~. per weele, with a peck of mesI to those

arho have fiamiHes. some ~ ouths are only allowed 3s. of wnscs.

' The perticular occupntions of those acot to work are as followe:

—242 m~ol`s, c34 1abourers, ~6 joiners, is pbadterere, tG snwyers,
is slalere, 45 smitha, 4s painters, 3G lailors, 55 Bhoemalers, 2s ger

	deners, 229 varioua trades.	Total 1481."

I`laking together

Edinburgh is not a manufacturing City, and if as much misery existsd in it in proportion to its population, what must have been the condition of Glasgow, Manchester, and other manufacturing towas ~ ~

~ to the J`ppendix, No. is. serenl ioterestiny documoots ero gires' is hrar elecidathD of theso principhe.

	INFRINoEllENT OF MORAL LAW.	Iffl

Here, then, the Creator'a laws show themselves paramount, even when men set themselvea systematically to infringe them. He intended the human race, under the moral law, not to pursus Acquisitiveness exce~sively, but to labour only a certain and a moderate portion of their lives; and although they do their utmost to defeat this intention, they cannot suceeed; they are constrained to remain idle as many days and hours, while their surplus pro. duce is consuming, as would have served for the due exercise of their moral and intellectual faculties and the preservation of their health, if they had dedicated them regularly to these ends from day to day, as time passed over their heads. But their punishment proceeds: the extreme exhaustion of nervous and muscular energy, with the ab" sence of all moral and intellectual excitement, create the excessive craving for the stimulus of ardent apirita which distinguishes the labouring population of the present ago; this calls into predominant activity the organs of the Animal Propensities, these descend to the children by the law already explained; increased crime, and a deteriorating population, arethe resulte; and a moral and intellectual incapacity for arrexting the evils, becomes greater with the lapse of every generation.

According to the principles of the present Essay, what are called by commereial men ' times of prosperity,' are seasons of the greatest infringemeot of the natural laws, and pracursors of great calamities. Times are not reckoned prosperous, unless all the industrious population is employed during the ~ohole day, hours of eating and sleeping only excepted, in the production of ~ocalth. This is a dedication of their whole livea to the aervice of the propensities, and must neceasarily terminate io pumshment, if the world is coostituted ou the principle of supremacy of the higher powera.

This truth has already beeD illustrated more thao ones in the hiator'of commeree. Toe following is a raceat example. ~2

162 CALAMITIES AItl91NO FR031

By the combination laws, workmen were punishable for uniting to obtain a rise of wages, when an extraordinary demand occurred for their labour. These laws being ob" riously unjust, were at length repealed. In smomer and autunsn lE;21;, however, commereial men conceived themselres to have reached the highest point of prosperity, and the demand for labour was ualdnited. The operatives availed themselves of the opportunity to better their condition, formed extensire combinations; and, because their demands were not complied with, struck work, and continued idle for months in succession. The master manufacturers clamored against the new law, and complained that the country would be ruined, if combinations were not again declared ille~al, and suppressed by foree. According to the principles of this E:ssay, the just law must from the first have been the most lJcurficialfor all par~ics af~ceted by it; and the result amply confirmed this idea. Subsequent events prove1 that the extraordinary demand for labourers in l8~= was entively factitions, fostered by an overwhelming issus of bank paper, much of which ultimately turned out to be worthless; in short, that, during the combinations, the master manufacturers were engaged in an extensive system of speculative over-production, and that the combinations of the workmen presented a natural check to this erroneous proceedino. The ruin that overn took the masters in 18dj aro~e from their having accumulated, under the influence of unbridled Acquisitiveness, vast stores of commoditics which wero not required by so~ ciety; and to have compelled the labourers, by forec, to manufacture more at their bidding, would obviously have been to aggrarate the evil. It is a well known fact, accordingly, thatthose masters whose operatires most reso lutely refused to work, and who, on this account, clamoured loudest against the law, were the greatest gainers in the end. Their stocks of goodswere aold off at high price' duting the speculatiro period; and when the revulsion

	INFRINGEMENT OP MOBAL LAW.	1~

came, instead of being ruined by the fall of property, they were prepared, with their capitals at command, to avail themselves of the depraciation, to make new and highly profitable investmenta Here again, therefore, we perceive the law of justice vindicating itself, and benefiting by its operation even those individuals who blindly denounced it as injurious to their interests. A practical faith in the doctrine that the world is arranged by the Creator, in harmony with the moral sentiments and intellect, would be of unspeakable advantage both to rulers and subjects; for they would then be able to pursus with greater confidence the course dictated by moral rectitude, convinced that the result would prove beneficial, even although, when they took the first step, they could not distinctly perecive by what means.

In the whole system of education and treatment of the labouring population, the laws of the Creator, such as I have now endeavoured to expound them, are neglected, and their moral and intellectual cultivation is scareely known. The Schools of Art, and ' the Library of Useful Knowledge,' are laudalde attempts at a better onler of thin'gs; and I hail with joy their increase; but they too much exeh~de the scieoce of human nature, and, in consequence, will remain comparatively barren. From indications which already appear, however, I think it probable that the labouring classes will ere long recognise Phrenologg, and the natural laws, as deeply interexting tothemselves; and whenever their minds shall be opened to rational views of their own constitution as men, and their condition as members of society, I venture to predict that they will devote themselres to improvement w~th a zeal and earnestness that in ~ few generations will change the aspect of their class.

The consequences of the present system of departing from the moral law, on the middle orders of the commonity, are in accordance with its effecto OD the lower. Uncer.

164 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM

tain gains, continual fluctuations in fortune, absence of all reliance on moral and intellectual principles in their pur. snits, a gambling spirit, an insatiable appetite for wealth, alternately extrava~ant joys of excessive prosperity and bitter miseries of disappointed ambition, render the whole rives of merchaDts vanity and vexation of spirit. Nothing is more essentiel to human happiness than fixed principles of action, on which we can rely for our present safety and future welfare; and the Creator's laws, when seen and followed, afford this support and delight to our faculties in the highest degree. It is ouc, not of the Icast, of the punishments that overtake the middling classes for acglect of these laws, that they do not, as a permanent condition of mina, feel secure and internally at peace with themselves. When the excitement of business has subsided, vacuity and craving are felt within. These pracoed from the moral and intellectual faculties calling aloud for exereice; but, through ignorance of their own nature, fashionable amusements, or intoxicating liquors, are resorted to, and, with these, a vain attempt is made to fill up the void of life. I know that this class ardently desires a change that would remove the miseries described, and will zealously cooperste in the ditfusing of knowledge, by which means alone it can be introduced.

The responsibility which overtakes the higher classes is equally obvious. If they do not engage in some active pursuit, so as to give scope to their energics, they su~er the evils of ennui, morbid irritabilit,, and excessive relaxation of the functions of mind and body, which carry in their train more suffering than is entailed even on the ope. retires by excessive labour. If they pursus ambition in the senate or the field, or in literature or philosophy, their real success is io exact proportion to the approach which they make to observance of the supremacy of the sentiments and intellect Franklin, Washington, and Bolivar, may be contrasted with Sheridan and Bonaparte, as illustrations

	INFRINOEMENT OF MonAL LAW.	1~

Sheridan and Napoleon did not, systematically, pursus ob. jects sanctioned by the higher sentiments and intellect, as the end of their exertions; and no person, who is a judge of human emotions, can read their lives, and consider wkst must have passed within their minas, without coming to the conclusion, that, eveo in their most brilliant moments of externol prosperity, the canker was gnawing within, and that there was no moral relish of the present, or reliance on the future; but a mingled tumult of inferior propensities and intellect, carrying with it an habitual feeling of unsatisfied desires.

Let us now consider the effect of the moral law on NA. TI0.~.~1 prosperity.

If the Creator has constituted the world in harmony with the dictates of the higher sentiments, the highest prosperity of each particular nation should be thoroughly compatible with that of every other; that is to say, England, by aeduously cultivating her own soil, pursuing her own courses of industry, founding her internal institutions and her ex. ternal relations on the principles of Benevolence, Veneration, and Justice, which imply abstinence from uare of agaression, from conrlusst, and from all selfish designs of commereial monopoly, would be in the highest condition of prosperity and enjoyment that nature would admit of; and every step that skie deviated from these principles, woul`1 carry an inevitable punishment along with it. The same statement might be made relative to France and every other nation. (ceording to this principle, also, the Creator should have conferred on each nation some pecu. Her advantages of soil, climate, situation, or geniu', wEich would enable it to carry on amicable intereour~e with its fellow stases' in a beneficial exehange of the products pe" culiar to Bach; so that the higher one rose in morality, intelligence, and riches, it ought to become be much the inore estimable and raluable as a neighbour to all the sur"

1GG CALAMITIES ARISING FROBS

rounding states. This is so obviously the real constitution

	of nature, that proof of it is superiluous.	.

England, however, as a nation, has set this law at abso lute defiance. Slge has led the way in taking the propensities as her guides, in founding her LAWS and inslitutions on them, and in following them out in her practical conduct. England invented restrictions on trade, and carried them to the greatest hei,,ht; she conqucred colonies, and ruled them in the full spirit of selfishness; she enconraged lotteries and fostered the slave trade, carried paper money and the most avaricious spirit of manufacturing and speculating in commerec to their higivest pitch; defended corruption in Parliament, distributed churalges and seats on the bench of Justice, on principles purely selfish; all in direct oppostion to the supremacy of the moral law. If the world had been created in harmo'~y with predominance of the animal faculties, IGngland should have been a most fsheitous nation; but as the reverse is the case, we should expect a severe national responsil~ility to flow from these departures from the divine institutions; am3 gricrous accordingly has been, and, ~ fear, will be, the punisluncat.

The principle which regulates national responsibility is, that the pracise combination of faculties which Icads to the national transgression, carries in its train the punishment. Nations are under the moral and intellectual law, as well as individuals. A carter who half star~es his hor~e, and unmereifully beats it, to supply, by the stimulus of pain, the vigour that nature intended to flow from abundance of food, may be supposed to practisc this barbarity with impunity in this world, if he crade the cye of Hr. MAP.~N, and that of the poHee; but this is not the case. The hand of Providence reaches him by a direct punishment: He fails in his object, for blows cannot supply the vigour which, by the constitution of the horse, flows only from sufficiency of wEolesome food. In his conduct, he manifests an excessi~s Cotobativenese and Destructivene - , with deficient BeDoro

	INFRINGHMENT OF MORAL LAW.	167

lence, Veneration, Justice, and Intellect, and he cannot reverse this character, by merely arerting his eyes and his hand from the horse. He carries these dispositions into the bosom of his family, and into the company of his asso~ ciates, and a variety vf evil consequences ensus. The delights that spring from active moral ecutiments and intellcetual powers, are necessarily unknown to him; and the diffarence between these pleasures, and the sensations attendant on his moral and intellectual condition, are as great as between the external splendour of a king and the naked powerty of a beggar. It is true that he has never felt the enjoyment, and does not know the extent of his lose; but still the diffarence exists; ~oc see it, and know that, as a direct consequence of this state of mind, he is excluded from a very great and exalted pleasure. Fur~her; his ac tive animal faculties rouse the Combativeness, Destructiteness, Self-esteem, Secretiveness, and Cautiousness, of his wife, children, and associates, against him, and they inldict on him animal punishment. He, no doubt, goes on to eat, drink, blaspheme, and abuse his horse, day after day, ap pareotly as if Providence approved of his conduct; but he neither feels, nor can any one who attends to his condition bsheve him to feel, happy; he is uneasy, diseontented, and disliked,—all which sensations are his punighment, and it is fairly owing tO his own grossness and ignoranes that he does not eonnect it with his ofFence. Let us apply these remarks to nations. England, for instance, under the impulses of an excessively strong Acquisitiveness, Self-es teem, and Destructivenese, for a long time protected the slave trade. Now, according to the law which I am explaining, during the periods of greatest sin in this respect, the same combination of faculties ought to be found working most vigorously in her other institutions, and produc" ing punishment for that offence. There ought to be found in these periods a general spirit of domineering and rapacil' in her public men, rendering them little mintful of the

168 CALAMITIES AR's'No Fno~'

welfare of the people; injustice and harshr~esa in her taxations and public laws; and a spirit of aggression and hos. tility towards other nations, provoking retaliation of her in sults. And, accordingly, I have heen informed as a mat ter of fact, that, while These measures of injustice were publicly patronised by the government, its servants vied with each other in injustice towards it, and that itssubjeeb dedicated their talents and enterprise towards corrupting its officers, and cheating it of its dus. Every trader who was liable to excise or custom duties, evaded the one-half of them, and felt no disgrace in doinfr so. A gentleman, who was subject to the excise laws fiRy years ago, describ" ed to me the condition of his trade at that time. The excise olEicers, he said, regarded it as an understood matter, that at Icast one half of the aoo`3s ma''ufactured usre to be smugarled without being charged with duty; but then, said he, 'they made us pay a moral and pecuniary penalty that was at ones galling and debasing. We were required to ask them to our table at all meals, and place them at the head of it in our holiday partiea; when they fell into debt, we were obliged to help them out of it; when they mored from one house to another, onr servnnts and carts were in requisition to perform this ofHee; and, by way of keeping up discipline u pon us, and also to make a show of dutv, they chose every now and then to step in und detect us in a fraud, and g'!t us fined; if we submitted quictly, they told us that they would make us amends, by winking at another fraud; and generally did so; but if our indignation rendered passive obedience impossible, and we spoke our mind of their character and conduct, they enforced the law on H$, while they relaxed it on our neighboure; and the~e being rivals in trade, undersold ua in the merket, car ried away our Gustomers, and ruined our business. Nor did ths bondage end here. We could not smuggle with out the aid of our senanb; and as thear could, on oceasion of an, of lenco g iven to the mselves, carq in forma ; ion to tho

INFRINGEXENT or wonA~ "w. 1

head quarters of excise, we were slaves to them also, and were obliged tamely to submit to a degree of drunkenDe" and insolence, that appears to me now perfectly intolerable. Further; this evasion and oppression did ua no good; for all the trade were alike, and we just sold our goods be much cheaper the more duty we evaded; ao that our individua success did not depend upon superior skill and superior morality, in making an excellent article at a moderate price, but upon auperior capacity for fraud, meannesa, aycophan. cy, and every possible baseness. Our lives were angthing but enviable. Conscience, although greatly blunted by practices that were universal, and viewed as inevitable, etill whispered that they were wrong; our aentiments of selfrespect very frequently rerolted at the insults to which we

·vere exposed, and there was a constant feeling of insecurity from the great extent to which we were dependent upon wretches whom we internally despised. When the government took a higher tone, and more principle and greater strictness in the collection of the duties were eoforeed, we thought ourselves ruined; but the reverse has been the case. The duties, no doubt, are now excessively burdensome from their amount; but that is their leeat evil. Jf it was possible to collect them from every trader with perfect equality, our independence would be complete, and our competition would be confined to ~uperiority in morality and skill. lLIattera are much nearer this point now than they were fiRy yeara ago; but atill they would admit of considerable improvement.' The same individuaI mentioned, that, in his youth, now ae`;enty years ago, the ci~il liberq of the people of Scotland was held by a weak tenure. He knew instancea of soldiera being sent, in times of war, to the farm.housea, to carry off, by foree, young men for the army; and as this WSB against the law, they were aceused of some imaginary offence, such as a trespa - , or an aeeault, which was pro~ed bar false witnesssa, and the magistrate, perfecU' aware of the faree, and ith obiact, threatened the

	dr!~ :!~' ~.'l vS.	~,"!	~I/—

17s CALAMITIES ARIBlifO PROM

victim with transportation to the colonics, as a felon, if he would not enlist; ~yhich he, of course, unprotected and overwhelmed by power and injustice, was conspelled to coment to.

If the same minute representation were given of other departments of private life, during the time of the greatest immoralities on the badrt of the government, we would find that this paltering with conscience and character in the national proceediogs, tended to keep down the morality of the people, and fostered in them a rapacious and gambling spirit, to which many of the evils that have since overtak. en us have owed their origin.

But we may take a more extensive view of the subject of national responsibility.

Iu the American war England desired to gratify her Acquisitiveness and Self~steem, in opposition to llenevolence and Justice, at the expense of the transatlantic colonies. This roused the animal resentment of tHe latter, and the lower faculties of the two nations came into Collision; that is to say, they made war on each other; England, to sup port a dominion in direct hostility to the principles which regulate the moral government of the world, in the expec. tation of becoming rich and powerful by success in that enterprise; the Americans, to assert the supremacy of the higher sentiments, and to become fres and independent. According to the principles which I am now unfolding, the greatest misfortune that could have befallen E:ngland would have been success, and the greatest advantage failure in ber attempt; and the result is now acknowledged to be in exact accordance with these viewe. If Eneland had sub.

dusd the colonies in the American war, every one must

ses to what an extent her Self-esteem, Acquisitiveness and Destructiveness would have been letloose upon them; this, in the firat place, would have roused their animal facultie~, and led them to give her all the annoyance in their potver, and the flects a~d umies requisite to repress this spirit

	INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW.	171

would have far counterbalanced, in expense, all the profits she could have arung out of the colonists, by extortion and oppression. In the second place, the very exercise of these animal faculties by herselt; in opposition to the moral sentiments, would have rendered her government at home an exact parallel of that of the carter in his own family. The same malevolent principles would have overflowed on her own subjects, the government would have felt uneasy, the people rebellious, discontented, and unhappy, and the moral law would have been amply vindicated by the suffering which would haveeverywhere abounded. The consequences of her failure have been exactly the reverse. America has sprung up into a great and moral nation, and actually contributes ten times more to the wealth of Britain, standing as she now does, in her natural relation to this country, than she earer could have done, as a discontented and oppressed colony. This advantage is reaped without any ioss, anxiety, or expense; it flowa from the divine institutions, and both nations profit by and rejoice under it. The moral and intellectual rivalry of America, instead of prolonging the predominance of the propensities jD Britaio, tends strongly to excite the moral sentiments in her people and government; and every day that we live, ~e are reap. iag the benefits of this improvement in wiser institutions, deliverence from endless abuses, and a higher and purer spirit pervading every department of the executive admin.istration of the country. Britain, however, did Dotescape the penalty of her attempt at the infringement of the moral laws. The pages of her history, during the American war, are dark with suffering and gloom, and at thisday we groan under the debt and difaculties then partly ineurred.

If the world be constituted on the prinGiples of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, the method of one nation seeking riches and power, by conqusring, devastating, or obstructing t~he pre.sperity of other states, must be essentidlyfudile. Being in opposition to the

172 CALAMITIES ARININO FROM

moral constitution of creation, it must occasion misery while in progress, and can lead to no result except the imporerishment and mortification of the people who pursus it. The national debt of Britain has been contracted chiefly in wars, originating in commereial jealousy and thirst of conquss"; in short, untler the suggestions of Combativeness, Destructiveness, Acquisitivene6~, and Selfesteem. Did not our ancestors, therefore, impede their own prosperity and happiness, by engaging in these contests? and have any consequences of them reached us, except the burden of paying nearlw thirty millions of taxes annually, as the price of the gratification of their propensities ? Would a statesman, who bsheved in the doctrine of this Essay, have recommended these wars as essential to national prospenty 7 If the twentieth part of the suma had been sent in objects recognised by the moral sentiments, for example, in instituting seminaries of education, penitentiaries, making roads, canais, public granarie~, &c. how different wodld have beeD the present condition of the country I

After the American, followed the French Revolutionsry war. Opinions are at present more dirided upon this subject; but my view of it, ofl.ered with the greatest deference, is the following. When the French Revolution broke out, the domestic institutions of England were, to a considerable extent, founded and administered on principles in opposition to the supremacy of the sentiments. A clamour was raised by the nation for reform of abuses. If my leading principle is sound, every departure from the moral law in nations, as well as in individuals, carries its punishment with it from the first hour of its commencement, till its final cessation; and if Britain's institutions were then, to any extent, corrupt and defective, she could not too speedily have abandoned them, and adopted purer and loftier arrangements. Her government, however, clung to the suggestions of the propensities, and resisted

	Infringement OF MORAL "W.	173

every innovation. To divert the national mind from causing a revolution at home, they embarked in a war abroad; and, for a period of twenty-three years, let loose the propensities on France with headlong fury, and a fearful perseverance. France, no doubt, threatened the different nations of Europe with the most violent interference with their governments; a menace wholly unjustifiable, and that called for resistance. But the rulers of that country were preparing their own destruction, in exact proportion to their departures from the moral law; and a statesman, who knew and had confidence in the constitution of the world, as now explained, could have listened to the storm in complete composure, prepared to repel actual Aggression, and left the exploding of French infatuation to the Ruler of the Universe, in unhesitating reliance on the efficacy of his laws. But England preferred a war of aggression. If this conduct was in accordance with the sentiments, we should now, like America, be reaping the reward of our obedience to the moral law, and plenty and rejoicing should flow down our streets like a stream. But mark the contrast. This island exhibits the spectacle of millions of men, toiled to the extremity of human endurance, for a pittance scarcely sufficient to sustain life; weavers labouring for fourteen or sixteen hours a day for eightpence, and frequently unable to procure work, even on these terms; other artisans exhausted almost to death by laborious drudgery, who, if better recompensed, seek compensensation and enjoyment in the grosses" sensual debauchery, drunkenness, and gluttony; master-tracera and manufacturers anxiously labouring for wealth, now gay in the fond trope that all their expectations will be realized, then sunk in deep despair b, the bKath of ruin having passed over them; Iand-holders and tenants noar reaping on measured, returns from their propertica, thea pinir~g in penury, amidst u. olerflow of evar, ~pecica

174 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM

of produce; the government cramped by an overwhelming debt and the prevalence of morance and selfishness on every side, so that it is impossible for it to follow with a bold step the most obvious dictates of reason and justice, owing to the countless prejudices and imaginary interests which every where obstruct the path of improvement. This resembles much more punishment for transgression, than reward for obedience to the divine institutions.

If every man in Ilritain uill turn his attention inwards, and reckon the pangs of disappointment which he has felt at the subversion of his of a most darling schemes, by unexpected turns of pul~He events, or the deep inroads on his happiness which such caiemities, overtaking his dearest relations and friends, have occasioned to him; the numberless little enjoyments in domestic liPe, which he is foreed to deny himself, by- the taxation with which they are loaded; the obstructions to the fair exercise of his industry and talents presentecl by stamps, Heences, excise laws, custom-house duties £t hoc ~cn'~s omae; he will discover the extent of responsibility attached by the Creator to national transgressions. From my own observation, I would say, that the miscries inflicted upon individuals and families, by fiscal prosecutions, founded on excisc laws, stamp laws, post-ofHes laws, &c. all originating in the necessity of pro~iding for the national debt, are equal to those arising from some of the most extensive natural calami /es. It is trus, that few persons are prosecuted without having offended; but the evil consists in presenting men with enormous temptations to infringe mere financial regulations not always in accordance with natural morality, and then inflicting ruinous penalties for transgression. Men have hitherto expected the punishment of their offences in the thunderbolt, or the yawning earthquake; and bsheved, that becanae the sea did not ewallow them up, or the moun

INFRINaEMENT OF MORAO LAW. 176

tain fall upon them and crush them to atoms, Heaven wea takmy no cognizance of their sins; while, ID point of fact, an omaipotent, an alljust, and an all-wise GOD, had arranged before they erred, an ample retribution in the very consequences of their transgressions. It is by looking to the principks in the mind, from which tranegres. sions flow, and attending to their whole operations and reaults, that we discover the real theory of the divine government. When men shall be instructed in the la~s of creation, they wPl discriminate more aceurately than heretofore between natural and factitions evils, and become less tolerant of the latter.

The Spaniards, under the influence of Acquisitiveness, 3elf-esteem, Love of Approbation, and a blind Veneration, conqusred South America, inflicted upon its wretched inhabitants the most atrecious cruelties, and continued to wshrh, for three hundred years, like a moral incubus, upoa that quarter of the globe. The responsibility now shows itself. By the laws of the Creator, nations require to obey the moral law to be happy; that is, to cultivate the arts of peace, to be industrious, upright, intelligent, pious and humane. The reward of such condust is individual happiness, and national greatness and glory. There ahall then be none to make them afraid. The Spaniards disobeyet all these laws in the conqusd of America, they looked to rapine and foreign gold, and not to industry, for wealth; this fostered avaries and pride in the government, basenese in the nobles, indolence, i{;norance, and mental depravitlr in the people; led them to imagine happiness to consist, not in the exercise of the moral and intellectual powers, but in the gratification of all the inferior feelinga to the outrage of the higher. Intellectual cultivation was utterly neglected, the aentimenta ran astraar into the regions of bigotry and auperstition, and the propenaitiea acquired a fearful ascendenc'. These cau~ mate them tho prey

176 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM

of internal discord and foreign inrader9; and Spain, at thie moment, su~ers an awful responsibility..

· COWPER recognises these principles of divine governmeot ~ to nations, and has embodied thelt~ in the follo\ring powerful verses.

The hand that slew till it cotild sla' no more, Was Clued to the sword-hilt with Indinn gore. Their prince, as justly sented on his throne Av ~nin imperial Philip on his own, Tricked out of all his roy alt,' by art, That stript hiln bare, and broke his honent heart, Died by the acutenes of a shaven priest, For acorning what they lau~bt him to deteat. How dark the veil, that inteteepLe the blaze Of Henven v mysterious purposev and wayc; Got, stood notythougll 1`c seemed to stand a1oof; At this hour the comlusror feels the proof; The wreath he won drew down an inatant curae, The frettil'6 plagus is in the public puree, The cankered spoil corrodea the pining atute, Starved by that indolence their minde cresb.

Oh ! could their ancient Incas rise agnin, How would they take up laracl a tauntins atain I Art thou too fallen, Iberia ? Do we sec The robber and the murderer wenk as we ~ Thou that hast wasted Enrth, and dared deapiae Alike the wrath and merey of the skica, Thy pomp is in the grave, th'glory laid Low in the pita thine avarice has made. We come with joy from our eternal reet, To ace th' oppressor in his turn oppreased. Art thouthe 60d, the Ihunder of whose hand Rolled over.11 our derolated 1and, 8hool' principalitiea and 1tingdoma down, And made the mountains trenable at his fro~ ? The sword chall light upon [h' bo~ted powe", And w~te them, aa the sword ha~ w~ted oura. 'Tia thua Omaipotence his law fulfila, "d Veng~nce executea what Judice da.

Cowper~ Poc~.—CJarity, p. 1613.

	INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL "W.	177

In surveying the present aspect of Europe, we perceive astonishing improvements achieved in physical science. How much is implied in the mere names of the steam~en. gine, power-looms, rail-roads, steam-boats, canale, and gas" lights; and ~et of how much misery are sereral of these inventions at present the direct sources, ;n consequence of being almost exclusively dedicated to the gratification of the propensities. The leading purpose to which the steamengine in almost all its forms of application is deroted, is the accumulation of wealth, or the gratification of Acquisitiveness and Self-esteem; and few have proposed, by its means, to lessen the hours of toil to the lower ordera of society, so as to nfford them opportunity and leisure for the cultivation of their moral and intellectual facultiee, and thereby to enable then' to render a more perfect obedience to the Creator'a institutions. Physical has far outstripped moral science; and, it appear~ to me, that, unless the liohts of Phrenology open the eyes of mankind to the real constitution of the world, and at length induce them to modify their conduct, in harmony with the 1aws of the Creator, their future physical diecoveries will tend only to deepeD their wretchedne".. Intellect, acting as the ministering Eervant of the propensitiea, will lend them only further astray. The acience of manta uhole nature, aDimal, moral, and intellectual, was never more required to guide him than at present, when he aeema to wield a giantys power, yet in the appHeation of it to display the ignorant aelfishnesa, wilfulneas, ant abaurdity of aD orergrown child. History has not yielded, and cannot ~ield, half her fruite, until mankint shall be poeeeosed of a true theor' of their own nature.

	178	MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUNISHMENT.

SECTION IV.

MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUNISHMENT.

AFTER thE! intellect and moral sentiments have be;en brought to recognise the principles of the Divine admini~ tration, so much wisdom, benevoleuce, and justice, are disr cernible in the natural laws, that our whole nature is meliorated in undergoing the punishments anne~ced to them. Punishment endured by one inglividual also scrres to warn others against transgression. These facts afford another proof that a grand object of the arran,,ement of creation is the impro~ement of the moral and intellectual nature of man. So strikingly conspicuous, indeed, is the meliorating influence of suffering, that many persons have 8Up" posed this to oe the primary object for which it is sent; a notion which, with great defarence, appears to me to be unfounded in principle, and dangerous in practice. If e~ils and misfortunes are mere mereies of Providence, it follows that a headache consequent on a debauch, is not intended to prevent a repetition of drunkenness, so much as to prepare the debauches for ' the invisible world ;' and that shipwreck in a crazy vessel is not designed to render the merchant more cautions, but to lead him to heaven.

It is ho~ever undeniable, that in innuoyerable instances pain and sorrow are the direct consequences of our own misconduct; at the same time it is ob~iously benevolent in the Deit, to render it beneficial directly as a warning against future tranegression, and indirectly as a means of purifying the mind; nevertheless, if we shall imagine that in some instances it is dispensed as a direct punishment for particular transgressions, and in others, only on account of sin in general, and with the view of meliorating the spirit of the sufferer, we shall ascribe inconsistency to the Creator, and expose ourselrea to the danger of attributing

	MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUNISHMENT.	179

our own affHetions to his favour, and those of others, to his wrath; thus fostering in our minds self-coneeit and unchar. itableness. Individuals who entertain the belief that bad health, worldly ruin, and sinister accidents, befalling them, are not punishments for infringement of the laws of nature, but particular manifestations of the love of the Creator towards themselves, make slight inquiry into the natural causes of their miseries, and bestow few efforts to remove them. In consequence, the chastisements endured by them, neither correct their own conduct, nor deter others from committing similar transgressions. Some religious sects, who espouse these notions, literally act upon them, and refuse to inoculate with the cow-pox to escape contagion, or take other means of avoiding natural calamities. llegarding these as dispensations of Providence, sent to prepare them for a future world, they conceive that the more of them the better. Further; these ideas, besides being repugnant to the common sense of mankind, are at variance with the principle that the world is arranged so as to Fa~our virtue and discountenance vice; because favouring virtue means obviously that the favoured rirtuous will positively enjoy more happiness, and, negatively, suffer fever mislbrtunes than the vicious. The view, then, oow advocated, appears less exceptionable, viz. that punishmeDt serves a double purpose, directly to warn us against trang gression; and indirectly, when rightly apprshended, to subdus our lower propensities, and purify and ~ivify our moral and intellectual powers.

Bishop BUTLE R coincides in this interpretation of natural calamities. ' Now,' says he, ~ in the preseDt state, all which we enjoy, and A GREAT rART OF WHAT WE SUFFEB, is put in our pozocr.. For pleasure and pain are tAc co~ sequenecs of our adion$; and we are endusd. by the Autor of our oature with capacities of foreseeing theve con

~ Theco ~s uc printod in ItaHes ill the o~inal.

180 MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUNISHMENT.

sequences.' ' I know not that we have anyone kind or de. gres of enjoyment, but by the means of our own actions And, byprudence anclrare, we may, for the tnost part, pass our days in tolerable ease and quiet; or, on the contrary, we may, by rashuess, ungorteractl passion, ·oilfulness, or cecn by ndigence, make ourselres as miserable as crer ~oc please. And many do please to make themselves extreme. ly miserable; '. c. they do what they knew beforshand will render them so. They follow those ways, the fruit of which they knew, by instruction, example, expericace, will be disgrace, and powerty, and sickness, and untimely death. This every one observes to be the general course ofthings; though it is to be allowed, we cannot find by experience, that all our sufferings are owing to our own folHes.'—Analo',y, p. 40. In accordance w~th this last remark, I have treated of l,eretlitary disenses; and evils resultingfiomeonvulsionsofphysicaloature may beadd. ed to the same class.

It has been objected that physical punishments, such as the breaking of an arm by a fall, are often so disproportionally severe, that the Creator must have had some other and more important object in view in appointing them, than to serve as mere motives to physical observance; and that that object must be to influence the mind of the sufferer, and to draw his attention to concerns of higher import.

In answer, I remark, that the human body is liable to destruction by severe injuries; and that the degree of suf faring, in general, bears a just proportion to the dange r connected with the transgression. Thus, a slight surfeit is atteDded only with headache or general uneasiness, because it does not endanger life; a fall on anar muscular part of the body is followed either with no paio, or only a dight indisposition, for the reason that it is not seriousl

injurious to life; but when a leg or arm is broken, the pain u intensely severe, because the bonea of these 1imbe

	OPERATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS.	181

~tand high in the scale of utility to man. body is so framed that it may fall nine little damagc, but the tenth time a limb which will entail a painful chastisement.

The human times, and suffer may be broken, By this arrangeO to euch an extent, as to ensure general safety, while at the same time it is not overwhelmed with terror by punishment too aever6 and too frequently repeated. In particular states of the body, a elight wound may be followed by inflammation and death; but these are not the results aimply of the wound, but the consequences of a previous derangement of bealth, occasioned by departures from the organic laws.

On the whole, therefore, no adequate reason appear~ for regarding the consequences of physical accidents in an' other light than as direct punishments for infringemeot of the natural laws, and indirectly as a means of accomplishing moral and religious improvement.

ment the mind is kept alive to danger

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE COMBINED OPERATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS.

HAVING now unfolded several of the natural laws, and their effects, and having also attempted to show that each is inflexible and independent in itself, and requires ab" solute obedience, so that a man who shall neglect the physical law will suffer the physical punishment, although he may be very attentive to the moral law; that one who iofrin,ges the organic law will suffer organic punishment, although he ma' obey the physical law; and that a persoa arho violates the moral law uill suffer the moral punishment, although he sbould obaerre tho other two; "I praceed to

162 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION

show the mutual relationship between these laws, and to adduce some instances of their joint operation.

The great fires in Edinburgh, in Novembar, 1824, when the Parliament Square and a part of the High Strect were consumed, will serve as one example. That calamity may be viewed in the following light:—The Creator constituted the countries of England and Scotland, and the English and Scottish nations, with such qualities and relationships, that the individuals of both kingdoms would be most happy in acting towards each other, and pursuing their separate recations, under the supremacy of the moral sentiments. We have lired to see this practised, and to reap the rewards of it. But the ancestors of the two nations did not bsheve in this constitution of the world, and they prefarred acting on the principlcs of the propensities; that is to say, they waged furious wars, and committed wasting devastations, on each other's properties and lives. This was clearly a violent infringemeot of the moral law; and it is ob~ rious from hisiory that the two nations were equally faro. cious, and deliglited recipracally in each other's calamitics. One effect of it was to render personal safety an object of paramount importance. The hill on which the Old Town of Edinburgh is built, was nalurally surrounded by marshes, and presented a perpendicular front, to the west, capable of being crowned with a castle. It was appropriated with avidity, and the metropolis of Scotland founded there, ob" viously and undeniably under the inspiration purely of the animal faculties. It uas fenced round, and ramparts built to exclude the fieres warriors ~o then inhabited the south of the Tweed, and also to protect the inhabitants from the feudal banditti who infested tneir own Eoil. The space within the walls, however, was limited and narrow; the attractions to the spot were numerous, and to make the most of it, our aucestors erected the enormous masses of high, confused, and crowded buildings which now compose the High Street of th" city, and the wynds, or alleys, on

OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 163

its two sides. These Abodes, moreover, were constructed, to a great extent, of timber, for not only the joists and floors, but the partitions between the rooms, were of massire wood. Our ancestors did all this in the perfect knowledge of the physical law, that wood ignited by fireis not only consumed itself, but envelopes in ine~itable destruction every com bustible object within its influence. Further; their successors, even when the necessity had ceased, persevered ID the original error, and in the perfect knowledge that every year added to the age of such fabrics increased their liabiJity to burn, they allowed them to be occupied not only as shops filled with paper, spirits, and other highly combustible materials, but introduced gaslights, and let offthe upper floors for brothels, introducing thereby into the heart of this magazine of conflagration, the most reckless and immoral of mankind. The consuma~ation was the tremeudous fires of November, 182l, the one originatingr in a whiske'-cellar, and the other in a garret brothel, which consumed the whole Parliament Square and a part of the High Street, destroying property to the extent of many thousands of pounds, and spreading misery and ruin over a considerable portion of the population of Edint~urgh. Wonder, consternation, and awe were foreibly excited at the vastness of this calamity; and in the aer" mons that were preached, and the dissertations that were written upon it, much was said of the inscrutable ways of Providence, that sent ~uch visitations upon the poople, enveloping the innocent and the guilty in one common acn. tence of destruction.

According to the exposition of the ways of Providence which I have rentured to gire, there was nothing wonderful, nothing rengeful, nothing arbitrary, in the whole occurrence. The aurprising thing was, that it did not take place generations before. The oecessity for these fabrica originated in grosa riolation of the moral law; they were constructed in high contempt of the physical law; and, lat

184 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION

terly, the moral law was set at defiance, by placing in them inhabitants abandoned to the worst habits of recklessness and intoxication. The Creator had bestowed on men faculties to perecive all this, and to avoid it, whenever thear chose to exert them; and the destruction that ensusd was the punishment of following the propeusities, in preference to the dictates of intellect and morality. The object of the destruction, as a natural event, was to lead men to avoid repetition of the of~cnces: but the principles of the dirine go~crnment are not yet comprshended; Acquisitiveness whispers that more money may be made of houses consisting of five or six floors, under one roof, than of only two; and crections, the very counterparts of the former, are now rearing their heads on the spot where the others stood, and, sooner or later, they also will be overtaken by the natural laws, which aCYer slumber or sleep.

The true method of arriving at a sound view of calamities of every kind, is to direct our attention, in the first instance, to the law of nature, from the operation of which they have originated; then to find out the uses and advan. tages of that law when observed; and to discover whether the evils under consideration have arisen from riolation of it. In the present instance, we ought never to lose sight of the fact, that the houses in question stood erect, and the furniture in safety, by the very same law of gravitation which made them topple to the foundation when it was infringed; that mankh~d enjoy all the benefits which result from the coml~ustibility of timber as fusl, by the very same law which renders it a devouring clement, when unduly ignited; that, by the same moral law, which, when infringed, leads to the necessity of ramparts, fortifications, crowded lanes, and extravagantly high houses, we enjoy, now that we observe it better, that security of property and life which distinguishes moderD Scotland from ancient Caladonia.

This iustance affordy a striking illustration of the mea

OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 185

ner in which the physical and organic 1 in harmony with, and in subserviency We see clearly that the leading cause of such erections as the houses of the ( burgh (with the deprivation of fres air, a bustion that attend them), arose from dom in ance of Combativeness, Destructi, and Acquisitiveness, in our ancestors; ancient personages who erected these mal supremacy, had no conception that were laying the foundations of a Seve themselves and their posterity; yet, wh comforts and advantages that would dwellings constructed under the inspirat Ideality, and enlightened Intellect, with debasing, and dangerous effects of their perceive most clearly that they actually w' of chastising their own tranagressions, ai that chastisement to their posterity, so le supremacy ohall be prolonged. Anothe gwen.

Men, uniting under one leader, may, i ~a~ `aW, acquire prodigious advantages to singly they could not obtain; and I staty tion under which the benefits of that la~ was, that the leader should know and obe that were conducire to success; if he then the same principle which gave th benefit of his obserring them, inyolved ishment of his infringement; and that cause, under the natural law, the leader be chosen by the social bod', and they for not attending to his natural qualities tions of the consequences of neglect of stated, in which the mixed operation of moral laws will appear.

tws are constituted to, the moral law.
~f the construction
)Id Town of E`lin
~d liability to com
~the excessive pre
eness, Self~esteem,
and although the
monuments of ani
in doing so, they
e punishment on
n we compare the
ave accompanied
~n of Benevolence,
the contaminating,
workmanship, we
are the instrumenta
pd of transmitting
~ng as the aoimal
r example may be

rirtus of the 80-
themselres, which
id, that the condi
ar were permitted,
the natural lLwe
neglected these,
social body the
~them in the pun
thi~ was just, be
must necessaril,
were re#ponsible
Some illmtra
this law ma, ba
tha ph~aical uld

186 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION

During the French war, a squadron of English men-of war was sent to the 1laltic with military stores, and, in returning home up Channcl, they trere beset, for tuo or three days, by a thick fog. It was about the middle of December, and no correct information was possessed of their exact situation. Some of the commanders proposed Iying-to all night, and proceeding only during day, to avoid running ashore unawares. The commodore was exceedingly attached to his wife and family, and stated his determination to pass Christmas witI~ them in England, if possibJe, and ordered the ~hips to sail straight on their voyage. The very same night they all struck on a sand-bank off the coast of Holland; two ships of the line were dashed to pieces, and eyery soul on board perished. The third ship drew less water, was foreed over the banle by the waves, was stranded on the beach, the crew saved, but led to a captivity of many ycars' duration. Now, these vessels were destroyed under the physical law; but this calaoyity owed its origin to the predominance of the animal over the moral and intellectual faculties in the commodore. The gratifi. cation which he sought to obtain was individual and selfish; and, if his Benevolence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, and Intellect, had boen ;'s alert and carried as foreibly home to his mind the operation of the physical laws, and the welfare of the men under his charge; nay, if these faculties had been suRicicutly alive to see the danser to which he exposed his own life, and the happiness of his OWD wife and children,~he never could have followed the pracipitate course which consigned himself, and so many brave men, to a watery grave, within a few hours after his resolution was formed.

Very lately the Ogle Castle Eagt Indiaman was offared a pilot coming up Channel, but the captain refused assislanCe, professing his owa skill to be sufficient. In a few hours the ship ran aground on a sand-bank, and every human being perished in the waves. This also arose from the

OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 187

physical law, but the unfavourable operation of it sprung from Self-esteem, pretending to knowledge which the intellect did not possess; and, as it is only by the latter that obedience can be yielded to the physical laws, the destruction of the ship was indirectly the consequence of infringe" ment of the moral and intellectual laws.

An old sailor, whom I lately met on the Queens~farry passa~e, told me, that he had been nearly fifty years at sea, and ones was in a fifty gun ship in the West Indies. The captain, he said, was a ' fine man ;' he knew the climate, and foresaw a hurricane coming, by its natural signs; and, on one occasion, in particular, he struck the top~masts, lowered the yards, lashed the guns, made each man supply himself with food for thirty-six hours, and scareely was this done when the hurricane came; the ship lay for four hours on her beam~ends in the water; but all was prepared; the men were kept in vigour during the storm and fit for every exertion; the ship at last righted, suffered little damage, and proceeded on her royage. The flect which she con. voyed was dispersed, and a great number of the ships foundered. Here we see the supremacy of the moral and intellectual faculties, and discover to what a surprisin$ extent they present a guarantee, even against the fury of the physical clements in their highest state of agitation.

One of the most instructive illustrations of the connexion between the different natural laws is presented in Captain LvON'B brief narrative of an unsuccessful attempt to reach Repulse Bay, in his Majesty's ship Griper, in the year 1824.

Captain LvON mentions, that he sailed in the Griper on 13th June, 1824, in company with his Majesty's survewing ressel Snap, as a store-tender. The Griper was 18s tons burden, and 'drew 1~; feet 1 inch abaR, and 15 feet 1s inches forward.'—p. 2. On the 2eth, he, 'was ~orq to observe that the Griper, from her great depth and sharp lless forward, pitchet terar deeply.'—p. 3. ' t3he uilet so

188 ON THE CO3IBINSD OPE - TION

ill, that ' in a stifl. breeze and with etudding-sails set, he was unable to get above four knots an hour out of her, and she was twice whirled round in an endy in the Pentland Frith, from which she could not escape.'—p. 6. On the 3d July, 'being now fairly at sea, I caused the Snap to take us in tow, which I had declined doi,~g as we passed up the east coast of England, although our little compauion had much difficulty in keeping under sufficiently low sail for us, and by noon we had passed the Stack Ilack.' ' The Snap was of the greatest assistance, the Griper frequently towing at the rate of five knots, in cases where she would not have gone three.'—p. 10. ~On the forenoon of the 1sth, the Snap caoye and~took us in tow; but at noon on the 17th, strong breezes and a heavy swell obliged U5 a~ain to cast off. We scudded while able, but our depth on the water caused us to ship so many heavy seas, that I most reluctantly brought to under storm stay-sails. This was rendered exceedingly mortifyiner, by observin'; that our companion was perfectly dry, and not affected by the sea.'—p. 13. 'When our stores were all on board, we found our narrou decks completely crowded by them. The gangways, forecastle, end abaft the mizen-mast, were filled with casks, hawsers, whale-lines, and streans-cables, while on our straitened lower decks we were obliged to place casks and other etores, in ever, part but that allotted to the ship's company's mess~tables; and even my cabin had a quantity of thinga atowed away in it.'—p. 21. ~ It may be proper to mention, that the l;bry and Heela, which were enabled to stow three years provisions, were each exactly `1ouble the size of the Griper, and the Griper carried two years' and a halt~s protiaions.'—pp. 22, 23.

Arrived in the Polar Seas, they were visited by a storm, of which Captain LvON gives the following description:— 'We soon, however, came to fifteen fathoms, and I kept aght a'ra', but had then only ten; arhen, being unable to aea fiar uoulld us, and observing, from the whiteDesa of the

OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 189

water, that we were on a bank, I rounded to at 7 `. M., and tried to bring up with the starboard anchor, and sev enty fathoms chain, but the stiff breeze and heary sea caused this to part in half an hour, and we again made sail to the north east-ward; but finding we came suddenly to seven fathoms, and that the ship could not possibly work out again, as she would not face the sea, or keep steerageway on her, I most reluctantly brought her up with three bowers and a stream in succession yet not before we had shoaled to five and a half. This wea between 8 and 9 A. hly the ship pitching bows under, and a tremendoua sea running. At noon the starboard~bower anchor parted, but the others held.

' As there was every reason to fear the falling of the tide, which we knew to be from twelve to fifteen feet on this coast, and in that case the total destruction of the ship, I caused the longhoat to be hoisted out, and with the four smallerones to be stored to a certain extent, with arma and provisions. The officers drew lota for their respective boats, and the ship's compang were stationed to them. The longhoat having been filled full of stores, which could not be put below, it became requisite to throw them over

board, as ti6re loas no roomfor them on our very smad aRd cro~oded decks, ousr which heany scas toere constantly slocep~ in';. In making these preparations for taking to the boata, it wea evident to all, that the longhoat wea the only ooe that had the Elightest chance of living under the les of the ship, should she be wrecked, but every officer and man drew his lot with the greateat composure, though two of our boats would have awamped the instant they were lowered. vet, euch was the noble feeling of those around me, that it wea evident, that, had I ordered the boata in qusa tion to be manned, their crewa would have entered them without a murmur. In the afternoon, OD the 1veathor clear. ing a little, we d~covered a low beach all around astern of us, on wbich the surf was runnsg to an a~ 1 height. and

	is0	ON THE COhIBINED OPEnATION

it appeared evident that no human powers could save us. At 3 P. ~u the tide had fallen, twent)two feet, (only si~feet more than ~DE drevo,) and the chip, havi,'.~ been lifted up by a tremeudous sca, struck raith great violenre the Icns, th uf her icel. This we naturally conceived was the forerunner of her total areck, and we stoo`3 in readiness to take the boats, and endea~our to hang under her lee. She contin. usd to strike with sufHeient forec to have burst any less fortified vessel, at intervals of a few minutes, wHenCYer an unusual heavy sea passed us. And, as the water was so shallow, these might almost be called breakers rather than w aves, for each in passing burst with great fores over our gangways, and as every sea ~ topped,' our decks were continually, and frequently, deeply flooded. All hands took a little refreshment, for some hnd scarecly been below for twentyfour hours, and I had not been in bed for three nights. Althounh few, or none of us, had any idea that we should survive the gale, we did not think that our comforts should be entively neglected, and an order was therefore given to the men to p.,t on their best a.~d warmest clothing,~, to enable th,em to support life as long as possible. ll`ery man therefore, brought his bag on deck, and dressed l~imself; and in the fine athletic forms which stood before me, I did not see one muscle quiver, nor the slightest sign of alarm. The officers each secured some useful instrument about them, for the purpose of obscrvation, although it was acknowledged by all that not the slightest hope remained. And now that every thing in our power had been done, I called all hands aft, and to a mereiful God offared prayers for our preservation. I thanked every one for their excellent conduct, and cautioned them' as we should' in all probability, soon appear before our AIaker, to enter his presence as men resigned to their fate. We then all satdown ingroups, and, sheltered from the wash of the eea, by whatever we could find, many of us endeavoured to obtain a little eleep. Never, perhaps, wae witnessed

OF THe NATURALI

finer ocene than on the deck of my hope of life had left us. Noble British sailor is always allowed to yet I did not bsheve it to be possit one persons, not one repining wor tered. The officers sat about, wh shelter from the sea, and the m~ with each other with the most F| was at peace with his neighbour am firmly persuaded that the resi. shown to the will of the almighty, taining his merey. At about (; P. had already raccived come very ~ broke up the aRer-lockers, and ti shock that the ship racciwed. W~ she made no water, and by da God was mereiful to us, and the fell no lower. At dark heavy ra patience, for it beat down the ga light air from the northward. had deepened to five fathome. ground all night, and our exhau'

LAWS.

is1

little ship, wlgen all the 5 the character of the ~e in cases of danger; le, that, among forty~ should have been ut

·rever they could find a a lay down conversing erfiect calmaess. Each and all the world, and I ~nation which was then was the means of ob ~., the rudder, which heavy blows, rose and his was the last severe found by the well that k she struck DO more. Lide almost miraculously a fell, but was borne in e, and brought with it

t nine P. M'. the water The ship kept off the ed crew obtained sonse

	broken rest.,—p. iu.	~

In humble gratitude for his ddiverance, he called the place ' The Bay of God's merey,) and ~ offared up thanks and praises to God, for the mere y he had shown to us.'

On 12th September, they ha' ~ another gale of wind, with cut~ing showers of slect, an' ~ a heavy sea. ' At such a time as this,' says Captain LvO, , ~ IOC had fresh cause to deplore the extreme dulaess of he Griper's sailing, for though almost any vther vessel ~o ~uld have ~oorked o~ thi$ Ica-shore, toe made l ttle or no pr ~gress on a ~oind, but re mained actually pitching, forece stle under, ~oith ~carecly stecrag~~oay, to preserve which I wse ultimetel, oblig~ed to keep her ocarll t~o podots off the arind.'—p. 98.

is2 ON THE COBYnINED OrERATION

Another storm orertook them, which is described as follows:—Never shall I forget the dreariness of this most anxious night. Our ship pitched at surh a rate that it was not possible to stand, even below; while on deck we were unable to move, without holding by ropes, which were stretched from side to side. The driPt enow flew in such sharp heavy flakes, that we could not look to windward, and it froze on deck to above a foot in depth. 'J'he sea made incessant breaches quite fore and aft the ship, and the temporary warmth it gave wbile it washed over us, was most painfully checked, by its almost immediately *eezing on our clothes. To these discomforts were added, the horrible uncertainty as to whether the cables would hold until daylight, and the consicticn also, that if they failed us, we should instantly be dashed to pieces; the wind blowing directly to the marter in which we knew the shore must He. Again, should they continus to hold us, we feared, by the sh~p's complainina so much forward, that the bitts would be torn Up, or that she would settle down at her anchors, o~crpowersd by some of the tremen dous seas which burst over her. At dawn on the 1:lth, thirty minutes after four A. M., wC found tl,at the best bow er cable had parted; and, as the gale now blew with ter r~fic violence from the north, there was little reason to expect that the other anchors would hold long; or, if they did,wepitched$o rIceply, and lifted sogreat a body of water each time, that it ecas fearerl the roindlas' and fore. caslle toould be torn up, or she must go ~o?On at her anchors; although the ports were knocked out, and a considerable portion of the bulwark cut awag, she could scareely div charge one sea before shipping another, and the decks were frequently dooded to an alarming depth.

' At si% ~. M., all further doubts on this particular account were at aD end; for, having raccived two orerwhelm. ing seas, buth the other cables went at the eame momenty

OF THE NATURAL LAWS.

is3

and we were lett helpless, without anchors, or any means of saving ourselres, should the shore, as we had every reason to expect, be close astern. And here, assin, I had the happiness of witnessing the same general tranquillity as was shown on the 1st of September. There was no outery that the cables were gone; but my friend Mr. Manico, with Mr. Carr the gunner, came aft as soon as they recorered their legs, and, in the lowest whisper, informed me that the cables had all parted. The ship, in trendingto the wind, lay qulte down on her broadside, and as it then became evident that nothing held her, and that she was quite helpless, each man instinctively took his ~tation; while the seamen at the leads, having secured themselves as well as was in their power, repeated their soundings, on which our preser~ation depended, with as much r,omposure as if ~e had been entering a friendly port. Here, again, that Almighty power, which had before so mereifully pre" served us, granted us his protection.'—p. 100.

Nothing can be more interexting and moving than this narrative; it displays a great predominance of the moral sentiments and intellect, but sadly unenlightened as to the natural laws. I quoted, in Captain LvON'S om words, his description of the Griper, loaded to such excess that she drew sixteen feet water; that she was incapable of sailing; that she was whirled round in an eddy in the Pentland Frith; that seas broke over her that did not wet th-e decl~ of the little Snap, not half her size. Captain LvON knew all this; and also the roughness of the climate to which he was steering; and, with these outrages of the ph,vsical law staring him in the face, he proceeded on his voyage, without addressing, be far as we perceive, one rer~onstrance to the Lords of the Admiralty OD the subject of this in. fringement of every principle of common prudence. My opinion is, that Captain LvON was not blind tO the errore committed in his equipment, or to their proba~ble COD8e qUsDEeB; but that his "werf~ "atimont of Venerat~, 14

is4 ON THE CO)IBINED OPERATlON

combined w ith Cautiousness and Love of Approbation, (misdirected in this instance,) deprived l~im of courage to complain to the Admiralty, through fear of giving o~ence: or that, if he did complain, they h;we prerented him from stating the fact in his narrative. To the tempestuous north he sailed; and his greatest dangers were clearly referable tothe very inlringements of the physical laws which he describes. When the tide ebbed, his sbip reached to within six feet of the bottom, and, in the hollow of every Wave, struck with great violence: but she was loaded at least four fect too deeply, by his own account; so that, if he had done his own duty, she would have had four feet of additional water, or, ten feet in all, bet~een her and the bottom, even in the hollow of the wase,—n matter of the ~ery last importance, in such a critical condition. Indeed, with four feet more water, she would not have struck. Ile. sides, if less loaded, she would have struck less violently. Again, when pressed upon a lea shore, her incapability of sailing was a most obvious cause of danger: in bhort, if Providence is to be regarded ag the cause of these calamities, there is no impropriety which man can commit, which may not, on the same principles, be charged against the Creator.

But the moral law again shines forth in delightful splen. dour, in the conduct of Captain L\ON and his crew, when in the most forlorn conditio,~. Piety, resignation, and manly resolution, then animated them to the noblest efforts. On the principle, that the pousr of accommodating the conduct to the natural laws, depends on the actirity of the sentiments and intellect, and that the more numerous the faculties that are excited, the greater is the energy com municated to the whole system, I would say, that, while Captain LvON'8 sufferings were, in a great degree, brought on by bis infringements of the physical laws, his escape area, in a great measure, promoted by his obedience to the moral law; and that Providence, in the whole oCeurrenes,

OP THE NATURAL LAWS.

isO

proceeded on the broad and general principle, which seuds advantage uniformly as the reward of obedience, and evil as the pu nish ment of illfringement, of every particular law of creation

That storms and tempests bave been instituted for some benevolent end, may, perhaps, be acknowledged, when their causes and effects are fully known, which at present is not the case. But, even amidst all our ignorance of these, it is surprising how small a portion of evil they would occasion, if nsen obeyed the laws which are actually ascertained. HOw many ships perish from being aeat to sea in an old worn out condition, and ill equipped, through mere Acquisitiveness; and how many more, from captains and crews being chosen who are greatly deficient in knowledge, intelligence, and morality, in consequence of which they infringe the physical laws. We ought to look to all these matters, before complaining of atorms as natural institutions.

The last example of the mixed operation of the natural laws which I shall notice, is that which followed from the mereantile distresses of 1825~. I have traced the origin of that visitation to excessire activity of Acquisi. tiveness, and a general ascendency of the animal and self ish faculties over the moral and intellectual powers. The punishments of these of{encea were manifold. The excesses in fringed the moral law, and the ch astisement for this was deprivation of the tranquil, ateady enjoyment that flows only from the sentiments, with severe suffering in the ruin of fortune and blasting of hope. These disappoint ments produced mental anguish and depression; which occasioned unhealthy action ID the brain. The action of the brain being dislurbed' a morbid nenous influence was transmitted to the whole corporeal aystem; bodily disease was superadded to mental sorrow, and, io some instances, the unhappy auffarer9 committed suicide to eacape from these aggravated evil8. Under the orgaoio law, the child.

iss

OPERATION OF NATURAL LAWS.

ren produced in this period of mental depression, bodily distress, and organic derangement, will inherit weak bo. dies, with feeble and irritable mi~ids, a hereditary chas. tisement of their father's transgressions.

In the instances now given, we discover the various laws acting in perfect harmony, and in subordination to the moral and intellectual. If our ancestors had not for saken the supremacy of the moral sentiments, such fabrics as the houses in the Old Town of Edinburgh never would have been built; and if the modern proprietors had return. ed to that law, and kept profligate and tirunken inhabitants out of them, the conflagration might still have been avoid. ed. In the case of the ships, we saw, that wherever intel. lect and sentiment had been relaxed, and animal motive~ permitted to assume the supremacy, evil had speedily fol. lowed; and that where the higher powers wero called forth, ~afety ha'1 been obtained. And, finally, in the case of the merchants and manufacturers, we traced their calami. ties directly to placing Acquisitheness and Ambition above Intellect and Sentiment.

Formidable and appalling, then, as these punivhments are, yet, when we attend to the laws under which they occur, and perceive that the object and legitimate operation of every one of them, when observed, is to produce happiness to man; and that the punishments have the sole ob. ject in view of foreing him back to this enjoyment, we cannot, under the aupremacy of the aentimeots and intel. lect, fail to bow in bumility before them, and at ones wi0e, j~t, u~d beneficent.

COrICLUS10N.

CONCLUSION.

1"

TRE question has frequently been asked, What is the practical use of Phrenology, even aupposing it to be true ; A few obserratioas will enable US to answer this inquiry; and at the same time, to present a brief summary of the doctrine of the praceding Essay.

Prior to the age of G8dEO, the earth and sun pte~ent. ed to the eye phenomena exactly similar to those which they now exhibit; but their motions appeared in a ver' different light to the understanding.

Before the age of NEVrTON' the revolutions of the planets were known as matter of fact; but the understand. ing was ignorant of the principle of their motions.

Previous to the dawn of modern chemistry, many of the qualities of physical substances were ascertaioed by obser ~ation, but their ultimate principles and relations were not understood.

Knowledge may be rendered beneficial in two ar~',— either by rendering the substance discovered directly ~ub. servient to human enjoyment; or, where this is impo~ible, 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 ob. jects belonging to it may render our efforts either to apply or to accord with tho..e which are known, altogether abortive. Hence it is onl' after ultimate principles have been discovered, their relations ascertained, and this knowledge has been systematised, that science can attain its full character of utility. The merits of GAT"TLEO end NE`rTON ConBiBt ~ hating rendered this ~erti" to "rom omy.

iss

CONCLUS10N.

Before the appearaTYce of Des. GAsL and Srur~z'~E'M, mankind were praetically acquainted with the feelings and intellectual operations of their own minas; and anatomiste knew the appearances of the brain: But the ecience of ~Iind was very much in the sanse stase as that of the heavenly bodies prior to GHLILED and NEwTON. This remark is horne out by the following considerations:

First. No unanimity prevailed among philosophera concerning the elementary feelings and intellectual powers of man. Individuals, deficient in Conscientiousuess, for instance, denied that the bentiment of justice was a primitire mental quality of mina. 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 diffar in relative strength, was master of dispute, or of vagus conjecture; and there wag no agreement whether mang actual attainmenta were the gifts of nature, or the results of mere cultivation.

Thirdly. Different modes of the same feeling were ollen mistaken for different feelings: and modes of action of all the intellectual faculties were mistaken fior faculties themselves.

Fourthly. The brain, confessedly the most important organ of the body, and that with which the acrves of the senses, of motion, and of feeling direedy communicate, had no as" certained 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 diffar. ent mental powers, and that the vigourof manifestation bears a proportion, c~zteris parigous, to the size of the organ.

If, in physics, imperfect and empirical knowledge rendera the unknown qualifies of bodies fiable to frustrate the efforts of man to appl,v or to accommodate his conduct to their known qualifies; and if only a complete and system

CONCLUS10N.

15~9

atic exhibition of ultimate principles, and their relations, can confer on science He full character of utility,—the same doctrine appHes with equal or greater fores to the philosophy of man. For example,

POLITICS embrace forms of government, and the relations between different stases. All governmen' 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 longer propensities, but it assuredly impedes the exereice of reflection, and others 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 principles, with their spheres of action, and external relations, are imperfectly ascertained. Again; all relations between different stases must also be in accordance with the nature of man, to prove permanently beneficial; and the question recurs, How are thees to be framed while that nature is master of conjecture ? NAPOLEON disbsheved in a sentiment of justice as an innate quality of mina; and, in his relations with other stases, rshed on fear and interest as the grand motives of conduct: but that sentiment existsd; and, combined with other faculties which he outraged, prompted Europe to hurl him from his throne. If NAPOLEON had comprshended the principles of human nature, and their relations, as foreibly and clearly as the principles of mathematics, in which he excelled, his understanding would have greally modified his conduct, and Europe would have eacaped prodigious calamities.

Lsa~s~ATYoN, civil and criminal, is intended to regulate and direct the human facultiea in their efforts at gratification; ant, to bB useful, laws must accord with the consti

200

CONCLUS10N.

tution of these facu:tics. But how can salutarw Inws be enacted, while the subjeet to be governed, or human nature, is not aceurately understood ? 'The inconsistency and in. tricacy of the laws even in enlighented nations, have afforded themes for the satirist in every agc; and how could the case beotherwise? Legislators provided rules for directing the qualities of human nature, which they couceived themselves to know; but either error in their conceptions, or the effects of other qualities unknown or unattended to, defeated their intentions. The law, for example, punishing heresy with burning, was addressed by our ancestors to Cautionsoess, Self-Love, and other inferior feelinas; but intellect, Veneration, Conscientiousness, and Firmaess, were omitted in their estimate of human principles of action; and These Fet their laws at defiance.

There are many laws still in the statute book, equally at variance with the nature of man.

EDUC.`TlON IS intended to enlighten the i~tellect and nsore1 sentiments, and train them to vigour. But how can this be successfully accomplished, when the faculties and sentiments themselges, the laws to which they are subjceted, and their relations to external objects, are unascertained. Accordinaly, the thPories and practices observed in education are innumerable and contradictory, which could not happen if men knew the constitution of the object which they were training.

MORAL8 and RELTGIOD`', also, cannot assume a systematic and demonstrable character, until the elementary qual~ties of mind, and their relations shall be ascertained.

It ~ presumable ~hat the Deity, in creating the moral poware and the external world, reallw adapted the one to the other; be that individuals and nations, in pursuing morality, muFt, in every instance, ba promoting their best interesta, and, in departing from it, must be sacrificing them to passion, or to illusory notions of adventage. But; until the nature of man, and the reletionship betweell it and

CONCLUB10~.

201

the external world, shall be scientifically ascertained, and systeMatically expounded, it will be impossible to support morality by the powerful demonstration of interest, a~ her6 supposed, coinciding with it. The tendency in most men to view expediency as not always coincident with justice, affords a atriking proof of the limited knowledge of the constitution of man and the external world still pre~alent in society.

The diversities of doctrine in religion also obviously owe their origin to ignorance of the primitive faculties and their relations. The faculties diffar in relative atrength in different individuals, and each person is most alive to objects and views conoected with the powers predominant in him

self. Hence, in reading the Scriptures, one is convinced that they establish Calvinism; another, possesssing ~ different combination of faculties, discovere in them Lutheranism; and a third is satisfied that Socinianism is the only true interpretation. These individuals have, in general, DO distinct conception that the viewe whieh strike them most foreibly, appear in a different light to minda differently constituted. A correct interpretation of revelation must harmonize with the dictates of the moral aentiments and intellect, holding the animal propensities in sub. ordination. It may legitimately go beyond what they, unnided, could reach; but it cannot contradict them; be. cause this would be setting the revelation of the bible in opposition to the inberent dictates of the faculties constituted by the Creator, which cannot be admitted; a. the Deity is too powerful and wise to be inconsident. But mankind will never be induced to bow to such inlerpretations, while each takes his individual mind as a standard of human nature in general, and conceive~ that his own impressiono are ~Donymous with abdute truth. The 6~ tablishment of the nsture of mao, therefore, on a acientia basis, and in a systematic form, moat aid the cau" both of morality and religion.

202 CO~'CLUS10R'.

The PROFESSTONS, rURSUITS, aMUSE3tENTS, and IlOURS

OF EXERTION of individuals, ought also to var reference to their physical and mental constitution; but hitherto no guiding principle has been possessed to regulate practice in these important particulars,—another evidence that the science of man has been unknown.

But we require only to attend to the seenes daily presenting themselres in societv, to obtain irresistible demonstration of the consequences resul~ing from the want of a true theory of human nature, and itS relations. Every praceptor in schools, every probessor in collOges, every author, editor, and pamphleteer, every men,ber of Parliament, counsellor and judge, has a set of notionsof his own, vwhich in his mind hold the place of a system of the ld~ilosophy of man; and although he may not have methodized his ideas, or even acknowledoed them to himself as a theory, yet they constitute a standard to him by which be practically judges of all questions in morals, politics, and religion; he adsocates whatever view s coincide with them, and condemas all that diflger from them, with as unhesitating dogmatism as the most pertinAcious tlmorist on earth. E:ach also despises the notions of his fellows, in so far ;~s they ~1iller from his own. In short, the human faculties too generally operate simply as instincts, exhilfiting all the confHetion and u acertainty of mere feel in g , une al ighte ned by peres ption of their own nature aT~d objects. Hence public measures in general, whether relating to education, religion, trade, manufactures, the poor, criminal law, or to any other of the dearest interests of society, instead of being treated as branches of one general system of economy, and adjusted each on scientific principles in harmony with all the rest, are supported or opposed on narrow and empirical grounds, and often call forth displays of ignorance, prejudice, selfishnese, intolerance, and bigotry, that greatly obstruct the progress of impro~emedt. Indeed, unanimity, even among oensible and virtuous men, will be impossible, 8s loag as

CONCLUSION.

203

no standard of mental philosophy is admitted to guide individual feelings and Percepticos. But the state of thinge now described could not exist if education embraced a true system of human nature and its relations.

If then, phrenology be trus, it will, when matured, 8Up ply the deficiencies now pointed out.

But, here, another question naturally presents itself, How are the views now expounded, supposing them to contain some portion of truth, to be rendered practical? In answer I remark, that the institutions and manners of society indicate the state of mind of the industrial classes at the time when they prevail. The trial and burning of old women as witches, point out clearly the predominance of Destructiveness and Wonder over Intellect and Benevolence, . a ; bose w he are guilty of such cruel absurdities. The practices of wager of battle, and ordeal by fire and water, indicate Combativenees, Destructiveness, and Venetation, to have been in great activity in those who permitted them, combined with much intellectual ignorance of the natural conslitution of the world. In like manner, the enormous sums willingly expended in war, and the small sums grudgingly paid for public improvements; the intense energ, displayed in the pursuit of wealth; and the general apath, evinced in the seareh after knowledge and virtue, unequivocally proclaim activity of Combativeness, Destructivenese, Acquisitiveness, Self-esteem, and Love of Approbation; with comparatively moderate viaracity of Benevolence and Intellect, in the present generation. Before, therefore, the practices of mankind can be altered, the state of their minds must be changed. No practical error can be greater than that of establishing institutions greatly in advance of the mental condition of the people. The rational method is first to instruct the intellect, then to interest the sentiments, and, last of all, to 1:orm arrangements in harmon, with, and rexting on, these as their basi~

204

CONELOS ION.

The views developed in the praceding chapters, if founded in nature, may be expected to lead, ultimately, to con. siderable changes in many of the customs and pursuits of society; but to accomplish this effect, the principles themselves must first be ascertained to be tr'~e; then they must be sedulously tau',ht; and when the public mind has been thoroughly prepared, then only ought important practical alterations to be proposed. It appears to me that a long series of years will be necessary to bring even civilized nations into a condition systematically to obey the natural laws.

The praceding chapters may be regarded, in one sense, as an introduction to an Essay on Education. If the views unfolded in them be in general sou'~d, it will follow that education has scareely yet commenced. If the Creator has bestowed on the body,on the mind, and on external nature, determinate constitutions, and arranged these so as to act on each other, and to produce happiness or misery to man, according to certain definite principles, and if this action goes on invariably, inflexibly, and irresistibly,whether men attend to it or not, it is obvious that the very basis of useful knowledge must consist in an acquaintance with these natural arrangement~: and that education will be valuable in the exact degree in which it communicates such information, and trains the faculties to act upon it. Reading, writing, and accounts, which make up the instruction en joyed by the lower orders, are merely means of acquiring kno~okdgc, but do not constitute it. Greek, Latin, and mathematics, which are added in the education of the middle classes, are atill only means of obtaining information; so that, with the exception of the few who pursus physical science, society dedicate' very little attention to the study of the natural laws. In following out the views now diacussed, therefore, each individual, according as he becomea sequainted with the oatural laws, ought to obey them, and to communicate his experience of their operations to others;

CONELD810N.

205

avoiding at the same time all attempts at subverting, by violence, established institutions, or outraging public sentiment by intemperate discussione. The doctrine now unfolded, if trus, authorises us to predicate that the most euc. cessful method of ameliorating the condition of mankind, will be that which appeal~ most directly to their moral sen timent and intellect; and, I may and from experience and observation, that, in proportion as any individual be. comes acquainted with the real constitution of the human mind, will his conviction of the efficacy of this method increase.

The next step ought to be to teach those laws to the young.. Their minds, not being pre-occupied by prejudices, will recognise them as congenial to their constitution; the first generation that has embraced them from infancy will proceed to rnodify the institutions of ~ociety into accordance with their dictates; and in the course of ages they may at Icagth be acknowledged as practically useful. All true theories have ultimately been adopted and influenced practice; and I see no reason to fear that the pte~ ent will prove an exception. The failure of all previous aystems is the natural consequence of their being unfound. ed; if this one shall resemble them, it will deoerve, and assuredly will meet with, a similar fate. A perception of the importance of the natural law' will lead to their observance, and this will be attended with an improved de. velopement of brain, thereby inerea~ing the desire and ce pacity for obedience.

Finally. If it be troo that the Natural Laws must be obeyed as a preliminary conditior to happiness in this world, and if virtue and happinese be inseparablar alHed, the religious instructers of maokind may probably discover

· Some olasnathoa oe Education wUI be houad ~ the Pbreeek~ Joarnal, vol. P. p. 41n.

206 CONCLUSION.

in the general and pre~alent ignorance of these laws, one reason of the limited success which has hitherto attended their own evorts at improving the condition of alankind; and they may perhap£ perceive it to be not inconsiatent with their sacred office, to instruct men in the natural ~nsututions of the Creator, in addition to his revealed will, and to recommend obedience to both. They exercise so vast an influence Over the best members of society, that their counte~'ance may hasten, or their oppo~ition retard, b~ ~ ceDtury, the practical edoption of the nature1 laws, u guides of human conduct.

APPENDIX.

NOTE 1.

NATURAL LAWS.—Text, p. 13.

Ia the text it is mentioned, that many philosophera have treatet of the Laws of nature. The following are examples:

Mr. STEWART anyBY ~ To examine the economy of nature in the pbenomenn of the lower animale, ant to compare their instincta with the physical circumatances of their external dtuation, forms one of the fingst apeculations of Natural History; and yet it is a speculation to which the attention of the natural hiatorian has seldom been directed. Not only BurroN, but RA' and DURNAX, have parsed it over slightly; nor, indeed, do I know of any one who has made it the object of a particular consideration but Lord KAMX3, in a short appendix to one of his aketches.—~tementa of the Philoacphyof tAs Human Mind, rol. iii. p. 3G8.

Mr. STEWART also uses the followlng words:—' Numberless examples show that Nature has done no more for man than was neceasary for his preservation, learing him to make many acquiaitions for himself, which che has imparted immediately to the brutes.

' My own idea ie, as I have said on a different occasion, that both ingtinct and czperiente are here concerned, and that the shave which belongs to each in producing the result, can be aecertained by an appeal to facb alone.—Vol. iii. ch. 33d.

MOaTZSQUZZ~ inkoducea his 13pirit of Laws by the following obServatiOnS:—' Laws, in their most general signification, are the neceasary relations derired from the nature of thinga In this sense, all beings bare their laws; t~he Deit, has his law; the material world its laws; tho intelligence' superior to ma~ have tieir hwa; the beasts their laws; man his laws.

' Thoso who assert that a blindfatalsty prodt~d ~c oariow esc4t

to~s beidd is th~ toorld, ·re guilt~ of ~ verJ great absurditar: for cu~ ~n, thing be more absurd th~n to prebad that ~ blind fatalit, oo`.ld be productive of iatolli~nt "io~p ?

208 APPENDIX—NATURAL LAWS.

' There is, then, a primitive renson; and laws are the relatione

which aubaiat between it and different beings, and the relations of these beings among themselves.

' God is related to the universe as creator and preserver; tAG laro, by ~'hich he has ereated all thin,,~s are those by 7chich he preaErvr~ them. ~c a£t, according to t/rr~c mir~, because He knows them; he knowa them because he made thein; and be made them because they us relalive to his wisdom and power, d:c.

' .`fan, RS aphysical being, u, libe other bodies, ~orerned bv in. rariabic la7~.'—Spirit of Laws, b. i. c. i.

Justice BLACKSTONE observes, that ~ Law, in its most general and comprshensive acnae, signifies a rule of action; and i, applied inti~crirninate/y to all kind, of action, 7chether animate or inanimatE, rational or irrationwl. Thus we say, the Inws of motion, of gravitation, of optics, or mechanica, as well nH the laws of nature and of nations. Thus, when the Supreme Being formed the univerec, and ereated matter out of nothing, he impressed certain principJcs upon that matter, from which it can never depart, and without which it would cease to be. When he put that matter into motion, he eshblisiled certain la~o, of motion, to which all moveable bodies muat conform.'—' If we farther advance from mere inactive matter to regdable and a7'imal liic, wr. ~HALI. Fl.ND TIIF..M STILL GOvZnNZD Br LAWS; more numeroua, indeed, but rynal/y fired and inrariabic. The whole progre~a of plant~, from the aeed to the root, and from thence to the seed agnin;—the method of animal nutrition, digestion, secretion, and all other branche' of vital economy;—are not Icft tochanec, or the will of the creature itself, but are performed in a wondroua involuntary manner, and ~uided by unerring nde, laid to70n by the great Creator. This, then, ;H the general signification of. Iaw, a rule of action dictated by ~ome superior being; and in those creaturea that have neither power to think, nor the will, auch laws maat be invariably obeyed, RO long as the creature itself subaisb; for its existance depends on that obedience.' ldack~tone'` C07nmentaric, on the La~o, of England' VOI. i. eect. 2.

~ The word la7c,' asys bIr. Erskine, ' is frequently made use of' both by~ arines andphilosopher,, in a large aceeptation, to expreec ~AG ~Cttle' mdhod of Cod's proritGnCe, by which he preserares the or der of the UAT£RIA 1. WORLD in ~uch a manner' that nothing in it may deDiatefrom that uniform courec 10hich he h'" appointedfor it. And

brute matter is. merely paesive, witilout the least degree of choice upon it part, tiC#G la~o. are INVIOLAB£r OBeERr~D i7' the materi" var`~;oa, edory l?art of U~iC/' Co~inuc, to oct, immutvoly, _ceor"~~ to ts< rde~ ~t ~oorefrom tAe wc~nning preacribed to it by i7~nito ~ ~. Thua philosophers ha~o given the appellation of 1~ to that -—~ 6 W~, ..w, W

APPENDIX—NATURAL LAWS. 209

motion which inceasantly perrades 7md agitates the univeme'and is ever chansng the form and aubetanoe of thinge, disaolving come, and raiaing others, ae f om their "hes, to fill up the void: vet 80? that amidst all the fluctuat~one by which particular thing are affected, the univerae is atill preserved without diminution. Thua alao they ape~ of the la~ of fluids, of gravit~tion, a~:. and tJte ~oord is uaed, in thu ~cnsc, in ~ceerd pea~aga of tAc ~acred loriting#: in the book of Job, and in Prorerbs viii. 29, arhere God ~ "id to have given A" lauv to the sea~ that thear rhould not pase his commandment.'—Er~ki - '. Ingtituta o/ tHe bad~oa of aotlwad, boo)c i. tit. i. acet. 1.

Diacusaiona a~bout the Laws of Nature, rather than inquLsies into them, were common in France, during the Revolution; and, having become associated, in imagination, with the crimea and horrore of that period, they continus to be regarded, by some individuala, as inconaiatont with religion and morality. A coincidence between the viewa maintained in the praceding Eassy, and a pesaege in VOLNS, hea beon pointed out to me ae an objection to the whole doctrine. VOL~Zr'S words are the following:—' It is a law of nature, that wator flows from an apper to a lower situation; that it aceks its learel; that it is heavier than air; that all bodies tend to warda the earth; that Qame riaea towarda the ak,; that it destroJra the organiz~tion of vegetables and animale; that air is eesential to the life of certain animale; thaty in certain casee, water euffocatea Imd killa thom; that certain juicea of planb, and certain minerala, attack their organa' and teatro, their life;—and the anme of a varietg of facb.

' Now, aince these facts, and mang similar onea, are conatant, regular, and immutable, thear become so man' real and positire commanda, to which man is bound to conform, under the espraca penalty of punishment ·ttached to their infrection, or well-being connected with their obeenance. So that if a man were to pretend to aes clearlar in the dark, or is regardleca of the progrees of the aeasona, or the aotion of the elemenb; if he pretenda to esiet under water, without drowning; to handle fire without burnins himself; to deprire himaelf of air without euffocating; or to drinic poison without deatroying himeelf; he racciarea, for each infraction of the law of nature' ~ corporal punishment proportioned to his t~anagreadon. If' on the contNy, he obeerres these laws' ad founda his practice on the pracise and regular relation which they bear to him, he presoned his exirbace, ·nd rendera it as happy ~ it is c~ pable of being rendered; and ·ince all these la~, oonaidered in rshtion to the human ·pec~, h ~e in view onlJ one common end, that of their prosenation a~d their happilgeu; arhenco it hu _

210 APPENDIX—NATURAL LAWS.

agreed to nssomble to~ether the ditfareut ideas, and exprees them by a single uord, and call them collectively by the name of the

Laws of nature." —~ OLMEv'5 Law of nature, :W edit. Pl'. 21, `~.

I feel no embarrnssment by this coincidence; but remark, first, That varioua authors'quotell in the text and in Ulis nole, advocatotl tile importance of the laws of nature, long before the French Revolution was heard of; secondly, That the existence of the LAWS of nature is now obvious to the understanding, as the exisknce of the oxternal world, and of the hun\an milld and body themeclvcs to the acusea; thirdly, That these Inws, being inherent in creation, must have proceeded from the Deity; fourthly, That if the Deity is powerful, just, and benevolent, they must l~nrmonizc with the constitution of man; and, Instly, That if the laws of nature have beon inatituted by the Deity, and been framed in wise, benevolent, and just relationsllip to the human constitution) they must at all thlles form the bigllest aml most imhortant subjects of hualan investi`,ntion, and remain altogether una~ceted by the errors, folHee, aml crimes ofthose who endeavour to expound them; just as religion continuea hol,, venerable, and uncontaminated, notwithatanding the hypocrisy, wickedness, and inconsistrncy of individuals professing themselves her interpre(ers and friends.

That the vicws of the natural Insvs themselves, advocated in this Essay, are dinmetrically opposite to the practical conduct of the French revolutionsry rutlians, requires no denlonstration. My fundamental principle is, that man can enjoy happiness on carth only by placing his habitual conduct under the supremacy of the moral sentiments, mld intellect) and that this is the la~a of his nature. No doctrine can be mora opposed than this to fraud, robbery, blasphemv, ~d murder.

It may be urged, that all pnEt apeculations about the Inws of nature h~a,re prored more ingposing than useful; and that while the larrathesuselvea nfford materiale for elevated declamation on the part of philosopllers, they form no secure guides even to the learned, and ~nuch ICBS to the illiterste, in practical conduct. In ~newer, ~ would respectfully repeat what has frequently been urged in the text, that, before we can discover the Inws of nature, appli

cable to man, we must know, first, The constitution of man h In;BEI{; secondlar, The constitution of external nature; and, thirdly, We maat compare the taro. But, previous to the discovery of Phrenology, the mental conatitution Of man wea a matter of vagUC conjec ture, and endless debate; and the connexion between his mental powera and his organized alratem, wa'~ involved in the deepeat obseurib. The brain, the most important organ of the body, had no uce~inod f~ctions. Before the introduction. of this acience.

APPENDIX—ORGANIC LAWS. 211

therefore, men were rather impresaed with the unapeabadble impor. tance of a lmowledgo of the laws of nature, than acquainted with the laws themselree; and even the knowledgeof the externd arorld actually poaseseed, could not, in man, inatancea, be rendered available, on account of its relationship to the qualities of man being unsacertained, and unsacertainable, ao long as these qualitioa them. selrea were ualmown.

NOTE II.

ORGANIC LAWS.—Text, p. 7(;.

IT IS a very common error, not only among philosophers, but arnong practical men, to imagino that thefeelingo, of the mint are commulHeated to it througll the medium of the intellect; and, in particular, that if no indsheate objects reach the c~es, or espressiona penctrste the cars, perScet purity will necessarily reign within the aoul j and, carrying this mistake into practice, they are prone to object to all discussion of the subjects treated of under the ' Organio l.aws,'in works designed for general use. But their principle of reasoning is fallacioua, and the practical reault has been highly detrimental to sOCicty. The feelin,ga have existance and activity distinct from the irltellect; they apur it on to obtain their own grati. fication; and it may become either their elave or guide, according as it is enlightened concerning their constitution, and objects, and the laws of nature to which thear are aubjected. The moat profound pllilosophers have inculeated this doctrine: and, by phrenological observation, it is demonstra?vly established. The organa of the feelinge are dietinct from those of the intellectual facultica; they are larger; and, as each faculty, c~ter" pari~w, acti with a power proportionate to the aize of is organ, the feelinga are obviouah the active or impelling powera. The cerebellum, or organ of Amatiarenesa' is the largeat of the whole mental organa; and, being en. dowed with natural activity? it filla the mind apontaneousllr with emotions aml auggeations which may be directed, controlled, ant resiated, in outwart m~ifeatation, by intellect and moral aentiment, but which cannothe provented from ariaing, nor eradicated after they exiat. The whole qusation, therefore' resolvea ibelf into this, Whether it is moat benefici~ to enlighten and direct that feeling, or (undor the influence of ~ error in philosophy, and fsdae dshe~c, founded on it,) to permit it to riot in all tho iiereeneca of a blind

212 APPENDIX—ORGANIC LAWS.

animal instinct, withdrawn from the eye of reeson, but not therebar deprivet of its vshemenes and importunity. The former courae. appears to me to be the onlar one consident with reason and mo ralitar; and I have adopted it in relinnce on the good aense of rny renders, that thear will at ones diacriminate botween practical instruction concerning this feeling, addreased to the intellect, and lascivious representations addreased to the mero propenaity itself; with the latter of which the enemiea of all improvement may at. tempt to confound my observations. Every function of the mind and body is instituted bar the Crentor; all may be abused; Rnd it is imposalble regularly to avoid abwe of them, except bar being in. atructed in their nature, objects, and relations. This instruction ought to be addressed exclusively to the intellect; and, when it ic ro, it P science of the most benefieial description. The propricty, nay necessity, of acting on this principle, becomea more and more apparent, when it is considered tJIat the discuasions of the text suggest onlar intellectual ideas to individuala in arhom the feeling in qusation is naturally wenk, and that auch minds perceive no in. dsheacar in inowledgewhich is calculated to be useful; while, OD the other hand, peraons in whom the feeling is naturally atrong, are praciaely those whoatand in need of direction, and to whom, of all others, instruction is the most neceasary.

Forlified by these observations, I venture to record acme addi. tional faeta communicated by peraons on whose aceurac, reliance may be placed.

A gentleman, who has paid much attention to the rearing of horaes, informed me, that the male racshorae, when excited, but not exhausted, by running, hna been found by espericnce, to be in a mod favourable condition for tranamitting awiftnesa and vivacitar to his offapring. Another gentleman stated, that he WaS himself pre~ent wLen the pale graar color of a male horse wea objected to; that the groom thereupon preaented before the eyea of the male another female from the atable, of a very particular, but plesaing, variety of colours, asserting that the latter would determine the complexion of the off~apring; and that in point of fact it did ao. The experiment was tried in the cme of a aecond female, and the reault Wa 8s completelar the ~ne, that the two young horaea, io point of colonr, could reareel, be diatinguiahed, although their apot. were extremely usaommoo. The account of I aban ant the peeled roda led before the cattlo to produce apotted calvea' is an exampb of the emae kind.

POaTAL mentions the herediv deacent of blindneca and deaf ne—. His arorda are: ~5loRas.n. has acen threo uatera dumb '' ~ori, - " Other u~thore alao cib ex>mple ~ u~d I l - 'e aeeu

APPENDIX.—ORGANIC LAWS 913

like casea myself.' In a note, he adda, ~ I have aeon three chiltren out of four of the same family blind from birth by "naurosia, or gutta serena.—Portal, Memoira ar Plwicurs JKalatia, ; - Do iii. p. is3. Paria, 1808.

In the Qunrterly Journal of Agriculture, No. 1., there are ao~enl valuable articlea illustretive of the Organic Law in the inferior "imala. I aelect the following esamplea:

' Every m~e knowa that the hen of an' bird will lav egga althou~ no male be permitted to oome near her; and that those egga are only wanting in the vital principle which tho impregnsion of the male conveys to them. Here, then, we aes the female able to make an egg, with yolk and white, ahell and ever' parl, juat ~u it ought to be, ao that we might at the fird glance, auppone that here' at all eventa, the female hna the greateat influence. But aes the chnugc which the male producea. Put a ~nut~n cock to a large aized hen and ahe will inetantly law ~ amdl egg; the chick Tvill be ohort, in the leg, have fenthera to the foot, and put on the appearance of the cock; ao that it is a frequent complaint where Ihntama are kept, that they m~e the hena lay amdl egga, and rpoil the b~ced. Reverae the clus; put a learge dunghill cock to Bant~n. hena, and inatantl' they will lay lnrger egga, and the chiclu will be good-siced birda, and the Bnntam will have nenrly disappenred. Here, then, are a number of facta lmown to every one, or at le~t open to be knoarn byevery one, clearl' proving the indusnce of the male in some animala; nst n' I hold it to be an axiom that nature never acb by contrariea, never outrages the law clearly fised in one species, by adopting the opposite courae in aDother,—there. fore as in the case of an equilaterm triangle on the length of one aide being given we can with certain-t demonetrste that of the re. maining; ao, having found these laws to exiat in one race of ani" mme, ~e are entitled to aasume that every 1epeciec is aubjected to the aelf enme rulea,—the whole bearing, in fact, the u~ne rel~ion to each other ~ the radii of a cirelo.'

' A me~hod of obtaini~ ~ areater x~mier of Oac Scz, at t~ option of the Proprictor, in the Breod n, of Lire Stock.—Extracted from the Qusrterh Journal of Agricohure, No. I. p. 63.

In the Anmllea do l'AlEriculture Fransais, vola. 37 and 33, some ver, intereeting esperiment are recorded, which have letely been made in France, on the Breeding of Live StocL M. Chsarlea Gi" rou do Buzareing proposed, at a meeting of the Agricultuzal ~ ciety of fleverac' on the 3d of Jult, 1826, to divide a 11och of aheep into taro eqtul p~a, so t~t a ~ter number of maloc or *Dvake,

214 APPENDIX—ORasNIC LAWS,

at the choice of the proprictor, should be produced from each of them. Two of the members of the Society offared their flocks to become the subjects of his experiments, and the results have now been communicated' which are in accordance with the nuthor's ex" pectations.

' The first experiment a as conducted in Ille following manner: He reeommended very young rnms to be put to the flock of ewea, from wlHsh the proprietor wished the greater number of females in their offspring; and also, that, during the acason when the rnme were will the ewes, they dlonDl have more abundant pasture than the other; wllile, to the flock from w hicll the proprictor wished to obtain malo lmabs chicfly, he recommended him to put strong and vigorous rama four or five ;ycars old. The following tabulat view contains the reault of this experiment.

Ftoex rOR Fr.HALE LA:4BS.

	J`r ef "r M rl'	~5rx ~f dr BAD'6a

		311~1~,.	Fde..
	Two ~enre,	1~1	~Jl;
	Thres yenrs'	1G	2!l
	Four yenrs,	5	21

	Total,	3~;	7C

Five yearsandolder, 18

	Total, 53		34

N. B.—There wore tlares twin bitths in this flock. T\ro rnms aerved it, one fiflecn months, the othet nenrly two ycara old.

Fl.OCK FOR HALr. LAvE15.

	r ef ISr A/ - rr	~S r ~ tAr 1~?~
		AlAk~ Farual"

	Tv.o yenrv,	7	,~
	Thres yeare'	lo	14
	Four yenrs,	33	14

	Total,	65	31

	Five ~cars and older, 20		24

	Total, 80		{is

N. Il.—There were no twin births in this flock. Two slrong rnillS? one four, the over five yenrs old, served it.

41'he second experiment is thus related by the nuthor:

'During the summer of 18'QG, 51. Cournu~jouls, kept upon a very dry pasture, belonging to the villoge of llez, a flock of 10(; ewes, of which Sl belonged to himself, and 22 to his shepllerds. Towards the end of October, he divided his Bock into two sections, of 42 beads cach, the one composed of the slrongest ewee, from four to fPre gears old; the other of the wenkest bensts under four or above five geare old. The first wea destined to produce a greater number of females than the second. after it was marked with pitch in my presence, it w" taken to much better peature bshind Pnnouse, arbere it was delivered to four male lamba, about aix months odd, and of good promise. The second remained upon the pasture of Bez, and wea served bar two strong ams, more than three gcars old.

' The oares belonging to the ~hepherds, which I aball conaiter ~

APPENDIX—DEATH. 216

forming a third section, and which us in general stronger "a better fed than those of the m~ter, because their oarnere u. not al. ways particular in prearenting them from treepa~ing on the cultivated landa, which are not enclosed, arore mixed with thoso of the

	aecond flock, the result was, that the

						llsle	ar~
	First Section gave, . . .	.		.		. 15	25
	The Second, . . . . .		.		.	2t;	14
	The Third, . . . . .	.		.		. 10	12

	In the First Scetion there were Two Twin Births, 0						4

	In the Second and Third there were also Tv. o,					3	1

" Besides these very deciaire experimenta, M. Girou relatea wme others, made with horses and cattle, in which his auceess in pro. ducing a greater number of one aex rather than another ~JBO ap" pears The ~neral law, as far as we are able to detect it, ~eems to be, that, wllen animals are in good condition, plentifulllr supplied with food, and kept from breeding as fast as they might do, they are moet likely to produce femalea. Or, in other words, when a race of animala is in circumatances favourable for is incKw, nature produces the 6reatest number of that sex which, in animal6 that do not pair, is most effleient for inerensing the numbers of the ace: But, if they are in ~ bad climate, or on stinted pasture, or, if they have alrendy given birth to a numerour offspring, then nature' aet. ting limite to the increase of the race, produces more males t1~ females. vet, perhaps it m~ be premature to attempt to deduce any law from experiment which have not yet been sufficiently extended. M. Girou is diapeoed to ascribe much of the effect to the age of the ram, h~dependent of the condition of the ewe."

NOTX III.

DEATH.—Test, p 128.

TYls decreasing Mortality of England is strikeingly supported
by the following extrect from the Scotsman of 1sth April, 1828.
It is well known that this paper is edited by Mr. Cu`~tze M~c"
I.ARER, a gentleman whose extensive information' and scrupulous
regard to accuracy and truth, stamp the highest value on his statement of fact: and who e profonud ant comprshensive intellect
~nrrants a areD-grounded relimloe on his philosophical conclousas.

216 APPENDIX.—DEATH.

`' DIvINIS111:51 2~1oRTArarr Ir' ENGLAND. The lliminution of the annual mortality in England maidst an alleged increase of crime, misery, and pauperism, is an extraordinary and startling fact, which merib a more careful investigation than it ha. received. We hnve not time to go deeply into the subject: but we ahall offar a remark or two on the question, how the appareDt annual mortality is effect. ed by the introduction of the cow-pax, and the stationsrar or pro. garessive stase of the population. In 1780, according to bIr. R'c K. MAN, the annual deathe were 1 in 40, or one-fortidh part of the pop ulation died every ~ear; in 1821, the proportion was 1 in 58. It folloars? that, out of ansv givcn number of persons, 1001) or 10,000, scareely Inore than two deaths take place now for three that tool' place in 1760, or tlle mortolity haN diminisHed 45 per cent. The parechial registers of burials in England' from which this stutement L6 derived, are known to be incorrect, but as they continus to be kept WitilOUt alterstion in the Balile way, the errors of one year, are justly coneeited to balance those of another, and they thus afford consparatire results upon which considerable reliance may be placed.

" A consmunity is made up of persons of many various ages' among whom the law of mortality iff very different. Thus, according to the Swediell tables, the deathe among children from the rooment of birlh up to 1s years of nsc, are 1 in 22 per annum; from 1s to 20, the denths are only 1 in 185. Among the old again'mor. talily is of course great. From 7s to 80, the deaths are 1 in D; from 8s to !)0, they are 1 in 4. Now, a community like that of tiew vorle or Ohio, where marriages are made early, end the births are numerous, necessarily contai as a large proportion of young persons, among whom the proportional mortality iff low, and a small proportion of the old who die o~ rapidly. A community in which the births are numerous, is like a regiment racciving a vnst number of young and healthy rr cruits, and in which, of cunree, rm a whole, the annual deaths will be few compared with those in another reg. iment shiefly filled with veterans, thougil among the persone at anJ particular age, such as 20, 40, or 50, the mortality will be as great in the one regiment as the other. It may tJlus happer, tlmt the annual mortaliq among 100s persone in Ohio, may be consid. erabl.' Iesa than in Frnnce, while the IE~pec= - a o/ Ji~c, or the chaoco which an individual has to reach to a certain s,ge, ma' be DO greater in the former countrar than in the latter; and hence we aes that a diminution in the rste of morhlity is not a certain proof of ao ineresoe in the valus of life, or s~n improvement in the condition of the people.

'But the effect producet by an increased number of birtlu is 108B thu~ r~ht be unsioed~ oaring to the avery gre~t mortalitar unong

APPENDIX.—DEATH. 217

infang in the first year Or their age. Not having time for the calculations necesaar' to get at the pracise result, which are prettar complex, we aVail ouraelvea of some statements given b, Mr. M'tsa in his arorle on Annuities. Taling the S'vediab tablea as a b~, and oupposing the law of mortality to remain the same for oach period of life, he has compsret the proportional number of deatha in a population which is atationsry, and in one which iocreaseo 16 per cent. in 2s arears. The result ia, that when the mortdit, in the atationsry aeciety is one io 3B.13' that in the progreasive aeci ciety ir' ooe in 37.33, a diffarence equal to 3l per cent. Now, the population of Eng14nd and Wdea inreeaaed 34.3 per cent. in the 2s yeare ending in 1821, but in the intenrd from 1811 to 1821, the rate was equivalent to ~ per cent. upon 2s Jrears; and the app. rent diminution of mortality ariging from this circumatance must of course have been about 86 per cent. We are assuming, however, that the population wea aheolutely atationsry at 180, which wso not the ense. Accordins to Mr. M''.sr: (p. 437,) the average ennu. a1 inere~e in the five yeara ending 1784, waa 1 in 1S5; in th. ten yeare ending 181;!1, according to the cen ua, it ~na 1 in 60. Deducting, then, the proportional part corresponding to the former, which is 3i, there remaina 5~. If Mr. M'w'a tablea, therefote, uo correct, tec may i~far thn: the progremeo ~tate of the papulation caUac5 a dimanution of 51 per cen'. in tAs annual mortal~ty—a dirninution wlHsh is only apparenI, becanae it sriaea entirel.' from the great proportion of birtha, and is not ~ceompanied trith ~D, resl increase in the aralus of human life.

' A much greater cbange—not apparent but renl—was produced b.1r the inlroduction of the ~necination in 1798. It w" computed, that, i~P 1795, when the population of the British Ialea w" 15,000r 000, the deathe produced by the amall-pox amounted to 3G,000' or nesarly 11 per cent. of the arhole annual mortalitg. (Ses article vaccination in the Supplament to Enegclopedia Britannica, p. 713.) Noar, aince not more than one case in 33s tenninatea fatally unter the cow-pox qetem' either directly bar the primary Lnfection, or from the other diaesse aupenening: the whole of the goung persona destroged by the amatl pox might be conaidered as "ved, were ~c. cination univeroal, u~d ~twaga propertar performed. This is not praciacly the s~e, but ODO or ono and ·-half per cent. - 11 sover the deficienciea; u~d we ma~ therefore concludo, that o~eination hu diminuAed tAs annsal mortality dly nino per c~t. Aftor are had aririved at tt\ia concludon by the praceca deacribed, are found it confirrned by tho authority of Mr. M'l,~!;, who eatimatea ui ~ Dob to one of his tablea' that the mortalitJof 1 ir~ 4s aroutd be dirnini~ to 1 in ~5, by esterm~ting am~.pox. Noar, this i almeat pracusly ~ pe d

218 APPENDIX.—DEATH.

We stated, that the diminution of the annual mortality between 178s and 1821 was 45 per cent., necordino to I`lr. RICKHAN. If we deduct from this 9 per cent. for the efl;ct of vnceinntion, and {i per cent. as only apl~nrent, rshulting from the increasing proportion of births—31 per CEllt. remains, ubich ~c a7,prricn`1, can only be accounted for by an improrement in the hal,~t,, moral,, and 1,h!lair`7l conditton of the pEOple. Indellendently, then, of the taro causes al. Iuded to, the valus of human life since I`dO, has increased in a rstio which would diminisll the annual mortality from 1 in 4s to 1 in 52i, a fact which is indisputably of great importallee, and worth volumes of declamation in illustrsting the true situntion of the Inbouring classes. We have founded our conclusionon data derived entively from English returns; but there is no doubt that it appHes equally to Scotland. It is consoling to find, from this very unexceptionable species of evidence, that thouoh there is much privntion and suffer. ing in the country, the situntion of the people has been, on the whole, progressively improving during the last forty yenre. But how much greater wonhl the advance have been, hnd they been less taxed, and better treated ? and how much room is there elill for future meliorstion, by sprending hl~trlletion, amending our Inws, lessening the temptutiot ~ to crime, and improving the menns of correction and reform ? In the mean time, it ougl~t to be some encouragement to philanthropy to learn, that it hus not to etruggle against invincible obstacles, and that even when the prospect wea lea~t cbecring to the cyc, its efforts were silently belgefiting society.'

It has been mentioned to me, that the Inte Dr. bIoNno, in his anatomical lectures, stated, that, as far as he could observe, the human body, as a machine, was perfect,—that it hore within itself no marks by which we could possibly predicate its decay,—that it was appnrently calculated to go on forever,—and that we learned only by expericnce that it would not do so; and some persuns have eoneeived this to be an authority agninst the doctrine maintained in Chap. III. Sect. 2. that death is apparently inherentinorganization. In answer, I beg to observe' that if we were to look at the sun onh for one moment of time, say at noon, no circumPtance, in its np pearance, would indicate that it had ever riscn, or that it would ever aet; but, if are had traced its progress from the hovizon to the me. ridian, and down again till the long BbadowB of evenins prevailed, are should have unple grounds for interring, tlmt, if the same causea that hat produced these changea continued to operate, it would un. doubtedly at length disappear. In the snme way, if we were to con fine our observations oo the human body to a mere point of time, it u certain that, from the appearances of that moment, we could not in`;es that ;t hat grown up, by gratual increase, or that it aroult de.

APPENDIX.—MORAL LAWS. 219

cay; but this ;B the cae only, becauBe our faculties are Dot fitted to penetrste into the essentinl nature and dependencies of thinge. Any man, who Hnd aeen the body decreabe in old age, could, with. out hesitation, prediente, that, if the salne canae. which had pro. duced that effect went on operating, disaolution would at last inevi. tably occur; and if his Clausality were arell developed, he would not hshitute to say that a cause of the decrense and disaolution must exist, although he could not tell byexamining the body what it was. By analysing aleohol, no person could predicate, indepen. dently of experience, that it would produce intoxication; and, ne'. erlheless, there must be a enuse in the constitution of the aleohol, in that of the body, and in the relationship between them, wh, it produces this effect. The notion, therefore, of Dr. MORRO, does not prove that denth is not an essentinl law of organization, but only that the human faculties are not able, by dissection, to discover that the cause of it is inherent in the bodilar constitution itself. It does not follow, however, that this infarence may not be legitimatel' drawn from phenomena collected from the whole period of corporeal exhtence.

NOTE IV.

INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAWS.—Text, p. 159.

Thr. deteriorstion of the operative classes of Britain which I attribute to excessive Inbour, joined with great alteralions of high and low wnges, and occasionally with absolute idleness and went, is illustrated by the following extracts:—

~ UrI1:HrLOvXD W~AVER~ IN LAHARRSIIIRE. On Snturday last, a meeting of weavers' delegates from the various districts in this acighbourhood, was held in the USUa1 place. The object of the meeting was to receive from the severa1 districts an account of the number of wenvers out of employment, which stutement it was in. tended to 1~ before the Lord Provost and Magistrates. The following are the returns given in:—Andereton containa 7W looms, of which 3Sc are idle. BailHeston-toll contains 15s looms, of the" 98 are empty. The district of north Bringeton contains, in whole, bo" tween 40s ant 50s looms. The returns are only from ahout ono half of this district, which containe 15s emptar loorns. For the cen tro and south districts of Bringeton' the accounts are incompleto.

220 APPENDIX.—MORAL LAWS.

In the former 180, and in the Iatter GO, cropty looms were taken up. In Charleston there are 132 idle. In Coweaddens,of 30s looms, 12s are idle. In Clvde, Bell, and Tobago 9trects, of about 50s looms, there are 74 idle; and 10s working wCby WhiCh cannot average 8d. a-da~. In drygate, there are 105 idle; in Drygnte-toll 73; in Duke 63keet 18. ln Gorbals, containing 3G5 looms, there are 223 idle. In Havannah, out of 13s looms, there are 48 idle. In the district of Keppoch~hill, of 7s wenvers, there are 2s idle. The district of King Street is divided into ten wards; returns are only given in from four, w hich contai a 7s e m pty looms . In Pol l ockshaws , con taini ag abouts00100me, there are 21C idle. In Rutherglen thero are IC7 idle. In Springhank, of 141 weavcrs, there are 58 unemployed; and in Strathbungo, containing 104 looms, there are 23 idle, 25 of whom are married men. Pnrkhead, Camlachic alld some other extensive districts, have not yet given in their returns. The delegatea, before separating, appointed a general meeting to be held in the Green this dav, to decide upon an address to the Magistrates, requssting thelu to endeavour to pracure emplovment for the idle hands.'—Gla`go~o Chronicle, 7ucsday, Jiiareh, 182fi.

~ sarar TR1D~. The late commereial crisis, like a denth ldow' has paral-vzed the whole activitw of the country, and left scarecly a single branch of is trnde and industry unscathed. It was at first fondly hoped that the etorm would pass without euch remote districb ~ our own having much reason to complain of its visitation; but nothing, ae the present inotance provcs, is more certain than that the distresocs of the commereial, must also in all cases be more or less felt by the agricultural classes of the community. The de. mand for wool has noar so far ceased as to operate most injurionoly upon the price of sheep, which cannot presently be sold but at a ver,' considerable loss to the farmer. In the latter part, or " bach sesoon," ae it is called, of 1824, black-faced cweo—their example appHes equally to the other kinds—were bought in for wintering st from 8s. to 12s. a.hend; and, in the spring of 182(i, immediately before larnbing.time, These were disposed of in the English matkeb at ao great a profit, that ever' farmer who could at all cater into the rpeculation, bought up at the end of the ensuing hanest, ru much of that description of stock as his quantity of koop would oeasonabh pennit. The number of sbeep over thor~e of the praceding vear which were bought up for thie purpose, may be judged of from the fact, 1hat the highest inlaw price of 1824 was the lowest of 18~ the r8,te for the latter year being, for black.faced ewes, from 12s. to 1Be. But the premt crisir carne,—the menufacturere of England woro obliged to ~et~nch st meala ~ the article of mutton,—tho de.

z~DIx.—aOl"L L`~8.

va

mand on the part of the butchers consequentlar ceased; and nosr those sheep which were purehased at be extraVagadt a rate, are necessarilar sold, upon sn s.verage, at a lose of 2~. a~head upon the inlay price, without at a11 estimating the espense of lreep. we know one extensive moorland farmer, who calculatea upon locsing two hundred pounda in the present Irear from this cause alone, bo. sidea a vaet lose which he must also sustain in consequsDes of the reduced prico of wool. This cessation of demunt in England ~

unfortunately not fully ascertained until several drovea of lunbint ewea had been despatched to that quarter; and the embarruament of those who are placed in this predica~nent is the more affHeting' as their knowledge has been acquired too hte to allow their wail ing themselves of the house of Muir, and other oorthern mulub.' —D';imSnc, Couner, JUareh' 1826.

Detass upon ths Subject ol Wear~cr~' Wasc~, from the l~t Revort

of 1:m~gratior' cztractedfrom the Scot~mae ac~ospaper, of 1o`i NS

~ember, le27.

'Joseph Foster, a wearer, and one of the deputies of an emigrra tion society in Glasgow, statea that the labour is sJI paid by the piece; the hours of working are various, sometimes eighteen or nineteen out of twenty four, and even all night ones or twice a-weele; and that the wages ma~do by such labour, after deducting the neces. sarar expenses, will not amount to more than from 4~. 6d. to 7~. per. wock, some kinde of arork paging better than others. When he commenced working as a weaver, from 180s to 1805, the same amount of labour that now gields 4~. Gd. or 5B. would have gielded 20B. There are about 11,00s handdooms goins in Gleegow asd is suburbs, some of which are worked by bogs and girle, and he e~ timates the average net earnings of each hand-weaver at 5~. 6d. The principal subsistence of the weavers is oaitmeal and potatoer, with occasionally some salt herring.

' Major Thomas Moodie, who had made careful inquiries into the state of the poor at Manchester, states, that the caHeo and oth~er light plain work at Bolton and Blackburn, yiclde the weaver from 4s. to 5B. per week, ~ fourteen hours of daily labour. In the power-loom arors, one man atknds two looms, and earns from 7r. 6d. to 14s. por. week, accordins to the fineness of the ~orl`. EIo understood that during the last ten ares - , weavers' snges had faller~ on an average about 15s. per week.

' Mr. Thomas Hunton, manufacturer, Carlislo, states, that thero are in Carlialo and its neighbourhood ~bout 650s famiHea, or from

	18,00s to 2B,00s persoas tependent on ~ing	Tho~ us all

222 APPENDIX.—MORAL LAWS.

hand-weavers, and are noly in a very depressed 0hte, in consequence of the increase of power-loom and factory wenving. in bIan. chester and elscwhere. Tnking filleen of his men, he finda that five of them, ~ he are emplo'ed on the best work, hnd earaed 5s. Gd. per week for thepracedingmonlll,deductingthenceessary expenses of loom-rent, candles, hekling, ~c.; lbe next five, who are upon work of the second quality, earned 3s. lld.; and the third five entned 3s. 7id. per vreek. They work from fourtnen to sixtecn houre a-day, and live chiefly on pahtoes, butter-milk, and herrings.

'DIr. W. H. H,~elt, Secretary to the Cbarity Committes in London, gives a detailed statement, to show, that, in the Hundred of Blackburn, comprising a population of 150,00V person., '~X),OOO ~,ere out of employment in 18:hi! ln April last, when he gave his evi" dence before the Commiltee, theso persons had ~nerally found work again, but at very loar wngee. they were Inbouring from tvrelve to fourteen hours a-day, mal gaining from 48. to 5~. ~1. per week.'

" POOR RATrB, 23th dareh, ld~.—A. document of great importance, though of a descrildion by no means cheerim?, has been presented to the House of Comalons,—the annual Abstract of the Returns of the Poor Rates leried and expended, with comparisollsl showing the increase or diminution. T1le accounts show the expenditure of the ycar ending ~th Alareh, 1~o7, compared with the previous year. The tohl sum levied in all the counties of l:ngland and Wnles, in the last year, was £,,dd9!Ctli; the sum expeuded for the reHef of the poor, £G,17!),877. The increase in that ~car throughout the whole of England and Wales, is nine per cent.; nine per cent. in one .gear on the whole su~n e~cpended. It IS true that this is in part to be accounted for by the temporary distress of the manufacturing dislricle. (In Lancaster, the increase was forty-seven' the lvest Riding of vork, lhirty-one per ceut.); but we are sorry to find, that in only three counties of England arns there any the most triding diminution. In Berks turo, Hnmpshire five, Suffolk four per cent. The poor rates in England, therefore' ansount to nearh double the whole landed rental of Scotland."

''Rzaractfrom ~he ard-~drecate', Speceh in the Hou~e of Commotu

llth Mareh, 1823, on the addRional Circuit Cour' of Gla~goto.

"The Lord-Advocate, in ridng to move for leave tobr.ingina bill to 'authovize an additional Court of Justteiar1r to be held at

_

· In "bat le called f ctwy-'reavin', an improved specles or hand-loorn le emph7ed, in which the drecaln' and preparathn Or the areb is eJceled h, machbe~, a~ ~ rwer aro17 d~ a~d dr{r~ the aboub.

APPENDIX.—MORAL LAWS. 223

Glasgow, and to facilihte criminal trial in Scotland,' said he did not anticipate any opposition to the motion. A great deal had been anid of the progreeS of crime in this country, but he w~u aorry to any crime in ScoLland hnd kept pace with that increase. A return had been made of the number of criminal commitmenta in each year, ao far back as the year 1805. In that year the number of criminal commitments for all Scotland amounted onlar to ~. In ld~) it had risen to between 20s and 300; in 181~20, it had in. ereased to 400; and by the Inst return, it appeared, that, in 1827l GC1 persons hnd been committed for trial. I-le was inclined to think, that the great increase of crime, particularly in the weat of Scotland, was attributable, in no small degree, to the number of Irish who daily and wockly arrived there. He did not mean to as' that the Irish lhemselves were in the habit of committing more crirnc than their acigliboure; but he was of opinion, thattheir num. bers tended to reduce the price of labour, and that an inerensc of Crime Was the consequence. Another cause was the great disregnrd manifested by parents for the moral education of their children. Formerly, the people of Scotland were remarkable for the paternal care which they took of their offspring. That had censed in many instances to be the enae. Not only were parenta found arho did not pay attention to the welfare of their children, but who were actually partica to their crintinal purauits, and participated in the fruita of their unlawful proceedings. When crime arna thua on the inereeae, it wea neceaQnry to take measurea for its apeedy punishment. The great city of Glaegow, which contained 150,00s inhabitanb, ant to which his proposed measure was meant chicfly to apply, atood greatly in neet of same additional jurisdiction. This would appear evident, when it was considered that the court which met there for the trial of capital offences, had also to act in the districls of Ren" frew, Lnnnrk, and Dunbarton. In lBl2,the whole number of crimi. nala tried in Glaegoar wna only 31; in 1820, it area 83; in 1823, it was 85; ant in ld27, 211.—The learned lord concluded by moving for leave to bring in a bill to authorize an additional circuit court of justice, to be held at Glasgow, and to facilitate trial in Scotland."

THE END.

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