1861 antique MORALS POLITICS MARRIAGE DUTY PHRENOLOGY owned FURNISS oak hill pa

Description: 1861 antique MORALS POLITICS MARRIAGE DUTY PHRENOLOGY owned FURNISS oak hill paSCROLL DOWN for MORE PHOTOS in DESCRIPTION Click HERE to view or search ANTIQUE.COTTAGE listings. Excellent early civil war era hardcover book:Moral philosophy or, the duties of man considered in his individual, social and domestic capacities. Published 1861 by Harper in New York . 372 pages. All pages secure and intact. I've found a copy of this book scanned, so click on the following link if you want to see the entire contents of this book. https://archive.org/details/moralphilosophy00com excerpt from archive.org:PREFACE The present work appears in the form of lectures, which ¦rere composed under the following circumstances : In 1832, an association was formed by the industrious , classes of Edinburgh, for obtaining instruction in useful and entertaining knowledge, by means of lectures, to be delivered in the evenings after business-hours. These lectures were designed to be popular in regard to style and illustration, but systematic in arrangement and extent. I was requested to deliver a course on Moral Philosophy, commencing in No- vember, 1835, and proceeding on each Monday evening, till April, 1836. Another evening in each week was devoted to Astronomy ; and two nights more to Chemistry. Thus, there were delivered twenty consecutive lectures on Moral Philo- sophy, on the Monday evenings ; fifty lectures on Chemistry, on the evenings of Tuesdays and Fridays ; and twenty-five lectures on Astronomy, on the Thursday evenings. The audience amounted to between five and six hundred persons )f both sexes. In twenty lectures, addressed to such an audience, only a _mall portion of a very extensive field of science could be .ouched upon. It was necessary also to avoid, as much as possible, abstract and speculative questions, and to dwell chief- ly on topics simple, interesting, and practically useful. These circumstances account for the introduction of such subjects as Suretyship, Arbitration, Guardianship, and some others, not usually treated of in works on Moral Philosophy ; and also for the occasional omission of that rigid application of the principles on which the work is founded, to the case of every duty, which would have been necessary in a purely scientific treatise. These principles, however, although not always stated, are never intentionally departed from. A large number of my auditors had studied phrenology, and many of them had read my work on " The Constitution of Man :" I did not hesitate, therefore, to found the lectures on phrenological principles. As, however, they were not, in general, regular students of philosophy, but persons engaged in practical business, their recollection of the principles could not be entirely relied on, and it became necessary to restate these at considerable length. This is the cause of a more extensive repetition, in these lectures, of views already pub- lished in " The Constitution of Man," and in my phrenological writings, than, in ordinary circumstances, would have been admissible. The lectures were reported, by one of my hearers, in the Edinburgh Chronicle newspaper, and excited some attention. Still, however, I did not consider them worthy of being pre- sented to the Dublic as a senarate work, am 1 ;h*f Kar« noi IT . PREFACE. hitherto appeared in this form in Britain. I transmitted a copy of the " Reports " to a friend in Boston, U. S., when they were reprinted by Messrs. Marsh, Capen, and Lyon, in a small duodecimo volume. The entire edition was purchased by the American public ; and, encouraged by this indication of ap- proval, I sent, during my residence in America, for the original manuscript, (which I had left in Edinburgh,) and last spring pub- lished at Boston the entire lectures, with such additions and improvements as they appeared to stand in need of. Since my return to Scotland, I have subjected the volume to another revi- sion, and now offer an improved edition to the British public. I am aware that, in founding moral philosophy on phreno- logy, I shall appear to those persons who have not ascertained the truth of the hitter science, to be putting forward mere conjectures as the basis of human duty. In answer to this objection, I respectfully remark, that scientific truths exist independently of human observation and opinion. The globe revolved on its axis, and carried the pope and seven cardinals whirling round on its surface, at the very moment when he and they declared the assertion of such a fact to be a damnable heresy, subversive of Christianity. In like manner, the brain performs its, functions equally in those who deny, and in those who admit, their existence. I observe that in one anti-phrenologist, in whom the anterior lobe is small, the intellect is feeble ; and that in another, in w r hom it is large and well constituted, the intellect is powerful, alto gether independently of their own belief in these facts. I have remarked, also, that when the brain of an anti-phrenologist has been diseased in a particular organ, he has become deranged in the corresponding faculty, notwithstanding his denial of all connexion between them. The fact, therefore, that many persons do not admit the truth of phrenology, does not neces- sarily render it an imaginary science. The denial by Harvey's contemporaries of the circulation of the blood, did not arrest the action of the heart, arteries, and veins. In phrenology, as in general physiology and other sciences, there are points still unascertained, and these may hereafter prove to be important ; but the future discovery of the func- tions of the spleen will never overturn the ascertained func« tions of the lungs or spinal marrow ; and, in like manner, the ascertainment of the uses of certain unknown parts at the base of the brain, will not alter the ascertained functions of the anterior lobe and coronal region. I consider the phrenological principles on which I have founded the following lectures, to be established by such an extensive induction of facts, that they will sustain the severest scrutiny and not be found want ing ; and I shall, with becoming resignation, abide by the verdict of those, who, by study and observation, shall have rendered themselves competent to judge of their merits. Edinburgh, 1st October, 1840. ? CONTENTS LECTURE I. *N THE FOUNDATION OF MORAL SCIENCE. Questions distinct, What actions are virtuous ? and what con- stitutes them such? — Answer to the former comparatively easy — Human constitution indicates certain courses of action to be right — Necessity for studying that constitution and its relations, in order to ascertain what renders an action virtuous or vicious— Conflicting opinions of philosophers on the moral constitution of man — Phrenology assumed as a valuable guide — Possibility of the existence of Moral Philo- sophy as a natural science — No faculty essentially evil, though liable to be abused — Deductions of well-constituted and well-informed minds to be relied on in moral science — Scripture not intended as an all-sufficient guide of conduct — Faculties revealed by phrenology, and illustrations of their uses and abuses — Adaptation of human constitution to ex- ternal nature — The objects of Moral Philosophy are, to trace the nature and legitimate sphere of action of our faculties and their external relations, with the conviction, that to use them properly is virtue, to abuse them, vice — Cause of its barren condition as a science — Bishop Butler's view of the supremacy of conscience acceded to — Those actions virtu- ous which accord with the dictates of the moral sentiments ;and intellect — Preceding theories imperfect, though partially correct — Cause of this imperfection ; qualities of actions are discovered by the intellect, and the moral sentiments then decide whether they are right or wrong — Plan of the pre- sent course of lectures. Page 25-45 LECTURE II. ON THE SANCTIONS BY WHICH THE NATURAL LAWS OF MORALITY ARE SUPPORTED. Every law supposes a Lawgiver, and punishment annexed to transgression — God prescribes certain actions by our consti- tution, and He is therefore the Lawgiver — He supports his laws by rewards and punishments — Does He do so by specb.1 acts of providence ? — Or are his rewards and punishments certain consequences of good or evil, appointed by Him to follow from our actions ?— It is important to show that God dispenses justice in this world ; because we know no other, and if He be not just here, there is no natural and logical ground for inferring that He will be just in an# other world — Evidence that He does dispense justice here — His sup- posed injustice is apparent only — Philosophers have not understood the principles of His government -The indepen VI CONTENTS. dent action of the several natural laws is the key to it — li we obey the physical laws, they reward us with physica* advantages — If we obey the organic laws, they reward us with health — If we obey the moral laws, they reward us with mental joy — If we disobey any one of these laws, we are punished under it, although we observe all the others — There is more order and justice in the Divine Government in this world than is generally recognised. 45-65 LECTURE III. ADVANTAGES OP A KNOWLEDGE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF MO RALS: DUTIES PRESCRIBED TO MANAS AN INDIVIDUAL SELF CULTURE. The views in the preceding lecture accord with those of Bishop Butler — We go farther than he did, and show the natural arrangements by which the consequences mentioned by him take place — Importance of doing this — Certain relations have been established between the natural laws, which give to each a tendency to support the^authority of the whole — Examples — Duties prescribed to Man as an Individual con- sidered — The object of man's existence on earth is to ad- vance in knowledge, wisdom, and holiness, and thereby to enjoy his being — The glory of God is promoted by his accom- plishing this object — The first duty of Man is to acquire knowledge — This may be drawn from Scripture and from nature — Results from studying heathen mythology and na- ture are practically different — Difference between the old and the new philosophy stated — Clerical opposition to these lectures. 66-83 LECTURE IV. PRESERVING BODILY AND MENTAL HEALTH, A MORAL DUTY : AMUSEMENTS. The preservation of health is a moral duty— Causes of bad health are to be found in infringement of the organic laws — All the bodily organs must be preserved in proportionate vigour — The pleasures attending high health are refined and quite distinct from sensual pleasures — The habits of the lower animals are instructive to man in regard to health- Labour is indispensable to health — Fatal consequences of continued, although slight, infractions of the organic laws- Amusements necessary to health, and therefore not sinful — We have received faculties of Time, Tune, Ideality, Imita- tion, and Wit, calculated to invent and practise amusements — Their uses and abuses stated— Error of religious persons who condemn instead of purifying and improving public amusements, 83-101 CONTENTS. VII LECTURE V. ON THE DUTIES OP MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. Origin of the domestic affections — Marriage, or connexion fol life between the sexes, is natural to man — Ages at which marriage is proper — Near relations in blood should not marry — Influence of the constitution of the parents on the children — Phrenology, as an index to natural dispositions, may be used as an important guide in forming matrimonial connex- ions — Some means of discovering natural qualities prior ta experience, is needed in forming such alliances, because after marriage experience comes too late. 101-118 LECTURE VI. ON POLYGAMY I FIDELITY TO THE MARRIAGE VOW : DIVORCE DUTIES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. Polygamy not founded in Nature — Fidelity to the marriage vow a natural institution — Divorce — Objections to the law of England on this subject — Circumstances in which divorce should be allowed — Duties of parents — Mr. Malthus's law of population, and Mr. Sadler's objections to it, considered — Parents bound to provide for their children, and to preserve their health— Consequences of neglecting the laws of health. 118-136 LECTURE VII. It is the duty of parents to educate their children — To be able to discharge this duty, parents themselves must be educated — Deficiency of education in Scotland — Means of supplying the deficiency — It is a duty to provide for children— Best provision for children consists in a sound constitution, good moral and intellectual training, and instruction in useful knowledge — What distribution of the parent's fortune should be made 1 — Rights of parents and duties of children — Obedi- ence to parents — Parents bound to render themselves worthy of respect — Some children born with defective moral and in- tellectual organs — How they should be treated. 137-154 LECTURE VIII. Theories of philosophers respecting the origin of society — So« lution afforded by Phrenology — Man has received faculties, the spontaneous action of which prompts him to live in socie- ty—Industry is man's first social duty — Labour, in modera- tion, is a source of enjoyment, and not a punishment — The opinion that useful labour is degrading examined— The division of labour is natural, and springs from the faculties being bestowed in different degrees of strength on different individuals — One combination fits for one pursuit, and ano ther for another — Gradations of rank are also natural, and VU1 CONTENTS. arise from differences in native talents and in acquired sain -Gradations of rank are beneficial to all. 154-167 LECTURE IX. ON THE PAST, PRESENT, AND PROSPECTIVE CONDITIONS OF SOCIETY. The question considered, Why are vicious or weak persons sometimes found prosperous, while the virtuous and talentfeJ •enjoy no worldly distinction ? — Individuals honoured and rewarded according as they display qualities adapted to the state of the society in which they live — Mankind hitherto animated chiefly by selfish faculties — Prospective improve- ment of the moral aspect of society — Retrospect of its previous conditions — Savage, pastoral, agricultural, and commercial stages ; and qualities requisite for the prosperity of individuals in e'ach — Dissatisfaction of moral and intel- lectual minds with the present state of society — Increasing tendency of society to honour and reward virtue and intel- ligence — Artificial impediments to this — Hereditary titles and entails — Their bad effects— Pride of ancestry, rational and irrational — Aristocratic feeling in America and Europe — Means through which the future improvement of society may be expected — Two views of the proper objects of human pursuit ; one representing man's enjoyments as principally animal, and the other as chiefly moral and intellectual — The selfish faculties at present paramount in society — Consequences of this — Keen competition of indi- vidual interests, and its advantages and disadvantages — Present state of Britain unsatisfactory. 167-1 85 LECTURE X. f JIE CONSIDERATION OF THE PRESENT AND PROSPECTIVE CONDITION OP SOCIETY CONTINUED. ^Idwl^ual ©samples of bad results of competition of individual interest— Disadvantages attending the division of labour — Difficulty of benefiting one individual without injuring others — Instance of charitable institutions — Question, Whether the destruction of kuma*i life or of corn is the greater public calamity — State of the Trtsh peasantry — Impediments to the aoandonment of luxuries by *he rich — The leading ar rangements of society at present, >ear reference to self- interest — Christianity cannot become, practical while this continues to be the case — Does human nature admit of such improvement, that the evils of individual ^competition may be obviated, and the moral sentiments rendered supreme ? — Grounds for hope — Natural longing-for a more perfect social condition — Schemes of Plato, Sir T. More, the Primi- tive Christians, the Harmonites, and Mr. Owen. 186-198 CONTENTS. IX LECTURE XL THE CONSIDERATION OF THE PROSPECTIVE CONDITION OF SOCIETY CONTINUED. — DUTY OF MAINTAINING THE POOR. Reasons for expecting future human improvement — The brain improves with time, exercise, and the melioration of insti- tutions — Existing superior brains and minds prove the capa- bility of the race — The best men are the firmest believers in man's capability of improvement — Human happiness will increase with the progress of knowledge — Igp trance still prevalent — Many of our sufferings traceable to causes removable by knowledge and the practice of morality — This exemplified in poverty, and the vicissitude and uncer- tainty of conditions — Means by which human improvement may be effected — The interest of individuals closely linked with general improvement and prosperity — Examples in proof of this — Extensive view of the Christian precept, that we ought to love our neighbour as ourselves — Duty of attend- ing to public affairs — Prevention, of war — Abolition of slave trade — Imperfection of political economy in its tendency to promote general happiness — Proposal to set apart stated portions of time for the instruction of the people in their social duties, and for the discharge of them — Anticipated good effects of such a measure — Duty of endeavouring to equalise happiness — Duty of maintaining the poor — Opposite views of political economists on this subject considered — Causes of pauperism ; and means of removing them — These causes no. v . struck at by the present system of management of the poor ; but, on the contrary, strengthened. 199-219 LECTURE XII. PAUPERISM AND CRIME. Causes of pauperism continued — Indulgence in intoxicating liquors — Causes producing love of these ; — Hereditary pre- disposition ; Excessive labour with low diet ; Ignorance — Effects of commercial convulsions in creating pauperism — Duty of supporting the poor — Evils resulting to society from neglect of this duty — Removal of the causes of pauperism should be aimed at — Legal assessments for the support of the poor advocated — Opposition to new opinions is no reason for despondency, provided they are sound— Treat ment of criminals — Existing treatment and its failure to suppress crime — Light thrown by Phrenology on this subject — Three classes of combinations of the mental organs, favourable, unfavourable, and middling — Irresistible procli- vity of some men to crime — Proposed treatment of this class of criminals — Objection as to moral responsibility answered. 220-235 2 I CONTENTS. LECTURE XIII. TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS CONTINUED. Criminals in whom the moral and intellectual organs are con- siderably developed — Influence of external circumstances on this class — Doctrine of regeneration — Importance of attending to the functions of the brain in reference to this subject, and the treatment of criminals — Power of society over the conduct of men possessing brains of the middle class — Case of a criminal made so by circumstances — Expedien- cy of keeping certain men from temptation — Thefts by post- office officials — Aid furnished by Phrenology in selecting persons to fill confidential situations — Punishment of crimi- nals — Objects of punishment — Its legitimate ends are to protect society by example, and to reform the offenders — Means of effecting these purposes — Confinement — Employ- ment — Unsatisfactory state of our existing prisons — Moral improvement of criminals. 236-251 LECTURE XIV. DUTY OF SOCIETY IN REGARD TO THE TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. The punishment of criminals proceeds too much on the prin- ciple of revenge — Consequences of this error — The proper objects are the protection of society, and the reformation of the criminal — Means of accomplishing these ends — Confine- ment in a penitentiary till the offender is rendered capable of good conduct — Experience of the corrupting effects of short periods of imprisonment in Glasgow bridewell — Proposed conditions of liberation — Failure of the treadmill — American penitentaries — Wherein imperfect — Punish- ment of death may ultimately be abolished — Harmony of the proposed system of criminal legislation with Christianity — Execution of criminals — Transportation — Farther particu- lars respecting American prisons — Cerebral and mental qualities of criminals there confined- Some of them incor- rigible — Objection as to destruction of human responsibility answered — Class of criminals susceptible of reformation — Means of effecting this — Results of solitary confinement considered — Silent labour system at Auburn. 252- $70 LECTURE XV. DUTIES OF GUARDIANS, SURETIES, JURORS, ANT) ARBITRATORS^ Guardianship — A duty not to be declined, though its perform- ance is sometimes repaid with ingratitude — The misconduct is often on the part of the guardians — Examples of both cases — Particular circumstances in which guardianship may be declined — Duties of guardians — They should study, and sedulously perform, the obligations incumbent on them CONTENTS. U Property of wards not to be misapplied to guardians' own purposes — Co-guardians to be vigilantly watched, and check- ed when acting improperly — Care for the maintenance, education, and setting out in life, of the wards — Duty of ' suretyship — Dangers incurred by its performance — These may be lessened by Phrenology — Selfishness of those who decline to become sureties in any case whatever — Precau- tions under which suretyship should be undertaken— No man ought to bind himself that he may severely suffer, or to ¦ become surety for a sanguine and prosperous individual who merely wishes to increase his prosperity — Suretyship for good conduct — Precautions applicable to this — Duties of jurors — Few men capable of their satisfactory performance — Suggestions for the improvement of juries — Duties of arbitrators — Erroneous notions prevalent on this subject — Decisions of " honest men judging according to equity "— Principles of law ought not to be disregarded. 271-288 LECTURE XVI. GOVERNMENT. Various theories of the origin of government — Theory derived from Phrenology — Circumstances which modify the charac- ter of a government — Government is the just exercise of the power and authority of a nation, delegated to one or a few for the general good — General consent of the people its only moral foundation — Absurdity of doctrine of the Divine right of governors — Individuals not entitled to resist the govern- ment whenever its acts are disapproved by them — Rational mode of reforming a government — Political improvement slow and gradual — Advantages thence resulting — Indepen dence and liberty of a nation distinguished — French govern ment before and after the revolution — British governmem — Relations of different kinds of government to the humai faculties — Conditions necessary for national independence (1.) Adequate size of brain ; (2.) Intelligence and love oi country sufficient to enable the people to act in concert, and sacrifice private to public advantage — National liberty — High moral and intellectual qualities necessary for its attainment — Illustrations of the foregoing principles from history- -Republics of North and South America contrasted — The Swiss and Dutch — Failure of the attempt to intro- duce a free constitution into Sicily. 288-303 •LECTURE XVII. DIFFERENT FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. Despotism ; the best form of government in a rude state of society — Mixed form of government — Interests of the many sacrificed under despotic and oligarchical governments, to those of the few — Bad effects of hereditary artificial rank in its existing shape — Rational pride of ancestry, and tma Xll CONTENTS. nobility of nature — Arguments in favour of hereditary ran* considered : (1.) That it presents objects of respect to the people, and accustoms them to deference and obedience ; (2.) That it establishes a refined and polished class, who, by their example, improve the multitude ; (3.) That there- is a natural and universal admiration of it, proving it to be beneficial — Bad effects of entails, and of exclusive privi- leges and distinctions enjoyed by individuals or classes — Forcible abolition of hereditary nobility, entails, and mono- polies reprobated — Political aspect of the United States — Tendency of the mixed form cf government to unfairly promote the interests of the dominant class — This exem- plified in the laws of Britain, particularly those relating to the militia and the impressment of seamen — Democratic form of government — Adapted only to a state of society in which morality and intelligence have made great and general advancement — Greek and Roman republics no exception — Character of these republics — Small Italian republics of the middle ages — Swiss republics, particularly that of Bern — Democracy in the United States — No probability that the present civilized countries of Europe will ever become barbarous — Or that the United States will fall asunder or lose their freedom — Tendency of governments to become more democratic, in proportion as the people become more intelligent and moral — Groundless fears that ignorant mass- es of the people will gair, the ascendency. 303-325 LEC7URE XVIII. RELIGIOUS DUTIES OP MAN. Consideration of man's dities to God, so far as discoverable by the light of nature — Natural theology a branch of natural philosophy — Not superseded by revelation — Brown, Stew- art, and Chalmers quoted — Natural theology a guide to the sound interpretation of scripture — Foundation of natural religion in the faculties cf man — Distinction between morals and religion — The Bible does not create the religious feel- ings, but is fitted only to enlighten, enliven, and direct them — Illustration of this view— Stability of religion, even amid the downfall of churches and creeds — Moral and religious duties prescribed to man by natural theology — Prevalent erroneous views of divine worship-Natural evidence of God's existence and attributes— Man's ignorance the cause of the past bar- renness and obscurity of natural religion — Importance of the Book of Creation as a revelation of the Divine Will 326-344 LECTURE XIX. RELIGIOUS DUTIES OF MAN. 344-354 LECTURE XX. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 354-364 AWBNDtt. 365-372 MORAL PHILOSOPHY LECTURE I. ON THE FOUNDATION OF MORAL SCIENCE, ijuest *ss distinct, What actions are virtuous ? and what con- stitutes theflfc such ? — Answer to the former comparatively easy — Hum-in constitution indicates certain courses of action to be right* -Necessity for studying that constitution and its relations, in order to ascertain what renders an action virtuous f/t vicious— Conflicting opinions of philosophers on the mor?l constitution of man — Phrenology assumed as a valuable g aide — Possibility of the existence of Moral Philo- sophy 01 a natural science — No faculty essentially evil, though liable to be abused — Deductions of well-constituted and well-informed minds to be relied on in moral science — Scripture not intended as an all-sufficient guide of conduct — Faculties revealed by Phrenology, and illustrations of their uses and abuses — Adaptation of human constitution to ex ternal nature — The objects of Moral Philosophy are, to trace the nature and legitimate sphere of action of our faculties and their external relations, with the conviction, that to use them properly is virtue, to abuse them, vice — Cause of its barren condition as a science — Bishop Butler's view of the supremacy of conscience acceded to — Those actions virtu- ous which accord with the dictates of the moral sentiments and intellect — Preceding theories imperfect, though partially correct — Cause of this imperfection ; qualities of actions are discovered by the intellect, and the moral sentiments then decide whether they are right or wrong — Plan of the pre sent course of lectures. In an introductory discourse on Moral Philosophy, the lecturer unfortunately has few attractions to offer. His proper duty is, not to descant in glowing terms on the dig- nity of moral investigations, and on the extreme importance of sound ethical conclusions both to public and to private happiness ; but to give an account of the state in which his science at present exists, and of what he means to teach in his subsequent prelections. No subject can be conceived more destitute of direet attraction. I must beg your indul- gence, therefore, for the dryness of the details and the abstractness of the argument in this lecture. T make these 26 THE FOUNDATION OP observations that you may not feel discouraged by am appearance of difficulty in the commencement. I shall use every effort to render the subject intelligible, and I promise you that the subsequent discourses shall be more practical and less abstruse than the present. Our first inquiry is into the basis of morals regarded as a science ; that is, into the natural foundations of moral obligation. There are two questions — very similar in terms, but widely different in substance — which we must carefully distinguish. The one is, What actions are virtuous 1 and the other, What constitutes them virtuous 1 The answei to the first question, fortunately, is not difficult. Most in- dividuals agree that it is virtuous to love our neighbour, to reward a benefactor, to discharge our proper obligations, to love God, and so forth ; and that the opposite actions are vicious. But when the second question is put — Why is an action virtuous — why is it virtuous to love our neighbour, or to manifest gratitude or piety ] the most contradictory answers are given by philosophers. The discovery of what constitutes virtue is a fundamental point in moral philosophy ; and hence the difficulties of the subject meet us at the very threshold of our inquiries. It appears to me, that man has received a definite bodily and mental constitution, which clearly points to certain objects as excellent, to others as proper, and to others as beneficial to him ; and that endeavours to attain these ob- jects are prescribed to him as duties by the law written in his constitution ; while, on the other hand, whatever tends to defeat their attainment is forbidden. The web-foot of the duck, for instance, clearly bespeaks the Creator's inten- tion that this creature should swim ; and He has given it an internal impulse which prompts it to act accordingly. The human constitution indicates various courses of action to be designed for man, as clearly as the web-foot indicates the water to be a sphere of the duck's activity ; but man has not received, like the duck, instincts calculated to prompt him, unerringly, to act in accordance with the adaptations of his constitution : — He is, however, endowed with rea- son, qualifying him to discover both the adaptations them* selves, and the consequences of acting in conformity with, or in opposition to, them : Hence, in order to determine, by the light of reason, what constitutes an action virtuous MORAL SCIENCE. 27 or vicious, he must become acquainted with his bodily and nental constitution, and iis relations. Hitherto this know- edge has been very deficient. Philosophers have never been agreed about the existence or non-existence even of the most important mental facul- ties and emotions in man — such as benevolence, and the sentiment of justice ; and being uncertain whether such emotions exist or not, they have had no stable ground from which to start in their inquiries into the foundations of virtue. Accordingly, since the publication of the writings of Hobbes, in the 17th century, there has been a constant series of disputes among philosophers on this subject. Hobbes taught that the laws which the civil magistrate enjoins are the ultimate standards of morality. Cudworth endeavoured to show that the origin of our notions of right and wrong is to be found in a particular faculty of the mind which distinguishes truth from falsehood. Mandeville declares that the moral virtues are mere sacrifices of self- interest made for the sake of pubvic approbation, and calls virtue the "political offspring whicVi flattery begot upon pride." Dr. Clarke supposes virtue to consist in acting according to the fitnesses o\ things. Mr. Hume endea- voured to prove that " utility is the constituent or measure of virtue." Dr. Hutcheson maintains that it originates m the dictates of a moral sense. Dr. Paley-does not admit sucn a faculty, but declares virtue to consist " in doing good to mankind in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness." Dr. Adam Smith endeavours to show that sympathy is the source of moral approbation. Dr. Reid, Mr. Stewart, and Dr. Thomas Brown, maintain the existence of a moral faculty. Sir James Mackintosh describes conscience to be compounded and made up of associations Dr. Ralph Wardlaw, of Glasgow, in a work on Ethics, published in 1834, can see nothing in Conscience except Judgment. -\ Here, hen, we discover the most extraordinary conflict of opinion prevailing concerning the foundation of virtue. But this does not terminate the points of dispute among philosophers in regard to moral science. Its very existence, nay, the very possibility of its existence, as a philosophical study, is called in question. Dr. Wardlaw says, " Suppose that a chemist were desirous to ascertain the ingredients of water. What estimate should we form of his judgment, 28 THE FOUNDATION OP if t with this view, he were to subject to his analysis a quantity of what had just passed in the bed of a sluggish river, through the midst of a large manufacturing city, from whose common sewers, and other outlets of impurity, it had received every possible contamination which, either by simple admixture or by chemical affinity, had become incor- porated with the virgin purity of the fountain ; and if y proceeding on such analysis, he were to publish to the world his thesis on the composition of water 1 Little less prepos- terous must be the conduct of those philosophers who derive their ideas of what constitutes rectitude in morals from human nature as it is. They analyze the water of the polluted river, and refuse the guide that would conduct them to the mountain spring of its native purity." — (Chris- tian Ethics, p. 44.) In these remarks Dr. Wardlaw evidently denies the possibility of discovering, in the constitution of the human mind, a foundation for a sound system of Ethics. He supports his denial still more strongly in the following words : " According to Bishop Butler's theory, human nature is * adapted to virtue ' as evidently as * a watch is adapted to measure time? But suppose the watch, by the perverse interference of some lover of mischief, to have been so thoroughly disorganized — its moving and its subor- dinate parts and power so changed in their collocation and their mutual action, that the result has become a constant tendency to go backward instead of forward, or to go back- ward and forward with irregular, fitful, ever-shifting alterna- tion — so as to require a complete remodelling, and especially a readjustment of its great moving power, to render it fit for its original purpose ; would not this be a more appropriate analogy for representing the present character of fallen man ? The whole machine is out of order. The mainspring has been broken ; and an antagonist power works all the parts of the mechanism. It is far from being with human nature as Butler, by the similitude of the watch, might lead his readers to suppose. The watch, when duly adjusted, is only, in his phrase, ' liable to be out of order.' This might suit for an illustration of the state of human nature at first, when it received its constitution from its Maker. But it has lost its appropriateness now. That nature, alas ! is not now a machine that is merely 'apt to go out of order ;' it is out of order ; so radically disorganized, that the grand MORAL SCIENCE. 29 original power which impelled all its movements has beer broken and lost, and an unnatural power, the very opposit of it, has taken its place ; so that it cannot be restored to the original harmony of its working, except by the interpo- sition of the omnipotence that framed it." (P. 126.) The ideas here expressed by Dr. Wardlaw, are enter- tained, with fewer or more modifications, by large classes of highly respectable men, belonging to different religious denominations. How, then, amid all this conflict of opinion as to the foundations, and even possibility of the existence, of moral science, is any approach to certainty to be attained % I have announced that this course of lectures will be founded on phrenology. I intend it for trjose hearers who have paid some attention to this science ; who have seen reasonable evidence that the brain consists of a congeries of organs — that each organ manifests a particular- mental faculty — and that, other conditions being equal, the power of manifesting each faculty bears a proportion to the size of its organs. To those individuals who have not seen sufficient evidence of the truth of these positions, I fear that I have little that can be satisfactory to offer. To them, I shall appear to stand in a condition of helplessness equal to that of all my predecessors whose conflicting opinions I have cited. These eminent men have drawn their conclu- sions, each from his individual consciousness, or from ob- serving human actions, without having the means of arriving at a knowledge of the fundamental faculties of the mind itself. They have, as it were, seen men commit gluttony and drunkenness ; and, in ignorance of the functions of the stomach, have set down these vices as original tendencies of human nature, instead of viewing them as abuses merely of an indispensable appetite. Without phrenology I should find no resting-place for the soles of my feet ; and I at once declare, that, without its aid, I should as soon have attempt- ed to discover the perpetual motion, as to throw any light, by the aid of reason alone, on the foundations of moral science. The ground of this opinion, I have already stated. Unless we are agreed concerning what the natural consti- tution of the mind is, we have no means of judging of the duties which that constitution prescribes. Once for all, therefore, I beg permission to assume the great principles *nd leading doctrines of phrenology to be true ; and I 30 THE FOUNDATION OP shall now proceed to show you in what manner I apply them to unravel the Gordian knot of Ethics, which at present appears so straitly drawn and so deeply entangled. I do not despair of revealing to your understandings principles and relations, resembling, in their order, beauty, and wis- dom, the works of the Deity in other departments of nature. First, then, in regard to the possibility of moral philoso- phy existing as a natural science. Dr. Wardlaw speans of the human mind as of a watch that has the tendency to go backward, or fitfully backward and forward ; as having its mainspring broken ; and as having all the parts of the mechanism worked by an antagonist power. This descrip- tion might appear to be sound to persons who, without great analytic powers of mind, resorted to no standard ex- cept the dark pages of history, by which to test its truth : but the Phrenologist appeals at once to the brain, which is the organ of the mental faculties. Assuming that it is the organ of the mind, I ask, Who created it] Who endowed it with its functions 1 Only one answer can be given — It was God. When, therefore, we study the mental organs and their functions, we go directly to the fountain-head of true knowledge regarding the natural qualities of the hu- man mind. Whatever we shall ascertain to be written in them, is doctrine imprinted by the finger of God himself. If we are certain that those organs were constituted by the Creator, we may rest assured that they have all a legitimate sphere of action. Our first step is to discover this sphere, and to draw a broad line of distinction between it and the sphere of their abuses ; and here the superiority of our method over that of philosophers who studied only their own consciousness and the actions of men, becomes appa- rent. They confounded abuses with uses ; and because man is liable to abuse his faculties, they drew the conclu- sion, prematurely and unwarrantably, that his whole nature is in itself evil. Individual men may err in attempting to discover the functions and legitimate spheres of action of the mental organs, and dispute about the conclusions thence o be drawn ; but this imputes no spuriousness to the or- gans themselves, and casts no suspicion on the principle that they must have legitimate modes of manifestation. There they stand ; and they are as undoubtedly the work- manship of the Creator, as the sun, the planets, or the entire universe itself. Error may be corrected by mora MORAL SCIENCE. 31 accurate observations ; and whenever we interpret the con- stitution aright, we shal assuredly be in possession of di- vine truth. Dr. Wardlaw might as reasonably urge the disorder of human nature as an argument against the possibility of studying the science of optics, as against that of cultivating ethical philosophy. Optics is founded on the structure, func- tions, and relations of the eye ; and ethics on the structure, functions, and relations of the mental organs. Against optics he might argue thus : — " The eye is no longer such vas when it proceeded from the hands of the Crea- tor ; it is now liable to blindness ; or if, in some more fa- voured individuals, the disorder of its condition does not proceed so far as to produce this dire effect, yet universal experience proves that human nature now labours under opaque eyes, squinting eyes, long-sighted eyes, and short- sighted eyes ; and that many individuals have only one The external world also is no longer what it origi- nally was. There are mists which obscure the rays of light, clouds which intercept them, air and water which refract them ; and almost every object in creation reflects them. . it a straight rod half plunged into water, and you will see it crooked. Can a science founded on such organs, which operate in such a medium, and are related to such objects, be admitted into the class of ascertained truths, by which men are to regulate their conduct V 1 He might con- tinue, " Astronomy j with all its pompous revelations of countless suns, attended by innumerable worlds rolling through space, must also be laid in the dust, and become a fallen monument of human pride and mental delusion. It is the offspring of this spurious science of optics. It pre- tends to record discoveries effected in infinite space by means of these perverted human eyes, acting through the dense and refracting damps of midnight air. Away with such gross impositions on the human understanding ! Away with all human science, falsely so called !" There would be as much truth in an argument like this, as in that urged by Dr. Wardlaw against moral philosophy, founded on the study of nature. The answer to these objections against optics as a science, is, that the constitu- tion, functions, and relations of the eye have been appointed oy the Creator ; that, although some unsound eyes exist, e received judgment to enable us to discriminate 32 THE FOUNDATION OF between sound eyes, and diseased or imperfect eyes. Again, we admit that mists occasionally present themselves ; but we ascertain the laws of light by observations made at times when these are absent. Certain media also unquestionably refract the luminous rays ; but they do so regularly, and their effects can be ascertained and allowed for. When, therefore, we observe objects by means of sound eyes, and use them in the most favourable circumstances, the know* ledge which we derive from them is worthy of our acceptance as truth. . The parallel holds good, in regard to the mind, to a much greater extent than many persons probably imagine. The Creator has fashioned all the organs of the human mind, conferred on them their functions, and appointed to them their relations. We meet with some individuals, in whom the organs of the selfish propensities are too large, and the moral organs deficient : these are the morally blind. We see individuals who, with moderate organs of the propensi- ties, have received large organs of Benevolence and Ve- neration, but deficient organs of Conscientiousness : these have a moral squint. But we meet also with innumerable persons in whom the organs of the propensities are moderate, and the moral and intellectual organs well developed ; who thereby enjoy the natural elements of a sound moral vision ; and who need only culture and information to lead them to moral truths, as sound, certain, and applicable to practice, as the conclusions of the optician himself. Revelation necessarily supposes in man a capacity of comprehending and profiting by its communications ; and Dr. Wardlaw's argument appears to me to strike as directly at the root of man's capacity to understand and interpret Scripture, as to understand and interpret the works and natural institutions of the Creator. Dr. Wardlaw, we have seen, discards natural ethics entirely, and insists that Scripture is our only guide in morals. Archbishop Whately, on the other hand, who is net less eminent as a theologian and certainly more distin- guished as a philosopher than Dr. Wardlaw, assures us that " God has not revealed to us a system of morality such as would have been needed for a being who had no other means of distinguishing right and wrong. On the contrary, the inculcation of virtue and reprobation of vice in Scripture, are in such a tone as seem to presuppose a natural power. WOfiAL SCIENCE. 33 wf a capacity for acquiring the power to distinguish them. And if a man, denying or i enouncing all claims of natural conscience, should practise, without scruple, everything he did not find expressly forbidden in Scripture, and think himself not bound to do anything that is not there expressly enjoined, exclaiming at every turn — * Is it so nominated in the bond V he would be leading a life very unlike what a Christian's should be." In my humble opinion, it is only an erroneous view of human nature, on the one side or the other, that can lead to such contradictory opinions as these. I agree with Archbishop Whately. By observing the organs of the mind, then, and the men- tal powers connected with them, phrenologists perceive that three great classes of faculties have been bestowed on man. 1. Animal Propensities. 2. Moral Sentiments. 3. Intellectual Faculties. Considering these in detail, as I have done in my previous courses, and in my System of Phrenology, and as I now assume that all of you have done, we do not find one of them that man has made, or could have made, himself. Man can create nothing. Can we fashion for ourselves a new sense, or add a new organ, a third eye for instance, to those we already possess 1 Impossible. All those organs, therefore, are the gifts of the Creator ; and in speaking of them as such, I am bound to treat them with the same reverence that should be paid to any of his other works. Where, then, I ask, do we, in contemplating the organs, find the evidence of the mainspring being broken 1 Where do we find the antagonist power, which works all the mechanism contrary to the original design 1 Has it an organ • I cannot answer these questions : I am unable to discover either the broken mainspring, or an organ for the antagonist power. I s^e, and feel — as who does notl — the crimes, the errors, the miseries of human beings, to which Dr. Wardlaw refers as proofs of the disorder of which he speaks '; but phrenology gives a widely different account of their origin. We observe, for example, that individual men commit murder or blasphemy, and we all acknowledge that this is in opposition to virtue ; but we do not find an 34 THE FOUNDATION OP organ of murder, or an organ whose office it is to antagonize all the moral faculties, and to commit blasphemy. We perceive that men are guilty of gluttony and drunkenness ', but we nowhere find organs instituted whose function is to commit these immoralities. All that we discover is, that man has been created an organized being ; that, as such, he needs food for nourishment ; that, in conformity with this constitution, he has received a stomach calculated to digest the flesh of animals and to convert it into aliment • and that he sometimes abuses the functions of the stomach : and when he does so, we call this abuse gluttony and drunkenness. We observe farther, that in aid of his sto- mach, he has received carnivorous teeth ; and in order to complete the system of arrangements, he has received a propensity having a specific organ, prompting him to kill animals that he may eat them. In accordance with these endowments, animals to be killed and eaten are presented to him in abundance by the Creator. A man may abuse this propensity and kill animals for the pleasure of putting them to death — this is cruelty ; or he may go a step farther — he may wantonly, under the instigation of the same propensity, kill his fellow-men, and this is murder. But this is a widely different view of human nature from that which supposes it to be endowed with positively vicious and perverse propensities — with machinery having a tendency only to go backward, or to go alternately and fitfully back- ward and forward. Those individuals, then, who comnr* murder, abuse their faculty of Destructiveness by directing it against their fellow-men. We have evidence of this fact : The organ is found large in those who have a tendency so to abuse it, and in them, in general, the moral organs are deficient. Again, it is unquestionable that men steal, cheat, lie, blaspheme, and commit many other crimes ; but we in vain look in the brain for organs destined to perpetrate these offences, or for an organ of a power antagonist to virtue, and whose proper office is to commit crimes in geneial. We discover organs of Acquisitiveness, which have legiti- mate objects, but which, being abused, lead to theft ; .organs of Secretiveness, which have a highly useful sphere of ac- tivity, but which, in like manner, when abused, lead to falsehood and deceit ; and so with other organs. These organs, J repeat, are the direct gifts of the Creator; MORAL SCIENCE. 35 and if the mere fact of their existence be not sufficient evidence of this proposition, we may find overwhelming proof in its favour by studying their relations to external nature. Those who deny that the human mind is constitu- tionally the same now as it was when it emanated from the hand of the Creator, generally admit that external nature at least is the direct workmanship of the Deity. They do not lat man, in corru . >wn dispositions, altered vrhole fabric of the universe — that he infused into acts, or imposed on the vegetable kingdom a new const] i different laws. They admit that God created all these such as they exist. Now, in survey- le organization, we perceive production from an en. : nance by food — growth, maturity, decay, and death — woven into the v »f their existence. In surveying the animal creation, we discover the same phenomena and the same results : and on turning to our- find that we too are organized, that we assimilate food, that we grow, that we attain maturity, and tnat our bodies die. Here, then, there is an institution by the Crea- tor, of great systems (vegetable and animal) of production, death. It will not be doubted that these rations owe their existence to the Divine will. If it be asserted that men's delinquencies offended the . and brought his wrath on the offenders ; and that the present constitution of the world is the consequence of that displeasure ; philosophy offers no answer to this pro- ves not inquire into the [rich in- duced the Creator to const: :al and menta ig to the existence and constitution of vegetables, of animals, and of man, she respectfully maintains that all these God did constitute and endow with their properties and relationships ; and tha f in ingthem we are investigating his genuine workmansr ip. Now, if we find on the one hand a system of decay and death in external nature, animate and inanimate, we find also n a faculty of Destrnctivenesa which is pleased with destruction, and which places him in harmony with that order of creation : if we find on the one hand an external world, ch there exist — fire calculated to destroy life by bum- - ater by drowning, and cold by freezing — ponderous klid moving bodies capable of injuring us by blows, and a great power of gravitation exposing us to danger by falling" ; 36 THE FOUNDATION OF we discover also, in surveying our own mental constitution, a faculty of Cautiousness, whose office it is to prompt us ta take care, and to avoid these sources of danger. Tn othei words, we see an external economy admirably adapted to oui internal economy ; and hence we receive an irresistible con- viction that the one of these arrangements had been design- edly framed in relation to the other. External destruction is related to our internal faculty of Destructiveness ; exter- nal danger to our internal faculty of Cautiousness. I have frequently remarked that one of the most striking proofs of the existence of a Deity, appears to me to be obtained by surveying the roots of a tree, and its relationship to the earth. These are admirably adapted ; and my argu- ment is this : — The earth is a body which knows neither its own existence nor the existence of the tree : the tree, also, knows neither its own qualities nor those of the earth. Yet the adaptation of the one to the other is a real and useful relation, which we, as intelligent beings, see and comprehend. CONDITION: See listing description and photos; Brown cloth over hardcover with significant wear to brown cloth as shown. Still a complete, secure book. - International buyers are responsible to pay VAT or other Taxes to their countries as required.- eBAY collects and remits sales tax on behalf of several states. 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