Various

“ Not only do the principles of our holy religion, in the broadest and most direct terms, condemn all such practices as sinful, but every moral principle of our nature revolts at them. True, were we to suppress the influence of our moral sentiments, and exercise our reasoning faculties in connection with our selfish propensities only, we might say, “injury for injury,” “blow for blow;” but even then we could not say, “death for insult,” for there is no comparison between the two. An insult is limited in its consequence to time; death reaches to eternity. ”

“ Thus have closed two most interesting and valuable courses of lectures on phrenology in this city. Their reception has been of the most gratifying character. Some may be disposed to think that their influence will be of transitory effect, and that the interest will soon subside. But if such should be the fact, it would be an anomaly in the history of the science. Its principles have thus far proved too true, and too important, to share such a fate. And they have fallen, we believe, into too many and too able hands in this city to be so soon forgotten or easily neglected. ”

“ Healthy vigour is another essential to healthy growth, whether of the brain or of the body; but, from general ignorance of physiology, this has been, and still is, equally disregarded in the treatment of the young. In our public schools, the whole pupils of a large class are set to the same task, and undergo precisely the same confinement and absence of wholesome bodily action. It matters not whether they be robust or weak, indolent or vivacious, fond of play or fond of books. It never occurs to us that what may be sport to one is a heavy burden to another ”

“ Courage may be divided into two kinds—physical and moral. The former, when analysed, will be found to consist mainly in the exercise of Combativeness; and this is one of the lower propensities, common to man and brute. Of course, then, physical courage is a low passion; and one that is often displayed in the bull-dog or game-cock far more powerfully than in the most gallant knight that ever shivered a lance, or the most renowned hero that ever waded to the temple of fame through fields of carnage and blood. ”

“ What the nature and the powers of the human soul may be, we know not, nor can we know, until it is disembodied and disenthralled; until this mortal shall put on immortality, and time and space shall be no more ”

“ The objects of religion are so much more elevated and vast than any of the objects of mere time and sense, that they give a much more intense and powerful excitement and exercise to the faculties, especially of persons of vigorous intellect and cultivated minds. The low, groveling, sensual, and ignorant, do not so easily realise things of a spiritual nature. Hence persons with large and active organs of the higher sentiments, especially of Reverence, Marvellousness, Hope, and Ideality, find no where but in religion full satisfaction to their aspirations. ”

“ The young, on account of their growing and rapid nutrition, stand doubly in need of a pure and bracing air, and of ample muscular exercise out of doors; and yet, so entirely is this condition disregarded in our plans of education, that in the winter the whole day is spent in the close and corrupted atmosphere of the school, and the exercise is restricted to little more than walking to and from it. It is in vain to think that the brain is not injured in its development, and the mind not weakened in its powers, by this neglect. The brain partakes in the general qualities of the constitution. ”

“ By little and little the higher sentiments become accustomed to this newly acquired higher degree of activity, and spontaneously range in their newly acquired world of objects. Every thing is now viewed as in the light of eternity. Man is now not only known, but felt to be an immortal being with a soul of uncounted worth. ”

“ We all of us admit, that even the giant mind of a Newton, or a Napoleon, would struggle in vain against the finger of an infant pressing upon the brain; but phrenologists maintain, that as the finger should be pressed upon one or another organ, so would one or another of the mental powers be immediately affected. Perhaps the truth is beyond the extremes; and while we should strive to attain the juste milieu, we should not be deterred by any fears of what may be the inferences from searching for truth in observations upon nature. ”

“ In giving the instructions to the jury, I stated to them that if the evidence for the commonwealth was believed, it established a case of murder of the first degree, unless they thought proper to acquit entirely upon the ground of insanity. The species of insanity relied upon by the prisoner’s counsel, was that denominated monomania. [278] This exists where there is a delusion on one or a small number of subjects, which no course of reasoning or force of evidence can remove. Every man, of mature age, is presumed to possess a sound mind until the contrary appears. ”

“ In seeking to improve a faculty, common sense dictates that it should be exercised upon its most agreeable and perfect productions. Thus, in cultivating a taste for music, we ought to present to the faculty the most beautiful and harmonious music, because that is the best calculated to excite it to agreeable and sustained activity. ”

“ But how imperfect is the description till we are told that this elementary feeling is the basis not only of anger or resentment at injury, but constitutes in every mind, according to its strength, the propensity to oppose; that it aids the good man to carry through his plans of benevolence, as well as the bad to execute his purposes of malice; that united with deficient intellect and weak moral sentiment, it makes the quarrelsome, vaunting boxer, while in a different combination it is an important element in the character of the unflinching philanthropist ”

“ What should we think of the providence of nature, if, when aggressions were made against the weak and unarmed, at a distance from the aid of others, there were instantly and uniformly, by the intervention of some wonder-working power, to rush into the hand of the defenceless a sword or other weapon of defence? ”

“ That religion does not consist in belief merely, and that the work of grace requires long training of the faculties to give them strength, stability, habit, and harmonious action, so that the person will be constantly in the easy, delightful exercise of the Christian graces. One of this cast and training, where organisation favours its strong and healthy development, will show by his life and conversation that his religion not only sets well upon him, but is a part of him and pervades him throughout. ”

“ From much observation I am persuaded, not only that the growth and activity of the brain are impaired by this sad conduct, but that a great deal of the delicacy and bad health of the rising generation, and particularly a great deal of the increasing liability to dyspepsia which pervades society, is owing to the same preposterous departure from the laws of the Creator. It is no apology for the evil to say that it cannot be helped—that there is so much to be learned that the whole day must be given to it. ”

“ But moral courage, which is made up of Combativeness, Firmness, Self-esteem, [264] and the higher sentiments, and which enables us to go boldly forward in our own integrity and strength, and on all occasions support the right, and do whatever Conscientiousness, Benevolence, affection, and the reasoning faculties dictate, is an exalted feeling—a noble sentiment—and none can show too much of it; for, since it cannot be exercised but in a worthy cause, it is incapable of being perverted or abused.
The manifestation of physical courage is proper when exerted in defence of our natural rights ”

“ That our readers may be emboldened to approach the subject, we beg of them to bear in mind that all truth, whether religious or scientific, historical or prophetical—whether rational or miraculous—when fully and rightly known and comprehended, must, from the nature of things, and the character of the Great Author of all truth, be consistent with itself. ”

“ I have long observed that this organ was almost invariably small in criminals, and its marked deficiency in the present instance struck me with peculiar force. Numerous facts have led me to believe, that a proper development and exercise of Ideality is about as favourable to virtue and morality as even the influence of Conscientiousness. By refining the feelings, it begets a disgust for vice, because it is loathsome, and thereby promotes virtue. The organs of the intellect were not remarkable for either their size or deficiency. ”

“ Fever, or a blow on the head, will change the most gifted individual into a maniac, cause the lips of virgin innocence to utter the most revolting obscenity, and those of pure religion to speak horrible blasphemy; and most cases of madness and eccentricity can now be traced to a peculiar state of the brain. ”

“ It bears a striking resemblance to vice, which is said to consist in “an undue excitement of the passions and will, and in their irregular or crooked actions leading to crime.” It is therefore to be received with the utmost scrutiny. It is not generally admitted in legal tribunals as a species of insanity which relieves from responsibility for crime, and it ought never to be admitted as a defence until it is shown that these propensities exist in such violence as to subjugate the intellect, control the will, and render it impossible for the party to do otherwise than yield. ”

“ Man is not the natural enemy of man; and we live in a community which professes to be regulated by wholesome laws. Therefore, when one man voluntarily turns this instrument of defence against his fellow-man, or exercises it improperly upon a brute, he tramples upon the laws, and is justly held amenable and punishable. Such a manifestation of Combativeness or courage is a plain perversion of a naturally good faculty, and becomes odious and sinful ”

“ It is as certain as any mathematical demonstration can be, that if phrenology is a true interpretation of human nature, that all truth connected with mind, and presented in harmony with the laws of its correct interpretation, must touch a cord that will vibrate in every person, though perhaps feebler in some than in others. ”

“ Playing is a mechanical exercise, calling other faculties into activity, and cannot be acquired without practice. Besides, playing is not music, but only the means by which it is produced; and, so far as regards the music alone, the enjoyment is quite as great whoever produces it, as if we ourselves did. Often, however, the mistake is committed of thinking that we are using the most effectual means to develope a taste for music, when we place the young person at an old piano to rattle out discordant sounds for several hours a day ”

“ We all admit that sleep is necessary, and that nature intended the night for repose; and, consequently, neither parent nor teacher thinks of setting his child to school in the night-time, however anxious he may be for its progress. And, in like manner, let society once be convinced that food at proper intervals is essential to the well-being of the young, and both time and opportunity will be found for giving it. ”

“ When the character is thoroughly and consistently religious—when religious principle has become, like a piece of leaven, operative until it has leavened the whole—then, indeed, all the faculties may be said in some sort to manifest a religious function. It is then that the propensities act in subordination to, and in harmony with, the higher sentiments while those sentiments take a religious direction. The higher sentiments may predominate over the propensities in the ordinary life and conversation of the merely moral man. ”

“ But when we take an individual who has naturally no great liking for music, but in whom it is desirable that the talent should be developed, we do not stimulate the faculty to healthful exercise by daily accustoming it to the perception and discrimination of fine sounds, but we set him or her to labour for hours every day in producing sounds, remarkable at first only for being so discordant and disagreeable as to make every one keep as far from their source as possible ”

“ We may therefore bring our feelings into a high state of excitement merely by the recollection of an exciting scene.
Reverence.—It is not easy to give a brief analysis of this sentiment. We think, however, it is constituted to be excited to action by whatever is perceived by intellect, or believed by Marvellousness to possess the quality of greatness or superior power, whether physical, moral, or intellectual. Many of the objects of respect in society are conventional. The vast works of nature excite the feeling strongly ”

“ It may have been violent, overwhelming, and attended by a remarkable experience—as the seeing of visions, &c.—if the individual have been of an ardent temperament, and with large perceptive organs and large Marvellousness.
Equally diverse will be the growth in grace of different individuals. Some will be almost like ground by the way side, some like stony places, some like good ground covered with thorns, and some still like good ground. Aside from peculiarities of individual character, external circumstances, whether favourable or otherwise, may exert a very great degree of influence. ”