plicable 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.*

It ought also to be kept constantly in remembrance, that man is a social being, and that the precept 'love your neighbor as yourself' is imprinted in his constitution. That is to say, so much of the happiness of each individual depends on the habits, practices and opinions of the society in which he lives, that he cannot reap the full benefits of his own advancement, until similar principles shall have been embraced and realized in practice by his fellow men. This renders it his interest, as it is his duty, to communicate his knowledge to them, and to carry them forward in the career of improvement. At this moment, there are thousands of persons who feel their enjoyments, physical, moral and intellectual, impaired and abridged by the mass of ignorance and prejudice which every where surrounds them. They are men living before their age, and whom the world neither understands nor appreciates. Let them not, however, repine or despair; but dedicate their best efforts to communicating the truths which have opened up to themselves the prospect of happiness, and they shall not be disappointed. The law of our constitution which has established the supremacy of the moral sentiments, renders it impossible for individuals to attain the full enjoyment of their rational nature, until they have rendered their fellow men virtuous and happy; and in the truth and power of this principle, the ignorant and the wretched have a better

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

guarantee for being raised in their condition by the efforts of their more fortunate brethren, than in the establishment of poor laws or other legislative enactments. If all ranks of the people were taught the philosophy which I am now advocating, and if, in so far as it is true, it were enforced by their religious instructers as the will of the Creator communicated to man, through his natural institutions, the progress of general improvement would probably be accelerated.

If the notions now advocated shall ever prevail, it will be seen that the experience of past ages affords no sufficient reason for limiting our estimate, of man's capabilities of civilization; he is yet only in the infancy of his existence. In the introduction I mentioned the long and gradual preparation of the globe for man; and that he appears to be destined to advance only by stages to the highest condition of his moral and intellectual nature. At present he is obviously only in the beginning of his career. Although a knowledge of external nature, and of himself, are indispensable to his advancement to his true station as a rational being, yet four hundred years have not elasped since the arts of printing and engraving were invented, without which, knowledge could not be disseminated through the mass of mankind; and, up to the present hour, the art of reading is by no means general over the world-so that, even now, the means of calling man's rational nature into activity, although discovered, are but very imperfectly applied. It is only five or six centuries since the mariner's compass was known in Europe, without which even philosophers could not ascertain the most common facts regarding the size, form, and productions of the earth. It is only three hundred and forty years since one-half of the habitable globe, America, became known to the other half; and considerable portions of it are yet unknown even to the best informed inquirers. It is little more than two hundred years since the true theory of the circulation of the blood was discovered; previous to which it was impos

sible even for physicians to form any correct idea of the uses of many of man's corporeal organs, and of their relations to external nature. It is only between forty and fifty years since the true functions of the brain and nervous system were discovered; before which we possessed no adequate means of becoming acquainted with our mental constitution, and its adaptation to external circumstances and beings. It is only. fifty-seven years since the study of chemistry, or of the physical elements of the globe, was put into a philosophical condition by Dr. Priestley's discovery of oxygen; and hydrogen was discovered so lately as 1766, or sixty eight years ago. Before that time, people in general were comparatively ignorant of the qualities and relations of the most important material agents with which they were surrounded. At present this knowledge is still in its infancy, as will appear from an enumeration of the dates of several other important discoveries. Electricity was discovered in 1728, galvanism in 1794, gas-light about 1798; and steam-boats, steam-looms, and the safety-lamp, in our own day.

It is only of late years that the study of geology has been seriously begun; without which we could not know the past changes in the physical structure of the globe, a matter of much importance as an element in judging of our present position in the world's progress. This science also is in its infancy. An inconceivable extent of territory remains to be explored, from the examination of which the most interesting and instructive inferences will probably present themselves.

The mechanical sciences are at this moment in full play, putting forth vigorous shoots, and giving the strongest indications of youth, and none of decay.

The sciences of morals and of government are still in the crudest condition.

In consequence, therefore, of this profound ignorance, man, in all ages, has been directed in his pursuits, by the mere impulse of his strongest propensities, formerly to war

and conquest, and now to accumulating wealth, without having framed his habits and institutions in conformity with correct and enlightened views of his own nature, and its real interests and wants. Up to the present day the mass of the people in every nation have remained essentially ignorant, the tools of interested leaders, or the creatures of their own blind impulses, unfavorably situated for the development of their rational nature. They, constituting the great majority, of necessity influence the condition of the rest:-But at last, the arts and sciences seem to be tending towards abridging human labor, so as to force leisure on the mass of the people: while the elements of useful knowledge are so rapidly increasing; the capacity of the operatives for instruction is so generally recognised; and the means of communicating it are so powerful and abundant; that a new era may fairly be considered as having commenced.

Owing to the want of a practical philosophy of human nature, multitudes of amiable and talented individuals are at present anxious only for preservation of the attainments which society possesses; and dread retrogression in the future. If the views now expounded be correct, this race of moralists and politicians will in time become extinct, because progression being the law of our nature, the proper education of the people will render the desire for improvement universal.

CHAPTER V.

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 afflicted 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 constitution of nature so defective that he cannot supply its imperfections, or so vicious that he can neither rectify nor improve its qualities. The following extract from the journal of John Locke, contains a forcible statement of the principle which I intend to illustrate in this chapter: Though justice be also a perfection which we must necessarily ascribe to the Supreme Being, yet we cannot suppose the exercise of it should extend farther than his goodness has need of it for the preservation of his creatures in the order and beauty of the state that he has placed each of them in; for since our actions cannot reach unto him, or bring him any profit or damage, the punishments he inflicts on any of his creatures, i. e. the misery or destruction he brings upon them, can be nothing else but to preserve the greater or more considerable part, and so being only for preservation, his justice is nothing but a branch of his goodness, which is fain by severity to restrain the irregular and destructive parts from doing harm.'—Lord King's Life of Locke, p. 122.