Excellent early civil war era hardcover book:

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.