Library Collections: Document: Full Text

It would be useless here to allude, to the oft-refuted and stale charge of materialism which is brought against phrenology; or to dwell upon the support which the science really brings to revelation: suffice it, that Phrenology is a system of moral philosophy which distinctly recognises the innate religions sentiments of man; that it shows satisfactorily how he is by nature prepared to receive a revelation, and that without such preparation, -- such natural adaptation and fitness, a revelation might as well be made to horses and cows, as to him.

But, while the true phrenologist is, and must be religious, he perceives that many of the religious institutions of the day are of such a nature as obviously to induce men to run counter to the principles of his science, and he would fain see Christianity purified from fanaticism, and all forms of its observance which are injurious to the physical health, or which tend to undue excitement of the cerebral functions, speedily abolished. Nor should he hesitate, through excessive veneration, to touch what seems aged and venerable, but which is really rotten; for, had the reformers of past days hesitated, where should we now be?

Every one allows that Christianity was corrupted, and that its original simplicity and purity were lost sight of in the dark ages; nor must we suppose that we have arrived at the height of perfection, and that the forms of our day are free from all fault. We are too apt to consider our own period, not exactly as the end of time, but as its culminating point, and that to which we refer every thing else; we should, however, view the scroll of history as it were from a distance, and, glancing our eye along it, see the year 1837, midway between anno domini 1, and anno domini 3674; we should then, perhaps, fear that while rejecting some of the superstitions and follies of our fathers, we may hold fast to so many of them that our children will smile in pity as they throw aside part of our follies, but still themselves cling to enough to afford mirth to our grandchildren at their expense.

It is still common, in our generation, for men and women to cling to principles, or notions which they dignify with the name of principles, in an inverse ratio to the degree of reason and judgment exercised in forming them. The man who has arrived at the conclusion from philosophical and mathematical reasons, that the earth is spherical, will listen patiently to any one who shall broach the theory that it varies much from a sphere; but those people who have always known from their very infancy, that the world is flat as a plate, will stop their ears to all reason on the subject; or, if he who dares try to convince them, brings some puzzling questions, they will rise up in a rage and stone him, or burn him for a heretic.

So in morals, those two magic lines of the primer, --

"In Adam's fall.
We sinned all,"

will weigh more with many people, than most logical and philosophical arguments that can be brought forth, for, not all the shrewdness of Locke -- not all the force of Bacon, can equal the sway exercised over their minds, by that self-sufficient sage, the nursery maid. If you ask what man could have fallen from, since he never yet reached his high estate; or how that fall could impose any moral responsibility upon us, who are brought into being four thousand years after; or how another person, suffering for us by proxy, could make us merit more than we otherwise should, -- people stop their ears, and though they dare not throw stones at you, they throw at you the hard words of unredeemed sinner, stiff-necked unbeliever! and though they cannot burn you in this world, they most heartily and unhesitatingly condemn you to be burned in the next.

It does appear to me, that if Phrenology were generally understood, it would do much to soften religious acerbity; to make us more truly Christian and charitable; to make us less exclusive and sectarian. It shows us the accordance between natural and revealed religion; it explains enough of the scheme of Divine Benevolence to make us adore and love its Author. Phrenology teaches us that religion is a sentiment, and not a dogma or a creed; that he who religiously feels and acts, and not he who religiously thinks and believes, is a true Christian.

To speak unphrenologically, religion is of the heart, and not of the head; it is of the feelings, and not of the reason; it teaches us that the Samoide, who anoints and worships a stone, or the poor African who bows to and adores a tree, can each of them offer to God that homage of the heart, which may find more favor, than the most eloquent prayer of the most learned divine.

But would Phrenology discourage the application of the intellect to religion? Oh no! it inculcates it -- it calls for it -- it is fearless of the result, -- it lays the foundation of religion so deep in the human heart that they cannot be overthrown; for, as reasoning and argument cannot create religious feeling, neither can they destroy it -- naturam frustra expelles, tamen usque recurret.