Moral philosophy

Front matter

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( TTHITEP STATE S 1 1 1 ' AMERICA.

Preface

The present work appears in the form of lectures, which were 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 November, 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 Philosophy, 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 of both sexes.

In twenty lectures, addressed to such an audience, only a small portion of a very extensive field of science could be touched upon. It was necessary also to avoid, as much as possible, abstract and speculative questions, and to dwell chiefly 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 published 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 presented to the public as a separate work, and they have not

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 approval, I sent, during my residence in America, for the original manuscript, (which 1 had left in Edinburgh,) and last spring published at Boston the entire lectures, with such additions and improvements as they appeared to stand in need of. Since my return to Scotland, 1 have subjected the volume to another revision, and now offer an improved edition to the British public.

I am aware that, in founding moral philosophy on phrenology, I shall appear to those persons who have not ascertained the truth of the latter 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 whom it is large and well constituted, the intellect is powerful, altogether 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 necessarily 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 functions of the spleen will never overturn the ascertained functions 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.