The constitution of man considered in relation to external objects

Preface To The American Edition

The author of the following work is known in this country by his Essays on Phrenology. Few men in Great Britain have discovered more sincere devotion to this subject itself, or more zeal in communicating it to others, than Mr Combe. He shows everywhere in what he has written on phrenology a full conviction that his favorite science is founded in nature ; that it will aid the study and progress of intellectual philosophy ; that for want of its aids this philosophy has hitherto necesssrily been imperfect ; that, in short, phrenology is susceptible of a wide and useful application, and is destined to exert an important influence over the whole circle of human interests.

The following essay on the Constitution of Man is founded on phrenology ; at least, the phrenological classification of the human faculties is adopted by the writer as the basis of his observations. This can hardly be objected to. To those who have studied phrenology it will be a recommendation ; and to those who know it only by name, sufficient is brought into view in the volume to give them a general notion of a scia iv PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

ence which has engaged many able minds, and which in its measure belongs to the intellectual labors of the age. Mr Combe does not appear to use it, in order to make converts to the phrenological faith ; but rather brings it in to promote the great object of his present publication. This object is human happiness in an extended use of the term. He says, in amount, to lessen misery and increase happiness is his great purpose, and to accomplish this, his labor has been to discover as many of the contrivances of the Creator, for effecting beneficial purposes as possible ; and secondly, to point out in what manner by accommodating our conduct to these contrivances we may attain one great end of our being.

In prosecution of this design, Mr Combe's first inquiries are directed to the external world. He regards things first, as they are ; and secondly, the purposes of their creation. These inquiries involve many very interesting views relating to the world without us ; the actual condition of things ; their mutual influences, whether remote or near ; whether contingent or necessary. The circumstances under which phenomena take place, or with the author, the established and constant modes or processes according to which phenomena are produced, are laws, rules of action ; and the first part of his work treats of natural laws. In the second chapter, Mr Combe treats of the constitution of man, and its relations to external things. In the first place man is regarded as & physical being, composed of physical elements, and to a certain extent, and under like circumstances, exhibiting like phenomena with the objects of the external material world. In the next place he is viewed as an organized being, and the

PREFACE TOTHE AMERICAN EDITION. v

laws of his organization, together with the correspondences and differences between these and the natural laws are pointed out. The moral and intellectual constitution of man are treated under precisely similar aspects. The whole subject is developed with great skill, and made clear and interesting by a great variety of very happy illustrations.

The main design of this work is never lost sight of. This is to make men happier and better, — to show how the human race may be as happy as the constitution of man actually fits it to be. *To do this, the author assumes that this constitution was designed to harmonize perfectly with itself in' all its parts; and also with the whole creation so far as it is capable of being brought into relations with it. In the next place he labors to show that in order to the accomplishment of this design, sufficiently varied and active powers have been committed to man, and if he fail of the happiness for which he was designed here, it is not because he wants capacity of felicity, but because he has misused the powers with which he has been blessed. /Human happiness then consists in an exact accordance of all the laws which are in operation within us, and again of these with all the laws which govern the external world. Human misery is the direct and necessary consequence of an infringement of these laws, or of some of them. > The same skill is shown in treating this part of the work which has been noticed as characterising the other. The same felicity of illustration is everywhere discoverable. The earnest ness of truth is the prevailing characteristic, and a truly benevolent purpose marks every page.

Mr Combe's work should be placed with those, of vi PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

which so many within a few years have appeared, which are devoted to the all-absorbing topic of Education. It treats of moral, intellectual, and physical education. This is not formally done under so many distinct heads. But the whole course of reasoning of the author, and the whole array of all his illustrations, have it always obviously in view to show how the highest cultivation of each of these may be most surely brought about.

The publishers have printed this edition from a belief that there is much in the work to interest the community. It has novelty to reward the general inquirer, and it presents the well known under novel aspects. There is one class amongst us who may study it with much advantage. Scholars are referred to, a class here too small to form a distinct order with habits of their own, and who insensibly fall into those which although not mischievous to the multitude on the score of health, too often make ill health the portion of the sedentary student, and bring upon him premature decay. To all classes it is recommended, and the various learning, and acuteness of the author well fit him to write a book which addresses its instructions to the whole community.

Preface

This Essay would not have been presented to the public, had I not believed that it contains views of the constitution, condition, and prospects of Man, which deserve attention ; but these, I trust, are not ushered forth with anything approaching to a presumptuous spirit. I lay no claim to originality of conception. My first notions of the natural laws were derived from an unpublished manuscript of Dr Spurzheim, with the perusal of which I was honored some years ago ; and all my inquiries and meditations since have impressed me more and more with a conviction of their importance. The materials employed lie open to all. Taken separately, I would hardly say that a new truth has been presented in the following work. The parts have all been admitted and employed again and again, by writers on morals, from Socrates down to the present day. In this respect, there is nothing new under the sun. The only novelty in x PREFACE.

duced highly interesting and instructive works on Moral Science ; and the present Essay is an humble attempt to pursue the same plan, with the aid of the new lights afforded by phrenology.

Edinburgh, 9th June, 1828.

Chapter II

OF THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN, AND ITS RELA- TIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS, . . . 33

Sect. I. Man considered as a Physical Being, . 35 II. Man considered as an Organized Being, . 38

III. Man considered as an Animal — Moral — and

Intellectual Being, 44

IV. The Faculties of Man compared with each

other ; or the supremacy of the Moral Sentiments and Intellect, .... 49 V. The Faculties of man compared with External Objects, 73

VI. On the sources of Human Happiness, and

the conditions requisite for maintaining it, 81

VII. Application of the Natural Laws to the prac-

tical arrangements of Life, . . .,98

Chapter III

TO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE MISERIES OF MAN- KIND REFERABLE TO INFRINGEMENTS OF THE LAW3 OF NATURE, 107

Xii CONTENTS.

Sect. I. Calamities arising from infringements of the

Physical Laws, . .... 107

II. On the Evils that befall Mankind, from infringement of the Organic Laws, . 114

III. Calamities arising from infringement of the

Moral law, 201

IV. Moral advantages of Punishment, . . 250

Chapter IV. On The Combined Operation Of The Natural

LAWS, 256

Appendix

Note I. Natural Laws, [Text, p. 13.] . . .291 II. Organic Laws, [Text, p. 111.] . . 298

III. Death, Decreasing Mortality, [Text, p. 184.] 302

ESSAY

ON THE

CONSTITUTION OF MAN,

AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS

Chapter I. On Natural Laws

A statement of the evidence of a great intelligent First Cause is given in the ' Phrenological Journal,' and in the * System of Phrenology.' I hold this existence as capable of demonstration. By Nature, I mean the workmanship of this great Being, such as it is revealed to our minds by our senses and faculties.

In natural science, three subjects of inquiry may be distinguished. 1st. What exists? 2dly. What is the purpose or design of what exists ; and, 3dly. Why was what exists designed for such uses as it evidently subserves ? For example, — It is matter of fact that arctic regions and torrid zones exist, — that a certain kind of moss is most abundant in Lapland in mid-winter, — that the rein-deer feeds on it, and enjoys high health and vigor in situations where most other animals would 1 die : further, it is matter of fact that camels exist in Africa, — that they have broad hooves, and stomachs fitted to retain water for a length of time, and that they flourish amid arid tracts of sand, where the rein-deer would not live for a day. All this falls under the inquiry, What exists ? But in contemplating the foregoing facts, it is impossible not to infer that one object of the Lapland moss is to feed the rein-deer, and one purpose of the deer is to assist man : and that, in like manner, broad feet have been given to the camel to enable it to walk on sand, and a retentive stomach to fit it for arid places in which water is not found except at wide intervals. These are inquiries into the use or purpose of what exists. In like manner, we may inquire, What purpose do sandy deserts and desolate heaths subserve in the economy of nature ? In short, an inquiry into the use or purpose of any object that exists, is merely an examination of its relations to other objects and beings, and of the modes in which it affects them ; and this is quite a legitimate exercise of the human intellect. But, 3dly, we may ask, why were the physical elements of nature created such as they are 1 Why were summer, autumn, spring, and winter introduced ? Why were animals formed of organized matter 1 These are inquiries why what exists was made such as it is, or into the will of the Deity in creation. Now, man's perceptive faculties are adequate to the first inquiry, and his reflective faculties to the second ; but it may well be doubted whether he has powers suited to the third. My investigations are confined to the first and second, and I do not discuss the third.

A laic, in the common acceptation, denotes a rule of action ; its existence indicates an established and constant mode, or process, according to which phenomena take place ; and this is the sense in which I shall use it, when treating of physical substances and beings. For example, water and heat are substances ; and water presents different appearances, and manifests certain qualities, according to the altitude of its situation, and the degree of heat with which it is combined. When at the level of the sea, and combined with that portion of heat indicated by 32° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, it freezes or becomes solid ; when combined with the portion denoted by 212° of that instrument, it rises into vapor or steam. Here, water and heat are the substances, — the freezing and rising in vapor are the appearances or phenomena presented by them ; and when we say that these take place according to a Law of Nature, we mean only that these modes of action appear, to our intellects, to be established in the very constitution of the water and heat, and in their natural relationship to each other ; and that the processes of freezing and rising in vapor are their constant appearances, when combined in these proportions, other conditions being the same.

The ideas chiefly to be kept in view are, 1st. That all substances and beings have received a definite natural constitution ; 2dly. That every mode of action, which is said. to take place according to a natural law, is inherent in the constitution of the substance, or being, that acts; and, 3dly. That the mode of action described is universal and invariable, wherever and whenever the substances, or beings, are found in the same condition. For example, water, at the level of the sea, freezes and boils, at the same temperature, in China and in France, in Peru and in England ; and there is no exception to the regularity with which it exhibits these appearances, when all its conditions are the same : For cceteris paribus is a condition which pervades all departments of science, phrenology included. If water be carried to the top of a mountain 20,000 feet high, it boils at a lower temperature than 212°, but this again depends on its relationship to the air, and takes place also according to fixed and invariable principles. The air exerts a great pressure on the water. At the level of the sea the pressure is nearly the same in all quarters of the globe, and in that situation the freezing points and boiling points correspond all over the world; but on the top of a high mountain the pressure is much less, and the vapor not being held down by so great a power of resistance, rises at a lower degree of heat than 212°. But this change of appearances does not indicate a change in the constitution of the water and the heat, but only a variation of the circumstances in which they are placed ; and hence it is not correct to say, that water boiling on the tops of high mountains, at a lower temperature than 212°, is an exception to the general law of nature : there never are exceptions to the laws of nature ; for the Creator is too wise and too powerful to make imperfect or inconsistent arrangements. The error is in the human mind inferring the law to be, that water boils at 212° in all altitudes ; when the real law is only that it boils at that temperature, at the level of the sea, in all countries ; and that it boils at a lower temperature, the higher it is carried, because there the pressure of the atmosphere is diminished.

Intelligent beings exist, and are capable of modifying their actions. By means of their faculties, the laws impressed by the Creator on physical substances become known to them ; and, when perceived, constitute laws to them, by which to regulate their conduct. For example, it is a physical law, that boiling water destroys the muscular and nervous systems of man. This is the result purely of the constitution of the body, and the relation between it and heat ; and man cannot alter or suspend that law. But whenever the human intellect perceives the relation, and the consequences of violating it, the mind is prompted to avoid infringement, in order to shun the torture attached by the Creator to the decomposition of the human body by heat.

Similar views have long been taught by philosophers and divines. Bishop Butler, in particular, says : — ' An Author of Nature being supposed, it is not so much a deduction of reason as a matter of experience, that we are thus under his government, in the same sense as we are under the government of civil magistrates. Because the annexing pleasure to some actions, and pain to others, in our power to do or forbear, and giving notice of this appointment beforehand to those whom it concerns, is the proper formal notion of government. Whether the pleasure or pain which thus follows upon our behaviour, be owing to the Author of Nature's acting upon us every moment which we feel it, or to his having at once contrived and executed his own part in the plan of the world, makes no alteration as to the matter before us. For, if civil magistrates could make the sanctions of their laws take place, without interposing at all, after they had passed them, without a trial, and the formalities of an execution ; if they were able to make their laws execute themselves, or every offender ,to execute them upon himself, we should be just in the same sense under their government then as we are now ; but in a much higher degree and more perfect manner. Vain is the ridicule icith which one sees some persons toill divert themselves, upon finding lesser pains coxVsidered as instances of divine punishment. There is no possibility of answering or evading the general thing here intended, without denying all final causes. For, final causes being admitted, the pleasures and pains now mentioned must be admitted too, as instances of them. And if they are, if God annexes delight to some actions, with an apparent design to induce us to act so and so, then he not only dispenses happiness and misery, but also rewards and punishes actions. If, for example, the pain which ivefcel upon doing what tench to the destruction of our bodies, suppose upon too near approaches to fire, or upon wounding ourselves, be appointed by the Author of Nature to prevent our doing what thus tends to our destruction ; this is altogether as much an instance of his punishing our actions, and consequently of our being under his government, as declaring, by a voice from Heaven, that, if we acted so, he would inflict such pain upon us, and inflict it whether it be greater or less.' *

If, then, the reader keep in view that God is the creator ; that Nature, in the general sense, means the world which He has made ; and, in a more limited sense, the particular constitution which he has bestowed on any special object, of which we may be treating, and that a Law of Nature means the established mode in which that constitution acts, and the obligation thereby imposed on intelligent beings to attend to it, he irilJ be in no danger of misunderstanding my meaning.

Every natural object has received a definite constitution, in virtue of which it acts in a particular way. There must, therefore, be as many natural

* Butler's Works, vol. i. p. 44. Similar observations by other authors will be found in the Appendix, No 1.

laws, as there are distinct modes of action of substances and beings, viewed by themselves. But substances and beings stand in certain relations to each other, and modify each other's action in an established and definite manner, according to that relationship ; altitude, for instance, modifies the effect of heat upon water. There must, therefore, be also as many laws of nature, as there are relations between different substances and beings.

It is impossible, in the present state of knowledge, to elucidate all these laws : countless years may elapse before they shall be discovered ; but we may investigate some of the most familiar and striking of them. Those that most readily present themselves bear reference to the great classes into which the objects around us may be divided, namely, Physical, Organic, and Intelligent. I shall therefore confine myself to the physical laws, the organic laws, and the laws which characterise intelligent beings.

1st. The Physical Laws embrace all the phenomena of mere matter ; a heavy body, for instance, when unsupported, falls to the ground with a certain accelerating, force, in proportion to the distance which it falls, and its own density ; and this motion is said to take place according to the law of gravitation. An acid applied to a vegetable blue color, converts it into red, and this is said to take place according to a chemical law.

2dly. Organised substances and beings stand higher in the scale of creation, and have properties peculiar to themselves. They act, and are acted upon, in conformity with their constitution, and are therefore said to be subject to a peculiar set of laws, termed the Organic. The distinguishing characteristic of this class of objects, is, that the individuals of them derive their existence from other organised beings, are nourished by food, and go through a regular process of growth and decay- Vegetables and Animals are the two great subdivisions of it. The organic laws are different from the merely physical. A stone, for example, does not spring from a parent stone ; it does not take food from its parent, the earth, or air ; it does not increase in vigor for a time, and then decay and suffer dissolution, all which processes characterise vegetables and animals. The organic laws are superior to the merely physical. For example, a living man, or animal, may be placed in an oven, along with the carcass of a dead animal, and remain exposed to a heat, which will completely bake the dead flesh, and yet come out alive, and not seriously injured. The dead flesh is mere physical matter, and its decomposition by the heat instantly commences ; but the living animal is able, by its organic qualities, to counteract and resist to a certain extent, that influence. The expression Organic Laws, therefore, indicates that every phenomenon connected with the production, health, growth, decay, and death of vegetables and animals, takes place with undeviating regularity, whenever circumstances are the same.

Animals are the chief objects of my present observations.

3dly. Intelligent beings stand still higher in the scale than merely organised matter, and embrace all animals that have distinct consciousness, from the lowest of the inferior creatures up to man. The great divisions of this class are into Intelligent and Animal — and into Intelligent and Moral creatures. The dog, horse, and elephant, for instance, belong to the first class, because they possess some degree of intelligence, and certain animal propensities, but no moral feelings ; man belongs to the second, because he possesses all the three. These various faculties have received a definite constitution from the Creator, and stand in determinate relationship to external objects : for example, a healthy palate cannot feel wormwood sweet, nor sugar bitter : a healthy eye cannot see a rod partly plunged in water straight, because the water so modifies the rays of light, as to give to the stick the appearance of being crooked ; a healthy Benevolence cannot feel gratified with murder, nor a healthy Conscientiousness with fraud. As, therefore, the mental faculties have received a precise constitution, have been placed in fixed and definite relations to external objects, and act regularly, we speak of their acting according to rules or laws, and call these the Moral and Intellectual Laws.

In short, the expression* laws of nature,' when properly used, signifies the rules of action impressed on objects and beings by their natural constitution. Thus, when we say, that by the physical law, a ship sinks when a plank starts from her side, we mean, that, by the constitution of the ship, and the water, and the relation subsisting between them, the ship sinks when the plank starts.

Several important principles strike us very early in attending to the natural laws, viz. 1st. Their independence of each other ; 2dly. Obedience to each of them is attended with its own reward, and disobedience with its own punishment ; 3dly. They are universal, unbending, and invariable in their operation ; 4thly. They are in harmony with the constitution of man.

1. The independence of the natural laws may be illustrated thus ; — A ship floats because a part of it being immersed, displaces a weight of water equal to its whole weight, leaving the remaining part above the fluid. A ship, therefore, will float on the surface of the water as long as these physical conditions are observed ; no matter although the men in it should infringe other natural laws ; as, for example, although they should rob, murder, blaspheme, and commit every species of debauchery ; and it will sink whenever the physical conditions are subverted, however strictly the crew and passengers may obey the other laws here adverted to. In like manner, a man who swallows poison, which destroys the stomach or intestines, will die, just because an organic law has been infringed, and because it is independent of others, although the man should have taken the drug by mistake, or been the most pious and charitable individual on earth. Or, thirdly, a man may cheat, lie, steal, tyrannise, and in short break a great variety of the moral laws, and nevertheless be fat and rubicund, if he sedulously observed the organic laws of temperance and exercise, which determine the condition of the body ; while, on the other hand, an individual who neglects these, may pine in disease, and be racked with torturing pains, although at the very moment, he may be devoting his mind to the highest duties of humanity.

2. Obedience to each law is attended with its own reward, and disobedience with its own punishment. Thus the mariners who preserve their ship in accordance with the physical laws, reap the reward of sailing in safety ; and those who permit its departure from them, are punished by the ship sinking. Those who obey the moral law, enjoy the intense internal delights that spring from active moral faculties ; they render themselves, moreover, objects of affection and esteem to moral and intelligent beings, who, in consequence, confer on them many other gratifications. Those who disobey that law, are tormented with insatiable desires, which, from the nature of things, cannot be gratified; they are punished by the perpetual craving of whatever portion of moral sentiment they possess, for higher enjoyments, which are never attained ; and they are objects of dislike and malevolence to other beings in the same condition as themselves, who inflict on them the evils dictated by their own provoked propensities. Those who obey the organic laws, reap the reward of health and vigor of body, and buoyancy of mind ; those who break them are punished by sickness, feebleness, and languor.

3. The natural laws are universal, invariable, and unbending. When the physical laws are subverted in China or Kamschatka, there is no instance of a ship floating there more than in England ; and, when they are observed, there is no instance of a vessel sinking in any one of these countries more than in another. There is no example of men, in any country, enjoying the mild and generous internal joys, and the outward esteem and love that attend obedience to the moral law, while they give themselves up to the dominion of brutal propensities. There is no example, in any latitude or longitude, or in any age, of men who entered life with a constitution in perfect harmony with the organic laws, and who continued to obey these laws throughout, being, in consequence of this obedience, visited with pain and disease ; and there are no instances of men who were born with constitutions at variance with the organic laws, and who lived in habitual disobedience to them, enjoying that sound health and vigor of body, that are the rewards of obedience.

4. The natural laws are in harmony with the whole constitution of man, the moral and intellectual powers being supreme. For example, if ships had sunk when they were in accordance with the

26 0N NATURAL LAWS.

physical law, this would have outraged the perceptions of Causality, and offended Benevolence and Justice ; but as they float, the physical is, in this instance, in harmony with the moral and intellectual law. If men who rioted in drunkenness and debauchery, had thereby established health and increased their happiness, this, again, would have been in discord with our intellectual and moral perceptions; but the opposite result is in harmony with them.

It will be subsequently shown, that our moral sentiments desire universal happiness. If the physical and organic laws are constituted in harmony with them, it ought to follow that the natural laws, when obeyed conduce to the happiness of moral and intelligent beings, who are called onto observe them ; and that the evil consequences or punishments resulting from disobedience, are calculated to enforce stricter attention and obedience to the laws, that these beings may escape from the miseries of infringement, and return to the advantages of observance. For example, according to this view, when a ship sinks, in consequence of a plank starting, the punishment ought to impress upon the spectators the absolute necessity of having every plank secure and strong, before going to sea again, a condition indispensable to their safety. When sickness and pain follow a debauch, they serve to urge a more scrupulous obedience to the organic laws, that the individual may escape death, which is the inevitable consequence of too great and continued disobedience to these laws, and enjoy health, which is the reward of opposite conduct. When discontent, irritation, hatred, and other mental annoyances, arise out of infringement of the moral law, this punishment is calculated to induce the offender to return to obedience, that he may enjoy the rewards attached to it.