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MORAL SCIENCE A SYSTEM OF DYNAMICS.

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son were pulled out. When martyrdom was the reward of Christianity, in its early stages, none but the higher minds joined it; but when it became a State Religion it was joined by the world, the flesh, and the devil, and was lowered in its tone proportionally; so that, as Mr. Lecky tells us, the 1,000 years after Constantine were the most contemptible in history. There has been no other enduring civilisation so absolutely destitute of all the forms and elements of greatness, and none to which the epithet mean may be so emphatically applied (pp. 14, 72). To religious ignorance and bigotry, to "the doctrine that correct theological opinions are essential to salvation, and that theological error necessarily involves guilt,” may be traced almost all the obstructions they have thrown in the way of human progress-adding immeasurably to the difficulties which every searcher after truth has to encounter, and diffusing far and wide intellectual timidity, disingenuousness, and hypocrisy (pp. 377, 420). So that "not till the education of Europe passed from the monasteries to the universities, not till Mahommedan science, and classical free-thought, and industrial independence broke the sceptre of the church, did the intellectual revival of Europe begin" (p. 219).

We are glad to find Mr. Lecky leaning so decidedly to our views. He says: "In the eyes both of the philanthropist and the philosopher, the greatest of all results to be expected in this, or, perhaps, any other field, are, I conceive, to be looked for in the study of the relations between our physical and our moral natures." This relation alone goes to the root of the matter, and the strongest force is always connected with the largest organs or combination of organs. Moral Science is a pure system of dynamics-the action of the Will always representing the strongest force. The Romans were nothing but a nation of robbers, the strongest of their time: their strength depending upon the perfection of

their training and organisation. Patriotism was a necessary part of this organisation, making the good of one dependent on the good of all; and patriotism was their strongest virtue, and the foundation of all their others. They made war upon weaker nations, killed the men or made slaves of them, stole all their goods, and carried them with the women and children in triumph to Rome, till Rome became so rich from these spoils that luxury ultimately destroyed the nation itself. For ages among the Romans Combativeness and Destructiveness were the feelings in predominant activityto fight and to destroy were their business, their daily occupation, so that at last, as we have before said, the main amusement of all classes were the gladiatorial shows, the spectacle of bloodshed, of death and torture. The heads of noble Romans all show predominating Destructiveness, with small Benevolence.

It is the same with our criminal classes. They are merely powerful or cunning animals, and with greatly predominating propensities nothing better ought to be expected of them, and they ought to be treated as such. At large, they are as certain to prey upon society as a tiger. "The relation between our physical and our moral nature" has long been evident enough to the Cerebral Physiologist. He has long known, beyond all doubt, that in proportion as the animal, moral, or intellectual region of the brain predominates, does the man or mere animal predominate in the character. If the intellect and moral region prevail, we have a moral man according to his lights. If the three regions are equally developed, the man will depend upon education and the circumstances in which he is placed; with the animal region decidedly in excess, we have a brutal animal; with the animal region and intellect predominating, a clever rogue. These various degrees of brain development are evident at once to the practised Phrenologist; and in 1836 Sir G. S. Mackenzie petitioned Lord Glenelg, then Secretary to the Colonies, that

CLASSIFICATION OF CONVICTS.

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our knowledge on the subject might be used in the classification of criminals; of course, however, without effect.* In the state of public opinion, then as at present, the petition could not be granted. The conclusion we have arrived at 34 years later is no further advanced than that some kind of Intellectual test should be applied in the choice of applicants for the Civil Service, apparently however in ignorance of the fact that such an examination furnishes nó test of character whatever. It gives a very imperfect indication of the quality of the instrument, but none whatever as

* "At present," he said, "our criminals are shipped off, and distributed to the settlers, without the least regard to their character or history." * * "There ought to be an officer qualified to investigate the history of convicts, and select them on phrenological principles. That such principles are the only secure grounds on which the treatment of convicts can be founded, proof may be demanded, and it is ready for production," etc. In a separate letter, Sir George said, "men of philosophical understanding and habits of investigation have been brought to perceive that a discovery of the true mental constitution of man has been made, and that it furnishes us with an all-powerful means to improve our race. *Differences in talent, intelligence, and moral character, are now ascertained to to be the effects of differences in organisation. * *The differences of organisation are, as the certificates which accompany this show, sufficient to indicate externally general dispositions, as they are proportioned among one another. Hence, we have the means of estimating, with something like precision, the actual natural characters of convicts (as of all human beings), so that we may at once deter mine the means best adapted for their reformation; or discover their incapacity of improvement, and their being proper subjects of continual restraint, in order to prevent their further injuring society. ** And if, as thousands of the most talented men in Europe and America confidently anticipate, experience shall convince you, your Lordship will at once perceive a source from which prosperity and happiness will flow in abundance over all our possessions. In the hands of enlightened governors, phrenology will be an engine of unlimited improving power in perfecting human institutions, and bringing about universal good order, peace, prosperity, and happiness."

to how it may be used. Such an examination is as likely to furnish a clever rogue as an honest, persevering, good man. Of course it is better than none, as it keeps the fools out, if it lets the knaves in.

When these views are appreciated they will lead to the introduction of the same reforms into our Prisons that have, with much labour, been introduced into our Lunatic Asylums, and upon precisely the same principlenamely, that the criminal is not responsible, and must be reformed with as little suffering as possible; and where reform, as in very many cases, is impossible, he must be sorted and caged as other wild animals are at the Zoological Gardens. "It is society prepares crime, and the guilty are only the instruments by which it is executed." Although Cerebral Physiology has almost stood still for the last 30 years, yet here and there we are not without evidence of a glimmering of light on this subject among physiologists. Thus Dr. Robert Bird says: "Men are great or little, good or bad, not by the influence of their schools and colleges, but in spite of them. Then is education of no avail at all, and are we to give it up? No, but let us give it its proper place and just weight in the general estimate. It is the oil to the wheels, and the varnish to the surface, but not the substance. It seems to me that we shall make little progress in the improvement of our race till we give our moral and mental philosophy a physiological foundation, instead of the metaphysical and sandy one upon which it now rests; till we judge and treat our brains as we now judge and treat our livers. There was a time when insanity was looked on as the work of a devil, and holy men were called on to exorcise him. Now, what should we think of a nation which believed and acted on such a doctrine in these days? We should pity it, and pronounce it plunged in barbarism and superstition. * Quetelet.

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But here we are asked what has vice to do with lunacy? What have they in common? My answer is, they are the same; they differ in degree, but they are the same in kind, and the sooner we admit and act on this, the better for ourselves. The phenomena of vice are as much the consequences of conditions of our tissues as are the phenomena of lunacy.”*

* "Physiological Essays," p. 226.

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