xt7kwh2d8g00 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7kwh2d8g00/data/mets.xml Bartlett, Elisha, 1804-1855. 1838  books b92-183-30418225 English Marsh, Capen and Lyon, : Boston : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Phrenology. Address delivered at the anniversary celebration of the birth of Spurzheim  : and the organization of the Boston Phrenological Society, January 1, 1838 / by Elisha Bartlett. text Address delivered at the anniversary celebration of the birth of Spurzheim  : and the organization of the Boston Phrenological Society, January 1, 1838 / by Elisha Bartlett. 1838 2002 true xt7kwh2d8g00 section xt7kwh2d8g00 


AN



ADD RE S S


    DELIVERED AT THE



ANNIVERSARY



CELEBRATION



OF



THE BIRTH OF SPURZHEIM,

                AND

         TIHE ORGANIZATION OF

                THlE



BOSTON PHRENOLOGICAL SOCIETY,


         JANUARY 1, 1838.



   BY ELISHA BARTLETT, M. D.



PUBLISHED BY THE REQUEST OF THE SOCIETY.



           BOSTON:
     MARSH, CAPEN AND LYQN4
             1838.

 











































PRINTEJ BY Wm. A. HALL  CO.


 











                  ADD RES S.





  ALL true science is of slow growth. All true knowledge has
ever been, and, from its very nature, must ever continue to be
an attainment, more or less gradual and progressive, and more
or less difficult of acquisition. Often does even the most
elementary knowledge, or the simplest and plainest truth, seem
to us to have been late and tardily acquired or discovered, and
the world wonders how it could happen, that what is now such
manifest and beautiful and far-darting light, should have re-
mained so long obscure, or altogether hidden. This is true of
all subjects of investigation, though it is more .strictly and re-
markably so of some than of others. History can be written
only after it has been acted. Nations must have lived and died,
they must have played their parts on this stage of the world,
before their lives and deaths and doings can become the sub-
jects of recital and commentary. Great biographies must be
lived and acted before they can be recorded. And, furthermore,
it may be, that ages shall elapse after the annalist has registered
his facts, before their relations come to be fully understood, and
the chain, which runs through them all and binds them together,
is rendered visible and luminous by the light of philosophy.
  Especially is this the case with all knowledge which is the
result of experiment and observation. Through a slow, irregu-
larly moving and progressive process, have a1l the natural
sciences been obliged to pass. The very art'itsilf of bbserVa-

 


4



tion and induction wvas, until within a comparatively recent
period of time, either unknown or disregarded, almost wholly;
and, even now, it is but imperfectly, and in part only, under-
stood and practised. First, after long groping in the dark, or
in a shadowy and uncertain twilight, are materials collected
and partially examined. One man finds out the art of polishing
a lens;-another watches the motions of a star;-a third counts
the stamens of a flower: this smelts an ore in his rude furnace;
-that measures the ebb and flow of the ever-moving tides.
And so on, day after day, through ages, perhaps, atom by atom,
is the pile heaped up, heterogeneous and unsifted, grain and
char, gems and rubbish together.
  The science of mathematics, even,-that purest abstraction of
the intellect,-independent, as it is, of the senses, and of all
observation,-far removed, as it is, froin the sources of fallacy
and error, so inseparably connected with observation, has been,
from its first origin up to the present day, slow and irregular in
its advancement in comprehensiveness, simplicity and power.
  It has generally happened, that the progress of each of the
sciences depending on observation and induction, has been
signalized by some one or more remarkable epochs. These
epochs are constituted, not by the addition to those already
ascertained, of novel or important facts, but by the establish-
ment of the general principles of the science;-by the discovery
of the true laws which govern its phenomena, or in accordance
with which, its objects are arranged. It has, also, generally
happened, that, for the establishment of these principles and
laws, we have been indebted to the extraordinary genius and
sagacity of some one, or of some very few individuals. An
epoch of this kind was the discovery of the Fluxionary calculus
in the history of mathematical science. The labors of Linneus
in Botany, of Haller in Physiology, of Lavoisier and Dalton in
Chemistry, of Cavier in Zoology, constituted like remarkable
eras in each of these several sciences. Each of these eras
creates, not a. revolution merely, but it constitutes a new birth,
a teg, eneration of the science in which it occurs. The uncer-

 

                               5

 tain and indefinite becomes definite and certain. That which
 was before meaningless, becomes now significant. The appa-
 rently trivial and useless, in consequence of taking its appro-
 priate position, is made important and valuable. That which
 was before without form, and void, assumes shape and arrange-
 ment, and is filled with a new creation. The spirit has brooded
 over the chaos, transforming it into order, and covering it with
 beauty. The breath of life is now breathed into the body,
 before cold and inanimate. The limbs now move, the heart
 beats, the eye sees, the tongue utters. The science, whatever
 it may be, is no longer barren; it becomes prolific of new and
 great results ; it starts on a fresh career ; it spreads its wings
 for a bolder flight. Henceforward there is opened to it a
 broader and a clearer pathway.
   It must be obvious enough, I think, to any one who has at
all looked into the subject, that the science of the humat mind
constitutes no exception to the remarks already made in rela-
tion to the slow growth of most of the other sciences. Certain,
at any rate, is it, that hitherto, till within a very short period,
it has been surrounded by the same thick obscurity and vague-
ness which have enveloped the other sciences previous to the
discovery of their true laws,-to the establishment of their
fundamental principles. Almost the whole history of meta-
physics is a record of absurdities, and inconsistencies, and
contradictions. The very name has become, almost by common
consent, only another term for intellectual harlequinism and
jugglery. Never has the human mind been guilty of playing
more fantastic tricks, than when attempting by misdirected and
impotent efforts to unriddle the mystery of its own constitution.
It is certainly unnecessary for me, whether speaking to phre-
nologists or to anti-phrenologists, to insist upon this particular
point, or to spend any time in the supererogatory labor of
endeavoring either to prove or to illustrate the almost universal
unsatisfactoriness, emptiness, and unprofitableness of those
subtle fancies,-those shadowy and spectral visions of the
human understanding, which have been dignified with the

 

6



Rtle of metaphysics,-which have arrogated to themselves the
high distinctions of philosophy.
  Whether the phrenological era holds a like place in the
history of the science of mind, which the Baconian era holds
in the history of the art of observation and induction, or the
Newtonian in that of the sciences of mathematics and astrono-
my, is yet an unsettled and disputed matter. A large majority
indeed of the scientific and learned world wholly deny the
claims of phrenology to the character of a science. They treat it
for the most part with contempt; or, at best, they regard it but as
oneamong the many delusions of the are. There is a question
then. Are they, its contemners and opposers, right; or are we
so, its disciples and advocates Is Phrenology true, or is it
false Is it a sky-rocket only, shooting up, with a transient
and artificial glare, some few hundred feet in the atmosphere of
the earth, or is it indeed a new star, kindled and set forever in
the depths of the firmament
  It will be the object of this Address, to exhibit some of the
reasons which we have for believing that Phrenology does
constitute a great era, analogous to those of which I have
spoken;-that it is, what it claims to be, the true science of the
human mind;-that its laws are the laws of the human mind;
-that it has interpreted, truly, that revelation of God written in
the constitution of man's spiritual nature.
  Phrenology, in so far as it claims to have demonstrated the
existence of a multiplicity of cerebral organs, each concerned
in the manifestation of a primary and elemental faculty or
power of the mind, must rest for support, singly and exclusive-
ly, on observation. The truth of this fundamental proposition
of the science, we believe, has been so established. It is not
my purpose, at the present time, to go into this part of the
subject, for the good reason, among others, that I have not
qualified myself sufficiently, by practical study, to do so; and I
pass from it with the single remark, that the science, so far as
its organology, so called, is concerned, appeals to this only and
ultimate test of its pretensions to truth, and that by this test

 

7



alone can it be fairly tried and judged. I may say, also, that
the opposers of phrenology have, for the most part, overlooked
or misapprehended this fact; and that they have, instead of
endeavoring to controvert the alleged results of observation, in
the only way in which such results can be controverted, by
counter observation, resorted to reasoning or to speculation,
based only upon certain gratuitous and assumed premises, or,
as has been more commonly the case, to misrepresentation and
ridicule.
  Leaving this topic, then, I proceed to say, that the true sci-
ence of the human mind ought to issue in human good;-it
ought to be productive of beneficent results. Such has been
the case with all the other sciences ;-such ought, also, to be the
case with this. Astronomy, mathematics, geology, chemistry,
physiology, have all proved themselves not merely subjects of
abstract intellectual interest and curiosity, but matters of great
practical usefulness. They have acted upon man's daily life.
They have aided in improving his spiritual nature, and they
minister to his commonest wants. They enlarge and elevate
his mind; they clothe and nourish and protect his body. They
make the elements his servants to do his bidding. They make
his time-keepers, for seconds, or for ages, the stars on the dial-
plate of the sky. They carry him over the land,-they guide
him across the sea,-his pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by
night. Unfolding to him the mysteries of the visible world,
they bring him nearer to its author, God. If Phrenology, I
repeat, is what it pretends to be, it must also, like its sister
sciences, show itself directly instrumental in promoting the
best interests of the human race. And if it does so show itself,
we have a right to see herein another evidence of its truth. I
shall, therefore, after these preliminary observations, endeavor
to apply this test of the claims of Phrenology, derived from
some few of its leading tendencies and results, both practical
and philosophical-from the natural and inevitable issues of
its principles and laws.
  The first general result of the Phrenological doctrines of

 

8



which I shall speak, is the separation which they make of our
true humanity from those accidental and factitious circumstan-
ces with which it is interwoven and overlaid. By revealing to
us the essential nature of humanity, in its complex physical
and spiritual constitution, it exposes, also, the manifold illusions,
which this humanity has always and everywhere worn. In
the clear liaht of Phrenology, man, for the first time, stands be-
fore us as man,-whatever, and however unlike and diverse
may be the accidents of his environment. If there is any one
moral truth, which can claim to be a central truth,-the truth of
truths,-it is that of the entire, essential, absolute oneness and
equality of human nature. All right rests upon this, its only
immutable basis; all order flows from this, its sole inexhausti-
ble fountain. I do not claim for Phrenology the merit of hav-
ing first asserted or promulgated this truth. Always, through-
out all time, and in every country, have there been SEERS, who
have read the sublime record written on their own hearts;-
always, too, have there been PROPHETS and TEACHERS, who
have uttered it. It is a doctrine, also, of inspiration. It was
proclaimed by Moses, and it runs through all the teachings of
Christ. I do not claim for Phrenology, I say, the merit of hav-
ing first asserted and promulgated this truth ; but I do claim for
it the next highest merit of having given to that which was,
before, only matter of argument or speculation, or of dogmatic
statement, merely, the fixed and positive and everlasting attri-
butes of science. What was precept became law, unchangea-
ble and eternal, and universally binding in its obligations.
  In spite of all the teachings of sages and philosophers and
prophets, blind to the light of wisdom, and deaf to the oracles
of Revelation, men, generally, have never believed this truth.
They do not yet believe it. At least they do not feel it, and
they never have felt it. The feeling,-and in this case the
feeling is equivalent to the belief,-is almost universal, that the
circumstances, by which each man and woman is accidentally
surrounded, have wrought a change in that man's or woman's
nature, and rendered it unlike that of an individual surrounded

 

9



by wholly different circumstances. I am sure that I do not
state this too strongly. Phrenology not only asserts, what has
always been nominally asserted, that this is not the case, but it
shows the reasons why it is not. Phrenology not only teaches
the great opposite truth, but it makes plainly visible the founda-
tion on which the truth rests ; it developes its principles,-it
unfolds and establishes its laws and sanctions. We see, by its
light, not only that every man is the equal brother of every
other man, but we see, also, why he is so, and how he is so, and
wherein he is so.
  Let us develope this thought a little, in reference to its bear-
ing on the distribution of human happiness, and so far as it
relates to man's spiritual being. Phrenology shows, that this
spiritual nature of man consists, like his body, of one harmoni-
ous whole, composed of many parts or faculties, all tending to
one end,-all conspiring to form a perfect ONE. It teaches, that
the various powers of the mind have each its independent law,
as well as such as grow out of their mutual relations. It
teaches, that in the healthy energy and rational activity of each
individual faculty consists the pleasure which this faculty is
capable of imparting,-the good of which it was intended to be
productive. It teaches, that the pleasure and the good depends,
exclusively, upon this energy and activity in each particular
instance. It also teaches, that a certain appropriate form of
suffering is the pre-ordained and inevitable consequence of a
want of this activity, or of an excess of it, in each faculty. All
of happiness and all of misery, all of good and all of evil, which
we here enjoy or suffer, excepting such as comes from mere
aninial indulgence, or mere bodily pain, is exclusively depend-
ent on the condition of these powers. The proper cultivation
and use of all these powers, the lower actingr ever in subordina-
tion to the higher, the selfish and the animal subject always to
the disinterested, the intellectual and the moral, is happiness
and good. Every departure from this rule is suffering and
evil.
  We thus see where it is that 'the primal Law of Equality
                     2

 


10



rests. The same powers which constituted the mighty intellect
of Isaac Newton, constitute, also, the intellects of all other men.
That same light which made his mind luminous with a sun-
like brightness, has enlightened, also, every man that cometh
into the world. I am not speaking, of course, of the amount
of acquired knowledge, or of the relative capacities for acquisi-
tion. Herein, as in many other respects, do the minds of men
so differ, that no two probably ever existed, or ever will exist,
precisely alike. This kind of original likeness is not that
which I speak of. Indeed, Phrenology first fully exhibited the
error and absurdity of this notion. I only mean to say, that as
God has given to every soundly-constituted body eyes to see,
and feet to walk, and lips to utter, so has he given to every
soundly-constituted mind the powers, in kind, though not in
degree, of every other mind, and that he has made them subject,
in every individual of the race, to the same laws. The differ-
ences between different minds are like the differences between
different bodies. Some are stronger than others in their origin-
al constitution; others are rendered strong and effective by
active training, and each one has its own peculiar combination
of endowments, as each face has of features. But the kind of
pleasure derived from the use of each intellectual power is the
same in every mind, and the amount of individual gratification,
flowing from the action of a limited power, may often be but
little less than that resulting from the action of the highest.
The single essential point, so far as individual happiness is
concerned, is the cultivation and employment of the power
itself; its appropriation to the purposes for which it was be-
stowed.  I may remark here, that the acquired differences
among men, depending upon the purely intellectual powers,
correspond more nearly to differences of outward condition,
than those depending upon the other portions of his spiritual
nature. High intellectual culture presupposes exemption from
the necessity of constant bodily toil, and the means of full and
free communion with cultivated cotemporary intellect, and
with the intellect, also, of accumulated ages. This exemption

 

11



has never yet been made the common lot, and hence has arisen
the great inequality in the intellectual condition of different
classes of men.
   The truth which I am endeavoring to exhibit finds a more
 striking illustration in the moral and instinctive powers of our
 complex nature. One of the strongest of these innate feelings
 is the desire for acquisition,-the love of gain. Now, the de-
 gree of pleasure which results from the gratification of this
 desire, and of pain which follows its disappointment, is not at
 all dependent upon the mag-nitude and importance of the object
 of desire. The selfish exultation, with which the miser in his
 rags gloats at his little heap of hoarded gold, is the same feeling
 that fills the mind of the lordly banker who counts his yearly
 gain by millions, and it may be equally intense. And so is the
 arrow tipped with the same poison, and sent from the same
 bow-string, which strikes with a pang the heart of the sordid
 wretch from whose desperate clutch is torn a single dollar, and
 that of the merchant-prince when his palace is wrapped in
 flames, or when his richest argosy goes down at sea. The
 pleasure is the same in nature, and it may not differ in degree,
 so far as this particular faculty is concerned, in the two cases;
 and so is also the pain. The pleasure consists in the activity
 and gratification of the faculty; the pain consists in its disap-
 pointment, independent of the importance of the object upon
 which it is exerted, and independent of circumstances affecting
 other portions of our nature.
 The same thing is true of all those capacities and feelings
 upon which almost the whole of life's weal and wo depend.
 Ever ready are we to magnify the happiness of exalted station,
 and high honor, and great riches. But the hope of a coming
 good lights up an ecstacy in the peasant's heart as wvarm as in
 the prince's. What though, in the one case, it be the hope only
 of some common thing,-a village festival, or a day of rest from
 labor,-and in the other, the high and palmy hope of empire or
 renown-it matters not, for in each case the feeling is the same;
the joy which overspreads each heart issues out from the same

 


12



fountain. Does not maternal love-that deepest instinct-
yearn with as passionate a tenderness over its object, when this
object is cradled in poverty and nursed by pining want, as
when it rests on the lap of affluence and ease  Wherever the
darling object is, there is the delight;-wherever the passion is,
there is there woven by it, over the future, its tissue, many
colored, of hopes and forebodings, of sadness and joy. Little
matters it, nothing matters it, to the darkness of the shade in
this picture, or the brightness of the light, whether it be hung
under the thatched roof of a cabin, or the golden and frescoed
ceiling of a royal saloon.
   So is it with every thing that adorns and blesses and sancti-
fies and humanizes the soul. So is it with all kindly sympa-
thies,-so is it with all merriment and all sadness,-so is it with
piety and reverence,-so is it with all the sweet charities of
life,-so is it with the memories of the past, garnered in the
heart and embalmed,-so is it with the hopes of the future, ever
springing in our path, flowers of like fragrance and beauty,
whether this path be along the cool-sequestered vale of life, or
over the broad highway of nations, and in sight of the world.
  It is certainly true, that our conviction and feeling of the
universal likeness of human nature, in its elements and rela-
tions, is strengthened, and made distinct and vivid, by the view
of this nature which Phrenology presents to us. The kindred
truth, that all human well-being and all human ill,-excepting
so far as the body is concerned,-has been linked, indissolubly,
with certain states and conditions of the several elementary
principles of our spiritual being, is also more clearly compre-
hended, and more practically realized, by the aid of Phrenology.
By the same aid are we enabled to see more distinctly than
without it, how, independent of the accidents of outward condi-
tion, has the distribution of human happiness been made.
  How important it is that these truths should be,-not merely
granted with a cold and unfelt assent,-but embraced by the
intellect and the sentiments, and infused through the whole
thinking and feeling soul, it is unnecessary for me to say. I

 


13



have already observed that they lie at the foundation of all civil
right, that they are the root of all social order. They are, also,
the nurse of all true philanthropy. They give not only life,
but sacredness to the common brotherhood of humanity.
They bring all men nearer to each other. They warm and
deepen the currents of human sympathy. They strengthen the
bonds of human fellowship.
  By dispelling the illusions of a spurious philosophy, by
stripping of from the soul of humanity the false guises in
which it has been clad, the meretricious finery, the masquerade
dresses and the counterfeit visors in which old custom, and
SOCIETY,-SO called,-has tricked it out, they show us our
fellow-men in a new aspect, in the light and in the position
where God has placed them; and in this light how much that
is called low is exalted; how much that is called high is abased!
  Phrenology cannot be true, it is not what it pretends to be,
the veritable science of the human mind, unless it sheds new
light on the subject of education. If it enables us to understand,
better than. we have hitherto done, the constitution of the
mind, it ought also to assist us in the management and train-
itng of the mind. The high merit of having done this, no one,
I believe, acquainted with the history and character of Phren-
ology, will deny. It has done this in many ways. For my
present purpose, however, it will be sufficient to mention one or
two only. Phrenology first fully unfolded and established this
great and elementary principle of education,-that each and
every power of the mind,-intellectual, moral, and instinctive,
-can be strengthened and developed only by its own activity,
and that this activity can be excited only by placing the power
in relation to its appropriate objects or phenomena. It took
this truth, as it did other truths relating to the mind, out of
the domain of vague generalities, of common sense sagacity,
and gave to it the absoluteness, and certainty, and simplicity
of a demonstrable law. And it is the primal law of education;
its very seminal principle. Disregarded has it always been, in
all systems of education; disregarded it still is, for the most

 


14



part, both in theory and in practice. The higher powers of
the miind, for instance, such as reverence, conscientiousness
and benevolence, have been generally appealed to, through the
exclusive medium of the knowing faculties; and how universal-
ly unanswered has been the appeal! Men have asked of the
mind, bread, and it has given them a stone, and why should it
not, since the boon was not rightly asked I know very well,
that, within a short period, many persons, not professed disci-
ples of Phrenology, have begun to see this truth, and to vindi-
cate, ably and zealously, its immense practical importance.
None the less true is it, also, that for whatever of genuine in-
sight these persons have obtained of this fundamental doctrine,
are they more or less indebted to the principles and develop-
ments of Phrenology.
  Most of my hearers, I suppose, are so far acquainted with
these principles, as to understand my meaning without further
explanation. But as this pretension in behalf of Phrenology,
so far as its practical results are concerned, is one of the very
highest that can be made, I will take the liberty, in order to
render myself intelligible to those who are not familiar with its
principles, to state, as briefly and explicitly as I am able to
do, what I mean.
  The truth which I claim to have been first authoritatively
asserted and demonstrated by Phrenology, as a law of the
mental constitution, is this ;-that every separate power and
capacity of the human mind can be developed and strengthen-
ed only by developing and exciting its own, peculiar, individual
activity; and that, therefore, the education of each and every
faculty is dependent wholly upon those means and influences
which increase, or diminish, or control this activity andstrength.
That power of the mind which takes cognizance of the rela-
tions of numbers, can be educated only through its own instru-
mentality; it can acquire skill and facility in calculating these
relations, only by calculating them; and just in proportion to
the amount of its original vigor and of its educated activity,
will be its strength and capabilities. This is strictly true of

 

15



every intellectual power, and it is as true of the animal instincts
as it is of the knowing faculties. The love of children is made
strong and fervent by loving children. Hate becomes a burn-
ing and ferocious passion only by hating. And, furthermore,
as strictly true as this is of the intellect and the instincts, is it
of all the higher sentiments. Hope can be nourished only by
its own ambrosial food,-the brigaht colors, the ever-blossonming
flowers, the fairy enchantments of the future. Conscientious-
ness, that deep-seated sentiment of right and wrong, that stern
monitor within us, can be crowned with the supremacy which
it was designed to possess, only by our being just. Ideality,-
that versatile power,-constituting, as it may be said to do, the
wings of the spirit, can acquire strength and freedom only by
soaring aloft into a pure and celestial atmosphere, and by visit-
ing, in the heavens and on the earth, those scenes of beauty
and sublimity and order, those manifestations of the perfect, the
excellent and the fair, which have been created for its gratifica-
tion. Benevolence can be quickened into a divine and soothing
sentiment only by our being compassionate and humane.
   The bearing of this principle must be perfectly manifest. It
iseasyto see, that all education hinges upon it; and you wvould
almost as soon tolerate me in consuming your time with a
formal argument in favor of education itself, as in any more
elaborate effort to show the importance of the truth which I
have stated.
  There is another great elementary truth, bearing directly
upon the subject of education, which, like the one already spok-
en of, was first clearly demonstrated, as a natural law of man's
spiritual being, by Phrenology. I mean that of the absolute rule
and superiority, which the Author of the mind has conferred on
the religious and disinterested sentiments, over all the other
powers. Phrenology has not merely pointed out the only effec-
tive method of educating these sentiments, but it has vindicated
for them their inalienable supremacy. Far be it from me, I
say again, as I have said in another connection, to arrogate, for
Phrenology, the merit of having discovered, or of having first

 

16



promulgated the truth of which I now speak. No one, I trust,
will suppose me guilty of such ignorance, or of such presump-
tion. Always has it been taught, by the wise and the good,
everywhere, and throughout all time, eloquently in their pre-
cepts, and more eloquently still in their happy and beneficent
lives, and in their deaths of serenity and triumphant hope. It
is the declaration of prophets and apostles,-it is the song of
the seraphim, it is the great lesson of Christ, it is the voice of
God. Nevertheless, it is true, that to Phrenology belongs the
high distinction of having placed this doctrine on the firm basis
of demonstration, of having fixed it, immutably, in the very or-
ganization of humanity, one of its central and everlasting laws.
  This truth, like the other of which I have spoken, is almost
universally disregarded. In all systems of education, the intel-
lectual powers are almost exclusively considered; a very sub-
ordinate place is assigned to the higher sentiments, and herein
consists one of the most melancholy and disastrous errors of
these systems. Almost the whole surface of the civilized world
is spread over with school-houses for the nurture of the infant
intellect, and universities are built, and professorships are en-
dowed, to aid it in its maturer training. I do not complain
that this has been done, but that the other has been left un-
done. One of the highest ends, even of intellectual culture, is
almost entirely overlooked and neglected,-that of promoting
the development and regulating the action of the moral and
religious feelings, and of ministering, directly or indirectly, to
their good.
  It is not my purpose, in this address, to attempt any thing
farther, than to state some of the general tendencies and results
of the Phrenological doctrines, accompanied with such illustra-
tions as may be necessary to render them intelligible. I cannot,
of course, go very fully into the details of their practical opera-
tion. I wish, however, here, to be indulged in a few remarks
of this latter character. Free and liberal governments have
thought it their safety as well as their duty, to provide for, and
encourage general education. The axiom is, that popular in-

 



telligence is the only sure support and safe guardian of popular
government. All political institutions, resting, to any consider-
able extent, on the popular or democratic principle, recognize
this relation ;-they profess to rely upon it for their stability,
and efficiency for good. What I wish to say,is this :-If the ed-
ucation, Ion which popular government is to rest, be the educa-
tion of the intellect merely, then it leans on a broken reed.-
How is it here, at home, in this Federal Republic Will in-
tellectual culture, alone, perfect and universal as it can be made,
secure to us the permanency and the purity of our institutions 
Will it keep inviolate the spirit of rational liberty, which per-
vades and consecrates the written charter of our rights  Will
it hold, unbroken, the links of that chain, which binds these
states together  Will it prove a sufficient security for national
peace, prosperity and happiness Can we confide to it the
keeping of our hearth-stones, and our altars Will it guard us
in the business of the day Will it be round about us-a tu-
telary presence-in the watches of the night No! never, nev-
er, never! Unless the sense of right and wrong between man
and man be ripened to a hardier growth amongst us, than it
has ever yet attained,-unless the true and great relation, which
every man sustains to all oth