"thoughts on physical education." 101 



certainly, is his distinct opinion. He advocates, also, the important 

 physiological principle, that, other things being equal, in proportion 

 to the size of a compartment of the brain, is its proneness to action 

 and the gratification which that action bestows on the individual. 

 Thus, when the animal compartment predominates in size, the de- 

 sire for an mal indulgences is keen, the pleasure derived from them 

 is intense, and the danger of lawless devotion to them is great. 

 When the moral compartment surpasses the rest in size, a wish to 

 comply with moral obligations constitutes the ruling passion of the 

 person whose brain is thus organized, and his chief delight is to do 

 his duty ; to him every act of well-doing is its own reward : he 

 follows virtue even for virtue's sake. Again, when a person has 

 the intellectual department of the brain exceeding the rest in size, 

 he is devoted to inquiry, if not to study : he delights in knowledge, 

 deems it a valuable possession, and devises, as well as practices some 

 mode of attaining it ; and the kind of knowledge most agreeable to 

 him is determined by the intellectual faculties and their organs 

 which, in his brain, are most developed. 



These views of Dr. C.'s are held forth by him as important and 

 encouraging, as they relate to education and the improvement it 

 produces : they point out a plain and easy process by which the con- 

 dition of man may be ameliorated. Hence, he states, if the moral 

 and intellectual compartments of the brain, in a child, be small, 

 they may be enlarged by training; and, in proportion to their 

 comparative increase of growth, will the young one's taste for know- 

 ledge and virtue concomitantly increase. By maturity in years, 

 this taste will be confirmed ; and, in organization (as the mind's 

 instrument) and its effects, the amended condition of the adult will 

 surpass not a little the promise of the child. By the law of inhe- 

 ritance, the children of this individual, resembling himself in his 

 mature condition, will be better organized than he was in his child- 

 hood. Train them, says Dr. C, and their descendants as he was 

 trained, until in time the highest perfection of their nature shall 

 be attained : extend this treatment to the whole human race, and 

 universal improvement in organization will be the issue : then will 

 be completed, on grounds that cannot be shaken, the triumph of the 

 intellectual and moral over the animal character of man. 



To the question, In what way is the moral compartment of the 

 brain to be cultivated, strengthened, and enlarged ? the Doctor re- 

 plies — by all sorts of moral excitement ; inculcating moral precepts; 

 presenting moral examples ; eliciting moral sentiments ; associating 

 much with companions strictly moral ; and by engaging early in the 



