PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 313 



the tody in the insect and reptile tribes ; but are collected together 

 into one mass, named the brain, in the more perfect quadrupeds, and 

 in man. And as the ganglia have each their own operations to per- 

 form, in the bodies of insects and reptiles, so, in man, each part of 

 the brain preserves its own especial use, and the whole is moved by 

 the will, or mind. The external examination of this astonishing 

 structure, which is termed phrenology, affords satisfactory evidences, 

 to a certain degree, of its laws and conditional functions. The lec- 

 turer here observed that the prejudices against phrenology have their 

 existence in the minds of sensible persons, only through their not 

 having sufficient leisure, or opportunity, to examine into the evi- 

 dences, or proofs, of the system ; and their being led, too hastily, to 

 imagine that phrenology leads to fatalism, by the substitution of an 

 organic necessity in place of free-will and free-agency. On the con- 

 trary, he -.shewed that fatalism, by reducing man to the condition of 

 a machine moved by an external power, extinguished the idea of sin 

 and of moral responsibility, here and hereafter : a doctrine directly 

 opposed to Christianity, morality, education, and benevolence. But 

 the influence of education controls our anti-social and dangerous 

 propensities, and restrains our inordinate passions. Thus we derive 

 from them, under this salutary direction and control, the great prin- 

 ciples on which society is founded, and which contribute to its hap- 

 piness and prosperity. ^' If you admit in mankind" — say our oppo- 

 nents — " a propensity or love for the destruction of animated beings, 

 man must and may, kill his fellow without sin." The answer is — cer- 

 tainly not. A father has an affection for his children, but it does not 

 follow, having reason for his guide, that he must have the same, or 

 an equal degree of affection for all children. His love of offspring is 

 limited by reason and by various feelings. In like manner, if a man, 

 from his destructive propensity, kills a fox, surely, he is not, from 

 the same propensity, to kill his neighbour : he is not, in this latter 

 case, obliged to commit this crime, any more than he is obliged to 

 love all children alike, or to hate all animals equally with the fox. 

 He is bound by natural and social ties, by laws divine and human, 

 not to commit murder ; his propensity to kill is controlled by the 

 laws of society, by religion, by morality, by education, and benevo- 

 lence. Now, if education, morality, religion, and benevolence, can 

 be, for a moment, supposed to have no influence on the mind (and 

 to believe this would be to outrage all experience), then man must act 

 by, or from, an organic necessity. He must, having the organiza- 

 tion, kill all indiscriminately, wherever he can : and to this glaring 

 absurdity, so contrary to the evidence of all human nature, does the 

 idea of a supposed fatality inevitably lead. 



The destructive and carnivorous propensity of animals is, in like 

 manner, restrained and subdued by punishment and coercive train- 

 ing< This severe external discipline, which is to them what educa- 

 tion is to man, calls forth their fear into a stronger action than their 

 destructive propensity. Thus trained, a cat will walk about among 

 pigeons, hens and chickens, without ever attempting to kill one of 



