60 Dr. Spurzheivi's demonstrative Course of Lectures 



understand it. Actors and artists should know this, to malce the 

 imitation of what is desired. — Expressions of agreeable and dis- 

 agreeable; we inspire an agreeable smell, Ave expire a disagree- 

 able one, and so with all otlier senses and faculties. All disagree- 

 able things contract the body. Yes or No. The former inclines 

 the bodv forward, the latter reclines back and shakes it off. 



Lfct 15. The important subject of education now engaged 

 the Professor's attention. The nature of man is determinate. — 

 He mav reduce all knowledge to two ideas; exteriuil circum- 

 stances and education. Savage or wild men arc said to be ignorant 

 because thev have received no education, but it is because they 

 are deficient in natural faculties. The wild boy of Avignon is 

 still ignorant and silly. Idiots sometimes wander into the woods 

 and become like savages feeding on vegetables, &:c. It is want 

 of talent and not edu.cation that occasions this state. But, edu- 

 cation is extremely important, although it is given. Are we all 

 of the same species ? Caribs and Negroes are different, yet in 

 them all the organs of the brain are found, and therefore they 

 cannot be a different species. In future, the r.ervous system 

 iiuist be the basis of all classification ; the nerves we find sinular, 

 and accordingly some Negroes are mathematicians, &c. and con- 

 sequently not of a ditTerent species. — All men in general similar; 

 then how shall we perfect man ? Natme is the same now as in 

 ancient times ; we can neither take away nor give a iaculty; we 

 can only cultivate one and suppress another, and by this mer-ns 

 not only individuals but whole nations may be so far ])erfected.-— 

 it nnist be admitted that very little success has hitherto attended 

 our efforts in education, notwithstanding what lias been written 

 on the subject. The knowledge of man is still very backward, 

 and consequently so is education ; the cause is obvious; we have 

 pursued an erroneous method. We must begin where we now 

 end. How do we improve the species of animals ? by innate- 

 ness. It has long been deemed desirable to belong to certain fami- 

 lies where there are no hereditary diseases. If there be heredi- 

 tary diseases then tb.cre must be hereditary organization, and 

 therefore inn ateness. In improving plants we consider the seed ; 

 sov/ it in the same soil and nature furjiishes genuses, one plant 

 is very fine, anotlier is indifferent ; we preserve the seed of the 

 good and reject that of the bad. Ingrafted trees are used to im- 

 prove the quality of the fruit ; yet they ultimately degenerate and 

 die, as the stock is unsound on which the graft was placed. To 

 improve wool, we begin by improving the breed and blood of the 

 *.heep, and not by changing their food ; here we begin with birth 

 and race ; we snould do the same with man. The ancients wer* 

 attentive to this in their marriages. Moses speaks of sons of 

 God and daughters of men j Aristotle arid Plat» observe it. — 



There 



