Part 2

It is well known that the Copernican System was declared by the Pope, on its introduction, in a bull, specially issued for the purpose, to be “false in fact and heretical in religion,” and its author was doomed to imprisonment for his discovery! and we find that while Plato, Cicero, Aristotle, Strabo, and other heathen authors allowed the rotundity of the earth, that Lactantius, _one of the Christian Fathers_, influenced by the well meaning, but ill employed fear I have described, contended for the old opinion. He asks, “Is any one so foolish, as to believe that there are men whose feet are higher than their heads; trees growing downwards; rain, snow, and hail, falling upwards?”

Lactantius feared that his Religion and the new theory could not exist together. We have become assured of the truth of the theory, and who _now_ fears for the Scriptures on account of the globular form of the Earth?

Some few years since Geology was introduced as a science, the Christian World became alarmed; the pens of divines were busily employed to write down the supposed delusion; the patient Investigators of the structure of the Earth continued their labor, and we now find that, as the science makes way the fear subsides, and Geology, in the present day, numbers among its supporters and defenders some of the brightest ornaments of the Christian Church.

It may not be familiar to my readers, that even Navigation, by the discovery and pursuit of which mankind in our day are always passing in large numbers upon the Ocean, which we term in modern language, the “Highway of Nations;” which is quite indispensible to the intercourse and commerce of the world; which conduces so much, and in so many ways, to human happiness: by the aid of which the providential bounties of the Torrid are conveyed to the Inhabitants of the Frigid Zone: and even the Polar Seas themselves are laid under contribution and made to minister to the comfort and enjoyment of the Inhabitants of more temperate climes.

It may, possibly, astonish some of my Christian Readers to be informed that Navigation without which the precept of the Scripture “Preach the Gospel to every Creature” could never be complied with; and the abandonment of which would involve the annihilation to a large extent of Benevolent and Missionary enterprise, it may astonish them to know that even Navigation has been denounced as impiety, but such is the fact! we find the accomplished Horace writing thus:—“In vain did a God _purposely_, cut off the lands from the Ocean, _forbidding all intercourse_, if, nevertheless, the impious Barks bound contemptuously over the seas not to be touched.” {23}

The difficulty appears to be, to get mankind to understand that the wonders of Nature are no less wonderful because we are permitted, successfully, to explore the various laws and modes of her operations.

Are we at all less indebted to Providence for the “showers that water the Earth” because we now know that the moisture is exhaled from our planet before it is dropped from the cloud?

Is the genial influence of the Sun of less importance because we are, now, aware that the Earth revolves around it, instead of (as our fathers supposed) the Sun revolving round the Earth?

Is the planetary system at all less interesting to us because the extension of telescopic vision has shewn us new worlds beyond the ken and credence of our forefathers? Surely not! But, should we not rather be the more impressed with the greatness and the condescension of God, just in proportion as we are permitted to advance, cautiously and tremblingly indeed, in the contemplation and understanding of his work?

Man is a complex being, “fearfully and wonderfully made,” having, besides his bodily powers, some principle which keeps the machine in motion, and some unseen, yet evident power of volition by the aid, and at the command of which his several actions are performed.

In what part of the system that power is deposited was long held to be doubtful; but, it is now generally allowed that the seat of that power is the brain, and several industrious and learned men have, of late years, been carefully engaged in endeavours to understand the anatomy of that part of the human frame.

The result of their inquiries, as might be supposed, has been variously stated by different individuals; among other ideas, some have supposed they were able to trace, with tolerable correctness, the various parts of the brain which impelled the individual to various actions; and they endeavoured to assign to each class of human sentiment and faculty its peculiar portion which they have designated Organs.

They have, in pursuance of their Theory, mapped out the human scull into compartments, to each of which they have assigned a particular faculty or sentiment, and they profess to tell, with some degree of accuracy, the individual character by the peculiar formation of the head.

The reader will bear in mind, that I profess not even to conjecture, in this argument, the truth or fallacy of the system, that Phrenologists have laid down; I am only endeavouring to disabuse the mind of the serious and pious man of any fears for his Religion, on the possibility that Phrenology should be found true.

No man can have observed human Nature, with even common or ordinary care, but must have been impressed with the fact, that there is as much diversity in the development of mind as is apparent, to common observation, in the structure of the body. One man is mentally competent to, and would excel in one department of Art or Science or of ordinary Business in which another would certainly fail, while the first would be equally deficient in another department, not by any means requiring more than common sagacity to insure success. This is a matter of such common observation that I need not enlarge upon it.

My position then is this; That allowing, as we must, the great diversity of mental, human character, it will do no damage to Religion if Phrenology should succeed in exhibiting that, minutely and in detail, which we already admit in the mass.

The Milky Way is not the less brilliant because to the Telescopic eye it exhibits a cluster of beauties, while to common observation, these minutiæ are concealed.

It can release no man from the common obligations which all owe to God, who judgeth not according to the sight of the eye: but, who “judgeth righteous judgment.”

If Phrenology be true, it may indeed teach us lessons of forbearance and charity to human frailty; but can in no respect affect our duty and obligations toward God.

In conclusion I observe, that I am, individually, quite unconcerned as to whether the Sciences, as they are termed, which we have been considering, should prove, on farther and fuller examination, to be true or to be false.

Possibly their promoters, in the sanguine pursuit of a new Theory, may have asked of the Public a too unsuspecting confidence, and may have pushed their Theory beyond its legitimate position. This I leave to them and to the Public to determine.

I sat down to write this address in order to defend myself, and as far as I may have expressed their sentiments, my friends also, from the unsparing censure which has been passed upon us _for our efforts to ascertain for ourselves the truth or falsehood of these phenomena_.

How far I have succeeded the Reader and the Public must determine. I have designed offence to no one, and I hope that no one has been offended. As to the remarks I felt compelled to make upon the Gentlemen who have published upon the subject, I think the reader will allow that I was justified, by the pamphlets themselves, for the course I have pursued.

I now take leave of the subject, careless as to the success of Mesmerism or Phrenology; and only solicitous that every facility should be afforded for the complete exhibition and testing of so important phenomena.

W. A.

Market-place, Lynn, Aug. 11th, 1843.

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FINIS.

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LYNN: PRINTED BY J. W. AIKEN, HIGH STREET.

FOOTNOTES.

{19} Dr. Chalmers says—“Perhaps the most singular attempt to graft Infidelity on any thing called a Science, is by those who associate their denial of the Christian Revelation with the doctrines of Phrenology, as if there were any earthly connection between the form of the human skull, or its effects upon the human character upon the one hand, and the truth or falsehood of our Religion on the other; for, granting them all their Organs, it no more tells either to the confirmation or disparagement of our historical evidence for the visitation of this earth by a messenger from Heaven, than it tells on the historical evidence for the invasion of Britain by Julius Cæsar. And we venture to affirm of all the other Sciences, that no discovery has been made in any of them, which is not in every way as inconsequential to the point at issue; and that the truths of all Philosophy put together as little interfere with the truths of the Gospel as the discoveries of the Astronomer interfere with the discoveries of the Anatomist.”

_Preface to Modern Philosophy_.

{23} Horace Car III. Lib. I.