Lectures on man: being a series of discourses on phrenology and physiology / Delivered by Professor L.N. Fowler in Great Britain.

  • Lorenzo N. Fowler
Date:
1886
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on man: being a series of discourses on phrenology and physiology / Delivered by Professor L.N. Fowler in Great Britain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    ^>S4 maintain the opposite, have their opinions on the subject akeady formed, and then endeavour to harmonize Phrenology with their own infidel views, and thus Phrenology has had to suffer, and its promul- gation among Christian people has been retarded. It is true that Phrenology does not teach sectarianism, or prescribe any peculiar form of creed or religious ceremony. Forms and creeds are adapted to certain tones of mind and stages of mental and moral development. Some persons can observe the laws of their Creator without external ceremonies, while some need the latter as types of the inner worship of the soul. Some individuals cannot pray unless they make loud demonstrations, while others do not have any outward ceremony, even audible words, and in silent devotion worship their Maker in spirit and in truth. Those who pray orally should not condemn a silent wor- shipper, because each from the Word of Inspiration find their sanction. The same is true with creeds and forms of worship. Let each one exercise his spiritual nature according to the light which is within him. Phrenology teaches that the moral organs as well as the other faculties can be perpetuated or transmitted from parent to child, but it does not declare that a spiritual birth can be perpetuated ; it does not teach that children will go to heaven because their parents do, but that accountability depends upon organization, natural ability, and opportunity for improvement; that there are moral idiots as well as intellectual and physical idiots. Upon the same principle that an individual is an idiot intellectually, will he be an idiot morally, and he is as constitutionally liable to moral defects as to physical and intel- lectual imperfections. It is a well-established fact, that some are defective physically because of influences from parents prior to their birth. If both parents are sickly, the children are frequently the same ; and it is not very strange that such is the consequence, but more sur- prising when healthy children are born from feeble parents. There is an instinctive recognition of the fact that a relationship exists between parents and children as to organization. The same law holds true in re- ference to the moral nature. K parents are defective in the moral brain, or if the moral faculties are not much exercised by the parents, the minds of the children are not likely to have a high moral tone. This is Bible doctrine also, for the Bible distinctly declares that the sins of the parents shall be transmitted to the third and fourth generations. Phrenology teaches that children are not to be blamed for their natural defects. How can a child help having black or grey hair, blue or grey eyes, a weak or healthy constitution, a strong or deficient intellect, large or smaU moral organs ? The blame rests on those who gave it exist- ence, but Phrenology is not responsible for these derelictions or differ- ences. It only ex]3lains the reasons why they are thus. Phrenology also teaches that some children and nations have a great advantage over others in the scale of organization. When this fact is stated clearly, I have frequently heard the remark made that God is partial to some of His children ; but if we look at the,subject in the light of