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
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.
53/368 page 47
![entire renovation of purpose, that we are forced to believe fully, in a •' change of heart, and yet, as I have before remarked, this change, though radical, only afiects the motives of conduct; but there is neither a creation nor annihilation of faculties. Intimately connected with the doctrine of change of heart, there is another favourite tenet called ^'^growth in grace,''' and the objector asks, how can we explain this Phrenologically ] To grew in grace consists first in overcoming the besetting sins of which we are conscious, and secondly, in making positive progress in our advancement. The mind developes more and more in a moral and spiritual direction, by becoming less subject to the influences and appetites of the body. The person who grows in grace becomes more pure and elevated, labours to do more good, to secui-e the happi- ness of the greatest number, to set a better example to his neighbours, to extend the mantle of charity over the frailties of his fellow-beings, to enlarge his sphere of usefulness to improve the human race, and to have a noble conception of the attributes of the Deity. When the higher faculties of the mind are able to control the propensities, then we may be assured that we are growing in grace. The child cries, because it desires to eat, drink, and have playthings. But the child grows and developes, and its desires increase. It not only in a few years wants physical gratifications for its body, but it desires knowledge. As the reasoning powers expand, the child inquires not only who gave to liim his body, brain, and soul, but who is God ? where does He live 1 who is the father of God ? and it is evident that there is no bound or limit to the meiaphysic&- queries of an investigating mind. We are conscious of this inteliecU^a] growth of the child as he emerges from childhood into manhood. Growth in grace is a similar process, only that it is spiritual in its nature. The mind grows in grace in proportion as a man strives to live a life preparatory for eternity. We have our besetting sins, and these are peculiar to the individual. Some persons have an appetite which controls them ; others have to contend with a strong will, pride, vanity, &c. While we continue to have tendencies of mind that lead us downward, we lack balance of power and that harmony of development which produces a beautiful consistency of conduct. In proportion as the intellect and moral brain have the ascendency, in that same proportion do we grow. Phrenology distinctly teaches this doc- trine. A clergyman would tell a querulous brother in the Church, that in order for him to perfect himself in the Christian graces, he must cease from quarrelling, and regard the rights of his neighbours as his own. Phrenology, using a little different phraseology, instead of giving general directions, would say that an excessive development of Destructiveness and Combativeness induced the man to fight and contend ; that he must repress the perverted action of these executive organs, stimulate Benevolence and the other moral faculties. One of the leading princijDles of Phrenology is, that the organs increase in size and activity by cultivation, and diminish, as the muscle of the arm, by !i-want of action. D](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21053029_0053.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
