A view of the philosophical principles of phrenology / by J. Spurzheim.

  • Johann Spurzheim
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A view of the philosophical principles of phrenology / by J. Spurzheim. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    Of Morality. The natural law of the subordination of the faculties leads us immediately to take a view of the morality of our actions, or to consider moral good and moral evil. The first steji will be to inquire whether evil exists or not. Having settled tliis point, I sliall then discuss its nature and examine its origin. Two kinds of evil ai*e commonly spoken of; the one physical, the other moral. There is an evident opposition throughout all nature. Earth, water, and ah*, present a perpetual scene of destruction and reproduction, of pain and pleasure. And even as temporal good is often distributed unequally and without personal desert, so physical evil is frequently inflicted Avithout any fault on the part of the sufferer, and this both among animals and the human kind. Why should domestic animals so often be ill fed and harshly treated in reward for their services ? Why should all suffer by contagious diseases ^ Wherefore must the children begotten in debauchery, expiate the sins of their parents ? Why, when the hail-storm ravages the wide-spread harvest of the indolent and rich man, does it not spare the little garden of the labo- rious poor? Such melancholy queries have been put at all times. The preacher says, There is a just man that pe- risheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness*/' All things, says he, come alike to all: there is one event to the riglitcous and to the wicked; to the good, and to the clean, and to the * J)ccles. vii. 15.]
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