Moral philosophy, or the duties of man considered in his individual, domestic, and social capacities / by George Combe.

  • Combe, George, 1788-1858.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Moral philosophy, or the duties of man considered in his individual, domestic, and social capacities / by George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    rREFACE. The present work appears in the form of Lectures, which were composed under the following ■circumstances — In 1832, an Association was formed by the industrious classes of Edinburgh, for obtaining instruction in useful and entertaining knowledge, by means of lectures, to be delivered in the evenings after business-hours. Those lectures were designed to be popular with regard to style and illustration, but systematic in arrangement and extent. One evening in each week was devoted to Astronomy; two nights to Chemistry ; and I was requested to deliver a course on Moral Philosophy, commencing in November 1835, and proceeding on each Monday evening, till April 1836. Thus, there were delivered twenty consecutive lectures on Moral Philosophy, on the Monday evenings; fifty lectures on Chemistry, on the evenings of Tuesdays and Fridays; and 1 twenty-five lectures on Astronomy, on the Thursday evenings. The audience amounted to between ' five and six hundred persons of both sexes. In twenty lectures, addressed to such an audience, only a small portion of a very extensive ■ field of science could be touched upon. It was necessary also to avoid, as much as possible, ab- ! stract and speculative questions, and to dwell chiefly on topics simple, interesting, and practically ■ useful. These circumstances account for the introduction of many local topics of illustration, and : of such subjects as Suretiship, Arbitration, Guardianship, and some others, not usually treated of in works on Moral Philosophy ; and also for the occasional omission of that rigid application of the principles on which the work is founded, to the case of every duty, which would have been necessary in a purely scientific treatise. These principles, however, although not always stated, are never intentionally departed from. A large number of my auditors had studied Phrenology, and many of them had read my work on “ The Constitution of Man,” in which it is extensively applied to subjects connected with human conduct and duty : I did not hesitate, therefore, to assume the principles of this science as the basis of a sound system of moral philosophy. As, however, my hearers were not, in general, regular students, but persons engaged in practical business, who could not be supposed to have always at command a distinct recollection of their previous knowledge, it became neces- sary for me to restate these principles at considerable length. This is the cause of a more exten- sive repetition, in these Lectures, of views already published in “ The Constitution of Man,” and in my phrenological writings, than, in ordinary circumstances, would have been admissible. The Lectures were reported, by one of my hearers, in the Edinburgh Chronicle newspaper, and excited some attention. Still, however, I did not consider them worthy of being presented to the public as a separate work, and they did not, for some years, appear in this form in Britain. I transmitted a copy of the “ Report” to a friend in Boston, U. S., where they were reprinted by Messrs Marsh, Capen, and Lyon, in a small duodecimo volume. The edition was speedily pur- chased by the American public; and, encouraged by this indication of approval, I published the entire Lectures in that city, during my residence in America, in 1840, with such additions and improvements as they appeared to stand in need of. Since my return to Scotland, I have subjected the volume to another revision, and now offer an improved edition to the British public. I am aware that, in founding Moral Philosophy on Phrenology, I may appear to those per- sons who stand in a different position from that of my audience, and who have not ascertained the truth of the latter science, to be resting human duty on a basis of mere conjecture. In answer to this objection, I respectfully remark, that scientific truths exist independently of human observation and opinion. The globe revolved on its axis, and carried the pope and seven cardinals whirling round on its surface, at the very moment when he and they declared the assertion of such a fact to be a damnable heresy, subversive of Christianity. In like manner, the brain performs its functions equally in those who deny, and in those who admit, its influence. I observe that in one anti-phrenologist, in whom the anterior lobe is small, the intellect is feeble ; and that in another, in whom it is large, and well constituted, the intellect is powerful, altogether independently of their own belief in these facts. I have remarked, also, that when the brain of an anti-phrenologist has been diseased in a particular organ, he has become deranged in the cor- responding faculty, notwithstanding his denial of all connection between them. The fact, there- fore, that many persons do not admit the truth of Phrenology, does not necessarily render it an imaginary science. The denial by Harvey’s contemporaries of the circulation of the blood, did not arrest the action of the heart, arteries, and veins. In Phrenology, as in general Physiology and other sciences, there are points still unascer- tained, and these may hereafter prove to be important; but the future discovery of the functions