A new system of phrenology / by J. Stanley Grimes.

  • J. Stanley Grimes
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new system of phrenology / by J. Stanley Grimes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    INTRODUCTION The study of human nature has in all ages been deemed of the very first importance, and called into vigorous action the master minds of every civilized nation. But the numerous systems that have been successively produced and abandoned, afford sufficient evidence that the great fundamental principles of human nature had never been discovered. Some philosophers have shut themselves in their closets, and endeavored, by reflecting upon the operations of their own minds, to frame a system of mental philosophy, which would apply to all man- kind: but the result was, that they only acquired an imperfect history of a few of their own mental powers, while they remained in total ignorance of the causes which produce the great diversity of human character. Others endeavored to acquire a knowledge of man by tra- velling, and mingling with all classes and conditions of the human race. These were more successful; but however much knowledge might, by the experience of a whole life, be acquired in this manner, it necessarily died with the individual, as it was of such a nature that it could not be communicated. Anatomical investigation, was another mode of studying human nature; but although this led to more correct notions concerning the functions of the body, it shed no light upon the nature of the mind. The study of Physiognomy, is another method which has been pursued, from the time of Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Zopyrus, among the ancients, to the attempts of Camper and Lavater in our own day. But all the real success which has ever attended the la- bors of physiognomists, is owing to their approximation to the great truths of Phrenology; though they were utterly ignorant of this science. By examining the works of Camper and Lavater, it will be found, that the few useful truths which they contain, are based upon the principles which are explained in this work.
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