New views of penitentiary discipline, and moral education and reform / by Charles Caldwell.

  • Charles Caldwell
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: New views of penitentiary discipline, and moral education and reform / by Charles Caldwell. 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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    sented, the incorrectness of the picture would be immediately defected, and the production condemned, as false to nature. Nor would it be a less condemnatory feature in it, to portray an ho- nourable, mao^nanimous, and mora! hero, with any other than a lofty and expanded forehead, and a well-arched head. The truth of these remarks is fully confirmed, by the writings of Shakspeare and Sir Walter Scott. Eren in the strong lined delineations of ]-iOrd Byron, the vulgar ruffian has a vulgar head. It is to the high-bred offender, who has been seduced to vice, by deep-felt wrong, or some other powerfall)' corrupting influence, that he has given the aspect and bearing of nobleness; a well formed head, a lofty port, and an air of command, that awed his inferiors. And on such individuals, although crimsoned with blood, and blackened with every other species of guilt, he has always conferred an elevation of sentiment, and a loftiness of purpose and thought, corresponding exactly with their attributes of form. Witness his representations of Conrad, Lara, Manfred, Lambro, and others. In illustration of this topic, and in confir- mation of our views of it, a few lines, from the Corsair, may be aptly quoted— Yet Conrad was not thus by nature sent To lead the guilty—guilt's worst instrument— His soul was changed, before his deeds had driven Him forth to war with man, and forfeit heaven. Warped by the world in disappoinlment't school, III words too wise, in conduct there a fool; Too firm to yield, and much too proud to stoop, D(;omed by his very virtxies for a dupe. In common, then, with those of every other great poet, such as Homer's portrait of Menelaus, Virgil's delineation of jEneas, Tasso's picture of Godfrey, and Milton's description of Adam, and with those of every distinguished writer of moral fiction, whether in prose or verse, the sketches of Lord Byron are strictly phrenolosical, which is tantamount to calling them per- fectly natural. And to that alone are they indebted for their power to charm, and their imperishable reputation. Take from them their phrenological truth, and you utterly destroy them. As respects moral education and penitentiary discipline, then, Phrenology throws light on two points of great importance. It indicates the boys and youths that most deeply require such education, to save them from vice, and the adult convicts, whose characters place them beyond its influence. Its solemn injunc- tions are, to discipline the former by every means that can con- tribute to their improvement in morality and reflection, and to protect society from the vices of the latter, by capital punish- ment, or imprisonment during life. And for these purposes we
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