on the supposition that all characters, and therefore all wants, are alike; whereas, all characters differ, as much as a pig from an angel, and what would suit a pig to have done to it would not at all suit the higher nature. No doubt an alderman, when he is inviting a large company to dinner, is doing as he would others should do to him. "We are to do as we would be done by "- as the young gentleman said when he kissed the pretty girl-does not point to much selfsacrifice, and is certainly not indicative of the highest order of morality; and yet such an application of the rule is in the spirit of at least half the practice that would be brought under this law. A moral system in the present day requires something much more definite. Our own wants are a most imperfect standard of what would produce the largest amount of enjoyment to others. The doctrine of non-resistance is opposed to the whole of nature's teaching. Nature resists and makes us suffer whenever we do wrong, with the direct object of teaching us we are doing wrong, and of making us do better in future. "To return good for evil," "to heap coals of fire on our enemies' heads by kindness," is again a question of character, and is very well when applied to the higher natures, but it is only a premium for ill-doing in the lower. Kindness and reason to an unjust but generous enemy make him repent at once. A man insults you, the object is to prevent any repetition of the act, not to revenge the past. Kindness and reason are the most direct way to this where you have to deal with a good man, but they would be thrown away upon a bad one, and the only way to prevent a repetition, probably, of the insult, would be to knock the latter down. If so, knock him down; he will abstain another time from fear, when he would not from any more generous motive. Love and kindness would not prevent aggression in a tiger, and there are many men with tiger natures. We have seen that the object of pain or suffering is reformation to teach when we have done wrong that we must amend it. To relieve the suffering, without securing the amendment, is not always "going about doing good." The entire character and practice of our eleemosynary charity require modification in accordance with this law. Most of our charitable institutions are at present only premiums for improvidence; they make a man's well-being depend upon anything but his own efforts, guided by intelligence and character; they attack at the base-they cut up by the rootself-reliance, self-dependence, and self-respect, upon which all good character, all tendency to rise, is founded among the poorest classes. If a man once takes to charity-hunting -if, indeed, he is taught to depend upon anything but his own efforts, it is moral death to him and physical misery. In the cities where these eleemosynary charities abound, their pauperising and demoralising influence is incalculable. For three who trust to such charity only one succeeds; the effect on all is bad, but to the unsuccessful it is most disastrous. Their own efforts would have given them what they wanted in half the time they have spent in begging; but the greatest loss is in character. Only those charities, then, that help the poor to help themselves are really doing good. Lecky tells us that "Magnanimity, self-reliance, dignity, independence, and, in a word, elevation of character, constitute the Roman idea of perfection;" while humility, obedience, gentleness, patience, resignation, are Christian Virtues. "The duty," said St. Jerome, "of a Monk, is not to teach, but to weep." "The business of the Hermit was to save his own soul." "The serenity of his devotion would be impaired by the discharge of the simplest duties to his family."* "A law of Charlemagne, and also a law of the Saxons, condemned to death any one who ate meat in Lent, unless the Priest was satisfied that it was a matter of absolute necessity" (p. 257). Among the Poles the teeth of the offending per* "European Morals," vol. 2, pp. 72, 155, 134, 143. MORAL SCIENCE A SYSTEM OF DYNAMICS. 149 son were pulled out. When martyrdom was the reward of Christianity, in its early stages, none but the higher minds joined it; but when it became a State Religion it was joined by the world, the flesh, and the devil, and was lowered in its tone proportionally; so that, as Mr. Lecky tells us, the 1,000 years after Constantine were the most contemptible in history. There has been no other enduring civilisation so absolutely destitute of all the forms and elements of greatness, and none to which the epithet mean may be so emphatically applied (pp. 14, 72). To religious ignorance and bigotry, to "the doctrine that correct theological opinions are essential to salvation, and that theological error necessarily involves guilt," may be traced almost all the obstructions they have thrown in the way of human progress—adding immeasurably to the difficulties which every searcher after truth has to encounter, and diffusing far and wide intellectual timidity, disingenuousness, and hypocrisy (pp. 377, 420). So that "not till the education of Europe passed from the monasteries to the universities, not till Mahommedan science, and classical free-thought, and industrial independence broke the sceptre of the church, did the intellectual revival of Europe begin" (p. 219). We are glad to find Mr. Lecky leaning so decidedly to our views. He says: "In the eyes both of the philanthropist and the philosopher, the greatest of all results to be expected in this, or, perhaps, any other field, are, I conceive, to be looked for in the study of the relations between our physical and our moral natures." This relation alone goes to the root of the matter, and the strongest force is always connected with the largest organs or combination of organs. Moral Science is a pure system of dynamics-the action of the Will always representing the strongest force. The Romans were nothing but a nation of robbers, the strongest of their time their strength depending upon the perfection of their training and organisation. Patriotism was a necessary part of this organisation, making the good of one dependent on the good of all; and patriotism was their strongest virtue, and the foundation of all their others. They made war upon weaker nations, killed the men or made slaves of them, stole all their goods, and carried them with the women and children in triumph to Rome, till Rome became so rich from these spoils that luxury ultimately destroyed the nation itself. For ages among the Romans Combativeness and Destructiveness were the feelings in predominant activityto fight and to destroy were their business, their daily occupation, so that at last, as we have before said, the main amusement of all classes were the gladiatorial shows, the spectacle of bloodshed, of death and torture. The heads of noble Romans all show predominating Destructiveness, with small Benevolence. It is the same with our criminal classes. They are merely powerful or cunning animals, and with greatly predominating propensities nothing better ought to be expected of them, and they ought to be treated as such. At large, they are as certain to prey upon society as a tiger. "The relation between our physical and our moral nature" has long been evident enough to the Cerebral Physiologist. He has long known, beyond all doubt, that in proportion as the animal, moral, or intellectual region of the brain predominates, does the man or mere animal predominate in the character. If the intellect and moral region prevail, we have a moral man according to his lights. If the three regions are equally developed, the man will depend upon education and the circumstances in which he is placed; with the animal region decidedly in excess, we have a brutal animal; with the animal region and intellect predominating, a clever rogue. These various degrees of brain development are evident at once to the practised Phrenologist; and in 1836 Sir G. S. Mackenzie petitioned Lord Glenelg, then Secretary to the Colonies, that CLASSIFICATION OF CONVICTS. 151 our knowledge on the subject might be used in the classification of criminals; of course, however, without effect.* In the state of public opinion, then as at present, the petition could not be granted. The conclusion we have arrived at 34 years later is no further advanced than that some kind of Intellectual test should be applied in the choice of applicants for the Civil Service, apparently however in ignorance of the fact that such an examination furnishes no test of character whatever. It gives a very imperfect indication of the quality of the instrument, but none whatever as * "At present," he said, "our criminals are shipped off, and distributed to the settlers, without the least regard to their character or history." # # "There ought to be an officer qualified to investigate the history of convicts, and select them on phrenological principles. That such principles are the only secure grounds on which the treatment of convicts can be founded, proof may be demanded, and it is ready for production," etc. In a separate letter, Sir George said, "men of philosophical understanding and habits of investigation have been brought to perceive that a discovery of the true mental constitution of man has been made, and that it furnishes us with an all-powerful means to improve our race. * * Differences in talent, intelligence, and moral character, are now ascertained to to be the effects of differences in organisation. * * The differences of organisation are, as the certificates which accompany this show, sufficient to indicate externally general dispositions, as they are proportioned among one another. Hence, we have the means of estimating, with something like precision, the actual natural characters of convicts (as of all human beings), so that we may at once determine the means best adapted for their reformation; or discover their incapacity of improvement, and their being proper subjects of continual restraint, in order to prevent their further injuring society. * * And if, as thousands of the most talented men in Europe and America confidently anticipate, experience shall convince you, your Lordship will at once perceive a source from which prosperity and happiness will flow in abundance over all our possessions. In the hands of enlightened governors, phrenology will be an engine of unlimited improving power in perfecting human institutions, and bringing about universal good order, peace, prosperity, and happiness." |