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PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY,

APPLIED TO

EDUCATION AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT.

CHAPTER I.

PHYSIOLOGY: OR, THE LAWS OF LIFE AND HEALTH.

SECTION I

INTRODUCTION: OR, THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF MAN'S NATure.

That HAPPINESS is the sole object of Man's creation, is rendered evident by its being the only legitimate product of every organ of his body, of every faculty of his mind, of every ement of his nature. What but happiness is the end sought and obtained in the creation of every bone, of every joint, of every muscle?-happiness in their exercise, happiness in locomotion, labor, &c., and happiness in the results obtained by this motion. What but pleasure is the legitimate function of the eye?-the most exquisite pleasure in the exercise of sight itself, and an inexhaustible fund of happiness in the ends attained by seeing-in its enabling us to find our way, and in pouring into the mind a vast fund of information, and a so furnishing an inexhaustible range of materials for thought and mental action. What but enjoyment is the end sought and secured by the creation of the lungs?-enjoyment in breathing freely the fresh air of heaven, and enjoyment

in the expenditure of that vitality furnished thereby; few realizing the amount of pleasure capable of being taken in quaffing luxuriantly and abundantly the health-inspiring breeze!— What other object than pleasure dictated the creation of the stomach?-pleasure in the act of digestion, and pleasure in the expenditure of those vital energies produced thereby. And what is the object sought and obtained in the creation of the brain and nervous system-what but happiness is the only legitimate product of their primitive function?-happiness in their exercise itself, and inexhaustible happiness in that boundless range of mental and moral ends secured by their creation.

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Narrowing down our observations to the mental faculties, we find the same sole end sought and obtained by the creation of each one separately, and of all collectively. Benevolence was created both to pour the oil of consolation into the wounded heart, to avoid occasions of pain, and to beautify and bless mankind; and also to pour still greater blessings into the soul of the giver; for, it is even more blessed to give than to receive." Parental love, while it renders the parent happy in providing for darling infancy and lovely childhood, also renders the child most happy in receiving the blessings showered down upon it by this happifying faculty. The legitimate function of Ideality is pleasure; both in contemplating the beautiful and the exquisite in nature and in art, and also in refining and purifying all the grosser elements of our nature, and softening and gracing all our conduct. Acquisitiveness was created to afford pleasure, both in the mere acquisition of property, edibles, and the comforts and conveniences of life; and also to furnish all the other faculties with the means of gratification :-Appetite with food; Benevolence with the means of bestowing charity; Cautiousness with instruments of defence; the Social Feelings with comforts for the family; Inhabitiveness with a home; Constructiveness with tools, farming utensils, &c.; Intellect with books, philosophical apparatus, and the means of prosecuting the study of nature and her laws, &c. Appetite, while it gives us gustatory pleasure in partaking of food, also furnishes the stomach with the materials required for manufacturing that nourishment and strength without which every

ez,yment would be cut off, and life itself soon cease. Causalty was created, not only to produce the richest harvest of peasure in studying the laws and operations of nature, but also, that we might adapt ways and means to ends, and secure our own highest good by applying the laws of causation to Le production of whatever results we might desire. The leganate function of Language is to furnish a world of pleasure, merely in the act of talking, and then to add to it that Exhaustible fountain of happiness which flows from imparting and receiving knowledge, ideas, motives for action, &c., and in reading, in hearing lectures, sermons, &c., &c. Memory enables us to recollect what gave us pleasure, and what pain. that we might repeat the former and avoid the latter; that we might remember faces, places, numbers, &c., and recall our knowledge at pleasure, so as to apply it to beneficial purposes. Veneration naturally gives us pleasure, both in worshipping God, and in those holy, purifying influences which prayer she is abroad in the soul. The same principle applies to Frenship, to Connubial Love, to Ambition, to Perseverance, to Sense of Justice, to Hope, to Imitation, and to every other e-ment of the human mind. I repeat. The legitimate functon of every physical organ, of every mental faculty, of every event of man, is HAPPINESS, ALL happiness, pure, unalloyed, unmitigated happiness, and nothing else. Man was made solely to be happy, to be PERFECTLY happy, and for that came-Nor does the needle point to its pole more uniformly and certainly, than does every part of man point to this one result. No truth can be more plain, more universal, more self-evident.

•Let not this principle be construed so as to militate against the doctrine of original sin, or constitutional depravity and consequent misery. 1:as estabushed by demonstration-by the highest and most universal series of evidence, and cannot be refuted; so that whatever doctrine clashes with it, must stand aside. It embodies the primitive constitution of man. Whatever conflicts with it is erroneous. However, I am unable to discover this clashing; for this principle alludes, simply, to the primitive constitution of man. And let nothing be so construed as to prevent our profiting by this, the greatest truth that God has taught, or man cas learn.

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