Christian Phrenology: A Guide to Self-KnowledgeBunney, Joseph
Religion
Christian Phrenology: A Guide to Self-Knowledge
Bunney, Joseph
Phrenology
"Nothing that ever was devised by man has put in his hands so
powerful an instrument to know himself, as that which we
(phrenologists) have given him; for, if he believes in us, he cannot
deny the evidence of his own organization. The first key to unlock
the hearts of others is that which opens our own; and to know whether
we judge our neighbour fairly or not, we should measure the quantity
of our own feelings which we mix up in the judgment. But from this
acquaintance with ourselves and others may result the greatest
benefit that could accrue to social intercourse, mutual indulgence.
When we recollect that each has his own particular organization, as
we have ours; that it is not easy to controul the dispositions which
nature has thus implanted in our minds; that we have defects as
insupportable, perhaps, as any that we encounter, we shall be more
disposed to bear with others' foibles, that they may pardon ours; and
mutual necessity will make us tolerant.
"A still higher function of phrenology, as it relates to mankind at
large, not merely to the few unfortunates who labour under malady, is
its empire over education. The vast error, that men are alike fitted
for all professions, that all can turn their mental powers to the
same account and profit, has done much injury to the education of
individuals, and consequently to the general progress of the world.
But our science (continue Drs. Gall and Spurzheim) shows that all men
are not alike fitted for all purposes; that, in one, a receptiveness
for musical, in another for mathematical instruction predominates;
that some are endowed with the power of prompt perception, and others
with that of abstruse induction; in short, that every walk of social
life has its destined votaries. Now, it is to be hoped, that when
parents have the authority of phrenology for the talents and
disposition of their children, they will cultivate those which nature
has made the most salient in their cranium, and not torment them with
studies for which they have no sufficient organ. Should one of their
boys, in defiance of birch-rods and ferulas, neglect his vocabulary
to carve his taw, or cut out waggon-wheels with his penknife, let
them consult one of us, and we will tell them that all the betula of
Windsor forest will not make a scholar of him; we will show that, not
being one of the ox-eyed, he can but ill remember words, but that
having a fulness in the frontal bone just above the spheno-temporal
suture, he may become an expert mechanic, an engineer, a mill-wright,
or a Watt; that it is in vain to thrust in through the gluteus
maximus what cannot penetrate the head; and that flog him as they
may, his _propria quæ maribus_ will always be covered with chips and
chisels.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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