4. If I am right in the position that the organic laws transmit to offspring, in an increasing ratio, the qualities most active in the parents, the law of succession provides for a higher degree of improvement in the race than could have been reached, if a single generation, possessing the present human constitution, had been permanent.

Let us inquire, then, how the moral sentiments are affected by death in old age, as a natural institution.

Benevolence, glowing with a disinterested desire for the increase and diffusion of enjoyment, utters no complaint against death in old age, as a surrender of mortal life by a being impaired in its capacity for usefulness and pleasure, to make way for one fresh and vigorous in all its powers, and fitted to carry to a higher point of improvement every beneficial measure previously begun. Conscientiousness, if thoroughly enlightened, perceives no infringement of justice in the calling on a guest, satiated with enjoyment, to retire from the banquet, so as to permit a stranger with a keener and more youthful appetite to partake; and veneration, when instructed by intellect that this is the institution of the Creator, and made acquainted with its objects, bows in humble acquiescence in the law. Now, if these powers have acquired, in any individual, that complete supremacy which they are clearly intended to hold, and if he have been trained in these views from his infancy, he will be placed by them as much above the terror of death as a natural institution, as the lower animals are by being ignorant of its existence. And unless the case were so, Man would, by the very knowledge of death, be rendered, during his whole life, more miserable than they.

The true view of death, therefore, as a natural institution, is, that it is an essential part of the system of organisation; that birth, growth, and arrival at maturity, as completely imply decay and death in old age, as morning and noon imply evening and night, as spring and summer imply harvest, or as the source of a river implies its termination. Besides, organised beings are constituted by the Creator to be the food of other organised beings, so that some must die that others may live. Man, for instance, cannot live on stones, on earth, or water, which are not organised, but must feed on vegetable and animal substances; so that death is as much, and as essentially, an inherent attribute of organisation as life itself. If the same animals and men had

been destined for a permanent occupation of the earth, we may presume, from analogy, that God,-instead of creating a primitive pair of each, and endowing them with extensive powers of reproduction, with a view to their ushering young beings into existence, would have furnished the world with a definite complement of living creatures, perfect at first in all their parts and functions, and that these would have remained without diminution and without increase.

To prevent, however, all chance of being misapprehended, I repeat, that I do not at all refer to the state of the soul or mind after death, but merely to the dissolution of organised bodies; that, according to the soundest view which I am able to obtain of the natural law, pain and death during youth and middle age, in the human species, are consequences of departure from the Creator's law,-while death in old age, by insensible decay, is an essential part of the system of organic existence as now constituted; that this arrangement admits of a succession of individuals, substituting the young and vigorous for the feeble and decayed; that it is directly the means by which organised beings live, and indirectly makes way for the gratification of amativeness, philoprogenitiveness, and a variety of other faculties; that it admits of the race ascending in the scale of improvement, both in their organic and in their mental qualities; and finally, that the moral sentiments, when supreme in activity, and enlightened by intellect, which perceives the design and consequences of the arrangement, are calculated to place Man in harmony with it; while religion disciplines all the faculties to cheerful submission to the will of God, and completes what reason leaves undone.

If the views now unfolded be correct, death in old age will never be abolished as long as Man continues an organised being; but pain and the frequency of premature death will decrease in the exact ratio of his obedience to the physical and organic laws. It is interesting to observe that there is already some evidence of this process being begun. About the middle of last century, tables of the average duration of life in England were compiled for the use of the Life Insurance Companies; and from them it appears to have been then 28 years that is, 1000 persons being born, and the years of their respective lives being added together, and divided by 1000, the result was 28 to each. By recent tables, it appears that the average is now greatly higher. A report

of the mortality in Edinburgh and Leith for the year 1846 presents the following results:

The mean age at death of the 1st class, composed
of gentry and professional men, was

43 years.

The mean age at death of the 2d class, merchants,
master tradesmen, clerks, &c.,

36 years.

The mean age at death of the 3d class, artisans,
labourers, servants, &c.,

27 years.

As I interpret this document, it is an intimation that these different classes have fulfilled, in widely different degrees, the conditions on which God proffered to continue with them the boon of life. We cannot imagine that He deals partially with men, and establishes one law for the rich and another for the poor: on the contrary, the structure of the various organs of the body on which life depends is similar in all; and the composition of the atmosphere, the rays of light, and the winds of heaven, which affect these organs for good or evil, diffuse their appointed influences without the least respect of persons. To the circumstance, therefore, of obedience or disobedience to the organic laws, must these painfully different consequences be ascribed. Some persons have said, that the difference arises from errors in compiling the old tables, and that the superior habits of the people are not the cause. There may be errors in the old tables, but it is more probable that increasing knowledge and stricter obedience to the organic laws have diminished the number of premature deaths; and it is only by such a supposition that the different duration of life among the different classes of the population of Edinburgh can be accounted

for.

That this idea is correct, and that the average duration of life is increasing, is fully proved by the returns of the Registrar-General. Our successors, a century hence, will probably attain an average longevity exceeding 50 years, and may then, on similar grounds, ascribe to errors in our tables the present low average* which we exhibit.†

* A low average longevity depends in great measure on an excessive mortality among children. Infantile life is the most delicate test for proper sanitary arrangements; and it is principally by the deaths among the children that the average duration of life is so much shorter among artisans than among the gentry and professional men. In many rural districts, the average duration of life of all classes already exceeds 50 years.-ED.

† See APPENDIX, No. IX.

SECT. III.-CALAMITIES ARISING FROM INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW.

We now proceed to consider the Moral Law, which is proclaimed by the whole faculties acting harmoniously; or, in cases of conflict, by the higher sentiments and intellect acting harmoniously, and holding the animal faculties in subjection.

In surveying the moral and religious codes of different nations, and the moral and religious opinions of different philosophers, every reflecting mind must have been struck with their diversity. Phrenology, by demonstrating differ ences of relative size in the mental organs, accompanied by corresponding differences in the power and activity of the faculties, enables us to account for these varieties of sentiment. A code of morality framed by a legislator in whom the animal organs were large, and the moral organs small, would be very different from one instituted by another lawgiver, in whom this combination was reversed. In like manner, a system of religion, founded by a man in whom the organs of destructiveness, wonder, and cautiousness were very large, and those of veneration, benevolence, and conscientiousness deficient, would present views of the Supreme Being widely different from those which would be promulgated by one in whom the last three faculties, and intellect, predominated. As nature contains objects related to all the faculties, each individual may find facts and circumstances in harmony with his own combination of faculties, and, by omitting all discrepant truths, he may present a plausible array of authorities from nature for his peculiar opinions. Hence, the particular views of nature, and the particular code of morality and religion, which are most in harmony with the whole faculties of the individual, will appear to him to be the best, while he refers only to the dictates of his own mind as the standard of right and wrong. But if we show that when several faculties conflict, the scheme of external creation is arranged in harmony with certain faculties in preference to others, so that enjoyment flows upon the individual from without when his conduct is in conformity with some, and that evil overtakes him when he resigns himself to others, we shall prove that the suggestions of the former class of faculties are the morality and religion established by the Creator, and that individual men, who support codes differing from His, must necessarily be deluded by imper

fections in their own minds. That constitution of mind, also, may be pronounced to be the best, which harmonizes most completely with the morality and religion established by the Creator. In this view, morality becomes a science, and departures from its dictates may be shown to be practical follies, injurious to the interest and happiness of the individual.

Dugald Stewart has justly remarked, that “the importance of agriculture and of religious toleration to the prosperity of states, the criminal impolicy of thwarting the kind arrangements of Providence by restraints upon commerce, and the duty of legislators to study the laws of the moral world as the groundwork and standard of their own, appear, to minds unsophisticated by inveterate prejudices, as approaching nearly to the class of axioms;-yet, how much ingenious and refined discussion has been employed, even in our own times, to combat the prejudices which everywhere continue to struggle against them; and how remote does the period yet seem, when there is any probability that these prejudices shall be completely abandoned !"* The great cause of the long continuance of these prejudices, is the want of an intelligible and practical philosophy of morals. Before ordinary minds can perceive that the world is really governed by Divine laws, they must become acquainted with the nature of Man, physical, animal, moral, and intellectual; with the relations of the different parts of that nature to each other; and with the relationship of the whole to God and external objects. The present treatise is an attempt (a very feeble and imperfect one indeed) to arrive, by the aid of Phrenology, at a demonstration of morality as a science. The interests dealt with in the investigation are so elevating, and the effort itself so delightful, that the attempt carries its own reward, however unsuccessful in its results. I am not without hope, that if Phrenology and the doctrine of the natural laws were taught to the people as part of their ordinary education, the removal of these prejudices would be considerably accelerated. This instruction may be postponed; but if the views maintained in this work be sound, it will in time be given to the young.

Assuming, then, that, in cases of conflict among the faculties of the mind, the higher sentiments and intellect hold the natural supremacy, I shall endeavour to show, that obedience to the dictates of these powers is rewarded with * Prelim. Dissert. to Ency. Brit., p. 83, 8th ed.