SECTION I.
PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS AS AFFECTING AND INDICATING CHARACTER.
I.—VALUE OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE.
“Knowledge is power”—to accomplish, to enjoy—and these are the only ends for which man was created. All knowledge confers this power. Thus, how incalculably, and in how many ways, have recent discoveries in chemistry enhanced human happiness, of which the lucifer match furnishes a home example. Increasing knowledge in agriculture is doubling the means of human sustenance. How immeasurably have modern mechanical improvements multiplied, and cheapened all the comforts of life. How greatly have steamboats and railroads added to the former stock of human success and pleasures. Similar remarks apply to all other kinds of knowledge, and as it increases from age to age will it proportionally multiply all forms of human happiness. In fact, its inherent nature and legitimate effect is to promote every species of enjoyment and success. Other things being equal, those who know most, by a law of things, can both accomplish and enjoy most; while ignorance instead of being bliss, is the greatest cause of human weakness, wickedness, and woe. Hence, to ENLIGHTEN man, is the way to reform and perfect him.
But SELF-knowledge is, of all its other kinds, both the most useful and promotive of personal and universal happiness and success. “Know thyself” was written, in golden capitals, upon the splendid temple of Delphos, as the most important maxim the wise men of Greece could transmit to unborn generations; and the Scriptures wisely command us to “search our own hearts.” Since all happiness flows from obeying, and all pain from violating, the LAWS OF OUR BEING, to know our own selves is to know these laws, and becomes the first step in the road of their obedience, which is life. Self-knowledge, by teaching the laws and conditions of life and health, becomes the most efficacious means of prolonging the former and increasing the latter—both of which are paramount conditions of enjoying and accomplishing. It also shows us our natural talents, capabilities, virtues, vices, strong and weak points, liabilities to err, etc., and thereby points out, unmistakably, those occupations and spheres in which we can and cannot succeed and shine; and develops the laws and conditions of human and personal virtue and moral perfection, as well as of vice, and how to avoid it. It is, therefore, the quintessence of all knowledge; places its possessor upon the very acme of enjoyment and perfection; and bestows the highest powers and richest treasures mortals can possess. In short, to know ourselves perfectly, is to know every law of our being, every condition of happiness, and every cause of suffering; and to practice such knowledge, is to render ourselves as perfectly happy, throughout every department of our being, as we can possibly be and live. And since nothing in nature stands alone, but each is reciprocally related to all, and all, collectively, form one magnificent whole—since all stars and worlds mutually act and react upon each other, to cause day and night, summer and winter, sun and rain, blossom and fruit; since every genus, species, and individual throughout nature is second or sixteenth cousin to every other; and since man is the epitome of universal nature, the embodiment of all her functions, the focus of all her light, and representative of all her perfections—of course to understand him thoroughly is to know all things. Nor can nature be studied advantageously without him for a text-book, nor he without her.
Moreover, since man is composed of mind and body, both reciprocally and most intimately related to each other—since his mentality is manifested only by bodily organs, and the latter depends wholly upon the former, of course his mind can be studied only through its ORGANIC relations. If it were manifested independently of his physiology, it might be studied separately, but since all his organic conditions modify his mentality, the two must be studied TOGETHER. Heretofore humanity has been studied by piece-meal. Anatomists have investigated only his organic structure, and there stopped; and mental philosophers have studied him metaphysically, wholly regardless of all his physiological relations; while theologians have theorized upon his moral faculties alone; and hence their utter barrenness, from Aristotle down. As if one should study nothing but the trunk of a tree, another only its roots, a third its leaves, or fruit, without compounding their researches, of what value is such piecemeal study? If the physical man constituted one whole being, and the mental another, their separate study might be useful; but since all we know of mind, and can do with it, is manifested and done wholly by means of physical instruments—especially since every possible condition and change of the physiology correspondingly affects the mentality—of course their MUTUAL relations, and the laws of their RECIPROCAL action, must be investigated collectively. Besides, every mental philosopher has deduced his system from his own closet cogitations, and hence their babel-like confusion. But within the last half century, a new star, or rather sun, has arisen upon the horizon of mind—a sun which puts the finger of SCIENTIFIC CERTAINTY upon every mental faculty, and discloses those physiological conditions which affect, increase or diminish, purify or corrupt, or in any other way modify, either the mind itself, or its products—thought, feeling, and character—and thereby reduces mental study to that same tangible basis of proportion in which all science consists; leaving nothing dark or doubtful, but developing the true SCIENCE OF MIND, and the laws of its action. Of this, the greatest of all discoveries, Gall was the author, and Phrenology and Physiology the instruments which conjointly embrace whatever appertains to mind, and to man, in all his organic relations, show how to perfect the former by improving the latter, and disclose specific SIGNS OF CHARACTER, by which we may know ourselves and our fellow-men with certainty—a species of knowledge most delightful in acquisition, and valuable in application.
2.—STRUCTURE CORRESPONDS WITH CHARACTER.
Throughout universal nature, the structure of all things is powerful or weak, hard or soft, coarse or fine, etc., in accordance with its functions; and in this there is a philosophical fitness or adaptation. What immense power of function trees put forth, to rear and sustain aloft, at such great mechanical disadvantage, their ponderous load and vast canvas of leaves, limbs, and fruit or seeds, spread out to all the surgings of tempestuous winds and storms; and the texture of wood is as compact and firm as its functional power is prodigious. Hence its value as timber. But tender vegetables, grains, etc., require little power, and accordingly are fragile in structure. Lions, tigers, hyenas, and all powerfully strong beasts, have a correspondingly powerful organic structure. The muscular strength of lions is so extraordinary, that seizing wild cattle by the neck, they dash through thicket, marsh, and ravine, for hours together, as a cat would drag a squirrel, and their roar is most terrific; and so powerful is their structure, that it took Drs. McClintock, Allen, myself, and two experienced “resurrectionists,” FOUR HOURS, though we worked with might and main, just to cut off a magnificent Numidian lion’s head. So hard and tough were the muscles and tendons of his neck, that cutting them seemed like severing wire, and after slitting all we could, we were finally obliged to employ a powerful purchase to start them. It took over three hard days’ work to remove his skin. So compact are the skins of the elephant, rhinoceros, alligator, and some other animals of great muscular might, that rifle-balls, shot against them, flatten and fall at their feet—their structure being as dense as their strength is mighty—while feeble animals have a correspondingly soft structure. In like manner, the flesh of strong persons is dense and most elastic, while those of weakly ones are flabby, and yield to pressure.
Moreover, fineness of texture manifests exquisiteness of sensibility, as seen by contrasting human organism and feelings with brutes, or fine-haired persons with coarse-haired. Of course, a similar relation and adaptation exist between all other organic characteristics and their functions. In short, it is a LAW as philosophical as universal, that the structure of all beings, and of each of their organs, corresponds perfectly with their functions—a law based in the very nature and fitness of things, and governing all shades and diversities of organization and manifestation. Accordingly those who are coarse-skinned are coarse in feeling, and coarse-grained throughout; while those finely organized are fine-minded, and thus of all other textures of hair, skin, etc.
3.—SHAPE CORRESPONDS WITH CHARACTER.