Chapter VII.—Practical Utility of Anthropology in its Psychic Department.
All science should be useful—Anthropology has the supreme utility—Importance of self-knowledge and its rarity—Almost impossible without the aid of Anthropology—Its absence in the college—Immense waste of labor in abortive self-culture—Anthropology an exact guide—The selfish do not want it—Mistakes in education—Unbalanced characters described—Possibility of reform—Conjugal reform most important—The powerful agencies of Anthropology.
Before commencing the study of the organs of the brain and faculties of the soul, it is well to look to its results, its practical utilities; for the pursuit of science merely to gratify an intellectual curiosity is not the noblest employment of our time, although it has been a favorite indulgence of the literary class, and was regarded by the ancient philosopher, Empedocles, as the noblest occupation of man. From this opinion I decidedly dissent, regarding the lawless and excessive indulgence of the intellectual faculties as a species of erratic dissipation, injurious to the manhood of the individual, and pernicious to society by the misleading influence of a bad example.
Not only does this extreme intellectual indulgence, in a life the primary purpose of which is not meditation, but action, impair the individual as to his normal usefulness, and thus diffuse by example a deteriorating influence upon the young, and misleading influence upon all, but it actually leads to false views of life, and an unsound philosophy such as transcendental idealism, pessimism, indolence, and the pursuit of visionary falsehoods which a well-balanced mind would intuitively reject. These follies are cultivated by a pedantic system of education, and by the accumulated literature which such education in the past has developed, feeble and faulty in style, superficial in conception, and sadly misleading as to the principles and purposes of life.
Though tempted to such indulgence by the ceaseless activity of my own mind, I can say that I have never pursued any course of investigation, or study, without a positive certainty of its beneficence and value. No other course would be compatible with the demands of duty; but it is obvious on the face of a large portion of our literature that the ethical sentiments were dormant when it was written. Pre-eminent above all other studies in practical value is the science of Anthropology, so long neglected and unknown; a science which places biology on a new basis, rectifies therapeutics, reforms education, develops ethics or religion, and illuminates all spheres of knowledge by psychometry.
The psychic department of Anthropology in which we are now entering the study of the faculties of the soul, the organs of the brain, and the effects of their varying development upon the characters of men and animals, is rich in very practical instruction for the guidance of life, and the attainment not only of spiritual and physical health and success in this life, but of that nobler and greater success, which is chiefly realized in the coming centuries, in which a grander realm is opened for our expanded powers in the higher life.
One of the most essential things for success in life is a correct self-knowledge. A strong, well-balanced organization with a clear intuitive intellect, generally gives this knowledge, and leads to a correct course in life. But how few are really well developed and well balanced, with intuitive clearness of perception, and again how many are there who, in the unrestrained indulgence of all their passions and propensities, care not whether their lives are right or wrong, according to a correct standard. This class desire no admonition, no explanation of their peculiarities, and the causes of their failures or misfortunes.
Selfish and narrow-minded men charge all their failures and misfortunes either to inevitable destiny, or to the faults and misconduct of others. But the truth which science enforces is that we should charge all our failures to ourselves. Other men have succeeded splendidly in life, winning wealth, power, renown and friendship. If we have not, it must be because we have not exercised the same faculties which made them successful, and we should study most diligently to learn wherein, or how, we have failed.
Nearly all are disqualified for this task of self-inspection either by a selfish bias which is unwilling to recognize a fault, or by the fault itself which biases the judgment. The faculty, or passion, which misleads one becomes a part of his judging faculty, and cannot condemn itself. The miser cannot realize the baseness of his avarice, nor the mercenary soldier the enormity of war. Nor can a defective faculty assist in realizing the defect. The color-blind cannot appreciate painting, the thief cannot appreciate integrity, the brutal wife-beater cannot appreciate love, and a Napoleon cannot appreciate disinterested friendship.
Nor do they who fail to comprehend their own faults learn much from the admonition of friends, for they are too desirous of maintaining a friendly relation to give entirely candid advice, and the criticisms of those who are not friends excite suspicion and anger. Fortunate is the man who can profit by the criticisms of his enemies.