Notes of the United States of North America, During a Phrenological Visit in 1898-9-40: Volume 1 Page: 276 of 444
xxxii, [3], 371, 32 p. : illustrations, map ; 21 cm.View a full description of this book.
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236 DEFECT IN AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS.
he commences his career in life guided chiefly by the
inspirations of his own good pleasure. He votes and
acts on the destinies of his country in the same condition
of mind. In Britain, we cannot boast of much
superiority in practical education, but our young men
are not ushered into life so early; they are trained
by the institutions and circumstances by which they
are surrounded, to a greater exercise of prudence and
self-restraint, and few of them wield political power.
It was my endeavour to explain to the Americans
the importance of the new philosophy to a people in
their present condition. Phrenology brings home to
every mind capable of ordinary reflection, that all our
functions and faculties, bodily and mental, are regulated
by the Creator according to fixed laws; that
within certain limits they produce enjoyment, and
beyond these, misery. By teaching children this view
of their own constitution, and also rendering them
familiar with the physical, organic, and moral laws,
instituted by the Creator, and by training them to
obey them, that reckless self-confident spirit which now
animates many of them in the United States, would
be supplanted by a disciplined understanding and regulated
affections. Their institutions render them
indisposed to reverence man, or human wisdom; but
still they may venerate God and practically fulfil his
laws. Indeed this species of moral and intellectual
discipline appears to me to be indispensable to the permanence
and success of a democracy. If the Americans
do not adopt it, and rely on it as their sheetanchor,
no other means which ordinary sagacity can
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Combe, George, 1788-1858. Notes of the United States of North America, During a Phrenological Visit in 1898-9-40: Volume 1, book, 1841; Edinburgh, Scotland. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1028/m1/276/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.