ON

THE APPLICATION

OF THE

ORGANOLOGY OF THE BRAIN

ΤΟ

Education.

COMMUNICATED

BY T. FORSTER, F. L. S.

OF CORP. CH. COLL. CAMBRIDGE.

AUTHOR OF RESEARCHES ABOUT ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA; OBSERVATIONS ON THE SWALLOW; NOTES TO THE DIOSEMEA OF ARATUS ; PHYSIOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS; &c.

ORIGINAL.

PREFACE.

THIS Essay was written before, from the labors of Dr. Spurzheim, the doctrine alluded to was known in England, and it was suggested by the hasty perusal of some minutes of Lectures taken by the pupils of Dr. Gall. It is printed to show how reasonable the principles of the doctrine appeared, even before it was illustrated and confirmed by a demonstration of facts.

ESSAY,

&c.

AMONG the numerous schemes and projects of Philanthropists, for the amelioration of human society, for which this country has always been so eminently distinguished, the popular rage of the present day for extending the benefit of education on a large scale among the lower orders of the community, seems to me to be that which offers the fairest prospect of real advantage to the state of civilized Man.

But as the view, which people in general have hitherto taken of education, appears to me very erroneous and imperfect, and the means adopted very incommensurate to the end proposed, which is the real advancement of intellectual and moral excellence, I shall offer some observations on the adoption of a more perfect method, and one which, I hope, if duly carried into execution, would be attended with more lasting advantages, than the successless efforts of those, who have hitherto possessed a knowledge of the principles of the human mind, which was imperfect and erroneous, and therefore insufficient to establish a comprehensive basis of education. I shall beg leave here to digress a little from the specific object of this Essay, and to contemplate for a moment the retrospective prospect of the revolutions of human society, which history presents to us, VOL. V.

NO. X.

Pam.

2[

with a view to impress on the minds of my readers the sentiment I feel, that there must have existed hitherto some fatal stumbling-block to our progress towards perfection.

Who can look back on the state of cultivation; of the arts and sciences; and of the moral government, to which many of the nations of antiquity had arrived; and on the dark intervals of ignorance and superstition which have intervened between the florishing condition of many ancient Empires; and not feel the force of my observation. Such a melancholy review represents to us the stream of time, as a fluctuating torrent, alternately elevating the bark of society on lofty billows, whose summits seemed to touch the Heavens; alternately subsiding in muddy and disgusting shallows. Individual man seems but as a creature of yesterday, carried on by the resistless current, to cull the flowers on the margin as he passes forwards, and to sink to-morrow, and be forgotten-the sport of chance, the prey of his contending passions-prevented by the tempests, which trouble the flood, from transmitting down the stream to posterity the fruits of his industry-the treasures he has collected by a fortuitous concourse of the waters. Happy is the individual who is borne on the ascending surge but in vain has he looked through the telescope of time across the chasm behind him, to view the wave, of glory, which broke before his era; if he thought to gather from the glance the principles on which human greatness is founded, and learn the way to establish and perpetuate the prosperity of his species.

Before I proceed to point out the true source of such conduct as will effect this desirable end, (lest I should be accused of exaggerating this melancholy picture of human fatality,) let me turn awhile from the metaphor, and refer to facts recorded in the pages of history.