The materials employed lie open to all. Taken separately, I would hardly say that a new truth has been presented in the following work. The parts have nearly all been admitted and employed again and again, by writers on morals, from the time of Socrates down to the present day. The only novelty in this work respects the relations which acknowledged truths hold to each other. And the sciences of government, legislation, education, indeed our whole train of conduct through life, proceed upon the admission of laws in morals.
Mind forms an essential element in the execution of the plan.
Without it, no Comparison can be instituted between the natural constitution of man and external objects. But the practical value of the views to be unfolded does not depend entirely on Phrenology. The latter as a theory of Mind, is itself valuable only in so far as it is a just exposition of what previously existed in human nature. We are physical, organic, and moral beings, acting under general laws, whether the connection of different mental qualities with particular portions of the brain, as taught by Phrenology, be admitted or denied. Individuals, under the impulse of passion, or by their direction of intellect, will hope, fear, wonder, perceive, and act, whether the degree in which they habitually do so be ascertainable by the means which it points out or not.