New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-01-25
MIND AND ITS ORGANISE.

stitntion of clearly established scientific prnci-
plea for empirical rules, all doubt is dissipated
when we contemplate the subject of MUD on ito
physiological side--that is, in living connection
with its working mechanism. .-
Few things at first seem more surprising than
the long career of intellectual activity displayed
by the race before it began any systematic in
ouiry concerning material nature. For ages,
there was a broad current Of intense and
powerful thought; but it spent itself in fruitless
inouries into the causes, and essences, and orr
gin Of things; in constructing systems OF specu.
latiye philosophy; in poetry rhetoric, oratory,
history, polemics, and politics; while the material
world was universally ignored, and. as subject
Of earnest inquiry, avoided.
There we're various reasons for this. The old
philosophy affirmed the antagonism of the prin-
cipes Of good and evil, aud as the g first good,
first perfect and first fair" were assumed to
exist in the ideal world oil evil aud imperfcc-
tons were located in its opposite, the real or
natural world; while the later theologies, In
cooperating the old philosophical dogma into their
religious cresds, taught that nature was the
insrenchms ut of satau and, therefore, the enemy,
danger and snare of mankind Again, in the
structure Of early society, while man was yet
helpless, before he had summoned the powers OF
nature to his assistance, or begun to com.
prehend the import Of his earthly destiny,
labor was but servie and wearsome
drudgery. All escaped from it who could,
the stronger inflicted its burdens upon
the weaker; and, with universal seryitude and
slavery, physical labor became the mark and
badge of the mental condition. it was degraded
and despised. Theory aud practice were thus CO.
ordinated; nature, abhorred a. the seat and
source Of evil, was fifty consigned to the manip-
ulation of helots and serfs. These and other
causes prevented earnest investigation Of the
material world. The hearty and thorough study
Of nature begins with the love Of nature. Science,
though a work Of the intellect is inspired OF
the heart. Bacon was more the apostle OF new
epoch in eoquently persnadng men back to M
ture than in propounding the canons OF q new
philosophy. Experiment-that is, turning nature
round on all sides, 80 ss to get at her exact
meaning-is the first condition Of science, and
implies working in matter; and this was inter
dicted as vulgar and debosing. Hence, through
long centuries Of high intellectual effort, nothing
was contributed toward the knowledge of mans
material constitution Mechanics, acoustics,
optics, heat, chemistry electricity, comparative
anatomy, and physioogy-tbese were the keys
to unlock the mysteries Of human physiology;
and these were not yet forged. Until within
draH a biah
and supersiitious horror Of the dead body, which
forbade it, dissection. IL was q bold step Of
Mandini, early in the fourteenth century, to dis
sect two bodies which he did, all except the
head, which he dared not open, for fear Of com
uniting mortal sin; while the plates he made
from those dissections answered the purposes Of
physicians for two hundred years. Ignorance
concerning the relations OF mind aud body
vas, of course, utter and absolute; and,
as a consequence, these relations were e1-
peditiously settled by the philosophers. The body
was the souls prison; life was transient con.
fnement Of the spirit the corporal being was
hindrance and a clog TO the spiritual nature to
be hated, cursed, and crucfed. Whether the
soul dwelt precisely in the stomach heart liver,
spleen, lower intestnes, or head, was matter OF
some curious speculation different opinions being
entertained upon this point By different philoso
piers. This ignorance was not without its
penalty Metaphyseians had specuatcd Of mind,
but their view WIS one-sded, incomplete, I'm.
seryiceabe, and did not extend to its close
and vital relations with the corpOrea or.
gnnism. Meantime, in the sphere Of common
experience, the matter could not be thus easily
passed by. In daily life, eases rose continually of
disturbed and disordered mental action, with ir-
regularity and insanity Of conduct. What now
was to be done Rational beings always frame
theories of SOME Sort and then act upon them.
And 80 it was assumed that the miserable VIC
tins were the subjects Of Divine dspleasure, for
saken Of God and possessed Of devils, and they
were universally regarded as objects Of horror
and detestation. For long and weary ages, those
upon whom had fallen the heaviest calamity pos
sble in life, who were entitled to the tenderest
sympathy and kindliest care were looked upon
as accursed criminals; and to their mental ago.
MES were added the cruelest bodily fortunes. No
body doubted, not even the wiscst best and
most humane, that dungeons and chains and
stripes we're deserved by the heaven-abandoned
" reteh and were at the same time the best
and only means Of his restoration. We shud-
der ut these terrible records of ignorance;
yet We are not to explain it on the by.
pothesis that men were depraved and unmer.
riful it was simply because nothing was known
Of cerebral physiology and the real laws Of
mind. Toward the close Of the last century
more enlightened views began to prevail aud