TODR. JAMES JACKSON,OF BOSTON.
My dear sir:
Perhaps I have taken too great a liberty in sending to you in this public manner, and in praying you to accept a copy of M. Flourens’ ingenious work. I have a very sincere desire that you should read the Inquiry; for I feel sure, that if you approve of it, the studious portion of our countrymen who may peruse it, will concur in the opinion of a gentleman so justly distinguished as yourself in every good word and work, and so capable of judging asto the salutary or evil tendency of the productions of our teeming press.
Inasmuch as many of our countrymen have heretofore felt, and many do now feel, desirous to know the truth as to the question of the multiple nature of the human mind, I have here translated the Examination, in order that they might have an opportunity to learn what is thought of Gall’s doctrines by one of the best and most precise thinkers in Europe.
Professor Flourens, by his writings on the brain and nervous system, by his courses of lectures at the Jardin des Plantes, by numerous writings on various scientific subjects, by his position in the Institute, has acquired a place among the literary and scientific celebrities of the present age. The amiable and elegant manners, and the fine disposition of this distinguished character, coincide with his acknowledged learning, and exactness, and zeal, to accumulate upon him the public respect andesteem. It is therefore with great confidence that I present to you this copy of his criticism upon Phrenology, since I suppose that every writing of so good a man might prove acceptable to you, and to the studious portion of our countrymen generally.
I invoke your approbation of what I cannot but deem a masterly criticism of the doctrines of Gall. So highly have I appreciated it, that I cannot readily suppose it possible to rise from its perusal, without being convinced that Gall was wholly mistaken in his views of the human mind; and of course, that all the cranioscopists, mesmerizers, and diviners, who have followed his track, or risen up on the basis of his opinions, are equally in error.
In order to have a just view of human responsibility, it is indispensable to entertain the justest notions of the nature of the human mind. If Phrenologybe an unsubstantial hypothesis, no phrenologist is fit to be ajuror, a judge, or a legislator: for since all human law—the whole social compact—and indeed all divine law, as relative to human propensities and actions—is founded on some real nature of the soul and mind, there is risk that manifestly erroneous conceptions of the freewill, of the conscience, of the judgment, and the perceptive powers, &c. may mislead the juror, the judge, and the legislator, in their vote, their opinion, and their notion of rights and wrongs.
If I am correct in entertaining these apprehensions as to the influence of false metaphysics on the public characters I have enumerated, there is abundant cause to rejoice when a blow is struck, like that pulverizing blow which is given in this work, to so considerable an error. There are thousands among the young and ardent and curious of our countrymen and countrywomen, whose minds may be likewise led astray from the truth; but if it be mischievousfor the judge and the juror and the legislator to entertain erroneous views upon the nature of the understanding, the mind, or the soul, it is equally to be deprecated where the error is sown broadcast in the land.
Tares, if not in themselves poisonous, serve at best to choke up the useful or beautiful plants that ought to be cultivated in the fields of science or morals; but you will find that M. Flourens regards them as poisons.
Has not M. Flourens clearly refuted the phrenologists? and has he not, in doing so, performed a useful and an acceptable service?
I pray you to believe that I am, with the most grateful respect and the sincerest esteem,
Your obliged and faithful servant,
CHARLES D. MEIGS.
Philadelphia, Dec. 10, 1845.
TOTHE MEMORYOFDESCARTES.