OF CON

deed it is in a great measure beyond all human research. We are, how- CHAP. IX. ever, in addition to that faith in Revelation, which we ought all to have SECT. VI. imbibed from the earliest development of our intellectual faculties, taught by the ablest divines and philosophers, that the promises of the New Testament are the proper, if not the only known foundation of our hopes of immortality, and that while those are wrong who think there can be any thing like an argument against a future life in another order of things, as mortality,

SCIENCE AND THE

SOUL.

and effects

declared by Revelation, it is strange that others should think it neces- of religion, sary to attempt rendering the pronunciation of Scripture as it were more and conseprobable, and that by an hypothesis, which is at best but the remains of quence of unenlightened times, and should require any assurance besides that of its absence. the gospel itself, which they read "has brought life and immortality to light." They should reflect that the belief of an immaterial substance removes no imagined difficulty, as it is the peculiar doctrine of Scripture, in distinction to that of all the heathen supposed philosophers, that the resurrection shall be positively of body; that in our flesh we shall see God, and that therefore our minds must appear as much a property of body hereafter as at present. This, the true Christian doctrine of a future state, is reasonable. The heathen doctrine was grounded on the supposed inherent immortality of a supposed substance, distinct from the body. The Christian doctrine teaches the resurrection of what we obviously are, bodies, and that through a miracle of the Almighty;(x) and as Paley has observed, whether the bodies with which we shall arise be new bodies, or the same bodies under a new form, is a question by which we are not to be at all disturbed; for no alteration will hinder us from remaining the same, provided we are sensible and conscious that we are so, any more than the changes which our visible person undergoes even in this life, and which from infancy to manhood are undoubtedly great, hinder us from being the same to ourselves and in ourselves, and to all intents and purposes.(y)

There can be no moral inducement to virtue equal in effect to the religious assurance and belief that the soul is immortal, and to be rewarded or punished hereafter according to good and evil actions in this life; and Revelation abundantly establishes that truth; and none but the eternal enemy of mankind or his disciples would, under pretence of false philosophy, and cunningly engaging individuals in conceited speculation, subversive of their happiness, attempt to take from man this strong excitement towards good and avoidance of evil, or the powerful consolation and support in every trial of adversity or temptation of fortune. Every good man, to be happy, should be able to apply to himself the observation of the late Bishop of Landaff: "As a Deist, I should have little expectation, but as a Christian, I have no doubt of a future state;" or Locke's observation, that "All the great ends of religion and morality are secured by the immortality of the soul, without regard to any question, whether it is material or immaterial;" and he should conclude with that philosopher and the Bishop of Landaff-" Believing, as I do, in the truth of the Christian religion, which teaches that men are accountable for their actions, I trouble not myself with dark disquisitions concerning necessity and liberty, matter and spirit; hoping, as I do, for eternal life through Jesus Christ, I am not disturbed at my inability clearly to convince myself that the soul is or is not a substance distinct from the body."

The practical effects of the presence or absence of true religion as diminishing or increasing insanity have been well established and illustrated by M. Esquirol, who has shown that in consequence of the decay in the influence of religion in France, the number of instances of insanity had

(x) El. Blum. 77 to 80, and authorities there quoted.

(y) W. Paley's, D. D., Sermons, vol. iii. 26; El. Blum. 4th ed. 80, note (q.)

CHAP. IX. greatly increased. He thus observes-"The changes which have taken SECT. VI. place during the last thirty years in our moral sentiments and habits have OF CON- produced more instances of madness in France than all our political ca

SCIENCE

AND THE

SOUL.

lamities. We have exchanged our ancient customs and fixed habits, our old and established sentiments and opinions, for speculative theories and dangerous innovations. Religion now only comes forward as a formal usage in the solemn transactions of life: it no longer affords its consolations to the afflicted, or hope to the desponding. Morality, founded on religion, is no longer the guide of reason in the narrow and difficult path of life. A cold egotism has dried up all the sources of sentiment; there no longer exist domestic affections, respect, attachment, authority, or reciprocal dependencies; every one lives for himself; none are anxious to form those wise and salutary provisions, which ought to connect the present age with those which are destined to follow it.”(z)

With respect to the physical and moral treatment of the numerous corporeal maladies attributable to the misapplication of true religion, and the dreadful apprehension that the soul is in danger of punishment in a future state, there can be no doubt that judicious treatment may be as influential as where there has been a troubled conscience from mere moral considerations. True religion is designed not only to console but to support and even cheer the mind, and to occasion joyful not morbid feelings; but if misunderstood or injudiciously applied, or perverted by a depressed or lowly mind, it has led to the most melancholy descriptions of insanity, or has occasioned even the most perverted notions of serving God by vindictive and cruel persecutions of others of different religious tenets, and this although they vary only in a very small degree from that of the per

secutors.

As regards religion, our law has ever been vigilant to protect its true interests, indeed much more so than mere morality. In more modern times legislators have evinced better knowledge of the just principles of religion, and a happier disposition is gradually prevailing for introducing more liberal regulations, calculated to tolerate every description of sincere religious faith, however much it may deviate from what is termed the National Religion. And a person may even be allowed to give evidence which he considers obligatory on his conscience, although he do not believe in a future state. (a)

(z) See quotation from the able article on insanity by Dr. Pritchard, Cyclop. Prac. Med. This admission by a Frenchman of the decay of religion and morality in France, and of its tendency to insanity on account of the absence of the influence of morality and religion on the reasoning faculty, may unquestionably be taken as

true. But let us not too hastily exult in the supposition that England is free from the same imputation.

(a) 1 Stark: Evid. 93. See Omichund v. Barker, Willes' R. 550; The Queen's case, 2 Brod. & Bing. 284; Edmonds v. Rouse, 1 Ry. & M. 77.

So much of happiness or misery depend on the due regulation of this 1st, Necesfunction, that however delicate the subject, it demands a degree of in- sity for.

CHAP. X. vestigation in any work upon medical jurisprudence, especially as perOF GENE- haps the present system of education, and our laws connected with the RATION, subject, require considerable alteration. All physiologists agree, that,

AND

ORGANS.

considera

although this function in general begins to be developed about the age of puberty, that is, in fact, in this country, between thirteen and fourteen, or even afterwards, in females, and after fourteen in males; yet that the tion of this function is not completely established or matured for about six or seven subject in the present years afterwards; and they all agree that excessive indulgence until after work, and the latter period, is injurious to the constitution, occasioning premature doubts re- old age, and imbittering the latter days of life; and yet our law has so far specting fixed the ages of puberty at even earlier periods, that it allows females to the propri marry at any time after attaining the age of twelve, and males immediateety of our ly upon having attained fourteen (subject only to the imperfect and easieducation ly evaded check of requiring the parents' consent,) and this even in a connected country where excess of population is admitted to be an evil, and although with the the ablest physiologists consider that early marriage and conception, even subject.

laws and

after puberty, is injurious to the individuals, and calculated to cause degeneracy in the race;(a) so that very absurdly and inconsistently the law allows and openly sanctions a contract of marriage at these very early periods, although it is an engagement of so important, continuing, and permanent a nature, as to require not only mentally a matured experience and sound judgment in the choice of the companion for life, but for the continuance of health, as well in the female as the male, a more matured constitutional vigour; and this although confessedly the union may be as injurious to the health and constitution as to the happiness of one or both of the parties; and although the law considers an infant under the age of twenty-one, in other respects incompetent to make any other contract, excepting for bare necessaries.

The Ecclesiastical Courts punish all solicitations to violate chastity at any age; and at common law, indecent exposure to an infant with that object; (b) or indeed any indecent exposure or publication,(c) is indictable; and if a master or medical attendant take indecent liberties with his scholar or patient, he may be convicted at least of an assault; and where a medical attendant, with an illicit intent, persuaded a female to strip, under pretence that an examination was essential to enable him to prescribe, he was convicted upon an indictment charging such special assault.(b) But still our law is defective in the want of an adequate general regulation to prevent the seduction of infants, and the injurious consequences, especially of early debauch; (d) though we have seen that by the French code such offences have judiciously, by a very comprehensive regulation, been repressed, by punishing every one who excites, favours, or facilitates, habitual debauch, or any corruption of either sex under the age of twenty-one, to imprisonment from six months to two years, and a fine of 500 francs; and if a parent or tutor, or other person having the care of the infant, be the delinquent, the imprisonment may be for five years, with a fine of 1000 francs; (d) and hence it will be observed,

(a) G. Smith, 496, in note; 1 Par. & Fonb. 172, note (c,) where it appears that the Romans and Athenians prohibited early marriages, in order to ensure that perfect maturity and complete sexual vigour, then considered eminently essential for the propagation of the human species. See also Dewees, Children, 9 to 12.

(b) Rex v. Nicholl, Russ. & Ry. C. C. 130; Rex v. Rozinski, Russ. & Mood. C. C. 19.

(c) 2 Campb. 89; 1 Sid. 168; 1 Keb.

620; 1 Sess. Ca. 231; 2 Stra. 790.

(d) See Lewis's Essay upon the Tabes Dorsalis, 3 Good, 166 to 169; where a fearful picture is given of the baneful consequences, and which cannot be too frequently presented to the attention of youths, especially in this licentious metropolis, in order to deter them from plunging into evils to which they are so often exposed; see also death from, 3 Par. & Fonb. 44; danger in old age, Cyclop. Prac. Med. (d) Code Penal, livre iii. titre ii. sect.

that, compared with the extent of population, the instances of early de- CHAP. X. pravity are not so numerous in France as in England, where the present OF GENEprecocity in vice is lamentably conspicuous and extensive.

As regards education, at least in large and public schools, information and moral and religious advice respecting this function, are usually withheld by those who are most competent to influence and regulate youth, or at least there is no adequate regimen to prevent vices connected with the organs of generation, too prevalent at very early ages; and youth are allowed, and with another laudable object encouraged to read, hear, and study the Scriptures, but many parts of which contain passages exciting their curiosity, and who, whilst unable to obtain information from those who would accompany it with sound moral advice, seek for and obtain it from older and perhaps vicious companions, whose luxuriant and unqualified descriptions and communications too frequently excite the youthful passions to premature, irregular, and baneful indulgences, equally ruinous to the mind as the body; and hence those numerous early emaciated frames, either wholly incapable of attaining maturity, or terminating in painful premature old age. If, on the contrary, parents and preceptors, instead of solely crowding accomplishments, were gradually, at the age when sexual desires begin to be developed, privately and individually to dispel all mystery, and describe nature as it is, and faithfully demonstrate how baneful, as well mentally as corporeally, are sexual and irregular indulgences before the proper age, for the former and other prudential circumstances have combined in justifying marriage, good moral conduct, good vigorous manhood would be established on principle, and not left, as too generally the case, to mere accident. Dr. Copland, in his valuable work,(e) makes the following strong remarks upon this subject: "The practices which both sexes are liable to acquire at this period of life, and to which they are commonly addicted when they associate in numbers at seminaries and academies, demand the strictest supervision. They have been, too generally, overlooked, both morally and medically, from the circumstance of their consequences having been imperfectly appreciated. There is no practitioner of observation and experience, certainly none of even limited knowledge, who has travelled into foreign countries, and is yet unacquainted with the physical exhaustion, the mental torpor, and all but annihilation of existence, which is the ultimate result of indulging them. From this source often spring impotency hereafter, the extinction of families, and hereditary honours-honours which such persons are incapable of achieving; the infliction, during after life, of many of the diseases which proceed from debility, and the exhaustion of the nourishment and vital energy of the various structures and organs; of numerous nervous and convulsive maladies, as hysteria, epilepsy, neuralgia, chorea, melancholia, mania, idiotcy, &c., the dangerous or fatal visitation of fevers, diseases of the heart, disorders of the digestive organs, premature baldness, and old age, the formation of tubercles, and the production of pulmonary consumption; and lastly, the transmission of weak and decrepit bodies and minds to their offspring, of scrofula, rickets, verminous complaints, marasmus, hydrocephalus, convulsions, tubercles, chorea,. &c.; the curse is visited on the children to the third and fourth generation, until the perpetual punishment extinguishes the very name of theaggressor."(f)

To these considerations may be added the imperative necessity for all heads of establishments, public and private, all husbands and parents,

iv.; Pailliet Manuel de Droit Français,

edit. A. D. 1818; ante, 361, n. (h)

(e) Copl. Dict. Prac. Med. tit. Age, 43.

(f) Id.; and see 3 Good, 168.

RATION,
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ORGANS.

Education.