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love to mankind. In the open field, infidelity has suffered a signal discomfiture. What shall be the result of its present mode of attack, the future must determine. But we have faith in the controlling providence of God, and firmly believe that he will make even the wrath of man praise him.

Before us lies "Fowler on Religion." The above reflections have been started in our mind by a perusal of its pages. We will not say that those grave charges, either in part or in whole, lie VOL. VII.-11

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THE

METHODIST QUARTERLY REVIEW.

APRIL, 1847.

EDITED BY GEORGE PECK, D. D.

ART. I.-Religion; Natural and Revealed: or, the Natural Theology and Moral Bearings of Phrenology and Physiology; including the Doctrines taught, and the Duties inculcated, thereby, compared with those enjoined in the Scriptures. Together with the Phrenological Exposition of the Doctrines of a Future State, Materialism, Holiness, Sin, Rewards, Punishments, Depravity, a Change of Heart, Will, Foreordination, Fatalism, &c., &c. By O. S. FOWLER, Practical Phrenologist, &c., &c. 1846.

SKEPTICISM and infidelity have become very pious now-a-days. Their mode of warfare against religion has materially changed. Strategy and covert movements have taken the place of open hostility. Christianity, as a matter of science, is firmly established in the legitimate convictions of the understanding. Its beneficial, social, and moral influence has become a matter of recorded and unquestioned history. To skepticism and infidelity, then, no other avenue of access to the public mind is left except through the gateways of religion. Hence those, who aim most malignant blows at Christianity, do it by stealth. They put on the livery of heaven to serve the devil in. They insinuate the deadly virus through a thousand insidious avenues-all the while professing the most unbounded veneration for true religion, and the most expansive love to mankind. In the open field, infidelity has suffered a signal discomfiture. What shall be the result of its present mode of attack, the future must determine. But we have faith in the controlling providence of God, and firmly believe that he will make even the wrath of man praise him.

Before us lies "Fowler on Religion." The above reflections have been started in our mind by a perusal of its pages. We will not say that those grave charges, either in part or in whole, lie VOL. VII.-11

against this work. We shall content ourselves with a dissection of the work; and when the carcass has been threaded, the observer may draw his own conclusions. Let us premise, however, that we wage no war against Phrenology-none against the science proper, kept within its legitimate bounds. We may even assent to many of its general principles-many of the results to which the experiments and researches of scientific men seem to have led them. But our author must pardon us if our credulity fails when we attempt to follow him through some of the varied applications he has sought to give to it. We may believe that Brandreth's pills-when eaten in sufficient quantities-will do a good service as a purgative; but when their author attempts to palm them off upon us as a universal curative, what shall hinder our contempt of his charlatanism? So, when Phrenology is presented as the sovereign antidote of our bane, as the real moral solvent, the genuine philosopher's stone, how can we do less than inquire of him who knocks at the door of our reason for admittance, "Sayest thou this of thyself, or has science revealed it unto thee?" We repeat, however, that we do not condemn the work before us, in toto. It contains much that is good-many sound principles are laid down and elucidated with clearness and precision-many practical truths of great moment are forcibly illustrated-and many specific duties are enforced with an earnestness that is highly commendable. But often, in the admission of a partial truth, its counterpart is rudely thrust aside; and, throughout the whole work, there is a strange blending of truth with error, of fact with fable. Victor Cousin has somewhere said, that "every system is composed of part truth; and lives because of the element of truth it contains, and without which it could not have existed." We will not undertake to define the exact proportions of truth and error in the mixture before us; such a process would require an extended analysis-tedious in its details, if not fruitless of good in its results. We will, however, endeavor to point out some of the gross absurdities involved in our author's theory of the relations existing between Phrenology and Revelation; and also to show that that theory is illegitimate, even if the truth of Phrenology, as a science, were admitted.

We must not, however, fail to notice the spirit and style with which our author's task has been executed. He is evidently an amateur in the science of Phrenology. He writes con amore. Phrenology is with him the one idea-the centre around which his whole intellectual being revolves. From this port he takes his departure, and for this port he sails. Creation aside, furnishes not a speck that can attract his vision. In his style there is a hearti

ness, an enthusiasm, almost amounting to rhapsody. He writes in earnest, as though he would say,

"Give me vent, or I burst, my lord."

This is well. The thing is in him, and it must come out. The internal space cannot contain the ever-swelling flood, and it must have vent. It is difficult to determine in which the author has the highest confidence, himself, or his science. He omits no occasion, on which he may lug in his oft-repeated avowals of perfect recklessness with regard to public opinion. Indeed, this is so often made the theme of declamation, that our author seems to us like some cowardly braggadocio puffing and swelling at the distant danger, and we are half inclined to suspect his moral bravery and independence. Audendo magnus tegitur timor. His dogmatism and arrogance are intolerable. He opens his mouth as an oracle, whose sayings are to be received without scruple, and whose authority is the standard of ultimate appeal. He may possess "true science," but he is wofully deficient in what Dr. Chalmers denominates its "modesty." "Here is the truth, and nowhere else; and unless you receive it, you are a fool," is the spirit of the discourse. And that, too, on points still in dispute among eminent Phrenologists-points absolutely discarded, as being without sufficient proof, by men of an intellectual and moral worth, such as our author might justly be proud of. But having ascended the molehill of Phrenology, his "brother" seems to be the only intellectual being discoverable within the circumference that bounds his view. They are the two witnesses, by which every Phrenological word is to be established. Hence, the quod erat demonstrandum-“ I and my brother"-with which the work perpetually abounds.

The object of the treatise before us, is, "a comparison of the religion of Phrenology with the religion of the Bible"-" to place the natural theology and moral bearings of Phrenology, and the theology of the Scriptures, side by side, to see wherein they harmonize, and wherein they differ."-P. 8. This is a work, great and arduous, requiring a vast amount of research, a critical collation and comparison of facts, and a nice discrimination of deep and far-reaching principles. But our author would have us understand, at the very outset, that he is adequate to the task, that there will be no failure from any inability on his part. As to the scientific, the Phrenological qualifications necessary, he says,

"He [referring to himself] is thoroughly versed in Phrenology, and especially in that practical department of it which gives him just that very knowledge of the workings, or the manifestations of the moral

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