suppose the influence of physical causes upon the moral faculty, renders
the agency of divine influence unnecessary to our moral happiness. I
only maintain, that the operations of the divine government are carried
on in the moral, as in the natural world, by the instrumentality of
second causes. I have only trodden in the footsteps of the inspired
writers; for most of the physical causes I have enumerated, are
connected with moral precepts, or have been used as the means of
reformation from vice, in the Old and New Testaments. To the cases that
have been mentioned, I shall only add, that Nebuchadnezzar was cured of
his pride, by means of solitude and a vegetable diet. Saul was cured
of his evil spirit, by means of David's harp, and St. Paul expressly
says, "I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection, lest that
by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a
cast-away." But I will go one step further, and add in favour of divine
influence upon the moral principle, that in those extraordinary cases,
where bad men are suddenly reformed, without the instrumentality of
physical, moral, or rational causes, I believe that the organization of
those parts of the body, in which the faculties of the mind are seated,
undergoes a physical change[11]; and hence the expression of a "new
creature," which is made use of in the Scriptures to denote this change,
is proper in a literal, as well as a figurative sense. It is probably
the beginning of that perfect renovation of the human body, which is
predicted by St. Paul in the following words: "For our conversation is
in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour, who shall change our
vile bodies, that they may be fashioned according to his own glorious
body." I shall not pause to defend myself against the charge of
enthusiasm in this place; for the age is at length arrived, so devoutly
wished for by Dr. Cheyne, in which men will not be deterred in their
researches after truth, by the terror of odious or unpopular names.
[11] St. Paul was suddenly transformed from a persecutor into a man
of a gentle and amiable spirit. The manner in which this change
was effected upon his mind, he tells us in the following words:
"Neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but
a new creature. From henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear
in _my body_, the _marks_ of our Lord Jesus." Galatians,
vi. 15, 17.
I cannot help remarking under this head, that if the conditions of
those parts of the human body which are connected with the human soul,
influence morals, the same reason may be given for a virtuous education,
that has been admitted for teaching music and the pronunciation of
foreign languages, in the early and yielding state of those organs which
form the voice and speech. Such is the effect of a moral education,
that we often see its fruits in advanced stages of life, after the
religious principles which were connected with it, have been renounced;
just as we perceive the same care in a surgeon in his attendance upon
patients, after the sympathy which first produced this care, has ceased
to operate upon his mind. The boasted morality of the deists, is, I
believe, in most cases, the offspring of habits, produced originally by
the principles and precepts of christianity. Hence appears the wisdom of
Solomon's advice, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he
is old he will not," I had almost said, he cannot "depart from it."
Thus have I enumerated the principal causes which act mechanically upon
morals. If from the combined action of physical powers that are opposed
to each other, the moral faculty should become stationary, or if the
virtue or vice produced by them, should form a neutral quality, composed
of both of them, I hope it will not call in question the truth of our
general propositions. I have only mentioned the effects of physical
causes in a simple state[12].
[12] The doctrine of the influence of physical causes on morals is
happily calculated to beget charity towards the failings of our
fellow-creatures. Our duty to practise this virtue is enforced
by motives drawn from science, as well as from the precepts of
christianity.
It might help to enlarge our ideas upon this subject, to take notice
of the influence of the different stages of society, of agriculture and
commerce, of soil and situation, of the different degrees of cultivation
of taste, and of the intellectual powers, of the different forms of
government, and lastly, of the different professions and occupations
of mankind, upon the moral faculty; but as these act indirectly only,
and by the intervention of causes that are unconnected with matter,
I conceive they are foreign to the business of the present inquiry.
If they should vary the action of the simple physical causes in any
degree, I hope it will not call in question the truth of our general
propositions, any more than the compound action of physical powers, that
are opposed to each other. There remain but a few more causes which are
of a compound nature, but they are so nearly related to those which
are purely mechanical, that I shall beg leave to trespass upon your
patience, by giving them a place in my oration.
The effects of imitation, habit, and association upon morals, would
furnish ample matter for investigation. Considering how much the shape,
texture, and conditions of the human body, influence morals, I submit
it to the consideration of the ingenious, whether, in our endeavours
to imitate moral examples, some advantage may not be derived, from our
copying the features and external manners of the originals. What makes
the success of this experiment probable is, that we generally find men,
whose faces resemble each other, have the same manners and dispositions.
I infer the possibility of success in an attempt to imitate originals in
a manner that has been mentioned, from the facility with which domestics
acquire a resemblance to their masters and mistresses, not only in
manners, but in countenance, in those cases where they are tied to them
by respect and affection. Husbands and wives also, where they possess
the same species of face, under circumstances of mutual attachment,
often acquire a resemblance to each other.
From the general detestation in which hypocrisy is held, both by good
and bad men, the mechanical effects of habit upon virtue have not been
sufficiently explored. There are, I am persuaded, many instances where
virtues have been assumed by accident, or necessity, which have become
real from habit, and afterwards derived their nourishment from the
heart. Hence the propriety of Hamlet's advice to his mother:
"Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, Custom, who all sense doth eat
Of habits evil, is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence; the next more easy:
For use can almost change the stamp of nature,
And master even the devil, or throw him out,
With wondrous potency."
The influence of ASSOCIATION upon morals, opens an ample field for
inquiry. It is from this principle, that we explain the reformation from
theft and drunkenness in servants, which we sometimes see produced by a
draught of spirits, in which tartar emetic had been secretly dissolved.
The recollection of the pain and sickness excited by the emetic,
naturally associates itself with the spirits, so as to render them both
equally the objects of aversion. It is by calling in this principle
only, that we can account for the conduct of Moses, in grinding the
golden calf into a powder, and afterwards dissolving it (probably by
means of hepar sulphuris) in water, and compelling the children of
Israel to drink of it, as a punishment for their idolatry. This mixture
is bitter and nauseating in the highest degree. An inclination to
idolatry, therefore, could not be felt without being associated with the
remembrance of this disagreeable mixture, and of course being rejected,
with equal abhorrence. The benefit of corporal punishments, when they
are of a short duration, depends in part upon their being connected,
by time and place, with the crimes for which they are inflicted. Quick
as the thunder follows the lightning, if it were possible, should
punishments follow the crimes, and the advantage of association would
be more certain, if the spot where they were committed, were made the
theatre of their expiation. It is from the effects of this association,
probably, that the change of place and company, produced by exile and
transportation, has so often reclaimed bad men, after moral, rational,
and physical means of reformation had been used to no purpose.
As SENSIBILITY is the avenue to the moral faculty, every thing which
tends to diminish it tends also to injure morals. The Romans owed much
of their corruption to the sights of the contests of their gladiators,
and of criminals, with wild beasts. For these reasons, executions should
never be public. Indeed, I believe there are no public punishments of
any kind, that do not harden the hearts of spectators, and thereby
lessen the natural horror which all crimes at first excite in the human
mind.
CRUELTY to brute animals is another means of destroying moral
sensibility. The ferocity of savages has been ascribed in part to their
peculiar mode of subsistence. Mr. Hogarth points out, in his ingenious
prints, the connection between cruelty to brute animals in youth, and
murder in manhood. The emperor Domitian prepared his mind, by the
amusement of killing flies, for all those bloody crimes which afterwards
disgraced his reign. I am so perfectly satisfied of the truth of a
connection between morals and humanity to brutes, that I shall find it
difficult to restrain my idolatry for that legislature, that shall first
establish a system of laws, to defend them from outrage and oppression.
In order to preserve the vigour of the moral faculty, it is of the
utmost consequence to keep young people as ignorant as possible of those
crimes that are generally thought most disgraceful to human nature.
Suicide, I believe, is often propagated by means of newspapers. For this
reason, I should be glad to see the proceedings of our courts kept from
the public eye, when they expose or punish monstrous vices.
The last mechanical method of promoting morality that I shall mention,
is to keep sensibility alive, by a familiarity with scenes of distress
from poverty and disease. Compassion never awakens in the human bosom,
without being accompanied by a train of sister virtues. Hence the wise
man justly remarks, that "By the sadness of the countenance, the heart
is made better."
A late French writer, in his prediction of events that are to happen
in the year 4000, says, "That mankind in that æra shall be so far
improved by religion and government, that the sick and the dying shall
no longer be thrown, together with the dead, into splendid houses, but
shall be relieved and protected in a connection with their families
and society." For the honour of humanity, an institution[13], destined
for that distant period, has lately been founded in this city, that
shall perpetuate the year 1786 in the history of Pennsylvania. Here
the feeling heart, the tearful eye, and the charitable hand, may
always be connected together, and the flame of sympathy, instead of
being extinguished in taxes, or expiring in a solitary blaze by a
single contribution, may be kept alive, by constant exercise. There
is a necessary connection between animal sympathy, and good morals.
The priest and the Levite, in the New Testament, would probably have
relieved the poor man who fell among thieves, had accident brought them
near enough to his wounds. The unfortunate Mrs. Bellamy was rescued from
the dreadful purpose of drowning herself, by nothing but the distress of
a child, rending the air with its cries for bread. It is probably owing,
in some measure, to the connection between good morals and sympathy that
the fair sex, in every age and country, have been more distinguished
for virtue, than men; for how seldom do we hear of a woman, devoid of
humanity?
[13] A public dispensary.
Lastly, ATTRACTION, COMPOSITION, and DECOMPOSITION, belong to the
passions as well as to matter. Vices of the same species attract each
other with the most force: hence the bad consequences of crowding young
men, whose propensities are generally the same, under one roof, in our
modern plans of education. The effects of composition and decomposition
upon vices, appear in the meanness of the school-boy being often cured
by the prodigality of a military life, and by the precipitation of
avarice, which is often produced by ambition and love.
If physical causes influence morals in the manner we have described, may
they not also influence religious principles and opinions? I answer in
the affirmative; and I have authority, from the records of physic, as
well as from my own observations, to declare, that religious melancholy
and madness, in all their variety of species, yield with more facility
to medicine, than simply to polemical discourses, or to casuistical
advice. But this subject is foreign to the business of the present
inquiry.
From a review of our subject, we are led to contemplate with
admiration, the curious structure of the human mind. How distinct are
the number, and yet how united! How subordinate, and yet how co-equal
are all its faculties! How wonderful is the action of the mind upon the
body! of the body upon the mind! and of the Divine Spirit upon both!
What a mystery is the mind of man to itself!---- O! Nature!---- or, to
speak more properly, O! THOU GOD OF NATURE! in vain do we attempt to
scan THY immensity, or to comprehend THY various modes of existence,
when a single particle of light, issued from THYSELF, and kindled
into intelligence in the bosom of man, thus dazzles and confounds our
understandings!
The extent of the moral powers and habits in man is unknown. It
is not improbable, but the human mind contains principles of virtue,
which have never yet been excited into action. We behold with surprise
the versatility of the human body in the exploits of tumblers and
rope-dancers. Even the agility of a wild beast has been demonstrated
in a girl of France, and an amphibious nature has been discovered in
the human species, in a young man in Spain. We listen with astonishment
to the accounts of the _memories_ of Mithridates, Cyrus, and Servin.
We feel a veneration bordering upon divine homage, in contemplating
the stupenduous _understandings_ of lord Verulam and sir Isaac Newton;
and our eyes grow dim, in attempting to pursue Shakespeare and Milton
in their immeasurable flights of _imagination_. And if the history
of mankind does not furnish similar instances of the versatility and
perfection of our species in virtue, it is because the moral faculty
has been the subject of less culture and fewer experiments than the
body, and the intellectual faculties of the mind. From what has been
said, the reason of this is obvious. Hitherto the cultivation of the
moral faculty has been the business of parents, schoolmasters, and
divines[14]. But if the principles, we have laid down, be just, the
improvement and extension of this principle should be equally the
business of the legislator, the natural philosopher, and the physician;
and a physical regimen should as necessarily accompany a moral
precept, as directions with respect to the air, exercise, and diet,
generally accompany prescriptions for the consumption, and the gout. To
encourage us to undertake experiments for the improvement of morals,
let us recollect the success of philosophy in lessening the number,
and mitigating the violence of incurable diseases. The intermitting
fever, which proved fatal to two of the monarchs of Britain, is now
under absolute subjection to medicine. Continual fevers are much less
fatal than formerly. The small-pox is disarmed of its mortality by
inoculation, and even the tetanus and the cancer have lately received
a check in their ravages upon mankind. But medicine has done more. It
has penetrated the deep and gloomy abyss of death, and acquired fresh
honours in his cold embraces. Witness the many hundred people who have
lately been brought back to life by the successful efforts of the humane
societies, which are now established in many parts of Europe, and in
some parts of America. Should the same industry and ingenuity, which
have produced these triumphs of medicine over diseases and death, be
applied to the moral science, it is highly probable, that most of those
baneful vices, which deform the human breast, and convulse the nations
of the earth, might be banished from the world. I am not so sanguine as
to suppose, that it is possible for man to acquire so much perfection
from science, religion, liberty, and good government, as to cease to
be mortal; but I am fully persuaded, that from the combined action of
causes, which operate at once upon the reason, the moral faculty, the
passions, the senses, the brain, the nerves, the blood, and the heart,
it is possible to produce such a change in his moral character, as shall
raise him to a resemblance of angels; nay, more, to the likeness of GOD
himself. The state of Pennsylvania still deplores the loss of a man, in
whom not only reason and revelation, but many of the physical causes
that have been enumerated, concurred to produce such attainments in
moral excellency, as have seldom appeared in a human being. This amiable
citizen considered his fellow-creature, man, as God's extract, from his
own works; and whether this image of himself was cut out from ebony or
copper; whether he spoke his own, or a foreign language; or whether
he worshipped his Maker with ceremonies, or without them, he still
considered him as a brother, and equally the object of his benevolence.
Poets and historians, who are to live hereafter, to you I commit his
panegyric; and when you hear of a law for abolishing slavery in each
of the American states, such as was passed in Pennsylvania, in the
year 1780; when you hear of the kings and queens of Europe, publishing
edicts for abolishing the trade in human souls; and, lastly, when you
hear of schools and churches, with all the arts of civilized life, being
established among the nations of Africa, then remember and record,
that this revolution in favour of human happiness, was the effect of
the labours, the publications, the private letters, and the prayers of
ANTHONY BENEZET[15].
[14] The people commonly called Quakers and the Methodists, make use of
the greatest number of physical remedies in their religious and
moral discipline, of any sects of Christians; and hence we find
them every where distinguished for their good morals. There are
several excellent _physical_ institutions in other churches; and
if they do not produce the same moral effects that we observe
from physical institutions among those two modern sects, it must
be ascribed to their being more neglected by the members of those
churches.
[15] This worthy man was descended from an ancient and honourable family
that flourished in the court of Louis XIV. With liberal prospects
in life he early devoted himself to teaching an English school;
in which, for industry, capacity, and attention to the morals and
principles of the youth committed to his care, he was without an
equal. He published many excellent tracts against the African
trade, against war, and the use of spiritous liquors, and one in
favour of civilizing and Christianizing the Indians. He wrote
to the queen of Great Britain, and the queen of Portugal, to
use their influence in their respective courts to abolish the
African trade. He also wrote an affectionate letter to the king
of Prussia, to dissuade him from making war. The history of his
life affords a remarkable instance how much it is possible for
an individual to accomplish in the world; and that the most
humble stations do not preclude good men from the most extensive
usefulness. He bequeathed his estate (after the death of his
widow) to the support of a school for the education of negro
children, which he had founded and taught for several years
before he died. He departed this life in May, 1784, in the 71st
year of his age, in the meridian of his usefulness, universally
lamented by persons of all ranks and denominations.
I return from this digression, to address myself in a particular
manner to you, VENERABLE SAGES and FELLOW CITIZENS in the REPUBLIC OF
LETTERS. The influence of philosophy, we have been told, has already
been felt in courts. To increase, and complete this influence, there
is nothing more necessary, than for the numerous literary societies in
Europe and America, to add the SCIENCE OF MORALS to their experiments
and inquiries. The godlike scheme of Henry IV, of France, and of the
illustrious queen Elizabeth, of England, for establishing a perpetual
peace in Europe, may be accomplished without a system of jurisprudence,
by a confederation of learned men, and learned societies. It is in
their power, by multiplying the objects of human reason, to bring the
monarchs and rulers of the world under their subjection, and thereby to
extirpate war, slavery, and capital punishments, from the list of human
evils. Let it not be suspected that I detract, by this declaration,
from the honour of the Christian religion. It is true, Christianity was
propagated without the aid of human learning; but this was one of those
miracles, which was necessary to establish it, and which, by repetition,
would cease to be a miracle. They misrepresent the Christian religion,
who suppose it to be wholly an internal revelation, and addressed
only to the moral faculties of the mind. The truths of Christianity
afford the greatest scope for the human understanding, and they will
become intelligible to us, only in proportion as the human genius is
stretched, by means of philosophy, to its utmost dimensions. Errors may
be opposed to errors; but truths, upon all subjects, mutually support
each other. And perhaps one reason why some parts of the Christian
revelation are still involved in obscurity, may be occasioned by our
imperfect knowledge of the phenomena and laws of nature. The truths of
philosophy and Christianity dwell alike in the mind of the Deity, and
reason and religion are equally the offspring of his goodness. They
must, therefore, stand and fall together. By reason, in the present
instance, I mean the power of judging of truth, as well as the power of
comprehending it. Happy æra! when the divine and the philosopher shall
embrace each other, and unite their labours for the reformation and
happiness of mankind!
ILLUSTRIOUS COUNSELLORS and SENATORS of Pennsylvania[16]! I anticipate
your candid reception of this feeble effort to increase the quantity
of virtue in our republic. It is not my business to remind you of the
immense resources for greatness, which nature and Providence have
bestowed upon our state. Every advantage which France has derived from
being placed in the centre of Europe, and which Britain has derived from
her mixture of nations, Pennsylvania has opened to her. But my business,
at present, is to suggest the means of promoting the happiness, not the
greatness, of the state. For this purpose, it is absolutely necessary
that our government, which unites into one, all the minds of the state,
should possess, in an eminent degree, not only the understanding, the
passions, and the will, but, above all, the moral faculty and the
conscience of an individual. Nothing can be politically right, that
is morally wrong; and no necessity can ever sanctify a law, that is
contrary to equity. VIRTUE is the soul of a republic. To promote this,
laws for the suppression of vice and immorality will be as ineffectual,
as the increase and enlargement of jails. There is but one method of
preventing crimes, and of rendering a republican form of government
durable, and that is, by disseminating the seeds of virtue and knowledge
through every part of the state, by means of proper modes and places of
education, and this can be done effectually only by the interference and
aid of the legislature. I am so deeply impressed with the truth of this
opinion, that were this evening to be the last of my life, I would not
only say to the asylum of my ancestors, and my beloved native country,
with the patriot of Venice, "Esto perpetua," but I would add, as the
last proof of my affection for her, my parting advice to the guardians
of her liberties, "To establish and support PUBLIC SCHOOLS, in every
part of the state."
[16] The president, and supreme executive council, and the members
of the general assembly of Pennsylvania, attended the delivery of
the oration, in the hall of the university, by invitation from
the Philosophical Society.
AN INQUIRY
INTO THE
CAUSES AND CURE
OF THE
_PULMONARY CONSUMPTION_.
In an essay, entitled "Thoughts on the Pulmonary Consumption[17]," I
attempted to show that this disease was the effect of causes which
induced general debility, and that the only hope of discovering a cure
for it should be directed to such remedies as act upon the whole system.
In the following inquiry, I shall endeavour to establish the truth of
each of those opinions, by a detail of facts and reasonings, at which I
only hinted in my former essay.
[17] Vol. I. p. 199.
The method I have chosen for this purpose, is to deliver, and
afterwards to support, a few general propositions.
I shall begin by remarking,
I. That the pulmonary consumption is induced by predisposing debility.