The object in reprinting this most interesting review is simply to show
the progress made in moral, intellectual, and physical science. The
reader will go back with us to a time--not very remote--when nothing was
known of Phrenology and Psychology; when men and women were persecuted,
and even put to death, through the baldest ignorance and the most
pitiable superstition. If we were to go back still farther, to the Holy
Wars, we should find cities and nations drenched in human blood through
religious bigotry and intolerance. Let us thank God that our lot is
cast in a more fortunate age, when the light of revelation, rightly
interpreted by the aid of SCIENCE, points to the Source of all
knowledge, all truth, all light.
When we know more of Anatomy, Physiology, Physiognomy, and the Natural
Sciences generally, there will be a spirit of broader liberality,
religious tolerance, and individual freedom. Then all men will hold
themselves accountable to God, rather than to popes, priests, or
parsons. Our progenitors lived in a time that tried men's souls, as
the following lucid review most painfully shows.