OR THE MEANS OF DEVELOPING THE HUMAN FACULTIES. BY J. L. LEVISON. "The volume of nature is the book of knowledge; and he becomes most GOLDSMITH. BOSTON: ALLEN AND TICKNOR. 1834. ¿B1051 MAY 18 1837 1834 HARVARD UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION MONROE C. GUTMAN LIBRARY Charles A. Green, Printer, 19 Water-street. PREFACE. In this volume, which is submitted to the unprejudiced, we have endeavoured to show how practical and easy Moral Culture becomes, when the real nature of man is understood. It is the peculiar duty of those who frame the laws of a country, and of those who administer them for the preservation of society, to adopt such a system of mental philosophy as will enable them to ascertain what number of the primitive faculties are connate, and also to distinguish between their uses and their abused states. This knowledge, indeed, would give incalculable advantages to all who influence society, and particularly to the Parent and Teacher: it would enable them to discriminate those excesses of the feelings which result from mis-directed or neglected education, and demonstrate the circumstances most favourable to give a moral and intellectual bias to the character of the rising generation. The fundamental truths of this science of mind are briefly stated in the first part of this work, and their practical application in the second; and the author hopes that a candid perusal of both parts will prove their value in developing and training the mental faculties. J. L. LEVISON. CONTENTS. Page. INTRODUCTION, Containing Observations on the General History of the Arts and Sciences, and on the Advantages of Civilized Structure and Uses of the Brain-Various Phenomena con- nected with this Organ from Infancy to Old Age-Prospec- tive Wisdom of the Creator displayed in the Mental Seasons- Mode adopted for the Security and Preservation of the Brain -Its Membranes-The Wisdom of God manifested in the General and Particular Views, on the Modification of the Ac- tivity of the Mental Faculties, by what are called Constitu- ional Temperaments-Explanation of each Temperament in he following order: the Nervous, the Bilious, the Sanguin- eous, and the Lymphatic--Shakspeare's Opinion of the Temperaments strictly Physiological-Sir George Mackenzie's Explanation of the Uses and Abuses of the various Feelings or Propensities-Physical Love-Parental Instinct-Inhabitive- ness, or Instinct of Place; Love of Country, a Modification of this Feeling-Instinctive Attachment, the Source of Friend- ship, Affection, and Esteem-Instinct of Courage-Destruc- tive Propensity, or the Carnivorous Instinct-Instinct essen- tial to Prudence-Instinct of Acquiring, of Contriving, Con- structing, Building, &c.-Self-esteem-Approbation, or De- sire of Applause-Instinctive Caution, a Source of Hesitation, Fear, Melancholy Explanation of the Organs of the Moral and Religious Senti- |