Remarks on the erroneous impressions and spirit of hostility at present existing, more especially amongst the religious public : in regard to the diffusion of scientific knowledge in general, and of phrenology and its supposed effects in particular / by H.G. Wright.

  • Wright, H. G.
Date:
1836
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the erroneous impressions and spirit of hostility at present existing, more especially amongst the religious public : in regard to the diffusion of scientific knowledge in general, and of phrenology and its supposed effects in particular / by H.G. Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    REMARKS. Were phrenologists to consider it necessary to answer every ephemeral objection that is hazarded against their science, the task might be an endless one. But when from time to time arguments of seeming weight are adduced,—although of seem- ing weight only,-—it is befitting to give the world assurance of its power, by shewing how little ground there really is for such objections. It appears to me that this might be advan- tageously done at present, when there exists, more particularly among the religious instructors of the community, a very erro- neous impression of, and consequent spirit of hostility towards, the doctrines of Phrenology. An idea has got abroad that science aims at usurping the place of Christianity. Not only is this heard in conversation, but, in a printed Prospectus recently issued, intimating the proposed es- tablishment of a religious periodical, under the name of the “ Scottish Christian Herald,” the following passages occur:— “ All sorts of literary machinery, newspapers, lectures, trea- tises, magazines, pamphlets, school-books, libraries of knowledge for use or for entertainment, are most diligently and assiduously set in motion, if not for purposes directly hostile to the Gospel, at least on the theory that men may be made good and happy without the Gospel, nay though the Gospel were forgotten as an old wives1 fableand the writer, after enumerating the facilities and resources now existing for disseminating knowledge, says, that religion should be “ going forth in the might of the Lord to meet the gigantic foe on the very terms of his own challenge. She may not indeed adopt his unholy spirit, but righteously she may wield his own weapon for consummating her godly tri- umph”