Notes of the United States of North America, During a Phrenological Visit in 1898-9-40: Volume 1 Page: 245 of 444
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HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY. 205
tual faculties are nearly equally balanced, being all
large. Such persons experience strong impulses both
to good and evil, and their actual conduct is greatly
influenced by the circumstances in which they are
placed. If uneducated, and exposed to want and vicious
society, they may lapse into crime: If well
educated, trained to industry, and favoured with the
society of the intelligent and good, their higher
powers may acquire and retain the ascendency during
life, and they may avoid all serious offences. These
men are liable to be influenced by the fear of punishment,
and are therefore responsible; but they should
be treated with a due reference to their nature; corrected
and improved, and not merely tormented. The
third class comprehends those in whom the organs
of the propensities are large, and the organs of the
moral and intellectual faculties very deficient. I
stated it to be my conviction, founded on observation,
that such individuals are incapable of resisting the
temptations to crime presented by ordinary society,
that they are moral patients, and should not be punished,
but restrained, and employed in useful labour
during life, with as much liberty as they can enjoy
without abusing it. I mentioned, that, according to
my view, a severe responsibility lies on the first class,
for on them a bountiful Creator has bestowed his
best gifts, and committed their weaker brethren to
their care; that hitherto, in most countries, they had
thought merely of punishing these feebler minds, and
that it would be a just retribution to administer to
them, for their harsh and unjust conduct, no small
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Combe, George, 1788-1858. Notes of the United States of North America, During a Phrenological Visit in 1898-9-40: Volume 1, book, 1841; Edinburgh, Scotland. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1028/m1/245/?q=%221838%3F%22: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.