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THE IMP OF THE PERVERSE
IN THE consideration of the faculties and impulses--of the prima mobilia
of the human soul, the phrenologists have failed to make room for a
propensity which, although obviously existing as a radical, primitive,
irreducible sentiment, has been equally overlooked by all the moralists
who have preceded them. In the pure arrogance of the reason, we have
all overlooked it. We have suffered its existence to escape our senses,
solely through want of belief--of faith;--whether it be faith in
Revelation, or faith in the Kabbala. The idea of it has never occurred
to us, simply because of its supererogation. We saw no need of the
impulse--for the propensity. We could not perceive its necessity. We
could not understand, that is to say, we could not have understood, had
the notion of this primum mobile ever obtruded itself;--we could not
have understood in what manner it might be made to further the objects
of humanity, either temporal or eternal. It cannot be denied that
phrenology and, in great measure, all metaphysicianism have been
concocted a priori. The intellectual or logical man, rather than the
understanding or observant man, set himself to imagine designs--to
dictate purposes to God. Having thus fathomed, to his satisfaction, the
intentions of Jehovah, out of these intentions he built his innumerable
systems of mind. In the matter of phrenology, for example, we first
determined, naturally enough, that it was the design of the Deity that
man should eat. We then assigned to man an organ of alimentiveness,
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