 
A philosophical analysis of the human mind, viewed in connection with the practical history of man from the early morning of his existence, fully demonstrates it as an important truth, that individual happiness and the moral welfare of society depend essentially upon the uniform action and harmonious cooperation of all the mental faculties; and that, on the other hand, their individually excessive and inharmonious action constitutes the primary source of nearly all the crime, misery, and discord of society. And it may be well to note here, as another important preliminary truth, that the progressive development of the science of mental philosophy has settled the division of the mental faculties into the following classification: viz., 1. The animal, which imparts energy and impulsive strength to the whole character, mental and physical. 2. The social, which is the source of family ties and the social and co-operative institutions of society. 3. The moral, which makes us regardful of the happiness and welfare of other beings than ourselves. 4. The intellectual, which is the great pilot-chamber or lighthouse of the whole mind; though it is but recently that discoveries in mental philosophy have fully disclosed this as being its natural and legitimate office. It has thus demonstrated it to be the most important department of the mind. Its position in the cerebrum—occupying, as it does, the superior frontal lobe of the brain—might, however, have suggested this. Now this is no fanciful delineation, no mere ideal mapping of the mind, but has been demonstrated thousands of times, since the discoveries of Gall, to be the true condition and classified analysis of the mental faculties. The religious faculties constituting that department of the mind which often controls our actions anil conduct toward others, and being situated at the apex of the brain,—the point where the most intensified feelings and impulses are supposed to concentrate their misdirection or abnormal exercise, is consequently attended with more direful consequences to society than that of any other portion of the mind. All history demonstrates this as a tragical fact; for religion, more especially, is always born blind. This being a tenable fact, and the religious faculties being awakened to action at an early period of human society,—before the intellectual chambers of the mind were lighted up by the illuminating rays of science, or supplied by a philosophical education and a thorough and untrammeled study of nature's laws,—their natural intensity of feeling, thus uncurbed and unenlightened, drove their honest but dark-minded possessors into the most senseless and childish superstitions, the most absurd doctrines, the most relentless intolerance of belief, and the most bloody and murderous persecutions; thus proving that conscience unenlightened is a very unsafe and a very dangerous moral and religions guide. The popular Christian proverb, that "man can not be too religious," comprehends a very fatal error in moral ethics: for the man who possesses more religion than intellect, or more devotional piety than intellectual cultivation and philosophical enlightenment, is sometimes a more dangerous man to society than the highway robber or the midnight assassin; because, always finding many accomplices to aid him in his direful deeds of bloody persecutions, and frequently being able, also, to invoke the strong arm of the law, his work of defamation and spoliation, if not of open persecution and bloodshed, is wider spread than that of the burglar or the stealthy assassin. A review of history shows us: 1. That, up to the installation of the era of science, which dates back less than three centuries ago, the world—that is, the Christian world—was literally a vast prison-house of chains, and a theater of butchery and blood,—the result of a practical effort of men, devoutly pious, to "promote the glory of God," and the establishment of a supposed-to-be-true religion. 2. The perpetrators of those tragical deeds upon men and women were, many of them, as religiously honest and conscientious "as ever breathed the breath of life;" and they verily believed they were doing God service in thus punishing and exterminating dissenters and heretics. The very fact that some of these pious persecutors perished themselves at the fiery stake in the conscientious and unflinching maintenance of their principles, shouting "Hallelujah" while the burning fagots consumed their bodies, leaves no possible ground for doubt that a deep religious conviction had actuated them in the work of persecuting and punishing the enemies of their religion, and in attempting to convert the world to its "saving truth" by the sword. Much is said about "conscience," "the internal monitor," "the still, small voice," &c., as a guide for man's moral actions; but, if experience and history ever proved or can prove any thing, they demonstrate most conclusively that conscience unenlightened by the intellectual department of the mind, or a conscience grown up amid the weeds of scientific ignorance, is as dangerous a pilot upon the moral ocean as the helmsman of a ship, in midnight darkness, surrounded by dangerous shoals and resistless whirlpools. Conscience without science or philosophy is a lamp without oil, which consequently, being without light, is more likely to lead us astray than to guide us to the temple of truth. Science is the pilot-lamp by which we discern our way on the pilgrim-voyage of life; while religion is the feeling, the motive-power, which impels us onward. Hence the latter should at all times be subservient to the former, and should be checked and restrained from spontaneous development and exercise until the former is duly installed upon the mental throne as ruler of the moral empire. It is as dangerous to cultivate and stimulate the religious feelings, until the fires of science or practical philosophy have been kindled up in the intellectual chambers to furnish the light necessary to guide them in their impulsive course, as it would be to steam up the boilers of a boat when approaching a precipice in the night, with the pilot asleep upon his hammock, and all the lights extinguished in his chamber. Neither religion nor conscience possesses primordially any light of its own. Both are born blind; and all the light they ever possess is by reflection from the intellectual light-house. Prolific, indeed, of the proof of this statement, are human nature, human experience, and universal history. Let the policy, then, be, in all cases, to cultivate science before religion. The intellectual mind, we repeat, should be thoroughly cultivated and enlightened before the religious feelings are called into action. Query. Reader, what do you now think of Dr. Cheviot's statement, "The Bible does not contain the shadow of a shade of error from Genesis to Revelation."
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