Principles of mental physiology : with their applications to the training of the mind, and the study of its morbid conditions / by William B. Carpenter.

  • Carpenter, William Benjamin, 1813-1885.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Principles of mental physiology : with their applications to the training of the mind, and the study of its morbid conditions / by William B. Carpenter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    55/810 (page 51)
    cession to a dominant passion tends to make the individual its slave. And thus a man (or woman) may come at last so far to have lost the power of self-control, as to he unable to resist a temptation to what is known to be wrong, and to be therefore morally irresponsible for the particular act; but such an individual, like the drunkard in the commission of violence, is responsible for Ms irrespon- sibilitybecause he has wilfully abnegated his power of self-control, by habitually yielding to temptations which he knows that he ought to have resisted. The Moral judgments which we form of the actions of other men, are rffecessarily as imperfect as our predictions of their conduct; since no one can fully estimate the relative potency of heredity and environments, on the one side, and of the sense of duty and capacity of willing, on the other: and the consciousness of our own weakness in resisting the temptations which we feel most attractive to ourselves, should lead us to make large allowance for the frailties and short- comings of others. There are too many, who, as old Butler pithily said, “ Compound for sins they are inclined to, “ By damning those they have no mind to.” Kindly allowance for the offender (“ considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted”) is perfectly consistent with reprobation of the offence. And thus the “ charity ” which 11 beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all “ things, endureth all things,” is in strict accordance with the results of Psychological enquiry into the influences