George Combe
George Combe
George Combewas the leader of – and the spokesman for – the phrenological movement for more than twenty years. He founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society in 1820 and was the author of the highly influential The Constitution of Man. Combe trained in Scots law and had an Edinburgh solicitor's practice. In his later years, after a successful marriage in 1833, Combe devoted himself to international travel in the promotion of phrenology...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEducator
Date of Birth21 October 1788
CountryUnited States of America
I requested the gentlemen to put on their hats, and the ladies their shawls, to avoid catching cold, and then had the windows widely opened. This proceeding caused some astonishment and alarm at first; for the Americans generally have a dread of cold air.
While some of them acknowledge the obligation of natural morality in their mode of conducting their cases, and preserve their individual character as gentlemen, there are others who acknowledge no law, human or divine, but the law of Scotland.
Phrenology taught us that the mind thinks by means of the brain, is liable to become fatigued by too long attention, as the locomotive muscles are by too much walking; and I therefore proposed to them to take a brief rest.
The friends whom I have are invaluable, and although not numerous they are sufficient for my enjoyment; and the texture of my own mind renders me very indifferent to the rest of the world.
If he had resisted he would have been slain in an instant. This, and the success of the Quakers, however, is obviously peculiar.