half the evils which afflict
humanity, has been sleeping undisturbed in the grave of oblivion. Not a
voice has, for this long period, been raised in its favor; its noble and
learned patrons, its public institutions, its eloquent advocates, its
brilliant promises are all covered with the dust of silent neglect; and
of the generation which has sprung up since the period when it
flourished, very few know anything of its history, and hardly even the
title which in its palmy days it bore of PERKINISM. Taking it as
settled, then, as no one appears to answer for it, that Perkinism is
entirely dead and gone, that both in public and private, officially and
individually, its former adherents even allow it to be absolutely
defunct, I select it for anatomical examination. If this pretended
discovery was made public; if it was long kept before the public; if it
was addressed to the people of different countries; if it was formally
investigated by scientific men, and systematically adopted by benevolent
persons, who did everything in their power to diffuse the knowledge and
practice of it; if various collateral motives, such as interest and
vanity, were embarked in its cause; if, notwithstanding all these things,
it gradually sickened and died, then the conclusion seems a fair one,
that it did not deserve to live. Contrasting its failure with its high
pretensions, it is fair to call it an imposition; whether an expressly
fraudulent contrivance or not, some might be ready to question.
Everything historically shown to have happened concerning the mode of
promulgation, the wide diffusion, the apparent success of this delusion,
the respectability and enthusiasm of its advocates, is of great interest
in showing to what extent and by what means a considerable part of the
community may be led into the belief of that which is to be eventually
considered' as an idle folly. If there is any existing folly, fraudulent
or innocent in its origin, which appeals to certain arguments for its
support; provided that the very same arguments can be shown to have been
used for Perkinism with as good reason, they will at once fall to the
ground. Still more, if it shall appear that the general course of any
existing delusion bears a strong resemblance to that of Perkinism, that
the former is most frequently advocated by the same class of persons who
were conspicuous in behalf of the latter, and treated with contempt or
opposed by the same kind of persons who