“Our evils are social, not political—political evils are the results of the false organization of society.”

“Attractions are proportional to destines.”

“The serie distributes the harmonies of the universe.”

A depictions of the famous late August 1830 race between the Tom Thumb, the first American-built steam locomotive, built by Peter Cooper, and a horse—the horse eventually winning the race, owing to a belt that broke in the engine (Ѻ); a model on which Brisbane, in 1857, conceptualized as a model on which the human passions could be fitted to ideally to a specific type of society conceptualized, in like manner, as an engine: [4] “It may be laid down as a law, that forces can operate naturally and rightly only in mechanisms which are suited to them. This is as true of the passions as it is of all other forces in nature—of steam, for example, which can not produce its legitimate effects in mechanics, except on condition that it operates in an engine perfectly fitted to it.”

“Metaphysicians, seeing the passional forces misdirected or perverted under the influence of false social systems, and mistaking the effects which they produce under these systems for their true and legitimate action, have become imbued with prejudices against human hature, have assumed the passions to be imperfect and vicious motors, so that instead of making a careful and impartial study of them, they have fallen into the error of reviling and denouncing them. The passions can be harmoniously developed, and act legitimately only on condition that they operate in a social order adapted to their nature and requirements.

It may be laid down as a law, that forces can operate naturally and rightly only in mechanisms which are suited to them. This is as true of the passions as it is of all other forces in nature—of steam, for example, which can not produce its legitimate effects in mechanics, except on condition that it operates in an engine perfectly fitted to it. Metaphysicians have not understood this simple law in its application to the forces of the soul. They have not understood that the social organization—the external mechanism of the passions—should be conformed to them; on the contrary, they have supposed that the passions should be conformed to the social organization—to its laws and institutions. But the passions rebel against all attempts to adapt them to a mechanism not in unity with them; in such a mechanism, their action is misdirected or perverted, and they engender as a consequence, social discord and evil. Instead of condemning the false social systems which pervert and denaturalize the passions, the world condemns the passions themselves; hence the doctrine of the depravity of human nature and its corollary, the permanent reign of evil on earth, have become the general belief of mankind. It has misled the metaphysicians, who have fallen into the common prejudice against human nature and have consequently failed entirely in the study of man.

A new school of mental philosophy has sprung up in our day, founded by Gall, the doctrines of which are much more satisfactory than the old metaphysical theories. It does something more than treat of the origin of ideas, the phenomena of conscience, and the operations of reason. It treats of the real living springs of action in the soul, and of their functions in the individual sphere, of their modes of operation and their uses in that sphere, and explains their nature as they manifest themselves in present society. It does not, however, furnish an integral and systematic analysis of human nature; it does not explain the nature and essence of the passions, nor the developments of which they are susceptible; it does not explain their relation to the terrestrial destiny of man, to the globe of which he is the overseer, nor to the universe, in the scheme of which he has an important work to perform.

In the brief treatise which follows, we shall endeavor to explain the functions of the passions, both in the individual and the universal sphere, the destiny to which they impel and guide man, and their relation to nature, to humanity, and to the universe. We shall present a synthetical view of their individual and collective action, of the objects or foci to which they tend, the ends for which they were created, so that the reader may have a general idea of the nature and destiny of the passions of the soul. We shall not enter into a detailed analysis of the divisions and subdivisions of the passions, nor of the special functions which their minor ramifications fulfil, neither shall we explain the scale and gamut of each passion, the degrees of development of which it is susceptible, nor the accords and dissonances it furnishes in social harmony. These and many other details we omit, because we are not writing a full treatise. Our object is simply to present a general analysis of the twelve radical passions, and to give an idea of their functions in directing man in the fulfillment of his social destiny on earth.

Man is a compound being, composed of two principles—one active, the other passive. The active principle is what is called the mind, the soul; the passive principle is the body. The latter is the material instrument of the former, the means by which it inhabits the planet, acts upon matter, and arrives at a state of positive and practical existence.

The soul, or active principle in man, is a whole, composed of a certain number of forces or motors, which we shall call the passions; by the metaphysicians, these forces are variously termed—sentiments, affections, feelings, faculties, impulses, instincts.

The passions are spontaneously active and self-determining forces; they are the thinking, feeling, creating principle in man — the source of his acts and works in all spheres, material and spiritual. They are the agents of supreme wisdom, the motors implanted in him by that wisdom to impel him to fulfill his destiny on earth.
The human passions were not created at random, were not called into existence without functions and employments having been assigned to them; on the contrary, their functions and uses have been calculated with mathematical precision.”