DENS' THEOLOGY, AND THE DAILY COMPANION.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1839.
Colonial Politics.
The morbid anatomy of the human soul.

IT is with a feeling of shrinking repugnance that we approach this loathsome subject. We remember the almost convulsive sensation which we experienced the first time we were introduced to the interior of a University Dissection Room. There lay the putrid and mangled subjects—some disembowelled—others decapitated—and all in process of gradual dismemberment beneath the knife of the dissectors. Over each subject might be seen two or three students absorbed in the keen pursuit of a their unsightly operations, with one alternately in each batch with his arms laid bare, and thrust up to the elbows in blood and entrails, while ever and anon, like keen butchers, or rather like some unreclaimed cannibals, the youthful aspirants, to anatomical skill, would place the dripping knife between their teeth in the eagerness of their work, with the utmost sang froid, as if they had been slicing away at roast beef and plumb pudding! And then the sickening stench of putrefaction, added to the livid and revolting aspect of the bodies, rendered the tout ensemble of the scene one of the most humiliating and disgusting that we should ever like to witness. The vision of that loathsome chamber of anatomy haunted our imagination by day, and gave a cast of horror to our dreams by night, for some time afterwards; and such was the feeling of revulsion with which it inspired us, that nothing could tempt us to revisit the like scene again, or to embark in the study of a profession which required so obscene an ordeal of preliminary preparation. These were our feelings; but we confess they are ascribable to peculiarities in our nervous temperament and mental constitution, more than to any objection able feature in the sublime and useful study to which the operations referred to were but an essential accessory. But when viewed as a scientific pursuit, and in relation to the grand results which are thereby to to be attained, the process, which to us was revolting, was one of intellectual luxury and dignified enjoyment; to such as were professionally engaged in it.

But what has all this to do with DENS' THEOLOGY? our readers may enquire. Why, yes; it has somewhat to do with it, at least in the way of association in our ideas. The sight of which we have given but an imperfect out line had the effect of so thoroughly disgusting us, that it induced us to renounce all thoughts of studying medicine; and from an analogous reason, we are of opinion, had we been so unfortunate as to have been bred a Papist and intended for the priesthood, the thought of having to study and practice this obscene anatomy of Dr, ULLATHORNE or PETER DENS, would amply suffice to disgust us with the profession in limine, and turn our energies to something else.
We confess we have only glanced here and, there over the work we speak of; but half glance is quite enough to betray the filthy purulence of this morbid anatomy of the human soul. We have never read, but we have heard of works, in which the lewd details of lascivious description and the unblushing narrative of voluptuous vice, are introduced in order to gratify the grovelling taste of low-lived sensuality, and to furnish manuals to rakes and courtezans. Such works are fit only for the library of a bagnio or brothel; but, if there be but one book in the whole catalogue of Theology whose gross and lewd obscenities entitle it to be placed on the same shelf with the works we have alluded to, that book is DENS THEOLOGY; or its miniature praxis,THE DAILY COMPANION. In the former class of works, there may be a veil of specious and subtile fascination thrown over the naked obscenities which they are intended to describe; but the latter have not even the merit of common decency by which so indelicate a subject might be alluded to without doing violent outrage to the feelings of natural modesty and virgin innocence. And yet these are the books, which the Editor of The Australasian Chronicle approves of and defends:—these are the text books from which the Romish Priesthood learn the treatment and discovery of the moral leprosy of the soul; and such are the books which they put into the hands of youth and innocence, as compendious guides to personal examination and saving knowledge! In the name of virtue and common-sense! what Protestant, we ask, would ever think of revealing or describing to his virgin daughter the lewd details of prostitution, or the obscene orgies of a brothel, in order to preserve her from seduction, and fortify her virtue in uncontaminated purity and peace? 'Tis true in some instances that
" Vice is a monster of such frightful mein,
That to be hated, needs but to be seen;
But seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

Such, we are convinced, is the natural tendency of such holy lewdness as those Catholic books contain. There is an in separable connexion established in our constitution between the workings of our imagination, the affections of the heart, and the appetites of our physical nature; and hence the reason of that responsibility under which we lie to observe the Divine proverb, " Evil communications corrupt good manners." For as surely as a word spoken in the ear, or presented to the eye in artificial signs, calls up some image or idea in the mind, so truly may the author of that word be held responsible for the train of thought which the principle of association will give birth to, and for the effects which that thought is calculated to produce on the heart, whether it be one of falsehood or unbelief, or one of sensual turpitude and moral depravation. When looked upon therefore, in the light of unsophisticated philosophy and common sense, the danger and the guilt of putting such indelicate works into the hands of young people of either sex, must surely be obvious to every sensible, pure-minded,and unprejudiced person at least. We do not really wonder at the indignation with which our venerable contemporary of The Monitor repudiated the very idea of such a thing; and as for ourselves, if there was anything more required to fill up the measure of our disgust and abhorrence at these infamous works, and at the atrocious system of diabolical priestcraft which alone could give them birth, it was the nonchalance and effrontery with which the Editor or somebody else in The Australian Chronicle, stands up in their defence-- nay, announces, to his own shame, that the DAILY COMPANION is his daughter's closet manual, and that he is thus preparing her for the duties of the CONFESSIONAL! We tell him what! If he or any man were to place such a work in the hands of sister or daughter of ours, (if we had any), he might rest assured we should consign the filthy volume to the flames, and horse-whip the leperous hypocrite round the entire boundaries of the town, for so gross an outrage on the delicacy of a lady ; and should we afterwards be prosecuted for assault, our defence would be the vindication of female modesty and virtue, and the verdict, we are sure, would be none other than the very proper and satisfactory one of—SARVED HIM RIGHT! The fact is, we cannot help suspecting the mental purity, if not the virtue, of any woman whose study has been bestowed on the arcana of the DAILY COMPANION ; and if this be the guide to the CONFESSIONAL, we shall at all times feel as delicate, if ever we have occasion to make allusion to this part of the Romish Ritual in the company of ladies. As for asking a female friend of that persuasion, if she attends Confession, we should blush to put such a question; and if the lady did not blush too, we should be rather astonished, for in our estimation, such a question would obviously imply that her heart had become infected with the filthy leprosy of the system, and that her mind had grown familiar with the obscene allusions which these books contain. What else can be expected but mental pollution and moral depravation from the recital or perusal of so filthy a category of vice and sin.
We remember an anecdote which illustrates this, and deserves to be told. There was once an innocent but sagacious Irish lad sent to be an ostler, in a country inn; and when he first went to the priest, among other questions he was asked, if ever he greased the horses teeth?— " Greased the horse's teeth !" exclaimed TEDDY , in obvious ignorance of what the the expression meant—" Och ! what does your riv'rence mane by that ?" The priest then entered into a minute exposition of the tricks of roguish ostlers, and cautioned TEDDY against the like. But it was no use :—he himself had schooled the boy in the hitherto unknown arcana of villany :—the boy brooded over the, tempting facilities which these tricks would afford him of realising money :—he saw then, how others were making riches, and began at length to regard it as a regular perquisite of his office. The short of it was, that TEDDY became as expert a rogue as ever swept a stable, or greased a horse's teeth, and pocketed the corn-money. Many a day elapsed ere TEDDY troubled his conscience with a visit to the priest, the Church, or the Confessional; but by and-bye TEDDY fell sick, and he sent for the priest to shrive his guilty soul. As might be expected, he had a very, very, long catalogue of sins to confess, but they were principally of two kinds, viz :—" Greasing the horses teeth," and "swearing to lies," " Oh ! TEDDY, TEDDY," quoth the priest, "didn't I warn you of that before you commenced," " Och, yes," groaned TEDDY, " but it was yersel' tould me of it, and larned me the way." This story has become proverbial, and is no less illustrative of our position than thousands of others that might be told, if the parties themselves would reveal the facts.
But to return to the original idea of the morbid anatomy of the human soul, it may argued from analogy, that as there are multitudinous diseases and ailments incident to the bodily constitution, rendering the study of physical anatomy with a view to a knowledge of the recondite organization of the human frame, not only necessary but highly useful and sublime; so also there are various forms and modifications of human depravity and sin in our a moral constitution, which require a no less minute development and analysis of the morbid anatomy of the soul and demanding an equally diversified and specific mode of treatment for each variety of mental disease. On the necessity of this spiritual chirurgery, if we may be allowed the expression, rests the only feasible justification of the loathsome obscenities of this morbid anatomy, of the human soul; as Dr. ULLATHORNE styles it. But here lies the fallacy, the exposure of which destroys the plea of justification. If, on the one hand, it be true, as this fallacy takes for granted, that every variety of moral distemper requires a separate specific for its cure, then it would, prima facie, seem necessary that the minute distinctions of symptomatic type, together with the occult process of organic affection, or, in other words, the modus operandi of the disease should be clearly analysed and described. But if, on the other hand, there were one grand and only specific, some universal panacea, for all diseases and complaints, what use we would ask, would there then be either for the recondite researches of anatomist and chemist? Certainly none. But the fallacy involved in the idea of morbid anatomy, consists in the hypothesis, that the diseases of the soul require as many varieties of cures as those of the body, and therefore, that the gospel pharmacopoeia, provides as many varieties of specific remedies, as the physical Materia Medica affords. But this is not the case: the Gospel recognizes and prescribes but one remedy, and recommends but one physician. There is, therefore, no necessity for disgusting us with the obscene details of this morbid anatomy of Drs. DENS and ULLATHORNE. We, Protestants, have discovered the grand panacea for spiritual disorders of every type, and can administer it unerringly, as commanded by the Divine Physician, in the simple terms of a universal prescription: The Catholic Church has been for ages, a formidable laboratory of spiritual nostrums of an almost countless variety. Her priesthood have made a study of this morbid anatomy, and have affected to scout as empyrics, all who were shrewd enough to discover their impostures, and had better sense than to be come the dupes of their useless and deleterious drugs. We trust, however, that the day is not now far distant, when these absurdities and obscenities in religion,will be for ever discarded,—when men shall learn to throw off the yoke of slavish superstition, and assert the freedom of independent thought and inquiry for themselves.

The Colonist  14 September 1839,