directed his attention to a scientific investigation of the faculties of
the mind. vide Page. 13
A large developement is indicated by the prominence and depression of the
eye, this appearance being produced by convolutions of the brain situated
in the posterior and transverse part of the orbitary plate, pressing
downward and outward in proportion to its convolutions. A full
developement of this organ indicates a faculty for the acquisition and
employment of words, or artificial signs, expressing our ideas; the
meaning of the signs must be determined by other faculties, exactly as
force or power of any kind requires to be guided and directed: from this
reason may originate the very different significations given to the same
abstract word, a different organization producing a difference in the
meaning attached to it in spite of every effort to give an accurate
definition; this will be self evident, if we merely quote the three
leading features of Christianity, Faith, Hope, and Charity, and refer to
different degrees of moral and intellectual elevation or turpitude, for
the vague, unsatisfactory, and degraded meaning that we find frequently
attached to them. Persons with a large endowment of this faculty, abound
in words; in conversation they pour forth with volubility, but when
excited they pour forth a torrent; this should be moderated by good sense,
and appropriate language rather than verbosity will be employed in their
speaking efforts as well as in their writings: when the organ is
deficient, the individual wants a command of expression, he writes and
speaks with great poverty of style, and when possessed of ideas is unable
to clothe them in elegant or even appropriate language. The talent for, or
facility of learning foreign languages originates in the same faculty,
taken connectedly with the mental capacity for entering into the style and
combinations of other countries. Some individuals in whom the organ is
large do not necessarily possess a ready memory, which usually occurs when
the faculty that apprehends the primitive idea (of which words only
pronounce the name) is more than ordinarily small. The organ abused
generally makes a speechifier of small worth, a talker for the mere sake
of talking, who frequently loses sight of reason and subject as well as
his own good sense.--Its best use is a felicity of diction in describing
the sentiments and opinions of the individual so that they may be exactly
comprehended by others.
12. FORM.
This organ is situated in the corner of the eye next the nose, and when
large there is a considerable breadth across the nose at that place: its
chief use is in the accurate knowledge of form, whether of persons or
objects, and disposes the mind to give a definite form to objects even
when unseen: it is to this the acute observation of objects, by which
means we compare them one with another, or personal identity after absence
and probable change in the form of features: to this organ many
distinguished sculptors and architects owe much of their excellence, as
its necessary action in connection with other organs would be to express
an accuracy of outline: it is to an excessive use of this organ that
painters study correctness of form in drawing, and neglect colouring;
useful to architects for this reason.
13. SIZE.
The organ of size is situated at the corner of the eyebrow, next to
individuality, and appears to influence the capability of the eye and mind
in its motions of dimension: instances are known where persons deficient
in this faculty have been unable to manage perspective in drawings, or
even to copy the plainest figure without error in the size: others on the
contrary measure size by the eye almost as accurately as by a rule, and
are especially accurate in judging about dimensions--the organ is
necessary for some professions, but not of great general importance.
14. WEIGHT.
This faculty like the preceding, is shewn only in particular persons: the
absence of it is rarely noticed, and the presence of it quite unseen
except in some particular walks of life. It gives a power of measuring,
and comprehending the resistance of bodies to forces applied to them, is
useful in philosophic enquiry, engineering, architecture &c.
15. COLOURING.
The sensation of colour on the eye is very different in different
persons; many persons having an acute sense of vision readily perceive the
qualities of objects but are incapable of judging about the agreement or
disagreement of particular colours, and when the faculty is small they
confound them and are incapable of perceiving their effect. When prominent
the individual possesses a taste for gaudy colours, careless about their
arrangement or harmony with others. It is situated in the centre of the
eyebrow giving it a prominent aspect such as may be witnessed in the
portraits of Titian, Rubens, and many celebrated artists: The organ of
colour well developed gives harmony and excellence in colouring and is
useful to botanists, dyers, mercers, and all artists: That the faculty is
abused, or rather wanting may be witnessed by the numberless facts that we
meet with constantly, where people dress in gaudy colours and appear quite
regardless of their being suitable or otherwise.
16. SPACE.
This hardly appears a positive faculty, we have noticed it from its being
mentioned by phrenologists; it appears to be of a similar kind to form,
size, and weight, all of which organs are connected with the organ of
vision; the persons who have the organ well developed are persons of wide
views in every thing, they are enraptured with extensive prospects,
mountains, and every thing of a large size--if proved to exist, such a
faculty would be valuable to painters.
17. ORDER.
The tendency of this faculty is to produce a love of order and arrangement
in every thing; they are distressed by confusion, and are highly pleased
with a regular arrangement of their furniture, books and other property.
The organ is located in the superciliary ridge, and from its general small
developement, much fact is still necessary before the organ and its value
can be definitely determined: there is certainly well marked in some
persons, a love of order, and in others a carelessness to disorder, the
one often degenerating into precision in trifles that produces great
discomfort to other persons, the latter often inducing a disregard of
necessary care and attention: the medium is to be sought for by all who
detect either in their own character.
18. NUMBER.
The organ of the faculty of NUMBER is situated above and outside the
external angle of the eye, a little below the external angle of the
frontal bone. The special function seems to be calculation in general: it
does not seem to extend to any faculty of computation beyond that of
numbers, although from the tact that it associates with it, it facilitates
the study of mathematics. Many instances are adduced of its large size in
good calculators, particularly in George Bidder, the calculating boy. This
organ, like the other perceptives requires cultivation.
19. TUNE.
The organ of TUNE bears the same relation to the ears that the organ of
_Colouring_ does to the eyes. A large developement of the organ enlarges
the lateral parts of the forehead, and great practice is always necessary
before the organ can be successfully observed: but if two persons are
placed together, the one having it largely, the other smally developed,
the superior one will be perceptible at a glance. The faculty gives the
perception of melody, which is only _one_ of the ingredients of musical
talent; the organs of the mind must be well developed in accordance with
this, so that the soul and expression of music may be felt and
appreciated, before the organs are perfectly developed; the fingers indeed
may be trained to great expertness, but it is only the real lover of
harmonious sounds who devotes _all_ his powers to its cultivation that can
arrive at any thing like perfect skill. As a natural faculty of nature,
this organ is particularly pleasing in calming the passions, and producing
pleasure by means perfectly innocent. Persons cannot obtain a scientific
knowledge of music in whom the organ is deficient, and when _abused_ as
this faculty often is, it should be remembered that the line between
pleasure and pain is so indefinite, that where one terminates the other
begins;--music carried beyond an agreeable pitch, leads the possessor into
society, and too frequently into pleasures more enervating and
sensual--these are to be dreaded, and the musician should remember that as
the noblest employment of his faculty is to "Praise God in the
highest,"--so, nothing can be more debasing than the prostitution of it to
unworthy purposes.
20. TIME.
The organ of TIME seems to be related to that of order in its effects, it
is essential to music and versification, form some source of pleasure in
dancing, and seems to give a power of judging time and intervals of
duration in general. The value of time renders this faculty more than
usually necessary; it leads to a right estimation of punctuality as well
as punctuality in engagements: persons with the organ large are fevered by
delay, they become irritated about trifles of time that they may be kept
waiting by others and thus incur a charge of bad temper. The organ is
especially useful in persons studying history as it tends to give a
faculty of remembering dates and other periods of time, the succession of
events, &c.
21. LOCALITY.
Dr. Gall was led to infer the position of this organ from witnessing the
memory of particular persons in their relation of places they had visited,
and the strong impression made upon them by surrounding objects, so that
he regarded this to be a primitive faculty. Spurzheim says, "the special
faculty of this organ and the sphere of its activity, remains to be
determined. It makes the traveller, geographer and landscape painter,
recollects localities and gives notions of perspective." Persons in whom
the organ is large, form vivid and distinct conceptions of situations and
scenery which they have seen or heard described, and have great power in
recalling such conceptions.--The organ is large in all eminent navigators
and travellers, also in great astronomers and geographers. Persons who
have this organ large, are passionately fond of travelling: and where
firmness is small, it influences to restlessness, and love of change; to
physical pleasure as a gratification of this organ, in the neglect of
other duties, and thus often exerts a baneful influence on the mind when
allowed to operate without control.
22. INDIVIDUALITY.
The tendency of this organ is, the examination of fact as the only
foundation of truth; it is situated in the middle of the lower part of the
forehead, immediately above the top of the nose, it produces breadth and
projection between the eyebrows. This faculty renders us observant of
outward objects, and gives a desire to know, and to examine; it prompts to
observation and general information, and is necessary for the acquisition
of facts as a basis of science. Spurzheim says, "Persons endowed with this
faculty in a high degree are attentive to all that happens around them, to
every object, to every phenomenon, to every fact: it desires to know all
by experience, and consequently puts every other organ into action: is
fond of instruction, collects facts, and leads to practical
knowledge."--To the influence of this organ we may trace the knowledge of
individuals by animals, and even wild beasts in which this organ is large
may be tamed to the will of a keeper. It puts into active exertion the
perceptive faculties round the eyebrow, and thus influences the quality of
the faculty (language) which lies in that portion of brain; so that a
person with this organ large, and language small, will say but a few words
and those to the purpose, or with individuality small and language large,
he will utter ten thousand neatly turned sentences of the meanest
commonplace, alike destitute of information or science. Persons in whom
the organ is large, are alive to every thing that passes around them, they
look at facts and events, leaving it to others to reason upon them, and
many great discoveries have been made by persons with this organ large who
have not been celebrated for their powers of reasoning. When the organ is
small, the individual fails to observe things that are going on around
him, he will walk in the streets, or the country and see or rather observe
literally nothing; he may visit a house without observing any one object
beyond the immediate purpose of his visit.
ABUSES. This organ is often employed in the affairs of other people, in
petty knowledge that tends to no real purpose; a superficiality of
observation that leads to erroneous inferences, and when largely developed
with the reflective and philosophic faculties, it leads to peculiarity of
studies and pursuits to the exclusion of all others, and by breaking the
unity of learning which points all things to Him who gave, it is too
often the cause, of mistaken opinion or downright error.
23. EVENTUALITY.
Enquires into events and takes notice of occurrences; it gives prominence,
or a rounded fulness to the middle of the forehead. Dr. Gall comprised
this organ and the preceding one in one faculty, but it is now known that
the one takes cognizance of objects, the other the relationship and
actions of those objects. It seems to unite the reflectives with the
perceptives, so that it recognizes the activity of other faculties and
directs them to strict action; it desires to know by experience, and thus
produces what is termed the _good sense_ of a matter, and by recognizing
the functions of the other powers of the brain and the operations of the
external senses, it reduces those impressions into conceptions, ideas and
opinions.--Eventuality is shewn when we review the past for comparison
with the future, it examines the effects of God's government in the
universe and brings home the truths of the gospel to the heart of every
one. Eventuality is the intellectual door to the threefold nature of man
directing facts to his perceptive, reflective and moral being, thus
pointing out the truth of Christianity in the fulfilment of prophecy, the
mercy of the Creator and the punishment entailed upon sin; without this
faculty the mind acquires a false conception of things, unsound opinions,
and a tendency to the doctrines of materialism and infidelity from the
animal rather than the intellectual nature being appealed to. Persons
distinguished in professional pursuits have this organ large, since they
possess readiness of observation as well as talent in the detail, whereby
previously acquired knowledge is brought to bear upon present emergencies;
where the organ is only partially and imperfectly developed, he will feel
great difficulty in commanding his knowledge or appealing to it with any
certainty, the organ should therefore be assiduously cultivated. In ABUSE
it tends to promote a love of trifles, detailed events, scandal and abuse,
the minutest particulars in preference to general information and
individual aggrandizement rather than general good.
24. COMPARISON.
The organ of comparison lies upon the upper and middle portion of the
frontal bone. The aim of the faculty seems to be to form abstract ideas,
generalizations and establish harmony among the operations of the other
faculties; thus comparing and establishing analogies among the objects of
which a knowledge has been obtained by the perceptives: and it not only
traces real resemblances, but the relations which things have to one
another; persons with this organ large illustrate their ideas by similies
drawn from other objects and thus render them plainer to the understanding
of another person, and the comparisons thus drawn will be derived from
those objects which most commonly engage the attention of the person
making them: it is generally large in poets, even when they write prose;
2,500 similies are found in _Moore's Life of Sheridan_; these comparisons
please, because they address themselves to the multitude and produce
clearness and force of illustration. Spurzheim says of this organ, "In
order to persuade and to affect, the speaker or orator must speak by
analogy, he must bring spiritual things close to terrestrial objects and
compare them with each other; the activity of this faculty is very
important, it compares the sensations and ideas of all the other faculties
and points out their difference, analogy, similitude, or identity." By
comparison, man is enabled to judge whether his own life is _what it ought
to be_, whether he has lived for _time_ or for _eternity_: by comparison
he is enabled to determine how far his life agrees with the Christian's
pattern, knowing that "as he sows, so will he reap;" the propensities
incline to evil, as a necessary sequence to the fall, the moral sentiments
urge on to good, a foreshadowing of immortality, the reflectives teach him
_how_ to be good, how to compare the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, with
his own sinful heart, and learn wherein he errs. This is the proper and
should be the only true aim of the Christian. In ABUSE this faculty
frequently leads to false reasoning on account of the inactivity of the
perceptives, in examining the subjects compared, it gives a love for
similies and analogies, not always caring for their applicability, and
unless duly regulated by the nobler instincts of fallen humanity, it
degenerates to sophistry and a blindness to error.
25. CAUSALITY.
This organ lies immediately at the sides of _Comparison_ and is found
large in men distinguished for profound metaphysical talent. We have shown
how _Individuality_ and _Eventuality_ take cognizance of things evident to
the senses; Causality looks to the _cause_ of the phenomena observed by
other faculties: it expresses the irresistible conviction that every
phenomenon and change around us emanates from a mighty, an unseen, an
ETERNAL GOD; it looks to HIM as the cause of our joys, and our possessions
here, as the omniscient and ever merciful Father who gave his Son to die
for our transgressions, it seeks Him as the cause of our hopes of
everlasting bliss, and it bids us to acknowledge and adore. It is the
faculty that considers the relation of cause and effect and prompts the
question, _Why?_ to whatever is unknown, or imperfectly understood; and
for this reason requires to be watched lest the matter of enquiry be
placed beyond the limited faculties of man, and infinite subjects be thus
reasoned upon by finite capacity. If this organ be in unity with
_Veneration_, _Conscientiousness_, and _Comparison_, the individual will
be of steady, and rational Christian principles, but if without them,
impious doubts and atheistical surmises will tend to require a _visible_
cause for what must be _invisible_ and the germ of error being planted, it
may take root and abound to the ruin of nobler and more elevating
opinions. In ABUSE, this organ produces a mania for possibilities, denying
the existence of causes not evident to the senses, a disbelief in
whatever is spiritual, and a direct influence to intellectual pride,
sophistry, and error.
26. GAIETY.
The organ of Gaiety is sometimes called WIT; and has been defined by
Spurzheim as "a sentiment which disposes men to view every thing in a gay,
joyful, and mirthful manner;"--"given to man to render him merry and
gay,--feelings not to be confounded with satisfaction and contentment."
The faculty appears to give a characteristic tendency to view every thing
that occurs in a light manner, simply as far as it gratifies, and pleases,
not in proportion to its intrinsic value, combined with the higher
faculties, it produces wit, in common events humour; with the animal
propensities, sarcasm and satire, or caricature and excess; with language,
punning and double meanings, and in all cases it tends to a levity that is
often misplaced. It is situated between Ideality and Causality at the
upper part of the side of the forehead. In ABUSE, or when not counteracted
by reason and reflection, it tends to severity and satirical remarks on
the failings and weaknesses of others: a too easy regard for sin when not
positively offensive, a love of pleasure, often leading to vicious excess;
and frequently the faculty to gratify itself, offends friends by ill timed
remarks and a system of practical jokes.
This organ acting upon the intellect leads to unsound and hasty judgments,
because the mind being influenced more by _Ideality_ than _Causality_,
(between which two organs _Gaiety_ is situated) it becomes an enemy to
self discipline, and study, and leads the possesser into a physical love
of pleasure, &c.--it opposes also the operation of the higher intellectual
faculties from its close approximation to the true organ of analogy which
is situated between the duplex organ of _Causality_ in the centre of the
forehead, and by a vain influence on the imagination it leads to delusive
analogies as regards truth, overcoming the careful study of fact by the
perceptive faculties and diverting the current of conscious inquiry by a
regard for self and its pleasures rather than the true and correct
analogies of truth.
27. IMITATION.
Imitation leads us to imitate what we see deserving to be copied in
others, and thus lies at the foundation of all art, because it is
necessary to copy before any skill can be arrived at. It is a necessary
ingredient in the character of actors, sculptors, architects, painters and
engravers: it influences the style of the author, the manner of the poet,
the correctness of the dramatist. It is always active in children and thus
forms a natural education in them, taken from the persons around them: it
is for this reason essentially and imperatively necessary that good models
are presented to children in their youth; it gives a talent of acquiring
the peculiarity of foreign languages; and when deficient, it produces a
stiffness and uncomfortable mannerism that causes a person to appear like
a fish out of water. It may be misused by being employed for mimicry and
buffoonery especially for defects--in vice this is the real "facilis
descensus averni,"--The situation of the faculty on either side of
Benevolence, and above the reflective faculties teaches the proper use of
Imitation; to copy what is good and above all the prominent features of
our Lord's character, charity and universal love.
28. CAUTION.
Caution tends naturally to circumspection, and it produces a cautious and
considerate disposition of mind; persons so organized are continually on
their guard, they look forward from fear of what may happen and are
anxious to anticipate every occurence, they ask advice, take opinions and
are still undecided; thus it produces doubt, irresolution, and wavering,
which prevents vigorous and decisive conduct: when the organ is deficient
in mature age, the individual is rash and precipitate, never apprehensive
of the results of his conduct and thus he adopts rash resolutions and
enters on hazardous enterprizes without foreseeing what must necessarily
follow: to a due influence of this faculty we may trace the moral virtue
that regulates the impulses of passion--looks to the future, and keeps the
end of all things steadily in view. In ABUSE the faculty occasions fear
and anxiety of the future, timid and desponding sentiments; no reliance
upon Providence, too much thought about the morrow, forgetting that
"sufficient for the day is the evil thereof"--Let a wise man, "Fear God
and have no other fear," for this will lead him to be cautious against
offences against Him, and if a man keeps this steadily in view, he will
never violate the laws of man.
29. TEMPERANCE.