THE phrenologists subdivide the

INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES into three orders: the external senses; the internal senses, or the perceptive faculties; and the reflective faculties. The external senses are disposed of in a very summary manner, as having little place in the system; the different classes of ideas that the mind derives through sensation are referred to the second division, the internal senses, otherwise called perceptive faculties. Of the intellectual faculties, fourteen in number, twelve are perceptive; the reflective are Comparison and Causality.

"The organs of the intellectual faculties are small, but active. If they had been as large as those of the propensities, we should have been liable to intellectual passions. The comparative calmness of our reasoning processes is probably the result of the small size of these organs.'-(Combe, vol. ii. p. 28.) The truth is, however, that many of these faculties attain the pitch of intensity denominated passion. Combe admits that Tune, the foundation of music, is a source of strong pleasure; but so also, in certain minds, is Form, Colouring, Order, Language, &c.

As regards the first in order of the intellectual group, Individuality, we shall for once take a liberty with our subject, and place it last among the perceptive faculties, on the ground that the apparent simplicity with which it is invested in the phrenological handling is delusive, and that in reality it presents a compound made up of nearly all the other members of the perceptive class. This will be apparent when we come to examine

it.

23. Form.-Gall being desired to examine the head of a young girl who had an extreme facility of distinguishing and recollecting persons, he found her eyes pushed laterally outward, and a certain squinting look; after innumerable

additional observations, he spoke of an organ of the knowledge of persons. The general effect of a large development of this organ is to throw the eyes farther asunder. If it be true, as it probably is to a great extent, that the discrimination of personal appearance turns upon difference of form, or configuration, Spurzheim was perfectly right in generalizing Gall's designation into a faculty of Form. There is, however, no reason why the sense of Colour should not enter into the discrimination likewise, as far as human beings, animals, plants, and many other objects are concerned; for the variety of tint and complexion in individuals is nearly as great and as well marked as the variety of shapes. The decisive instances of a faculty of form are such objects as written language, arbitrary symbols, outline drawings, the shapes of crystals, plants, and animals in the skeleton state; and other instances where, although colour is present, the form is the predominating circumstance. The naturalist must possess the faculty in good measure; the painter, sculptor, and poet, are assisted by it; to the designer it is no less essential; the mechanical operator in many crafts, as the engineer, carpenter, engraver, &c., is very much dependent on the same nice appreciation of differences in the shapes of things; and indeed any one occupied in imitating or fabricating things whose principal characteristic is their shape, should be well endowed in this region. The Chinese are considered to have the development conspicuous; and undoubtedly their written language gives as much scope for its exercise as anything that can be named, either in nature or in art. As a matter of course, a portrait painter should have the faculty in good measure. It was one of the many organs largely developed in the massive head of Cuvier.

The organ of Form, as now ex

plained, is confined to visible form, and is therefore an endowment superinduced on the sense of sight. No allusion is made to the perception of form by touch, the exclusive instrument of the blind, and an aid to vision in other instances. A psychologist would view the faculty as related to the cerebral centres of the organ of sight wherever they may lie, or rather of the muscular part of the apparatus of vision. In following the shapes. of things, the eye is essentially active; notwithstanding the assertion of Sir W. Hamilton and others, that the mere optical or retinal sensibility would give the perception of form and size. In fact, we do employ the intervention of the muscular movements of the orb, and it is their sensibility, supported by adequate cerebral power, that determines the nice shades of discrimination as regards the property in question.

24. Size. There is an essential difference between the idea of Size and that of form; and the faculty of distinguishing form differs from that of distinguishing size. The form may be the same, and the size different.' 'The organ is placed at the internal extremity of the arch of the eyebrow.' Not content with assigning separate organs to size and form, Dr. Vimont would constitute Distance as a distinct cognition with an organ of its own, and although Combe and Spurzheim decline to concur in this allocation, they are confident as regards the separateness of the two others.

This position of theirs, we are convinced, will not stand on examination. An estimate of form that excludes an estimate of size may be pronounced an impossibility. For how do we perceive the difference between a circle and an oval, if not by the difference of size, or the greater elongation of the one figure as compared with the other? Suppose two members of the same family, having a strong family likeness, but differing in the circumstance that the face of the one was very slightly longer than the other, the discrimination of the two would

obviously be a nice discrimination of size. But the conclusive argnment is to be found in the science of mathematics, which has never been able to discover a method of defining form, except by means of size. The delineation of curves, by what is called the system of coordinates, and of which there are two sorts, is effected by stating the proportions, in one case, of two lines drawn in different directions to every point of the curve; and in another case, of one revolving line with the angle of its revolution; in both instances the statement gives exclusively the sizes or magnitudes of these coordinates. The phrenologists have never adverted to this significant practice, which, after all, is only a scientific rendering of the fact above alluded to, that to be nicely discriminative of the degree of elongation of an oval or an oblong, it is essential to feel acutely the difference of length of the figures compared, and if this is felt, the form is determined as a matter of course. No other susceptibility could add in any degree to the discrimination thus made.

We must, therefore, accept in preference the modified view of Sir G. Mackenzie, himself a phrenologist, that, magnitude, size, length, breadth, thickness, height, depth, distance, being all, strictly speaking, referable to extension, the faculty which we are in quest of is probably that of space in general.' Or rather say, that as touch is excluded from the case, the Muscular susceptibility of the eye is the real power, a power not owing solely to the organization of the six muscles of the orbit, but to the nervous centres that originate the first, third, fourth, and sixth pairs of cerebral nerves, by which these muscles are stimulated to act. If the other phrenologists would close with the suggestion of Sir G. Maskenzie, and unite the organs of form and size, which adjoin one another at the inner angle of the eye, we should gladly listen to any evidence that they may have to offer, of the coincidence between a large development of this region, and nicety of ocular perception in

all that regards the magnitudes, shapes, distances, and proportions of extended matter; and if the observations were sufficient to produce a conviction of the soundness of their position, we should then say that probably the part of the brain indicated is either itself the cerebral centre of the third, fourth, and sixth nerves, or is thrust into prominence by the enlargement of a neighbouring part in the interior, which is the true centre. Unfortunately, however, we are told that the frontal sinus throws a difficulty in the way of observing the present organ; and the negative evidence is therefore what is chiefly relied on in proving its existence and functions.

25. Weight.-Persons who excel at archery and quoits, and also those who find great facility in judging of momentum and resistance in mechanics, are observed to possess the parts of the brain lying nearest to the organ of size largely developed. It is large also in the mask of Brunel, the celebrated engineer and mechanician. In blowing crown glass, the workman dips the end of a hollow iron tube into a pot of melted glass, and takes up as much of it as will suffice to make a circle. To form a full-sized circle, the quantity raised should be nine pounds and a half; and when visiting a manufactory at Newcastle, I was told that an expert workman will generally hit the exact quantity, and very rarely deviate to the extent of two or three ounces, either under or over it. I observed the organ of weight very largely developed in the successful workman. I have observed it large also in all players on the harp, violin, and pianoforte, who are remarkable for exquisiteness of touch.'-(Combe, ii. 46.) All this is explicit and intelligible; and we have no difficulty in admitting the susceptibility to different degrees of expended energy-whether in raising weights, in resisting moving bodies, or in putting tools in motion,-as an ultimate power of the human mind, and unequally manifested among individuals. We consider it

717

as related to the so-called 'muscular sense,' or the feeling connected with muscular exertion. The preceding organs involved the muscularity of the eye exclusively, this involves the hands, arms, and the body generally. When we exert our force in any piece of work, we are conscious of the amount put forth that is, we are distinctly aware of any increase or diminution of that amount. The porter carrying a hundredweight on his back, knows if any one takes off or puts on twenty pounds; in the hand, we should probably mark a difference of an ounce in half a pound. The delicate graduation of our energy in mechanical operations depends on the natural and acquired delicacy of this sense of power expended, of 'virtue passing out of us,' so to speak. Up to this point, there is no ground of dispute. But there seems a tendency in some phrenologists to extend the function beyond the compass of handicraft skill, and to introduce it as an element in the mind of the contriving engineer, and the mathematician who discusses force by algebraical symbols, without ever putting his hand to any piece of mechanism. Now we may admit that engineers of eminence usually combine the lower aptitudes of the workshop with the higher powers of design; and still more readily do we grant that the experimental philosopher stands in need of the present endowment to give him dexterity as a manipulator; but it is not absolutely essential to engineering contrivances, and not at all essential to a writer on theoretical mechanics like Laplace. It is said to be large in the head of Newton, which is not improbable; for we all know that Newton's greatness in the experimental walk was second only to his mathematical and speculative greatness. So it ought to be large in Hook, Priestley, Cavendish, Faraday, Wheatstone, and many other experimental philosophers that could be named.

In discussing the phrenological organ of Constructiveness, we had occasion to point out the clash be

tween the functions of that organ and the present. Constructiveness was stated by Combe to be large in operative surgeons, painters, sculptors, engravers, and in cabinetmakers and tailors that excel in their art. Now a very full endowment of weight, as defined above, would give to the men of all those professions every conceivable superiority of mere manipulation; and we can see nothing for constructiveness to do farther, except to impart in a still fuller measure the very same susceptibility to expended force. When it is said that the elder Herschel had large constructiveness because his excellence as an astronomer was in part owing to his being able to fabricate improved telescopes by his own hands, we may reply, the same faculty is fully conferred by the organ of weight; unless invention or originality of design were also specified as an essential of the first named faculty, which is certainly not the case. It is true that a fondness for mechanical fabrication may exist without much skill of hand; our tastes and our aptitudes do not always concur; but phrenology has not adverted to this distinction, nor taken any step, so far as we know, that would rebut the accusation of having assigned two distinct organs to one and the same faculty.

We cannot feel very much satisfied as to the intrinsic probability of the allocation of the present organ. The faculty comprehends a very large part of our entire voluntary activity. The only muscular regions not included in it, are the eyes, features, jaw, and voice. For it is not confined to skill of hand, but takes in all those adjust ments of the body involved in walking upright, skating, archery, quoits, tumbling, ball-tossing, and other feats of the acrobat; so that we may consider it as a general endowment of our voluntary activity, dependent physically upon the cerebral centres that give origin to the anterior, or motor, roots of the spinal nerves taken collectively. That a high development of those centres should be apparent merely as a small swelling in about one

fourth part of the extent of the eyebrow, is exceedingly improbable. On one hypothesis of the functions of the cerebellum, the grouping of muscular movements, as in flying, swimming, walking, &c., is attributed to that part of the brain; and it would not be unreasonable to suppose that a large cerebellum might aid also in the acquired groupings of mechanical skill. We must not, however, stop short of the hemispheres in our explanation of the control of the voluntary muscles, and it is not consistent with other facts to locate an energy so extensive and complicated in such a limited mass. We have conceded to phrenology the absence of inherent improbability in supposing the region of conjoined form and size to be connected with the centres of three cerebral nerves, the motors of the eye; but in the present instance, we have an organ of less magnitude raised to the importance of commanding the thirty-one anterior roots of the spinal system. It would be an exceedingly interesting result, if we could allocate with certainty the cerebral centres whence emanate the impulses to our voluntary movements, and which, when largely developed, give sensibility and delicacy of graduation to those movements; but we cannot say that phrenology has even started a plausible conjecture on this matter.

26. Colouring. The organ for the sense and perception of colour is in the centre of the eyebrow. 'The faculty, when powerful, gives a delight in contemplating colours, and a vivid feeling of their harmony and discord. Those in whom the organ is deficient experience little interest in colouring, and are almost insensible to difference of hues.'

In a discussion with Lord Jeffrey, who maintained strongly the Alisonian theory that Beauty is in all cases the result of association, it comes out that Jeffrey himself had a great enjoyment of bright hues, and a good recollection of shades of colour, notwithstanding that in him there was an actual hollow in the organ No. 26. Combe endea

vours to meet one part of the difficulty thus presented by detecting Jeffrey in the admission that his pleasure had to do not with the intrinsic effects of the colours themselves, but with the other pleasing qualities that they suggested to his mind. 'He was pleased, for example, with the red of the flowers, not because it was a colour grateful in itself, but because it reminded him of the lovely season in which roses were produced, or of the blushes of youth and innocence; and he delighted in the blue of the peacocks' necks, because it excited the recollection of the unclouded sky. The painters, on the other hand, in whom the organ is large, state that all this is the very opposite of the sources of their pleasure from colours.' But we cannot easily concur with his view that discriminative 'perception is the lowest degree of activity of faculty, and may be of a high order in minds that have scarce any enjoyment in the exercise of the sense. We want better evidence than any yet produced to convince us that a person may have a very acute perception of difference of shades of colour, and yet have a general indifference to the effects of colour in the landscape or in a painting. The usual case of a welldeveloped sense-whether sight, hearing, taste, or any other-is for the person to have the power both of enjoying and discriminating, although perhaps at the moment of making great discriminative efforts the enjoyment may be merged, according to a law of the human mind that forbids extreme activity of the intellectual and emotional manifestations at the same instant. If good discrimination of shades of colour, such as Jeffrey was capable of, were compatible with a hollow in the centre of the eyebrow, what ought to be the development of the organ where even the discrimination is very defective, as so often happens?

It is not to be questioned that the faculty of being strongly affected with colours, whether in the way of delicate perception or of acute pleasure, or in both points

VOL. LXIII. NO. CCCLXXVIII.

719

together, is one of the distinct and ultimate susceptibilities of the human mind. We may, without any improbability, consider it as connected with a special cerebral centre, which centre we might naturally suppose to be the deep origin of the optic nerve. We should, therefore, be fully inclined to admit the evidence of the coincidences observed by phrenologists, the more so that the manifestations of the faculty are singularly free from ambiguity. The delight in flowers, in pictures, in coloured decorations, in the sense of concord in composition, and a good memory and imagination for colours, mark out an endowment not to be mistaken. The consequences of it in the character are wide and deep. Perhaps more than any single thing that can be named, it stands at the foundation of the artistic nature, determining the mind towards poetry no less than to painting, and away from science, giving a love of the concrete and a repugnance to abstractions. (See some good remarks on this head in Stewart's Essay on the Beautiful.)

27. Locality.-Under this designation is included the facility of remembering places. The organ was marked out by Gall, and its position on the head is over the eyebrows and on each side of the upward prolongation of the nose. Combe would extend its function to the power of remembering and imagining situations and scenery, such as belonged to Sir Walter Scott. He also declares it to be large in many great astronomers-Kepler, Galileo, Tycho, and Newton; and would farther consider it as involved in the geometrical faculty, as distinguished from the aptitude for numbers, or arithmetic.

It is hardly possible to avoid considering this faculty otherwise than as a derived power. Except in the case of those occult instincts attributed to some animals, such as dogs and cats, of finding their way back to places that they have been taken away from blindfolded, the recognition of place must turn upon either forms, or colours, or, as is most likely, on the combina

30