Page images
PDF
EPUB

by M. Lullin de Chateauvieux, published in the Bibliothe que Universelle, it appears that the consumption of beef in that country relative to the population, is only one-sixth of what it is in England. (Journal of Agriculture, No. iii, p. 390.) The plains of Hindustan are too hot for the extensive rearing of the sheep and the ox, but produce rice and vegetable spices in prodigious abundance; and the native is healthy, vigorous, and active, when supplied with rice and curry, and becomes sick when obliged to live chiefly on animal diet. He is supplied with less muscular energy by this species of food; but his soil and climate require far less laborious exertion to maintain him in comfort, than those of Britain, Germany, or Russia.

So far, then, the external world appears to be wisely and benevolently adapted to the organic system of man; that is to his nutrition, and to the development and exercise of his corporeal organs. The natural law appears to be, that every one who desires to enjoy the pleasures of health must expend in labor the energy which the Creator has infused into his limbs. A wide choice is left to man, as to the mode in which he shall exercise his nervous and muscular system: The laborer, for example, digs the ground; and the squire engages in the chase; both pursuits exercise the body. The penalty for neglecting this law is imperfect digestion and disturbed sleep, debility, bodily and mental lassitude, and, if carried to a certain length, confirmed bad health and early death. The penalty for over-exerting these systems is exhaustion, mental inca. pacity, the desire of strong artificial stimulants, (such as ardent spirits,) general insensibility, grossness of feeling and perception, with disease and shortened life.

Society has not recognized this law; and, in cons equence, the higher orders despise labor and suffer the first penalty, while the lower orders are oppressed with toil and undergo the second. The penalties serve to provide motives for obedience to the law; and whenever it is recognized, and the consequences are discovered to be

inevitable, men will no longer shun labor as painfu and ignominious, but resort to it as a source of pleasure and advantage.*

SECTION III.

MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ANIMAL, MORAL, AND INTELLECTUAL BEING.

I HAVE adverted to the bodily constitution of man, which is essentially animal; but I observe, in the third place, that man, viewed in regard to his mental constitution, is an animal, moral, and intellectual being. To discover the adaptation of the mental parts of his nature to his external circumstances, we must first know what are his various animal, moral, and intellectual powers themselves. Phrenology gives us a view of them, drawn from observation; and as I have verified the inductions of that science, so as to satisfy myself that it is the most complete and correct exposition of the nature of man which has yet been given, I adopt its classification of faculties as the basis of the subsequent observations. One great advantage presented by Phrenology, is the light which it throws on the natural constitution of the mind. Philosophers and divines have long disputed about the number and functions of the human faculties; and while each assumed his own consciousness as the standard of nature, and occupied himself chiefly with observations on its phenomena, as his means of study, there could be no end to their discussions. But the organs of the mind can be seen and felt, and their size estimated, -and the mental manifestations also that accompany them can be observed, in an unlimited number of instances,—so that, assuming the existence of organs, it is clear that a far higher degree of certainty in regard to the natural endowments of the mind may be attained by these means, than by any other previously applied. I is disputed also

* See Appendix, No. II.

whether man be now in possession of the same qualities as those with which he was created: but the fact of the organs having been bestowed by the Creator is not open to contradiction, if they exist at all; and if we discover their functions and their uses, and distinguish these from their abuses, we shall obviously obtain clearer views of what God has instituted, and of the extent to which man himse is chargeable with error and perversion, than could be arrived at by the means hitherto employed. Such conclusions, if correctly drawn, will possess an irresistible authority that of the record of creation itself. If, therefore, any reader be disposed to question the existence of such qualities in man as I am about to describe, he must, to do so consistently, be prepared to deny, on reasonable grounds, that mental organs exist, or, if he allows their existence, he must establish that the observations of phrenologists in regard to them are incorrect, or their inferences regarding their functions erroneously deduced. According to Phrenology, then, the human faculties are the following. The organs are double, each faculty having two, lying in corresponding situations of the hemispheres. of the brain. Their situations are indicated by the engrav ings.

Order I. FEELINGS.

Genus 1. PROPENSITIES Common to Man with the Lower

Animals.

THE LOVE OF LIFE.

APPETITE FOR FOOD.-Uses: Nutrition.-Abuses: Gluttony and drunk enness. The Organ is marked with a cross on bust. AMATIVENESS-Produces sexual love.

[ocr errors]

8. PHILOPROGENITIVENESS.

Uses: Affection for young and tender

beings.-Abuses: Pampering and spoiling children.

3 CONCENTRATIVENESS.-Uses: It gives the desire of permanence in place, and renders permanent, emotions and ideas in the mind.Abuses: Aversion to move abroad; morbid dwelling on internat emotions and ideas, to the neglect of externa impressions.

4. ADHESIVENESS.-Uses: Attachment; friendship and society result

from it.-Abuses: Clanship for improper objects, attachment to worthless individuals. It is generally strong in women.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed]

5 COMBATIVENESS.- Uses: Courage to meet danger and overcome difficulties, tendency to oppose and attack whatever requires opposition, and to resist unjust encroachments.-Abuses: Love of contention, and tendency to provoke and assault. This feeling obviously adapts man to a world in which danger and difficulty abound.

DESTRUCTIVENESS.-Uses: Desire to destroy noxious objects, and to kill for food. It is very discernible in carnivorous animals.Abuses: Cruelty, murder, desire to torment, tendency to passion, rage, and harshness and severity in speech and writing. This feeling places man in harmony with death and destruction, which are woven into the system of sublunary creation.

7 SECRETIVENE 3S.-Uses: Tendency to restrain within the mind the various emotions and ideas that involuntarily present themselves until the judgment has approved of giving them 'terance; it is simply the propensity to conceal, and is an ingredient in prudence Abuses: Cunning, deceit, duplicity, and ly ng.

@ACQUISITIVENESS.-Uses: Desire to possess, and tender.cy to ac

cumulate articles of utility, to provide against want.-Abuses Inordinate desite of property, selfishness, avarice theft.

9 CONSTRUCTIVENESS. -Uses: Desire to build and construct works of art.-Abuses: Construction of engines to injure or destroy, and fabrication of objects t. deceive mankind.

Gen as II. SENTIMENTS.

1. Sentiments common to Man with the Lower Animals.

10. SELF-ESTEEM. — Uses: Self-respect, self-interest, love of inde pendence, personal dignity.-Abuses: Pride, disdain, overween ing conceit, excessive selfishness, love of dominion.

11 LOVE OF APPROBATION. - Uses: Desire of the esteem of others love of praise, desire of fame or glory.-Abuses: Vanity, ambi. tion, thirst for praise independently of praiseworthiness.

12. CAUTIOUSNESS.-Uses: It gives origin to the sentiment of fear, the desire to shun danger, and circumspection; and it is an ingredient in prudence. Abuses: Excessive timidity, poltroonery, unfounded apprehensions, despondency, melancholy.

13. BENEVOLENCE.-Uses: Desire of the happiness of others, universal charity, mildness of disposition, and a lively sympathy with the enjoyment of all animated beings.-Abuses: Profusion, injurious indulgence of the appetites and fancies of others, prodigality, facility of temper.

II. Sentiments Proper to Man.

14 VENERATION.-Uses: Tendency to venerate or respect whatever is great and good; gives origin to religios adoration. - Abuses: Senseless respect for unworthy objects consecrated by time or situation, love of antiquated customs, abject suberviency to persons in authority, superstitious awe.

15. FIRMNESS.-Uses Determination, perseverance, steadiness of purpose.-Abuses: Stubbornness, infatuation, tenacity in evi.. 16 CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.-Uses: It gives origin to the sentiment of justice, or respect for the rights of others, openness to conviction, the love of truth. - Abuses Scrupulous adherence to noxious principles when ignorantly embraced, excessive refinement in the views of duty and obligation, excess in remorse or self-condemnation.

17. HOPE.-Uses. Tendency to expect future good; it cherishes faith. -Abuses: Credulity with respect to the attainment of what 11 desired, absurd expectations of felicity not founded on reason. 18 WONDER.-Uses: The desire of novelty; admiration of the new the unexpected, the grand, the wonderful, and extraordinary,

« PreviousContinue »