144 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 



(F) See Sect. vi. Note A, near the end ; and Sect. XLIV. Note 

 E, near the beginning. 



(G) Dr. Gall has the immortal honor of having discovered the 

 particular parts of the brain which are the seat of the different 

 faculties, sentiments, and propensities. 



If it is clear that the brain is the organ of mind, it is extremely 

 probable that particular portions of it have different offices. 



Numerous old writers had assigned situations for the faculties, 

 but in the most fanciful manner ; and from regarding as distinct 

 faculties what are merely modes of action of faculties to which 

 they were altogether strangers, their assertions on the subject 

 were necessarily groundless and ridiculous. Burton, for example, 

 says of common sense, " the fore-part of the brain is his organ 

 or seat;" of imagination, " his organ is the middle cell of the 

 brain'" and of memory, " his seat and organ, the back part of 

 the brain."* 



If the old course, recommended by 'Mr. Dugald Stewart, of 

 investigating the mind by attending to the subjects of our own 

 consciousness, had been persevered in, the science of mind would 

 have remained stationary for ever, f Who can judge fairly of 



* Anatomy of Melancholy. P. 1. S. 1. Mem. 2. Subs. 7. 



t Although Mr. Dugald Stewart declares that in his own inquiries he has 

 " aimed at nothing more than to ascertain, in the first place, the laws of our 

 constitution, as far as they can be discovered by attention to the subjects of our 

 own consciousness;" (Essays. Preliminary dissertation, p. 2.) that " the whole 

 of a philosopher's life, if he spends it to any purpose, is one continued series of 

 experiments on his own faculties and powers;" (p. 40.) and that " the structure 

 of the mind (whatever collateral aids may be derived from observing the varie- 

 ties of genius in our fellow-creatures) is accessible to those only who 'can retire 

 into the deepest recesses of their own internal frame ;" yet he adds " even to 

 those, presenting, along with the generic attributes of the race, many of the 

 specific peculiarities of the individual," (Elements, vol. i. p. 513.) and has really 

 the following passage in the forty-second page of the Essays. " To counter- 

 balance the disadvantages which this science of mind lies under, in consequence 

 of its slender stock of experiments, made directly and intentionally,, on the 

 minds of our fellow-creatures, human life exhibits to our observation a bound- 



