REMARKS ON PHRRNOLOGV. 415 



tlie way lie should go," but who too often adopt a different course- 

 Even if the above-nmentioned plan of making comparisons were 

 productive of beneficial results in an intellectual point of view, the 

 moral evils engendered thereby would render it unjustifiable. But 

 when, as the |)hrenologist knows, it is mischievous both ways, and 

 is unproductive of a single counterbalancing advantage, the amount 

 of evil produced is incalculable. 



I think it may safely be affirmed that if a pupil does not advance 

 in his studies, or does not advance so quickly as is expected, the 

 fault is never his own. This assertion will, no doubt, startle many 

 persons, and more particularly teachers, but it admits of proof, and 

 1 shall here give a quotation in point from the " Phrenological 

 Journal :" " A man believes that three times three are nine, in con- 

 sequence of his faculty of number perceiving the relations of these 

 quantities ; but if in him the organ be very small, and the faculty 

 in consequence weak, he may have great difficulty in finding out 

 how many fourteen times nineteen are. Suppose we wish to con- 

 vince him that the amount is two hundred and sixty-six, we must 

 lay before him the simplest elements of the calculation, and advance 

 step by step till he see it as we do. If he fail in attaining the right 

 result after all our pains, the proper inference is either that we 

 have not been sufficiently explicit in our demonstration, or that his 

 faculty of number is so weak as not to be able to comprehend the 

 computation. If the first has been the cause, we must bear the 

 blame ourselves ; if the second, we ought to avoid in future placing 

 that individual in a situation where the power of calculation is 

 necessary to the discharge of his duties -, but in neither view is it 

 proper to scold him for the disappointment that we meet with."* 

 If teachers were generally impressed with views like these, what a 

 different thing education would be, both to master and scholar ! 

 But, unhappily, it is otherwise. The former is too apt to cloak his 

 incapacity for teaching by pronouncing the latter to be incapable or 

 unwilling to learn. But, it will be said, there are cases in which 

 wilfulness and obstinacy on the part of the pupil really exist. I ad- 

 mit that there are, but a skilful teacher, by firm yet mild treatment 

 ■will be able to subdue and eradicate this unhappy disposition, or 

 else it results from the organization of the boy, in which case he is 

 not responsible. I should suppose this kind of conduct to result 

 from over-large self-esteem, combativeness,t destructiveness, and 

 firmness, with perhaps small conscientiousness ; and it is as 

 impossible for a person with this organization, (especially if the 

 intellectual and moral organs be moderate) to be otherwise than 

 naturally haughty, quarrelsome, riotous, and obstinate, as for 

 another with those organs small to be otherwise than meek, 

 peaceable and yielding. I contend, therefore, in every case in 

 which the pupil remains stationary, or advances but slowly, the 



* Vol. III., pa-e 310. 

 • ,t Mr. Cox proposes to call this orgjan Opposivenexs. See an excellent article of 

 his on the subject, in the " Phrenological Journal," No. 42, (vol. IX., p. 147;) 



