266 ANALYSIS OP combe's " SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY." 



ceptions or distinctive knowledge of Individuality,* Form, Size, 

 Weight, Colour, Locality, Number, Order, Eventuality, Time, 

 Tune, and Language. Mr. Combe concludes his instructive enume- 

 ration of facts and inductions concerning the knowing or perceptive 

 faculties with some explanatory observations, which may furnish 

 the student of mental science with extraordinary light in further- 

 ance of his favourite pursuit. 



The Reflective. — These faculties judge not of the qualities and re- 

 lations of external objects, but of the relations of different classes of 

 ideas produced by the perceptive faculties : they minister to the di- 

 rection and gratification of all the other mental powers, and consti- 

 tute what is colloquially called reason or reflection : in Mr. C.'s 

 System^ Comparison and Causality are their names. He crowns his 

 most admirable views respecting the nature and functions of these 

 two faculties with a truly sublime and triumphant demonstration of 

 the sophistries of those atheists who, with an insane magnanimity, 

 adventure to propose arguments in support of their impiety in de- 

 nying the existence of God. Mr. Combe finishes this momentous 

 discussion with these remarks : — " I have stated the argument in 

 the plainest language, but with perfect reverence ; and we are ar- 

 rived at the conclusion that the faculty Causality is silent as to the 

 cause of the creator of man, and cannot tell whether he is self-ex- 

 istent or called into being by some higher power. But thus far it 

 can go, and it draws its conclusions unhesitatingly, that He must 

 exist, and must possess the attributes which it perceives manifested 

 in His works ; and, these points being certain, it declares that He 

 is God to us ; that He is our Creator and Preserver ; that all His 

 qualities, so far as it can discover, merit our profoundest respect and 

 admiration ; and that, therefore, he is to man the highest and most 

 legitimate object of veneration and worship." Here, then, we 

 clearly perceive that the utmost powers of human reason are sub- 

 jected to an insurmountable limitation : but the most precious book 

 of inspiration comes to its aid, and reveals to the finite mind of man 

 the everlasting truth that his Creator is God without beginning of 

 days or ending of years, and that the heavens and the earth, with 

 all that constitutes the universe, are the works of His Almighty 

 Word. 



♦ The orpjan of this intellectual faculty is situated in the middle of the 

 lower part of the forehead, immediately above the top of the nose. An ex- 

 quisite portrait of Michael Angelo is given in illustration of its size and po- 

 sition. 



