146 PHRENOLOGY. 



Emily. If that were true then, we should always ex- " 

 pect that persons possessing large heads, would be like- 

 wise men of great intellectual powers, and vice versa. 

 But is this the case ? Is not the capacity of the mind 

 entirely independent of the size of head ? 



Dr. B. Not according to the testimony of the best 

 observers. Those who have given this subject particu- 

 lar attention, are agreed in considering that great men- 

 tal capacity is accompanied by a large head. Hear 

 what Majendie says one of the most distinguished 

 physiologists of the age; distinguished not more for the 

 brilliancy of his discoveries, than the philosophical spirit, 

 that pervades all his researches. " Generally speaking, 

 the volume of the brain is in direct proportion to the ca^ 

 pacity of the rnind. It would be incorrect however, to 

 suppose that every man who has a large head, must ne- 

 cessarily be possessed of a superior intellect, because ma- 

 ny causes besides the volume of the brain, may increase 

 the size of the head. But it is nevertheless very rare 

 that a man distinguished for his mental faculties, is not 

 found to have a large head." That the strength, and 

 even the kind of intellectual power is indicated in a great 

 degree by the size and form of the head, is a doctrine of 

 no recent date, but was most distinctly recognized by the 

 ancient artists. The old sculptors never committed the 

 solecism of putting the head of a philosopher on the 

 shoulders of a gladiator ; and the character of their 

 Deities, of Jove the Thunderer, of Apollo the patron of 

 the muses and the arts, of Mars the God of brute force, 

 is strikingly indicated by the form of the head, no less 

 than by the features of the face. In the paintings of the 

 modern masters, the same principle has been steadily 

 kept in view, though the doctrines of phrenology never 

 came to their ears. It is every day recognized to a cer- 

 tain extent, by the most ordinary observers, for he who 

 should be liable to mistake the head of an idiot, for 

 that of Bacon or Shakespeare, would be considered al- 

 most an idiot himself. 



