THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 353 



** When a person has the talent for music, poetry, construction, 

 judging of distance, &c., in only a weak degree, he will not have 

 a very decided inclination for those objects. If, on the other 

 hand, the organs of these fundamental forces are more energetic, 

 the person feels a pleasure in the exercise of their functions ; he 

 has an inclination for these objects. When the action of these 

 organs is still more energetic, he feels a want to occupy himself 

 with them. Lastly, when the action of these organs prepon- 

 derates, the person is impelled towards these objects ; he finds 

 his happiness in them, and feels disappointed, unhappy, when he 

 cannot follow his inclination; he has a passion for these objects. 

 Thus it is that certain individuals have a passion for music, 

 poetry, architecture, travelling," &c. h 



" ' You shall not persuade me, however,' " Gall fancies it will 

 be said to him, " ' that the faculties acknowledged by philosophers 

 as faculties of the soul, are chimaeras. Who will dispute that 

 understanding, will, sensation, attention, comparison, judgment, 

 memory, imagination, desire, liberty, are not real operations of 

 the soul, or, if you please, of the brain ? ' ' " Yes," replies Gall, 

 " without doubt these faculties are real, but they are mere ab- 

 stractions, generalities, and inapplicable to a minute study of a 

 species, or of individuals. Every man, who is not imbecile, has 

 all these faculties. All men, however, have not the same intel- 

 lectual or moral character. We must discover faculties, the 

 various distribution of which determines the various species of 

 animals ; and the various proportions of which explain the varie- 

 ties among individuals. All bodies have weight, all have exten- 

 sion, all have impenetrability; but all bodies are not gold or 

 copper, all are not any plant, or any animal. Of what use to the 

 naturalist would be the abstract and general notions of weight, 

 extension, and impenetrability ? If we confined ourselves to 

 these abstractions, we should still be in the most profound igno- 

 rance of every branch of physics and natural history. 



" This is exactly what has happened to philosophers with 

 their generalities. From the most ancient period down to the 

 present day, one has not made a single step farther than another 

 in the precise knowledge of the true nature of man, his inclin- 

 ations and his talents, or of the source of his motives and deter- 

 minations, Hence we have as many philosophies as soi-disant 



h 1. c. 4to. vol. iv. p. 328. sq., 8vo. t. vi. p. 408. 

 B B 2 



