414- MENTAL FUNCTIONS OF 



indications of treatment will arise from the fact, just as in the 

 latter cases. 



We learn how absurd in education it would be to attempt the 

 production of great excellence of a particular kind, on the sup- 

 position that he who can excel in one thing can excel in another, 

 as though it were true, in Dr. Johnson's words, that " Genius is 

 general powers applied to a particular subject;" or that, as Mr. 

 Dugald Stewart said, " particular excellence is the result of par- 

 ticular habits of study or of business." We know by phrenology 

 that all cannot do all ; that the most unfit for one thing may be 

 the most fit for another ; and the organisation will indicate from 

 whom we can expect nothing, and when we may hope for success. 

 Punishment will not be inflicted, nor irksome studies enforced, 

 where nature is at fault and the faculty is not strong enough 

 from deficiency of organ. We are enabled to decide when the 

 pupil is anxious for excellence through good feeling or conceit, 

 and yet cannot by nature succeed in the particular branch which 

 attracts him. We are enabled to adapt our moral management 

 accurately to the moral qualities of each child. 



In short, in every thing human, by knowing that various intel- 

 lectual and moral faculties exist, by knowing what these are, by 

 knowing accurately in general in what positive and relative 

 strength they are supplied to particular individuals, we are en- 

 abled to act like philosophers, and not with that ignorant bru- 

 tality which has hitherto so much disfigured the education and 

 legislation of the world, as well as private conduct in society. 



Gall made this noble and philosophical application from the 

 first, as will be seen in both his works. b Others make them 

 daily. 6 



By phrenology the true mental faculties have principally been 

 discovered ; and, as it shows the true nature of man, its importance 

 in medicine, education, jurisprudence, and every thing relating 

 to society ancj conduct, must be at once apparent.* 1 



b 1. c. 4to. vol. ii. p. 133212., 8vo. t. i. p. 319 457., and both works 

 passim. 



c See Dr. Spurzheim's writings ; Mr. Combe's System of Phrenology, and his 

 Essay on the Constitution of Man ; Dr. Combe's work on Insanity; Mr. Simpson 

 on Education ; and the Edinburgh Phrenological Journal, passim. 



A I shall end the subject of Phrenology with one of those beautiful passages 

 with which Gall's works abound. 



" I have always been conscious of the dignity of my researches, and of the 



