28 PSYCHO LOOT. 



ties and large ' bumps ' might fail to coexist ; because tlie 

 scheme of Gall was so vast as hardlj to admit of accurate 

 determination at all — who of us can say even of his own 

 brothers whether their perceptions of weight and of time are 

 well developed or not ? — because the followers of Gall and 

 Spurzheim were unable to reform these errors in any appre- 

 ciable degree ; and, finally, because the whole analysis of 

 faculties was vague and erroneous from a psychologic point 

 of view. Popular professors of the lore have nevertheless 

 continued to command the admiration of popular audiences ; 

 and there seems no doubt that Phrenology, however little 

 it satisfy our scientific curiosity about the functions of dif- 

 ferent portions of the brain, may still be, in the hands of 

 intelligent practitioners, a useful help in the art of reading 

 character. A hooked nose and a firm jaw are usually signs 

 of practical energy ; soft, delicate hands are signs of refined 

 sensibility. Even so may a prominent eye be a sign of 

 power over language, and a bull-neck a sign of sensuality. 

 But the brain behind the eye and neck need no more be 

 the organ of the signified faculty than the jaw is the 

 organ of the will or the hand the organ of refinement. 

 These correlations between mind and body are, however, so 

 frequent that the ' characters ' given by phrenologists are 

 often remarkable for knowingness and insight. 



Phrenology hardly does more than restate the problem. 

 To answer the question, " Why do I like children ?" by 

 saying, "Because you have a large organ of philoprogeni- 

 tiveness," but renames the phenomenon to be explained. 

 "What is my philoprogenitiveness ? Of what mental ele- 

 ments does it consist ? And how can a part of the brain 

 be its organ ? A science of the mind must reduce such 

 complex manifestations as ' philoprogenitiveness ' to their 

 dements. A science of the brain must point out the func- 

 tions of its elements. A science cf the relations of mind 

 and brain must show how the elementary ingredients of the 

 former correspond to the elementary functions of the latter. 

 But phrenology, except by occasional coincidence, takes no 

 account of elements at all. Its ' faculties,' as a rule, are 

 fully equipped persons in a particular mental attitude. 

 Take, for example, the ' faculty ' of language. It involves 



