442 



ON PHYSIOGNOMY 



ness of their respective instincts ; but, in the language of Dr. Gall, for the 

 acuteness of their predominant organs of sensation ; in whose sculls cor- 

 respondent symbols were observed, or supposed to be observed. 



The whole was hence reduced to one regular system : the brain was found 

 to consist of thirty-three separate parts or chambers, and, consequently, the 

 superincumbent cranium was divided into as many sections, from the lowest 

 part of the back of the head, over the crown, to the orbits of the eyes. It is 

 not my intention to dwell upon any of these chambers or superficial sections. 

 To enumerate them, with a few explanatory hints, is all we can find space 

 for; and even this, I am afraid, cannot be done without an occasional verifi- 

 cation of the poet's remark, that there may be situations in which, although 



To laugh is want of goodliness and grace, 

 Yet to be grave exceeds all power of face. 



The following is the classification of the difi'erent mental powers of the 

 brain, and the order in which they lie, according to the table of Dr. Bojames, 

 one of Dr. Gall's earliest and most assiduous pupils, commencing, as I have 

 already observed, at the lowest part of the back of the head : — I. Organ of 

 tenacity of life. II. Of self-preservation. III. Selection of food. IV. Or- 

 gan of the external senses. V. Instinctive sexual union. VI. Organ of the 

 mutual love of parents and their offspring. VII. Organ of friendship. 

 VIII. Organ of courage. IX. Organ of murder or assassination. X. Of 

 cunning. XI. Circumspection. XII. Vanity, conceit, or self-love. XIII. 

 Love of glory. XIV. Love of truth. XV. General memory, otherwise called 

 sense of places and things. XVI. Painting, or sense of colours. XVII. 

 Sense of numbers. XVIII. Musical sense. XIX. Sense for mechanics. 

 XX. Verbal memory. XXI. Sense for languages. XXII. Memory of 

 persons. XXIII. Liberality. XXIV. Talent for satire. XXV. Talent for 

 comparing things. XXVI. Metaphysical talent. XXVII. Talent for ob- 

 servation. XXVIII. Goodness. XXIX. Theatrical talent. XXX, Theoso- 

 phy. XXXI. Perseverance. The remaining two, to complete the thirty- 

 three, being, at the time Dr. Bojames wrote, unappropriated ; a sort of terra 

 incognita, which the master of the system had not yet sufficiently explored, 

 but one of which he subsequently discovered to be, the natural organ for theft 

 or stealing.* A few alterations have since been made in the general arrange- 

 ment, both by Dr. Gall himself and by several of his pupils, especially by 

 Dr. Spurzheim, but of no essential moment in a cursory survey.f 



It is not a little singular that men should be supposed to be provided by 

 nature with express organs for the cultivation of murder and theft; terms 

 which are softened down by Dr. Spurzheim, in his own catalogue, into the 

 words DESTRUCTivENESs and covetiseness: but which, in the body of his work, 

 he treats of under the common and more intelligible names. 



The proofs of these organs have been laboured with peculiar force, and 

 not without some apology for their formation. " Our opponents," says Dr. 

 Spurzheim, " maintain that such a doctrine is both ridiculous and dangerous ; 

 ridiculous, because nature could not produce any faculty absolutely hurtful 

 to man ; dangerous, because it would permit what is punished as a crime by 

 thelaws. Gall was accustomed to answer, nobody can deny the facts which 

 prove that theft exists ; and as it exists, it is not against the will of the Creator; 

 and there are very few persons who have never stolen any thing. The organ is, 

 moreover, very considerable in inveterate thieves."^ 



The morality here offered is certainly not of the purest kind. It directly 



* The Physiognomonical System of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, &c. p. 280, 8vo. Lond. 1815. 



fThe table, as modified by Dr. Spurzheim, gives us the following arrangement: — 1. Order of ama- 

 tiveness. 2. Philoprogenitiveness. 3. Tnhabiliveness. 4. Adhesiveness. 5. Combativeness. 6. De- 

 structiveness. 7. Consirucliveness. 8. Covetiseness. 9. Secietiveness. 10. Self-love. 11. Approbation. 

 12. Cautiousness. 13. Benevolence. 14. Veneration. 15. Hope. 16. Ideality. 17. Consciousness. 

 18. Firmness. 19. Individuality. 20. Form. 21. Size. 22.W^eight. 23. Colour. 24. Space. 25. Order. 

 26. Time. 27. Number. 28. Tune. 29. Language. 30. Comparison. 31. Causality. 32. Wit 

 33. Imitation. 



. % Phyiolog. System, &c. p. 398, 8vo. Lond. 1S15. 



