80 



ON THE MENTAL QUALITIES AND 



its peculiar organ ; to all which it might be answered thus— 

 you state that the brain of birds is not so complicated as 

 that of man, and by your own principles, function ought to 

 be in a corresponding ratio ; but take an individual organ, 

 constructiveness for instance, and though we have no rea- 

 son to suppose that this particular organ is of a more deli- 

 cate texture than any other part of the same brain, yet, 

 may I ask, did you ever see, or can you anywhere find, a 

 man, who, with constructiveness ever so well developed, 

 could form out of the same materials used by a little bird, 

 a nest like that of the goldfinch, still less the pensile nests 

 of the grosbeaks and orioles ? No ! the cleverest artisan, 

 the most profound mechanical genius, would be baffled in 

 the attempt, and thus afford a proof, that in some respects 

 the ingenuity of man, sedulously cultivated, and matured 

 by experience, is no match for the workings of an untaught 

 instinct, implanted by Nature in those animals whom we 

 have taught ourselves to regard as our inferiors. 



It would be easy to point out many instances where 

 the outside of the cranium does not indicate any promi- 

 nence or depression upon the brain beneath. I shall ad- 

 duce only one, to be met with in the skull of the duck, and 

 many other birds. On the superior surface of the brain, 

 there are two elongated, parallel eminences, of great size, 

 strongly marking the internal surface of the cranium, which, 

 however, are not indicated externally. But why adduce 

 instances ? An observer, by comparing the brain and skull 

 of any bird whatever, may verify the truth of my state- 

 ment. 



It is evident that phrenologists, in order to support their 

 ill constructed edifice^ must lay down organs upon the brain 



