258 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



fortunately been preserved and are now before me, it will be 

 interesting to see how closely the main features of my 

 character were stated by these two itinerant lecturers about 

 sixty years ago. 



I will take, first, that of Mr. Edwin Thomas Hicks, who 

 called himself " Professor of Phrenology," and whose delinea- 

 tion was the less detailed of the two. It is as follows : — 



The intellectual faculties are very well combined in your 

 head, you will manifest a good deal of perception, and will 

 pay great attention to facts, but as soon as facts are presented 

 you begin to reason and theorize upon them ; you will be 

 constantly searching for causes, and will form your judgment 

 from the analogy which one fact bears to another. You have 

 a good development of number and order, will therefore be a 

 good calculator, will excel in mathematics, and will be very 

 systematic in your arrangements and plans. You possess a 

 good deal of firmness in what you consider to be right, but 

 you want self-confidence. You are cautious in acting and 

 speaking, quick in temper, but kind and good in disposition." 



The above estimate, although partial, and dealing almost 

 entirely with the intellectual faculties, is yet wonderfully 

 accurate, if we consider that it is founded upon a necessarily 

 hasty examination, and a comparison of the proportionate 

 development of the thirty-seven distinct organs which the 

 examiner recognized. It is not generally known that even 

 when the size or development of each organ is accurately 

 given the determination of the resulting character is not a 

 simple matter, as it depends upon a very careful study of the 

 infinitely varied combinations of the organs, the result of 

 which is sometimes very different from what might be antici- 

 pated. A good phrenologist has to make, first, a very 

 accurate determination of the comparative as well as the 

 absolute size of all the organs, and then a careful estimate of 

 the probable result of the special combination of organs in 

 each case ; and in both there will be a certain amount of 

 difference even between equally well-trained observers, while 

 in special details there may be a considerable difference in the 



