Phrenology proved, illustrated and applied : accompanied by a chart : embracing an analysis of the primary, mental powers in their various degrees of development, the phenomena produced by their combined activity, and the location of the phrenological organs in the head : together with a view of the moral and theological bearing of the science / by O. S. & L. N. Fowler ; assisted by Samuel Kirkham.

  • Fowler, O. S. (Orson Squire), 1809-1887.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Phrenology proved, illustrated and applied : accompanied by a chart : embracing an analysis of the primary, mental powers in their various degrees of development, the phenomena produced by their combined activity, and the location of the phrenological organs in the head : together with a view of the moral and theological bearing of the science / by O. S. & L. N. Fowler ; assisted by Samuel Kirkham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    as absurd, and as much opposed to all analogy, both physical and intellectual, as to suppose that the whole body should be employed in seeing, the whole in hearing, in digestion, in respiration, and in every other particular function: and it this connexion between the faculties of the mind and par- ticular portions of the brain, exists at all, it follows, that there can be no exercise of the one, without a reciprocal action oi the other ; or, in other words, that there can be no exercise of a faculty, without the exercise of its corresponding or- gan; and, vice verso,, no exercise of an organ, without the exercise of its corresponding faculty. The great Author of nature would not have established this mutual connexion, unless the economy of nature required it; and if this econ- omy requires it in any one instance, it must, for the same reason, equally demand it in every instance. It may also be added in this connexion, that, according to the theory of the unity of the brain, each faculty must, of necessity, use the brain as a whole in succession, which pre- cludes the possibility of that common and necessary phenom- ena of the mind, namely, its simultaneous exercise of several faculties. IV. The various faculties of the mind are possessed, orig- inally, in different degrees of strength by different indi- viduals, and also by the same individual. There exists a loto celo difference between a Shakspeare and a Franklin, a Howard and a Nero, a Raphael and a Washington, a Ben- jamin West and a Patrick Henry—a difference which nei- ther education nor circumstances could create, nor even essentially modify. So strong was the passion for painting with West, that he bid defiance both to the corrections of his school-teacher, and the frowns of his parents, and seclu- ded himself in his garret merely to indulge it; and even while a mere child, and without instruction, he conceived and executed some of his most beautiful designs. Diversi- ty and variety characterize the intellects and the feelings of men, at least, as much as they do their countenances, and that, even from the first dawn of the mind, and not unfre- quently in opposition to circumstances. This diversity of human intellects, dispositions, predilections, talents, &c, is too common and too striking to need illustration. Every individual, in a greater or less degree, furnishes an illustra- tion of this fact. It has even passed into a proverb, that a poet must be born, and not made; and this applies equally