Familiar lessons on phrenology : designed for the use of children and youth / by Mrs. L.N. Fowler.

  • Fowler, Lydia F. (Lydia Folger), 1823-1879.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Familiar lessons on phrenology : designed for the use of children and youth / by Mrs. L.N. Fowler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/68 (page 22)
    and are willing to torture themselves and their children in order to gratify this feeling of Approbativeness. 5. The Flat-headed Indians, on the other hand, think that a flat forehead is a mark of beauty; so all their little infants have their foreheads pressed backward, and have a bandage put around the head, in order that the brain need not grow and expand in the forehead. Others press different parts of their heads for the same purpose. 6. There are many Indian tribes who paint their bodies with various colours, wear beads in their noses, and earrings in their ears, and cut and disfigure their bodies, solely for the sake of pleasing others. 7. The same feeling is shown in. more civilised nations by extravagant and showy dress, or by pressing in the ribs, instead of the head or feet, to make small waists. Although it is silly and ridiculous to do either of the former, yet the effects are not so injurious as the latter; for when the ribs are compressed, all the vital organs suffer, and life is shortened. 8. Some Avear a quantity of jewels, and buy a great deal of fine furniture, to gratify the faculty. 9. Love of approbation is one of the strongest motives and incentives to all our actions, We speak, look, and act, not so much to gratify our own feelings, or to secure our owm happiness, as to gratify others, and make them happy. 10. This same principle induces many people to dress themselves in their finest clothes when they walk out, and to open their parlours, and sit in them, when they have company. 11. Little girls exhibit a fondness for dress and show very early. Why? Because they desire to be praised; they are fond of approbation. 12. There is another way in which Approbativeness is developed, viz., in ambition. Said a little boy, “Mother told me, when I become a man, I may go on a voyage round Cape Horn.” The little boy never thought of the hardships which he would be obliged to encounter, the heat and the cold he mus4- endure, but looked for¬ ward to this event with bright anticipations ; ambition would be gratified; he could do as his father was doing, and he would then be satisfied. 13. Napoleon Bonaparte had unbounded ambition; he desired to conquer the whole Avorld, and bring all nations into subjection to his power. 14. When King Alexander had conquered almost all the eastern world, and uras pushing his armies onward to new conquests, he wept because there were no more ivorlds to conquer. 15. Approbativeness is exhibited by the desire to excel others. There are many students who will sit up all the night to study, in order that they may excel all others in their class. They thus weaken their bodies, and impair their minds, so that they can do very little good with their knowledge when gained. 16. Boys show this organ in their sports; they will try to leap a little farther than the one who performed last, and by over-exertions will often injure themselves. 17. You have all probably heard of the illustrious Sam Patch, who leaped over the Falls of Niagara. He was very desirous to have the praise and approbation of others, and could not think of anything else by which to gain it; so he jumped twenty, thirty, forty, and one hundred and sixty feet; and, in the presence of ten thousand persons, leaped at Niagara Falls—from a scaffold raised for that purpose— into the water, and being excited by the applause of the people he proposed to jump at the Genesee Falls, which are ninety-six feet high, from a scaffold twenty-five feet high, which made one hundred and twenty-one feet in height; but this last leap proved that “ he took one leap too much; ” for he was drowned in the waters, never to rise again. He wras another instance of the folly of too great ambition, 18. When this feeling is excessive, it frequently leads to selfishness, as I will show by the following story. It makes some people irritable and uneasy, when thej cannot succeed in doing what they attempt to do. 19. Let us look at those tAvo boys in the next field, who are flying their kites. John and William played A'ery pleasantly together, till John's kite began to ascend higher than William’s. He said this was not fair play, and told John he thought it was time to go home; but John, who enjoyed the sport very much, replied, that he was not quite ready, and, moreover, their parents had given them the Avhole after¬ noon for play. William had large Approbativeness, and could not endure the idea of being excelled by another in anything. 20. He began, therefore to feel quite uneasy; still John's kite continued to ascend in the air, with the rapid speed of a bird, till it really appeared very beautiful