and the same holds, but in a less degree, in the French. Both of these nations possess this organ in a higher degree than the English. Individuals, among the latter, are greatly gifted with it, and the nation in general possesses high intellectual organs, so that great discoveries in art are made in this country by particular persons, and speedily adopted and carried forward by those whom they benefit; but the natural taste for works of art and the enjoyment derived from them, are here less in degree, and less general, than in France, and especially than in Italy. The busts also of eminent artists of former ages display a great development of this organ; in particular, in the bust of MICHAEL ANGELO, in the church of Santa Croce at Florence, the breadth from temple to temple is enormous. The reflecting organs, situated in the forehead, and likewise Ideality, in him are very large; and these add understanding and taste to the instinctive talent for works of art, conferred by Constructiveness.

These are positive facts in regard to this organ. I shall notice a few circumstances, illustrative of the existence of a talent for construction, as a distinct power of the mind apart from the general faculties of the understanding, from which the reader may form an opinion of the extent to which the phrenological views agree or disagree with the common phenomena of human nature. This is the more necessary, as metaphysical philosophers in general do not admit a primitive faculty of Constructiveness, and hold mechanical arts to be the result entirely of reflection.

Among the lower animals, it is clear that the ability to construct is not in proportion to the endowment of understanding. The dog, horse, and elephant, which in sagacity approach very closely to the more imperfect specimens of the human race, never, in any circumstances, attempt a work of art. The bee, the beaver, the swallow, on the contrary, with far less general intellect, rival the productions of man. Turning our attention to man, we observe, that while, among children of the same family, or the

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same school, some are fond of a variety of amusements unconnected with art, others constantly devote themselves, at their leisure hours, to designing with chalk various objects on the boards of books, walls, and paper, or occupy themselves with fashioning in wax or clay, or clipping in paper, the figures of animals, trees, or men. Children of a very tender age have sometimes made models of a ship of war, which the greatest philosopher would in vain strive to imitate. The young VAUCANSON had only seen a clock through the window of its case, when he constructed one in wood, with no other utensils than a bad knife. A gentleman with whom I was intimately acquainted, invented and constructed, at six years of age, a mill for making potbarley, and actually set it in operation by a small jet from the main stream of the Water of Leith. LEBRUN drew designs with chalk at three years of age, and at twelve he made a portrait of his grandfather. Sir CHRISTOPHER WREN, at thirteen, constructed an ingenious machine for representing the course of the planets. MICHAEL ANGELO, at sixteen, executed works which were compared with those of antiquity*.

The greater number of eminent artists have received no education capable of accounting for their talents; but, on the contrary, have frequently been compelled to struggle against the greatest obstacles, and to endure the most distressing privations, in following out their natural inclinations. Other individuals, again, educated for the arts, on whom every advantage has been lavished, when destitute of genius, have never surpassed mediocrity. Frequently, too, men, whom external circumstances have prevented from devoting themselves to occupations to which they were naturally inclined, have occupied themselves with mechanics as a pastime and amusement. An eminent advocate at the Scottish bar, in whom Constructiveness is largely developed, informed me, that occasionally, in the very act of composing a written pleading on the most abstruse questions of law, vivid conceptions of particular GALL sur les Fonctions du Cerveau, tome v.

pieces of mechanism, or of new applications of some mechanical principle, dart into his mind, and keep their place so as to interrupt the current of his voluntary thoughts, until he has embodied them in a diagram or description, after which he is able to dismiss them and proceed with his professional duties. LEOPOLD I, PETER the Great, and Louis XVI. constructed locks. The organs of Constructiveness were largely developed in the late Lord President BLAIR of the Court of Session, as appears from a cast of his head, his statue, and also from his portraits: and it is said, that he had a private workshop at Avondale, in Linlithgowshire, in which he spent many hours during the vacations of the Court, constructing pieces of mechanism with his own hands. The predilection of such individuals for the practice of mechanical arts cannot reasonably be ascribed to want, or to their great intellectual faculties: for innumerable objects, more directly fitted to gratify or relieve the understanding, must have presented themselves to their notice, had they not been led by a special liking to the course they followed, and felt themselves inspired by a particular talent for such avocations. Not only so, but examples of an opposite description are met with; namely, of men of great depth and comprehensiveness of intellect, who are wholly destitute of manual dexterity. LUCIEN and SOCRATES renounced sculpture, because they felt that they possessed no genius for it. M. SCHURER, formerly Professor of Natural Philosophy at Strasburg, broke every article he touched. There are persons who can never learn to make a pen or sharp a razor; and Dr GALL mentions, that two of his friends, the one an excellent teacher, the other "grand ministre," were passionately fond of gardening, but he could never teach them to engraft a tree. As a contrast to these, men of considerable mechanical dexterity are frequently found to be remarkably destitute of talent for every other pursuit, and to possess very limited understandings.

Cases of disease also tend to prove that Constructiveness

depends on a special faculty, and is not the result merely of general intellect. Dr RUSH mentions two cases in which a talent for design had unfolded itself during a fit of insanity; and he adds, that there is no insane hospital in which examples are not found of individuals, who, although, previously to their loss of understanding, they never shewed the least trace of mechanical talent, have subsequently constructed the most curious machines, and even ships completely equipped. These cases are at utter variance with the notion that the intellectual faculties produce this talent; for in them they were deranged, while they accord with the phrenological doctrine of this power depending on a separate faculty and organ, which may remain sound when the others are diseased. FODERE', in his Traité du Goitre et de la Cretinisme, p. 133, remarks, "That, by an inexplicable singularity, some of these individuals (Cretins), endowed with so weak minds, are born with a particular talent for copying paintings, for rhyming, or for music. I have known several who taught themselves to play passably on the organ and harpsichord ; others who understood, without ever having had a master, the repairing of watches, and the construction of some pieces of mechanism." He adds, that these powers could not be attributed to the intellect, for these individuals not only could not read books, which treated of the principles of mechanics, "mais ils etaient deroutés lorsqu'on en parlait, et ne se perfectionnaient jamais."

In the lower animals, nature has implanted a propensity to construct, but in them it is always specific; while in man a similar tendency is found, but general in its application. For example, nature inspires the beaver not only with a desire to build, but also with an instinctive and unerring impulse, independent of acquired knowledge and experience, to construct a dwelling of a particular form; and the power of the animal to build is confined entirely within the limited sphere of its intuitive inspiration. Man, on the other hand, has received also from nature a propensity to construct, but not a limited and intuitive instinct to build

a house or a ship, or to weave a coat or a vest, or, in short, to fashion any particular object. The beaver possesses no general reflecting powers to direct its propensity, hence it was necessary to inspire it not only with a desire to build, but with a plan of architecture. To man, on the contrary, reflection is given; and the faculties of the understanding enable him to invent plans, and to employ his impulse to construct, in a great variety of ways.

Constructiveness, then, confers only the power of constructing in general, and the results which it is capable of produeing are influenced by other faculties. For example, intellect alone, with extreme deficiency of Constructiveness, will never enable an individual to become an expert mechanician; but, if the development of Constructiveness be equal in two individuals, and the intellectual organs be large in the one and small in the other, the former will accomplish much higher designs than the latter and the reason is obvious. The primitive talent for construction is the same in both; but the one, by means of reflection, is endowed with the perception of the relation of means to an end, and hence is able to select, from the wide circle of nature and of art, every object and appliance that may extend and elevate his conceptions and aid their execution; while the latter is limited to a mere mechanical talent, never stretching beyond imitation of objects previously existing.

Dr GALL mentions, that it is difficult to discover the position of this organ in some of the lower animals, on account of the different disposition of the convolutions, their small size, and the total absence of several of those which are found in man. The organ of Music in the lower creatures is situated towards the middle of the arch of the eyebrow, and that of Constructiveness lies a little behind it. In the hamster, marmot, and castor, of which he gives plates, it is easily recognised; and at the part in question, the skulls of these animals bear a close resemblance to each other. In the "rongeurs," the organ will be found immediately above and before the base of the zygomatic arch, and the