Dr GALL gives the following account of the discovery of this organ. His father's family consisted of ten children, who all received the same education, but their talents and dispositions were very dissimilar. One of his brothers manifested from infancy a strong tendency towards religion. "Ses jouets étaient des vases d'église qu'il sculptoit luimeme, des chasubles et des surplis qu'il faisait avec du papier." He was constantly engaged in prayer, and in saying mass, and when obliged to be absent from church, he spent his time in ornamenting and gilding a crucifix of wood. His father had intended him for a merchant, but he himself disliked that occupation, because, said he, it exposed him to the necessity of lying. At the age of twenty-three years he abandoned merchandise; and having lost all hope of being then able to pursue the studies requisite for the Church, he fled from his father's house and became a hermit. His father then allowed him to study; at the end of five he took orders, and continued, till the period of his death, to live in the exercise of devotion and the practice of pe

nance.

years

Dr GALL farther remarked, that, in schools, some of the children took no interest in religious instruction, whilst others received it with avidity; also, that those individuals in the classes, who voluntarily devoted themselves to the Church, were either studious, pious, virtuous, and honourable young men, or idlers of the worst description, indolent, and totally destitute of talent. The latter, he observes, obviously had no other aim than that of living at the expense of their fellow citizens; while the former felt a lively interest in the vocation to which they aspired. This commendable feeling sprung up in them, says he, nobody knew how, and it certainly was not attributable to example or education, or the circumstances in which they had been placed; for many of them had embraced the profession of the Church, even contrary to the intention of their parents and guardians. These facts convinced him that the disposition to religion is innate.

At a later period, no sooner had he fixed his attention on some of the primitive qualities of mind, than he recollected these observations made in his youth, and immediately examined the heads of persons eminent for devotion. He visited the churches of every sect, and particularly observed the heads of individuals who prayed with the greatest fervour, or who were the most completely absorbed in their religious contemplations. The result was the establishment of the part of the brain in question as the organ of Veneration.

Catholic countries afford particularly favourable opportunities for such observations. Dr BRIGHT, a traveller in Lower Hungary, informs us, that, in Vienna, “The churches are almost constantly open, and enter them when you will, servants, who have been sent on errands, are seen kneeling before the altars or the images, with their baskets or parcels by their sides. Thus prayer, by its frequency, becomes a habit and recreation, rather than the performance of a duty; and I have often been truly astonished to observe, in the coldest weather, little children, when far from the restraints of their parents, fall down upon their knees before the images which adorn many of the corners of the streets and passages in Vienna, and there remain fixed for several minutes, as in serious devotion*." I have observed similar facts in Catholic cities on the Continent.

The function of the faculty is to produce the sentiment of Veneration in general; or an emotion of profound and reverential respect, on perceiving an object at once great and good. It is the source of natural religion, and of that tendency to worship a superior power, which manifests itself in every nation yet discovered. The faculty, however, produces merely an emotion, and does not form ideas of the object to which it ought to be directed; and hence, if no revelation have reached the individual, and if the understanding be extremely limited, the unfortunate being may

⚫ Pages 43, 44.

worship the genius of the storm, the sun, as the source of light, heat, and vegetable life; or, if more debased in intellect, he may worship brutes, and stocks, and stones;

"Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutored mind,

"Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind."

The organ is large in Negroes, and also in MARY MACINNES, who was extremely prone to superstition.

It has been objected, that, if an organ and faculty of Veneration exist, revelation was unnecessary. But Dr GALL has well answered, that the proposition ought to be exactly reversed, for unless a natural capacity of feeling religious emotion had been previously bestowed, revelation would have been as unavailing to man as it would be to the lower animals; while, if a mere general feeling of devotion, or an instinctive but blind tendency to worship, which Veneration truly is, was given, nothing was more reasonable than to add instruction how it ought to be directed. Dr GALL observes, farther, that the existence of the organ is an indirect proof of the existence of GOD. Destructiveness is implanted in the mind, and animals exist around us to be killed for our nourishment: Adhesiveness and Philoprogenitiveness are given, and friends and children are provided as objects on whom they may be exercised: Benevolence is conferred on us, and the poor and unhappy, on whom it may shed its soft influence, are everywhere present with us; in like manner, the instinctive tendency to worship is implanted in the mind, and, conformably to these analogies of nature, we may reasonably infer that a GOD exists whom we may adore.

The organ is possessed by all men, but in different degrees by different persons: and, on the principle, that the natural power of experiencing an emotion bears a proportion to the size of its organ, every sane individual will be naturally capable of joining in religious worship; but the glow of devotional feeling experienced by each, will be greater or less in intensity, according to the development of this part of his brain. The difference in the feel

ing is certain, independently of Phrenology, so that this science only reveals the relation between its intensity and the size of the organ.

The organ is large in King ROBERT BRUCE, who, it is mentioned in History, was strongly alive to religious feelings, and ordered his heart to be carried to the Holy Land, because he had not been able to fulfil a vow to visit it in person. It is large also in RAPHAEL, and the subjects which chiefly occupied his pencil were connected with devotion and the Church.

Dr GALL mentions, that, in the portraits of Saints remarkable for devotional feeling, this organ is represented as large, and that the same configuration of head has been given by the ancient artists to their High Priests. It is large in the portraits of CONSTANTINE, MARCUS AURELIUS, St AMBROSE, CHARLES I. of England, and MALEbranche. It is also greatly developed in philosophers and poets who are distinguished for piety, as in NEWTON, MILTON, and KLOPSTOCK; while it is flat in the head of SPINOSA, who professed atheism. The same configuration is found in the heads of CHRIST, represented by RAPHAEL. In these, the parts behind the ear, or the organs common to man and the lower animals, are small; whereas the organs, situated in the forehead and in the coronal region, connected with intellect and the moral sentiments, are very large. This organization indicates great intellectual penetration, with exalted Benevolence and Veneration. Dr GALL puts the question, Has this divine form of head been invented, or may we presume that it is a faithful copy of the original? It is possible, says he, that the artists may have imitated the heads of the most virtuous, just, and benevolent men whom they could find, and thence drawn the character of the head of CHRIST. In this case, the observation of the artists coincides with that of Dr GALL,-a circumstance which either supposes a kind of presentiment of Organology on their part, or an accuracy of observation scarcely ad

missible. He considers it more probable, that the general type, at least, of the head of CHRIST has been transmitted to us. St LUKE was a painter, and how should he fail to preserve the features of his Master? It is certain that this form of the head of CHRIST is of a very high antiquity. It is found in the most ancient pictures and specimens of mosaic work. The Gnostics of the second century possessed images of CHRIST and of St PAUL; hence Dr GALL concludes, that neither RAPHAEL nor any other artist has invented this admirable configuration *.

The metaphysicians in general do not admit Veneration as an original emotion; they trace the belief in GOD to the perceptions of the understanding. We perceive order, beauty, power, wisdom, harmony, in the works of Creation, and infer from these qualities that a supreme creating and directing Mind exists. In this view the phrenologists concur: the understanding, however, only perceives facts and draws inferences, but does not feel emotions; and, therefore, after this deduction was completed, it would experience no tendency to adore the GOD whom it had discovered. Now, in point of fact, the tendency to worship is a stronger principle than the understanding itself; for the most igno-rant and stupid are prone to venerate, while their intellects are incapable of directing them to an object worthy of their homage. Under the influence of a blind Veneration, men cut branches from trees, and fall down and worship them; or they adore monsters and reptiles as deities,-facts which were utterly inexplicable, till Phrenology pointed out an instinctive tendency to venerate, altogether apart from understanding. This tendency is produced by the faculty in question, and it is a great omission of the old philosophers, that no such power is to be found in their systems.

Hitherto we have considered Veneration only when directed to religion, which is undoubtedly its noblest end;

• Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau, tome v. p. 389. See also a Brief Notice of some Ancient Coins and Medals, as illustrating the Progress of Christianity, by the Rev. R. WALSH, LL. D. Chaplain to the Embassy at Constantinople.