sion, exercised towards him; but the acts which he specifies are discovered by every well constituted mind, not at all to possess the character which he ascribes to them, and his writings on these points are replete with the grossest abuses of words. This, I apprehend to arise from the great deficiency of Conscientiousness which is discernible in his head. In professional practice, also, every lawyer meets with individuals who pretend to be ardently desiring justice, and who speak incessantly about it, but who evidently do not perceive at all what it is; the selfish faculties in their case so far predominating over Conscientiousness, that they never have correct notions of the nature of justice. The same thing happens in regard to religion. Many talk about it, and against it, without in the least comprehending the object of their vituperation. In like manner every one will acknowledge in words that charity is a duty; but, on inquiring at different persons what constitutes charity, we shall find their notions of the meaning of the word, and of the duty also, to vary exceedingly, according to their development of Benevolence, in proportion to Acquisitiveness and Self-Esteem*.

The power of associating, by means of the faculty of Lan

These principles enable us to explain, in a simple manner, the source and nature of eloquence. It is a trite observation, that every passion is eloquent, that is to say, any propensity or sentiment being vividly active, excites the faculty of Language to give it utterance; and as the mental emotion is strongly felt, the words partake of the force, and are distinguished by the precision, which characterise the feeling. Popular eloquence draws largely from the propensities and sentiments, and hence in many distinguished orators we do not discover so large a development of the intellectual organs, as those would expect who imagine that oratory is altogether an intellectual product; but in them an ample endowment of the organs of the propensities and centiments will be discovered. The Phrenological Society possesses masks of BURKE and CURRAN. The former is by much the most distinguished for intellect in his printed remains, and his forehead is the best developed; but the impression made by CURRAN on a popular assembly was perhaps the greater of the two. On analyzing CURRAN's orations, however, no higher degree of reflecting power will be discovered in them than is indicated by his mask.

guage, conceptions of external signs, is limited, however, in one respect. Any indifferent object may be selected and used as the arbitrary sign of a propensity, feeling or conception; but if the object stands already in a natural relation to any faculty, it cannot, except with great difficulty, be made the arbitrary sign of an opposite emotion. For example, we might, by a mutual understanding, constitute a square figure the artificial sign of the emotion termed rage. After the agreement was understood, that figure would suggest the notion of rage, just as well as the letters now composing that word, which are mere marks, placed in a certain order: But, if we were whimsical enough to make the outline of a sweet and smiling countenance, which likewise is merely a species of form, the sign of this emotion, we could not, except with great difficulty, learn to associate the idea of rage with that figure, for it is already the natural sign of emotions, entirely opposite; it would excite Benevolence directly, more forcibly than Destructiveness indirectly, through the medium of Language; it would call up ideas of joyfulness and innocence, rather than of anger and cruelty. In the same way, we might associate feelings of veneration, pity, affection or grief, with soft and slow notes of music, because these notes, which produce emotions of a specific kind themselves, may become arbitrary signs of any other emotions of a homogeneous kind. But it would be difficult to form an association, by which soft, slow and delicate tones, would become the artificial signs of violent rage, jealousy and fury; because the natural character of such sounds is directly opposite to the character of such feelings.

Philosophers have written voluminous disquisitions on the influence of words on thought; but if the view, now presented, be correct, feelings and conceptions must, in every instance, precede words; and the invention of a term, for which no idea exists, instead of being a great step to

wards the advancement of knowledge, would be a simple absurdity. It is true that the language of any nation is a correct index of its attainments; but this happens, because, in proportion as the people acquire notions, they invent words to express them, and hence their Language is commensurate with their mental states.

The art of writing greatly facilitates the progress of knowledge; but it does so only by giving precision to words and permanence to thought. Written words are to thinking what cyphers are to calculation; they record our past attainments, and enable us to advance, unincumbered, in the path of discovery: in no instance, however, can they possibly precede the march of ideas. The new nomenclature of chemistry smooths the study of that science; but the nomenclature itself was the result of correct and enlarged ideas of the nature and relations of chemical substances, and could not possibly have been formed before these were obtained.

Persons who have a great endowment of the organ of Language abound in words. In ordinary conversation their language flows like a copious stream,-in speech they pour out torrents. When this organ is extremely large, and those of reflection small, the individual is prone to repeat, to the inconceivable annoyance of the hearer, the plainest sentences again and again, as if the matter were of such difficult apprehension, that one telling was not suffi cient to convey the meaning. This practice appears to originate in an immoderate power and activity of the faculty of Language, so great, that delight is felt in mere articulation, independent of reflection. The same combination produces a verbose, cumbersome, and inelegant style of literary composition. THOMSON's Seasons are chargeable with a redundancy of words, and, in the portraits of the author, the organ appears very large. In "Dramas of the Ancient World," by DAVID LINDSAY, we meet with examples of this kind of writing.

1

"My gracious kinsman

What good occasion now hath brought thee hither?

NOAH. Nothing of good, for good is flown for ever
Away from this stained world, and spotless truth,

And weeping mercy, veiling their bright looks
With their spread pinions, have forsaken earth,
And sought a refuge at the sacred foot

Of the ALMIGHTY's throne."

The Deluge, p. 16.

Another example occurs in the following passage, extracted from a periodical publication.

"We hope it will prove interesting to our readers, occasionally to take a popular sketch of the brilliant success attending the meritorious activity of the respectable circle of scientific chemists, whose pursuits, if judiciously exhibited, are fitted to interest every mind endowed with intellectual curiosity."

When the organ is very small, there is a want of command of expression, a painful repetition of the same words, and a consequent poverty of style, both in writing and speaking. The style of that author is generally most agreeable, in whom the organs of Language and of Reflection bear a just proportion to each other. If the intellectual powers be very acute and rapid, and Language not in equal proportion, a stammer in speech is frequently the consequence. Individuality and Comparison greatly assist this faculty, when applied to the acquisition of foreign languages and grammar. I have observed that boys who are duxes in classes for languages generally have Individuality, Eventuality, and Comparison large; and that this endowment, with moderate Language, accomplishes more, in the way of scholarship, than a large development of the latter organ, with a small endowment of the former. Such individuals have a great facility in recollecting rules, as matters of fact and detail, in tracing etymologies, and in discriminating shades of meaning; and the combination alluded to gives them great readiness in using their knowledge, whatever the extent of it may be.

The doctrine before laid down, that the signification of words is learned by other faculties, removes an apparent difficulty that sometimes presents itself. A person with a moderate organ of Language will sometimes learn songs, poetry, or particular speeches by heart, with considerable facility and pleasure; but in all such cases, the passages so committed to memory will be found highly to interest his other powers, such as Ideality, Causality, Tune, Veneration, Combativeness, Adhesiveness; and the study and recollection of vocables only is to him difficult and disagreeable. To a person, on the other hand, in whom the organ is decidedly large, mere words are interesting, and he can learn them without caring much about their meaning. Hence, also, a person with a moderate organ of Language, and good reflecting organs, may, by perseverance, learn languages, and attain to proficiency as a scholar; but he will not display copiousness, fluency, and richness of expression in his style, either in his own or in a foreign tongue.

It is difficult to determine precisely, on what powers the talent for learning the spirit of languages depends. The fact is certain, that some individuals easily learn the spirit of different languages without having a great memory for words; while others readily acquire words, without catching the spirit of any language. Dr GALL admits two organs of language; one he names "Sens des mots, sens des noms, memoire des mots, memoire verbale ;" and the other "Sens du langage de parole; talent de la philologie ;" and attributes to the latter the talent of philology, and acquiring the spirit of languages. The former organ he describes as lying on the posterior half of the super-orbitar plate, and, when large, it pushes the eyes outwards; it gives a talent for learning and recollecting words; and persons possessing it large recite long passages by heart, after reading them once or twice. The latter organ, says he, is placed on the middle of the anterior part of the super-orbitar plate, and the eye-ball, in consequence, not only projects, but is