Page images
PDF
EPUB

If, in an individual, the cerebellum is very large, and Philoprogenitiveness, Adhesiveness, and Conscientiousness deficient, he will be prone to seek the directest gratifications of the animal appetite; if the latter organs are large, he will perceive that wedlock affords the best means of satisfying the whole group of faculties.

If Benevolence, Self-Esteem, and Acquisitiveness are all large, giving charity may gratify the first; but unless the individual be very rich, the act of parting with property may be disagreeable to the last two faculties: he will therefore prefer to gratify Benevolence by personal kindness; he will sacrifice time, trouble, influence and advice, to the welfare of others, but not property. If Benevolence were small, with the same combination, he would not give either money or personal advice.

If Love of Approbation large, is combined with large Ideality and moderate Reflecting Faculties, the individual will be ambitious to excel in the splendour of his equipage, style of living, dress, and rank. If, to the same combination, be added a powerful intellect and large Conscientiousness, moral and intellectual excellence will be preferred, as the means of obtaining the respect of the world.

An individual in whom Benevolence and Love of Approbation are very large, and Conscientiousness deficient, will be exceedingly kind and attentive to those persons who praise him loudly and extol his benevolence; but he will overlook humble, retiring, and unostentatious merit; he will speak much of his own good deeds. If Conscientiousness and Benevolence had predominated, these last would be the first objects of his regard, and the good done would never be proclaimed by himself.

If Self-Esteem large, is combined with deficient Love of Approbation and Conscientiousness, the individual will be prone to gratify his selfish feelings, with little regard to the good opinion, or the just claims of society. If Self-Esteem large, is combined with large Love of Approbation and Conscientiousness, the former will produce only that de

gree of self-respect which is essential to dignity of character, and that degree of independence of sentiment, without which even virtue cannot be maintained.

If Cautiousness large is combined with deficient Combativeness, the individual will be extremely timid. If Combativeness be large, and Cautiousness small, reckless intrepidity will be the result. If Combativeness be equally large with Cautiousness, the individual will display courage regulated by prudence. If Cautiousness, Conscientiousness, Self-Esteem, Secretiveness, and Love of Approbation, are all large, and Combativeness moderate, bashfulness or mauvaise honte will be the consequence. This feeling is the result of the fear of not acquitting one's-self to advantage, and thereby compromising one's personal dignity.

If Veneration and Hope are large, and Conscientiousness and Benevolence small, the individual will be naturally fond of the act of religious worship, but averse to the practice of charity and justice. If the proportions are reversed, the result will be a constitutional disposition to charity and justice, with no great tendency to the exercise of devotion. If all the four organs are large, the individual will be naturally inclined to engage in the worship of GOD, and to discharge his duties to men. If Veneration large, is combined with large Acquisitiveness and Love of Approbation, the former sentiment may be directed to superiors in rank and power, as the means of gratifying the desires for wealth and influence depending on the latter faculties. If Veneration small be combined with Self-Esteem and Firmness large, the individual will not naturally look up to superiors in rank.

The intellectual faculties will naturally tend to such employments as are calculated to gratify the predominant propensities and sentiments. If the organs which constitute a genius for painting are combined with large Acquisitiveness, the individual would paint to become rich; if combined with Acquisitiveness small, and Love of Approbation large, he would probably labour for fame, and starve while attaining it.

Talents for different intellectual pursuits depend upon the combinations of the Knowing and Reflecting Organs in certain proportions. Form, Size, Colouring, Individuality, Ideality, Imitation, and Secretiveness large, with Locality small, will constitute a portrait, but not a landscape, painter. Diminish Form and Imitation, and increase Locality, and the result will be a talent for landscape, but not for portrait, painting. Constructiveness and Weight combined with Tune large, may produce a talent for musical instrument making: Without a large Tune the other faculties could not take this direction. Constructiveness combined with Size and Number large, may lead to mathematical instrument making. Causality, combined with large Secretiveness, Ideality and Imitation, will seek to discover the philosophy of the fine arts; the same organ combined with Benevolence, Conscientiousness, and Concentrativeness, large, will delight in moral and political investigations. If to Individuality, Eventuality, Comparison, and Causality, all large, an equally well developed organ of Language be added, the result will be a talent for authorship or public debate; if Language be small, the other faculties will be more prone to seek gratification in the business. of life, or in abstract philosophy.

One great difficulty frequently experienced, is to comprehend the effect of the Reflecting Powers, added, in a high degree of endowment, to the Knowing Faculties, when the latter are exercised in particular branches of art, for which they appear to be of themselves altogether sufficient. It is stated, for example, that Constructiveness, Secretiveness, Form, Size, Ideality, Individuality, Colouring and Imitation, constitute a genius for painting; and it may reasonably be inquired, What effect will the Reflecting Organs, large or small, produce on this combination? This question is easily answered. When the Reflecting Organs are small, Form, Colour, Beauty, constitute the leading objects of the painter's productions. There is no story, no event, no comprehensiveness of intellect displayed in his works.

They require to be examined in detail, and as single objects, unconnected with others by any of the relations perceived by the higher powers. Add the Reflecting Organs, however, and then Outline, Form, Colouring, Perspective, will all sink into the rank of means, which the intellect employs to accomplish a higher object; such as the expression of some great action or event, some story, which speaks to the judgment, and interests the feelings.

These ideas are beautifully illustrated in an Essay on the genius of RAPHAEL, compared with his cerebral development, by Mr SCOTT *. In the cast of RAPHAEL'S skull, the organs here enumerated as essential to a painter, are all large, and those of Causality, Comparison and Wit, are likewise far above an ordinary size. Now, a critic on the productions of RAPHAEL + says, "In composition RAFFAELLO stands pre-eminent. His invention is the refined emanation of a dramatic mind, and whatever can most interest the feelings, or satisfy the judgment, he selected from nature, and made his own. The point of time, in his historical subjects, is invariably well chosen; and subordinate incidents, while they create a secondary interest, essentially contribute to the principal event. Contrast or combination of lines makes no part of his works as an artificial principle of composition; the nature and character of the event create the forms best calculated to express them. The individual expression of particular figures corresponds with their character and employment; and whether calm or agitated, they are at all times equally remote from affectation or insipidity. The general interest of his subject is kept up throughout the whole composition; the present action implies the past, and anticipates the future. If, in sublimity of thought, RAFFAELLO has been surpassed by his great contemporary MICHAEL ANGELO,-if, in purity of outline and form, by the antique,-and in colouring and chiaro-oscuro by the Lombard and Venetian schools; yet in historical

• Phrenological Journal, vol. ii. p. 327.

+ Life of RAPHAEL, London 1818, anonymous.

compositions he has no rival; and for invention, expression, and the power of telling a story, he has never been approached."

M. FUSELI, Speaking of the qualities of RAPHAEL's style as a painter, says, that "perfect human beauty he has not represented. No face of RAPHAEL'S is perfectly beautiful; no figure of his, in the abstract, possesses the proportions that could raise it to a standard of imitation. Form to him was only a vehicle of character or pathos; and to these he adapted it in a mode, and with a truth, which leaves all attempts at emendation hopeless. His composition always hastens to the most necessary point as its centre; and from that disseminates, to that leads back, its rays, all secondary ones. Group, form, and contrast, are subordinate to the event; and common-place is ever excluded. His expression is unmixed and pure, in strict unison with, and decided by, character, whether calm, animated, agitated, convulsed, or absorbed, by the inspiring passion: it never contradicts its cause, and is equally remote from tameness and grimace. The moment of his choice never suffers the action to stagnate or to expire. It is the moment of transition, the crisis big with the past, and pregnant with the future. His invention connects the utmost stretch of possibility with the most plausible degree of probability, in a manner that equally surprises our fancy, persuades our judgment, and affects our hearts."

In all this criticism we have the most exact description of the manifestations of Comparison and Causality, which give scope, depth, and force of intellectual conception, the power of combining means to attain an end, and the natural tendency to keep the means in their appropriate place, as accessaries merely to the main design.

RAPHAEL'S genius, accordingly, can be fully appreciated only after having exercised the higher intellectual faculties on his works. Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS acknowledges that it was only after repeated visits, and deep reflection, that he discovered their merits, his first impression having been

« PreviousContinue »