The third or upper region of intellectual faculties are found in the upper superior part of the forehead, over the second region: they partake of a much higher quality, and are called the reflective faculties; they give the power of thinking and judging deeply, are two of the most important in the whole series, and when fully developed with good combinations, form man as one of Nature's noblest works. Their names and functions are, viz. Comparison, the faculty of judgment, how things differ from something else-of comparing by analogy-similitude of relationscomparative estimate, not positive ;-Causality, the faculty of judgment of the agency of a cause-quality-effects -reason-reflection. Upon due reflection on the various situations in which we find the intellectual faculties, their divisions, regions, and functions, it must strike every rational being with awe, nay veneration, at the works of the Supreme Being: this must cause the sceptic or doubter to pause and reflect; for be it remembered that the construction of the grand fabric, i. e. the brain, is not the work of man or of the Phrenologist; it is that of a higher power; the discovery of their situations and functions is all the Phrenologists claim, and upon which they now take their stand, and invite the opponent doubters or sceptics to prove them in error, not by words, but by facts; for the Phrenologists set more value upon one fact than upon a multitude of words, res, non, verba, quaso. Supposing the intellectual faculties to be moderately developed from neglect, illness, or otherwise, do you consider it possible that they may be improved by admonition or example? Certainly, we do so consider them capable of improve E ment, and that passive impressions made upon our minds by admonition, experience, and example, though they may have a remote efficacy towards forming active habits of intellectual employment, yet they can have this efficacy no otherwise than by inducing us to such a course of action, that by so acting forms those habits; only it must also be always remembered, that real endeavours to enforce good impressions upon ourselves are a species of virtuous action. However, the thing insisted upon is, not what may be possible, but what is the fact, the appointment of Nature, which is, that active habits are to be formed by exercise. Thus, by accustoming ourselves to any course of action, we get an aptness to go on with facility, readiness, and often with a pleasure in it, thereby removing many of the imaginary difficulties; and thus a new character, in several respects, may be formed, and many habitudes of life, which are not fully developed by Nature, are such as Nature directs us to acquire and improve. From what has been stated, would not a better knowledge of ourselves and the state of our intellectual faculties discover to us how errors at times occur in our understanding and judgment? From the want of knowing ourselves much better arise one of the greatest errors that the human mind is capable of, viz. ambition. The man who has never, by a careful examination of his intellectual powers, discovered their imperfection considers himself a kind of independent being; he sets up his reason as supreme judge, and whatever he cannot comprehend by it he ridicules. Self-examination, and an acquaintance with the nature and extent of the intellectual powers and passions with which we are endowed, would discover the folly and error of that inat tention by which our understandings and judgments have been misled. Moreover, a knowledge of our ruling passions and weakness of the intellectual powers, and to what they tend, will instruct us to correct their influence, timely to retreat from the objects of their gratification, and to guard the avenues through which danger, by the want of such knowledge, may assail us. Have any facts been collected wherein it is shown that by education (study), or other means, the intellectual faculties have been materially improved in adults? Certainly, that is the case. We are in possession of a number of facts, showing that by study the intellectual faculties have got much larger; viz. a gentleman residing in the city, having, from an indifferent state of health, and other causes, neglected the higher qualifying parts of his study, and feeling his deficiency, had a cast of his head taken at twenty-eight years of age; he then applied himself to particular studies recommended by a practical phrenologist for about three years, by which a great improvement took place, which enabled him to apply more readily, and with much greater facility and power, to his occupation, and a corresponding change has taken place by an enlargement of the very intellectual faculties called into action. Another case is that of a gentleman, whose first cast was taken when thirty years of age, who had neglected his studies, and had been giving way to low amusements; but being aroused by the higher monitor within of the course he was pursuing, and of his neglect of his professional studies, went to a foreign country, to get rid of his connections, for four years and a half, during which time he also applied himself to a study of the law, and with an extraordinary degree of success. Upon his return, at the end of four years and a half, a second cast was taken, and the change that has taken place in the intellectual and moral regions of the head is extraordinary, corresponding minutely by the intellectual faculties and sentiments called into action getting a great deal larger; the lower feelings and propensities during the same time having got less. The character, upon taking the first cast, was written, and advice given by a practical phrenologist also upon the return to England from the second cast, and with most singular correspondence with. his characters in both cases. Similar cases of improvement have also occurred where casts have been taken at two periods; in one case at thirty-one and thirty-seven years of age, in another case. at thirty-eight and forty-two years of age, and in a third, at forty-one and forty-six years of age, in which a change or enlargement of the intellectual faculties having taken place, corresponding with their new acquirement during the time. In fact, we have 102 casts, taken at all periods of life, showing changes to have taken place, with very material alterations of the individuals' characters, and which has been generally the case in those who have had second casts taken. The following front views of Mr. G. Bidder will fully demonstrate that by neglect of education and moral direction a deterioration of the intellectual faculties takes place, and that, by a change of direction of the faculties and with successful education, they again change, and an increase takes place. No. 9 is from a cast taken at eight years of age; here the reflecting, with a very few of the intellectual, faculties are large; but in No. 10. and No. 11 the reflecting faculties are deteriorating and receding. |