little for man, and that he does a great deal for himself, in endowing himself with perceptive powers. But vision depends on the organization of the eye; and is weak or energetic, as the organization is imperfect or perfect. Some animals come into the world. with perfect eyes; and these see perfectly from the first. The butterfly and honey-bee fly at the first attempt, through fields and flowery meadows; and the young partridge and chicken run through stubble and corn fields. The sparrow, on taking its first flight from the nest, does not strike its head against a wall, or mistake the root of a tree for its branches; and yet, previous to its first attempt at flight, it can have no experience of distance. On the other hand, animals which come into the world with eyes in an imperfect state, distinguish size, shape, and distance, only by degrees. This last is the case with new-born children. During the first six weeks after birth, their eyes are almost insensible to light; and it is only by degrees that they become fit to perform their natural functions. When the organs are so far matured, however, the children see, without habit or education, as well and as accurately as the greatest philosopher. Indeed, as has been formerly mentioned, the kind of perception which we enjoy by means of the eyes, is dependent solely on the constitution of the eyes, and the relation established betwixt them and the refraction of light. So little power has experience to alter the nature of our perceptions, that even in some cases where we discover, by other senses, that the visible appearance of objects is illusive, we still continue to see that appearance the same as before. For example, the greatest philosopher, standing at one end of a long alley of trees, cannot see the opposite rows equally distant from one another at the farthest end, as they appear to be at the end nearest to him, even after experience has satisfied him that the fact really is so. He must see according to the laws of perspective, which make the receding rows appear to approach; and there is no difference in this respect, betwixt his perceptions, and those of the most untutored infant. In like manner, the greatest philosopher, on looking into a concave spoon, cannot see his right hand upon the left side, and his left hand upon the right side, even after he has learned, by the study of the laws of optics, that the image of himself, which he sees in the spoon, is reversed. So confident, however, is Mr. Stewart in the opinion that we learn to see, and do not see instinctively, that he says, "Condillac first thought that the eye judges naturally of figures, of magnitudes, of situations, and of distances. He afterwards was convinced that this was an error, and retracted it." Stewart adds, "nothing short of his own explicit avowal could have convinced me, that a writer of such high pretensions, and of such unquestionable ingenuity as Condillac, had really commenced his metaphysical career under so gross and unaccountable delusion." Mr. Stewart also expresses his surprise, that Aristotle should maintain that it is not from seeing often or from hearing often, that we get these senses; but, on the contrary, instead of getting them by using them, we use them because we have got them." It is worth while to inquire on what grounds the metaphysicians maintain such extraordinary opinions. They are two: first, The fact that new-born children miss the object they mean to seize, and show clearly that they do not appreciate size, distance, and relative position accurately: Secondly, The fact that a blind man couched by Chesselden, on the first influx of light to the retina, saw all external objects as situated in his eye, and after a few weeks perceived distance and magnitude like ordinary persons. From these facts, the metaphysicians infer that the human being does not perceive distance, size and form instinctively, but learns to do so by experience. The answers are obvious. The eye in the child is not perfect till six weeks after birth. The eye newly couched is not a sound eye instantly, nor do the muscles and various parts which had lain dormant for thirty years, act with perfect effect at the first attempt, amid the irritation and torment of a painful operation; and, even admitting that the eye was perfectly sound, the internal organs which perceive the distance are not so. By disuse, every organ of the body becomes unfitted for the due performance of its functions. In civilized nations, the muscles of the external ear being prevented from acting during childhood, by the headdress, not only lose all contractile power, but actually dwindle into nothing. In the savage state, the power of moving the ear is often as perfect in man as in the lower animals. The same unfitness for action is observed after long confinement of a limb for the cure of fracture, &c., and the muscles diminish in size. In the same way, during blindness, the organs which judge of color and distance never are called into action, and therefore become, to a certain degree, unable to execute their functions, and it is only by degrees that they acquire sufficient energy to do so. Dr. Thomas Brown, whose acuteness I shall have frequent occasion to notice and to praise, admits that the lower animals perceive distance instinctively; and, although, on the whole, he agrees in the opinions of Berkley, Reid, and Stewart, yet he holds the opposite opinion, which the phrenologists maintain, as far from ridiculous. "It is," says he, "not more wonderful, à priori, that a sensation of color should be immediately followed by the notion of a mile of distance, than that the irritation of the nostril, by any very stimulant odor, should be immediately and involuntarily followed by the sudden contraction of a distant muscular organ, like the diaphragm, which produces, in sneezing, the violent expiration necessary for expelling the acrid matter."-Vol. ii. p. 69. It is very true that Nature does not give us intuitive perceptions of the number of feet or inches at which any object is distant from us; because these are artificial measures, with which nature has nothing to do. But when two objects, equal in size, are presented to the eye, the one double in point of distance to the other, the mind has always an intuitive perception that they are not equally near, unless the external or internal organs, or both, are deficient or deranged. What, then, are the true functions of the eye? No organ of sense forms ideas. The eye, therefore, only receives, modifies and transmits the impressions of light; and here its functions cease. Internal faculties form conceptions of the figure, color, distance, and other attributes of the objects making the impressions and the power of forming these conceptions is in proportion to the perfection of the eyes and the internal faculties jointly, and not in proportion to the perfection of the eyes alone. Hence the lower : animals, although they have eyes equal in perfection to those of man, are not able to form the ideas of the qualities of bodies, which he forms by means of his internal faculties, through the instrumentality of the eye, because in them the internal faculties are wanting. The senses may be exercised, and their powers greatly improved, by exercise. The taste of the gourmand is more acute than that of the peasant; and the touch of the artisan than that of the ploughman. GENUS II. INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES WHICH PER CEIVE THE EXISTENCE OF EXTERNAL OBJECTS AND THEIR PHYSICAL QUALITIES. THE faculties now to be treated of take cognizance of the existence and qualities of external objects. They correspond, in some degree, to the Perceptive Powers of the metaphysicians; and form ideas. Their action is attended with a sensation of pleasure, but (except in the case of Tune) it is weak, compared to the emotions produced by the faculties already treated of; and the higher the functions, the less vivid is the emotion attending their active state. In judging of the size of these organs, the rules laid down on pages 82. and 85. require to be particularly attended to. 22.-INDIVIDUALITY. THIS organ is situated in the middle of the lower part of the forehead, immediately above the top of the nose. When large, it produces breadth and descent between the eye brows, at that part; when small, the eye-brows approach closely to each other, and lie in a horizontal line. The figure of King George III. shows the organ large; that of Curran moderate. KING GEORGE III. J. P. CURRAN. Individuality, 22, large; Individuality, 22, moderate: In surveying the external world, we may observe, 1st, Objects simply as substances or existences, such as a rock, a horse, a tree, a man; these perceptions are designated by substantives; in the next place, the properties or attributes of things which exist, such as their form, size, weight, color, number; 3dly, their relations to other objects, such as their place and order of arrangement. After these perceptions, we may notice their active phenomena, the rock falls, the horse runs, the tree grows, the man walks ; these actions are designated by verbs. As size, form, weight, and colors are adjuncts of physical existence, Time is an adjunct of action. Now, the faculty of Individuality observes objects which exist; it gives the notion of substance, and forms the class of ideas represented by nouns when used without an adjective, as rock, man, horse. We owe to Dr. Spurzheim the discovery of the organ, and analysis of its functions. The faculty gives the desire, accompanied with the ability, to know objects as mere existences, without regard to their modes of action, or the purposes to which they may be subservient. Individuals in whom it is large, will observe and examine an object with intense delight, without the least consideration whence it has come, or to what it may he applied, a quality of mind which is almost incomprehensible to persons in whom the organ is small and Causality large. It prompts to observation, and is a great element in a genius for those sciences which consist in a know |