2dly, These faculties may be excited by the presentation of external objects fitted to call them into activity; and,

3dly, They may be excited to activity by an act of volition. When excited by the presentation of external objects, the objects are PERCEIVED, and this act is called PERCEPTION. Perception is the lowest degree of activity of these faculties; and if no idea is formed when the object is presented, the individual is destitute of the power of manifesting the faculty, whose function s to perceive objects of that kind. Thus, when tones are produced, he who cannot perceive the melody of them, is destitute of the power of manifesting the faculty of Tune. When a colored object is presented, and the individual cannot perceive, so as to distinguish the tints, he is destitute of the power of manifesting the faculty of color. When the steps of an argument are logically and distinctly stated, he who cannot perceive the relation betwixt the steps, and the necessity of the conclusion, is destitute of the power of manifesting the faculty of Causality; and so on. Thus Perception is a mode of action of the faculties which form ideas, and implies the lowest degree of activity; but Perception is not a separate faculty.

This doctrine is not theoretical, but is clearly indicated by facts. In the case mentioned by Mr. Hood,* a patient having lost the memory of words, yet enjoyed perception of their meaning. He understood language spoken by others, or, in other words, the organ of Language retained so much of its power as to enable him to perceive the meaning of words when presented to his mind, but so little of its energy as not to be adequate to the act of recalling words by an act of his will, so as to express his thoughts. The case of Mr. Ferguson † is another in point. He enjoyed so great a degree of the organ of Size as to enable him to perceive distance when natural scenery was presented to his mind, but so little as to be quite unable to recollect it, when the objects were withdrawn. Mr. Sloane is in a similar situation in regard to coloring. He perceives the differences of hues when they are presented to his eyes, but has so little of the organ that he does * Page 430.

| Page 366.

+ Page 378.

not recollect, so as to be able to name, them separately. Many persons are in a similar condition in regard to music; they perceive melody and enjoy it, when presented to the ear, but have so little of the faculty of Tune as to be unable to recall the notes after they have ceased to be heard. The same hold in regard to the reflecting powers. Many persons possess faculties acute and vigorous enough to perceive an argument, if placed before them, who are quite incapable of inventing or even reproducing it themselves.

Here, again, a highly valuable practical result presents itself. If we place a person with a forehead like Fraser's, in whom the reflecting organs are deficient, in a situation, or apply to him for advice in circumstances, requiring great natural sagacity and depth of intellect, we shall assuredly be disappointed; whereas, if we apply to one having such a combination as Dr. Franklin, in whom reflection was very large, there will be much more of the instinctive capacity of tracing out beforehand the probable chain of Causation, and anticipating the effects of measures which we propose to follow. Fraser might show good sense and sound judgment after the consequences were pointed out to him, because he possesses developement sufficient to give him perception of causation when presented; but he could not, like Franklin, anticipate effects, as this requires a higher degree of power.

According to this view of Perception, which regards it as the lowest state of activity of every intellectual faculty, an individual may possess acute powers of perception as to one class of objects, and be quite unable to perceive others. Thus Mr. Milne had an acute perception of form, although he cannot perceive some colors; other individuals perceive symmetry distinctly who cannot perceive melody. This exposition has the merit of coinciding with nature; for we frequently meet with such examples as I have now cited.

The metaphysicians, on the other hand, treat of perception as a general faculty, and when their doctrine is applied to nature, the extraordinary spectacle is presented of their general power performing in the same individual half its functions with great

effect, while it is wholly inefficient as to the other half; just as if a leg could walk east and be quite incapable of walking west. Dr. Thomas Brown has abandoned this absurdity; and differs from Reid, Stewart, and all his predecessors, in denying perception to be any thing more than an act of the general power of the mind. We call it an act of several special faculties of the mind; but with these Dr. Brown was not acquainted.

CONCEPTION.

When the Knowing or Reflecting organs are powerfully active from internal excitement, whether by the will or from natural activity, ideas are vividly and rapidly conceived; and the act of forming them is styled CONCEPTION; if the act amounts to a very high degree of vivacity, it is called IMAGINATION. Thus perception is the lowest degree of activity of any of these faculties excited by an external object; and conception or imagination are higher degrees of activity depending on internal causes, and without the interference of an external object. Each faculty performs the act of conception in its own sphere. Thus, if one person have a powerful organ of Tune, he is able to conceive, or call up in his own mind, the notes of a tune, when no instrument is sounding in his ears. If his organ of Form be very small, he may not be able to bring shapes before his mind with equal facility. Some persons read music like a book, the written sign of a note being sufficient to enable them to call up the impression of the note itself in their minds. This is a very high degree of activity of the faculty. Temperament has a great effect on internal activity; the lymphatic temperament requires external objects to rouse it to vivid action, while the sanguine and nervous glow with spontaneous and constitutional vivacity. Hence imagination, which results from a high degree of activity, is rarely found with a temperament purely lymphatic, but becomes exalted in proportion to the approach of the temperament to the nervous.

In treating of Coloring, I cited a passage from Mr. Stewart, in which, after stating the fact that some men are able to distinguish different tints when presented together, who cannot name them when separate, he attributes this want of discrimination to defect

in the power of conception, probably arising, he supposes, from early habits of inattention. So far he is correct: an individual like Mr. Sloane may be found, whose organ of Coloring enables him to distinguish hues when seen in juxta-position, and is yet so weak as not to give him conception or memory of them when seen apart, and this would certainly indicate a deficient power of conception; but then the power of conception may be deficient in this faculty alone, and very vigorous in all the others. On Mr. Stewart's principle, that conception is a general power, we would have the anomaly of its performing one portion of its functions well, while deficient as to another, which defect is accounted for by him, by supposing early habits of inattention; whereas if a faculty be naturally strong, it eagerly attends to its objects, just as a vigorous and empty stomach desires food.

When any of the Knowing or Reflecting organs is internally active, the mind conceives, or is presented with ideas of the objects which it is fitted to perceive. Thus Locality, Coloring, and Size, being active, we are able, with our eyes closed, to conceive a landscape in all its details of hill and dale, sunshine and shade. If this internal activity become morbid, through disease of the organs, then ideas become fixed, and remain involuntarily in the mind; and if this is long continued, it constitutes insanity. Many persons have experienced, when in the dark, vivid impressions of figures of every variety of color and form passing before the mind, sometimes invested in alarming brilliancy and vivacity. I conclude that this arises from an internal excitement of the organs situated at the superciliary ridge, viz. Form, Locality, Coloring, &c. occasioned generally by an unusual accumulation of blood. This affection is, in most instances, only momentary; but suppose that it were to become fixed and continuous, then the mind would be haunted with permanent and vivid conceptions of innumerable and fantastic beings, invested with more than the forms and hues of reality. This would be insanity; not a diseased feeling, such as melancholy, or fury, or religious joy, but an intellectual delusion; so that every sentiment might be sound, and yet this aberration of intellect remain fixed and immovable by the will. If we suppose

this disease to take place in several Knowing organs, leaving the organs of Reflection entire, it is quite possible to imagine that the individual may have false perceptions on some points, and not only be sane on all others, but be able, by means of the faculties that remain unaffected, to distinguish the erroneous impressions.

The phenomena of apparitions, or spectral illusions, may be accounted for by the principles now explained. If several organs become active through internal excitement, they produce involuntary conceptions of outward objects, invested in all the attributes of Form, Color, and Size, which usually distinguish reality. Several interesting examples of this affection are given in the Phrenological Journal.*

The Knowing organs, and the organ of Wonder, seem to be the chief seats of these diseased perceptions, which appears obvious from the descriptions of the apparitions themselves. Thus Nicolai, the Berlin bookseller, saw the form as of a deceased person within eight steps of him-vast numbers of human and other forms equally in the day and night-crowds of both sexes-people on horseback, birds and dogs-of natural size, and distinct as if alive, -of natural color, but paler than reality. He then began to hear them talk. On being blooded with leeches, the room was crowded with spectres-in a few hours their color began to fade, but in a few more they were white. They dissolved in air, and fragments of them were visible for some time. Dr. Alderson of Hull furnishes two other cases. Mr. R. left his wife and family in America, but saw them and conversed with them in this countrysaw trains of living and dead persons-in a bright brass lock again saw his transatlantic friends, and always in that lock-had violent headache. A pothouse-keeper in Hull saw a soldier in his cellar whom he endeavored to seize, but found an illusion-attempted to take up oysters from the ground, which were equally unreal-saw crowds of the living and dead-scarcely knew real from spectral customers-suffered repeated flogging from a wagoner with a whip, who was an illusion. In Vol. II. of the Journal, page 111,

* Vol. i. p. 541, and vol. ii. pp. 111, 293, 362