Admitting, then, that the brain is the organ of mind—the instrument by which we are rendered cognisant of our own mental operations and conceptions—it must be evident that, for the purpose of making them known to others, of carrying them into effect, certain other parts become necessary, the conception requiring instruments for its execution. This important duty is intrusted to the care of the senses, and for this reason they have been correctly termed the hand-maidens of the intellect, as it is through their agency that the brain receives and transmits impressions. Hence the manifestations of mind are indicated and expressed by the outward form; for the senses can act only through the medium of physical organs, and with these latter the active phenomena of life must necessarily be in strict accordance. Thus, from the external configuration of the body, or of some of its parts, we can legitimately draw conclusions respecting the degree and kind of mental power. Let us examine this proposition a little more in detail. In his Instauratio Magna, Bacon relates that “when he was a young man at Poictiers in France, he conversed familiarly with a certain Frenchman, a witty young man, but something talkative, who afterwards grew to be a very eminent man. He was wont to inveigh against the manners of old men, and would say, that if their minds could be seen as their bodies are, they would appear no less deformed; he would also maintain that the vices of old men’s minds have some correspondence and were parallel to the putrefaction of their bodies. For the dryness of their skin, he would bring in impudence; for the hardness of their bowels, unmercifulness; for the lippitude of their eyes, an evil eye and envy; for the casting down of their eyes and bowing their bodies toward the earth, atheism (for, saith he, they look no more up to heaven as they were wont); for the trembling of their members, irresolution of their decrees and light inconstancy; for the bending of their fingers, as it were to catch, rapacity and covetousness; for the buckling of their knees, fearfulness; for their wrinkles, craftiness and obliquity.”
Now, without hoping to attain to the nice discrimination of this ingenious young gentleman, we shall attempt to elucidate a few general facts connected with this part of our subject.
With that spirit of observation for which they were so eminently remarkable, the ancients had long since remarked the constant connexion of certain peculiarities of outward form with particular modes of thinking—a correspondence between the physical and mental condition. It was in accordance with this view that Galen founded his celebrated doctrine of temperaments. His distinction of the sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic temperaments, was based upon the notion of the Greek philosophers, that there were four primary constituents of the human body corresponding to the four supposed elements of nature, and that the presence of the one or the other of these elements in excess occasioned the production of the different temperaments. According to the definition of the able physiologist Müller, the temperaments are peculiar, permanent conditions, or modes of mutual reaction of the mind and organism, and they are chiefly dependent on the relation which subsists between the strivings or emotions of the mind and the excitable structure of the body. Even if we may be disposed to contend that they are not absolutely dependent on any particular constitution of the body, it must still be conceded that they are at least associated with certain peculiarities of outward organisation, by which they may be readily recognised; so that the physical structure, the mental tendency, and the character of ideas, are always intimately connected. Thus persons of a sanguine or sensitive temperament are, for the most part, of moderate stature and embonpoint, with a smiling florid countenance, and light or chestnut hair. Their ideas, like their physiognomy, are all couleur de rose. Endowed with great excitability, they are easily moved; but impressions are not durable, giving place quickly to other and newer emotions. Hence their life is made up of transitions—now grave, now gay; now happy, now miserable: their feelings are perpetually changing, and impressions made upon their mobile minds become soon obliterated by some fresh object of attention.
The phlegmatic, or elementary temperament, is characterised by a persistence during adult existence of the physical structure proper to early life. The body is loaded with cellular tissue and fat; the muscles are large, but soft, and with indistinct outlines; the countenance is pale; the physiognomy but little marked, and the features not sharply defined. Such persons are unexcitable, their sensations are dull, and the modes of reaction which they determine slow and apathetic; their ideas are clear, but they possess neither the quickness of conception and imagination of persons of the sanguine, nor the energy of action and strong passions of those of the choleric temperament. They love repose, and excel in occupations which demand patience and attention, of which they are possessed in a remarkable degree.
In individuals of the choleric, or motive temperament, the bony frame-work of the body is strong and much developed; the articulations are large and prominent; the muscles firm, with but little cellular tissue and fat; the physiognomy decided, with sharply-chiselled features. Such individuals are remarkable for promptitude and energy of action; impetuous, passionate, and endowed with great determination, opposition only increases their endurance, and excites a proportionate effort to conquer it. In nature these temperaments are not frequently encountered pure and free from admixture, but mostly more or less mixed the one with the other. That must be held to be the most perfect temperament in which they are all blended in such proportions that neither is in excess; “in which moderate excitability is combined with a due amount of energy of action; in which imagination is tempered by reason, and the ideas and conceptions are regulated by judgment, and rectified by reflection.” Impressions thus do not react upon all in the same manner. In some they are like figures traced upon the sand of the sea-shore, which are obliterated by the first advancing wave; they pass away together with the ideas to which they give rise, without leaving any, even the slightest evidence, of their existence. In others they are as characters deeply graven upon metal; arousing the attention with an irresistible force, they enchain and captivate the faculties, ceasing but to leave behind them a powerful and lasting impression upon the mind.
EFFECTS OF AGE, SEX, CLIMATE, ETC. UPON MIND.
By age, sex, locality, climate, and regimen the mental operations are likewise powerfully influenced. By locality and climate we do not mean air and temperature merely, but the sum total of all influences, whether physical or moral, by which in every place we are surrounded. The bodily structure is undoubtedly and materially influenced by climate. Of this the modern Hungarians afford a most convincing proof—a race of people of a fine physical conformation, and yet, as their language and traditions attest, derived from the same stock as the barbarous, deformed Ostiaks inhabiting the Uralian Chain, to whom, as we learn from history, they bore no slight resemblance, on their arrival in the countries in which they are at present located. Climate may thus affect the mind in two ways, by modifying the structure of the body, and by the more direct action which it exerts upon the mind itself; and it is to these two causes that we must ascribe the differences in the form and habits, the government and laws, the superstitions and literature, of northern and southern nations.
To differences and modifications of structure constantly correspond differences and modifications in ideas and passions. The physical form and intellectual qualities are closely and mutually connected. Thus, one individual may excel another in a given pursuit, this excellence resulting rather from a peculiar aptitude for, than from a particular devotion to, its cultivation.
This aptitude, in many cases at least, is to be mainly referred to some peculiarity of structure in one or more of the organs of the senses; it is original, and without the particular organic conformation could never have been acquired by centuries of practice and experience.