Located between Cautiousness and Firmness. This faculty produces a feeling of duty, a desire of justice, and a love of truth; it is the organ that leads men to do as they would be done unto, and is the most elevated principle of human action: the faculty does not determine what is just or unjust, but causes a desire to do whatever the reflective faculties determine to be right and becoming. It is a portion of the organization that cannot be too much cultivated, as it is of the highest importance in guiding and directing, regulating and controlling the actions of the other faculties: it leads to a conviction of individual error, and the truth when asserted by others: it influences the whole being to exercise prudence, temperance and fortitude, in opposition to the baser desires of the propensities; it tends to overcome the energy of passion, to regulate and direct the affections, to root out prejudice, and give the sense of moral rectitude, that supports an honest man under distress and affliction: when the sentiment is not well developed, the ideas of right and wrong are weak, and injustice if in accordance with interest or inclination easily committed; and when the lower propensities are active, an individual with this organ small, will call that justice, which a person differently organized would at once condemn; these are they of whom the apostles spoke, “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, there is nothing pure:” but even their mind and conscience is defiled: remorse and repentance spring from this faculty: it should however be exerted before, not after an action—neither should it descend into immoderate personal chastisement; for no punishment of the body can wash out sin from the soul; the sentiment will never be abused if it be directed to preserve the “conscience, void of offence.”
31. Firmness.
Firmness, is a tendency to persist in conduct, opinion, and purpose: the immediate emotion is termed Resolution. The organ is situated at the posterior part of the coronal region, close upon the middle line. This faculty seems to bear no relation to external objects, its influence adds a particular quality to other manifestations: whatever may be the predominant pursuit it seems to give perseverance in that pursuit; it contributes greatly to the success of an individual in a particular object, as he keeps steadily in one course. A person without the faculty may manifest equal desire, but will, perhaps, try a dozen methods of success without following out any one, thus fortitude and patience are the results of this organization: when duly exercised, it gives stability of character; a person who is not led by the accident of the moment, but one who aims at perfection, and duly keeps to the high road to arrive there: when combined with conscientiousness it gives moral courage, supports the martyr at the stake, and enables a man to go on through evil report and good report without turning to the right hand or the left: without this endowment, the most splendid talents are thrown away, as they never reach the summit of what is good, because like Reuben, “unstable as water they cannot excel.”—In Abuse this faculty leads to obstinacy, stubbornness, infatuation in evil courses, or a constant aim at what is good, without perseverance to arrive at it.
32. Ideality.
The operation of this faculty is beautifully described by Shakspeare;—
“The poet’s eye in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.”
The organ is situated nearly on the temporal ridge of the frontal bone. Gall called it, the organ of poetry, because “in every kind of poetry the sentiments are exalted, the expressions warm; and there must be rapture, inspiration, what is commonly called imagination or fancy.” It is this faculty that produces the aspiration after perfection, it aims at endowing every object with the highest degree of perfection which it is capable of assuming, and is thus very valuable to man in his progressive changes towards a more virtuous and perfect existence. It gives a peculiar tinge to other faculties, making them aspire to exquisiteness, thus giving an expansion to the mental powers, which carries onwards, forwards, and upwards, makes them aim to be happy and form schemes for its attainment: it gives a keener relish to other faculties, in short, its operation is intellectually ennobling. In ABUSE it produces a finical and sickly refinement, fanciful opinions, love of show more than utility; it leads to novel reading, extravagant notions, and this gives a fictitious and unsteady character, unfitted for the severer walks of life.
33. Wonder.
This organ is situated immediately above Ideality; and the faculty gives faith in spiritual agency, in what is beyond the sphere of human vision, and which nevertheless requires to be believed; it inspires a love of the marvellous, the wonderful, the grand; a seeking for extraordinary events even in the most unlikely concerns, and a tinging of common-place with the emotions of superstition and romance. In the end of man’s tyranny, God prophesies through the mouth of Isaiah that “he will make all men drunk with the wine of astonishment.” In ABUSE, this faculty leads into much error, it inspires a love of what is novel and marvellous, a tendency to believe in magic, witchcraft, and other unlawful and unchristian arts, and when uncontrolled by the higher sentiments, to the pursuit of occult subjects; when united with the moral sentiments and due perception and reflection, it searches deep into the truth, tests spiritual causes and prophecies by research and belief, considering that nothing is impossible to God and that His goodness is sufficient for all.
34. Faith or Veneration.