Descartes expressed himself in the following words: “We do not conceive of any body, except as divisible; whereas the human mind cannot conceive of itself except as indivisible; for in fact we are incapable of conceiving of half a soul.”[63] Gall, however, settles that point. He makes half souls. He retrenches or adds as many faculties as suits his plan. These faculties are separated by material limits. He goes so far as to say that such or such a faculty acts with greater or less facility upon such or such another faculty, according as one happens to be situated nearer to or farther off from the other.
“As the organ of the arts,” says he, “is located far from that of the sense of colour, the circumstance explains why historical painters have rarely been colourists.”[64]
Thus, we find that the faculties alone are possessed of forces. These forces alone are endowed with organs; and these organs, by which they are kept separate from each other, separate them to distances sufficiently great to hinder, in certain cases, one given faculty from exercising any influence over another. Therefore, there is no such thing as unity; there is no unit faculty, no unit understanding; there is no me; and if there be no me, there can be no soul.
In the same way he abolishes the freewill. Will, liberty, reason, in his view,[65] are nothing but results, as I have already stated.
“To the end,” says he, “that man may not be confined merely to the ability to wish—in order that he may actually will—the concurrence of several superior faculties is requisite. The motives must be weighed, compared, and judged; the decision resulting from this operation is denominated will.”[66]
“Reason,” he further adds, “supposes a concerted action of the superior faculties. It is the judgment pronounced by the superior intellectual faculties.”[67]
Hence, the will is nothing but a decision; reason is nothing but a judgment. The faculties concert together. What a singular philosophy, which always substitutes the fictions of language for the facts of the conscious sense, and which is satisfied with those fictions!
Freewill is either a power, a force, or it is nothing. He resolves that it is merely a result. Gall therefore abolishes the freewill.
Indeed, he makes of the idea of God nothing but a relative and conditional idea, for he supposes that this idea comes from a particular organ; and he supposes that that organ may possibly, in some case, be wanting.
“It cannot be doubted,” says Gall, “that the human race are endowed with an organ by means of which it recognises and admires the Author of the universe.”[68]