There is an intense curiosity in the young to know their capacities, their adaptation to various pursuits, their merits and defects of character, to know what to cultivate, what to repress, and what estimate to put upon themselves. In the age of adolescence such knowledge is very valuable, and is generally willingly received. Moreover, it is very interesting to parents and guardians to know what estimate to form of their charge. The thorough Psychologist (I prefer this word to Phrenologist, which has a more limited meaning) is therefore one of the most useful scientists, and may render invaluable service in the period from ten to twenty years of age, when a guiding wisdom is needed.
That wisdom, though seldom sought later in life, is nevertheless a wisdom which all men need, and especially for this reason, that, with few exceptions,
NO MAN IS COMPETENT TO BE HIS OWN CRITIC.
Unless he is a profound Anthropologist he has no standard of humanity, no absolute standard with which to compare himself, and if he should attempt to form such a standard, his personal defects would vitiate the result.
I never go into society without witnessing examples of those who need earnest psychic admonition. For example, among public speakers, I would mention certain defects: A., with a broad forehead and richly endowed intellect, has not sufficient development of the highest regions of the brain to give him moral dignity or to enable him to discriminate well between the noble upright and the cunning selfish. His superior intellect is shown not by impressive eloquence, but by energetic loquacity, and hence fails to receive full recognition. B. has the dignity and power in which A. is deficient, but lacking in the organs of love, sympathy and liberality, he becomes harsh, censorious and bitterly controversial, making many enemies and leading a wretched home-life. C. has a grand oratorical energy and dignity, but lacking in the organs of reverence and humility, he overrates himself and becomes famous for his vanity. D. has the intellect, wit, humor, and social qualities to shine in company, but from lack of the organ of self-respect, he fails to maintain the dignity of a gentleman and command proper respect in society. E. had the power and genius to rank among the most eloquent and distinguished men of the nation, but the too broad base of his brain overcame all his nobler qualities, and, after becoming an object of general contempt, he ended his life a worthless sot. F. had an intellectual genius of the highest order, and ought to have left a name among the great scientists of the age, but the regions of moral energy, cheerfulness, and adhesiveness were lacking in his brain, and hence he never attained any great success or retained any satisfactory position. His life ran down into pessimism, failure, and premature decay. G. had another splendid intellect and made his mark on the times, but lacking in the region of dignity and self-control, he failed to reach his just position in political life and fell into premature mental decay from over-excitement. H., with much less of intellectual capacity, but a better balanced organization rose to the highest rank in the esteem of his countrymen. I., with an intellect adapted to the exploration of the mysteries of science, of which he gave good evidence, but lacking in all the elements of strength of character lead a life of uniform failure, obscurity and poverty, and yet I felt assured that a different education in youth which would have developed his manhood and ambition and would have carried him to eminence. J. is a man of superior intellect, benevolence and strength of character, but the organ of love is singularly defective in his head and his domestic life is therefore void of happiness.
Neither the men nor the women in whom I have observed the deficiency of the faculty of love, ever seemed to be aware of the fact or to suspect that their intense antipathies were the product of a faulty organization, and their discords chargeable to themselves.
K. and L. are two gentlemen richly endowed in intellect and in the other virtues, but not in conscientiousness, in which they are strangely deficient. This is the only defective region in their heads and it is fully borne out in their lives, which are void of integrity and truth, though they have escaped the condemnation of the law.
M. was a lady of intense ambition in whom the regions of love and religion were deficient. Aspiring to be a leader in philanthropic reform she had a limited following in an erratic course, but ended her labors by obtaining a snug position for herself and repudiating all she had done. N. was another would-be leader in philanthropic reforms, who was at one time quite conspicuous, but while he had the ideal speculative intellect to appreciate theories, he was lacking in love and religion. His philanthropy did not pay, and he abandoned it entirely for a life of selfish self-indulgence.
I might enumerate many more, with whose organic development I was familiar, whose lives displayed conspicuously their organic defects of brain, but who never seemed to understand their own deficiencies or make any effort to correct them. Could they have been corrected in adult life? Much might have been done if they had understood and been admonished by Anthropology. I know of one in whom an organic defect was pointed out, in his first manhood, who, by persistent effort, so far overcame it as to modify the form of his head, and increase its fulness in the moral regions. But, as the world goes, men are not admonished, and they cherish their defects, refusing to believe that they are faults.
It is in childhood and youth that the work of reformation is to be accomplished, when parents and teachers shall have learned the methods.