Firmness, Religion (Veneration or Theosophy), and Benevolence are so well located and described by both Gall and Spurzheim as to need but little comment at present. The four superior organs on the median line, and the organ of Conscientiousness were more correctly located and described than any other large portion of the brain.
Hope is not adjacent to Conscientiousness, but parallel to Religion.
Marvellousness has a preposterously large space assigned it, being really a small organ at the summit of Ideality, which exercises a more intellectual and less superstitious function than has been given it. Marvellousness, Hope, Conscientiousness, Time, Order, Weight, Size, and Individuality are the eight organs discovered and added by Spurzheim, not having been recognized by Gall. The exterior portion of Spurzheim’s Marvellousness occupies the space devoted by Gall to Poetry.
Poetry, recognized by Gall, is brought lower by Spurzheim and called Ideality. Both locations are substantially correct. The location of Gall is the seat of Marvellousness, Imagination, and Spirituality; that of Spurzheim is well expressed by the term Ideality, and the description given, but the word Poetry is rather too limited as the definition of Gall’s organ. It gives brilliance to prose and to oratory, or even conversation, as well as to poetry.
Imitation, adjacent to Benevolence, is somewhat better located by Gall than by Spurzheim, who gives it too much breadth anteriorly.
Wit or Mirthfulness is a confused and erroneous statement. The two faculties are distinct, Wit being intellectual and occupying a small space adjacent to Causality or Reason, while Mirthfulness, or the sentiment of the ludicrous, is just above it, and should properly be called Humor. The mirthful or playful faculty is in the posterior region adjacent to Approbativeness, and may be quite conspicuous when there is neither wit nor humor in the mirth. Imitation, Mirth or Humor, and Wit follow each other in a line. The so-called organ of Wit (Gall) or Mirthfulness (Spurzheim) is the seat of the most profound reasoning faculty, while the Causality of Spurzheim, the Metaphysical Depth of thought of Gall, though it gives a clear analytical intelligence has really less profundity and ability in reasoning than the organ which they have misnamed Wit and Mirthfulness, which is pre-eminently the organ of profound reasoning.
Eventuality and Individuality are confounded as one organ by Gall, calling it Educability, or Memory of Things but rightly separated by Spurzheim, as the observation and memory of events are distinct from the observation of things. Though I do not use the word Individuality, it is not an objectionable expression, as it suggests the fine perceptive power of its location. Both Gall and Spurzheim had a practically good idea of the region of Eventuality, which Gall first called the memory of things. Spurzheim’s description is good; but when the organ is analyzed, it yields consciousness and observation on the median line, memory more exterior, extending to Time.
Perceptive Organs—The most marvellous feature of the old phrenological system, is the accuracy with which the smallest organs of the brain have been discovered, located, and described. The organs of Form, Size, Weight, Color, Order, and Number, or Calculation, were so accurately located and described by Spurzheim, that little remains to be said about them. Gall discovered only Form, Color, and Number, and the latter he located in the position which belongs to Order. These organs were but little developed in Gall, whose great success was due to his philosophic originality and independence. He was not a close observer, and there was a sternness in his nature which prevented him from accepting readily the suggestions of Spurzheim, who with less boldness of character and greater accuracy of perception, was better fitted for minute observation and anatomical analysis. His own cranium has been preserved, in which I found these perceptive organs distinctly marked by their digital impressions on the superorbital plate over the eye. It is a remarkable fact that the intellectual faculties have been most easily understood and located, while their antagonists in the occipital region have proved the greatest puzzle in psychic and cerebral investigations. Gall failed, and left a vacant space in the occiput. Spurzheim failed, but covered the ground incorrectly, and it was many years after I discovered cerebral impressibility before I attained a satisfactory view of the psychology of this region. The location and definition of Locality are substantially correct.
The organ of Time, another of Spurzheim’s discoveries, was very correctly located and defined by him. It lies just above the organ of Color.
Comparative Sagacity, or Perspicacity, as Gall called it, was a better term than Comparison, which was introduced by Spurzheim. Direct perception of truth is its leading character. Illustration by comparison belongs to the breadth of the forehead, to the Ideal and Inventive region, and is the characteristic of poetry. Spurzheim’s description, however, is substantially correct. It qualifies for clear statement, but not for comprehensive or ingenious reasoning. The portion on the median line has still more penetration, in consequence of which it perceives the nature and tendencies of everything, and is enabled to exercise foresight. Still farther in on the median line are located the powers which are more intuitive, and transcending ordinary foresight are entitled to be called prophecy.