There are special senses which give physical and moral energy, ambition and industry. One man is splendidly equipped with knowledge and is thoroughly posted in regard to how a business should be conducted in all of its practical and theoretical details, but he is afflicted with inertia, he does not move. The unscientific observer says he is lazy, and that is true, but Phrenology analyzes even laziness and finds that it is caused by a lack of sense. Develop the organs of physical and moral energy, which can be easily done, and the character of the man becomes transformed, and he becomes a cyclone of business push and executive ability. Another man may be gifted with energy, but deficient in knowledge and business tact, and he wastes his force in tremendous efforts at the accomplishment of small matters. He puts as much mental force into opening a can of oysters as would suffice to destroy a building. Figuratively speaking he loads a cannon to kill a mosquito, the result is a great waste of energy and vitality. By proper cultivation of knowledge, and adaptation to pursuits employing his splendid energies with large enterprise, a character of this description is brought into harmony with the eternal fitness of things.
Physical Energy.
There are men endowed with the sense which gives appreciation of values and the knowledge of property to such an extent that they are artists in the manipulation of finances. They accumulate fortunes, and the world admires their accomplishments; and one who has less of this world’s goods is accustomed to wish that he had as much sense as Vanderbilt or Gould. The fact may be, that he has more sense in the aggregate than either, but it is not the same kind of sense. Other things being equal, the man with large Acquisitiveness will exhibit more sense in acquiring property, and the man with large Caution and Secretiveness more sense in economizing, than those having these organs small. It is curious to observe the different phases of financial sense in different individuals. One man will be a miser, eager to get and anxious to hold property; another will be close and cautious in taking care of the property he inherits, but will exhibit no special ability in increasing his riches; another displays great ability in making money, but spends it lavishly; while still another may show indifference to the acquisition of property or the care of it. All of these various combinations I have delineated correctly with utter strangers, in thousands of instances. They all depend on the development of the various organs of special sense, and a man may be educated at any period of life, so as to correct his financial sense and make him more successful in accumulating and holding property.
Some men are good collectors, while others fail to exact their just dues. One man will dun his debtors with a persistence and regularity, and with a force and dignity which compels payment even from those who wish to avoid it; while another will be diffident, and often suffer the most humiliating emotions in presenting his demands—in fact, often failing to exact payment from those who are perfectly able and willing to meet the account. Others are careless about paying their debts, and lose financial standing in the community by neglecting their dues, without any desire whatever to avoid payment, while others are punctilious in financial matters to the greatest degree. All of which variety of financial dispositions are the result of development of special combinations of brain organs, and susceptible to material modification by proper influences.
It is as absolutely essential to the success of the man of commerce that he should be well developed in the organs which give the financial instincts, as it is that the artist should be developed in those which give a sense of artistic effect. Hundreds of men go into bankruptcy every year because of deficient development in this respect, being crowded to the wall by the superior strength of men of greater business sagacity. It cannot be too strongly impressed upon the young business men of this country that the true road to fortune is in a correct knowledge of adaptation in business and in constantly educating the financial senses.
In my written delineations of character I furnish every applicant with a careful analysis of his business adaptation, showing the exact condition of his financial instincts, as well as all others. I have also composed directions whereby deficient organs may be strengthened by special mental exercises, and I claim that the financial sense can be developed and strengthened as well as any other part of man’s nature; and in no part of my professional work have I met with more satisfactory results.
I once examined an utter stranger, and as I proceeded, I said, “You should never enter mercantile life, sir, with your present development. You would be bankrupt within a year, because you would trust everybody, and you cannot collect your small accounts.” The gentleman, in great surprise, asked me if I knew anything of his past history personally. “No, sir, I never saw you nor heard of you until you entered my room a moment ago.” He then informed me that he had failed in business three times, because he could not collect his small accounts, and that he had over $1500 due him in the city—small items against respectable customers that he had not succeeded in collecting. “Now, sir,” he continued excitedly, “I want to know why that is and how you can tell it.” I explained to him his deficient organs, and gave him my special rules for the cultivation of financial ability; and after instructing him, I told him to try some of his most collectable accounts according to my rules. I remained in his town a few days longer, and before I left he called on me with a list of over six hundred dollars’ worth of claims he had collected, and he was jubilant. “There!” said he, “that is what your examination and chart has been worth to me.” And by persistently following my instructions he developed into a very good collector.
A man may be entirely idiotic in the sense which gives the desire for property and the impulse to acquire it (Acquisitiveness), while he exhibits excellent sense in other directions. I once examined a gentleman of high intellectual development who was entirely destitute of this sense, and I remarked to him that he was financially worthless, that he had no sense of value, was indifferent to the acquisition of property and utterly unable to make a living, as he would not be able to ask for money that was due him from a friend who was perfectly willing to pay him. He replied, “All you say is true, sir; my wife supports the family by sewing and washing, and I am unable to command any financial resources whatever.”
Subsequently I employed this man, as a matter of charity, to do some work for me, and returning to the city from a brief absence, I found that I owed him five dollars. I met him on the street that night and he informed me that his family were suffering for the necessities of life. Said he, “It was a scramble at our house this morning to get anything for breakfast, and I don’t know where the next meal is coming from.” My first impulse was, of course, to pay him the money I owed him, but I restrained it and waited to see if he would ask for it. He poured his tale of woe into my sympathizing ear for twenty minutes, and finally turned away and left me without his dues. As he walked away, I called him back and said, “Look here, my friend, do you know you are a fool?”