1.D 09. Phrenology as a Convenient Basis

Phrenology as a Convenient Basis.

There is one question beyond that. The importance of studying both sides of mental philosophy for the sake of religious education, is one point; but when the question comes up how to study mental philosophy, I do not know anything that can compare in facility of usableness with phrenology. I do not suppose that phrenology is a perfect system of mental philosophy. It hits here and there. It needs revising, as, in its present shape, it is crude; but, nevertheless, when it becomes necessary to talk to people about themselves, I know of no other nomenclature which so nearly expresses what we need, and which is so facile in its use, as phrenology. Nothing can give you the formulated analysis of mind as that can. Now let me say, particularly, a few things about this, and personally, too. I suppose I inherited from my father a tendency or intuition to read man. The very aptitude that I recognize in myself for the exercise of this power would indicate a pre-existing tendency. In my junior college year I became, during the visit of Spurzheim, enamoured of phrenology. For twenty years, although I have not made it a special study, it has been the foundation on which I have worked. Admit, if you please, it is not exactly the true thing; and admit, if you will, that there is little form or system in it; yet I have worked with it much as botanists worked with the Linna^an system of botany, the classification of which is very convenient, although an artificial one.

There is no natural system that seems to correspond to human nature so nearly as phrenology does. For example, you assume that a man’s brain is the general organ of the spiritual and intellectual functions.

I see a man with a small brow and big in the lower part of his head, like a bull, and I know that that man is not likely to be a saint. All the reasoning in the world would not convince me of the contrary; but I would say of such a man, that he had very intense ideas, and would bellow and push like a bull of Bashan. Now, practically, do you suppose I would commence to treat with such a man by flaunt ing a rag in his lace? My first instinct in regard to him is what a man would have if lie found himself in a field with a wild bull, which would be to put himself on good manners, and use means of conciliation, if possible.

On. the other hand, if I see a man whose forehead is very high and largo, but who is thin in the back of the head, and with a small neck and trunk, I say to myself, That is a man, probably, whose friends arc always talking about how much there is in him, but who never does anything. He is a man who has great organs, but nothing to drive them with.

He is like a splendid locomotive without a boiler.

Again, you will see a man with a little bullethead, having accomplished more than that big-headed man, who ought to have been a strong giant and a great genius. The bullet-headed man has outstripped the broad-browed man in everything he undertook; and people say, Where is your phrenology?” In reply, I say, “Look at that bullet-headed man, and see what he has to drive his bullet-head with!” His stomach gives evidence that he has natural forces to carry forward his purposes. Then look at the bigheaded man. He can’t make a spoonful of blood in twenty-four hours, and what he does make is poor and thin. Phrenology classifies the brain regions well enough, but you must understand its relations to physiology, and the dependence of brain-work upon the quantity and quality of blood that the man’s body makes.

You may ask, “ What is the use of knowing these things?” All the use in the world. If a person comes to me, with dark, coarse hair, I know he is tough and enduring, and I know that, if it is necessary, I can hit him a rap to arouse him; but if I see a person who has fine silky hair, and a light complexion, I know that lie is of an excitable temperament, and must be dealt with soothingly. Again, if I see one with a large blue watery eye, and its accompanying complexion, I say to myself that all Mount Sinai could not wake that man up. I have seen men of that stamp, whom you could no more stimulate to action, than you could a lump of dough by blowing a resurrection trump over it.

Men are like open books, if looked at properly.

Suppose I attempt to analyze a man’s deeds; I can do it with comparative facility, because I have in. my eye the general outline of the man’s disposition and mental tendencies. A deed is like a letter stamped from a die. The motive that directs the deed is like the matrix that moulds the stamp. You may know the mould from the impression made by the stamp. You must know what men are, in order to reach them; and that is a part of the science of preaching. If there is any profession in the world that can afford to be without this practical know ledge of human nature, it certainly is not the profession of a preacher.

While I urge the study of man from the scientific side, let me say also that this study is not enough, and that what we need is not simply this elementary analytical knowledge. We must study human nature for constructive purposes also. That is the difference between a true preacher and an incompetent one. The lawyer must study human nature, in order to get at the facts of his case; the merchant, for the sake of his own profits; the politician, for the sake of carrying out certain political ends: but these do not imply that men are to he made better or worse. A minister studies human nature for the purpose of reyenemtiny men. We study men as florists do flowers, when they wish to change them from simple blossoms into rare beauties. The object of the florist is to make them larger, to enhance their colour or fragrance, or Whatever other change is desired. It is to make more out of human nature than we originally find in it, that we are studying it and training it.