On human responsibility, as affected by phrenology.

  • Combe, George, 1788-1858.
Date:
[1826]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On human responsibility, as affected by phrenology. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Now, if desire must always precede will, it becomes of im- portance next to ascertain whence desire proceeds. Every faculty being active, gives desire for its own gratification, and the intensity of the desire is in proportion to the size and activity of the organ. Here, then, natural development of brain is the grand source of desire. But, in the second place, the faculties are all liable to be excited by the presentment of their natural objects ; and, by the influence of external circumstances, desire may be strong- ly elicited or greatly suppressed. For example, the organ of Veneration may be by no means deficient in the head of a member of this Society; but if I were at this moment to walk forth, and offer him a gross and unprovoked insult before this audience, it is highly probable that the excitement given by this most unexpected attack might so arouse Combativeness and Destructiveness, that he would level me on the floor, quite regardless of the dignity of the chair and the respect due to the individuals around him. Reverse the circum- stances again, and suppose that at the moment when the in- sult was offered, some august personage, or dearly-beloved and long-absent friend, unexpectedly entered the hall, and that his eye, kindling with wrath, caught the expression of their countenance, beaming with benignant condescension, or brightened with the smiles of love and a long-cherished affec- tion, it is quite possible that these objects, addressed to the powerful faculties of Veneration, Adhesiveness, and Bene- volence, which we know our member to possess, might arouse a different class of faculties in his mind, and pro- duce the desire to forego the infliction of vengeance upon me, and to enjoy the higher gratifications of respect to the august stranger, or kind recognizance of his beloved friend. But here also his conduct would proceed from the predomi- nant faculties ; and we may safely say, that, possessing the pre- cise powers, and placed in the precise circumstances supposed, he could not have experienced any feelings but those which he actually felt, and could not have desired differently from his