Elements of phrenology / [George Combe].

  • George Combe
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of phrenology / [George Combe]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ings of the audience; they made every man feel his fa- culties expanding, and his whole mind becoming greater, under the influence of their energies. This was a dis- play of great power. Other performers, again, are re- markable for vivacity of action and elocution, who never- theless are felt to be feeble and inefficient in rousing an audience to emotion. Activity is their distinguishing at- tribute, with an absence of vigour. At the bar, in the pulpit, and in the senate, the same distinction may be ob- served. Many members of the learned professions display great facility of illustration and fluency of elocution, sur- prising us with the quickness of their parts, who neverthe- less are felt to be neither impressive nor profound. They possess acuteness without strength, and ingenuity with- out comprehensiveness and depth of understanding. This also proceeds from activity with little vigour. There are other public speakers, again, who open heavily a de- bate, their faculties acting slowly, but deeply, like the first heave of a mountain-wave. Their words fall like minute-guns upon the ear, and to the superficial listener they appear about to terminate ere they have begun their efforts. But even their first sentence, although unim- passioned, is characterized by weight; it rouses and ar- rests attention; their very pauses are expressive, and in- dicate gathering energy about to be embodied in words of power. When fairly animated, they are impetuous as the torrent, brilliant as the ightning’s beam, and over- whelm and take possession of feebler minds, impressing them irresistibly with a feeling of gigantic energy. The student should bear in mind that the phrenolo- gist does not compare general size and general power: a man may have a small head, taken in the aggregate, and yet a powerful intellect ; but it will be found that in him the anterior lobe or seat of the intellect 1s large, and that the deficiency lies in the organs of the propensities or sentiments, or of both. In such cases there will be in- tellectual vigour without much force of character. The circumstances which modify the effects of size, are
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