2/01 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by MARSH, CAPEN, & LYON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts STEREOTYPED BY LYMAN THURSTON & CO. BOSTON. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. I HAVE been requested to prepare a corrected edition of this work for the American press, and with the greatest satisfaction have complied with the solicitation. The United States stand in an enviable position as a nation. To a territory almost boundless, a soil in the highest degree fertile, and every variety of climate, are added what no other people on earth enjoy, a constitution entirely free, and social institutions calculated to encourage the boldest exercise of the human understanding. They require only, in addition, a sound and practical system of mental philosophy, to enable them to attain to a moral and intellectual preeminence commensurate with their physical and political advantages. Phrenology professes to be such a system; and as such I present it to their consideration. The great discoverer of it has been for several years numbered with the dead, and to him alone belongs the glory of having presented this invaluable gift to mankind. His illustrious colleague died lately in the arms of American citizens: They did honor to him, to themselves, and to their country, by their generous conduct towards him while alive, and the reverence paid to his memory when dead. We who remain profess to be only humble disciples, made wise by the wisdom of our masters, and shining with a light reflected from their brightness. In proclaiming the value and importance of their doctrines, therefore, we assume no merit to ourselves; we simply invite others to partake of a moral and intellectual banquet which we have enjoyed with the highest relish, and found to conduce to our happiness and improvement. The organs are delineated in the Plate according to their most general appearances. There are however slight differences in national heads, which give rise to small variations in the lines of demarcation in the plates of different phrenologists. By appealing to nature, the student will soon learn to discriminate the positions and limits of each organ; and I recommend practice as the best means of removing every difficulty. My excellent and lamented friend Dr. Spurzheim no longer lives to hear the expression of my gratitude and affection. I can now only revere his memory; and in paying the highest tribute to his admirable dispositions, exalted talents, and extensive attainments, I know that I shall have the heartfelt concurrence of every American who enjoyed the pleasure of his personal acquaintance. To the best of my knowledge, there is no material point of doctrine on which he and I differed, except concerning the functions of the organ No. III.* I continue to entertain the views expressed in my works in regard to it. I may now add, without indelicacy, that it was perhaps the only cerebral organ in which the superiority of developement lay on my side, and that every one understands best the functions of those organs which are largest in his own brain. It was remarkably small in Dr. Spurzheim, and it appeared to me that he never comprehended the effect produced by it when large. The point, however, is left open for the judgment of all inquirers. 23 CHARLOTTE SQUARE, * Inhabitiveness, in Spurzheim's arrangement No. IV. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION THE call for a third edition of this work is a proof that the public continues to take an interest in the subject of which it treats. In the Introduction to this edition, a full exposition is presented of the principles on which Phrenology is founded, written for the information of readers who may be in doubt whether or not it is worthy of philosophical consideration. In other parts of the work, considerable additions have been made. Figures have been introduced to illustrate the forms of several of the heads described. These, although far from being sufficient to convey complete and correct notions of the objects represented, will be useful in giving more precision to the reader's conceptions, and may induce him to make observations in the great field of nature. It was my wish to have had all the figures drawn to a scale, but the engraver has not been successful in realizing this intention. The outline is accurate, and there is an approximation to one standard of proportion in the different figures; but it is not such as enables me to exhibit a scale. Two subjects treated of in the second are omitted in this edition, 1st, “On the Harmony of the Mental Faculties with each other, and with the Laws of Physical Nature;" and 2dly, "On Insanity and Criminal Legislation." The first is now embraced in my work, "On the Constitution of Man and its relations to external objects," in which the practical application of Phrenology to conduct, education, and the science of morals, is treated of; and the second is more amply discussed in Dr. Spurzheim's work on Insanity and in Dr. Andrew Combe's treatise on the same subject. Since the publication of the second edition, some opponents, who deny the truth of Phrenology, have ascribed its success, which on the principle of its being false is anomalous, not to its inherent merits, but to the talent with which, as they are pleased to say, I have advocated its cause; and they have reminded the public, that I am known to the literary world only as a Phrenologist. VII and the present volume is offered in compliance with that demand. In the present Work, I have adopted the title of a "System of Phrenology," on account of the wider scope, and closer connexion, of its parts; but pretend to no novelty in principle, and to no rivalry with the great founders of the science. The controversial portions of the first edition are here almost entirely omitted. As the opponents have quitted the field, these appeared no longer necessary, and their place is supplied by what I trust will be found more interesting matter. Some readers may think that retributive justice required the continued republication of the attacks of the opponents, that the public mind, when properly enlightened, might express a just disapprobation of the conduct of those who so egregiously misled it; but Phrenology teaches us forbearance; and, besides, it will be misfortune enough to the individuals who have distinguished themselves in the work of misrepresentation, to have their names handed down to posterity, as the enemies of the greatest and most important discovery ever communicated to mankind. In this work, the talents of several living characters are adverted to, and compared with the developement of their mental organs, which is a new feature in philosophical discussion, and might, without explanation, appear to some readers to be improper: But I have founded such observations on the printed works, and published busts or casts, of the individuals alluded to; and both of these being public property, there appeared no impropriety in adverting to them. In instances in which reference is made to the cerebral developement of persons, whose busts or casts are not published, I have ascertained that the observations will not give offence. |