The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 07 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
General
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 07 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
For my part, I prefer Malebranche’s solution to the more modern one. It
seems to me that the strength or weakness, the pliancy or firmness of
the characters of men or women is to be accounted for from something in
the general texture of their minds, just as their corporeal strength or
weakness, activity or grace is to be accounted for from something in the
general texture of their bodies, and not from the arbitrary
preponderance of this or that particular limb or muscle. I think the
analogy is conclusive against our author. If there is no difference of
_quality_; _i.e._ of delicacy, firmness, &c. in the parts of the brain
‘more developed in men,’ the difference of _quantity_ alone cannot
account for the difference of character. And, on the other hand, if we
allow such a difference of quality in the cerebral fibres, or of
hardness and softness, flexibility or sluggishness in the whole brain,
we shall have no occasion for particular bumps or organs of the brain to
account for the difference in the minds of men and women generally. Drs.
Gall and Spurzheim seem desirous to set aside all differences of
texture, irritability, tenacity, &c. in the composition of the brain, as
if these were _occult_ qualities, and to reduce every thing to positive
and ostensible quantity; not considering that quantity alone accounts
for no difference of character or operation. The increasing the size of
the organ of music, for instance, will not qualify that organ to perform
the functions of the organ of colour: there must be a natural aptitude
in _kind_, before we talk about the degree or excess of the faculty
resulting from the peculiar conformation of a given part. The piling up
larger parcels of the same materials of the brain will not produce a new
faculty: we must include the nature of the different materials, and it
is not too much to assume that whenever the faculty is available to a
number of purposes, the difference in the nature of the thinking
substance cannot be merely _local_ or organic. For instance, say that
the _Organ of Memory_ is distinguished by greater tenaciousness of
particles, or by something correspondent to this; that in like manner,
the _Organ of Fancy_ is distinguished by greater irritability of
structure; is it not better to suppose that the first character pervades
the brain of a man remarkable for strong memory, and the last that of
another person excelling in fancy, generally and primarily, instead of
supposing that the whole retentiveness of the brain is in the first
instance lodged in one particular compartment of it, and the whole
volatility or liveliness, in the second instance, imprisoned in another
hole or corner, with quite as little reason? It may be said, that the
organ in question is not an organ of memory in general, but of the
memory of some particular thing. Then this will require that there
should be an organ of memory of every other particular thing; an organ
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