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
Take away the human mind and its common functions, operations, and
principles, and Dr. Spurzheim’s craniology gives a very satisfactory and
categorical view of human nature. In material science, the common
properties may be the least significant; but in the mind of man, the
common principle (whatever it be) that feels, thinks, and acts, is the
chief thing.
I do not believe then in the Doctor’s _organs_, either generally or
particularly. I have only his word for them; and reason and common sense
are against them. There may be an exception now and then, but there is
every where a total want of classification and analytic power. The
author, instead of giving the _rationale_ of any one thing, runs on with
endless illustrations and assumptions of the same kind. The organs are
sometimes general and sometimes particular; sometimes compound and
sometimes simple. You know not what to make of them: they turn over like
tumbler-pigeons. I should be inclined to admit the _organ of
amativeness_ as a physical reinforcement of a mental passion; but hardly
that of _philoprogenitiveness_—at least, it is badly explained here. I
will give an instance or two. ‘A male servant,’ Dr. Spurzheim observes,
‘seldom takes care of children so well as a woman.’ Women, then, are
fond of children generally; not of their own merely. Is not this an
extension of the organic principle beyond its natural and positive
limits? Again: ‘Little girls are fond of dolls,’ &c. Is there then an
express organ for this; since dolls are not literally children? Oh no!
it is only a modification of the _organ of philoprogenitiveness_. Well
then, why should not this organ itself or particular propensity be a
modification of philanthropy, or of an amiable disposition, good-nature,
and generosity in general? There seems no assignable reason why most, if
not all of these special organs should be considered as any thing more
than so many manifestations or cases of general dispositions,
capacities, &c. arising from general irritability, tenderness, firmness,
quickness, comprehension, &c. of the mind or brain; just as the
particular varieties and obliquities of organic faculties and affections
are attributed by Spurzheim and Gall to a common law or principle
combined with others, or with peculiar circumstances. The account of the
_organ of inhabitiveness_ is a master-piece of confusion. It is an organ
seated on the top of the head, and impelling you to live in high places,
and then again in low places; on land and water; to be here and there
and everywhere; which is the same and different, and is in short an
organ, not for any particular thing, but for all sorts of
contradictions. First, it is the same as the organ of pride, and
accounts for the chamois climbing rocks, and the eagle the sky; for
children mounting on chairs, and kings on thrones, &c. But then some
animals prefer low marshy grounds, and some birds build in the hollows,
and not on the tops of trees. Then it looks like a dispensation of
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