Brain with Skull Removed.
It is found by dissection that the brain of an intellectual man exhibits a larger number of convolutions than one of small intellectual calibre, and that the convolutions are deeper and the layer of gray substance thicker, and in consequence of the increase in number and depth of convolutions there is a wider expanse of surface as well, for the distribution of gray matter. Hence the relative proportion of gray matter in different brains has come to be regarded by physiologists as a test of mental power. Many idiots have large and well formed brains but the convolutions are shallow and few and the gray matter small in quantity and extent of surface. Physicians often ask me how I can estimate the relative quantity of gray matter in a living head without cutting into it. I refer them to the study of quality and temperament which I have clearly expounded in this lecture. Do you ever find hickory leaves growing on a pine tree? Show me the bark of a tree and I’ll tell you the quality of the wood within; show me the skin, the hair, the eyes of a man and I’ll tell you the quality of every organ in his body as well as the quality of the brain. I recently astonished the superintendent of an insane asylum by pointing out to him that the quality of the hair, the eyes and the skin of idiots was essentially different from the quality of those of more highly endowed persons, and could be told in the dark by a person of educated sensibilities. The quality and texture of the brain being determined, the next step is the consideration of its size.
Other things being equal in all natural objects, size is the measure of power. By the term “other things” in relation to the brain, we mean temperament, quality and health. This simple principle explains why a great many people who carry large heads are endowed with but little intellectual power. Their heads are filled with “sawdust,” in other words, a brain of poor quality, supported by a feeble body, or vitiated by excessive temperamental conditions.
Small Head.
Brilliant in Observation, Deficient in Reflection.
Men who carry small and misshapen heads are often brilliant in certain directions, and this limited brilliancy in special lines causes them to be spoken of by superficial observers as men of great ability and apparent exceptions to the phrenological rule. The fact remains, however, that in no case is comprehensive greatness ever exhibited in a head of small dimensions.
Large size of brain, accompanied with robust health, high quality and good temperamental conditions, gives the highest phase of powerful mentality and comprehensive greatness. Small size of brain, with poor health, low quality and erratic temperamental conditions gives the lowest form of mentality and constitutional inferiority. Between these two extremes we may find every conceivable modification and form of human character according to the various combinations of normal and abnormal conditions.
Size of brain then is a measure of power when judged by an enlightened understanding of physiological, anatomical and pathological conditions. The phrenologist goes one step farther and asserts that size of brain in any particular region, judged by the same standards of comparison, is an indication of local power.
Criminal.
Every portion of the body is created for a specific function. You never see with your ears, you do not taste with your eyes, you do not walk with your teeth. There is no waste in nature. Every part has its special duty to perform. The part of the brain which lies in front of the ears has a different function from that which lies behind them. The parietal lobes of the brain are not placed in the skull for the same purposes which the frontal and occipital lobes represent. Every fibre has its function, every convolution its purpose. All that remains for us to do is to compare known forms of heads and note the coincidence of character exhibited by similar developments and the divergences of character accompanying diverse developments. In the past century these observations have been sufficiently successful to locate the general functions of the external portions of the brain which are situated so that observation and comparison are possible. Forty-two general organs are now located with definite certainty, and these have been subdivided with sufficient accuracy so that there are over one hundred localized centres of cerebral development which can be accurately measured and their mental power determined to the advantage of the individual and the benefit of society at large.
Philosopher.
The brain is double. It is divided into two hemispheres by the falx cerebri, a partition which follows the middle line of the skull. Each hemisphere contains one organ pertaining to each faculty of the mind. The size of each organ is estimated, not by feeling for bumps or depressions, but by measuring the length of the fibres of the brain from their common center in the medulla oblongata, at the head of the spinal column, and at a point equi-distant from the ears in the interior of the head. From this common centre the fibres of the brain range horizontally and upward in all directions like the branches of a tree. Development of brain fibre laterally gives a wide head, longitudinally, from the medulla oblongata to the forehead and to the occiput, a long head. Development upward raises the crown; and I have in my collection skulls which show by actual measurement a relative difference of over three inches in development of brain fibre to certain localities of brain surface. Viewed in the light of these facts and principles as here expounded, the phrenological position is established, and the childish objections of those who sneer at this beautiful science, fall crumbling to the dust. The last great fact to be considered is this: Exercise of any portion of the body develops it, enlarges it and adds to its strength. Disuse weakens, paralyzes and ultimately destroys. This rule applies to all parts of the body, and to the brain more particularly because the nervous tissue of which the brain is composed is more rapidly used up and renewed than any other portion of the body and hence more susceptible to change. Phrenology solves all problems of education and enables every individual to develop a symmetrical and well formed brain, and with it a harmonious character, by pointing out those portions that are deficient and those that are strong, and thus enabling him to secure a really well trained mind.
By memorizing the different organs and their functions, particularly those in which you are marked as excessive or deficient, and by practicing the observation of your daily conduct and learning to analyze it phrenologically, i. e., to note those occasions when deficient faculties have failed to act, and when predominating faculties have caused you to act hastily or contrary to good judgment, you will soon become painfully aware of your true faults, and by a conscientious action of reason and exercise of self-control will be able to correct them. In the same manner predominating talents may be tested and proved and you will rejoice in the birth of new aspirations, hopes and impulses, in a word you may be, by means of this science, placed in full command of your mental powers and learn to control and direct them as the skillful engineer controls and directs his locomotive.
Concede the fact that these differences in form, quality, temperament and health mean anything, and all that we claim for Phrenology follows logically and as a matter of course. In the light of this demonstration of known facts, it follows that character can be read, and if read, then it can be assigned to the position of its best usefulness in the profession, trade or avocation suitable to the employment of the talents demonstrated to exist. If Phrenology gives the index to your character, as we have proved it does, then it also forms the key to the solution of the problem of matrimony by describing the character which will harmonize with yours in congenial companionship, financial success and the improvement of offspring. It likewise is a trusty guide in the formation of business relations as partners, employers or employees, and directs us in the choice of associates, teachers or companions in social life. It gives to the anxious parent the knowledge of inherited and acquired talents in cherished darlings of the household, and in every relation of life; at every moment of existence it is an advantage, a comfort, an assistance, a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
The Phrenological Location of Faculties and Organs of the Brain.
In this lecture, ladies and gentlemen, I have demonstrated the theory of Phrenology. To-morrow night and on each of the succeeding nights of this course, I shall give you practical applications. To-morrow night I shall lecture on the “Choice of Professions and Trades,” illustrating to you the qualities that insure success in Law, Medicine, the Ministry, Journalism and Teaching, in Manufacturing and the various Mechanical Trades, as well as the qualifications for Commercial Life in its various departments, wholesale and retail. I shall follow with my celebrated lecture on Matrimony, in which I shall expound the principles upon which a correct marriage may be consummated, securing amiable association, perfect offspring and financial success, after which I shall separate the sexes and continue the subject of matrimony in its physiological relations, under the head of “Sexual and Creative Science.”
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Every young man and woman of reasonable intelligence is, or ought to be, possessed of a laudable ambition to be self-sustaining. To win a competency, to secure the necessities, to have even the luxuries of life, is perfectly praiseworthy, provided they are obtained in a legitimate manner. Every rational man seeks the occupation, trade or profession which ensures the profitable employment of his best talents, and the science which discloses to the youth at the beginning of his education what those talents are and how they may be developed to perfection in early manhood, and in what profession, trade or occupation he will display the greatest ability, confers upon him the greatest favor within the gift of knowledge, from a financial standpoint. That Phrenology does this, and more, it is the purpose of this lecture to show.
The world is apt to measure a man’s success by the amount of money he accumulates. That is properly one element of success, but it is not all. The real criteria of a man’s success in business are, 1st, the volume and quality of his work; 2d, the compensation he receives for it; and 3d, the pleasure he derives from it.
Pugilist.
Illegitimate.
Business is legitimate or illegitimate. A legitimate business contributes to the welfare of society, as well as to the support of the individual who follows it. The cobbler who mends shoes and the genius who builds a steamship are equally legitimate, though one contributes only to the comfort of a country neighborhood and the other promotes the welfare of a continent. Both may be successful within the limits of widely different capacities. An illegitimate business promotes temporarily the financial interests of the individual at the expense of the health, morals and wealth of the public. In my public and private examinations I have directed thousands of young men and women into channels of legitimate business. The fact is, there is such a tremendous demand for skilled labor in all departments of legitimate employment that it is difficult to find material to fill it. We hear much of the warfare between capital and labor, and strikes frequently paralyze the channels of legitimate trade, but the cause of the difficulty lies not in any real or imaginary conflict between capital and labor. The solution lies in the fact that every branch of legitimate labor is burdened with incompetent workmen, men who are in wrong occupations, who were never intended by nature for such work as the branches of trade they infest, and the skilled workmen are obliged to carry the load; while capital is often in the hands of those unfit to be trusted with its use, who manipulate it merely as the instrument of oppression and wrong, until the social discord is produced. If men were all graded to their proper vocations, if capital were entrusted only to those of financial skill, and labor, in its various departments, assigned to those of proper qualifications, every man would be employed at a fair remuneration, and the burden of pauperism would fall from the backs of our skilled workmen. There are too many men in the learned professions who would do better at the forge and on the farm. There are preachers who ought to be blacksmiths, and lawyers who would look better and feel better hoeing potatoes. There are those at the anvil and the plow who can succeed better in literature and art.
Lawyer.
Young man, it is infinitely more to your credit to be a successful blacksmith, if that is in accordance with your endowment, respected by everybody within a radius of twenty miles because you can shoe a horse better than anybody else, than it is to be starving in an attic as a briefless lawyer, or lounging about the country as a minister of the gospel, eating yellow-legged chicken at the expense of the sisters, when you have no ability to preach.
Minister.
Whether a man will be able to do good work, to receive lucrative compensation and to derive pleasure from any occupation, will depend on the amount and kind of sense that he possesses. Phrenology measures the amount of sense displayed by each man’s brain, determines the kind and quality of his intelligence, and thus estimates his ability in any given trade or profession.
If the brain were a single organ, every man would have the same kind of sense, and men would differ only in the quality and amount of intelligence. But Phrenology proves that the brain consists of a number of organs, each one representing a different variety of intelligence, a different sense, so that we find men varying in volume of brain and amount of intelligence, in the quality of brain and consequent quality of intelligence; and also in the relative development of the different organs of the brain, showing diversity of character in the kind of intelligence or sense, displayed by different individuals. Thus two men may have the same relative volume of brain, similar in quality, and supported by good constitutions, but widely different in development of the organs of the brain. One may be a gifted orator and astute lawyer, but utterly unable to comprehend colors or use the pencil and brush. The other is a talented artist but so deficient in language that he cannot describe his own pictures. Both are successful in their proper vocations, reverse their positions and ignominious failure is the result in both cases.
Capable.
To constitute a success in any business a man must have capacity, that is, he must have enough of intelligence to meet the demands of the business, and he must have physical strength to support it. A man may have apparently the kind of sense required by a branch of business, and for a time display ability in it, but as the business increases, and its demands become more in volume and intensity, he fails because he has not enough of comprehensive intellect to take it all in. There are also those who have comprehensive greatness of intellect, who are fully capable of understanding all the requirements of a business, but who fail because the body beneath the brain is not sufficient in endurance and nourishment. Dismal failures result, and many useful lives are shortened, because men make the mistake of entering vocations for which they have insufficient mental or physical capacity. A phrenological examination determines beforehand the capacity of the individual and establishes a proper limit, within which he finds success, health, happiness, and the gratification of proper ambition. On the other hand there are many who do not realize how much their capacity is, and consequently remain inert to the great deterioration of body and mind. Nature demands that every man should use his full capacity, and the phrenological examination which reveals to an individual the extent of his usefulness is a magnificent acquisition to him who acts upon it. Action is the natural condition of every part of man. Action develops character, strength and health. Inaction results in paralysis and disease. It is vitally essential that every man should find out his capacity and use it all—no more, no less. This, Phrenology enables him to do.
Incapable.
The question of capacity being thus understood, the next is the quality of organization.
Quality is the inherent grain or texture of the substance. Men differ in quality as much as do the trees of the forest. You do not use the hickory or the oak for the same purposes that you do the pine or the poplar. There are differences also in the grain of metals, in the texture of fabrics. Gold differs essentially from iron as silk does from flax. Men display an infinite variety of quality, from the strong lumberman of the pine forests, with his corded muscles and angular frame, to the delicate young man who presides gracefully over the ribbon counter in the dry goods store.
To illustrate this topic of quality: Riding on the cars one day I noticed a gentleman sitting near me and asked him the rather impertinent question, whether he had not been engaged for many years in handling delicate machinery.
“Ah,” said he, smiling, “you are a Phrenologist.”
“Yes, sir,” I replied, “we have evidently sized each other up.”
“Now, before I answer your question,” said the gentleman, “tell me why you asked about delicate machinery. Several men of your profession have approached me with similar questions about machinery. There is evidently something in my head which betrays that; but tell me why you drew the distinction in favor of delicate machinery?”
“Why, my dear sir,” I replied, “you are a delicate piece of machinery yourself. You would not harmonize with anything else. Your bones are small, your eyesight microscopic, your fingers tapering, your touch as delicate as a woman’s, your quality is delicate. You are not the man to handle heavy bars of iron, to repair locomotives, or to build threshing machines. I should say, sir, that watches would be about right for you, certainly nothing heavier than sewing machines and type-writers.”
“You are quite right, sir,” said he, “I have been a watchmaker for twenty years.”
The quality of the man determines the quality of the work he should do. The strong, coarse, sluggish organization is adapted to occupations requiring power and momentum. The refined, delicate, responsive character will succeed best in positions calling for agility, dexterity and sensitiveness. The blacksmith may ruin a watch if he attempts to mend it, while the jeweler would not be a safe man to shoe a valuable horse. There is an eternal fitness of things.
The occupation of an individual should be in harmony with his temperament. The brilliant versatility of the magnetic permits a greater variety of selection to the individual than the positive and concentrative energies of the electric temperament. The latter is dignified, sombre and severe, with a ready inclination to forego comfort and convenience to carry out a cherished object. It works, not better than the magnetic but more willingly. Men of the magnetic temperament succeed best in the cultivation of the social graces, the fine arts, and in those departments of literature that call for brilliancy of imagination, versatility of talent and variety of accomplishment. The leaders of great and successful armies, the powerful statesmen and the literary men of the world, distinguished by fervid genius and concentrative application, have been on the other hand strongly endowed with the electric temperament.
When the motive temperament is in the ascendency, the character is marked by an almost uncontrollable desire for physical exercise. This temperament demands activity of body as well as brain, and the occupation should be such as will combine both. The vital temperament on the other hand is more inclined to sedentary habits, and is capable of doing an immense amount of mental work without breaking down. It seems to thrive best when loaded with responsibilities of a mental character. The mental temperament on the other hand will display great brilliancy of intellect and versatility of talent, but is in constant danger of a physical collapse unless constantly subjected to conditions favorable to recuperation.
To subject a person of the delicately organized and sensitive mental temperament, for a long period of time, to the hardships and privations of an occupation requiring exposure and severe muscular exertion is the height of cruelty and folly. A person of the extreme vital temperament, under the same conditions, would find life a weary burden, though a limited experience in muscular exercise, under conditions favorable to health, would be beneficial to both. On the other hand, the motive temperament, confined in an office or room to books and study, with insufficient exercise, is in much the same condition of misery as a caged bird.
Temperament, quality, and capacity having been duly considered, the ability of an individual in any given direction, depends upon the special development of the organs of the brain. The special sense of each individual is determined by an examination of the special organs of the brain. And it is upon this special development, in the case of every man, that his prerequisites for success depend, namely, the ability to do much good work, the remuneration for his services, and the pleasure derived from the occupation.
I desire to call your attention to some examples of special ability, which are familiar enough to the experience of most of you to be accepted without argument.
There are those who are gifted in the sense of touch above their fellows, who can judge of the quality of goods in the dark. There are others blest with penetrating eyesight. Others with a sense of hearing most acute. Also those with nice discriminating sense of taste and smell. These distinctions for a long time were regarded as the five senses of man, and he was believed to have only those five avenues of perception. Phrenology, however, subdivides these and adds others, vastly increasing the number of the sources of knowledge and the springs of human action.
A great many cases of defective eyesight, so called, are in reality defective brain. The mechanism of the eye may be perfect, the retina and the optic nerve may faithfully perform their duties, but if the brain behind the eye be defective, the comprehension of the object or some of its properties is lost to the intelligence of the individual. Some people are “color blind.” Their eyes are good enough, but they don’t see colors; they comprehend no difference in the shades of different colored objects exhibited to the view. At the same time they fully comprehend the size, form, distance, etc., of the object. An examination discloses the fact that they are deficient in a portion of the brain just behind the middle of the eyebrow. Give such a man every material and brush of the painter and request him to paint a landscape and the result will be a daub. He has no sense of colors, he has no fitness for that kind of work. At the same time he may be entirely capable of a very creditable performance in drawing a picture with a pencil in white and black because that does not involve his weakness. This particular element of sense may, like all others, be only partially defective, but an examination by a competent phrenologist will disclose its exact state, whatever it may be. I once examined a man and remarked to him that he was thoroughly endowed with the qualities essential to a good locomotive engineer, except that the organ of color was slightly deficient. I remarked, “You will never experience the slightest inconvenience in distinguishing switch-lights and signals when you are in good health and sober, but a slight indigestion, or a glass of liquor, decreasing the power of your brain, would render your vision of colors unreliable and might cause a wreck, hence I advise you to keep out of the business.” The man was a railroad engineer, and admitted that he could generally distinguish colors without difficulty, but that his color sense was lost, under the conditions I described.
Those who are large in the organ of color, are artists in its appreciation, for the simple reason that they have more sense in this particular direction. On the other hand, color may be large, but appreciation of form, size, etc., may be deficient. The individual may try to paint a picture and get the colors all right, but if form is deficient his figures will be grotesque in their absurdity; or he may have good sense as to form and color, and get the sizes of his objects all wrong. Mechanical skill depends in a great measure upon these “Perceptive Faculties,” as they are called: that is, those portions of the brain that comprehend and give the ideas pertaining to the properties of material objects, such as individuality, form, size, weight, color, etc. The trained eye and hand of the blacksmith are alike directed by these faculties of the mind acting through these organs of the brain, as he moulds a piece of iron to the proper size and form to fit the horse’s foot. What folly then to expect good work, in a blacksmith shop, of a man deficient in these special senses requisite in that department of work; and as we study all trades and professions we shall find that aptitude in any line depends on the possession of superior development of the organs of the brain representing the faculties of intelligence most used and depended upon in that business.
There are those who are wonderfully gifted in the organ of calculation, the seat of the special sense of the number of things. One who has this organ large will be able to count rapidly and correctly, to add, subtract or multiply, and he understands the relation of numbers to each other, their properties, and because of his superior sense in this direction he becomes a “lightning calculator” and is regarded as a mathematical prodigy. There are others who have this sense deficient, but they may be superior in development to the mathematical prodigy in a dozen other faculties.
One may be developed in those organs which contribute to talent for music. He may have a sensitive organization, highly responsive in quality, a fair intellect, such an exquisite sense of time and tune, aided by good Constructiveness, Imitation and executive ability that he is able to produce music which charms the listening ear of thousands. If this talent is discovered in time, and he has adequate instruction and advantages, he becomes a magnificent success. Place him in the counting room, the work-shop, or on the farm and he is not in harmony with his surroundings, he is awkward and inefficient, he does poor work and but little of it, and he is regarded by his associates as an inferior person.
Musician.
Some men are wonderful in their ability to comprehend machinery, and in dexterity in the use of tools, the special sense represented by the organ of Constructiveness. They seem to be perfectly at home with a piece of new and complicated machinery in five minutes, while others will work on the same thing for hours, growing more and more bewildered, and exhibiting little or no mechanical genius whatever, literally making a botch of everything they undertake. When I was lecturing in Austin, Texas, in 1887, several gentlemen came to see me and asked if I would be willing to submit to a test. They said, “We have a man in this city who is unquestionably a genius in a certain direction, and we would like to call him out for a public examination and see if you can locate him.” I urged them to do so, at the same time remarking that that was the kind of a man I liked to get hold of. That night when I called for nominations, Mr. Geo. P. Assman was immediately elected. He came forward, and as I measured his head I said, “This man is a genius as a machinist. He has only ordinary ability in other directions, but as a machinist he is a marvel. He has thoughts on machinery far beyond the comprehension of other men, and especially in the practical handling of complicated work.” Somebody in the audience sung out at this point “You’ve got him,” and the audience broke into applause. They then informed me that he was a most celebrated locksmith and machinist whose specialty was opening combination locks on valuable safes when the combination was lost by the owners, or when the works were injured by the blasts of burglars. On one occasion he had opened a safe in New Orleans in a few minutes when the trained locksmiths of the safe factory had worked for hours and failed. He was in the right business, was regarded as a genius, and was respected and admired by a whole section of the United States simply because he employed his best element of sense.
Some men have wonderful intellectual development and are specially gifted with the ability to acquire knowledge, but they may be most wonderfully deficient in that kind of executive force which makes use of it. They are largely developed in the frontal lobe of the brain where the intellectual organs reside, but are deficient in the regions of moral and physical energy; while others are largely endowed with ambition, physical and moral energy,—the parietal lobes are large and the head rises high in the crown, and they are able to use all the knowledge they acquire. Their intellectual capacity may be limited, but they are able to put their knowledge to account, and what gems of information they possess are made to glitter by constant use. Men of the first class are always rated at less than their true value of intellectual ability; those of the second class at a greatly over-estimated premium. The first may be compared to capacious barns where knowledge is stored like hay to become musty because it is never used. I have seen hundreds of boys of this character, graduate with great honor in college (where the only criterion applied was the capacity to absorb knowledge as a sponge does water), only to be eclipsed in after years by the boys who graduated at the foot of the class, who were practically in disgrace on Commencement day. In our popular public school and collegiate system, there is too much stuffing of knowledge, and too little attention given to developing the practical sense of the student.
There are special senses which give physical and moral energy, ambition and industry. One man is splendidly equipped with knowledge and is thoroughly posted in regard to how a business should be conducted in all of its practical and theoretical details, but he is afflicted with inertia, he does not move. The unscientific observer says he is lazy, and that is true, but Phrenology analyzes even laziness and finds that it is caused by a lack of sense. Develop the organs of physical and moral energy, which can be easily done, and the character of the man becomes transformed, and he becomes a cyclone of business push and executive ability. Another man may be gifted with energy, but deficient in knowledge and business tact, and he wastes his force in tremendous efforts at the accomplishment of small matters. He puts as much mental force into opening a can of oysters as would suffice to destroy a building. Figuratively speaking he loads a cannon to kill a mosquito, the result is a great waste of energy and vitality. By proper cultivation of knowledge, and adaptation to pursuits employing his splendid energies with large enterprise, a character of this description is brought into harmony with the eternal fitness of things.
Physical Energy.
There are men endowed with the sense which gives appreciation of values and the knowledge of property to such an extent that they are artists in the manipulation of finances. They accumulate fortunes, and the world admires their accomplishments; and one who has less of this world’s goods is accustomed to wish that he had as much sense as Vanderbilt or Gould. The fact may be, that he has more sense in the aggregate than either, but it is not the same kind of sense. Other things being equal, the man with large Acquisitiveness will exhibit more sense in acquiring property, and the man with large Caution and Secretiveness more sense in economizing, than those having these organs small. It is curious to observe the different phases of financial sense in different individuals. One man will be a miser, eager to get and anxious to hold property; another will be close and cautious in taking care of the property he inherits, but will exhibit no special ability in increasing his riches; another displays great ability in making money, but spends it lavishly; while still another may show indifference to the acquisition of property or the care of it. All of these various combinations I have delineated correctly with utter strangers, in thousands of instances. They all depend on the development of the various organs of special sense, and a man may be educated at any period of life, so as to correct his financial sense and make him more successful in accumulating and holding property.
Some men are good collectors, while others fail to exact their just dues. One man will dun his debtors with a persistence and regularity, and with a force and dignity which compels payment even from those who wish to avoid it; while another will be diffident, and often suffer the most humiliating emotions in presenting his demands—in fact, often failing to exact payment from those who are perfectly able and willing to meet the account. Others are careless about paying their debts, and lose financial standing in the community by neglecting their dues, without any desire whatever to avoid payment, while others are punctilious in financial matters to the greatest degree. All of which variety of financial dispositions are the result of development of special combinations of brain organs, and susceptible to material modification by proper influences.
It is as absolutely essential to the success of the man of commerce that he should be well developed in the organs which give the financial instincts, as it is that the artist should be developed in those which give a sense of artistic effect. Hundreds of men go into bankruptcy every year because of deficient development in this respect, being crowded to the wall by the superior strength of men of greater business sagacity. It cannot be too strongly impressed upon the young business men of this country that the true road to fortune is in a correct knowledge of adaptation in business and in constantly educating the financial senses.
In my written delineations of character I furnish every applicant with a careful analysis of his business adaptation, showing the exact condition of his financial instincts, as well as all others. I have also composed directions whereby deficient organs may be strengthened by special mental exercises, and I claim that the financial sense can be developed and strengthened as well as any other part of man’s nature; and in no part of my professional work have I met with more satisfactory results.
I once examined an utter stranger, and as I proceeded, I said, “You should never enter mercantile life, sir, with your present development. You would be bankrupt within a year, because you would trust everybody, and you cannot collect your small accounts.” The gentleman, in great surprise, asked me if I knew anything of his past history personally. “No, sir, I never saw you nor heard of you until you entered my room a moment ago.” He then informed me that he had failed in business three times, because he could not collect his small accounts, and that he had over $1500 due him in the city—small items against respectable customers that he had not succeeded in collecting. “Now, sir,” he continued excitedly, “I want to know why that is and how you can tell it.” I explained to him his deficient organs, and gave him my special rules for the cultivation of financial ability; and after instructing him, I told him to try some of his most collectable accounts according to my rules. I remained in his town a few days longer, and before I left he called on me with a list of over six hundred dollars’ worth of claims he had collected, and he was jubilant. “There!” said he, “that is what your examination and chart has been worth to me.” And by persistently following my instructions he developed into a very good collector.
A man may be entirely idiotic in the sense which gives the desire for property and the impulse to acquire it (Acquisitiveness), while he exhibits excellent sense in other directions. I once examined a gentleman of high intellectual development who was entirely destitute of this sense, and I remarked to him that he was financially worthless, that he had no sense of value, was indifferent to the acquisition of property and utterly unable to make a living, as he would not be able to ask for money that was due him from a friend who was perfectly willing to pay him. He replied, “All you say is true, sir; my wife supports the family by sewing and washing, and I am unable to command any financial resources whatever.”
Subsequently I employed this man, as a matter of charity, to do some work for me, and returning to the city from a brief absence, I found that I owed him five dollars. I met him on the street that night and he informed me that his family were suffering for the necessities of life. Said he, “It was a scramble at our house this morning to get anything for breakfast, and I don’t know where the next meal is coming from.” My first impulse was, of course, to pay him the money I owed him, but I restrained it and waited to see if he would ask for it. He poured his tale of woe into my sympathizing ear for twenty minutes, and finally turned away and left me without his dues. As he walked away, I called him back and said, “Look here, my friend, do you know you are a fool?”
“Oh, yes, Professor, I found that out long ago. But on what particular point do you find me a fool to-night?”
“Don’t you know that I owe you five dollars?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Why didn’t you ask for it?”
“I don’t know,” he said in a dazed sort of way, “I simply couldn’t; I came to you for it; I told you my circumstances hoping you would pay me, but I couldn’t ask you for it.”
And he could not. His case was an extreme one; but there are many in the same position. The simple fact is, he did not have financial sense enough to ask for it. I gave him his money and told him if he needed more to come to me and I would help him further, and I did; but the best thing I did for him was to instruct him in the development of financial sense, and I got him far enough along, to enable him to ask for money when due him; but it would be a hopeless task to undertake to make a financier out of such a man. I also examined his oldest boy, and finding that he had inherited his father’s weakness, I gave him and his mother special instruction for the development of financial ability. Two years later, when I visited the same city, I found him supporting his mother and the younger children from his own wages; and his mother brought her entire family to me for written examinations, and I found them well dressed and well fed; and the mother, with an expression of gratitude I shall never forget, informed me that the splendid financial energies of her son, were entirely due to the faithful performance of my instructions. And as she paid me a handsome fee for my services, and I looked upon her happy family, I felt that the gratuitous examination I had given the boy two years before had borne good fruit.
I could multiply instances to prove the existence and working of each of the various special senses of the individual, represented by the phrenological organs, but I assume that the foregoing are sufficient for the purposes of the present lecture.
It is a common mistake of parents to suppose that if a child has a special endowment of sense in any particular direction, it will manifest such strong inclinations in that direction, that these natural inclinations may be taken for a guide. Sometimes this is true, but oftener it is not the case, so that the natural inclinations of children are by no means safe guides in the choice of a profession, occupation or trade.
When the circus is in town, the natural inclination of every healthy boy is to be a clown or bareback rider, but it does not follow, that if his inclinations are gratified, it is the best course he can pursue. Some of the most magnificent talents, on the other hand, lie dormant until they are carefully called out and trained by the teacher. There are also periods in the life of every boy and girl when new faculties seem to be awakened, and for a time engage the entire attention; and the watchful parent is apt to mistake one of these periodical outbreaks for the manifestation of a talent deciding the destiny of a child. At one period of a boy’s existence he may manifest great fondness for tools and working in machinery; at another, for music; at another, for trading and merchandizing; while comparatively dormant may lie a masterly ability to grapple with the problems of philosophy and science, which in later years marks him as a genius in literature and scientific investigation.
Sometimes a talent manifests itself at an early age, but the parent does not realize its scope and value, or the full character of the child, and he is placed in an occupation far inferior to his actual merit, or the measure of his capacity.
A father brought his son to me exclaiming with pride, “This boy is a genius, and I am going to make a first-class carpenter of him, unless you can suggest something better, and prove that he has talent for it. He can take a pen-knife and a board, and carve out anything he may desire to make. He certainly has a genius for mechanical work.”
“Yes,” I said, “this boy will make a first-class carpenter; he will succeed well in carving boards and in doing delicate joining, and as a foreman, or as the owner of a planing mill, he will make a good living; his wages may run up to five or ten dollars per day; but such an occupation is beneath his capacity. This boy has, in addition to his mechanical genius, a wonderful endowment of intellectual ability and scientific proclivities; and if you will send him to a first-class medical college and make a surgeon of him, his mechanical skill will have a higher field to display itself and he will carve men at fifty dollars per day.”
The old gentleman hadn’t thought of that, but he wisely acted on my suggestion, and his boy is to-day one of the brightest young surgeons in the state in which he lives, and he carves men, instead of boards, at higher prices.
The ability to command a high grade of compensation for labor of any kind depends largely upon a man’s own confidence in his skill, and his ability to perform work rapidly, as well as skillfully. A factory which can turn out double the quantity of work of its competitor, will secure the best contracts and give the greatest satisfaction. In the same way, a man who can do double the quantity of work done by a fellow-workman will, if his labor be equally skillful, be regarded as worth three or four times as much as his slower competitor. The pride and dignity attached to superior accomplishments doubles the value of the service. The best man in any department of work commands his own price, and people are willing to give him the full margin of profits. The best surgeon is always demanded when human life is at stake; the best lawyer when property of great value is involved in litigation. And when a man knows that he is the best in his department of work, whatever it may be, he has that confidence in himself which will enable him to exact good wages. As long as a man realizes that he is inferior, his work is at a discount and he himself deficient in dignity and self-confidence.
An old darkey, who was famed for his skill as a butcher, was employed by a stranger to slaughter a hog. The service being well performed, Pompey demanded five dollars in payment.
“Five dollars!” gasped the astonished owner of the pork, “for slaughtering one hog! outrageous!”
“No, sah,” said Pompey with dignity, “I’se only charged you one dollar for de work, sah. De balance am for de know how.”
It is absolutely essential, in order that one may rise to eminence in a profession, trade or occupation, that he should select one where he can use his best faculties; because he will be rated as a successful man, a man of mediocre talents, or a complete failure, according to the amount of sense displayed by the faculties he uses in his business. If a young man has an excellent talent for music, an ordinary degree of ability in mathematics, and none in regard to art, he will be a success in the orchestra; he may make a precarious living as a book-keeper; but if he starts a photograph gallery, he will disgust his customers and prove a dismal failure. In the first, he will be respected and admired; in the second, tolerated; in the third, despised.
In my professional experience I have met thousands of men who were admired and respected as master-minds, because they were using strong faculties, the best they had, and the world gave them more than their dues, because they were ranked in mentality at the grade of their strongest faculties, and their weaknesses were overlooked, hidden in fact by the brightness of the few talents they did possess and use to advantage.
I have examined thousands of men of equal ability who were regarded as very ordinary, because they were in walks of life which called forth only the inferior elements of their characters. I have examined thousands of others of equal ability, and many of magnificent endowment, who were limping, staggering and blindly groping down the dismal path of despair, because they were depending on their weakest elements, and the world despised and judged them unjustly, because they were ranked in mentality at the grade of their weakest faculties—their virtues and talents hidden by the fact that they were never used. It has been my happy privilege to place them, for the first time, in possession of the true estimate of their elements of strength and weakness, and to direct them with the absolute certainty of success into paths of usefulness, prosperity and enjoyment.
I might confer a favor upon you, by giving you a letter of introduction to some rich and powerful friend of mine who could aid you in your business, but I confer a greater favor upon you when I give you my written delineation of character. It is an introduction to yourself. For the first time you are made acquainted with your own character. There it stands in bold relief; your talents and how to make the most of them; your faults and how to correct them; your adaptation in business, analyzed in such a manner that every business qualification is described and the reasons given why you will succeed. You are not left in the dark concerning the matter. The business is stated and the reasons given, and the reasons you can test seriatim before you go to any expense in making a change, or in qualifying yourself for the business.
The enjoyment that a man gets from his business is a legitimate part of the profits. It is also one proper criterion of success. A man may accumulate a bank account, but if it is done at the expense of the enjoyment of life, if every task is a burden, and every day’s work a monotonous round of dreary duties, he is no better than a slave.
When he uses the strongest faculties of his nature the result is constant gratification. The use of weaker elements is always at the expense of extra effort and pain. The muscular woodsman enjoys the exercise of chopping, and swings his glittering axe with dexterity and pride. Put a college professor at the same task, and he would be clumsy and suffer fatigue and mortification as well, if he escaped without injury to his shins. But in his school-room the professor would display dignity, enjoyment and skill in expounding some intricate problem to admiring pupils. The skillful musician becomes identified with his instrument, and thrills with the melody evoked by his own fingers. The trained accountant becomes wonderfully gifted in mathematical computation, and enjoys his work in like manner. The accountant might find the work of the musician an impossibility, and what little he did accomplish, a vexation; while the confinement of the counting-room, with its prosaic duties, would be the worst form of slavery for the musician, his work inferior, his capacity limited, his situation intolerable but for the meagre salary it might afford.
A bank president called on me with his son, requesting an examination for the latter. As he came in, I saw that he was in a bad humor. Said he, “This boy is a fool. If you can find any talent in him you will succeed better than I have. My desire is, that he should occupy a position in my bank and ultimately become cashier. Our present cashier is a first-class business man and can add up four columns of figures at once, and I have sent this boy to several business colleges with the request that he be taught the same accomplishment. I have spent seven hundred and fifty dollars on this boy’s mathematics, and he can’t add up one column of figures with any certainty of being correct. If there is any sense in him, I would like to have you find it.”
I examined the boy carefully, and I did not find an idiot. I said, “Sir, you are doing this boy an injustice. He has but little mathematical sense, it is true, and he will never be able to add more than one column of figures with speed and correctness. Nature intended him for something different from a bank cashier. Give this boy a good violin, place him under competent instructors, spend seventy-five dollars on his musical education and he will display such magnificent talent that you will be willing to continue.”
The old gentleman arose in wrath, and stamped out of the room, and said he didn’t want any fiddlers in his family. The next day, however, he came back and apologized. Said he, “I suppose it is better for the boy to be a good violinist than a poor accountant; at all events, I’ve failed so far, and I’ll try your advice to the extent of seventy-five dollars; if he displays talents as a musician, he shall have the best instruction money can obtain.”
He kept his word, and placed the boy in a musical conservatory under first-class instructors, and before the seventy-five dollars was expended, the boy was the pride of the institution. He led his classes; graduated with first honors; is to-day the leader of a first-class orchestra and a professor in a leading conservatory; commands better compensation than any accountant in the city, and has an entree into the best society at all times by reason of his accomplishments. He stands to-day a king among his fellows because he is using his strongest faculties. But the best of it lies in the fact that he enjoys his profession; his position is one of dignity and pleasure. Whether he stands before audiences at the head of his orchestra, in the drawing rooms of elite society, or in the solitude of his study, his brain vibrates with the harmony of his own grand usefulness.
I have a friend who holds the position of first book-keeper in a leading bank, and he is master of the situation because he is able to add four columns of figures at once with absolute accuracy. He commands a first-class salary for first-class work, and it is pleasurable to watch the pride, the dignity, and the evident enjoyment with which he performs the duties of his station. On one occasion I went into the bank to settle an account of long standing, and at the request of the cashier, my friend, the book-keeper, made out the account and added it up in his usual quick way. The cashier, being desirous of preventing any possible mistake, said, “Mr. B——, will you please add that up again and see that your figures are correct.” The book-keeper was insulted. The idea that he might make a mistake was not to be tolerated. With an expression of lofty dignity that I shall never forget, he handed back the account without looking at it, saying, “The account is correct, sir.” And as the cashier laboriously added it one column at a time he found that it was. The book-keeper was master of the situation, and he was able to humiliate anybody who dared to question his work. And as I saw his satisfaction in the discomfiture of the cashier, I said to myself, Verily the enjoyment of a man’s business is a legitimate part of the profits.
The enjoyment of my own business is a large share of the profits. I enjoy lecturing, and I enjoy examinations, because I know when I examine a head that I know more about it than the man who wears it, and that what I am about to say will do him more good than anything he ever heard in his life if he will heed it. And when some young man comes up to me in Texas, and shakes hands and thanks me for something he heard me say in a lecture in California, and another shows me his prosperity in Colorado, and draws out a chart I made for him in Missouri, telling him to enter that business, I enjoy it. And when I examine some diffident young lady and encourage her to learn accomplishments and show her the occupation she should follow, and years later I find her succeeding in all of them and developed into a grand self-sustaining woman, a mighty power for good in her neighborhood, I enjoy that. And when I give my professional sanction to the marriage of some brave young man and beautiful young woman, and later I find them surrounded by superb offspring, a good home and every indication of prosperity, and I see that the beauty of the wife has not faded, and that the husband is stronger and braver and more tender than he was, I enjoy that.
Commercial reports show that only a fraction over two per cent. of business enterprises are successful. The rest are failures because they are managed by men who do not possess the kind of sense required.
The question presents itself to every young man and woman at this moment: Will you be a success, or will you join the long, dismal procession of failures? If you really desire to succeed, you should first find out the true measure of your abilities. My delineation of your character is the surest guide, because it is the estimate placed upon your capacity, your quality, your temperament, your special development of sense, by an impartial friend, a skillful critic, guided by the light of science and a conscientious regard for your welfare.
In coming to me for examinations, come prepared to know the truth. I am not here to flatter you, nor am I here to ridicule or abuse your weaknesses. I have for many years enjoyed a magnificent practice, gained by strict candor and honesty with my patrons, who have long since learned that I spare no pains to know the facts, and knowing them I fear no consequences in relating them as they are.
I will tell you every element of your character as nature and circumstances have combined to develop them. I will not flatter you, but I promise you that I will find more good in you than you have ever found in your own organization, and I will tell you how to turn that good to the best practical account. I will describe your business qualities, and analyze them, showing you how to improve and correct them; and if you are in the proper business already, this knowledge will enable you to develop more perfect usefulness and strengthen your confidence for the future. If you are not in the right profession, trade or occupation, the sooner you find it the better, and make use of your opportunities. I will tell you the very best you can do, and prove it to you by reasons seriatim, and convince you that it will be as natural for you to succeed in that business as it is for a cork to swim, and for the same reason, because the law of nature commands that it should be so. Brain is money, character is capital, knowledge of your resources is the secret of success.
I wish to say a word to the ladies at this point. In this lecture I have used the term “man” in its generic sense, as the old preacher did when he announced that his congregation numbered two hundred and fifty brethren, and then qualified it by remarking that the brethren “embraced” the sisters. Phrenology discloses the fact that women have as many varieties of temperament, quality, capacity and size and special development of brain organs, as men. Every woman as well as every man is endowed with a certain line of talents, and when she enters her proper vocation she succeeds at it, no matter what it may be. Women have succeeded wherever men have, as rulers, as leaders of armies, as physicians, lawyers, in the world of commerce, in the shop, the factory, and on the farm. There is a great deal of bosh written and spoken about “woman’s sphere.” The proper sphere of every individual man or woman is in that line of work for which nature intended them, and for which they are endowed with the proper development of brain and brawn. And, ladies, when you come to me for examinations I shall be just and honest enough to tell you where you belong; and if I can find you something which will take you out of competition with the Negroes and Chinamen I shall certainly do so.
To parents, also, I wish to say that this is the opportunity you must not neglect. You have no right to bring children into the world unless you are willing to promote their welfare and give them the best opportunities to enjoy whatever nature has endowed them with, in the nature of talent. Do not allow the trifling cost of an examination to stand in the way of obtaining this priceless knowledge, which will enable you to direct their growing minds into the channels which promise so much of usefulness, so much of health, happiness and financial prosperity.
Some parents have an idea that children are too young to be examined, and they make this excuse at every age, from one month to twenty years. They seem to doubt our ability to impart valuable information about a child until the character is “developed.” They lose sight of the true object of an examination, which is to determine in what direction the child shall be developed. The parent is often the architect of the child’s fortunes, but what would we think of an architect who waited until the building was completed before he planned it? When the character is “developed,” according to the idea of these people, the greatest advantage of an examination has been lost. We can tell the youth of twenty-one, or the business man of forty, what his talents are, and how they may best be employed, and how they may also be improved to the extent of that limited development which can be made after maturity by persistent effort; but in the case of the young and growing child the information given in time, is a thousand fold more valuable, because it is in that formative, plastic condition where it is like the clay of the potter in the hands of the skillful parent or teacher. And when parents ask me how young a child may receive the benefits of an examination, I answer as soon as you are able to bring them to me, the younger the better; and when you reflect upon the fact that more than half the children die in infancy, the value of competent phrenological advice may be appreciated. In thousands of cases I have warned parents of predispositions to disease in their little darlings, and enabled them to avoid the conditions which, in the absence of my advice, would have certainly destroyed the health and life of the little ones. Moreover, at an early age a defect may be easily overcome, which at a later period would ripen into a permanent deformity, such as defects of vision, color blindness, defects of speech, stammering, stuttering, lisping, defects of walk, and every other defect caused by a deficient development of brain organs.
To know with scientific accuracy the special talents of an individual in early youth, is to make his fortune. Without this knowledge much valuable time is lost by parent, teacher and pupil in useless experiments. With the knowledge which Phrenology imparts, intelligently acted upon, the development of a strong mind, sound body, brilliant accomplishments, splendid talents and successful business, is an assured fact, and the youth enters upon his early manhood fully equipped with everything which will enable him to accomplish a vast volume of good work, achieve financial success, and enjoy that happiness which can only come to the successful man.
Our rooms are open from 10 o’clock a. m. until 6 p. m. The reception room opens at 9, for the accommodation of those who wish to come early and be first served. Take your seat in the reception room, and I will reach you as rapidly as I can. I never hurry my work at the expense of thoroughness, and when I have a subject under my hands I tell him everything which will do him good, no matter how many others may be waiting. When it comes your turn you may expect the same courtesy. But I never waste time, and if you desire to ask any questions please have them written down, and I will answer them promptly and correctly. While you are in the reception room you will be elegantly entertained, and when I reach your case you may expect the best results which scientific knowledge, careful examination, lucid explanation, and a fraternal interest in your welfare can give.
To-morrow night I lecture on the soul-absorbing topic of Matrimony, at the conclusion of which lecture I shall examine several young ladies and select husbands for them from the audience.