"such a mass of heterogeneous matter as he fishes up in his way; "but as the curve lessens, and the pole is in view, you find out that "the whole is to be efficient there." This is a correct and striking description of the manifestations of large reflecting and knowing organs in combination with a portion of Secretiveness, and under the direction of a powerful Concentrativeness.

If the knowing faculties are larger than Causality, a strong Concentrativeness will produce not argument, but a succession of illustrations and remarks bearing upon the same subject, and connected by the slighter associations, but none of them much expanded, unless Ideality should also be large. Such an individual, while his Concentrativeness will not make him profound, may be an interesting and instructive writer; he may even reason successfully by the help of the reasonings of others; and, if other faculties conspire, his powers as an orator may be very considerable. There are others again, who, with an equal distribution of the reflecting and knowing organs, but by no means a splendid development of either, may, by means of a full Concentrativeness and Firmness, enabling them to apply their faculties steadily to any subject of inquiry, become known as men of sound practical understanding and respectable talent; and if large moral and active faculties are added, they may be persons of energy and influence in society. Such, however, will still be found to fail in ge nuine force and originality of intellectual conception.

If large Concentrativeness be combined with large Individuality, while Causality is deficient, the faculty will manifest itself in a persevering attention to minutiæ and details; and if Language and Love of Approbation be both large, it will infallibly produce that conversational or oratorical display commonly called prosing; or, at least, that kind of prosing which consists in a wearisome expatiation on the same topic of discourse. It would be a mistake, I think, to suppose that Concentrativeness always occasions condensation of style. In order to this there must be true vigour of conception. When not regulated by reflecting faculties, which can judge VOL. III.-No X.

when enough has been said, and the point has been gained, its natural result will be diffuseness and repetition.

The varieties of combination might easily be multiplied, as they are doubtless very diversified in actual fact. In one case Concentrativeness produces the clear and conclusive reasoner; in another, it gives condensation and vigour to style, and in others amplification; in others still, it contributes to form habits of abstract philosophical investigation. The slighter diversities in this power occasion many of the differences in energy, luminousness, and vivacity of thought which distinguish various writers. Generally speaking, large Concentrativeness enables a mind of less universal power to communicate its ideas with greater effect than one more powerful in which it is deficient. The energy is brought more to a focus; and, like the point of charcoal through which the galvanic fire passes, the thoughts glow more intensely while the excite

ment lasts.

In the affairs of life, large Concentrativeness begets a propensity to the exclusive pursuit of one object at a time, but does not necessarily produce a continued unity of pursuit. A child, with the organ large, while a variety of novel objects are continually soliciting its notice, may be very fickle and volatile; but it will pursue each object with eagerness while the fancy for it lasts. In the same manner, in adult years, should the mind be nearly equipoised between a variety of faculties, without any one of them exercising a decided predominance, we may look for a succession of pursuits, each of which will command an almost exclusive attention while it remains in favour. Concentrative people will generally be found to be addicted to hobbies, which are successively pursued with undivided ardour for a time, and relinquished for some fresh occupation when satiety has taken place. Indeed, when Concentrativeness overbalances Cautiousness and the reflecting organs, we may expect that inconstancy in sentiment and conduct will be the issue. For Concentrativeness, running exclusively, without proper regulation, on a favourite

principle, will naturally exaggerate it beyond its proper limits; conclusions will be adopted on insufficient evidence, which, being found in the long run to be untenable, will give place to others that are embraced in their turn with equal decision. Hence, such individuals may be found in the course of their lives at more points of the compass than one, and strenuously asserting opinions at one time which, at some future day, they may as zealously deny."

Concentrativeness seems to be a constituent in that impa tience which chides unreasonably the tardiness of others in complying with our desires; and we must beware of a degree of imperiousness which it may engender if not duly corrected by Benevolence and Veneration. One largely endowed with this faculty may acquire the character of an absent man, at least if it be not modified by a full Individuality and Love of Approbation, the latter of which tends to keep the mind constantly alive with a sort of "fidgetty anxiety" to the presence and observation of others.

This faculty gives a distinct, sustained tone to the voice, and may be noticed in the emphatic monotones and uniform forcible enunciation of some speakers. A correspondent, in the 2d No of your Journal, justly observes, that Mr Pitt's "tones of voice, his rising in his emphasis, and mouthing his syllables, with most distinct enunciation, is quite correspondent with "those qualities of mind which have been ascribed to him;" one of which was a large endowment of this faculty.

The subject is yet far from being exhausted; but lest I should be guilty, if I am not so already, of an error too common to speculators, which consists in accounting for the whole variety of nature's operations by some single principle, I shall conclude by noticing a coincidence between Dr Brown and Mr Combe, in the sentiment which the latter has advanced, that the function ascribed by him to Concentrativeness includes, as one of its modifications, the inhabitive propensity, which Dr Spurzheim conceives to be the primary feeling of this organ. After describing the effect of "con"tinued co-existence in our associate feelings," in imparting

the general power of concentrating our faculties, Dr Brown proceeds to speak of the "infinite accession which it affords "to our happiness and affections. By this, indeed, we acquire the "power of fixing, in a great degree, our too fugitive enjoyments, "and concentrating them in the objects which we love.... Why is "it that the idea of our home and of our country has such power"ful dominion over us, that the native of the most barren soil, when placed amid fields of plenty, and beneath a sunshine of eternal spring, should still sigh for the rocks, and the wastes, and storms "which he had left ?...It is because home does not suggest merely a "multitude of feelings, but has itself become the name of an actual "multitude," &c.

Some of the observations in this paper may appear to you, Sir, to savour of what Phrenologists have called the old school of mental philosophy. My metaphysical notions were indeed formed in that school; and it was only by the overpowering evidence of facts that I was convinced of the general truth of the phrenological doctrines. Permit me to express my regret at seeing a feeling of too indiscriminate hostility towards the speculations of the former philosophy manifested by many Phrenologists. The spirit of analysis which distin guishes the later metaphysicians might be cultivated more extensively, (for I do not say that it is wholly excluded,) and with eminent advantage, in phrenological inquiries. It may be remarked also, that while the metaphysicians theorized too exclusively on the information of their own solitary consciousness, Phrenologists seem frequently to forget, that consciousness is a source of evidence necessary to the interpretation of many phenomena which we discover by observation; and that it cannot admit of a doubt, that a diligent attention to the operations of our own minds will contribute greatly to our success in unravelling the conduct and the mental character of others. It would, I think, be found, on a candid examination, that the different theories of mind throw light upon each other, and that many of their principles approximate much more closely than their several advocates are willing to believe. By a sifting of the materials of each, the truths common to all would be separated from the errors with which they are mingled, and would lay the foundation of a philoso

phy approaching nearer to a true interpretation of nature than is furnished by any of our present systems.

Edinburgh, 7th Dec. 1825.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

SPECTATOR.

ARTICLE V.

ON THE FACULTIES EXERCISED WHILE WE ARE PLAYING AT GAMES, WITH SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THE ORGAN CALLED THAT OF WEIGHT.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR,-There are few persons who do not feel an inclination to join in the amusement of playing at different games. I do not now refer to the propensity for gambling, but merely to the gratification of those faculties, from the exercise of which is derived the pleasure that is felt during the progress of a game, while the disappointment caused by losing cannot be such as to excite any great or permanent uneasiness. All rational pleasure in playing ceases whenever the object is to acquire money, or to gratify Destructiveness or Self-esteem. The genuine source of pleasure is in the exercise of skill; and when a game is won, Love of Approbation is indulged without rendering us vain in any inordinate degree, and without the excitement of any inferior desire. Accordingly, we observe a much greater excitement among those who prefer the game of curling, of pleasurable feeling of a lively cast, than among those who play at games with the view to win money; and chess-players know the gratification derived from the exercise of the higher powers, although they sit with all the gravity of judges, and in the most profound silence.

There is, happily, a very proper feeling among the majority of mankind, both of the moral turpitude and of the impolicy of gambling; but in playing at games much rational