REPORT.

The committee to whom was referred the letter of Mr. Grimes, requesting an examination of his classification, as exhibited in his "New System of Phrenology," and a comparison of it with the classification of Dr. Spurzheim, beg leave to submit the following

REPORT:

The importance of arranging the principles of a science in accordance with the laws of natural relationship, has been recognized from the days of the earliest philosophers to the present time. It has been acknowledged in astronomy, geology, and the other branches of natural science. The productions of the great men in these several departments of investigation are the monuments of a desire to improve and perfect classification. A like feeling has been manifested by writers upon the powers of the mind. Succeeding generations, enlightened by discoveries, and quickened thereby to the perception of defects in previous systems, attempted improvements; and the whole history of mental philosophy, from Pythagoras to the commencement of the last century, is but little more than the record of changes in nomenclature and arrangement of the attributes of mind.

In order to the exhibition of a comprehensive view of this subject, it may be well to notice briefly the principal systems that have heretofore attracted attention. They may be divided into,

Those which consider the faculties with little or no regard to the relation existing between them and corporeal organs; and,

Those which consider the faculties as depending for manifestation directly upon certain corporeal organs.

I. A division of the mental faculties into two kinds, equivalent to INTELLECT and INCLINATION, appears in nearly all the systems, from the most ancient to the most recent. Pythagoras taught his pupils of the RATIONAL and IRRATIONAL principles of the soul. Plato divided the soul into three parts, INTELLIGENCE, PASSION and APPETITE. The second and third belong to Inclination. According to Aristotle, the human soul has three faculties, the NUTRITIVE, the SENSITIVE, and the RATIONAL; and they are possessed to some extent by animals. The RATIONAL part alone was believed by Pythagoras and Plato to be immortal: but it is not known whether Aristotle regarded any part or faculty as destined to exist forever. There were, however, after the commencement of the Christian era, those who considered the human soul as an unit, purely spiritual and immortal: while all brutes were supposed to be guided by a mysterious and unfathomable Instinct, which could exist only during the organization of the body. In their writings, usually corresponding with INTELLECT and INCLINATION, we have HEAD and HEART, UNDERSTANDING and AFFECTIONS, SOUL or SPIRIT, and APPETITES or LUSTS; terms drawn from

the scriptures, and used to embrace the two classes of mental powers.

Lord Bacon, who was the first to clear away the darkness that had long surrounded the true principles of philosophical investigation, thought there were two minds in man: one of SENSIBILITY and VOLUNTARY MOTION-another having the attributes of MEMORY, IMAGINATION, &c. Des Cartes maintained the existence of four qualities or faculties of mind-SENSIBILITY, IMAGINATION, UNderstanding and WILL; and he adopted the opinion of the fathers of the church, that animals are directed by an inexplicable instinct. Malebranche recognized two primary powers of mind-UNDERSTANDING and WILL; under each of which inferior powers were treated. UNDERSTANDING embraced Perception, Memory, Judgment and Imagination; and WILL included Inclination, Desire, Affections and Passions. Locke differed little in his arrangement from Malebranche.

Reid and Brown, while they evidently considered the mind as a single general power, have admitted more of the primitive faculties than those who preceded them; and the subdivisions in both have been made under similar heads. Reid divides them into INTELLECTUAL and ACTIVE; Brown, into INTELLECTUAL STATES OF THE MIND, and EMOTIONS. "The INTELLECTUAL STATES OF THE MIND are referrable," says Dr. Brown, to two generic susceptibilities or capacities; those of simple suggestion, and those of relative suggestion." SIMPLE SUGGESTION is the basis of conception, memory, imagination and habit; and corresponds with the phrenological perceptives. RELATIVE SUGGESTION is the basis of judgment reason and abstraction; and corresponds with the phre

66

nological reflectives. EMOTIONS, he divides into IMMEDIATE, RETROSPECTIVE and PROSPECTIVE. The IMMEDIATE EMOTIONS are of wonder, beauty, sublimity, sympathy, &c.

The RETROSPECTIVE EMOTIONS are of anger, gratitude, regret, gladness, and remorse. The PROSPECTIVE EMOTIONS, which, according to Dr. Brown's analysis, include several of the affective faculties of Spurzheim, are, 1. Desire of our own continued existence,

2. Desire of pleasure,

3. Desire of action,

4. Desire of society,`

5. Desire of knowledge,

6. Desire of power,

7. Desire of the affections of others,

8. Desire of glory,

9. Desire of the happiness of others,

10. Desire of evil to others.

Lord Kames "distinctly refers to and describes, as original principles of thought and action, no less than twenty of the phrenological faculties ;"* and Smellie, who, at the suggestion of Lord Kames, was induced to prepare the Philosophy of Natural History, has remarked among animals the manifestations of twenty-three of the primary powers of mind; though neither of these philosophers attempted any further arrangement than a general reference to the classes of Intellectual Faculties and Instincts or Propensities.

The philosophic schools of Germany and France, while they have established a source of ideas, which Locke did not admit, to wit, Reason, have made scarcely

History of Phrenology, by R. W. Haskins, of Buffalo, N. Y.