of the brain, at any given time, which are necessary to produce the most apt result of which the circumstances will admit. It does not therefore consist of the action of a single organ, but of a felicitous simultaneity of combined organic action, terminating in the very best possible effect which the occasion could furnish. Shakspeare has said truly, that "brevity is the soul of wit;" by which he means, that the produc tion in the smallest compass of words of the greatest quantity and aptness of thought at the very nick of time, is all in which it consists. In short, it depends upon such a felicity of expression, as will convey, without any explanatory commentary, a whole history in a single word. Hogarth did not tell the rich church-goers that they had no charity, that they gave nothing to the poor; nor did he set about to prove his insulting reproaches by a number of facts. No wisdom or sense would have appeared in that. But he established it by a minute and neglected circumstance, that spoke a volume in a word; he simply put a cobweb over the mouth of the poor's-box. Secretiveness was excited in addition; because the cobweb might mean nothing but a fact, or it might mean a great deal, just as circumstances might render it convenient or not to make use of the joke. More, in short, is meant than meets the eye. The spectator reads for himself. So is it with the story of Augustus, as stated by Lord Bacon; or of Louis XIV. and Lord Stair, as modernised by Mr. Combe. As king and ambassador bore a strong resemblance to each other, Louis chose to make the inference, that Stair's mother had played false, and he asked him if she had ever been in France? The reply was, although not very brilliant, being indeed somewhat obvious, still the very best which in the circumstances could possibly have been made-because, in answering " No, but my father was," Stair apparently simply narrated a fact, in his solicitude to furnish the king with information, while in that narrative he inferentially retorted the most severe reproof, and conveyed the idea that Louis was the son of Stair's father. Secretiveness, Cautiousness, and the intellect, are all gratified in this; because the answer, while it was most triumphant and complete by one obvious interpretation, was conceived in terms so happy as to enable the ambassador to appear innocent and respectful, or severe and caustic, just as he chose. Had Louis exclaimed, "How, sir! do you presume to say my mother was false to the king?" it was perfectly in Stair's power to have said, "May it please your majesty, there was no such stuff in my thoughts; I merely stated a matter of fact, in answer to your inquiry for information." Without further enumerating examples, we think it will be found to be true of all wit, that there is always concentration, double meaning, and concealmentthe best adaptation of the best chosen means to secure the end proposed.

Mr. Combe has truly remarked, that mirth is produced by a simple gratification of an organ. An infant laughs at a brass button, and an acquisitive boy at the gift of a halfpenny. Praise makes Love of Approbation merry; and Secretiveness prompts the child to run to a hiding-place, where it laughs immoderately at its concealment from its nurse. Practical jokes are the joint production of Hope, Destructiveness, Secretiveness, and Self-Esteem. As we gradually ascend the scale of faculties, laughter becomes less the sign of gratification. We look upon the excitement with more placidity, with a higher, but a more sober pleasure. This is to be expected. The intellectual organs are much smaller than the passions, and their excitement is, of course, far less convulsive. That mankind do not concur even with regard to practical manifestations of the faculty, or in their ideas concerning the constitution and characteristics of Wit, is an evidence that the feeling of the ludicrous arises from a more universal principle than it has hitherto been supposed to do; that it can be confined to no particular class of faculties, and that from the vari ation of ludicrous perceptions, with a change of organic combination, almost every variety produces wit of its own species. It has been observed, that the pleasing exercise of some of the lower organs, unalloyed by the painful excitement of others, produces merriment of itself; and we believe this pleasant excitement to be the essential ingredient of all wit, being otherwise varied in its character only by the different kinds of intellectual organs, in connection with which, the pleasurable exercise of these lower organs is combined. Causality, Comparison, Eventuality, and the organ now under consideration, all present different turns of wit, each in their own kind happy and admirable, and all distinct and peculiar. By the simple exercise of the intellectual faculties alone, we in many cases feel merriment, even to laughter, when, according to the ordinary understanding of the meaning of the term

wit, there is no wit at all. A good logician will analyse his adversary's argument, strip it of the expletory language in which length of phrase conceals incongruity, and by presenting to the audience its naked contradictions, excite extreme mirth. A reductio ad absurdum, is the result of Causality alone, yet produces much merriment. We have known persons on whom Locke's controversial writings had this effect,-Locke, who so far as wit is concerned, is called the dullest of philosophers. In our view, Young's Night Thoughts contain more wit than any book in the English language, although they possess not one single mirthful thought. We would specify also the works of Jeremy Taylor and Cowley, and Lord Bacon's definition of a Christian, as equally replete with the happiest, tersest, and most unexpected turns of thought, concentrating an argument in a word, and expressing a whole history in a sentence. To produce wit, as to produce any manifestation of genius, requires the -combination of rare gifts, with lucky external circumstances. Brevity," observes Shakspeare, "is the soul of wit." It is, in truth, the extract or essence of thoughts and ideas. Its power lies chiefly in concentration; it may be defined as the perfection of thinking and expression, or the conveyance of a whole library of thought in a nutshell of words.

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From these remarks, it will be seen that we do not regard wit as the product of one faculty, and that therefore it does not constitute the function of the organ now under consideration. It is situated in the Intellectual region, next Causality; and as both Messrs. Scott and Watson have attributed to it an important reflecting power, we shall postpone our further observations upon its probable function, until we come to speak of the other organs in that region.

SECTION IX.-Organ XXI. Imitation.

THE organ of Imitation is situated immediately upon each side of Benevolence, and is itself bounded by Wonder laterally. When it is fully developed, it is gently rounded off from Benevolence; and when large, it is on a level with it, giving the top of the head at that region a square or flat appearance. When it is very deficient, the head slopes rapidly on each side of Benevolence. The reader may observe it very large in the head of Victor Hugo (p. 75), who displays in his writings a very extraordinary manifestation of the faculty of Imitation.

About the real function of this organ, there seem to be many contending opinions; nor has any precise metaphysical analysis of it yet been given.

In the lower animals, as the parrot, starling, blackbird, and crow, we may observe a strong desire to express, in as far as their physical conformation will permit, whatever they hear; and in the monkey, and other animals, a tendency to represent what they see. In one man, we see a love of personating the voice; in another, the gesture; in a third, the expression, turn of thought, or style of language of his neighbour. We find also in man as well as beast, that while some imitate sound, they do not even try to represent motion, et vice versa. It is only in the desire to produce a representation that they agree, not in the particular objects of resemblance. From this it is to be inferred, that the faculty which they possess in common is not perceptive or reflective, but simply affective.

We may observe, that this organ is an extension of that of Benevolence; and in investigating the nature of all the organs in the coronal surface, we have found that their chief function is to produce states of the other faculties. Firmness begets fixity of action of particular organs, Conscientiousness harmony of action, Hope an agreeable excitement of the faculties. Wonder stimulates them to reproduce the objects of perception, and Benevolence superinduces a sympathy of emotion betwixt our own feelings and those of others. Probably Imitation has for its chief function a similar office, and may produce a sympathy of action. There is nothing so irresistible as Imitation. In infancy, it is largely developed; and there is no time of life at which sympathy of action is so peculiarly manifested. The child's first endeavour is to imitate the sound of its parent's voice; it then tries to mimic the lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, the barking of dogs, or the cries of poultry. When Miss becomes a little older, she has a doll like mamma's baby, and washes, dresses, and puts it to bed. Master's hobby-horse is an imitation of his father's hunter; he plays at soldiers, mimics the schoolmaster; or should an equestrian company arrive in town,

every boy in the place throws somersets. Some adults feel an irresistible desire to jump from the pit of the theatre on the stage and begin, and it is certain that there is no profession to which its votaries are driven by an inclination so powerful as that of an actor. Many persons in narrating an anecdote, or detailing even the most commonplace topic, insensibly dramatise the description; producing a copy, not an account, and a plan rather than a specification. This is irresistible, and seems to be a sympathy of action expressed by an external conformity of motion with the object. Action is the consequence of the operation of the faculties, and in the ratio of their size or activity will be the manifestation of the corresponding physical attitudes. However large, therefore, be the organ which produces sympathy of action, if that in whose action in another we are to sympathise, be small in us, the resemblance in expression will be feeble and defective. The actor cannot imitate with any success the language of those passions with which he is moderately endowed. If he have small Destructiveness, he will fail in expressing rage; and should his Benevolence be moderate, let him not attempt to represent kindness or goodness of heart. Secretiveness may repress the temporary action of those natural passions in the actor, the manifestation of which, would not be in harmony with the character represented; nothing, however, but the passions themselves in the performer, can successfully imitate those which are depicted in the subject of performance. This is so distinctly recognised, that there is a certain line to which each actor is carefully confined. The idea of Liston acting Hamlet, would be as absurd as to see Macready personating Jack Rag. It is said that Mrs. Siddons once acted the sprightly Lady Townly in so lugubrious a manner, that the audience appeared as if assembled at a funeral. No doubt, Imitation, which is mere expression, may present the dry bones and skeleton of a character. But unless the feelings of the actor be powerful in the particulars possessed by the character represented, there will be no genuine impersonation. It is on this account, that many actors whose passions are not in harmony with those of their parts, betake themselves to mere rant as a substitute for real emotion. Accordingly, before the time of Betterton, Hamlet, instead of his fears at the appearance of the Ghost reducing his speech to a whisper, was made to roar out as if he had been up to the halberds for being drunk on his watch; and it was said of another actor, that "Richard never called more lustily for a horse, than he for Come sweet rest and innocent repose!'" To success in any of the fine arts, Imitation is indispensable; and it is a remark as old as the time of Demosthenes, that delivery is the soul of oratory. The art of giving exact expression to the feelings which agitate the speaker, is the true secret of exciting sympathy. Mankind are not satisfied with mere words which are not conveyed in appropriate accent and action. There is a sense of natural language which an orator cannot deceive. There is something in physiognomy, of which none of the perceptive faculties can be the instrument. The human eye, without changing its form, size, or colour, expresses an infinite variety of states of feeling. A smile, a frown, a curl of the lip, cannot be understood merely by the knowing organs. There is clearly some fine and delicate sense of natural language, which the perceptive faculties give us no notice of; a sort of speech which we cannot express or define, but which we all feel. Each passion has its emotions. Action is a universal language. The eyes are its vocabulary, the hands its syntax; it is wise by feature, eloquent by attitude. The lowering of the brow is its clamorous rage, the dimple of the cheek its boisterous joy. It is the free-masonry of entire humanity, the literature of nature-a book intelligible to all without translation, read by all without instruction. It is the trysting-tree of thought for the savage and the sage, and brings the whole world under the same mental latitude. Each passion, emotion, or affection, not only feels but expresses. When we are grieved we groan, in anguish we cry or howl, when tickled we laugh. The words spoken are nothing; the gesture, look, and tone, being added to fill up the picture. There is clearly, then, a sense of expression of the faculties; and in the ratio of the power of that sense, and of the size of the organs whose action is to be illustrated, will be the power, variety, and accuracy of expression. This sense stimulates the perceptive and reflecting faculties to assist it; and hence the amazing flexibility of voice, action, and countenance, which are uniformly combined with the love of mimicry. Hence it is, that he who is most addicted to personation, is the most careful and observant of expression in others, for the purpose of reproducing it.

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We have called Imitation the organ of Sympathy of Action, and many circumstances conspire to corroborate us in the correctness of our definition. In treating of this organ Mr. Simpson remarks, "no one of its qualities has struck us more forcibly than its unconscious and almost automatic character. We have recently met with several instances of a high degree of the power being possessed unsuspected by the possessor." "This very quality of unconscious operation is sufficient of itself to demonstrate, that Imitation is a distinct primitive impulse of our nature. The manifest purpose of its being bestowed in a greater or less degree upon the whole human race, is to produce the general uniformity of being and acting, which is essential to the social character and progressive improvement of man. Imitation to that extent, no one can doubt, is purely automatic-altogether independent of the will and the reason." Pinel notices a young idiot, who " has the most marked and irresistible inclination to imitate all that she sees done in her presence; she repeats mechanically all that she hears said, and imitates with the greatest fidelity the gestures and actions of others, without much regard to propriety." Dr. Gall notices a deaf and dumb boy, who imitated to the life all the officers in the asylum; and Mr. Haslam saw a male idiot, "who, a short time after he was admitted into the hospital, showed a great talent for counterfeiting the insane." Cabanis details certain extraordinary circumstances of the life of a man, so restless, that he was forced to repeat all the movements and attitudes of which he was a witness. If he was prevented from yielding to this impulse, either by seizing his limbs, or by making him take contrary attitudes, he experienced insupportable agony; here, as we see, the faculty of imitation is carried to the extent of disease." Perhaps the case which most strikingly exemplifies the truth of the theory we have ventured to erect, that Imitation is, in truth, sympathy of action and expression, is the following, originally published in the Philosophical Transactions (No. 129), and also inserted in Dr. Plot's Natural History of Staffordshire (1686), p. 284. "But when this imitating quality is so very strong, it becomes involuntary, as it is in Donald Monro of Scrachbogie in Scotland, who pulls off his hat, and puts it on, wipes his nose, wrings his hands, stretches forth his arms, and imitates all other actions he sees other men do, though much against his will, with so much exactness, and such a natural and unaffected air, that no man can suspect he does it with design, and yet with so strong an impulse (as the reverend and learned Dr. Gordon informs us) that if his hands be held, he cannot forbear pressing to get himself free to do the same thing. Nay, so contrary to his mind does he ape these motions, that, to hide his infirmity, he casts down his eyes when he walks the streets, and turns them away when in company, wherein, too, it is hard to make him stay, once he finds himself observed." This talent reaches its highest point, when it enables the author to imitate not only the style of expression of others, but their peculiar language and cast of thought. Byron, and Thomson, and Beattie, have successfully copied the manner of Spenser; and Horace Smith, whose cast shows very large Imitation, in the Rejected Addresses presented the public with almost a fac-simile of all his contemporary authors. So did the Ettrick Shepherd. Sympathy of expression, and sympathy of passion, are most appropriately blended; and it is to be expected that Benevolence and Imitation, immediately adjoining each other, should be each excited by its neighbour's action. Great actors are almost always distinguished by their lavish and prodigal Benevolence; a fact which, with reference to this subject, it is of much importance to notice.

We have already noticed the action of this sentiment in the lower animals, and we conclude our observations on the phenomena of this organ, by extracting from Mr. Combe's system, the quotation of Dr. Mason Good's account of its manifestation in the mocking-bird, premising that the facts stated seem too extraordinary not to be somewhat apocryphal. 'Its own natural note, is delightfully musical and solemn; but beyond this it possesses an instinctive talent of imitating the note of every other kind of singing bird, and even the voice of every bird of prey, so exactly as to deceive the very kinds it attempts to mock. It is, moreover, playful enough to find amusement in the deception, and takes a pleasure in decoying smaller birds near it, by mimicking their notes, when it frightens them almost to death, or drives them away with all speed, by pouring upon them the screams of such other birds of prey as they most dread." We have quoted this passage in order to illustrate the great power of imitation in the lower animals; but we very much question whether it be physically possible for a small creature like the mocking-bird to imitate with

the slightest success the cries of large and powerful birds of prey. We think this to be as impracticable, as for a little boy to mimic the voice of a powerful full-grown

man.

CHAPTER X.

ORDER II-INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES.

Preliminary Observations upon the Organs and Faculties situated in the Anterior Lobe of the Brain.

WE now enter upon the consideration of the organs of the Intellectual Faculties. They are situated in the anterior lobe of the brain, and comprehend all of the head in front of Constructiveness, and below the organs of the sentiments in the coronal region. We formerly observed, that the brain consisted of two substances, the one enclosed within the other, of which the interior was called medullary, and the exterior cineritious, the latter being composed of numerous convolutions. We found that the depth of these convolutions and of this cineritious substance, was greatest in the most intelligent animals, and least in those which manifested little reason; from which it has been inferred that the cineritious is the thinking part of the brain, and, of course, that the deeper it is, the greater will be the amount of thought and feeling, It has occurred to many Phrenologists, that there must be some means of ascertaining, during life, from the external appearance of the skull, the depth of the cineritious matter; and they have observed that, by induction alone, manipulators have arrived at the conclusion, that there are other conditions of the size of particular regions of the brain than the mere depth from the surface to the meatus auditorius. The power of the organs in the coronal region is not estimated by simply measuring from the hole of the ear to the top of the head. The size of the organs of the moral sentiments has been found to depend mainly upon their height above Causality and Cautiousness. At these points a bony ridge runs along the external base of the entire coronal surface of the skull, which completely separates the sentiments from the propensities. If a standard of this kind exist in regard to these, it is to be expected that something of a similar nature will prevail in the measure of the intellectual region situated in the forehead. From the fact that the cineritious matter is the index of the extent of mental power, and that, not the depth from the surface of the skull to the bottom, but from the ridge running from Causality to Cautiousness upwards, has been found to be the best criterion of the energy of the moral sentiments, there is reason to conclude that these ridges are the boundaries of the thinking or sentient part of the moral region of the brain; and there is ground for the hypothesis, that as another standard than that of mere depth has been erected to discriminate the power of the feelings, nature has instituted a similar gauge for ascertaining the power of the intellectual organs. As there is warrant for inferring that the depth of the cineritious matter in the coronal surface is determined by the height of the skull above the ridge from Causality to Cautiousness, so we are inclined to conclude that the depth of the cineritious matter in the anterior lobe comprehending the intellectual region, is to be measured by the projection of the brain in front of the ridges which run up from the outer corner of the eyebrow, at the organ of Order to that of Tune, immediately at the angle of the forehead in front of the temples. It is certain that the mere appearance of a fair and broad forehead is not the accuratè criterion of intellectual endowment, although undoubtedly, as indicating breadth or peripheral expansion, it is to be included in the estimate. An infant has a fine, fair, broad forehead, but almost nothing in front of the angle of the eyebrow. Its intellect has been little exercised, and it has not therefore redeemed the cineritious from the medullary substance, and pushed the brain outward by the tumefaction of cerebral excitement. Sheridan's forehead is neither flat nor broad, but the mass of brain in front of the angle of the eyebrow projects further than in that of almost any head in the