It is then also liable to be vividly called into action by external communications of a marvellous and fanatical character, and hence the wildest dogmatist pretending to superior illumination, finds no difficulty in drawing after him a crowd of devoted admirers.

Dr. Adam Smith, in the History of Astronomy,* calls Wonder a sentiment, and attempts to distinguish it from surprise. "We wonder," he says, "at all extreme and uncommon objects; at all the rarer phenomena of nature; at meteors, comets, eclipses; at singular plants and animals; and at every thing, in short, with which we have before been either little, or not at all acquainted; and we still wonder, though forewarned of what we are to see."

"We are surprised," he continues, "at those things which we have seen often, but which we least of all expected to meet with in the place where we find them; we are surprised at the sudden appearance of a friend, whom we have seen a thousand times, but whom we did not imagine we were to see there."

Dr. Thomas Brown † also admits Wonder as a primitive emotion, and contends with success, that surprise and wonder are intrinsically the same feeling, only excited by different objects or occurrences. We wonder at the comet, from its novelty; we are surprised to meet a friend in Edinburgh, whom we believed to be in London; but it is the novel and unexpected situation in which we meet him, that causes the surprise, and not his appearance itself.

Dr. Brown somewhat strangely observes, that "it seems most probable that the feeling of wonder, which now attends any striking event that is unexpected by us, would not arise in the infant mind on the occurrence of events, all of which might be regarded as equally new to it; since wonder implies, not the mere feeling of novelty, but the knowledge of some other circumstances, which were expected to occur, and is, therefore, I conceive, inconsistent with absolute ignorance." The facts which we daily observe prove the very opposite of this doctrine. The organ of Wonder existing, every new object excites it, and calls forth the emotion;

and hence the greater the ignorance, the more frequent and more intense the astonishment, for then every occurrence is novel.

* Page 2.

↑ Vol. iii. p. 59.

+ Vol. iii. p 55.

Dr. Brown* observes more justly, that "we may be struck at the same time with the beauty or grandeur of a new object, and our mixed emotion of the novelty and beauty combined, will obtain the name of admiration."

Mr. Stewart and Dr. Reid do not treat of this emotion.

The subject of visions is still attended with considerable difficulty. I have met with cases similar to those recorded by Drs. Gall and Spurzheim. In London Bedlam, I examined the head of a patient whose insanity consisted in seeing phantoms, and being led to act as if they were realities; although, as he himself stated, he was convinced by his understanding at the very time, that they were mere illusions; but could not regulate his conduct by this conviction. In him the organ of Form was well developed, and that of Wonder was decidedly large. When asked whether he experienced any sensation in the head when afflicted with visions,, he pointed to the spot on each side where the organ of Wonder is situated, and said that he felt an uneasy sensation there.

In the Richmond Lunatic Asylum in Dublin, I saw several patients in whom this organ predominates, and whose insanity consisted in believing themselves to be supernatural Beings, or inspired. See Phrenological Journal, vol. vi. p. 81. 84.

I have also seen a person in the west of Scotland, who is liable to spectral illusions. He is thirty-eight years of age, in sound health, remarkably intelligent, and by no means liable to extravagance either in his sentiments or ideas. He mentioned that there is almost constantly present to his mind the appearance of a carpet in motion, and spotted with figures. On visiting Glasgow, he saw a large log of wood, mounted on two axles and four wheels, passing along the street; and on returning home, the apparition of the timber and its vehicle, with the horses, driver, &c. stood before him in the dimensions and hues of actual existence. On another occasion, he saw a funeral pass by the bottom of Queen Street, Glasgow; and for some time afterwards, whenever he shut his eyes or was in darkness, the procession moved before his mind, as distinctly as it had previously done before his eyes. These are merely

* Vol. iii. p. 57.

a few instances, out of many, of objects and beings whom he has seen reappearing to his fancy. He is not conscious of the appearance of the phantom of any object which he has not previously seen; and he is rarely, or almost never, troubled with these visions, when actual existences are before his eyes in broad light; but at all times they appear to a greater or less extent when his eyes are shut, or darkness prevails. His head is in general well formed; the different organs, with the exception of the organ of Wonder (which is decidedly large, and which seems to be the origin of this affection), are fairly proportioned; the Knowing Organs preponderating a little over the Reflecting.

He mentioned, that this peculiarity has descended to his son. Lately, the boy made up to what he conceived to be a beggarman, and endeavored to speak to him. The figure retired; and the boy followed, till it disappeared at a high wall, seeming to glide into it. The boy ran up to the wall, and groped it with his hands, when he discovered that the beggar was a spectral illusion. I had not an opportunity of examining the head of the son; but the father stated, that, in other respects, there was no peculiarity about his mental constitution.

This tendency of mind, occurring in remote and secluded dis tricts of the Highlands, has probably given rise to the second sight. The individual above described, if placed in a situation where his chieftain, his clansmen, their dogs and their flocks, were almost the only animated objects presented to his eyes, would have been visited with frequent spectral appearances of them. If, after the occur rence of such apparitions, the chief had been killed, or the clansmen drowned, or their flocks buried in the snow, the coincidence would have been marked, and the event held to have been predicted by an exercise of the second sight. Where nothing followed the spectres, nothing would be said of their appearance, just as happens in the case of dreams. A correspondent of the Phrenological Society,* gives an account of a Highland gentleman, who believed that an apparition of the second sight had occurred to himself; and he states, that, in his head, the organ of Wonder is large.

* No. vii. p. 362.

At the same time, it is difficult to comprehend, how an exalted state of this organ should produce these effects, unless we suppose it to excite the organs of Form, Coloring, &c. to activity, so as to conjure up illusions fitted for the gratification of Wonder; just as involuntary activity of Cautiousness during sleep, excites the intellectual organs to conceive objects of terror, producing thereby frightful dreams. This theory is rendered probable by the fact, that diseased excitement of the knowing organs produces spectral illusions, independently of an affection of the organ of Wonder. Mr. Simpson has communicated an admirable paper on this subject to the Phrenological Journal, to which I shall have occasion afterwards to refer. The natural language of this faculty is nodding the head obliquely upwards and in the direction of the organ. I have observed a person telling another in whom this organ predominated a wonderful story, and at the end of the narrative the listener nodded his head upwards two or three times, and ejaculated an expression of surprise. An individual in whom the organ is small will not naturally do this.

The general function of the organ is regarded as ascertained; but its metaphysical analysis is still incomplete.

THIS organ is situated nearly along the lower edge of the tem poral ridge of the frontal bone. Dr. Gall gives the following account of its discovery.

The first poet whose head arrested his attention, on account of its form, was one of his friends, who frequently composed extempore verses when least expected to do so; and who had thereby acquired a sort of reputation, although in other respects a very ordinary person. His forehead immediately above the nose, rose perpendicularly, then retreated, and extended itself a good deal laterally, as if a part had been added on each side. He recollected having seen the same form in the bust of Ovid. In other poets,

* No. vi. p. 290.

he did not find, as a constant occurrence, the forehead first perpendicular and then retreating, so that he regarded this shape as accidental; but in all of them he observed the prominences in the anterior lateral parts of the head, above the temples. He began then to look upon these prominences as the distinctive marks of a natural talent for poetry; but still he spoke to his hearers on the subject with a degree of doubt, especially as, at this period, he was not convinced that a talent for poetry depended on a primitive mental faculty. He waited, therefore, before deciding definitively, till he had made a greater number of observations.

A short time afterwards, he got the head of the poet Alxinger, in which this part of the brain, and also the organ of Adhesiveness, were very much developed, while the other portions were so only in a small degree. A little after this, the poet Junger died, and Gall found the same prominences also in his head. He found the same parts still larger in the poet Blumauer, with a large organ of Wit. At this time, Wilhelmine Maisch acquired reputation at Vienna by his poetry; and the same enlargement was found in his head, above the temples. Dr. Gall observed the same organization in Madame Laroche, at Offenbach, near Francfort; in Angelique Kaufmann; in Sophia Clementina of Merklen; in Klopstock; in Schiller, of whom he had a mask; and also in Gesner of Zurich. In Berlin he continued to speak of this organ still with considerable reserve, when M. Nicolai invited him and Dr. Spurzheim to see a collection of about thirty busts of poets in his possession. They found, in every one of them, the part in question projecting more or less considerably, according as the talent was manifested in a higher or lower degree in each poet. From that moment he taught boldly, that the talent for poetry depends on a primitive faculty, and that it is connected with this part of the brain as its special organ.

In Paris, Dr. Gall moulded the head of Legouvé after his death, and found this organ large. He and Dr. Spurzheim opened the head of the late Delille, and pointed out to several physicians who were present, the full developement of the convolutions placed under the external prominences at this part; these convolutions projected beyond all the others. Dr. Gall preserved a cast of one