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.

* No. vi. p. 290.

In other poets,

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

of the hemispheres of the brain; so that this statement may still be verified. In a pretty numerous assemblage, Dr. Gall was asked what he thought of a little man, who sat at a considerable distance from him? As it was rather dark, he said, that, in truth, he could not see him very distinctly, but that he observed, nevertheless, the organ of poetry extremely developed. He was then informed that this was the famous poet François, generally named Cordonnier, from his having been bred a shoemaker. "If we pass in review," says Dr. Gall, "the portraits and busts of the poets of all ages, we shall find this configuration of head common to them all; as in Pindar, Euripides, Sophocles, Heraclides, Plautus, Terence, Virgil, Tibullus, Ovid, Horace, Juvenal, Boccacio, Ariosto, Aretin, Tasso, Milton, Boileau, J. B. Rousseau, Pope, Young, Grosset, Voltaire, Gesner, Klopstock, Wieland," &c. Dr. Bailly, in a letter, dated Romie, 30th May, 1822, addressed to Dr. Brayer, says: "You may tell Dr. Gall that I have a mask of Tasso, taken from nature, and that, although part of the organ of poetry be cut off, nevertheless the lateral breadth of the cranium in this direction is enormous."

The bust of Homer presents an extraordinary developement at this part of the head. It is doubted whether it be authentic; but, be it real or ideal, the existence of the prominence is remarkable. If it be ideal, why was the artist led to give this particular form, which is the only one in accordance with nature? If he modelled the head of the most distinguished poet of his day, as the best representative of Homer, the existence of this developement is still a fact in favor of the organ.

We owe to Dr. Spurzheim the correct analysis of this faculty, and the very elegant and appropriate name by which it is designated. "It is impossible," says he, "that poetry in general should be confined to one single organ; and I therefore think that the name "Organ of Poetry, (used by Dr. Gall,) does not indicate the essential faculty."-" In every kind of poetry, the sentiments are

* A cast of the head of this individual is in the Phrenological Society's collection, Edinburgh, and in De Ville's, London. The organ in question is uncommonly large.