cal force which impels air, through the inmost recesses of the lungs, into contact with the blood; and then acting in the pulmonary tissues, Strength makes the vital force which expels the lightened air from the lungs, and exposes it to be dissipated through the atmosphere by the weight of a succeeding stream of air which is heavier from being charged with the sustenance of life. Here life, which has its laboratory in the lungs, abstracts from the inspired air some of this sustenance, with its principle of weight, and consigns it to the circulating blood, in adaptation to its ultimate ends.

So it is likewise, in walking, running, leaping, dancing, selfpoising, and the voluntary locomotions of animals and of man, that the all-pervasive action of weight is managed by that of strength producing the vital force, directed by intuition or the will, in performing these exercises.

What makes and drives onward the tempest or hurricane, with the havock and the horrors by which its impetuous and terrible career is distinguished? Weight is the creator of tempests, and its action in heavy air rushing naturally into equipoise, constitutes the physical force which too often overwhelms extensive regions with desolation, and their dwellers with dis

may.

Analogy and observation supply abundance of reasons for inferring, that each of the external senses has an appropriate co-efficient organ in the brain, and through the instrumentality of this, its own proper organ, every particular sentient faculty executes its distinct peculiar function. Feeling is the sense which perceives the palpable qualities of things, the hard and soft, moist and dry, smooth and rough. Touch is feeling in exercise or application, and it constitutes a distinguishable modification of vital force in action.

Resistance is a state or action, not a thing or being. It may be active or passive; and, in either form, it is merely an application of force, while force itself is nothing other than the action of weight or strength exercised in causing their natural effects. Thus, the action of weight or strength makes the resistance of things and beings undergo the impulse to motion; and this action, in keeping material particles together, makes the resistance which results from the "impenetrability of mat ter." Resistance, therefore, is the efficiency of one kind of force employed in counteracting or overpowering the efficiency of the same or another kind of force. It is physical, vital, and mental; and it always implies the action of weight or strength as force applied in contrariety to weight or strength in action. Physical resistance is the impeding force made by the action of weight and strength in things and beings enduring an efficient application of physical or vital force as the action of a perceptible operating cause.

Vital resistance is the action of strength applied in withstanding the action of weight or strength as force under its physical or vital modifications.

Mental resistance is the action of strength, as power exercised by faculties of the mind in restraining or directing the action of strength exercised by other faculties of the mind in the consciousness or expression of feeling, perceiving or reflecting. His possessing the power of resisting dispositions and motives, places Man under the obligation of being responsible for the thoughts, words, and deeds included in his conduct.

What should prevent our concluding, that the Faculties V and VI originate or invigorate some kinds of force, or that V and XV originate or invigorate some kinds of resistance ?*

On the ocean, ships resist the water, and thus they preserve their cargoes dry: on the other hand, the water resists the ships, and thus it keeps them buoyant. Wind is an action of weight in dense air gliding or rushing into regions of the atmosphere occupied by that which has been over-rarefied: in this way, wind causes a horizontal force, and the sails of ships, by resisting this action of weight in the wind, enable it to propel the vessels. Here weight in the ships acts on the waters, and its action is the force by which these are divided. Again, weight acts in the waters, and its action is the force which aggregates their globules, and thus maintains their natural density which keeps the vessels afloat. Besides, strength, acting in the materials and structure of the ships, supports their impermeability, and thus makes the force of passive resistance which prevents the water from penetrating their sides, and overpowering or destroying their buoyancy.

We need not use the phrase "resistance upward," because "upward" implies tendency and motion, which are effected by force as the action of a cause. It is not the force which moves a thing upward, but the force that impedes the upward motion and its cause, which constitutes resistance, and even this itself is nothing other than an efficient application of the physical and vital forces. When a block of stone or a mass of earth is said to resist the physical and vital force employed to displace it upwardly or laterally, such resistance is a mere natural action of weight becoming the force applied for counteracting that exerted for the stone's displacement.

Weight is an agent, almost infinite, nearly omnipotent. Force is the action of this agent; Resistance is an application of this action: and the mental faculty which intellectually perceives this effective agent, will necessarily know its proper action and its applications, when producing its natural results. July 13. 1835.

J. K.

* The numbers refer to Combativeness, Destructiveness, and Firmness.

ARTICLE IV.

SOME FARTHER EXPLANATIONS OF THE DOCTRINE OF RESISTANCE AND FORCE, AS SET FORTH IN ARTICLE I. OF NUMBER XLIII. OF THE PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL.

(TO THE EDITOR.)

SIR,-In reflecting on the doctrine of Resistance and Force, on which I have thought and written so much, and taking a deliberate review of the contributions of Mr Richard Edmonson of Manchester to the inquiry,* I am led to think that that gentleman's suggestions have not yet received from phrenologists the attention to which they are entitled. He has much shaken my belief that the organ hitherto called Weight (marked XXV. in the bust) is that of the actual application of Force, and brought me to incline to the conclusion that the organ called Constructiveness really performs the force-applying function, while the organ XXV. has another, and that nearly allied to, if not identical with, its original denomination of Weight, which is another term for Gravitation. Reserving the question of organs for after and separate examination, allow me to inquire how far Mr Edmonson travels on the same road with me on the doctrine of Resistance and Force as faculties.

It is important in this inquiry to distinguish carefully Faculty from Organ, as the indiscriminate use of these terms tends greatly to confuse the discussion. Let us then first speak of Faculty without regard to Organ at all. I am still unshaken in my belief of the truth, as brought out in a former letter, that man and all animals have a Sense for Resistance, and a Faculty for counter resistance, in other words, applying force. Mr Edmonson agrees with me in holding this twofold truth to be demonstrated. Sir George Mackenzie ‡ admits a sense for Resistance, and merely differs from me as to its right name. §

* Vol. vii. page 106; ix. 142, 208, 624.

+ See title of this article. As it is of consequence to refer easily to all the papers on this subject, we again enumerate them in their order. Vol. ii. pages 297, 412, 645; iii. 211, 451; iv. 266, 314; v. 222; vi. 134, 343; vii. 106; ix. 142, 193, 208, 211, 349, 624.

+ Vol. ix. page 349.

§ Sir G. Mackenzie wishes to retain the old name of Touch for the muscular sensation, and to give that of FEELING to the mere surface or skin sensations of Heat, Cold, Pain, Itching, &c. There is no difference between us in thinking that these two classes of sensations are distinct. Indeed Sir Charles Bell has nearly traced them to distinct systems of nerves, one supplying the muscles, and the other the skin. Sir George Mackenzie is right that we get both sensations by touch, in other words, by the act of applying the body, skin and muscles both, to the object. The distinction of the two senses should, therefore, be into RESISTANCE and FEELING-the mere word ToucH expressing both, although distinct senses.

Let us next inquire what are the external objects related to the sense for resistance, and the faculty for applying force. These are the forces called resistance in general. This needs no proof, it is an intuitive truth, it must be true. To feel a resistance it must be present to us as such; and counter force applied to any thing but resistance is an idea involving absurdity. But an important question occurs here, to which, without Mr Edmonson's happy suggestion, it might have been long before the attention of any phrenologist had been called-are all resistances of one kind? As to our perception of them, in my letter already alluded to, I never thought of doubting that they are, although I did state that gravitation resists us in one direction, and material impenetrability in another; the first attracting us in the mid-earthward direction; the second acting in the exact contrary direction, and by the impenetrability of the ground on which we stand, supporting, in other words, resisting, us, in the direction exactly contrary to that of gravitation. The one resistance draws us, the other supports us. Both are resistances, and necessary to our existence on the surface of the earth. Supports in all other direc tions, as leaning against a wall, or even hanging suspended, are but modifications of the same supporting resistance; because the ultimate pressure must be on the earth in the tion to gravitation. Keeping this distinction in view, we prodireccontrary ceed to inquire, do we feel these resistances in our own bodies thus operating in opposite directions, by the same or by different mental powers? I think it clear that one sense, the nerve of which, according to Sir Charles Bell, informs the brain of the state of the muscle, is sufficient to make us aware of the mere resistance in both directions-both that we are falling or resting, unsupported or supported. This is clear, because it is another expression for the state of the muscle as affected by the variations of resistance. Withdraw support, or push the body to an inclination which unsettles the centre of gravity, and assuredly you change the state of the muscles in a way that requires no second message to the brain. Hence the instant and violent effort we make to alter again the state of our muscles, and gain counter resistance or support.

Here Mr Edmonson comes to my aid, and has convinced me, that the mere sensation of resistance is not enough for one kind of resistance, and that is gravitation. A perception is necessary as well as a mere sensation, but a perception which the sensation informs. It is not sufficient that we feel the downward attraction of gravitation, so strongly that we cannot leap more than a yard in the opposite direction. We require, in our most or dinary muscular movements, a perception that our centre of gravity is properly regulated to enable us to stand erect, an

other word for Mr Edmonson's vertical direction of our bodies, the true line of gravitation. It is the erect position of man which best illustrates this perception. When he stands erect, he places his whole body in the best position to be supported in one important direction, namely, the mid-earthward attraction; his muscular force being used merely to keep up that direction, precisely as a juggler balances a pole on his chin. This perception of the body's best position for its centre of gravity, when depending on its own muscular force, and not supported laterally by a wall or any other prop, is just the faculty by which, on the surface of a round ball poised in space, in which up and down, terms relative to material objects and not to vacancy, cannot be, we must have the feeling that our head is always in relation to the earth what we call up, and our feet down; and it is interesting to observe, that on the surface of a world of no other form but the spherical could that perception have been equally experienced by all its inhabitants, the centre being a common point of attraction to all. This is another, and perhaps not yet noticed, harmony of Nature.

We

But we are not done with the perception of gravitation. It is not enough that our own bodies are properly regulated in relation to it. Our safety, as well as our power, requires that we shall have means, and these instant and instinctive-for rea.. soning and experience would come too late for its purposes-of perceiving the relation of external objects to gravitation. The sign of this relation is their verticality. If they are not vertical, resistances in other directions, called props, are necessary for their support. The example of the juggler's balanced pole is quite in point. He needs no props for his pole as long as he keeps its centre of gravity within its narrow base, which he can only do, by keeping it accurately perpendicular to the horizon, in other words, in the precise line of the earth's centre. are prompted instinctively to apply props whenever we see objects which ought to stand vertical swerving from the perpendicular. We have a desire for verticality, and are offended by a wall, chimney, or spire which is not accurately perpendicular; and, if obliged to pass near it, will consult our safety by keeping as wide of it as we can. Is this the manifestation of a special primitive faculty? That it is Mr Edmonson's opinion, and he adduces, among other proofs, the specific nature of the illusions of disease, many of which are perceptions of variations from verticality. These illusions were experienced by Miss S. L., Mr John Hunter, the Opium-Eater, and others. They all saw horizontals and perpendiculars at other angles; a common result

also in intoxication.

In Volume X. of the Phrenological Journal, page 466, a case