which the soul is continually breathing forth, for a more harmonious communion with itself, its fellows, and its God. With many, and perhaps a majority in the present social organization, these aspirations, uttered only in sighs and groans, and recorded in tears, unrealized and unattainable, are rolled back upon their source, until, as the purest waters become tainted and polluted by pent-up inaction, so these fountains of the soul; and bursting their flood gates which accumulate, but cannot confine them in their fermentation, they burst forth, scattering corruption, misery, and death, where purity, happiness, and life might have flourished. But this is not all: society, instead of sluicing these dead seas of humanity, and permitting the purifying and healing streams to flow afresh, seizes upon the wretch, and by shutting him out from all the sympathies of his kind, dams up effectually the natural issues of his soul, until he comes forth from its withering touch seared with the iron of self-holiness, or scarred with the leprosy of social degradation.

But, pardon me, I sat down to order some copies of your valuable Journal. Last year we had at this place five copies taken; this year I send you the twenty-four names which follow, and which you may consider somewhat respectable in numbers, when it is remembered that the country supplied by this Post Office, was, three years ago, entirely uninhabited. I do not speak thus, boastingly, for I wish that leisure had been afforded me to do more. I regret that I cannot at the same time forward to you sufficient to obtain your published works; some of the later of which I have not yet read.

Yours, in the cause of human progress,

W. STARR.

ARTICLE XXXIII.

SELF-ESTEEM*-ITS DEFINITION, FUNCTION, LOCATION, AND CULTIVATION.

WITH A LIKENESS OF JUDGE LIVINGSTON.

"In his own image created he them."

MAGNANIMITY; SELF-VALUATION; NOELENESS; SELF-RELIANCE; INDEPENDENCE; love of LIBERTY and DOMINION; SELF-COMPLACENCY; DIGNITY; SELF-SATISFACTION; desire for POWER; the aspiring, self-elevating, ruling instinct; that high-toned pride of character and manliness which commands respect, despises meanness and self-degradation, and creates lofty aspirings to do something great and worthy. WILL, SELF-GOVERNMENT, or VOLITION, is also a function of this faculty.

LARGE Self-Esteem puts a high estimate upon itself, its sayings, doings, and capabilities; falls back upon its own unaided resources; assumes responsibilities which it feels abundantly able to sustain ; will not endure restraint or take advice, but insists on being its own man and master; is high-minded, and feels above stooping to demean or degrade itself; aims high, and is not satisfied with small success, or a petty business, but feels

An analysis of this organ was given in our last volume; but we republish it hore with directions for its cultivation.

wholly competent to conduct a large one; comports and expresses itself with dignity, perhaps majesty ; and is perfectly satisfied with self.

SMALL Self-Esteem lacks self-confidence and weight of character; feels unworthy, inferior, and as if in the way; distrusts its own capabilities, and shrinks from assuming responsible stations and undertaking great things on the score of incompetence; cannot command; is apt to say and do trifling things; lacks self-reliance and independence; underrates its own capabilities and worth, and is therefore liable to be underrated by others.

To find this organ, draw a perpendicular line, when the head is erect, from the opening of the ear to the top of the head. This conducts you to the fore part of Firmness. Self-Esteem lies two inches, or a little less, directly backward.

It is large in the accompanying engraving of Judge Livingston-formerly Supreme Judge on the United States bench, and a candidate for Vice-president-as seen by the projection of his head at the crown.

Man is the veritable "lord of creation"-the greatest terrestrial work of God. Magnificent, yonder towering mountain. Stupendous, Niagara's awe-inspiring cataract. Inconceivably vast, planets, suns, and the countless worlds which float in the azure sky. In view of the wonderful works of God, one involuntarily exclaims, "What is man?" Greater than all! What is Niagara beheld only by brute? What Etna's volcanic eruption or the whole earth's gigantic bulk? what even the material heavens and

their myriads of worlds, in comparison with man? Can inorganic mat. ter, however huge, surpass man's divinely-contrived system of bones, muscles, organs, and nerves, all redolent with life and teeming with enjoyment? Happiness being the standard of valuation, that is greatest which enjoys most. Does Chimborazo feel, or the earth enjoy? Was not terrestrial creation made for man, not he for it? And is that greatest which is made to serve? Is the chariot above the charioteer? Are not more divine Wisdom and Power exhibited in the structure of the human hand or eye than in the whole universe of inorganic matter?

But the creation of MIND-this is the greatest work of God! Compared therewith, all else is "dust and ashes." The domestic affectionsthe resisting, feeding, economical, provident, emulous, and other instincts, how infinitely wise in constitution and efficient in function! Yet it is his moral and intellectual elements which form his CROWNING endowments. These render man near of kin to angels, and constitute us "the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty!" They even array him in the robes of immortality, and confer on those who fulfil its conditions, capabilities of becoming eternally and inconceivably holy and happy! Yes," in the image of God" is every one of us created. His intellectual and moral likeness is stamped upon our souls, and even forms their constituent elements. Does the great Parent of all love his children? So do human parents love theirs. Does He delight to provide for his, and do not they also for theirs? Is He a perfect economist, and are not we also? Does He delight in praise, and do not we? Is He immutable-" the same from all eternity to all eternity"—and are not we also endowed with this element of stability? Is He rigidly just, and do we not respond to the supremacy of right? Is He a Spirit, and has he not endowed us also with a spiritual essence-an immortal soul? Does He delight to pour out upon all sentient beings a continual succession and variation of blessings such as naught but Infinite Wisdom could devise, or Infinite Goodness bestow, and does not this heaven-born sentiment inspire our own souls to do good? Are infinite Beauty and Perfection stamped upon the character and all the works of the Almighty, and is not man, too, highly adorned in person and exquisitely constituted in mind, and does he not pant after a higher and still higher measure of SELF-PERFECTION? IS God the great Mechanist of the universe, and has he not conferred on us also this self-same desire and capability to MAKE? Does He see and know all things, and do we not desire to observe and acquire knowledge? Does He speak to all sentient beings in the eloquent and instructive language of NATURE, and do we not also commune with our fellow-men? Is He the great "Cause of causes," and infinitely wise in adapting ways and means to ends, and has He not endowed us also with this divine capability? What element possessed by Him is not possessed by us? In degree alone consists the heaven-wide difference. We pervert our faculties and sin; He exercises his normally, or in perfect accordance with the fitness of things. But His and our primitive ELEMENTS are the same. We are 66 living stones" in his infinite temple. He breathed of his own divine spirit into our nostrils, and we become "living souls." "In his own image," moral and intellectual, reader, are we created. With "a live coal from off the altar" of his own nature, He lighted up the fire of immortality which burns, however dimly, within us. His divine like. ness is faded, and mildewed, and crushed-yet it is there. Sin has

stained it, and depravity almost obliterated it; but the canvass is divine in structure, and the original lineaments and colors, as pencilled by the infallible Artist of the universe, are still visible-are even a miniature of his own intellectual and moral conformation!-faint, yet perceptible. Trodden into the mire of moral corruption, yet there still! Lift it up; wash off its filth; remove its stains by varnishing it with the oil of forgiveness; burnish it; hold it up to the light of its primitive constitution, and O! behold the DIVINE in that portrait even yet. Defaced it can be, but effaced never. God will not let his pencilings be wholly extinguished. His spirit he "will not utterly take away.' Yes-thank the Lord -every one of us carries within the innermost recesses of our own souls this mental portrait of the Almighty; and if we occupy till he comes,' we shall both see him as he is, and be LIKE him. "Beholding his face, we shall be changed from glory to glory," till the cleansed portrait of humanity, retouched by that same Artist who first fashioned it after himself, shall reflect in the galleries of heaven, to all eternity, the perfect image and likeness" of our Infinite Original—the God and Father of us all! And even all this is but the faintest glimmering of what humanity is capable of accomplishing and becoming! and to these exalted ends and destinies, Self-Esteem is adapted and adapts man.

66

66

Have we not, then, a perfect RIGHT to place a most exalted estimate upon ourselves? CAN we well overrate our own worth? We may, indeed, value ourselves wrongfully-even on account of our deformities— but not too much. This faculty may take a wrong direction, but cannot well be too large. Then why hang our heads or sink back into the corner of insignificance ? Are the children of GOD such inferior, unworthy, degraded worms of the dust ?" All that should humble us is what we have DONE, not what we are by nature. Away with this idea of man's nothingness and inferiority-Phrenology arraigns it as false. All that even a GOD could do to exalt and endow humanity, God has done. Reference here, and throughout this train of remark, is had to our PRIMITIVE Constitution, and not to man's present degraded, depraved condition. That we have fallen from this high estate, is a self-experienced fact. That we, created only a "little lower than the angels, and endowed with honor and immortality," should have fallen instead of soared-should even have so far degenerated from our divine parentage as to deny it, and given ourselves up to work all manner of uncleanness and iniquity-O, this should humble us in the very dust. That capabilities thus transcendent should be thus abused, so as even to work the work of incarnate devils, should sting us to the quick with remorse, and bring us upon the bended knees of contrition, imploring, with the prodigal son, forgiveness and restoration. And those who do thus repent and pray, WILL be re-clothed and reinstated. We are bent but not broken-trampled into the mire, but not crushed to atoms-withered, but not dead. The divine original is in us still. O arise, son of shame and daughter of sorrow! Shake off dull sloth. Trim thy heaven-constructed lamp. Meet thy inviting heavenly Father. Put away all thy idols, all thy sins; and array thyself again "in garments clean and white." "Touch not, taste not, any unclean thing." Ascend those lofty heights from which thou hast fallen. O CULTIVATE the divine gift within thee. Be in FACT what thy Creator capacitated thee by nature to become. It is late, but not yet the eleventh

hour. The doors of this heavenly palace are not yet wholly closed. Arise quickly, and enter.*

A secondary adaptation of this faculty is to that law of mind by which to confide in our own strength promotes success, and appreciating our capabilities augments efficiency. Tell that boy he "can't if he tries," and he will either not attempt, or only feebly; but telling him " you CAN," contributes wonderfully to success. Encouraging Self-Esteem enhances effort and excellence quite as much as exciting Approbativeness, while discouraged Self-Esteem, like mortified Approbativeness, palsies the entire man. To this requisition for self-confidence this faculty is adapted and adapts man. It elevates all its aims and aspirations, and thereby redoubles both effort and success. As, by aiming at the sun, though we do not hit it, we yet shoot much higher than if our mark were low, so this faculty inspires us to desire and attempt to do and become something worthy of ourselves, and should therefore be cultivated.

SELF-SATISFACTION is another trait in human nature as necessary as it is universal. The poorest beggar would not exchange himself—not places, but soul and body-with the richest, wisest, most renowned, and best of men. We often feel dissatisfied with our LOT, but rarely with OURSELVES. Even our faults are too often converted into occasions of pride. How many times, on telling men professionally of this or that excess or defect, such as of deficient Conscientiousness, of libertinism, cunning, carelessness, vanity, and the like, have they publicly acknow. ledged that these things were so, and rather gloried in them. But for this principle of self-valuation, what endless animosities would everywhere occur? What complaints against God for bestowing on others more than on us? But this trait lulls all such murmurs, and instead, makes us thankful that, Pharisee-like, we "are not as other men." This necessary and inimitably beautiful end is secured by Self-Esteem, and the larger it is the better satisfied we are with ourselves; and since all have more or less of it, all are more or less self-satisfied.

The cultivation of a faculty thus ennobling is commensurate with these exalted ends it was created to subserve. All should therefore exercise it in all these phases. We should study that we may appreciate our own SELVES, and when we have learned what sphere nature has adapted us to fill, should do our utmost to rise therein higher and still higher. Let our motto be, "Excelsior, EXCELSIOR." Nor should we ever indulge distrust of our own capabilities, but rather say in actions, with Col. Miller, when asked, "Can you storm that fort?" "I can TRY!" "Faint hearts never win," but "what man has done, man can do," accomplishes as if by magic. Nor should we envy others because they are more highly gifted by nature than we, but strive to make the most of our one or two talents; for what they possess was not taken from us. We should rather make up by extra culture what we lack by nature. Do any of us employ half our present capabilities? Then why complain because we have no more? To use what is already possessed, will confer more.

Those in whom this faculty is weak, besides elevating themselves in

Phrenology is accused of degrading man-of making him a mere material THINGwith what justice, let the reader of this chapter say. On the contrary, none but the phrenologist can appreciate the true dignity and glory of the human mind, or comprehend its perfections and capabilities. The more I study the latter, the more I admire the former.