How to Become Rich - William Windsor (i want to read a book .TXT) 📗

Incapable.

The question of capacity being thus understood, the next is the quality of organization.

Quality is the inherent grain or texture of the substance. Men differ in quality as much as do the trees of the forest. You do not use the hickory or the oak for the same purposes that you do the pine or the poplar. There are differences also in the grain of metals, in the texture of fabrics. Gold differs essentially  from iron as silk does from flax. Men display an infinite variety of quality, from the strong lumberman of the pine forests, with his corded muscles and angular frame, to the delicate young man who presides gracefully over the ribbon counter in the dry goods store.

To illustrate this topic of quality: Riding on the cars one day I noticed a gentleman sitting near me and asked him the rather impertinent question, whether he had not been engaged for many years in handling delicate machinery.

“Ah,” said he, smiling, “you are a Phrenologist.”

“Yes, sir,” I replied, “we have evidently sized each other up.”

“Now, before I answer your question,” said the gentleman, “tell me why you asked about delicate machinery. Several men of your profession have approached me with similar questions about machinery. There is evidently something in my head which betrays that; but tell me why you drew the distinction in favor of delicate machinery?”

“Why, my dear sir,” I replied, “you are a delicate piece of machinery yourself. You would not harmonize with anything else. Your bones are small, your eyesight microscopic, your fingers tapering, your touch as delicate as a woman’s, your quality is delicate. You are not the man to handle heavy bars of iron, to repair locomotives, or to build threshing  machines. I should say, sir, that watches would be about right for you, certainly nothing heavier than sewing machines and type-writers.”

“You are quite right, sir,” said he, “I have been a watchmaker for twenty years.”

The quality of the man determines the quality of the work he should do. The strong, coarse, sluggish organization is adapted to occupations requiring power and momentum. The refined, delicate, responsive character will succeed best in positions calling for agility, dexterity and sensitiveness. The blacksmith may ruin a watch if he attempts to mend it, while the jeweler would not be a safe man to shoe a valuable horse. There is an eternal fitness of things.

The occupation of an individual should be in harmony with his temperament. The brilliant versatility of the magnetic permits a greater variety of selection to the individual than the positive and concentrative energies of the electric temperament. The latter is dignified, sombre and severe, with a ready inclination to forego comfort and convenience to carry out a cherished object. It works, not better than the magnetic but more willingly. Men of the magnetic temperament succeed best in the cultivation of the social graces, the fine arts, and in those departments of literature that call for brilliancy of imagination, versatility of talent and variety of accomplishment. The leaders of great and successful armies, the powerful  statesmen and the literary men of the world, distinguished by fervid genius and concentrative application, have been on the other hand strongly endowed with the electric temperament.

When the motive temperament is in the ascendency, the character is marked by an almost uncontrollable desire for physical exercise. This temperament demands activity of body as well as brain, and the occupation should be such as will combine both. The vital temperament on the other hand is more inclined to sedentary habits, and is capable of doing an immense amount of mental work without breaking down. It seems to thrive best when loaded with responsibilities of a mental character. The mental temperament on the other hand will display great brilliancy of intellect and versatility of talent, but is in constant danger of a physical collapse unless constantly subjected to conditions favorable to recuperation.

To subject a person of the delicately organized and sensitive mental temperament, for a long period of time, to the hardships and privations of an occupation requiring exposure and severe muscular exertion is the height of cruelty and folly. A person of the extreme vital temperament, under the same conditions, would find life a weary burden, though a limited experience in muscular exercise, under conditions favorable to health, would be beneficial to both. On the other hand, the motive temperament, confined in an office or  room to books and study, with insufficient exercise, is in much the same condition of misery as a caged bird.

Temperament, quality, and capacity having been duly considered, the ability of an individual in any given direction, depends upon the special development of the organs of the brain. The special sense of each individual is determined by an examination of the special organs of the brain. And it is upon this special development, in the case of every man, that his prerequisites for success depend, namely, the ability to do much good work, the remuneration for his services, and the pleasure derived from the occupation.

I desire to call your attention to some examples of special ability, which are familiar enough to the experience of most of you to be accepted without argument.

There are those who are gifted in the sense of touch above their fellows, who can judge of the quality of goods in the dark. There are others blest with penetrating eyesight. Others with a sense of hearing most acute. Also those with nice discriminating sense of taste and smell. These distinctions for a long time were regarded as the five senses of man, and he was believed to have only those five avenues of perception. Phrenology, however, subdivides these and adds others, vastly increasing the number of the sources of knowledge and the springs of human action.

A great many cases of defective eyesight, so  called, are in reality defective brain. The mechanism of the eye may be perfect, the retina and the optic nerve may faithfully perform their duties, but if the brain behind the eye be defective, the comprehension of the object or some of its properties is lost to the intelligence of the individual. Some people are “color blind.” Their eyes are good enough, but they don’t see colors; they comprehend no difference in the shades of different colored objects exhibited to the view. At the same time they fully comprehend the size, form, distance, etc., of the object. An examination discloses the fact that they are deficient in a portion of the brain just behind the middle of the eyebrow. Give such a man every material and brush of the painter and request him to paint a landscape and the result will be a daub. He has no sense of colors, he has no fitness for that kind of work. At the same time he may be entirely capable of a very creditable performance in drawing a picture with a pencil in white and black because that does not involve his weakness. This particular element of sense may, like all others, be only partially defective, but an examination by a competent phrenologist will disclose its exact state, whatever it may be. I once examined a man and remarked to him that he was thoroughly endowed with the qualities essential to a good locomotive engineer, except that the organ of color was slightly deficient. I remarked, “You will never experience the slightest  inconvenience in distinguishing switch-lights and signals when you are in good health and sober, but a slight indigestion, or a glass of liquor, decreasing the power of your brain, would render your vision of colors unreliable and might cause a wreck, hence I advise you to keep out of the business.” The man was a railroad engineer, and admitted that he could generally distinguish colors without difficulty, but that his color sense was lost, under the conditions I described.

Those who are large in the organ of color, are artists in its appreciation, for the simple reason that they have more sense in this particular direction. On the other hand, color may be large, but appreciation of form, size, etc., may be deficient. The individual may