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THE SPIRITUAL AND MORAL GROUP
Consist of Kindness or Benevolence, Spirituality, Veneration, Conscience, Hope and Human Nature.
This group is especially marked in our great moral and religious leaders, of whom Lincoln, Campbell Morgan, Alexander Camp bell and the Wesleys, are outstanding types. The heads of these men are in sharp contrast to those of persons with low ideals and perverted lives.
Kindness or Benevolence was localized by Dr. Gall. It lies above Human Nature-sometimes called Intuition-in the superior or first frontal convolution, beneath the posterior superior portion of the frontal bone. This faculty has two divisions: The anterior part gives perception and understanding of first causes of poverty and crime, etc., so necessary to the sociologist and philanthropist. The posterior part gives sympathy and pity. When thus developed it usually fails to give any farsighted or practical service, in consequence of being generally associated with deficient insight and initiative.
The normal action of this faculty manifests in benevolence, tenderness, sympathy, love for humanity and helpfulness. When combined with a well-balanced brain, including a superlative degree of that psychic insight which results from a large development of Human Nature, it endows its possessor with an almost infallible judgment of people, together with the desire to help them.
Excessive kindness unsustained and unguided by sound judgment, gives to the point of self impoverishment, and weakens those it fain would help by injudicious giving, whereas such assistance as inspires the needy one with the desire to help himself, and the confidence to believe he can do so, is the truest charity.
Restrain this faculty by reflecting that injudicious assistance is likely to paralyze the energies and initiative of the recipient; that to give to the point of self impoverishment places a burden upon others unjustly, as in the case of the father who gave all his possessions to his son, who, failing in his filial duty, left the father a serious burden in a daughter's home.
Where this faculty is deficient, the head unduly broad at the ears, high at the crown, and the affections weak, it is useless to expect sympathetic understanding or unselfish humanitarianism, although these people if conscience is strong often give largely where they see some general and practical results will ensue.
To cultivate this faculty, consider the uselessness of hoarded wealth; how short is life; and that we take with us only that which we have used for the good of others.
Dr. Gall collected a vast amount of material pertaining to this fundamental quality and its brain center, as indeed, was true in all his researches. Respecting its action, he writes: 'The faculty produces desire for the happiness of others and delight in the diffusion of enjoyment."
SPIRITUALITY. - This faculty was localized by Dr. Gall, who gives a most interesting account of his researches. It lies between imitation and hope, above the posterior part of ideality.
It is located in the ascending frontal convolution. The lower part gives wonder and credulity, a searching after the new and marvelous. The upper portion gives spiritual insight and prescience together with an innate consciousness of spiritual verities.
The Normal Manifestations of this faculty are prescience, consciousness of divine guidance, spiritual communion, faith in a future life. It is the voice of the superconscious murmuring in our ears, "the promise m,asked in doom". Socrates, Tasso, Swedenborg and a host of other learned, sincere, wise men of the past and present have believed firmly in the inspiration derived from the companionship of guardians unseen; but all have found it difficult to convince their more sceptical brethren of the reality of their experiences. Without doubt there are elements in our human nature which, when fully developed, guide and guard our earthly existence and we may well obey the divine injunction to seek the silence wherein God manifests to man.
Restrain - An excess of this faculty, or its perversion can be restrained, by approaching this subject from the standpoint of faith in a divine and loving Creator and Father, instead of permitting superstitions to warp and unsettle our minds.
Deficiency - Persons lacking in this faculty are in the category with "Doubting Thomas"; requiring material proof of everything, forgetting that "the carnal mind receiveth not the things of the Spirit". Such are akin to the blind man who contends that the rainbow is non-existent because he cannot see it.
Cultivate this Faculty by pondering upon the wonders of the universe. Go into the silence of your own inner nature. After a while, this can be done, even [n a crowd, but at first, actual silence and aloneness are necessary. Learn to shut out the clamor of the external world and listen for the Voice within. "Gladly would I speak my words and reveal my secrets unto thee if thou wouldst diligently watch for my coming and open unto me the door of thine heart."
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