the human constitution is badly planned.

Still, it is not to be concealed that murderous violence is the
ultimate result of this organ when unrestrained,--that it is the most
conspicuous faculty in carnivorous animals, and alas! that it has a
terrible and at times predominant action in the masculine portion of
the human race. Throughout the greater part of ancient history the
murderous violence of this faculty has been as conspicuous in the
human race as in the wild beasts. Even to-day, after centuries of
so-called civilization and religion, no man's life would be safe if
not protected by policemen; and the civilized nations, with a skilful
ferocity, devote the major part of their governmental revenues to
preparations for international homicide as a defence against the
murderous impulse in their neighbors, and to watching or controlling
the murderers within their own limits; whose homicidal propensities,
however, are not restrained from _mutual homicide_, by agreement, in
the warlike form of the duel, which is considered a proper institution
to cultivate a martial spirit and promote the efficiency of the
army,--ay, and even tolerated in the German system of education,
provided that life is not actually sacrificed.

Murder is therefore not an improper term to express the consummate
energy of this basilar organ, if we at the same time understand its
gentler manifestations; and Dr. Gall was a faithful student of nature
when he called this faculty the "carnivorous instinct, or disposition
to murder," for that is the way that it exhibits in animals, and,
unfortunately, in mankind also.

Yet as an element of character, and an organ in the brain, this
faculty needs a more general and comprehensive term than murder to
express its ordinary action. It operates as an impelling and modifying
influence in our daily life, giving a certain kind of energy to
physical and mental action, as our fruits have a certain degree of
sweetness in their juices which is not due to crystals of sugar,
though if the sweetening element were extracted it would appear in
that solid form. Thus the violent impulsive energy which appears in
our vigorous language, emphatic gestures, ultra sentiments, and
threatening expressions, if it could be isolated from its psychic
combination, would appear in its isolated purity as an impulse to the
destruction of life and everything else that stands before us.

Hence the term Destructiveness has been very properl