by Elsie Lincoln Benedict
Available in 98 free installments
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¶ The extreme Cerebral type finds it difficult to do things because, as we have seen, he is deficient in muscle?one of the vital elements upon which activity and accomplishment are based. This type has little muscle, little bone, and little fat.
¶ He is not inactive for the same reason that the Alimentive is; his stomach processes do not slow him down. But his muscles are so undeveloped that he has little inward urge toward activity and little force back of his movements. His heart and lungs are small, so that he also lacks "steam" and "horse power."
He prefers to sit rather than to move, exactly as the Muscular prefers to be "up and doing" rather than to sit still.
¶ Did you ever look on while a pure Cerebral man tried to move a kitchen stove? Ever ask the dreamer in your house to bring down a trunk from the attic?
Will you ever forget the almost human perversity with which that stove and that trunk resisted him; or how amusing it looked to see a grown man outwitted at every turn by an inert mass?
"I have carried on a life-long feud with inanimate things," a pure Cerebral friend remarked to us recently. "I have a fight on my hands every time I attempt to use a pair of scissors, a knife and fork, a hammer or a collar button."
¶ Because he is short the Cerebral takes short steps. Because he lacks muscle he lacks a powerful stride. As a result he has a walk that is irregular and sometimes jerky.
When he walks slowly this jerk is not apparent, but when hurried it is quite noticeable.
¶ The Cerebral gets lost in the same chair that is itself lost under the large, spreading Osseous; and for the same reason. Built for the average, chairs are as much too large for the Cerebral as they are too small for the big bony man. So the Cerebral's legs dangle and his arms don't reach.
¶ Though a most sympathetic friend, the Cerebral does not make many friends and does not care for many. He is too abstract to add to the gaiety of social gatherings, for these are based on the enjoyment of the concrete.
¶ Readers, thinkers, writers?intellectuals like himself?are the kinds of people the Cerebral enjoys most.
Another reason why he has few friends is because these people, being in the great minority, are not easy to find.
¶ People who let others do their thinking for them and those who are not aware of the great things going on in world movements, are not popular with this type. He sometimes has a secret contempt for them and ignores them as completely as they ignore him.
¶ Modesty and reserve, almost as marked in the men as in the women, characterize this extreme type. They do things of great moment sometimes?invent something or write something extraordinary?but even then they try to avoid being lionized.
They prefer the shadows rather than the spotlight. Thus they miss many of the good things less brainy and more aggressive people gain. But it does no good to explain this to a Cerebral. He enjoys retirement and is constantly missing opportunities because he refuses to "mix."
¶ Friends mean something to the Cerebral, fame sometimes means much but money means little. In this he is the exact opposite of the Osseous, to whom the pecuniary advantages or disadvantages of a thing are always significant.
The pure Cerebral finds it difficult to interest himself in his finances. He seldom counts his change. He will go away from his room leaving every cent he owns lying on the dresser?and then forget to lock the door!
This type of person almost never asks for a raise. He is too busy dreaming dreams to plan what he will do in his old age. He prefers staying at the same job with congenial associates to finding another even if it paid more.
¶ Since we get only what we go after in this world, it follows that the Cerebral is often poor. To make money one must want money. Competition for it is so keen that only those who want it badly and work with efficiency ever get very much of it.
