by Elsie Lincoln Benedict
Available in 98 free installments
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The Cerebral takes so little interest in money that he gets lost in the shuffle. Not until he wakes up some morning with the poorhouse staring him in the face does he give it serious consideration. And then he does not do much about it.
¶ History shows that few people of the pure Cerebral type ever became rich. Even the most brilliant gave so much more thought to their mission than the practical ways and means that they were usually seriously handicapped for the funds necessary to its materialization.
Madame Curie, co-discoverer of radium, said to be the greatest living woman of this type, is world-famous and has done humanity a noble service. But her experiments were always carried on against great disadvantages because she had not the financial means to purchase more than the most limited quantities of the precious substance.
¶ Clothes are almost the last thing the Cerebral thinks about. As we have seen, all the other types have decided preferences as to their clothes?the Alimentive demands comfort, the Thoracic style, the Muscular durability and the Osseous sameness?but the extreme Cerebral type says "anything will do." So we often see him with a coat of one color, trousers of another and a hat of another, with no gloves at all and his tie missing.
¶ We have always said people were "absent-minded" when their minds were absent from what they were doing. This often applies to the Cerebral for he is capable of greater concentration than other types; also he is so frequently compelled to do things in which he has no interest that his mind naturally wanders to the things he cares about.
A Cerebral professor whom we know sometimes appeared before his Harvard classes in bedroom slippers. A Thoracic would not be likely to let his own brother catch him in his!
¶ The poor talker sometimes surprises us by being a good writer. Such a one is usually of the Cerebral type.
He likes to think out every phase of a thing and put it into just the right words before giving it to the world. So, many a Cerebral who does little talking outside his intimate circle does a good deal of surreptitious writing. It may be only the keeping of a diary, jotting down memoranda or writing long letters to his friends, but he will write something. Some of the world's greatest ideas have come to light first in the forgotten manuscripts of people of this type who died without showing their writings to any one. Evidently they did not consider them of sufficient importance or did not care as much about publishing them as about putting them down.
¶ Step into the reference rooms of your city library on a summer's day and you will stand more chance of finding examples of this extreme type there than in any other spot.
You may have thought these extreme types are difficult to locate, since the average American is a combination. But it is easy to find any of them if you look in the right places.
In every case you will find them in the very places where a study of Human Analysis would tell you to look for them.
¶ When you wish to find some pure Alimentives, go to a restaurant that is famous for its rich foods. When you want to see several extreme Thoracics, drop into any vaudeville show and take your choice from the actors or from the audience. When you are looking for pure Musculars go to a boxing match or a prize fight and you will be surrounded by them. When looking for the Osseous attend a convention of expert accountants, bankers, lumbermen, hardware merchants or pioneers.
All these types appear in other places and in other vocations, but they are certain to be present in large numbers any day in any of the above-named places.
But when you are looking for this interesting little extreme thinker-type you must go to a library. We specify the reference room of the library because those who search for fiction, newspapers and magazines are not necessarily of the pure type. And we specify a day in summer rather than in winter so that you will be able to select your subjects from amongst people who are there in spite of the weather rather than because of it.
