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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��those of men, and are equally expres- sive of their natural dispositions. We make the lamb and the dove emblems of innocence and purity. Defenceless and timid animals are provided with slender limbs for speed, with ears turned backward to catch the sound of the pursuer. Such are the fawn and hare. Savage beasts of prey like- wise exhibit their true character in the figure and face. Herdsmen ami jock- ies distinguish the temper of animals from their natural expression. So, throughout nature, tlie cliaracteristics of the animal are uniformly exhibited in his organization. Man is no excep- tion. The conformation of the head, the features and expression of the face, the volume and tension of the muscles, the size and length of the limbs, all testify, in their place, of the indwelling spirit. In a word, the whole physical structure is designed for the soul that inhabits it. The constitutional tenden- cies of the mind and body modify and limit each other reciprocally. They are both governed by immutable laws. The intellectual system may be devel- oped at the expense of the physical, and the reverse ; then that living har- mony which is produced by the regu- lar operation of nature's laws is inter- rupted, and disease ensues. The in- tellect and affections of men are undoubtedly revealed by external signs. We speak of an intelligent and stupid countenance, and we instinctively judge of character by this mark. The passions also write their history legibly in the face. Says the poet of his mor- tal foe :
" I touched him once. He turned as he had felt a scorpion ; fear And loatf.ing glared from his enkindled
eyes, And paleness o'erspread his face like
one Who smothers mortal pain. Subtle,
dark, fierce. Designing and inscrutable, he walks Among us like an evil angel."
Some men wear perpetual sunshine in their looks ; others never show a gleam of benevolence from their per-
��petually clouded brows. Children and even animals read these signs, and in- stinctively attach themselves to the gentle and avoid the morose. Philos- ophers and poets have acted and writ- ten upon the same principles. It has been admitted by all students of nature that vigor and strength of intellect are intimately associated with the size, ten- sion and form of the brain. This is no novel opinion. Painters, poets and sculptors, in all ages have taken this for a postulate. Their ideals, whether of gods or men, have been designed in accordance with this notion. Physiol- ogists concur in the same opinion, though they differ widely in the con- clusions and inferences drawn from this generally admitted fact. " Inde- pendently of phrenology," says Sir Charles Bell, " it has, of old time, been acknowledged that fullness of forehead (combined with a corresponding devel- opment of the features of the face) is an indication of intellectual capacity, and of human character and beauty. All physiologists have agreed in this view, while they are equally confident in affirming that anatomy affords no foundation for mapping the cranium into minute subdivisions or regions. As nature, by covering the head, has intimated her intention that we shall not there scan our neighbor's capaci- ties, she has given us the universal lan- guage of expression." Whether phren- ology be true or false it is not my ob- ject now to inquire. I wish to confine my remarks to the record of that lan- guage of expression which nature has so fully enstamped upon every feature, limb and muscle of the human form. Assuming what all admit, that the brain is the organ through which mind manifests itself, it is by no means un- philosophical to regard its size, tension and form, as indicative of intellectual power. The skull is supposed to be conformed to the shape of the brain. The position of the bony structure of the cranium produces a marked differ- ence between the faces both of men and brutes. The jaws of the latter project so as to form a more acute an-
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