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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
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��course, failed to accomplish its nificent promises. This test of char- acter, however, is not without its value. As one of the indices of mental ca- pacity, it may aid us in judging of hu- man character ; but like all the specif- ics of empirics, it should be used with caution. Phrenologists, biologists and mesmerisers, by pretending to demonstrate what is only matter of hy- pothesis, subject themselves to the charge of imposture. Notwithstanding all the specific rules which craniologists and physiognomists have given to lov- ers for the choice of companions for life, I have never known a wife or hus- l)and to be chosen from a measure- ment of the head or the facial angle. Despite the warnings of pretended science, passion still triumphs, and the blind lover finds attractive charms even in the base defects of his idol, exclaiming with Pope —
" 'T is not a lip. an eye. we beauty call. But the joint force and full result of all."
The old Greeks were distinguished for their finely developed forms and beautiful faces. The ideals of their divinities were copied from nature. Blumenbach has described a Greek skull in his collection, which agrees perfectly with the finest works of Gre- cian art. The philosopher describes this skull as possessing '• a forehead highly and beautifully arched, the su- perior maxillary bones, under the aper- ture of the nostrils, joined in a nearly perpendicular plane, straight nose, the cheek bones even and turning moder- ately downward." If this be a true type of the old Grecian head, it is rea- sonable to suppose that the size and configuration of the head had some connection with the superior intellect- ual endowments of that gifted nation. Dr. Pritchard, author of the Physical Researches, does not admit that the manifestation of mind depends at all upon the size and form of the brain, and yet his work furnishes incidental proof of the truth of this theory. In speaking of the British nation, he ob- serves : "The skulls found in old bury-
��ing places in Britain, which I have examined, differ materially from the Grecian model. The amplitude of the anterior parts of the cranium is very much less, giving a comparatively small space for the anterior lobes of the brain. In this particular the ancient inhabitants of Britain appear to have differed very considerably from the present. The latter, either from the result of many ages of intellectual cultivation, or from some other cause, have, as 1 am persuaded, much more capacious brain cases than their fore- fathers." This fact seems to indicate a gradual improvement of the physical organization corresponding to the ad- mitted mental and moral advancement of the same nation. It is written in the apocryphal book entitled Eccle- siasticus : "The heart of a man changes his countenance, whether it be for good or evil. The envious man has a wicked eye, he turns away his face and despises man. A man may be known by his look and by his countenance when thou meetest him." All the vi- olent passions write their own biog- raphy upon the faces of their victims, " When we consider that," says Dr. Reid, "on the one hand, every benevo- lent affection is pleasant in its nature, is health to the soul and a cordial to the spirits ; that nature has made even the outward expression of benevolent affections in the countenance pleasant to every beholder and the chief ingredi- ent of beauty in the human face divine ; that, on the other hand, every malevo- lent affection, not only in its faulty ex- cesses, but in its moderate degrees, is vexation and disquiet to the mind, and even gives deformity to the counte- nance, it is evident that by these signals nature loudly admonishes us to use the former as our daily bread, both for health and pleasure, but to consider the latter as a nauseous medicine, which is never to be taken without ne- cessity, and even then in no greater quantity than the necessity requires." 'I'his accords with universal experience. Men do not often mistake the assassin for the philanthropist, or the coward
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