Now, what a charming thing must it appear in the eyes of one, who is habitually tormented in this way, to hear of a science that professes to furnish a key, not indeed to the actual truth of the whole characters of men, but to that of many important parts in their characters? I can conceive of nothing more ecstatic than the transport of some bitter unsatisfied Blue-Stocking, on first hearing that there is such a science in the world as Craniology. "Ha!" she will say to

herself" we shall now see the bottom of all this mystery. The men will no longer dare to treat us with this condescending sort of concealment. We shall be able to look at their skulls, and tell them a little plain truth, whenever they begin to give themselves airs."

Now, I am for making the science as popular as possible-indeed, I think, if kept to a few, it would be the basest and most cruel kind of monopoly the world ever witnessed and, therefore, I should like to see my craniological brethren adapt their modes of expression and explanation, as much as possible, to the common prejudices of this great division of disciples. It is well known, what excellent proselyte-makers they are in all respects; and I am decidedly for having all their zeal on our side. One plain and

obvious rule, I think, is, that the head should always be talked of and considered in the light of a Form-an object having certain proportions from which certain inferences may be drawn. Besides, in adhering to this rule, we shall only be keeping to the practice of the only great Craniologists the world ever produced the Greeks. I do not mean to their practice in regard to expressing themselves alone; but to their practice, in gathering and perfecting those ideas concerning this science, which they have expressed in a far more lasting way than words can ever rival. As dissection of human bodies was entirely unknown among the ancients, it is obvious, that their sculptors and painters must have derived all their knowledge from the exterior of the human form. The external aspect of the head is all that nature exhibits to us, or intends we should see. It is there that expression appears and speaks a natural language to our minds a language of which our knowledge is vague and imperfect, and almost unconscious; but of which a few simple precepts and remarks are enough to recall to our recollection the great outlines, and to convince me at least, that a very little perseverance might suffice to render us masters of much of the practical detail.

4

You will smile perhaps when you hear me talk in so satisfied a tone about the craniological skill of the Greeks; and yet there is nothing of which I am more thoroughly convinced, than› that they did, practically at least, understand infinitely more of the science than any of the disciples of Gall and Spurzheim are likely to rival even a century hence. There is one circumstance, -a small one, you will say,-which suggested itself to me yesterday, for the first time, when I was sitting after dinner, in a room where several large plaster-of-Paris busts were placed on the extremities of a side-board. What is called Grace, is chiefly to be found in those movements which result from organs on the top of the head. In women, there is more of it than in men, because their animal faculties are smaller. in all paintings of Madonnas, particularly of the Matres Amabiles, the attitude evidently results from the faculties in the region above the forehead. The chin is drawn in, and the upper. fore-part of the head leans forward. This is not done with a view to represent modesty and humility alone; which, by suspending the action of pride and self-love in the back part of the head, take away what kept it upright. The attitude of humility, therefore, results from a nega

Now,

tive cause. But the Madonnas have often a look quite dignified and assured, of unquestioning adorable divine serenity; and the leaning forward of the brow in them, is accompanied with an air which denotes the activity of a positive cause namely, the principle of love in the upper parts of the forehead. This was suggested to me, however, not by a picture of the Madonna, but by a Grecian bust-and I think you will scarcely suspect which this was. It was one, of which the whole character is, I apprehend, mistaken in modern times-one which is looked at by fine ladies with a shudder-and by fine gentlemen with a sneer. Artists alone study and love it their eyes are too much trained to permit of any thing else. But even they seem to me entirely to overlook the true character of that, which, with a view to quite different qualities, they fervently admire. In the Hercules Farnese (for this is the bust,) no person who looks on the form and attitude with a truly scientific eye, can possibly believe that he sees only the image of brute strength. There are few heads on the contrary more human in their expression more eloquent with the manly virtue of a mild and generous hero. And how indeed could a Grecian sculptor have dared to represent the

glorious Alcides in any other way? How do the poets represent him ?As the image of divine strength and confidence, struggling with and vanquishing the evils of humanity- -as the emanation of divine benevolence, careless of all, but doing good-purifying the earth from the foulness of polluting monsters-avenging the cause of the just and the unfortunate-plunging into Hell in order to restore to an inconsolable husband the pale face of his wife, who had died a sacrifice to save him-himself at last expiring on the hoary summit of Athos, amidst the blaze of a funeral pile which had been built indeed with his own hands, but which he had been compelled to ascend by the malignant cruelty of a disappointed savage. The being who was hallowed with all these high attributes in the strains of Sophocles, Euripides, and Pindar-would any sculptor have dared to select Him for the object in which to embody his ideas of the mere animal power of man-the exuberance of corporeal strength? So far from this, the Hercules has not only one of the most intellectual heads that are to be found among the monuments of Greek sculpture, but also one of the most graceful. With the majesty which he inherits from the embrace of Jupiter, there is mingled a mild and