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is, however, a natural, and therefore I cannot help regarding it as a very excusable sort of prejudice. The very names which have been bestowed upon the science-Cranioscopy and Craniology-to say nothing of the still coarser Schadellehre (or skull-doctrine) of its first doctor and professor, are disagreeable terms, on account of their too direct and distinct reference to the bones. They bring at once before the imagination a naked skull, and in persons who have not been trained to the callousness of the dissecting-room, conceptions of a nature so strictly anatomical, can never fail to excite a certain feeling of horror and disgust. I am glad to find that this feeling had been sanctioned by antiquity; for, in some quotations from Athenæus, which fell casually into my hands the other day, it is expressly mentioned, that the Greeks considered it as "improper to speak of the physical substances of the head." I perfectly enter into the spirit of tastefulness and wisdom, which suggested such a maxim to that most intellectual people. Among them the doctrine of pure materialism had not merely been whispered in mystery in the contemplative gardens of Epicurus; it had gone abroad over the surface of the people, and contaminated and debased their spirit. The frail fabric of their superstitious faith presented but too obvious a mark for the shafts of infidel wit, and it was no wonder that they who were wise enough to feel the necessity of guarding this fabric, should have possessed no very accurate notions concerning the true limits of its bulwarks. In our days, however, there is assuredly no reason for being so very timorous; and I think a philosophical person like you should, bona fide, set yourself to get rid of a prejudice which is no longer entitled to be regarded as either a necessary or a convenient one.

It is much to be wished, notwithstanding, that some name could be found for this admirable science, which would give less offence even to those who are rather disposed than otherwise to give it its fair chance of thriving in the world. I have been thinking a great while on this subject, and have balanced in my own mind the merits of more oscopies and ologies, than I care to trouble you with repeating. Craniology itself, over and above the general and natural prejudice I have already talked of, labours under a secondary, an adventitious, and a merely vulgar prejudice, derived from the ignorant and blundering jokes which have been connected with it by the writers of Reviews and Magazines. It is won

derful how long such trifling things retain their influence; but I would hope this noble science is not to be utterly banged (like a dog,) because an ill name has been given to it. Sometimes, after the essence of a man's opinion has been proved to be false and absurd, even to his own satisfaction, it is necessary, before he can be quite persuaded to give it up, that we should allow a few words to be sacrificed. These are the scape-goats which are tossed relentlessly over the rock, after they are supposed to be sufficiently imbued and burthened with the sins of the blundering intellect that dictated thein. And such, I doubt not, will, in the issue, be the fortune of poor, derided, despised, but innocent, although certainly somewhat rude and intractable Craniology-Cranioscopy, (particularly since Dr. Roget has undertaken to blacken its reputation in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica,) may be pretty sure of sharing the same melancholy fate. There is no doubt that Jack and Gill must tumble down the hill in company.

Anthropology pleased me very much for a few days; but it is certainly too vague. It does not sit close enough to show the true shape and character of that which it would clothe. Cephalology and Cephaloscopy would sound uncouth, and neither of them would much improve the original bargain with which we are quarrelling. Organology shares in something of the same defect with Anthropology. In short, as yet, I have not been able to hit on any thing which exactly pleases on reflection. Although a worse cranioscopist, you are a better Figuist than I am; so I beg you to try your hand at the coining of a phrase. A comparatively unconcerned person may perhaps be more fortunate than a zealous lover like myself; for it is not in one respect only that women are like words. In the mean time, when it is necessary to mention any person's brain, it may be best to call it his Organization. It is perhaps impossible altogether to avoid employing expressions of an anatomical cast; but the more these can be avoided, the better chance there will most assuredly be of rendering the science popular. It is one in which the ladies have quite as much interest as we have; and I think every thing should be done, therefore, that may tend to smooth and soften their reception of it. In its essence, it possesses many, very many, points of captivation, which I should think were likely to operate with wonderful success on the imagination of the female sex. The best and the wisest of the sex, with whom I ever

conversed in a confidential manner, confessed to me, that the great and constantly besetting plague of women, is their suspicion that they are not permitted to see into the true depths of the character of men. And indeed, when one considers what an overbalancing proportion of the allusions made in any conversation between two men of education, must be entirely unintelligible to almost any woman who might chance to overhear them, it is impossible to wonder that the matter should stand as it does. It is not to be expected, that she should be able to understand the exact relation which the intelligible part of their talk may bear to the unintelligible. She sees a line tossed into a depth, which is to her as black as night, and how should she be able to guess, how far down may be the measure of its descent?

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 the first hearing that there is such a science in the world as Craniology. "Ha!" she will say to berself" 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 possibleindeed, 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 producedthe Greeks. I do not mean to their practice in regard to ex-. pressing themselves alone; but to their practice, in gathering

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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.

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-ofParis busts were placed on the extremities of a sideboard. 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. Now, 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 bead, take away what kept it upright. The attitude of humility, therefore, results from a negative cause. But the Madonnas have often a look quite dignified and assured, of unquestioning adora- · ble 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.

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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 enbrace of Jupiter, there is mingled a mild and tender expression of gentleness, which tells that he has also his share in the blood, and in the miseries of our own lower nature. The stooping reflective attitude may be that of a hero weary with combat, but is one that speaks, as if his combatting had been in a noble cause-as if high thoughts had nerved his arm more than the mere exultations of corporeal vigour. His head is bent from the same quarter as that of the Madonnas; and whoever takes the trouble to examine it, will find, that in this

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