HEADS AND FACES. 509 Sir Walter Scott, had he found this sign wanting; and in this case, if properly considered, the want was significant. Next to length or depth, his idea was, that height over the ears, as in Scott's head, was the best sign; although he had not found this nearly so essential. To us it appears, that if to the two dimensions of length or depth and height, as thus expounded, we add the third dimension of breadth, and if we attach to the three terms their corresponding popular meanings when used in speaking of mental character-regarding a deep head, or a head long from front to back, or from the forehead to the ears, as significant of depth or astuteness; a high head, or a head rising high over the ears, as significant of moral elevation; and a broad head, as measured across and behind the temples, as significant of what is called width or generality of view-we shall have as tolerable a system of practical craniology as the facts will warrant; not very different either from that propounded by the ordinary phrenologists, though they would carry us much farther. Here, also, however, let us not be too certain in our judgments. We have seen foreheads villainous low' on very noble fellows, and grand domes of heads on mere blocks and ignoramuses. Probably Mr. Stratton's data, when examined and systematized, may yield more reliable results. One caution, however, is necessary in accepting such results when offered by professed adherents of the existing phrenology. What we want from phrenologists is their measurements of the heads that we refer to them, not their judgments of the men to whom the heads belonged. These judgments are independently formed from our knowledge of the history and performances of the men; and if, for example, the phrenologists do not like Dr. Chalmers's head so well as they used to do, since they have learned that his brain weighed only fifty-three ounces, or if they find the mask of Dante, as we believe some of them do, rather deficient in ideality, we do not want them to reargue the point with us, and try to convince us that Dr. Chalmers was, after all, not properly a great man, or that the main element in Dante's genius was not imagination. How far a phrenological system, once constructed, may serve to give us hints about men of whom we know nothing independently, is another matter. -- 4. It is desirable that, in personal delineations of eminent men, we should have as accurate information as possible regarding their faces. The proportion of face to cranium is one important particular. Cromwell had a face a foot long, but it is not likely that his head was correspondingly large. Pericles had a large head, but his features are small and delicate-by no means an unfrequent case. We could say much, also, about eyes, noses, mouths, and jaws; but forbear for the present. We could also enlarge on beards. It is a question for statistics to answer, what kind of intellectual eminence nature harbingers with abundant hair, and what kind it insinuates by beardlessness and scanty whiskers. We know at least that many men of genius have had little or no beard. Not to dwell on this, however, and in order only to indicate the biographic importance of attention to this particular, we will ask whether it is possible that the course of the Hungarian war could be rightly conceived by any one who should imagine Kossuth without the glorious ruff of bluish gossamer which surrounds his chin, ready to float away like smoke at the touch of the razor. 5. Voice and pronunciation.-Our allusion to Coleridge at the beginning of the article will explain the importance of attending to this. Other examples might be given in abundance. How much better do we fancy Burke when we know that he always spoke with a strong and rather ungainly Irish brogue; or Chalmers, when we know that he spoke with the broadest Fifeshire accent, pronounced 'parish' as if it were written ‘paarish,' and the words 'issue of which,' as if they were spelt isshy of whuch! So, also, in the case even of those who were not orators. Even Boswell's pictures of Johnson gain in accuracy when we know that he pronounced the letter u as they do in some parts of the North of England, saying, as he squeezed the lemon into the bowl, 'Who's for poonch? Nor can any one imagine Sir Walter Scott properly who does not know that he spoke with a burr, like that of the Northumbrians. The question of bass or shrill voices is in the same predicament as that of beards; and not much can be said on it. We think we have noticed, however, that shrill voices are often found in irreverent and combative men, and in men with a tendency to scepticism. Shelley had a shrill voice. 6. Degree and kind of liability to disease.-On this nothing need be said. The mere mention of dyspepsia is sufficient to indicate what might be entered under this head, which would also include, of course, statistics as to longevity. 7, 8, & 9. Dress; Household habits and daily routine of occupation; Temper and degree of sociability.-Many paragraphs might be occupied with detailed illustrations of the kind of particulars that would fall under these heads; but we leave the reader to analyze the heads for himself. 10. Favourite sayings, anecdotes, quotations, and authors.This is a very large topic, and might be illustrated at great length. Nothing serves to give us a better glimpse into a man's opinions and character than to be told of some saying which he is in the habit of continually using; some anecdote, which he is in the habit of frequently telling; some quotation, which he is fond of ATTITUDE AND GESTURE. 511 repeating; or some author, for whom he has a particular regard. We know nothing which serves to give us a more intimate knowledge of the state of Cæsar's mind during the latter period of his life, than the information we obtain from Cicero, that, at this time, one of his most constant phrases among his friends was'I have lived long enough for myself. It was a characteristic saying of poor Theodore Hook, Mrs. S. C. Hall tells us Wrong never comes right.' The late Dr. Chalmers had a few pet quotations, all very characteristic of him. The most favourite of all was from Shakspeare: 'I see young Harry with his beaver up, His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly girded,' &c. Another of his favourite passages was that from Cowper, contrasting Voltaire with the pious cottager, spinning at her own door. Another, also we believe from Cowper, was this: 'An honest man, close buttoned to the chin; Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within.' Another was the passage from Milton, describing Demosthenes -him whose 'resistless eloquence Wielded at will the fierce democracy, Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece, From Macedon to Artaxerxes' throne.' 11 & 12. Attitude, gesture, and background of characteristic circumstance.-All mimics know the importance of catching a man's attitude or gesture, when bent on taking him off. They are really able to think more like him from the moment that they have caught his physical trick. A familiar illustration of this is the fact, that a person not very expert in French can always speak that language more fluently if he begins to grimace and shrug his shoulders. To seize a person's characteristic attitude and gesture is, as all know, a main point with portrait-painters. In their practice, too, we see attention paid to what we have called the background of characteristic circumstance,' and which, considered rightly, is but an extension of the particular of attitude or gesture. In some portraits we see the figure represented against a curtain, with tables and books around; in others, we have a bit of landscape for the background; in others, a sea-scene; and so on. Now, just as it is a part of the painter's art to select out of the actual circumstances of his subjects' life, or even ideally to combine and devise those which shall form an appropriate background to the figure, so a similar duty devolves on the biographer. The biographer must take care that, however multifarious are his details respecting his subject, still there shall remain on the mind of his reader some one vision or picture, which shall survive in the imagination as emphatically the picture, representing the man, as it were, in his sublimated and generalized relations to all nature. A Words worth must remain in the mind, not as sitting in a room, or even as walking along a highway, but as half-way up a mountain at night, looking down from its starry height upon the flitting lights of the valleys below. And so with others. How fine the Chinese picture of the dying Confucius, moving about, leaning on his staff, and muttering "The mountain is crumbling, Precisely so, and no otherwise, ought Confucius to have been delivered over to the imagination of the world. Success in such idealizations, however, is the highest attainment of biographic art: it involves poetical genius; and is not to be expected from such persons as might very well become contributors to our ideal Dictionary of Classical and Historic Portraits. ART. VIII.-The Principles of Church Government in their Application to Wesleyan Methodism. By GEORGE STEWARD. 8vo. Pp. XL. 360. Hamilton. MANY of our readers will be aware, that the author of the volume at the head of this article has been a minister of much reputation among the Wesleyan Methodists for a quarter of a century past. At the last meeting of the Conference, Mr. Steward resigned his connexion with that body. The volume before us shows his reasons for the step then taken. The volume consists of an Introduction; and of a treatise on 'the Principles of Church Government, and their application to Wesleyan Methodism.' The treatise is divided into three parts. The Introduction consists of general observations on the nature and grounds of the controversy which has so much affected the condition and prospects of Methodism. The first part of the treatise is on the Idea of Government applied to Church Questions'; the second is on 'Scripture Views of the Ministry'; and the third is on 'Methodism.' There are also about forty pages of Appendix. The book, bearing in mind the circumstances under which it makes its appearance, is singularly calm and impartial in its SUGGESTIVE RESULT OF RECENT DISCUSSIONS. 513 tone, from beginning to end. The mind of the writer is distinguished by its native strength and its culture, and is in a high degree reflective. It is manifest that the decision to which Mr. Steward has come, has not been reached without a costly struggle; and the degree in which he has subordinated feeling to principle and to conscientiousness, entitles him to a high place in the sympathy and esteem of all honourable men. Towards the end of the volume, Mr. Steward has spoken of the constitution of Methodism, as naturally disposing its ministers, in any controversy arising between ministers and people, to side strongly with their order, and he adds to this observation the following note: 'An impressive confirmation of this remark, and one far more telling than a volume of disquisition, has been publicly offered in the fact, that while Methodism has been shorn of nearly one hundred thousand of its members in the passing struggle, so few of its ministers, perhaps hardly a dozen, have openly espoused the popular cause. The ministers who began it are certainly not to be reckoned in the number, they moved the people, not the people them. Reasons for such a phenomenon, which probably stands alone in the history of church contests, may be offered in abundance, but the fact itself is, for the purpose it is adduced for, its own exponent. It demonstrates that the spirit of the Wesleyan pastorate is anti-popular-almost a third of the people gone-hardly a handful of the ministers!'-p. 280. Truly these are significant facts. The evidence touching these points at issue has been the same in the two cases,-in the one case it has told on about every third mind that has looked on it, in the other upon little more than one in every two hundred! How is this to be explained? The solution of the mystery will appear, we think, if we do as Mr. Steward has done-look fairly at the case of the ministers on the one side, and at the case of the people on the other. We need not recur now to any description of the state of morals and religion in this country when Whitfield and Wesley began their labours as preachers. The effect of Whitfield's zeal survives mainly in the more spiritual condition of the Church of England, and of certain nonconformist bodies in existence from before his time. But the effects of Wesley's labours were to consolidate in the separate form familiar to us. This result in itself, and in its entire complexion, presents one of the most remarkable events in history. The predisposing causes in this case, will be found in part in the character of John Wesley, and in part in the circumstances incident to the course to which he was committed. In the first place, John Wesley was a clergyman of the Church |