drawing, and is also an excellent dancer; but in other matters, such as reading and general information, he is quite a child, and not more forward than other children of his age. He seems to have the best dispositions possible,— did every thing he was desired by his parents, and went to every body who wished to take notice of him with the utmost good humour. In short, I must end where I began with saying, he is one of the finest little fellows I ever saw."

PHRENOLOGY APPLIED TO CRITICISM IN THE FINE ARTS.*

We have in various instances endeavoured to shew the application of Phrenology to criticism in that department of literature which has relation to human character and 'manners; and we have given examples of this, both in the drama, in works of fictitious narrative, and in poetry. The science is equally capable of being applied to criticism in the imitative arts of painting and sculpture; indeed its use in these may be more easily apprehended by those who have not made any great progress in the study, than in the former. It requires a well-established and connected view of the system of mental philosophy founded on phrenology, to be able to see how it can be applied to illustrate the beauties of Shakespear or Fielding; but no depth of knowledge is requisite to perceive that if there be truth in the alleged correspondence between the form of the head and the character of the individual to whom it belongs, the artist who would exhibit a certain form of head 'in persons of a certain known character, must conform his representations to the system, otherwise they will be out of nature.

The ancient sculptors were accurate observers of nature; and to this accuracy, more than any thing else, is owing the extraordinary merit and beauty of their performances. Not to mention the statues of their gods, among whom Jupiter, the personification of the Supreme Intelligence, is conspicuous for the prominence of the upper part of the forehead, there is an evident difference between

* By George Combe.-Vol. ii. No. 6, p. 201.

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their statues, busts, and cameos, representing sages, philosophers, and law-givers, and those of the warriors and victors in the Olympic and Isthmian games. The busts of the Twelve Cæsars, who, with a few exceptions, were among the most bloody and ferocious tyrants that ever disgraced humanity, correspond with this character in the most exact manner. Combativeness and Destructiveness, particularly the latter, appear in them developed in a remarkable degree. We have seen an antique cameo of the head of Nero, in which, even on a small scale, the organ of Destructiveness appears conspicuously prominent. If any doubt could occur as to the existence of that propensity in human nature, the history of this monster, who caused his own mother to be put to death, and for his amusement set fire to his own imperial city, must have decided the question for ever.

It has been objected to the famous Venus de Medicis, that the head is proportionally too small, so much so that, phrenologically speaking, it does not indicate even an ordinary degree of intellect. We believe it has been said, though we do not at present recollect the authority, that the head of that celebrated statue is modern; in which case the ancients stand absolved from the charge of this particular error. But, without taking this into consideration, the sculptor, whether an ancient or a modern, may perhaps be defended, even upon phrenological principles: for although the beauty of Venus is universally celebrated by the ancient poets, they say nothing of her wisdom; and we do not hear that any ancient sculptor has given a head of this description to a statue of Minerva.

Modern artists have been often too little attentive to truth of representation in the form of the head—and their blunders are often severely felt and deplored by phrenologists. In some cases, where the forehead has been remarkable as a feature in the physiognomy, it has been represented with tolerable accuracy, as we find it to be in that splendid bust of Lord Bacon at Cambridge, a copy of which forms one of the principal ornaments of the Phrenological Society's hall. But in other instances this has been much neglected, and the whole attention has been directed to the less interesting and less instructive representation of the lower features. Scarcely in any case has a due regard

been bestowed on the form of the coronal, lateral, and posterior parts of the head, though so important in designating the character-but these have been left either to caprice, or to some fanciful rules of the picturesque or the beautiful. We have seen a copy of a bust of Pope, said to be by Rubilliac, in which so much brain is thrown behind the ears, that the individual represented, had he really possess ed such a head, would have been the most brutal of mankind. We are told of an eminent living sculptor, that, in taking casts for the purpose of making a bust or statue, he never goes farther than the mere mask; and that, for the rest of the head, he has a general or average form, which is applied to every individual. This is a grievous error, and must entirely destroy the value of this gentleman's heads as representations of nature. He ought to reform his practice altogether.

To this general carelessness, however, there are some honourable exceptions; and we possess among ourselves an eminent sculptor,* whose accuracy in this respect is not inferior to the dignity, grace, and beauty with which he knows so well how to invest his figures. It has been well said of him, by a brother artist, that "he infuses phrenology into marble." His studio is a treat to a well-informed phrenologist; and the study of his heads is only less instructive than the observation of Nature herself, in all the endless varieties which she daily presents to us.

We have also another artist,† and in another department of art, whom we are proud to own as a native of our northern metropolis. His pictures of the Cossack Banditti, the Circassian Captives, the Interview of John Knox with Queen Mary, and the Murder of Archbishop Sharpe, have been much and deservedly admired in themselves, and in the accurate and beautiful engravings which have been made from three of them by another native artist of great merit, and a zealous phrenologist, Mr James Stewart. We notice them here for the purpose of stating, that Mr Allan is not more accurate in his costumes, and in the admirable character and expression of his countenances, than in his attention to the characteristic forms of his heads, which are, generally speaking, phrenologically correct. In his Banditti, the low forehead is combined with a great develop* Mr Joseph. + Mr Allan.

ment of the inferior lateral parts of the head, indicating a predominance of Acquisitiveness and Destructiveness, and of the lower propensities in general, with a deficiency in intellectual and moral endowment. In the picture of the Captives, the superiority of the heads of the Circassians (a free people, of the Caucasian race,) over those of the despot and his attendant slaves, is quite evidently marked. The heads of the latter are represented, what they doubtless would be found in nature, small and round, narrow in the region of the intellectual organs, greatly defective in Benevolence, and large at Amativeness. The head of the male Circassian is decidedly larger than any of these, and in its form approaches to that of the European nations; while those of the females possess the same character, only of a smaller size. Both the Turkish and Circassian heads correspond remarkably with the specimens of the crania of these nations in the collection of the Phrenological Society.

In the historical picture of the murder of Sharpe, Mr Allan is no less true to nature. No one can look at the large well-developed heads which he has there given to the Covenanters, without being struck with the extraordinary differences between them and the Russian banditti, on the one hand, and the narrow contracted heads of the Turkish slaves, or the more favourable but still inferior development of the Circassians, on the other. In Burleigh, and the other misguided perpetrators of this cruel act, we see broad and well-developed foreheads, with a large and round coronal surface, indicating great Firmness, Conscientiousness, Veneration, Hope, and even Benevolence, joined to a considerable Combativeness and Destructiveness. No one need imagine that the former description of qualities is inconsistent with the act which they are employed in committing, as their creed would point out to them that, in putting the oppressor of their brethren to death, they were doing God service. Hackstoun of Rathillet, who was by, and took no part in the murder, and who is represented in the picture as sitting on horseback, hiding part of his face with his cloak, has not only less expression of courage and determination in his countenance, but the painter has given him a head decidedly smaller and narrower than to the more active conspirators. We know not if this has been done

intentionally; but it corresponds precisely with the character. In another picture recently finished, and which is now exhibiting in this city-Queen Mary signing the Resignation of her Crown and Kingdom,-the same minute attention to phrenological truth is observable. In the Queen, the high and polished but slightly retreating forehead, of elegant form and proportion, is correctly indicative of her acute and penetrating but showy and superficial intellect. Her cap is raised on the left side, and under it the region of Ideality appears well developed. This is probably copied from authentic portraits, and it corresponds well with the character. In the Lord Lindsay, the figure second in historical importance, but, in point of pictorial effect, perhaps the first, the general character of the head is like that of the Covenanters ;—in the region of the intellect it is, perhaps, better developed than was likely to be the case in a nobleman of that age-of a character so rude and uncultivated as that of Lindsay. The firmness and power of character, indicated by the height and general size of the head, accords well with the eager grasp with which he holds the arm of the Queen in his mailed hand, and the determination of his look and attitude in presenting to her the pen with which she is to sign the renunciation of her royal estate and title. The other nobleman appears shocked at this rudeness, and seems to remonstrate with Lindsay, and to suggest a gentler mode of treatment; and his head, as well as his countenance, indicates a milder and less determined character.

PHRENOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT.*

CHATHAM, January 6. 1827. SIR, I have the honour to belong to a literary society in this place, the members of which are much divided on the subject of phrenology. In a late debate I ventured to assert, that if a skull was forwarded for the consideration of the Society of which you are the distinguished President, I had no doubt they would be able to detail the character of the individual to whom it belonged. It was agreed that

* Communicated by Dr Elliotson of London.-Vol. iv. No. 14.

p. 258.