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Show 202 IIINDOO AND ClliNESE CIVILIZATIONS, ETO. In regard to the materials employed by the Chinese artist, we :find that he excels in casting of metals, and that no stone is so hard as to deter him by technical difficulties from employing it. lie carves in wood and ivory, he chisels the marble, he cuts the gem, he moulds the c]ay, he makes the best pottery. Wood-cutting anJ.lithography were indigenous in China, long bofol'O Europe knew them. We may say without exago·cration, that all the materials, and the most important of tho workmanship of tho West, are known among tho Yellow-race; and that in sHll aud industry the son of tho 0 !ostial empire surpasses the J apotide. Dut how to deal artistically with a material, bow to combine it with, and malm it subservient to, the idea of the work of art, this remained an unsolved prol>lcm to the Chinaman. Seduced by his mechanical skill, he seeks the highest aim of art in overcoming practical difficulties: accordingly, Fig. 97. Fig. 98. ClllN}JSE OA~tEO, (Puluky Call.). CmNESI!l Gon. he doligh~ i~ trca:ing his material in the most unsuitable way,transformJ. ng 1vory mto lace; or sculpturing, from hard stone, figures covered wtth a not of unbroken meshes. llo startles the mind b t~1~ patience. wit~ wh.ich he makes artistical puzzles, instead of elCJting tho 1magmatwn by tho composition and creatinO' deli1rht thl'Ongh the purity and beauty of forms. ' b b Tho p1:eceding two heads give an idea of tho type of the Yellowrace and 1ts ar~. JJ"ia-. 07 is the smiling portrait of a high functionary, from a cameo m my collection. Fig. 98, the head of tho frowning God of the Polar s~ar, comes from a statuette in the Dritish Mm;oum. ~~oth of them arc mteosely characteristic specimens of an art never lll~uonced by foreign. agencies; and scarcely showing any aflinity w:th the ~culpturcs, 01th r of our classical western, or of the conterlnmous ULUdoo civilization. F. I. CRANIAL CIIARACTERlSTICS. 203 CHAPTER III. TilE CRANIAL CliARACTERISTICS OF TilE RAOES OF MEN. BY J. AI'fK EN MEIGS, M.D., LIDRARIAN OJ' TilE ACADEMY OF NATURAL 80U:NOJ<8 0~ FlllLADELFDIA1 ULLOW Or TDI OOLLEOI Or PDl:8IOIAN81 IT(). Mnssns. NoTT AND GLIDDON: MY DEAR Sms. -In nnswer to your very polite roquost of Juno 14th, that I should furnish you with a brief statement of the progress and present condition of IIuman Cratlioacopy, and tho intimate o.nd important relntions which it boars to the groat problems of "Ethnology, I send you tho accompanying sketch, which you must receive cum grano &ali8, innsmuch as it has boon drawn up during tho hot nnd oppressive nights of midsummer, and amidst the exacting interruptions necos~arily attcndo.nt upon tho pmctico of my profession. Having, as you nro n.wnro, dovotod some portion of my loisuro time, during tho summer of 1855, to nrrnnging and chtssifying the magnificent colloction of the Into Dr. Morton, preparntory to issuing n fourth od.itiou of tho C•ttaloguo (tho MS. of which was presented to tho Academy of Natural Sciences in December last), I have thought proper to embody In this sketch some notice of tho additions and changes which thi~ Collection has undergone since tho demise of its illustrious found or. In attempting to set forth, in a general way, tho cranial cbnraoters which diJfcrcntiatc tho Rncos of Men, I bnvo indicated tho true value, not only of the Collection itself, but of the labors of Dr. l\11. also. For by determining those constant difrcrcnces which constitute typical forms of crnnio., we establish the fundamental, anntomico.l facts or principles upon which n true classification of the human fu.mily must be erected. In tho treatment or my subject, you will observe that J ho.vc confined myself chiefly to o. simple stntcmcnt of facts, carefully and designedly abstaining from the expression of any opinion upon the prematurely, nncl perhaps, in the present state of our knowledge, unwisely mooted questions of tho origin and primitive alliliations of man. Not a little study and reflection inolino mo to tho belief that long years of severo and earnest research are yet uocossary before wo ctm pronounce authorit11tively upon those ultimate nnd perplexing problems of Ethnology. Very truly yours, &e., PlllLAI)., D}:OBMDF.U., 1856. J. Al'l'KEN MEIGS. |
