OCR Text |
Show 336 DISPOSITION OF ANIMALS. m?re rap1a in the succession. In those anin:~ ls With whi~h we have been so long familiar as to know their appearances and habits intimately, we 11:ever find two that are exactly alike in any one partic~ lar. . We .kno~ them by their form, their look, their ga1~, their vo~ce, the sound of their feet, or any one particular which could be mentioned · and we do so with ease, even in cases where the' greatest mas~er of la~guage would find it very difficult to ~ay In words 111 what the difference consisted. And In making up a picture of an animal, if the artist takes with perfect fidelity those parts of several different animals which are deemed the most handsome. in the~, the compound is always a patchwork. wantmg entueness and symmetry, and really less handsome than if he had been faithful to one of his models only. Each individual part, taken in itself may be more handsome, but an eye accustomed t~ examine clo~ely will soon find out that they do not belon.g to e~ch othe~·· It is usually said that the Grecian artist compiled for his Venus the charms of all the beauties in Greece; but, if so, the work must have been a motley and meaningless thingsomething like those "best words of all authors '' which the ignorant compile for the confirmation ~f the idle. It is the same with the dispositions and habits of the animal~, as with those instantly perceptible characters which, though we cannot explain them in. cases where there is much resemblance, yet stnke us at first sight. Similarity of disposition and habits always accompanies similarity of appearance, when we take the whole particulars of the appearance into the account. A skilful jockey or sportsman, who has noticed the appearances and characters of many horses or dogs, can tell their leading good or bad qualities at a glance ; and so can one who has been very observant of human character come very near the character of an indi-l'HY SIOGNOM:Y. 337 v1d~al evm~ ~efore he opens his mouth, or any one actwu ofhts u; known. All the blandishments which a. tr~ acherous J?ers~m can put on will not hide the v1llam. That. 1s h1s !fiain purpose, and as such it takes possessio~ of lns whole frame ; and probably nobody, at all 111 the habit of studyino- character ever saw and examined his man and o was subse~ q~1 ~ ntly deceived, without having a previous suspiciOn that such would be the event. To reduce that to any thing like a science which one man can communicate to another in words is nnother and a far more difficult matter; and it is ulmost as hopeless to expect that a man can be able to tell how he sees those fine shades of distinctions as that . h~ shall ~e able to tell how he sees object~ at aU; 1t IS not m the form of the head, or in that of the features, so that physiognomy and craniology ar~ but scraps o~ the science, resembling indetermmate problems m calculation, because all the conditions for determining the answer are not known and so the answer itself may be almost any thing: A man under the dominion of any resolved purpose, however he may strive to hide it, is imhued with the character of that purpose all over; and he who seeks to determine what that purpose is from the head or the face, or both together, is to the man who actually see.s what the purpose is, what any common pamter IS to Raphael, in painting a blind man. The common painter's blind man is simply a man with his eyes shut, while all the rest of his body is in perfect repose and confidence that they will open again whenever he needs them. But Elymas, the sorcerer, in Raphael's cartoon, is blind to the very tips of the fingers and the points of the toes. Conceal all the figure except a hand or a foot, and yet you will immediately perceive that that hand or foot is purposeless and in the dark. In the greatest variations, or varieties, as the instances of variation are. , called, even in those that |