BRUTISH AFFINITIES OF THE HUMAN FACE DIVINE. EVERY man with an eye in his head must, in the course of his life, have observed in the physiognomies of kinsfolk, acquaintance, and strangers, so many and diverse analogies of expression, and graduated affinities of aspect, to the animal world, that, to adapt Butler's couplet, Just as on land there is no beast But in some fish at sea's expressed, so, neither among the beasts of the field, nor the fishes of the sea, nor the fowls of the air, is there a single one, probably, that may not be more or less closely matched in characteristic features, or general aspect, by the facial traits of some one or other of the sons and daughters of men. John Gay reminds us how ingeniously Sagacious Porta's skill could trace You show the piece, and give the hint, A parallel passage to which might be cited from Swift's Character of the Legion Club,-where Hogarth is apostrophised and his name defrauded (as was not uncommon) of a letter (if, at least, h be a letter, which Cockaigne and kindred realms might, and practically do, deny): How I want thee, humourous Hogart! Form their features while I gibe them; You will need no car'catura; Draw them so that we may trace And one might almost find a ready-made illustration of these verses in the extravaganza scene of a German boozing party of barons bold, introduced into "Vivian Grey,"-when that hero is interrupted in his speech, deprecating compulsion in drink, by the uproar of the bestial crew,-each of whose several peculiarities of brutish affinity comes out in high relief, on the principle apparently of in vino veritas. "To Vivian, stopped short in his oration, it seems as though a well-stocked menagerie had been suddenly emptied in the room-such roaring and such growling, and such hissing, could only have been exceeded on some grand feast day in the recesses of a Brazilian forest. Asmanshausen looked as fierce as a boa-constrictor before dinner. The proboscis of the Grand-Duke heaved to and fro like the trunk of an enraged elephant. Hockheimer glared like a Bengal tiger, about to spring on its prey. Steinberg growled like a Baltic bear. In Markbrunnen, Vivian recognised the wild-boar he had himself often hunted. Grafenberg brayed like a jackass; and Geisenheim chattered like an ape. But all was forgotten and unnoticed when Vivian heard the fell and frantic shouts of the laughing hyæna, the Margrave of Rudesheimer." Nay, one man may in his time play many parts, combine many natures, of the brute brute-like, according to the Shakspearean philosophy. For, what is it Alexander tells Cressida of Ajax? "This man, lady, hath robbed many beasts of their particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant; a man into whom nature hath so crowded humours, that his valour is crushed into folly, his folly sauced with discretion." Or to adopt for the nonce the phrenological crotchet of Mr. Cranium: The human brain consists of a bundle or compound of all the faculties of all other animals; and from the greater development of one or more of these, in the infinite varieties of combination, result all the peculiarities of individual character.* *See, in extenso, Mr. Cranium's Lecture, in chap. xii. of VOL. II. 15 It is part, therefore, of this lecturer's practical application of his subject, to advise every parent, who has the welfare of his son at heart, to procure as extensive a collection as possible of the skulls of animals, and, before determining on the choice of a profession, to compare with the utmost nicety their bumps and protuberances with those of the skull of his son. If the development of the organ of destruction point out a similarity between the youth and the tiger, let him be brought to some profession (whether that of a butcher, a soldier, or a physician, may be regulated by circumstances) in which he may be furnished with a license to kill: as, without such license, the indulgence of his natural propensities may lead to the untimely rescission of his vital thread, “with edge of penny cord and vile reproach." If he show an analogy with the jackal, let all possible influence be used to procure him a place at court, where he will infallibly thrive.* If his skull bear a marked resemblance to that of a magpie, it cannot be doubted that he will prove an admirable lawyer; and if with this advantageous conformation be combined any similitude to that of an owl, very confident hopes may be formed of his becoming a judge. For, in due proportion to his proximity of "Headlong Hall," which led off the series of Mr. Peacock's satirical fictions, each of them written with a purpose, and certainly with point. *Mr. Peacock wrote when George the Fourth was king. Not so would he have written of the court of Victoria—even granting him an enemy to all courts. likeness to that sage-looking fowl, will be his approximation to Lord Chancellor Thurlow's successof whom, for the infinite abysm of beetle-browed wisdom indicated by his aspect, it was said in malice or in despair, that no man, by any possibility, ever could be so wise as Thurlow looked. Thurlow's schoolfellow and friend, the gentle poet Cowper, in one of his few extant essays in prose, amuses himself, if not his readers, with some fancies on certain affinities between human natures and brutish. Thus, for instance, says he, the affinity between chatterers and monkeys, and praters and parrots, is too obvious not to occur at once; grunters and growlers may be justly compared to hogs; snarlers are curs; and the spitfire passionate are a sort of wild-cats, that will not bear stroking, but will purr when they are pleased. Complainers are screech-owls; and story-tellers, always repeating the same dull note, are cuckoos. Poets that prick up their ears at their own hideous braying are no better than asses; critics in general are venomous serpents that delight in hissing; and some of them, who have got together a few technical terms, without knowing their meaning, are no other than magpies. It is part of Mr. Kingsley's teaching, that man is the microcosm, and that, as the highest animal, the ideal type of the mammalia, he, like all true types, comprises in himself the attributes of all lower species. "Therefore he must have a tiger-vein in him, my dear Claude, as well as a beaver-vein and a spider-vein; and no more shame to him. You are a |