of the Negro, when compared with the perfect cranium of a
European, has less of capacity on the fore part.
Having found the reason assigned for instituting a comparison
between the area of the brain-case and that of the bones of the
face quite unsatisfactory; and that in the Negro the whole of the
face is actually smaller, instead of being greater, when compared
with the brain-case, than that of the European ; I was led to compare
the bones of the face with each other: and the conclusion to
which this led me is, that some principle must be sought for, not
yet acknowledged, which shall apply not to the form of the whole
head merely, but to the individual parts also. This principle is,
I imagine, to be found in the form of the face as bearing relation
to the organs; not to the organs of the senses merely, but to those
of all the functions performed by the parts contained in or attached
to the face—the organs of mastication, the organs of speech, the
organs of expression, as well as those which belong to the senses.
And here it is to be observed, that there is not necessarily a deformity
because the feature resembles that of a brute; but in our
secret thoughts the form has reference to the function; and if the
function be allied to intellect, if the organ serves an office connected
with mind (as the eye in particular does), then it is compatible
with the human countenance, though it should bear resemblance
to the same organs in a brute; whereas a form which has
relation to the strength of the jaws, or to a form of the teeth peculiarly
appropriated to the meaner necessities of the animal creation,
is incompatible, and altogether at variance with human physio-
gnomy.
If we take the antique as confessedly the form of beauty in the
human head, we shall find that a projecting cheek-bone, or ajaw-
bone which is large and square behind, are defects; that the too
great depth of the face, which is produced by the length of teeth
in the jaws, is also a deformity; that the projecting jaws are still
worse; and, above all, that the monkey-like protrusion of the fore
teeth takes away the dignity of human expression.
When the principles that sway our secret thoughts are discovered,
and when by a comparison of the parts of the head
anatomically, a secure foundation is laid for the accurate observation
of nature, then the lines of Camper and Blumenbach, as applicable
to the living head, will aid us in the examination of character; but
of themselves these methods of measurement are imperfect, and
being founded on a mistaken principle, they lead, of consequence,
to unsatisfactory conclusions.
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