nor of the cranium, and consequently we cannot observe the proportions
which the area of the bones of the face has to those of the
cranium. It will not suit the objects of the artists, nor lead to the
observation of character in the living head.
Professor Cuvier is extravagantly incorrect. He first lays down
the common division of the bones of the head into the osseous case
for containing the brain, and the bones of the face as constituting
the cavities which contain the organs of sight, smell, and taste.
He observes that the two organs which occupy the greater part of
the face are those of smell and taste, and that according to the
degree of development of these organs will the proportion of the
face to the cranium be increased. He then enters on a singular
enough inquiry. Animals, he says, depend on the relative energy
of their functions. Hunger and love govern brutes the most powerfully.
Further, he conceives that there is a necessary connexion
between the organs of taste and the sense of hunger, between the
organs of smell and the sexual propensities. Having thus, as he
believes, made it appear that the senses of taste and smell debase
and depress the animal in the scale of being, in proportion to their
development, he is very easily satisfied that the increase of the size
of the bones of the face, as containing these two organs, and the
proportionate diminution of the bones of the cranium, as compared
with them, will always correspond with the stupidity or ferocity of
the animal.
The error which pervades these observations of M. Cuvier, as I
conceive, lies in supposing that the perfection of the organ of taste
is relative to the magnitude of the jaws, and that the perfection of
the organ of smelling has relation to the prominence of the nose.
The form of a man’s nose has no relation to the extent or perfection
of the organ of smelling; the seat of the sense is deep in
the oethmoid bone. The nose is peculiar and distinguished in man,
because it is a principal part of the organ of voice, and has relation
to the transmission of air to the lungs, and to expression. A certain
size and form of the nose is as appropriately human as the voice
itself; and this leads us to the true explanation of what is great
or fine in the human head, and what is debasing.
As I have already hinted, I would refer the peculiarity of the
beautiful and impressive form of the antique head to this principle,
that the ancient artists sedulously avoided whatever was deemed
characteristic of the brute, and magnified those dimensions of
the human countenance which mark the distinguishing attributes
of man.
The principle of composition among the ancients is worthy of
our study. Painting was with them more of a science; with the
moderns it is more of an art. The former sought to discover,
among those sympathies and associations which often influence our
judgment so unconsciously as to appear even like prejudices, some
leading principle of composition; they soon left mere imitation,
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