636 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



folk are generally too much in tonch with the world to develop 

 it to such an extent as do mystics who live in seclusion, or under 

 the dwarfing shadow of ecclesiastical authority. 



In this type of face we find not a few points similar to those 

 already discussed. For some mysterious reason the subcutaneous 

 tissue over the cheek bones and under the jaw gets an undue sup- 

 ply of nourishment. The skin, however, is less flabby and has 

 more color than that of the musician, and in this respect the 

 priest occupies an intermediate position between him and the last 

 of our trio. Naturally, there is more evidence of mental activity 

 in the priestly than in the musical face, and, especially where our 

 reverend subject is conscious of a share in the apostolic legacy, 

 his sense of authority gives a more muscular set to his lips. 

 Habits of self-denial and self-command give him characteristics 

 which make him, as a rule, compare favorably with his physi- 

 ognomical associates ; but when these, and marked intellectual 

 traits, are absent, and no physical bars to nutritive processes in- 

 tervene, he is capable of reaching an even lower level of ugliness 

 than they. 



Probably nowhere can one see the less prepossessing charac- 

 teristics of the priestly type in so pronounced a form as among 

 the humbler Catholic clergy in Ireland. Here we have most of 

 the conditions (mentioned above) which are required for the full 

 development of sympathetic facial traits. The Irish priest is 

 generally drawn from a healthy and imaginative peasant class, 

 readily given to emotion and superstition, and not overburdened 

 with intelligence. His constitution is sound, his digestion is 

 good, and he is not very rigidly abstemious either by rule or cus- 

 tom. I see no reason to doubt the testimony of impartial critics 

 who declare that, taken as a whole, the Irish priests are the most 

 chaste and devoted body of clerics upon earth. They are un- 

 doubtedly of good report, but they can not be classed among the 

 " things that are lovely." Judged from the conventional rather 

 than from the scientific standpoint, the expressions of these good 

 men are indicative of anything but of spiritual purity or of intel- 

 lectual refinement. In their jaws, lips, and eyes, those traits 

 which are generally considered to be the marks of the grosser 

 animal qualities are so apparent as to force themselves upon the 

 attention of the spectator. 



Now why does a clerical congress in the Isle of Saints appear 

 as far as outward facial aspect is concerned like a parliament 

 representing the interests of the world, the flesh, and the devil ? 



People of " the opposite religion," to use a convenient phrase 

 which we owe to Lord Salisbury, have not been backward in 

 suggesting explanations of the phenomena which are not very 

 favorable to the doctrines and practices of the spiritual followers 



