476 The Four Nations. [MAY, 



parts of the Four Countries which resemble each other, yet enough of 

 difference remains to shew that geographical position is not the only, nor 

 indeed the principal cause. 



ORIGINAL RACE. Though I am not much of a convert to those doc- 

 trines of phrenology which make the human cranium a " house with 

 many mansions," and rate the importance in which each faculty and pro- 

 pensity is held as men are sometimes rated in the world by the size of its 

 dwelling ; yet I am very ready to admit and admit it not as a mere 

 assertion, but as the result of very careful and very long-continued observa- 

 tion that the general form of the head is a very certain indication of the 

 general ability and disposition of the possessor. When the head is very 

 broad, more especially toward the fore part, it may always be taken as an 

 indication of steadiness and perseverance in labour ; when the head is nar- 

 row in front, but greatly elongated, so as to have the form of an ellipse of 

 considerable eccentricity, there is always greater rapidity and versatility of 

 powers than in the former case but there is not the same steadiness and 

 perseverance; and when the head is small in both its measurements, and 

 especially when a horizontal section at the union of the eye-brows appears 

 to leave the greater part of the cranial cavity below, there is great irasci- 

 bility, without either rapidity of perception or perseverance. In all the 

 three formations there are these radical distinctions ; and the capacity of 

 each increases in proportion to the increase of elevation above the eye- 

 brows. 



Now the Saxon tribes which form the basis of the population in at 

 least the eastern and middle parts of England, and in some parts of the 

 lowlands of Scotland, and which are also partially intermingled with the 

 population of some parts of Ireland have the head broad and full at the 

 sides, without any great elongation. Hence, reasoning upon this principle, 

 we should expect to find in them that steady pursuit of a single object 

 that following of it out into the very minutest of its details that profound 

 knowledge of its principles, and that dexterity in its practical management, 

 which are found to be the chief characteristics of the English. 



The Celtic tribes, which, though altered by a different admixture, and 

 modified by different habits in each country, form the basis of the popula- 

 tion of Ireland, of Wales, and of the northern and western parts of Scot- 

 land, have their foreheads much narrower than the Saxon tribes ; and, 

 when pure, the Celtic head does not appear to be much elongated back- 

 wards, or to have, in the majority of cases, any great elevation. Among 

 such a people it would, therefore, be vain to look for any very transcendant 

 or commanding powers either of investigation or of action : and, therefore, 

 we find that the Celtic tribes have ever been conquered by their probably, 

 in many instances less quick but more solid and persevering neighbours. 

 From the remnant of them that skirts the western verge of Europe, and, as 

 travellers say, a certain portion of the extreme west of Africa, and from 

 the slight traces of their language (or at least of language in many respects 

 analogous) which are found among the mixed inhabitants of the Caucasus, 

 and some of the western ridges of the Himmalah, it is no very violent 

 hypothesis to suppose, that, in the course of ages, they have flitted before 

 their successive conquerors, at least from the confines of Asia. That, in 

 the British islands, they are the subdued part of the population, tbere is 

 abundant evidence. In England there are authenticated records of their 

 successive subjugations, from the time of Julius Caesar to the present day ; 

 while, in the highlands of Scotland, the heads of the clans and, in Ire- 



