392 London Philosophical Society. 



from ihe perpendicular, and the brute either possesses no 

 forehead at all, a most decisive mark of inanitv, or presents 

 it to view in a line nearly horizontal or parallel with the 

 earth. Hence, then, a deficiency of forehead is analogous 

 to a deficiency of intellect ; and from this proposition re- 

 sults another of still greater impirtance, that the nearer 

 the forehead of brutes approaches the line described by that 

 of man, the greater must be their characteristics of sagaci- 

 ty, of memory, of sensibility ; and this is instanced in the 

 eleplunt, the dog, and the monkey. The approximation 

 or deviation, therefore, affords a scale perfectly unembar- 

 rassed for the physiognomist. — The main result of the 

 whole argmnent was this : that a receding forehead, that is, 

 when compared with the usual perpendicularity of human 

 foreheads, implies a defective gradation of intellect ; and, 

 when the line so receding passes a certain point, involves 

 a necessary incapacity in the individual. 



It must not be supposed, however, continued the Lec- 

 turer, that a rectilinear forehead affords the only real stand- 

 ard of perfection. Where there are internal organs origi- 

 nally active, there must be prominences and curves. The 

 greater the curve, the greater will be the power ; and the 

 more distinct and clear the external delineation, the more 

 singleness of internal energy in the metaphysical faculties 

 of the brain. Hence, then, a concavity of forehead betrays 

 a greater want of intellect than a perpendicularity, and the 

 latter than a convexity, that is, under certain modifications 

 and restrictions. He was aware that the Greek statues of 

 the gods exhibited a forehead distinguished by a perpendi- 

 cularity of outline continued throughout the whole extent 

 ot thenfjse: but even this fact, though apparently hostile, 

 was in reality coincident with this theory ; for the Greeks 

 aimed at conferring a calm intellectual self-absorption on 

 their deities, as well as a privation from debasing passions. 

 Instead, therefore, of prominences, which are the stamps of 

 effort, they selected right lines, and they produced by that 

 selection the anticipated effect. 



Mr. C. concluded his first Lecture bv exhibiting a scale 

 of the gradation of intellect, from the horizontal line of 

 forehead peculiar to the lowest brutes, to the perpendicular 

 line of the Greek ideal : by this it appeared, that the Eu- 

 ropean forehead retrogressed from the ideal ten degrees, the 

 Asiatic (a fact pregnant with moral conclusions) about fif- 

 teen, the Negro twenty, the Peruvian twenty-five, the Ou- 

 rang-outang thirty- five. He alluded to the argument of 

 Nigro nonprogrcssion, drawn chiefly from the foreheads of 



that 



