CHAPTER VII. 

 EVIDENCE AND EXAMPLES. 



IF men and women, however diverse in individual 

 character, fall naturally under one of two broad 

 tendencies, examples of both should be readily found in 

 history, biography, poetry, fiction, as well as in daily 

 life around us. Many and unequivocal examples do 

 actually present themselves. Artistic representations 

 of the human figure, that is, of the build and pose of 

 the skeleton, are in some degree misleading, because 

 unfortunately, painters, sculptors, and photographers, 

 have a habit of imposing their own ideals on the 

 objects of their art. The man who stoops is told to 

 hold his head up ; the naturally erect man is directed 

 not to look as if he had swallowed a poker. If easy, 

 habitual, undirected positions were given they would 

 tell in favour of the views here put forward. Verbal 

 descriptions of bodily characteristics by competent 

 observers have a value which cannot be exaggerated, 

 and happily these are not entirely wanting. 



It was once commonly believed, and the belief has 

 by no means disappeared, that peoples and persons are 

 inherently and potentially alike. Men, deservedly of 

 great eminence in literature, among them Mill and 

 Buckle, have seemed to favour this conclusion. It is not 

 the view of students of the living body, of those only who 

 can speak with authority anatomists and physiologists. 

 It is not the view of those who teach either children 

 or adults. No possible training or antecedence could 

 extract Shaksperian art or Newtonian discovery from 



