HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND CHARACTER. 469 



the projecting brows of the keen observer, the broad 

 forehead of the thinker, the lofty crown that betokened 

 kindliness and piety, and the breadth between the ears that 

 indicated immense energy and power of work. His coun- 

 tenance was striking and pleasant, and his firm features 

 proved him to be a man of strong, nervous temperament, 

 keen, clear-sighted, and active, full of the vigour and 

 resolution that command success, with the quiet shrewdness 

 and humour of the Scottish peasantry ; while the deep-set 

 eyes, their colour hidden by the penthouse brows, looked 

 as if they could see much where most would see nothing. 



His extreme shortsightedness interfered all his life 

 with his proficiency as a reader, and to some extent with 

 the prosecution of his .botanical studies, necessitating in 

 these more stooping and groping than would otherwise 

 have been required. But, as is often the case with near- 

 sighted people, he never needed to use spectacles, and his 

 eyes remained good to the last ; so that he could read the 

 smallest print with ease till he was eighty-seven, and never 

 used any other than a very small-print pocket Bible.* 

 This continued nearness of sight had also another interest- 



from the ear to the top of the forehead, and 7! inches from the ear to 

 the crown. The measurement from the ear to the occiput or top of 

 the back is not to be depended on, from the accident by which it was 

 broken. (See p. 74-) The average measurements in this country 

 are 20 to 21 inches in circumference, 4| from ear to top of forehead, 

 or individuality, 5|- from ear to top of head ; the last two, according 

 to George Combe, being the average of twenty representative specimens. 

 * The " Paragraph Bible " issued by the Religious Tract Society, 

 the print of which is sufficiently trying even for young eyes. The 

 possession of a copy of the Scriptures with the modern innovations on 

 the old verses and the like, shows also his intelligent love of progress 

 in even such conservative religious subjects. 



