BREEDING. 205 



of a snub-nose and small eye, had an indubitably 

 porcine cast. 



Could the painter Leslie have meant anything of 

 this sort, when, after speaking of the exceeding accu- 

 racy and care with which his friend and fellow- 

 countryman, Alexander Wilson, had prepared the 

 coloured plates for his work on ornithology, "that 

 most interesting account of birds illustrated with the 

 best representation of their forms and colours that 

 has ever appeared," he further adds, "he looked like 

 a bird ; his eyes were piercing, dark and luminous, 

 and his nose shaped like a beak ? He was of a spare 

 bony form, very erect in his carriage, inclining to be 

 tall, and with a light elastic step." This theory of 

 strong mental influence, that keen observer, our great 

 poet, would seem to challenge in those memorable 

 lines : 



<c 



Oh ! who can hold a fire in his hand 

 By thinking on the frosty Caucasus ? 

 Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite 

 By bare imagination of a feast ? " 



Yet, on the other hand, the musician will confidently 

 teach you that a vocal note may be acquired by con- 

 tinually dwelling upon it in the mind ; why not, by 

 the same rule, a similarity of features from incessant 

 contemplation ? Besides, manner and habit, after a 

 period, give effect to a likeness, and these are copied 

 almost instinctively. The least shadow of facial 

 similarity, backed up by even involuntarily copied 

 ways and habits, in a man may suggest eventually to 

 his associates the idea of his resembling what he 



