CHARLES DARWIN. 14J) 



was right, and everything was profusely thanked 

 for "). 



,But we may now draw all this personal matter into a 

 single point by consideration of his portraits. Each of 

 the three volumes {Life, etc.) has its own specimen. Mr. 

 Darwin is described as a tall man, six feet in height, 

 broad-shouldered but not noticeably so, with a spare body 

 and thin legs. His hair was brown, and his complexion, as 

 I am tempted to interpret his own " rather sallow " and his 

 son's " ruddy rather than sallow," a rustic reddish fair. 

 From the circumference of it, " 22| inches," his hat 

 would be, as the manufacturers have it, at least a 7 ; 

 which medium size was, as I take it, that in Kant's case 

 also. The first of the portraits, of which a photograph, 

 dated 1854, seems to have been the original, may allow- 

 ably, from its place and otherwise, be assumed to be, 

 generally, the most characteristic. It represents Mr. 

 Darwin as, at the age of forty-five, he was just in hh 

 prime. With checked vest, checked neckcloth, and a 

 certain honest, matter-of-fact look, it is an English 

 squire-like face we see there. The head, bald, rises and 

 rounds finely. The eyes, overhung by unusually project- 

 ing shaggy brows, look out honestly. They seem as if 

 they had been made both for and by observation. The 

 ridge above them is so steep that one might almost think 

 a cleaver had struck across the line beneath it. The 

 nose is quite what we might expect from Fitz-Koy's 

 dislike to it as inexpressive whether of energy or quick- 

 ness. It is shortish, smallish, turned-upish, dumpyish, 

 common ; it has an insignificant, and withal an innocent 

 look. The mouth in this portrait is a very remarkable 

 feature ; and it is well seen, the face being beardless as 

 yet, and framed only by a plain, close, gentlemanly side- 

 whisker. It is the expression of it that is remarkable. 

 In the other portraits the beard so far hides the mouth ; 



