JAPETIC STOCK. 229 



features. It has been also observed, that, in the ancient statues, the feet 

 are proportionately larger, and the limbs less slender, than comports with 

 our ideas of modern European beauty. As ah illustration of the Greek 

 style of head, that of the Apollo (fig. 185) has been selected ; not, indeed, 

 that it was a copy of any individual of that nation ; but, what is far more 

 important, it embodies the conceptions of the Greeks themselves, with 

 respect to physical excellence, and intellectual greatness ; it is an exalted 

 or deified personification of the Greek physiognomy, such as the sculptor 

 contemplated it in his countrymen, and it exhibits all the peculiarities of 

 the Greek type. The forehead is ample and prominent ; the superorbital 

 line is boldly marked ; the nose, broad between the eyes, falls gracefully 

 from the forehead; and the nostrils, somewhat expanded, as if from 

 intense eagerness, or proud disdain, are large, but delicately turned ; the 

 eyes are large, open, and separated to a considerable distance from each 

 other, this being the contrary to what is observable in the Ape tribe, 

 where 1 the eyes approximate closely: the inner angle, besides, instead 

 of being the lowest, is rather the most elevated ; this conformation being 

 the reverse of what is seen in the Mongole style of countenance, in which 

 the eyes are linear and oblique, the outer angle being decidedly the most 

 raised. It is this elevation of the inner angle, to which their dignified 

 expression, so remote from that of low cunning, is mainly to be attributed ; 

 and it is a character essential to the pure Japetic model of physical emi- 

 nence. The mouth is moderate, the lips are beautifully chiseled, and 

 the chin is full and prominent. The lower part of the face is subordinate 

 to the upper part, and to the forehead, so as to produce an expression as 

 remote as possible from that of the brute, but yet to convey no ideas of 

 mental debility, which a retreating chin, an undeveloped lower jaw, and a 

 very small mouth, with lips destitute of a marked outline, infallibly pro- 

 duce. This harmony, between the upper and lower parts of the face, is 

 conspicuous in all the Greek representations of heroes, or of deities. 



The Roman countenance was distinguished by the more aquiline form 

 of the nose, and by less delicacy of outline : the depression between the 

 nose and forehead was decided, the lower jaw was larger, and the chin 

 more prominent. The Romans, however, were a people of mixed races, 

 the Pelasgic stock having been ingrafted with offsets from other sources. 

 With regard to the religious rites and opinions of the Pelasgic race, they 

 were, to a great extent, of Egyptian origin.* 



* " Almost all the names of the gods came into Greece from Egypt : for, upon inquiry, I found 

 them to be of foreign extraction, and, 1 think, for the most part, from Egypt ; for, as I have said, 

 excepting Neptune, and the Dioscures, Juno, Vesta/.Themis, and the Graces, and the Nereides, the 

 names of all the other gods have existed from the remotest ages in Egypt. I report, at least, what 

 the Egyptians themselves told me. And those gods, of whom they profess not to know the names, 

 received appellations, as I think, from the Pelasgians, except Neptune ; for the knowledge of this 

 god came from Lybia, for the name of Neptune existed anciently among no people but the Lybians, 

 who have always honoured him as a god. As to the heroes, the Egyptians do not celebrate their 



