426 



OF TEMPERAMENTS, 



demands great muscular exertion, the muscles thus brought into action, and 

 easily supplied with nutrition from the sang-uineous system, will acquire con- 

 siderable increase of size, and produce a subdivision of the sanguineous tem- 

 perament, which is usually known by the name of athletic or muscular. ; In 

 this case, the head is very small; the neck very strong, particularly behind; 

 the shoulders are broad; all the muscles are powerful and prominent, sur- 

 rounded with strongly marked interstices or cavities ; .while the joints, and 

 parts not abounding in muscles, are extenuated, and the direction of the ten- 

 dons beneath them is obvious and striking.' \Perhaps the best model we pos- 

 sess of this peculiar constitution is the Farnesian Hercules, of which a good 

 copy is to be found in the hall of the Royal Academy at Somerset-house, and 

 must have been seen by every one who frequents the annual exhibitions of 

 that establishment. 



It is this temperament which is bestowed by Homer upon Ajax, and enables 

 him, after receiving the shock of a mountain crag upon his shield, hurled at 

 him by Hector, to return a still heavier and more effective blow. 



Then Ajax seized the fragment of a rock, 



AppHed each nerve, and swinging round on high, 



With force tempestuous, let the ruin fly. 



The huge stone thundering, through his buckler broke; 



His slacken'd knees receiv'd the numbing stroke. 



Great Hector falls extended on the field. 



His bulk supporting on the shatter'd shield. 



These verses have been deservedly admired for their strength, and they do 

 ample justice to the original. But the whole falls far short of the fearful and 

 majestic energy displayed by Spenser in his description of the combat between 

 the Giant and the Red Cross Knight, and particularly the overwhelming force 

 with which the former wielded his enormous club, and aimed to despatch the 

 champion by a single stroke, who had the good fortune to elude it, and amply 

 to repay himself on his foe. 



As when almightie Jove, in wrathfull mood, 

 To wreake the guilt of mortall sins is bent, 

 Hudes forth his thundring dart with deadly food, 

 Enrold in flames, and smouldring dreriinent 

 Tluough riven cloudes and molten firmament— 

 The fierce three-forked engin, making way, 

 Both lofiie towres and highest trees hath rent, 

 And all that might his angry passage stay : 

 And, shooting in the earth, castes up a mount of clay. 



His boystrous club, so buried in the grownd, 

 He could not reareu up againe so light 

 But that the Knight him at advantage fownd ; 

 And, whiles he strove his combred clubbe to quighte 

 Out of the earth, with blade all burning bright 

 He smott off his left anne, which, like a block, 

 Did fall to ground, depriv'd of native might; 

 Large streanies of blood out of the truncked stock 

 Forth gushed, like fresh-water stream from riven rocke.* 



In this subdivision of the temperament before us, we meet with no great 

 degree of acuteness of external impressions or mental perception. Muscular 

 strength, combined with mental tranquillity, is the prominent character: 

 the individual, therefore, is not easily roused; but when he is so, he sur- 

 mounts every resistance. It would be difficult to find in history a man of this 

 peculiar constitution, whose intellectual faculties have been sufficient to 

 acquire him an immortal fame. To become distinguished in the career of 

 the sciences and fine arts, an exquisite sensibility is indispensable; a con- 

 dition at utter variance with the full perfection of muscular masses. 



II. The second temperament or general character I have noticed, is the 

 CHOLERIC or BILIOUS. The liver and biliary organs in general are here as 

 redundant in their power as the sanguineous vessels, and for the most part at 



* Faerie Queene, b. i. canto viii. 9, 10. 



