ON TEMPERAMENTS, 



Then Ajax seized the fragment of a rock, 



Applied 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 knee^ received the numbing stroke. 



Great Hector falls extended on the field. 



His bulk supporting on the shattered shield. 



These verses have been deservedly admired for their strength, and thej 

 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 over- 

 weening 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 almighfie Jove, in wrathful! mood, 

 To wreake the guilt of raortall sins is bent, 



Hurles forth his thundring dart with deadly food, » 

 Enrold in flames, and smouldring dreriment, 

 Through riven cloudes and molten firmament. — • 

 The fierce three-forked engin, making way, 

 Both loftie 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 rearen up againe so light 



B«t that the Knight him at advantage fownd ; ^ 

 And, whiles he strove his combred clubbe to quightc 

 Out of the earth, with blade all burning bright 

 He smott oS his left arme, which, lilce a block. 

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

 Large streames of blood out of the trunckled stock 

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



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

 gree of acuteness of external impressions or mental perception. Mus- 

 cular strength, combined with mental tranquillity, is the prominent cha- 

 racter : the individual, therefore, is not easily roused ; but when he is so, 

 he surmounts 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 indis- 

 pensable ; a condition at utter vari^mce with the full perfection of muscu- 

 lar masses. 



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

 CHOLERIC OK BILIOUS. The livcr and biliary organs in general are here as 

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

 at the expense of the excernent, or cellular and lymphatic system. The 

 pulse, as in the last kind, is strong and hard, but somewhat more fre- 

 quent ; the veins cutaneous and projecting ; the sensibility acute and easily 

 excited, with a capacity of dwelling for a long time on the same object. The 

 skin is brownish, with a tendency to yellowness ; the hair black or dark- 

 brown ; the body moderately fleshy ; the muscles firm and well marked ; 

 the figure expressive. The temper of the^mind exhibits abruptness, im- 

 petuosity, and violence of passion ; hardihood in the conception of a pro- 

 ject, steadiness and inflexibility in pursuing it, and indefatigable perse- 



* Faerie Queene, b. i. cant. viii. 9, ,10- 



