Imagens da página
PDF
ePub
[subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][graphic]

To

How delightful is the pursuit of natural science study the habits and manners of ants,-to contemplate the industrious spider-little weaver that never starves for want of employ,-to observe the "busy bee," instinct with that appetite for sweets which it shares with the equally happy, but alas! the less industrious truant, collecting the saccharine principle "from every opening flower,"-to form a continually increasing circle of acquaintance with the verdant inhabitants of the vegetable kingdom, and the interesting inmates of the Zoological Gardens ;-these, indeed, are the occupations which render life one summer's day; which enhance the beatitude, and sweeten the tea-cup of domestic bliss. To the reflective and observant mind, the blow-fly, blue marauder, regaling itself on the sirVOL. II.

loin, destined to grace to-morrow the family board; the mouse, tiny thief, luxuriating in fancied secret on the new Stilton in the larder; nay, even the unbidden cockroach helping himself to the Christmas pie, become objects of instructive survey.

Actuated by an appetite for useful knowledge, which has prompted the foregoing reflections, I connected my self some years ago with a literary and scientific society, which had been formed at Islington, where I reside, among a small but respectable circle of friends. Our members are inclusive of several ladies-among them, of Mrs. Brown, the amiable partner of my lot, with whom I have lived in an uninterrupted state of felicity for a longer time than, perhaps, she will allow me to state. The predilections of Mrs. B. are precisely

C

similar to my own; and having no family, we are enabled to devote the greater part of our time to indulgence in our favourite pursuits.

Our society meets at the house of each member in rotation, at half-past six precisely. After an exhilarating cup of tea we proceed to business, and a lecture is delivered by the host of the evening, on the composition of water, the nature and properties of steam, the construction of the barometer and thermometer, or some other improving and entertaining subject. Sometimes our recreations are diversified and enlivened by a discourse from one of our number, who is a young medical man, on the conformation of the skeleton, the circulation of the blood, and the like arcana of the healing art. At our last meeting we were gratified with a paper on hydraulics, as exemplified by the common pump.

One evening, our young professional friend, whose name I may mention is Mr. John Hunter Dummer, obliged us with a lecture on the sciences of mesmerism and phrenology. Never having had the means, previously, of acquiring any information on these subjects, I had formed no opinion respecting them; I therefore hailed the opportunity thus afforded me of enlarging my stock of ideas. Mr. Dummer very much disposed me to believe that there was something in the doctrines which he advocated, particularly as he appealed in confirmation of them to facts, which, as he with great truth remarked, were stubborn things. Resolved, as he recommended, to make observation of Nature the test of truth, I took home with me a phrenological bust, accompanied by a card, descriptive of the different organs, which he was so kind as to lend me.

On arriving at our own little domicile I immediately commenced my researches by examining the head of Mrs. B. The first point in her organization which struck me, was the great fulness of the occiput or back of the head. On comparing notes with the bust, I found that this was the region of the organ termed "Philoprogenitiveness." I looked out "Philoprogenitiveness" upon the card, where I found the results of its predominance described as follows:

"Very Large.-Extreme fondness for children and young creatures in general. Apt to lead to indulging and spoiling youth, also to petting and caressing small animals. Often occasions extreme desire for offspring, and regret at the non-enjoyment of that supposed blessing."

This was very singular. Mrs. B. had at that very moment Tiny, a little King Charles's spaniel, whom she washes and combs every morning with her own hands, and has fed so bountifully that he has become. quite corpulent in her lap; and Tib, her favourite tortoise-shell, was purring behind her chair. The very next evening the little Edwardses over the way, whom she is continually regaling with sugar-plums and raspberry jam, were coming to tea, to meet our little nephews and nieces; and I could not but be interestingly reminded of the circumstance, that the sole affliction of my good lady is that no olive branches have graced our otherwise unique mahogany.

I next remarked her considerable prominence at "Tune," and recollected with a fond sigh of retrospection, that the circumstance which, in youth's gay morn, fixed my destiny for life, was hearing her sing in a summer-house at Brixton, "O'tis the melody we heard in former years!"

I found, also, "Alimentiveness," or the organ of appetite for food, very highly developed, and remembered that she had that very morning inquired, with a languishing gaze upon vacancy, when ducks and green peas would be reasonable enough for our circumstances. Her predilection for bubble and squeak occurred, in addition, to my mind; as did, moreover, ("Constructiveness" was large, too,) her proficiency in the preparation of jellies, pickles, preserves, and in the other mysteries of the culinary art.

[ocr errors]

Causality," the organ of perceiving the relation of cause and effect, was moderate in size. Accordingly Mrs. B. has always experienced a difficulty in understanding the dependence of the boiling point of water on elevation above the level of the sea, and the connexion between lobster-salad and indigestion. She is moreover prone, when asked to assign a reason for such and such a fact, to answer, "Because it is." I had inquired of her a few days before, why corned beef was sometimes variegated on its exterior, and she gave me that reply.

These striking coincidences at once rendered me a zealous convert to phrenology. I then tried to mesmerise my partner, and she very soon became a sleeping one; but as in about half an hour she suddenly awoke with a start, and wanted to know if it was not almost supper time, I am not quite sure that the sleep was not simply natural.

The next day I examined the heads of our domestics,-not without some opposition on the part of the cook, who, I imagine, at first misapprehended my object. She had a very large "Destructiveness," and, certainly, her temper is none of the most equable. The housemaid was deficient in "Order;" a defect which her stockings, exhibiting the chasm vulgarly called a potatoe-her shoes, which were down at heeland the general hue of her visage, which once induced a wag, who visited at my house, to say, that she must have been cleaning her face with the blacking-brush— abundantly exemplified; and which the dusty condition of the mantelpiece, the litter usually observable in the passage, and the inadequately rinsed breakfast cups, had too often borne out before.

Our knife, errand, and foot-boy, or page, was endowed with an extraordinary "Locality," which, among other things, occasions a desire for change of place. I had never observed any indications of the faculty in the boy; but he came a few days afterwards to give warning, wishing to change his place, as he said, to better himself-but, as I am convinced, acting under the influence of his Locality."

When he was gone, I made up my mind to choose his successor on phrenological principles; one of the chief uses of phrenology having been stated by Mr. Dummer to be, its applicability to the selection of servants. Accordingly I rejected numerous applicants for his situation, who came with the best recommendations, not finding their organizations in conformity with their alleged character; and, finally, made choice of one, whose head, in my judgment, was to be depended on. He seemed to have a fine moral developement, with particularly large "Wit," "Form,' "Imitation," "Constructiveness," "Adhesiveness," Marvellousness," and, as I thought, "Ideality."

[ocr errors]

When I inquired what his name was, he answered, "Bill Summers." I considered his substitution of "Bill" for "William" as a proof of the facetious

tendency of his mind-which, admiring innocent mirth rather than otherwise, I considered by no means a disqualification on his part for my service.

I soon found that the disposition to humorous manifestations was really very strong in this young gentleman, and was manifested in a variety of ways. If his fellow servants asked him for any thing, he would often playfully demand whether they did not wish they might get it? At the same time, he generally put his thumb up to his nose, and twiddled his extended fingers. He would inquire of young passers-by at the area railings, of whom he had no previous acquaintance, the state of the health of their maternal parents? whether those relatives were aware of their being from home? if they had disposed of their mangles? and many similar questions, which, though they had rather the semblance of impertinence, were no doubt dictated by a pure love of drollery.

This "Wit" or Mirthfulness," acting along with "Imitation," and perhaps "Tune," oftentimes occasioned him to indulge in the utterance of various noises, which I supposed were intended to resemble the cries of different animals. Of these, a favourite one was a note something like the call of the lapwing, another was similar to that of the turkey. The duck he imitated to perfection.

"Constructiveness," the organ of manual adroitness, he evinced by a singular dexterity in flinging stones, which sometimes excited my admiration, in spite of my perception of the dangerous tendency of the amusement. He was very fond also of piling little grottoes with oyster-shells, which he collected while going on errands. His "Marvellousness," or 66 Wonder," was very apt to make him loiter in order to stare at sights. This habit sometimes occasioned us a little inconvenience; but then how interesting it was to observe the exemplification of truth! He was always especially attracted by the performance of Punch, which gratified the dramatic turn arising from his "Imitation," and was also a rich treat to his "Mirthfulness."

The faculty last mentioned in him was eminently practical, and the cook and housemaid had often to complain of its results, which were, sticking needles point uppermost in their chairs, putting chopped horsehair in their beds, insects on the sly down their backs, and other like pleasantries. A neighbour, an antiquated spinster, one day sent in to complain that he had singed her cat's whiskers, and shaved its tail; but upon a careful admeasurement, finding "Benevolence" to be decidedly large, I acquitted him of so cruel a joke.

Of his well developed "Form," whereon the talent for drawing depends, I observed a manifestation very shortly after his arrival. I was looking out of a back window which commanded a view of the yard, and the knife-shed therein situated, where he had some work to do. This he had temporarily abandoned, and was engaged in making a sketch in white chalk upon the wall. First he drew a perpendicular line about two feet long, then a transverse one three fourths shorter, at right angles with the top of it. The former he connected with the latter by a diagonal stroke, commencing at the termination of the one, and joining the other some four inches down its length. From the point of the scalene triangle thus formed, he dropped fourth line about half a foot in length, and this he joined at its termination to the lateral part of a small

a

[merged small][graphic]

Having completed this design, which, as will be seen, was a pictorial commentary on the law of capital punishment, he put his hands into his pockets under his apron, and fell to capering and whistling in high glee at the success of his performance; but, upon turning round, and catching sight of me at the window, he' hastily resumed his employment. I had called Mrs. Brown, to show the amusement which I derived from witnessing his proceedings, and we both agreed that the subject which he had chosen for illustration-the tendency and reward of crime-was in complete harmony with his large "Conscientiousness," and strongly indicative of his moral sense.

His "Adhesiveness" was shown in the delight which he evidently derived from the interchange of ideas with the butcher and baker boys at the area, wherein he would sometimes spend more time than I quite approved of.

In one respect, however, I was at a loss to reconcile his character with his developement. He seemed, as I said, to have large "Ideality," the protuberance indicative of the poet. Nevertheless, he never made any verses that I knew of, and though he knew a few songs, they were principally of the description termed Negro Melodies," which can hardly be said to be of a poetical or sentimental character. Indeed, they were,

[ocr errors]

for the most part, scarcely intelligible-there was one, in particular, in which one Josey" was invited to "jim along.' I could not make head or tail of it.

[ocr errors]

To make sure that my phrenological estimate had been correct, I induced him, by the present of five shillings, to allow his head to be shaved, and to let me trace out the different organs thereon in ink. I chose some of Mrs. Brown's marking ink for the purpose, which being principally composed of nitrate of silver or lunar caustic, was ineffaceable by ablution. I mapped out the bare scalp in exact conformity with the bust, C 2

and was confirmed in the conviction that I had made rest, were discovered behind a loose brick in the no mistake.

Shortly afterwards, several spoons were missing. The cook and housemaid, on being taxed with the theft, indignantly denied it; and the idea that so well organized a boy as William was capable of such a delinquency, was preposterous. Mrs. B. had a tame magpie, and having read in various books of natural history of the propensity of this creature to pilfer and secrete such articles, we determined, not without great reluctance on my wife's part, that the bird's neck should be wrung-an operation which was performed by William, and which he appeared to undertake with greater readiness than could have been predicted from his large "Benevolence."

We had occasionally before observed the marks of smutty fingers on the exterior of mince and apple pies, and had fancied that an undue diminution had taken place in their contents during their reservation in the larder. At length, too, the beer, which it was William's province to fetch, began to assume a much more aqueous character than is consistent with Barclayian integrity. This circumstance, in spite of our preconceived opinion of the lad's honesty, gradually induced us to question his pretensions to that virtue; and at last Mrs. Brown having lost a brooch, and a diligent search having been vainly instituted in the other servants' boxes, the bed-room of Master William was examined, under the auspices of F 34, when, to our astonishment and confusion, the brooch and two or three of the spoons, with a pawnbroker's duplicate for the

chimney.

The youth was with little loss of time conveyed in the charge of F to the Clerkenwell Police-office, and thence in a van to Newgate. Before he left, we called in Mr. Dummer to look at his head, and explain its discordance with what he had turned out to be. And now comes the climax of my narration, which I record for the benefit of inexperienced phrenologists. What I had marked out as Ideality" was declared by Mr. D. to be in reality "Acquisitiveness," which, in this instance, was so large as to come three inches in advance of its legitimate boundary, and to occupy the place of the former organ. Here, therefore, as that gentleman remarked, was one of those beautiful exceptions which prove a rule.

[ocr errors]

William is now in Australia. I have determined, in future, not to trust my own skill as a manipulator in determining on a servant's character; but, instead, shall have recourse for that purpose to the assistance of some practised professor of phrenology. The guinea thus laid out will be well spent in the purchase of a guarantee against deception and loss.

The cook and housemaid, who, indignant at having been suspected, had given us warning, both declared that the boy was not only a thief, but an incorrigible storyteller. This feature of his character was beautifully accordant with his great "Marvellousness." On the whole, I consider my phrenological experiment to have been highly satisfactory.

THE BOY AND THE FLOWERS.

I SAW a boy beguile the sunny hours
Of a fresh day of Spring, in gathering flowers
For a sweet sister, who was sick at home,
And was not able now, as wont, to roam
And cull them for herself: for this he'd come
To this wild range of sunny heights, where grew
The sweet mild primrose and the wildbell blue,
With countless flowers of every shape and hue
Spring's robe is trimm'd withal-for he had said,
The fairest of their spoils should deck her bed,
And bear some sense of Spring into her heart.
And now unto this promised brother's part
He set himself with right good loving will,
And wandered all about the blossomed hill,
Cropping the breathing buds, the which he took
To be the sweetest in their smell and look.
He'd pluck a bunch that seemed unto him fair,
And cherish them a little with meet care;

But as he wandered, if perchance he spied
A knot, he thought to rival them in pride,
Those he had gathered were all cast aside,
To wither where they grew before; and so,
Wasting the Spring's best sweetness, did he go
Through the gay blush of flow'rets, till at last,
When he was tired, and such a time had passed
As told him he must cease, he sat him down—
And when he thought of all that he had thrown
So wantonly away, he was e'en sad;

For when he looked upon the flowers he had,
He somehow could not choose but think that they
Were far less sweet than those he threw away.
And surely man resembleth much-I cried-
The boy who grieveth on this green hill side,
That he hath cast his fairest flowers to wither-
In all except the love that brought him hither.

A. P.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed]

IN treating of Westminster Abbey in its past and present state, we shall restrict ourselves to the consideration of the building now a collegiate but formerly an abbey church, which is commonly understood by that name, exclusively of the rest of the monastic establishment, dedicated in honour of St. Peter, of which it once formed part. Nor shall we enter upon those technical details which would be appropriate, and, indeed, expected, in an antiquarian or architectural periodical, but would be unsuited to pages intended for the general eye. Our purpose is principally to regard it as embodying in its original condition the spirit which characterized the age, and evincing, in the changes which it has undergone, in its actual aspect, and under its existing circumstances, that of subsequent periods, and of the present time.

To enlarge upon the considerations which must ever render Westminster Abbey an object of interest, would

be an ill compliment to the taste, to the feelings, and to the acquirements of the reader, even were we to suppose him a mere schoolboy. What child, not having been brought up in the mines and factories, but has heard of the venerable old building where kings are crowned, great men buried, and a poet's monument is placed when he dies? Every one the least read in our land's history, regards it as a monument to the memory of Old England; an extant memorial of the deeds and days that have gone. And to all who look back upon antiquity with a poetic eye, its bare mention is suggestive of all that solemn thought and that fond reverence wherewith they are wont to contemplate the things of old. Its very name is a name to conjure withal, to evoke the spectres of glory, dim pageants of departed grandeur, from out the sepulchre of time.

There are some who, classing Westminster Abbey in

« AnteriorContinuar »