CHAPTER XLV.

GEORGE MORELAND, A PAINTER.

FIGURE XXII. - HEAD OF MORELAND.

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IN this head we readily recognise the predominance of the basilar region, or large size of the propensities and the small size of the sentiments. Cautiousness, approbativeness, conscientiousness, and ideality are quite moderate. He would not be stimulated by ambition, or sense of duty, or anxiety for the future. He would, therefore, have nothing but his lower propensities to excite him to exertion. His tastes and sympathies, too, would be congenial to those in whom the same feelings predominate, and his sense of the beautiful would be

insufficient to elevate his taste. The strength of his perceptive organs (nearly all of which appear to have been large) would enable him to give mere likeness to his paintings, without any thing of the beautiful or sublime.

It is said he had talents as an artist of a high order, but his tastes and feelings were exceedingly low and grovelling. It is recorded of him in the Lives of Eminent Artists, by Cunningham, that "at four, five, and six years of age he made drawings worthy of ranking him among the common race of students, and, as a mere copyist, his fame had gone far and wide before the age of sixteen; but he associated with idle and profligate boys, and spent the money earned by his pencil at the tap-rooms with pot-boys, and hostlers, singing his song and cracking his jokes. Till he was seventeen his father received the greatest share of the money for his services; from this time he was left to support himself. His entire want of taste and judgment appeared in his dress, which was the extreme of foppishness. His skill of hand was great, and his facility wondrous, while his oddity of dress, his extreme youth, and the story of his early studies attracted curiosity and attention, and sitters came-the wealthy and the beautiful. But the painter loved low company, and all that was polished or genteel was the object of his implacable dislike. Pleasure could not be purchased without money; and to get money it was necessary to work; and during his short career he painted four thou sand pictures, most of them of great merit. They were mostly produced under the stimulus of intoxication, and the strong excitement of immediate payment. He had a look at once sagacious and sensual, and his character was essentially vulgar. He loved all kinds of company,

save that of gentlemen; it gave him pain to imitate the courtesies and decencies of life. As an artist, he is original and alone; his thoughts are natural, and he never paints above the most ordinary capacity, and gives an air of truth and reality to whatever he touches. He was the rustic painter for the people; his scenes are familiar to every eye, and his name on every lip." How strikingly do we see in all this the absence of ideality, conscientiousness, and love of approbation, and indeed the general predominance of the propensities.

From this disagreeable description, let us turn back to the noble image of Michael Angelo, and who shall say that all the difference in them resulted from education and external circumstances!

CHAPTER XLVI.

MRS. MAEDER, BETTER KNOWN AS MISS CLARA FISHER. — TALENT-AN ACTRESS.

MR. COMBE has given a front outline view of Miss Clara Fisher, in his System of Phrenology, as illustrative of the organ of imitation. I have never seen her, but have carefully examined a print published by Bourne of New York, from which the present engraving was copied ; and from this it would appear that she has a remarkably full development of the frontal organs in general, such as characterize the heads of precocious children. Benevolence, marvellousness, and ideality are large, and

imitation is particularly so; the intellectual organs are also in general large, especially the two rows of perceptive organs. Her temperament is sanguine and nervous, and her person below the medium size.

I notice among the perceptive organs eventuality, individuality, time, tune, and language, as particularly large. I am informed by a gentleman, who knows her public history well, that she first appeared on the London stage at the age of seven, and soon attracted great attention. Almost from the first, she was entirely unlimited in range of character, taking both male and female parts in tragedy, comedy, and the opera. When at about the age of eight she played the character of Richard III., and many other parts equally difficult and apparently unsuited to her age and sex. She came to America at about the

age of twelve, and appeared as a star throughout the principal cities. At this time she appeared more frequently in several pieces expressly written for herself, and played in some half dozen juvenile characters, both male and female. She was indeed a sort of Matthews in miniature.

She is one of those rare cases of great precocity, which have not disappointed the expectations of mature years. She is said to have, in a remarkable degree, the power of wholly losing herself in the character she represents, a power which requires great activity of secretiveness, marvellousness, imitation, individuality, and the perceptive organs generally. Although imitation is large, it is but one of the faculties to which she is indebted for her

success.

CHAPTER XLVII.

G. M. GOTTFRIED, A MURDERER BY POISON.

THE figure on the succeeding page is introduced for the purpose, not only of illustrating the very small size of some and very large size of other .organs, but one in which the greatest crimes may be accounted for, by simply looking at a few points. It is not one of the low class of ruffian heads, yet it is one of those cases in which it is very difficult to draw the line between extreme moral depravity and partial insanity. The head above the band, extending from the eye-brows to the top of the ear in the profile, and running between the ears in the