Sketches and characters, or, The natural history of the human intellects

Front matter

SKETCHES AND CHARACTERS

OK

'^f)£ Natural l^istory or THE

Chapter I

The present Essay is composed of gleanings on the field of mental philosopliy, and is but a natural bistory of human intellects.

The obvious disparity in the iutellectual powers of men pointed out.

The influence of diet, of the game of draughts and chess and of whist ; the influence of daylight, of the weakness or excellence of the senses, or of the want of one of them ; the influence of passions, of society, of parliamentary life, of education, and of music, upon our intellectual faculties.

The influence which difierent deficiencies, as well as excellences, capacities, and bias of our intellect, arc exerting upon our morals, passions, and judgment.

Sources and modifications of mental disparity.

An account of the motives, occasions, and sources of the observations displaying the diversity and disparity of mental characters, ]3p. 1 — 40

Chapter II

Mental capacities of difierent nations — The facial angle of Camper — Dr. Prichard’s types of cranial conformation — The Bushmen — The primitive inhabitants of Australia — The Hottentots — The Negroes The North American Western Indians — Indians of California — Aborigines of North America at the moment of the discovery of America by Columbus — The Puris, or Brazilian Indians.

Asiatics : Aborigines of Egypt — Turks — Arabs — Persians — Hindoos — Chinese.

iiiuropeans : Spaniards — Portuguese — Italians— -French — Germans — Englishmen Welshmen — Scotchmen — Irishmen — Anglo-Americans Poles Bohemians — W ends — Russians — Hungarians —

South-blavonians — Ancient and Modern Greeks , . ])p. 41 — lOS

VI

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEli III.

The Intelligence of Animals, and its Limits . . . .

CHAPTEK IV.

Stupidity and its different degrees, removes, and shades. Idiots and Cretins Irish innocents — A half-crazed simpleton — A tip-top fool —A blinking idiot— A superstitious fool— A gainsaying fool— A questioning fool— A learned fool— A coxcomb— A witling— A puling and self-admu-ing fool— A smooth-mannered fool — An habitual liar— A giddy-brained fool— A half-wit— A simpleton and a ninnyhammer — The fanatic pp_ ixg J5g

CHAPTEE V.

DEFICIENCIES, FAILINGS, AND BIAS OF WIT AND UNDEESTANDINGv

A poor genius — A puny wit — A pedant — Professors exposed to become pedants — A poet inspired by books — Chatterton — A poetaster — A provincial bard— A low wit, a punster, a quibbler, and a riddle-maker — Penny-a-liner — A libeller — An understanding with but one window — A shallow wit — A dim understanding — A muddle-headed man— Three mental deficiencies of literary men — A person with a marvellous memory — An intellect deprived of memory — An absent man — A button-holder — A cross-grained wit — A strange genius — A slow wit — A sly and crafty person — A sophist — Mental bias of a lovesick person. . , . pp. 159 — 202

CHAPTEE VI.

Mother-wit — Common Sense — A Sensible Man — Difference between Common Sense and Eeason — Common Sense cannot be improved, but is liable to be impaired — Lackington, the London Bookseller — The ingenuity of Common Sense : Feanklin. A rough or blunt Common Sense — A homely Wit — A Man of plain Eeason — A prudent Man — A Person of Tact pp. 203 — 213

CHAPTEE VII.

Understanding ; dific.-ences and disparities of its reach, capacity propensities, and bias — A man of right luidcrstanding — A sober wit — A ready wit — An enlightened man — A systematic head — A great wit — A person of taste — The mathematician — The lalc-leurncd —

CONTENTS.

Vll

Self-tauglit men — Dr. Priestley — Leibnitz — A self-taught botanist discovered in the Pyrenees by Mrs. Ellis — Themis- TOCLES dehneated by Thttctdides as a self-taught man— Manchegan Prophetess of Mr. Barrow — A self-taught computer of Palermo — Enghsh inventors and engineers, as Watt, Arkwright, Smeaton, Eennie, Telford, aud Brindley, were self-taught men — The French poets Jasmin, a hair-dresser, and Eeboul, the baker of Nismes — The Ayrshire ploughman, Egbert Burns ; John Clare ; The Ettrick Shepherd, James Hogg ; Bunyan, a travelling tinker; and Eerracino, bred a sawyer, a self-taught mechanician pp. 214 — 250

CHAPTEE VIII.

Wit and humour ; its nature: It cannot be acquired or enlarged: Its relation to higher faculties — What is it that makes us laugh? — Different kinds of wit. — Socrates’ wit — Cervantes — Swift — Irish bulls pp. 251 — 271

CHAPTEE IX.

Female Genius. — A witty Miss pp. 272 — 281

CHAPTEE X.

Dawn and youth of the Intellect. Natural History of Scepticism — A Sceptic. — A Pirrlionist. — A Dogmatist . . . pp. 282 — 302

CHAPTEE XI.

A MISCARRIED GENIUS.

Confession of a hot-headed young man of great parts, exhibiting a history of his mind in its different moods and phases. — Confessions of Descartes and Algazel, French and Arabian philosophers

CHAPTEE XII.

GENIUS.

A man of genius — Universal and precocious genius — Genius with philosophical temperament — Tlie German Metaphysician, Immanuel Kant — Genius with poetical temperament — An extempore Poet, or Improvisator — Practical genius — Napoleon Bonaparte — Lord Wellington — Musical genius pp. 32G — 375

SLv.

•gfif .

" • ^ .1 '

Wi* ■

NATURAL HISTORY

OP

HUMAN INTELLECTS.

CHAPTER I.

The present Essay is composed of gleanings on the field of mental philosophy, and is but a natural history of human intellects.

The obvious disparity in the intellectual powers of men pointed out.

The influence of diet, of the game of draughts and chess and of whist; the influence of daylight, of the weakness or excellence of the senses, or of the want of one of them; the influence of passions, of society, of parliamentary life, of education, and of music, upon our intellectual faculties.

The influence which different deflciencies, as well as excellencies, capacities, and biass of our intellect, are exerting upon our morals, passions, and judgment.

Sources and modifications of mental disparity.

An account of the motives, occasions, and sources of the observations, displaying the diversity and disparity of mental characters.

I. Theee is nothing that astounds and transports us so much, and fills the mind with an ever new and ever rising admiration, as the starry heaven above

B and the structure of our intellect within us. If the vast distances and mighty bulk of the heavenly bodies, their infinite number, and the prodigious velocity of their motions, fill the imagination with awe, a close survey of the structure of our intellect excites equal wonder and astonishment. Even at the outset there is something interesting, if not marvellous, in the quantity of difierent organs of apprehension : we have got five fingers, five senses, and five distinct faculties of the intellect. If the structure of the eye, considered as an optical instrument, with its crystalline lens, its adaptation to the properties of light, and its varieties suited to the different necessities of each animal, never fails to rouse our admiration, nothing startles and amazes us more than the organization of our inward spiritual eye, of our conscience and understanding, of which the former, “ the still small voice,” warns us of the least deviation from the straight line of moral duties, and though unasked and unlooked for, judges of the goodness or wickedness, not only of our actions, but even of our most secret motives; whereas the latter is fitted out with the wonderful organ of causation, and the faculty of reasoning by induction and analogy.

Beholding for the first time the internal organization of our mind, we cannot help admiring the infinite wisdom of our Creator, who, forming it in a manner so perfectly adapted to its destination, endowing it with such powers, faculties, and propensities, as are necessary to preserve our life, to ascertain all our moral duties, even the highest, to know ourselves and the thousands of worlds rolling and blazing above, has reared up the noblest emblem of his omnipotence.

HUMAN INTELLECTS.

Looking at the human understanding, we are wound up to a pitch of ecstasy at the spectacle of the ingenious contrivances, which characterize the structure of mind, and of the wonderful fitness of means and aim, exhibiting most striking proofs of design. What things indispensable to our conservation and happiness we are unable to know, we cannot help believing. It is very essential for men to be apt of early ascertaining and arriving at a positive knowledge of their duty, but the human understanding is very slow in its development. Obviating that serious inconvenience, Providence has made moral powers susceptible of a high degree of culture even in the infant mind, long before the powers of intellect are developed for the investigation of truth.

Consciousness arrests the flow of thought, and thus enables the intellect to compare ideas, draw conclusions, and form judgments. The first act of consciousness is the result of voluntary attention; the last three is reasoning. But attention, or the arresting of the flow of thoughts, is a painful and difficult act of our mind; it is, therefore, not left barely to its own exertions, but is roused by curiosity, aided by association, which brings new ideas within its range, nourished by memory, which supplies its stores, and is rendered more easy by practice and habit.

The human intellect is, besides, outfitted with a mathematical organ, whose wonderful and far-reaching powers were gradually developed out of the simple ideas of space and time, and from the times of Thales were brought almost to perfection by Newton^ Eulei\ and Lagrange^ as we see in “ conic sections, the

B 2 theory of gravitation, the differential calculus, and the solution of the problem of three bodies.*’ These magnificent and splendid creations of the mathematical organ of the human intellect, giving out the laws Avhich bind the universe in eternal order, though mere creations of pure abstract thought, when applied to the material worlds rolling in infinite space, were found to dovetail exactly, to explain the celestial mechanism, illustrate the most stupendous mysteries, and enable us even to anticipate by ages the discovery of truths the farthest removed above ordinary apprehension— as, for instance, the solar and lunar eclipses, or the re-appearance of comets after the revolution of centuries.

The first discovery of the disparity in the intellectual powers is prompted by the striking inferiority of our domesticated animals, with whom we are familiarly acquainted from our infancy. It never fails to strike even the most superficial observer, upon the most cursory glance, that they possess but a few fragments of soul and tatters of understanding; that, though not wholly devoid of curiosity, they have but a very slight degree of that faculty; that not only their inferiority to men, but even their relative differences, remain stationary. A horse, a cat, a dog, never show any progress, or display any relative superiority over each other, but always remain within the same limits allotted to them by Providence. In general, animals seem to have no organ of causality; they are blindly conducted by instinct, — a substitute for human reason, — and attain in a short time their utmost perfection, beyond which they are never able to advance. Bees and beavers, though ingenious.

HUMAN INTELLECTS.

build always on the same plan. In their observations and reasonings they appear to be limited to a few simple and local objects. They seem to have no foresight; exceptions in bees, ants, and beavers, though bearing little more than a shadow of forecast, excite our astonishment as something out of the way, something lying beyond the limits of their apprehensive and reasoning faculties ; whereas men carry their researches into the most distant regions of the globe, even beyond it, to heavenly bodies ; are enabled to ascertain the weight of bodies at the surface of the most distant world; to investigate the laws that govern their motions or mould their forms, and calculate to a second of time the period of their reappearance ; they may turn their thoughts backwards into the darkness of primitive ages, to the cradle of the human race, and have succeeded in constructing ancient history out of such scanty relics as decaying monuments, mouldering records, fabulous legends, and the sybilline leaves of tradition; and, what is more, they discovered within the bowels of the earth the hieroglyphics of primeval annals during thousands of years before it was occupied by their own race. Besides, men are capable of casting their eyes forward, to predict the influence of their actions or legislation on posterity ; to trace causes and effects to a great length ; to extract general principles from particular appearances ; to correct their mistakes, improve upon their discoveries, draw profits even from their blunders, and to reason by induction and analogy — two powerful instruments of ascertaining truth, savouring of fiction and improbability — which led Newton to predict from the refraction of light the inflammable quality of the diamond, and the decomposition of water.

The chequered pattern of the intellectual capacities of men, no less striking, though more difficult to ascertain, than the difference of mind between men and animals, did not fail to attract the early attention of men in general, as we are enabled to infer from the terms used for their designation, terms to be found in all languages, ancient and modern, which give an unequivocal evidence that men’s minds were not only struck by these psychological phenomena; but even, judging by their great quantity, it appears that men of different degrees of culture were early engaged in ascertaining even the most minute shades and inflections of those differences; that, notwithstanding some assertions to the contrary,* there pre-

* I am perfectly aware that there are some literary men, and of the highest authority, too, denying flatly those difierences. Mr. Edgworth says, that “many of the gi-eat difierences of intellect which appear in men, depend more upon the early cultivating the habit of attention, than upon any disparity between the powers of one individual and another.” Now, upon reading this, I wonder whether the attention of our author was early cultivated. The sententious Dr. Johnson once, in his unguarded mood, asserted that “ the supposition of one man having more imagination, another more judgment, is not true; it is only one man has more mind than another. He who has vigour may walk to the east as well as the west, if he happens to turn his head that way.” This is only a sophism, and not a very ingenious one, in a dogmatical cloak ; it would almost look like impertinent trifling with the common sense of my readers to endeavour to make plain what is already so j^alpahle. Facts stare us too plainly in the face ; they are like diamonds, not only cut glass, but send forth the light of the flame ; they are stubborn things, and cannot be reasoned away at so cheap a rate, even by a Johnson. However, we find in one of his letters to Mrs. Thrale, a more correct, though quite a contrary opinion.

HUMAN INTELLECTS.

vailed such a general opinion and conviction of the existence of a native disparity in the capacities of men, as not to require any farther arguments, and as bearing on its face the evidence of facts, which may easily be verified by experience.

We see, moreover, that men have been led to reflect upon some external signs, upon several striking coincidences, supposed to indicate the natural bent, strength, and bias of the human intellect, as well as of certain qualities of the mind — viz., certain features or lineaments of the face, or some dozen of bumps on the skull, were believed of being able to furnish a tangible clue for forming a just estimate, a priori^ of the intellectual and moral abilities and propensities of every individual. Lavater^ Dr. Gall., and Dr. Spurzheim were seriously engaged in the search of those signs upon the human face and skull, and having given to certain qualities of the mind a local habitation and sometimes a new name, reduced too rashly their observations into a system, and under the names of Physiognomy and Phrenology brought them forward as complete and exact sciences. But, eager to elicit the coincidence and correlation of mental powers with certain external and visible signs, they neglected to make a particular study of the disparity in the abilities and, of the diflerent casts of human intellects, and thus founded their systems upon obvious observations, which, made at random, were never examined, compared, and completed, quite against the rules of inductive method sketched out by Lord Bacon. This appears to be one among many other reasons that, though the literature of Phrenology amounts in bulk to a respectable library, the truth of the phrenological theory is far from being

NATUEAL HISTOEY OF established, though it has not been proved to be false ; in fact, physiognomy is now become an agreeable pastime of those who delight in prints ; whereas phrenology maintains its ground only with those who have a large capacity of belief, or obstinacy in maintaining their notions.

II. The ancient Egyptians appear to have been aware of the great influence of the diet upon the soundness, readiness, and the full development of our intellectual faculties, as we may infer from the dietetical rules framed for their priests, who exclusively cultivated all sciences. Franklin^ from his personal experience, recommends abstemiousness in eating, and the exclusive use of clear water, as conducive to clearness of thought. The stablemen and drivers of Mr. Whitbread’s brewery, observes the “ American in England,” are as colossal as their horses ; and the appearance of all the people about this establishment goes to prove that beer-drinking is not, after all, such a bad thing in its physical effects. Its tendency, however, did not seem to be to quicken the intellect, for most of them had a dull, drowsy, and immovable look. It was impossible to detect any intellectuality in their countenances or speculation in their eyes.

Mr. Edgar A. Poe observes, that “ the game of chess, in its efibcts upon the mental character, is greatly misunderstood, and that the higher powers of the reflective intellect are more decidedly and more usefully tasked by the unostentatious game of draughts than by all the elaborate frivolity of chess. AVhist has long been noted for its influence upon wliat is termed the calculating j)ower; and men of the highest order of intellect have been known to take an appa-

HUMAN INTELLECTS.

rently unaccountable delight in it, while eschewing chess as frivolous. Beyond doubt there is nothing of a similar nature so greatly tasking the faculty of analysis. The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess ; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all those more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind. The sources whence legitimate advantage may be derived, are not only manifold but multiform, and frequently among recesses of thought altogether inaccessible to the ordinary understanding. To observe attentively is to remember distinctly, and so far the concentrative chess-player will do very well at whist, while the rules of Hoyle are generally comprehensible ; but it is a matter beyond the limits of the rule, that the skill of the analyst is evinced as he is making in silence a host of observations and inferences.”

We learn from the statistics of France, that there is an odd analogy between the amount of daylight enjoyed by the people and their amount of intellectual illumination — the best lodged departments being also the best instructed.

The weakness or excellence of our senses, or a want of one of them, has also a striking influence upon our mind and moral character; for in that mysterious union of body and soul everything is strictly connected, and has a close relation to each other. “ The blindness,” says GuilU^ Director of the Blind Hospital in Paris, “ not only deprives the blind of ideas which are generated by sight, but is modifying a great many others. The blind having no notion of colour and shades, have many distorted ideas ; have no notion of decency and shame, the loveliest qualities of youth; are but rarely kind-hearted; accustomed to caution, they are very apt to confound their benefactor with their enemy.”

It has been observed that our moral propensities, alFections, and passions, are strongly influencing our understanding, giving it a certain bias or leading into error. This circumstance has even attracted the attention of the profound French philosopher, Pascal. It has been, for instance, observed, that a vain man can never be a good dramatist; that the habit of flattery inevitably introduces a false taste into poetical compositions; that the love of power, like that of money, renders even the dullest intelligent; that a generous, open, manly nature bestows upon the faculties of men’s understanding a reach of enlargement to which meaner natures are ever strangers. Burke., in one of his speeches, observes, that “ prudence is a quality incompatible with vice, and can never be effectively enlisted in its cause.” Sheridan, expatiating upon it (trial of Warren Hastings), remarks, that it is only a single domineering passion that is capable of exerting a supremacy over our understanding, and using its faculties as pliant instruments ; whereas many passions let loose together tend to blunt and unsettle prudence. Every-day experience teaches us that we find it difficult to think well of those by whom we are depressed or thwarted, and that we are ready to admit every excuse for the vices of those who are useful or agreeable to us ; that the habits of thinking having origin in strong feelings, are far more difficult to eradicate than any mere error of judgment, which so naturally falls before the exertions of the reasoning power; that passions deprive men of the power of calculating chances; that prejudice is destructive of sound judgment, and

HUMAN INTELLECTS.

perverts all the operations of the intellectual faculties; that the will has a great influence upon our belief, though it does not create it; that great misfortunes disturb the understanding as much as great success; that adoration of “things that be” may blind even a vigorous intellect. Everybody might have had occasion to remark, that men, otherwise very clever and shrewd, are often blundering in their judgments and notions concerning their neighbours. The very same faults and feelings which they never fail to deprecate in others, which are in their eyes crimes of a deep dye, in them prove to be virtues ; their long-winded loquacity they call oratory; their avarice is but economy ; sticking to the pelf, in them, is forecast; what they are reckoning for a simple duty, when done by others, with them is self-immolation. Lord BoUnghroke used to call those who had written against his party, scandalous libellers^ whereas writers for his party went with him by the name of literary supporters. But such influence of the passions upon our judgment is the department of dramatic poets.

The influence of society upon our intellectual powers is also a circumstance not much attended to. We know from experience that conversation enriches the understanding, and that solitude is the school of genius. “ The study of books,” says Dr. Thomas Fuller., “is a languishing and feeble motion, that heats not; whereas conference teaches and exercises at once. If I confer with an understanding man and a rude jester, he presses hard upon me on both sides; his imagination raises up mine to more than ordinary pitch. Jealousy, glory, and contention stimulate and raise me up to something above myself ; and a con-

NATUKAL HISTOEY OF sent of j udgraent- is a quality totally offensive in conference. But as our minds fortify themselves by the communication of vigorous and regular understandings, it is not to be expressed how much they lose and degenerate by the continual commerce and frequentation we have with those that are mean and low. There is no contagion that spreads like that ; I know sufficiently by experience what it is worth a yard.”

The tendency of ^parliamentary life is to develope and encourage ready Avit at the expense of learning, deep thought, and close reasoning. The most vigorous minds, when taking a serious part in parliamentary debates, are often inveigled to bring forth arguments that no man of sense would publish in writing — arguments which may pass unrefuted Avhen set off Avith pointed language and fluent delivery. They have, it is true, frequent occasions for developing their talent for debate; but the habit of loose reasoning is the more prejudicial, as the ablest of them usually takes a seat in parliament at a very early age, before the mind has expanded to full maturity; and it is not ahvays that they retain unimpaired those faculties Avhich are required for close reasoning or enlarged speculation.

It is a true saying of Lord Bacon^ that “ reading makes a full man, talking a ready man, and AAU’iting an exact man.” There is no need of expatiating in that place upon the influence of training, education, and instruction on our intellectual poAvers; aa’^c only cannot help remarking, that the same course of study Avhich all but fixed Bunyan^ the author of “Pilgrim’s Progress,” in religious despair, hurried into profligacy and atheism the less favourably constituted mind of

HUMAN INTELLECTS.

Lawrence Claxton, whose autobiography contains^ the avowal of his vicious life. It has been ascertained in France, that the amount of legal crime in that country does appear to keep pace with the amount of primary instruction ; that educated populations exhibit a larger amount of crime than ignorant ones.

“ My own reason,” says M. D'Angeville^ author of a very interesting book, ‘ Moral and Intellectual Statistics of France,’ “ had long combated the evidence of facts on this subject, before my investigation forced me to adopt this conclusion.” Whereas Walter Scott says, that the introduction of schools has tamed down the native ferocity of Scotchmen.

The etfect of music upon the faculty of invention is likewise a fact as yet very little noticed, and hardly ever examined. “ Almost all my tragedies,” says Aljieri, “ were sketched in my mind, either in the act of hearing music, or a few hours after.” Milton listened to his organ for his solemn inspirations. Lord Bacon had music often played in the room adjoining his study. Curran's favourite mode of meditation was with his violin in his hand.

III. But there is another range of observations and researches, which seem to have been wholly overseen, or rather neglected : it is, the influence which different deficiencies, excellencies, capacities, and biass of our intellect, are exerting upon our morals and passions. It is well known that the disturbed equilibrium of mental faculties works perniciously upon the moral part of human nature. It is easy to aver that, for instance, men of weak memory are generally suspicious; that persons of limited capacity have generally a quick eye to their own interest; an open hand and a yielding heart are the invariable concomitants of genius, as much as a suspicious temper and niggardly disposition of mediocrity. A too vivid imagination is disqualifying the mind for the cold contact of reality. Poetical temperament appears to have a natural tendency to superstition. Men of higher order of genius rarely show themselves fitted for the calm affections and comforts of domestic life. Dogmatical turn of mind is usually connected with extreme vanity. The Persian poet, Sddee, says, that “ a wise man does not always know when to begin ; but a fool never knows when to stop.” Practical men, Avhile improving their understanding, become more and more wavering and hesitating, and in the prosecution of their schemes exhibit, an unprecedented and unusual circumstance with them, a want of determination and firm resolution. Thucydides remarks (ii. 40), that “ignorance brings daring, while calculation brings fear.” This interesting fact, disclosing in a striking manner the great influence of the qualities and power of the intellect upon our mind, has been observed in surgeons and military officers. In middle ages, a Spanish monk had acquired a great reputation by his happy operations of the stone. He had been advised, when in France, to study anatomy, of which he appears to have been utterly ignorant ; but having made some progress in it, he got dismaj^ed at his former audacity, displayed but very indifierent skill as an operator, and at last abandoned his craft. The French Marshal, Saint-Cyi\ observes, that military officers lose in determination what they might have gained, by improving their minds. It has been remarked in F ranee, where such an experience is possible, that men of science turn courtiers more readily than men of letters, poets, and historians, avIio seem

HUMAN INTELLECTS.

to be more jealous of their independence. On the other hand, we know that a serious application to science or the liberal arts softens and humanizes the temper, and cherishes those high emotions in which true virtue consists;* that, for instance, treachery is the usual concomitant of barbarism and ignorance ; that men of profound mind are inclined to think lightly of the resources of human reason; whereas the pert, superficial thinker, is generally strongest in every kind of unbelief ; that a man of genius, if not pursuing ambitious schemes, is either a humorist, or a visionary, or a hypochondriac.

But deficiencies as well as excellencies of our intellect have also a visible influence upon our judgment. A fool, for instance, condemns others for his own misfortunes; a half-witted accuses only himself; but the •wise man neither complains of himself nor others. Prompt susceptibility of new impressions renders the judgment variable and shifting. Poets are strangely tempted to let imagination do memory’s work.