knows, that during several centuries of that period, the works of Grecian and Roman art were exposed to the destroying propensities of Goths and other barbarians, and occasionally, it is said, of misdirected zeal in certain converts to Christianity; for at one time the church of Rome had not learned to cherish the fine arts as useful accessaries to her pomp and circumstance. The finest works of sculpture were, therefore, literally trodden under foot. The history of every statue, I suppose, without exception, had been lost, and tradition, so rife in other matters within the jurisdiction of Rome, was here silent.

It was not earlier, I believe, than the thirteenth or fourteenth century, that the remains of ancient art began to be considered as objects of curiosity and instruction, and, with a growing spirit of veneration, to be excavated from among the rubbish of ancient Rome and of other Roman cities. revival of letters and of the fine arts naturally brought along with them a body of men called antiquaries, who ever since have been sufficiently numerous every where, but in Rome have superabounded.

The

Many of the Italian and Germanico-Italian antiquarians, however, have been persons of very considerable learning, of great ingenuity, of indefatigable research, and, withal, of sufficient Combativeness, to give a zest to their investigations. How far the pure love of truth in these as in other controversies has borne sway, we shall not presume to inquire.

You will at once perceive, that the claims of every statue, bust, &c. becomes a question of circumstantial evidence, and in the courts of antiquity at Rome, as in other courts in other countries, there are always plenty of counsel to plead the cause both of plaintiff and defendant. The discovery of an equestrian statue, in past times, has always been felt in Rome as an event; the discovery of a continent could scarcely have roused into greater activity the organs of Wonder, Venera tion, and Acquisitiveness; a simple statue, a bust, a finger, or a toe,--all these produce their proportional degrees of in

terest and of excitement in the circles of the antiquaries. The appearance of a man at the present time in Westminster Hall, or in the Parliament House, claiming some great estate, through a long and puzzling line of feudal ancestors, may be taken as no unfair illustration of the interest which has been excited in modern Rome by a piece of marble, claiming right to occupy, under some well-known name, a niche in the halls of the Vatican or the Capitol. The result, however, of all this is, that in most cases the truth is either attained or approximated; though it would be too much to say that in Rome, as in Great Britain, mistakes have not been commit ted, and that men of marble as well as men of flesh have not sometimes got into places where they had no right to be.

Adverting now to the portraits of Cæsar and of Cicero, which will shortly be upon your table, it certainly is not in my power to explain all the links in the chain of evidence by which they have been recognized as genuine representatives of those great men. I can only say that they are received as such, after passing the sort of ordeal I have attempted to describe.

The Cæsar has not yet found its way into any of the pub. lic museums in Rome. The family to whom it has belonged since it was deterré, have not been poor enough, or patriotic enough, to part with it; but it is the most esteemed bust of the dictator now in Rome. Camuccini, their best modern historical painter, (and at all events an excellent judge of pictures), took it as his model, in a picture of Cæsar falling under the hand of his assassins at the foot of Pompey's statue. Besides the general evidence in favour of this bust, from its essential resemblance to other busts of Cæsar, (especially one in the Florence gallery), and to the head on several of his coins, I have been struck by one or two coincidences, not altogether trifling in a matter of this sort. Suetonius (the only author, I believe, who says a word about the person of Julius Cæsar), remarks, "fuisse traditur, excelsa statura, teretibus membris

"ore paulo pleniore." Now, in the bust, the prominent lip is quite apparent. Again, a flatterer is said to have remarked to Cæsar, that his baldness, unlike that of others, was covered by his crown of laurels. Now a laurel-wreath would by no means have concealed the baldness of Cicero's head for example; but the hair in that of Cæsar having gone off about the situation of the organ of Wonder, or from that to No 33, would be effectually covered by the laurel-crown.

After all, does it not appear, that the artist has rather exaggerated (caricato, as the Italians call it,) the strongly-marked lines on Cæsar's head? I certainly think he has done so ; yet it is impossible to look at this, as the portrait of Caius Julius Cæsar, without feeling convinced that the original must have had the whole superciliary ridge extraordinarily developed, more especially the organ of Locality; and surely if any human being ever had the perception of localities, in the fullest sense of the word, it must have been that man, -embracing probably the relative bearings of every principal place in the then known world-of the heavenly bodies also, in a degree exceeded by few of his day, and carrying in his mind's eye, we need not doubt, a vivid image of every district of country he had ever looked upon. Now if any of our antiphrenologizing philosophers could only prove that Julius Cæsar had not upon his skull those prominences which we say do indicate the organs of Locality, he would give a harder blow to the science than any I have yet heard of its receiving. I beg farther to direct the attention of the Society to the extraordinary development, for two inches above each ear, more especially the right one; next to the reflecting organs; to Ideality, which I think are larger than one would suppose on first looking at the bust; lastly, Love of Approbation must have been very large in Cæsar's head,How is it on the bust ?But, as we have remarked, this is a part of the head on which the fidelity of artists heretofore must not be implicitly trusted.

As to the bust of Cicero, it is the most esteemed of

any

in

Italy; it differs considerably from another, which is the original of all those we have been accustomed to see in this country, and appears to have been executed at a later period of Cicero's life. The original of that now on your table is one of about 100 busts and masks in the hall of the philosophers in the Museum of the Capitol. This head of Cicero, together with those of Socrates, Aristides, Pindar, and Demosthenes, are the most valued of any in the above collection. For some reason which we cannot exactly tell, this bust of Cicero is above the size of life. I beg leave to make only a very few remarks upon it :-Cicero, like his great contemporary, appears to have been bald-headed; but, as I have before remarked, at a different part of the head, the artist appears to have marked distinctly the line of separation between the hair and the bald crown. Now, in doing this, his attention must have been directed more particularly to the curvature of the mesial line, than if the whole coronal surface had been covered with hair; for very often the sight alone cannot distinguish between a line of hair and a line of skull. We may therefore conclude, with little chance of error, that Cicero's head was, as it is marked in the bust, very fully developed at the organ of Veneration. This surely agrees with all we know of his character.-Had there been a marked depression, or even flatness, at that point of the head, we should have said, "This cannot be the head of Cicero." The next remarkable peculiarity is the very large development of Causality, the comparative smallness of No 32, and again the expansion at Ideality.

I have called it No 32, but will not give it a name. Where such men as Dr Spurzheim and Mr Scott all at variance, it might be presumptuous to decide between them, more especially without fully stating one's reasons. Be it, therefore, an intellectual faculty, whose function is to seize the minute shades of difference in things, or be it, as Dr Spurzheim thinks, a sentiment which he thinks good to denominate by the word Mirthfulness, must for the present pass sub silentio.

Whatever it be, it is clear, that if we put any faith in this bust of Cicero, the organ was relatively small in his head ;-perhaps the artist may here have exaggerated a little,-perhaps the depression might not have been quite so great as he represents it, yet it must have existed. No artist of any note would have made such a mistake as this, or invented such a form, in a prominent situation, which forms, as it were, part, and a most important part, of the countenance. I for one, therefore, must believe that, this peculiarity really existed in the head of Cicero; and in proportion as one believes this, will it be interesting, by a reference to his writings, to detect what faculty was really wanting, or comparatively small, in his mental constitution. Was it an intellectual faculty; that, for instance, of a nice perception of differences in law, in morals, or in questions of policy? or was it, on the other hand, that faculty formerly called Wit, and now denominated Mirthfulness by Dr Spurzheim, which was really not among the higher endowments bestowed upon this great man? I shall beg to leave this question for my own future consideration, and that of any other person who may feel interested in it; and, whatever may be the result, I am sure that every member of the Society will agree with me in thinking, that in this way only can such questions be settled, and that the comparison of cerebral development with mental manifestations, as it has been the path leading to all the great discoveries in Phrenology, must be that which, when further prosecuted, can alone lead to its improvement and perfection.

Yours, my dear Sir,

Most faithfully,

D. G. HALLYBURTON.

VOL. IV.-No XIV.

R