THEIR MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES.

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THE VENERATION AND MARVELLOUSNESS OF JEWS,

Next to their Acquisitiveness, has ever been, and still is, their strongest national peculiarity. What other man throughout the annals of our race, has ever equalled Abraham for devout piety and close communion with God? Wherever he pitched his tent, "there he built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord." To quote all said of his religious faith and observances, would be to embrace his entire history not already cited.

Isaac also possessed, undoubtedly by inheritance, this same religious fervor.* And so did Jacob, † of which his wrestling with the angel is an example. The religious zeal of Joseph, and the revelations made to Moses and Aaron, show that they also inherited the same religious predisposition. In short, the scrupulous observance, by this whole nation, of their passover, circumcision, sacrifices, and other religious ordinances, as well as their tenacious adherence to the religion of their fathers, all confirm its hereditary entailment.

The credulity of this whole nation in marvellous stories is also apparent throughout the Bible account of them. Tacitus, alluding to some witch story, says in effect: "Tell that to Apella the Jew; he will swallow it all, but we know better." I have found Veneration and Spirituality large in the heads of all the Jews examined. Abraham must have had it immensely developed, as this gave him his vision-seeing capability.§

THE SUPERIOR INTELLECTUALITY OF JEWS.

Is equally in point, though it, as it generally unites with Acquisitiveness, gives them their remarkable pecuniary sagacity. Their memories are uncommonly retentive. Some of our best oriental scholars and linguists are Jews. They were also among the first to commit their national history to = writing, and generally possess clear heads and strong minds.

But enough for our argument. What kind, what amount of inductive proof-the highest order of evidence-could * Gen. xxvi. 25. + Gen. xxviii. 16-22. Gen. xxxii. and xxxv. § See "Religion, Natural and Revealed," the section on Spirituality.

more effectually establish any conclusion whatever, than this array of converging facts, transpiring all along down throughout the postdiluvian annals, establishes the principle, that MENTAL QUALITIES ARE TRANSMITTED? What reasoning mind can doubt this conclusion, much less controvert it? Does not nature transmit the MENTALITY, as well as the physiology, and along with it? Yet to argue this point is superfluous; we pass to its farther elucidation.

350. THE CHINESE AND HINDOOS

Have been remarkable for their uniformity or fixedness of character from time immemorial. Modern Chinese are but transcripts of their ancestors. Their phrenological developments, also, are remarkably uniform. The principal difference consists in those of different avocations. And since father, son, and son's son, throughout all their generations, follow the same occupations, this uniformity is undoubtedly, to a great extent, the product of hereditary laws. * What these developments are, may be learned from Vol. IV. of the "American Phrenological Journal." This uniformity is sufficient for our present inquiry, and is so marked, that I should know especially the Hindoo skull wherever I saw it.

351. THE FRENCH, SPANISH, DANES, GERMANS, ENGLISH, AND SCOTCH,

All have their national form of heads. The FRENCH head is generally excessive at Approbativeness, yet deficient at Self-Esteem, and less high and long than the English.

The SPANISH head is very wide, but short, and high in the crown, and the PORTUGUESE quite like them.

The GERMAN head is wide, rather short, remarkably full or rounding, large at Combativeness and Destructiveness, fairly developed at the crown, and at Causality and Music,

* Minute observations on the developments of the various castes of the eastern world would be most instructive and delightful; and the author does not despair of entering this new but rich field of inquiry, both phrenological and hereditary. Will not phrenologists embrace all possible opportunities of ascertaining the precise developments of these differ

ent castes ?

NAITONAL CHARACTERISTICS.

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and very wide and broad at Conscientiousr.ess. Cautiousness is usually very large. I can generally designate Germans by their heads.

The Swiss head bears a tolerably close resemblance to the German, also the PRUSSIAN and POLISH.

The RUSSIAN is more square in formation. The forehead is generally wide; Causality and Comparison are ample, and the propensities all strong.

The DANISH head bears a tolerably close resemblance to the English, though the latter, being compounded of Normans, Danes, Scotch, and many other nations, is less uniform than that of any other nation, just as are also their national features, color of hair, and the like.

The WELSH head always runs far back in the crown, is often long, and unusually developed at Veneration. This great development of the coronal region gave their ancestors that love of liberty which made them flee to their mountain fastnesses, rather than submit to tyrants.

The SCOTCH usually have ample foreheads, and are well-developed, especially at Causality and Conscientiousness. Hence their love of theological metaphysics, and their sound practical sense.

The IRISH usually have ample Combativeness, and a fervid temperament. Hence their irascibility.

310

In short, is it a matter of doubt that different nations possess different characteristics? Or that their respective mental traits are TRANSMITTED, as their physiognomies have already been shown to be? National educations doubtless contribute to form national character, yet do not alone control it, because, remove a Jew where you will, and educate him as you may, and he is a Jew still. And thus of Irishmen, Spaniards, Chinese, and their children after them. National traits are therefore INNATE.

13

SECTION III.

IDIOCY AND THE PROPENSITIES HEREDITARY.

352. THE EMERSONS, AND OTHER IDIOTS.

No. 12. EMERSON, AN IDIOT.

THE preceding engraving is an accurate likeness of an idiot who does not know enough to feed himself. He has another brother in the same condition, and two sisters below mediocrity. The two brothers look very much alike, and are very coarsely organized. Their narrow and retiring foreheads, and coarse temperaments, show that the causes of their idiocy were hereditary conditions. They also illustrate our doctrine of hereditary resemblance, already adduced 319

319.

In the Wilmington, Del., poor-house, in 1839, I saw a mother and illegitimate daughter, both idiotic. They resembled each other in likeness, and both had deficient foreheads. Causality was scarcely larger in either than in orangoutangs.

A man employed in the Bible establishment, New York, said that about ten years ago he knew an idiot in Chester

IDIOCY HEREDITARY.

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county, Pa., so low in the scale of mentality, that he could neither talk, nor laugh, nor chew, nor even swallow. He lived exclusively on gruel, put into his mouth so as to run down his throat of itself. He made but two noises-a kind of grunt when hungry, and a humming noise, as if attempting to sing yet manifested no other signs of intelligence, except that when he heard music he would lay down and roll, as if it gave him pleasure. He was extremely filthy, and moved little. His brother was deficient, and his mother none of the smartest—indeed, considered a flat-and her sister knew barely enough to warm his porridge when he grunted, and pour it down his throat, but did nothing else. One grandparent was probably a flat 318, and hence the inferiority of mother, sister, and son.

Mr. Coffin mentions an F- family, all of whom, for several generations, are stupid, except that one of them married a smart woman, and has tolerably bright children.

Mr. P―, of P, Pa., said that with his utmost endeavors he could never teach any of his scholars belonging to one family to read, and that they were all generally regarded as flats. The children of both their parents, by previous marriages, were ordinarily intelligent, yet all the products of this union were simpletons.

It deserves remark, however, in this connection, though more fully accounted for in "Parentage”—the next volume— that some unions produce children inferior to both parents, and others superior to either parent, the reason of which is there given.

Other causes than hereditary influences often induce idiocy, as will be seen in the author's work on (6 Maternity," yet this does not prevent hereditary idiocy. Still, here also, as in cases of disease 326 327, when the idiocy becomes so extreme, that its subject cannot enjoy and promote enjoyment, nature interdicts his transmitting his unfortunate condition, by rendering him childless, for reasons already given 340