“To be among the worthies of renown, And so sit fair with fame, with glory bright.”
To describe the character of Wellington, is to reverse that of Napoleon. Napoleon was shrewd, artful, and deceitful; Wellington open-hearted, strong-sensed, candid, and sincere. Napoleon a clever statesman; Wellington obtuse in politics. Napoleon a great strategist; Wellington short-sighted, though daring in the field. Napoleon a lover and patron of arts; Wellington a despiser of them. Napoleon said to be personally timid; Wellington constitutionally brave. Napoleon’s cruelties were acts of cool calculation and state-policy; Wellington’s of military fury. Napoleon poisoned his sick troops because he did not know what else to do with them, and murdered the Duke d’Enghien to produce “an effect” in Europe; Wellington’s cruelties were the necessary consequences of war energetically carried on, and were never the result of cold-blooded predetermination.[21]
Before closing this section, we would request the reader’s attention to the strong proof of the truth of the hypothesis derivable from the fact that like Noses, with like circumstances (_cæteris paribus_, as the phrenologists say), produce like characters: for instance, Wolsey, Richelieu, Ximenes, Lorenzo di Medici, Alfred:—Sidney, Raleigh:—Alexander, Napoleon.
CLASS II.—THE GREEK, or straight Nose, is perfectly straight; any deviation from a right line must be strictly noticed. If the deviation tend to convexity, it approaches the Roman, and the character is improved by an accession of energy; on the other hand, when the deviation is towards concavity, it partakes of the Celestial, and the character is weakened. It should be fine, and well chiselled, but not sharp.
It indicates Refinement of character; love for the Fine Arts, and _Belles-Lettres_; astuteness, craft, and a preference for indirect rather than direct action. Its owner is not without some energy in pursuit of that which is agreeable to his tastes; but, unlike the owner of the Roman Nose, he cannot exert himself in _opposition_ to his tastes. When associated with the Roman Nose, and distended slightly at the end by the Cogitative, it indicates the most useful and intellectual of characters, and is the highest and most beautiful form which the organ can assume.