kind of imagination which is dependent on a great endowment of Ideality, the organ of which in him was decidedly deficient. The "beau ideal," and the glowing and coloured conceptions of the poet, were to him as empty sounds. His intellect was plain, penetrating, and sound, but with somewhat of a tendency to vulgarity and grossness, the natural result of an imperfect education upon such an organization. Language was little developed, and he always felt much difficulty in expressing his ideas. He felt great delight in the practical study of natural philosophy. The development of the organs of the propensities and sentiments, in Mr S, was also remarkable; but I have already encroached too much on your pages, to allow me to enter into farther detail: I shall therefore only add, that the manifestations corresponded in every point. I am not at liberty to publish the name of the gentleman; but, as I pledge myself for the accuracy of the facts stated, I am ready to communicate it to you, and am, Sir, &c. ARTICLE IV. SHAKSPEARE'S OTHELLO. THOSE who are unacquainted with Phrenology may smile at the attempt to apply it in analyzing a character which probably never had any existence beyond the pages of the volume in which we find it described. They ask us, What have we proved, when we have traced each indication of passion, or feeling, or intellect, to what we call an elementary source, and designated that source by a phrenological name? The argument in favour of our science, which is thus afforded, is certainly not of that obvious and palpable kind, which is likely at once to carry conviction to a mind whose attention is for the first time directed to the investigation; but to those who have already made some progress in the study, it is, though an indirect, a most beautiful and convincing proof that nature and Phrenology are one. They discover in it the elements of the most various and opposite appearances which the mind of man does or can assume. And if a system so perfect and complete is assigned by its enemies to the invention of Gall and Spurzheim, they assert what in truth it is harder to believe than the proposition which they themselves reject on the mere ground of its incredibility. In the character of Othello, such as it is drawn by Shakspeare, the first thing we remark is its power and energy. He seems to move along among the personages of that inimitable drama, as if conscious of his superiority, and these seem to recognise that superiority, by the submissiveness and awe with which his presence affects them. There is in whatever he utters or performs that indescribable force, which, had he really existed, we must have immediately assigned to the general largeness of his cerebral organization. It is not, however, the ascendency which results from the possession of a commanding intellect, as will presently be seen from the analysis of his character, but rather that superiority which flows from elevation of sentiment, stimulated by the fire of passion. The propensities and sentiments, indeed, are, with few exceptions, so strongly manifested as to occasion little difficulty in describing their proportions. Of the intellectual faculties the indications are less complete, and the difficulty of deciding on their relative energy is consequently greater. Their general vigour is undoubtedly inferior to that of the two other great divisions, under which, together with this of intellect, the different faculties of the human mind are classed by Phrenology. The preponderance of intellect is manifested in man, by the complete subjection in which it holds the inferior parts of his nature. Whether that subjection may prove effectual for good or for wicked purposes will in a great measure depend on the strength or deficiency of the sentiments; but no influence of passion will be allowed to interfere with the accomplishment of an object. In Othello, on the other hand, the force of his propensities may be frequently seen sweeping intellect along in a tide, which, but for the opposition offered by counteracting sentiments, would have been altogether resistless. Self-esteem is the prevailing feature in his character; being combined, however, with large Conscientiousness and Love of Approbation, its preserice is manifested rather by a conscious greatness and magnanimity, than by the more offensive and less dignified indications with which we are apt to associate its predominance. Under this form it is discoverable in the first words he utters. In the second scene of the first act, he is introduced in conversation with Iago, whose immense Secretiveness and powerful intellect enabled hini thoroughly to comprehend the character of his general's mind, and whose whole speech accordingly is directed to this combination, which it immediately excites. Brabantio's merits and influence with the duke are stated so as to contrast them with the Moor's, and his reply finely exhibits the combination to which I have adverted: Oth. Let him do his spite: My services, which I have done the signiory, I would not my unhoused free condition A more accurate display of Self-esteem, Love of Approbation, and Conscientiousness could hardly be produced. It is not the disgusting apotheosis of self, which results from the first of these sentiments when the others are deficient, nor the idle boasting of a Captain Bobadil, who, with his single arm, and his good toledo, could kill "his twenty men per day," demonstrating the vigour of love of Approbation, and the weakness of Conscientiousness and Self-esteem,-for the latter sentiment acts as a restraint on boasting, as may be seen in the character of Coriolanus,-but it is the simple assertion of conscious merit, of services which he knows he has performed, and whose value he can fully estimate. But there is something more unfolded in this passage :-- I would not my unhoused free condition Put into circumscription and confine For the sea's worth proves the general largeness of his propensities, communicating, with his large Self-esteem, to his temperament a fire and restlessness, which is averse from every species of control:-and the words which precede, But that I love the gentle Desdemona, evince also in particular the power of his Amativeness and Adhesiveness producing a motive strong enough to overcome this aversion to bondage. It is these two faculties which give birth to conjugal love,-a love, which, when they are largely developed, clings to its object with a devotedness, which seems to hold life and love as of synonymous import Such it was in Othello, Were't to renounce his captain,-(says Iago,) All seals and symbols of redeemed sin, His soul is so unfettered to her love That she may make, unmake, do what she list :When we have noticed the proofs of his large Combativeness and Destructiveness, we shall have before us the great elements of action in the Moor's mental constitution; and which being directed into a particular channel by the fiendish cunning of his officer, lead to the main incident which the drama involves. Of the energy of these two propensities we have ample testimony, as well from every word he utters as from every deed he performs. He had been, as he tells the senators in the "round unvarnished tale" he delivers in justification of his marriage with Desdemona, a soldier from childhood; and if the pith of his little arm could not at seven years be very terrible to his enemies, his disposition to raise it" in the tented field" spoke of the spirit which was nursing the future hero. But it is not alone in these "feats of broils and battle" in which his life had been spent, that we discover the vigour of the two propensities in ques tion. It is true, that wherever they are strongly developed, they communicate to the character an instinctive desire to encounter, and struggle with, and conquer opposition :-and Othello tells the senators of Venice, Like the war-horse, when the trumpet sounds the onset, and the din of arms startles his ear, spurning the earth with his impatient tread, and panting for the shock of battle, the rider, sharing the spirit of the noble animal which bears him, longs for the command that bids him rush like a destroying angel to scatter destruction among the foe. Conjoined, however, with the sentiments which Othello possessed in such distinguished proportion, the natural fierceness of these propensities would be restrained, until a strong exciting cause was presented. But their operation was not therefore suspended. Even in this quiescent state they impart to every accent of command, an expression which can never be misunderstood by those to whom it is addressed; conveying, although uttered with all the external seeming of coolness and composure, an intimation,-to use the words of Mr Scott,―of the will of the Speaker, coupled with the farther intimation, expressed or implied, that disobedience will be attended with fatal or inconvenient consequences. - There is a striking exemplification of this in the second scene of the first act, where Othello thus replies to the puny clamours of the aged and feeble Brabantio, and the party he leads.— Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.- And again, after every abusive epithet has been lavished upon him-far from being chafed by an opposition, his Self-esteem, Combativeness, and Destructiveness, give him an inward consciousness of power to crush by a single movement of his arm, he calls to those of both parties, who were preparing to bring the matter to the decision of arms,— |