DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18825#0349
236
[lect. IX.
ADDENDA to the Article CHARACTER.
THE variety of character among mankind has
given occasion to an equal variety of measures and
proportions, each claiming to be adopted as a system
of principles. Some masters are fond of the slen-
der, which they think genteel ; others are not satis-
fied, unless they represent the quality of strength in
an eminent degree ; and these make every figure
brawny and muscular : so that while by some masters
figures are drawn to the proportion (or rather dispro-
portion) of ten heads; others are equally absurd in
adopting less than seven heads. We have given the
general and regular medium, to which, in temperate
climates, mankind most usually correspond. It has
been observed in the lecture, that in the colder
climates of the globe, the inhabitants seem shrunk
into dwarfs: we may add, that beneath the Torrid
Zone the inhabitants are more slender and spare ; to
this, among other causes, the manner of their living
may much contribute, as well as the nature of
their climate. It is evidently impossible such diver-
sity can be reduced to measurement; and every at-
tempt of that kind is, and must be, fallacious. The
variety of character found among any single nation,
may defy the most indefatigable to reduce it to system-
atic measures : of which any person may judge,
who, in a crouded street, will observe the passing
populace—some may be very tall, others verv short;
but the generality will justify the principles we have
adduced. It may be worth while just to hint, that
2 the
[lect. IX.
ADDENDA to the Article CHARACTER.
THE variety of character among mankind has
given occasion to an equal variety of measures and
proportions, each claiming to be adopted as a system
of principles. Some masters are fond of the slen-
der, which they think genteel ; others are not satis-
fied, unless they represent the quality of strength in
an eminent degree ; and these make every figure
brawny and muscular : so that while by some masters
figures are drawn to the proportion (or rather dispro-
portion) of ten heads; others are equally absurd in
adopting less than seven heads. We have given the
general and regular medium, to which, in temperate
climates, mankind most usually correspond. It has
been observed in the lecture, that in the colder
climates of the globe, the inhabitants seem shrunk
into dwarfs: we may add, that beneath the Torrid
Zone the inhabitants are more slender and spare ; to
this, among other causes, the manner of their living
may much contribute, as well as the nature of
their climate. It is evidently impossible such diver-
sity can be reduced to measurement; and every at-
tempt of that kind is, and must be, fallacious. The
variety of character found among any single nation,
may defy the most indefatigable to reduce it to system-
atic measures : of which any person may judge,
who, in a crouded street, will observe the passing
populace—some may be very tall, others verv short;
but the generality will justify the principles we have
adduced. It may be worth while just to hint, that
2 the