December 12.-Robert Ellis, Writer, Albany Street; Patrick Gibson, Landscape-Painter, Dollar Academy. January 9, 1823.-Charles James Fox Orr, Writer to the Signet. April 3.-Captain William Cargill, Edinburgh; James Simpson, Advocate; James Bridges, Writer to the Signet ; George Lyon, Writer to the Signet; Thomas Uwins, Historical Painter, London. December 11.-James Tod, Writer to the Signet. 22.-John O'Donnell, M.D. L.B. Latitiæ Parisiorum, &c.; William Gray, 17, Pilrig Street. February 5.-Hon. D. Gordon Hallyburton, Hallyburton House; Thomas Buchanan, Merchant, Leith; John Overend, M.D. London. March 4.-Matthew Norman Macdonald, Writer to the Signet; William R. Henderson, younger of Warriston. April 1.-William Ellis, Solicitor of Supreme Courts in Scotland. W. A. F. Browne, Surgeon, Edinburgh; John Cox, Gorgie Mill. · December 9.-Rev. James Whitson. 13.-Thomas Lees, Writer, Edinburgh. January 20, 1825.-Francis Farquharson, M.D. February 17.-Andrew Clarke, 7, Hill Street, Edin burgh. March 3.-John Morrison, Portrait Painter. 17. Patrick B. Mure, Advocate. 31. Andrew Scott, 2, James' Place, Leith. April 14-Patrick Tennant, W.S. December 1.-William Slate, Accountant. 15.-Thos. Megget, W.S. January 5, 1826.-John Burn Murdoch, Advocate. February 16.-Rev. Gilbert Wardlaw, Minister of Albany Street Chapel. March 16.-Timothy Burstall, Engineer, Leith; John Epps, Student of Medicine. April 27.-Robert Contart de la Condamine, 8, Bellevue Crescent; William Stewart Watson, Miniature Painter, 30, Castle Street. PROCEEDINGS OF THE PHRENOLOGICAL SOCIETY. April 6, 1826.-An extraordinary meeting of the Society was held, when Mr Lyon read an Essay on the Phrenological Causes of the different Degrees of Liberty enjoyed by different Nations-Part IV. Comparison of Monarchical and Republican Forms of Government, illustrated from the Governments and political History of the Swiss. April 13.—Mr Lyon read Part V. of the above Essay, being a Comparison of Monarchical and Republican Forms of Government, illustrated from the Governments and political Histories of the Swiss and the Dutch. April 27.-Dr A. Combe read a Notice of the Cases of Lecouffe and Feldtmann, executed at Paris for Murder in 1823, with some Remarks on the Question of their Insanity, and a Contrast between their Manifestations and those of Jean Pierre, in whom the Disease was proved to be simulated. The following donations were presented:-Cast of the head, and also of the skull, of Luscombe, executed at Exeter for murder, transmitted by Mr Trevelyan; cast of a hydrocephalic head, by Mr James Miller, surgeon, Perth.-Mr R. C. de la Condamine, Bellevue Crescent, and Mr W. Stewart Watson, miniature painter, Edinburgh, were unanimously admitted Ordinary Members. The Society then adjourned for the present session. 482 ARTICLE XVI. Some Observations on the Character of CROMWELL, as delineated in the Novel of WOODSTOCK. The picture of Cromwell in Woodstock is strictly historical, that is, in perfect accordance with what is known of Cromwell's character; and likewise strictly phrenological. There is a certain force and weight in some characters-a moral momentum, to which ordinary minds, by a law of their nature, yield as necessarily as a less gives way to a greater physical resistance. Without the slightest appeal to physical force, "they overwhelm and take possession of feebler minds," says "Mr Combe, "impressing them irresistibly with a feeling of "gigantic power." "Men, who in the hour of political convulsion, rise from obscurity to supreme power; adventurers who have or might have seated themselves on thrones, the Cromwells and the Napoleons, have always borne about them this commanding influence. This is the secret of their rise to power and their security in it; this is the spell which stifles plots against them in the very breasts of those who imagine them; quells mutiny by mere presence; opposition with a look; resumes supreme power, if let slip, without an army, nay, in the face of one; serves as a panoply against assassination itself, surrounding these master-spirits with a charmed circle, which guards their unarmed persons from the hand of vengeance, even when in careless contact with those whose fiercest passions are concentrated against them in mortal hatred and hostility. A large induction has shown, that an ample volume of brain, in all the three regions, animal, moral, and intellectual, is essential to this influence and force. Buonaparte's head was ■ Vide System, page 37. unquestionably big, and all the likenesses of Cromwell, to say nothing of an actual cast of his face and forehead taken after death, render it certain, that his head was of the same large class, if not of a yet larger. No small head could have maintained for a day the mighty attitude of Cromwell or Buonaparte. The author of Woodstock has of course passed by the head of Cromwell, but has missed no lineament of his character; and even the reader is made to feel that he is a "tremendous personage:" "And there in lofty air was seen to stand "The stern protector of the conquered land." 66 The author introduces him receiving Markham Everard's packet from the hands of Wildrake, in the court-of-guard in Windsor Castle. "His demeanour," says he, was SO "blunt, as sometimes to be termed clownish, but there was in "his language and manner a force and energy corresponding "to his character, which impressed awe, if it did not inspire "respect." Wildrake, whose Veneration was evidently none of the largest, gets by degrees familiar, and more than once attempts, in very bad taste, to make a companion of the Protector; but one glance of that eye frowns him back to his comparative insignificance, and re-establishes that influence from which it was in vain to attempt to escape. "His natural "boldness and carelessness of character," says the author, 66 were "borne down and quelled, like that of the falcon in the presence "of the eagle." When Cromwell in mistake turns round the portrait of Charles I. by Vandyke, Wildrake, at the sight, actually for a moment compasses his death, in revenge of the king's. "But "this natural and sudden flash of indignation, which rushed through the veins of an ordinary man like Wildrake, was presently subdued, when confronted with the strong, yet "stifled emotion displayed by so powerful a character as Crom"well. As the cavalier looked on his dark and bold counte nance, he found his own violence of spirit die away, and lose "itself in fear and wonder. So true it is, that as greater lights "swallow up and extinguish the display of those that are less, so men of great, capacious, and over-ruling minds bear aside " and subdue, in their climax of passion, the more feeble wills "and passions of others, as, when a river joins a brook, the "fiercer torrent shoulders aside the smaller stream. "Wildrake stood a silent, inactive, and almost terrified spec"tator, while Cromwell, assuming a firm sternness of eye and manner, as one who compels himself to look on what some "strong internal feeling renders painful and disgustful to him, proceeded in brief and interrupted expressions, but yet with "a firm voice, to comment on the portrait of the king." The effusion that follows is replete with strength of character; while the same overwhelming greatness is admirably pourtrayed, when Cromwell at Woodstock stations his troopers, and shakes the dwelling of Markham Everard with one determined unrepeated knock; come, as he is, to pounce on his prey like an eagle on a dovecot. Another trait of human nature is strikingly illustrated by this character, namely, the existence in the same individual of dispositions so contrary, as, in their alternate excitement, to present to us two distinct and, to all appearance, incompatible characters. The idea was long treated as incredibly absurd, that murderers, like Haggart and Thurtle, could, even for a moment, in their whole lives, however quiescent their prevalent selfish and ferocious fcelings might for that moment be, experience one emotion of kindness to their fellow-creatures, or do one benevolent deed. The most able and popular historians of human nature, however, distinctly recognise characters belonging to this species as actual existences, and place them prominently on their canvass, as the most powerful touches in their pictures. Cromwell, during the exciting transactions at the lodge of Woodstock, is positively two distinct beings; and these he manifests, by appearing in four several moods, two of them ferocious, and two benevolent. First, In a paroxysm of rage with Wildrake, who had bearded him with insult and attempted his life, he gives an order to his troopers to shoot him instantly in the street, and even refuses him spiritual consolation. This act of vengeance appearing to him premature, he recalls his order, and carries the party prisoners to the lodge of Woodstock. |