The Press.
London, England, 1854-06-24 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Sir Benjamin, if we may assume the opinion
expressed by his interlocutors to be his own,
puts no faith in phrenology. He considers
the apportionment of the brain to various
organs as a merely fanciful theory, and the
judgment of character, to which practised
phrenologists have attained, as the result of
mere conjecture. Dr. Gall, the founder of the
science, was led into some ludicrous errors in
his attempts to determine the temperaments
of individuals to him unknown. Then the

definitions of the various organs are so gene-
ral as scarcely to admit the possibility of entire

error :

But, even if the errors of phrenology were less nume-
rous than I believe them to be, that would not go far tow-
ards convincing me of the value of their art. It is not
very difficult for a clever observer of human nature to
form a notion of some part of a man's character in the
course of a brief conversation with him ; and an enthusi-
ast in phrenology may very honestly persuade himself that
he has obtained from the examination of his head that
knowledge which he has really obtained from other sources.
Then observe how comprehensive the faculties and pro-
pensities of the phrenological system are supposed to be.
A large development of the organ of destructiveness in the
head of Hare the murderer explained how it was that he
was led to murder sixteen human beings that ho might
sell their bodies. But in the head of another person who
never committed a murder it is sufficient to find that it
exists in combination with a disposition to satire, or to
deface milestones ; and in the beaver and squirrel it ex-
plains how it is that these animals are impelled to cut and
tear in pieces the bark, leaves, and branches of trees for
the innocent purpose of constructing their cabins and
nests. So the large size of the organ of acquisitiveness
not only leads one person to be a thief and another to
hoard, but it also explains the habits of the spendthrift
(who does not hoard at all ); and it impels storks and
swallows to return after their migrations to establish
themselves, each succeeding year, in the same locality.
Following these examples, I do not see that a phrenologist
can have much difficulty in finding a character for every
individual suited to the particular configuration of his
head.
It has been usually held that large heads
are more powerful and thinking machines than
small ones, and, as a general rule, experience
justifies the conclusion. But Newton, Byron,
and others were exceptions to it ; and it is
quite certain that a large brain may be accom-
panied with the most dense stupidity.
Many remarks scattered through this little
treatise are worth the recollection of all ages
and classes. " The failure of the mind in old
" age," says Sir Benjamin, "is often less the
" result of natural decay than of disuse."
Ambition has ceased to operate; contentment
brings indolence ; indolence, decay of mental
.power, ennui, and sometimes death, Men
have been known to die, literally speaking, of
disease induced by intellectual vacancy. On
the other hand, the amount of possible mental
labour is far less than many persons imagine.
If professional men are enabled to work twelve
or fifteen hours daily, that is because most of
their business has become, from habit, mere
matter of routine. From four to six hours is
probably the utmost daily period for which
real exertion of the mind can be carried on.
Modern education is likewise touched upon.
It errs, according to the author, not in defect,
but excess. The teaching designed for, and
which is good for, ordinary intellects is apt to
check and stint those of a naturally superior
quality. But, as the nature of individual
minds cannot be known until education has
been carried to a certain point, it is difficult to
see how this fault can be remedied, except by
giving a large choice and variety of studies, so
as to offer some that may attract all learners.
And such is actually the tendency our mo-
dern system in its latest phase.
If we were to offer any criticism on this
work we should remark that the dialogue form
adopted is rather a hindrance than a help.
Conversations are only useful where differ•
ences of character are to be displayed or oppo-
site opinions elicited. But here the interlo-
cutors generally agree, and any remark made
by one of them might be equally attributed to
the others. The dialogue is, in fact, merely
an interrupted essay.

Hide and Seek. By W. Wilkie Collins. 3 vols.
London : Bentley.
MR. WILRIK COLLINS is a tantalising writer.
Very ambitious in the selection of his subjects,
and displaying a great parade of language, he
disappoints the expectations which his pre-
tensions have awakened. Reared in an atmo-
sphere of art, his writings exhibit the thinking

591

of a painter and the style of a rhetorician. A
strong sense of colour, a gushing power of
utterance, and great pleasure in the labours of
composition, are the resources on which he
seeks to rear a i eputation as a novelist. But
these are only a small pit of the powers re-
quired for describing human nature, or inte-
resting the affections of the heart. Mr. Collins
declaims where he should describe, and he
constantly confounds lively description with
original invention. There is a certain amount
of attractive force in the resonance of his
ringing rhetoric, but he exhibits no reserved
strength indicative of a serene sense of moral
beauty, and giving evidence of genuine inspi-
ration. He has either not seen enough of life
to find subjects for a novelist's pen, or else he
has not studied nature on a proper method.
" Hide and Seek" exhibits another of the
defects of this very animated but too facile
writer. There is too great prominence given
to unpleasing characters, and repulsive sub-
jects are described with profuse detail. The
work is dedicated to Mr. Dickens, and we
constantly meet pages which the author evi-
dently penned under the recollection of that
eminent writer's peculiar talent for giving us
" sun pictures " of the externals of London
life. But Mr. Wilkie Collins is sparingly
gifted with humour, and common life can be
made interesting only by genial sympathy
with the hearty fun and small sorrows that
make up so large a portion of the routine of
vulgar existence. Romantic fiction, with
strong plots and melodramatic characters, is
the ground which, for the present, this amb-
tious writer should occupy.
" Hide and Seek," with the defects indi-
cated, is greatly superior to the common run
of novels, and is worth perusal by those who
seek for their mental excitement in the circu-
lating libraries. While retaining his French
vivacity of style, the author has avoided those
very coarse incidents which were so censurable
in "Basil," an addiction to which would be
perilous in this country to a popular writer.
One of the leading characters in " Hide and
Seek" is a painter, with whose professional
aspirations the author seeks to interest us,
and we are introduced to a view behind the
scenes of artistic life. The antecedents of
Mr. Wilkie Collins supplied him hero with
ample matter for description, but after all he
only shows us the externals of his art hero.
He sketches his room and his exhibition of
pictures with the facility of a writer familiar
with his subject ; but we miss the vitalising
power that creates character. Although the
matter is often unpleasing, we prefer the
second volume, where we have more rapid
action, and more vigorous subjects. " Zack,"
the son of Mr. Zachary Thorpe, of Baregrove-
square, London, is the character of the novel.
Thorpe senior is drawn at full length as the
personification of external respectability,
righteous overmuch, yet writhing under pangs
of conscience that remind him he is not better
than his neighbours. The gloomy religionism
which pervades his mansion is well painted,
and the son is described as a being in whose
nature the reaction against the routine of his
dreary home goes too far, and plunges him
into excesses, amidst which he meets with
singular companions. One of the most
elaborated characters in the book is that of
" Marksman," but, though drawn with distinct-
ness, it has an unreal air. The whole novel
exhibits great variety and energy of composi-
tion.
Many acute reflections are scatterecithrough
the hook ; one on the meanness of'middle life
in England, which so often sacrifices comfbrt
to show and character to imitation, is ad-
mirable :
To the lookepon at the system of prevailing among
the moderate incomes in England, the sort of existence
which, with certain pleasant exceptions, that system ern--
bodies, seems in some aspects.to 'be without a •parallel in
any other part of the civilised 'world. In what other country
but others is social enjoyment among the middle classes
with small means, deliberately denuded of all geunine sub-
stance of its own, for the sake of making ft the faint re-
flection of social enjoyment among the higher classes with
large means? Is this done anywhere else but in England?
And is it not obviously true—nielancholy' truth —that,
while the upper classes and the lower classes of our so-
ciety have each their own characteristic and genuine re-
creations for leisure hours, adapted equally to their means
and to their tastes, the middle classes, in general, have (to
expose the sad reality) nothing of the sort?

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