The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-01-05
Strange Phases Of Human Nnturs.

Rev. DIR. J. n. Buckley Iectured at
Mount Vernon Place Methodist Episcopal
Church recently on Strange Phases of
Human Nature" The lecturer is prom
inent Methodist minister Of New York,
and entertained large audience for two
hours, illustrating his subject with many
interesting facts. He said there is silence
of the stars, of the plants, the animals, but
no science of human nature There are
sciences which are called sciences of hu-
man nature. Phrenology is one of these.
| never saw man with large head who
did not believe in phrenology, nor a man
with small head and retreating forehead,
like the top of gothic church, who did
not scout at it. once believed in phre-
nology, but as | grew older saw its falla-
cies. was at q meeting in Boston when
three unknown men and one known as a
great speaker were to make addresses.
The three unknown consumed the time,
while | noticed man on the platform very
uneasy and restless. He was the great
man all came there TO hear, and he had a
head about the size of a cocoanut have
seen men Of wonderful enegry or great
eloquence with heads no bigger than a
twelye-year old boys. I have seen man
of extraordinary hardness and power of
muscle, and his arms felt like those of a
small and delicate man. Life insurance
agents will tell you that the tables of long
evity enable them to estimate the probable
length of life, but said to a distinguished
man in South Carolina who had lived to
be very old, "what wonderful vitality you
must have?" "No, sir" said he, "If I
had I would never have outlived the three
generations that I have; l would not have
husbanded my little vitality as I have
done. Sixty years ago an important case
was not put in the hands of young law
yer in Baltimore, because it was thought
he would not live the Eve or six years the
case might last. That lawyer lived to see
buried the judges, jury and lawyers who
tried the case and the witnesses, and to
become chief justice of the Supreme Court
Of the United States, with a voice too
weak to be heard six yards"
Mr.. Lincoln, who was 6 feet At inches
high, and Mr. Douglas, who was feet 4
inches, stumped Illinois for the Senator
ship. The discussion made Douglas SEN
ator and Lincoln President. In one of
their debates Mr.. Lincoln, pointing to
Douglas, said, "The way of the wicked is
short" Mr.. Douglas, in reply said, "When
the people saw through the wicked schemes
of his opponent they would cry show long,
o Lord, how long" Laughter.1
The lecturer referred to Alexander Fl.
Stephens as one of the greatest intelIects
and smallest men physically he knew.
Lincoln, seeing him take off his coat, said
that was the biggest shuck from the small
est ear Of corn ever seen. Father Hya-
cinthe, the most magnificent orator of the
prepared kind he ever heard, is feet 3
inches high. In the portrait galleries of
Europe one-third only of the great men
look great. Julius Caesar, the greatest
intellect of his time, was Insignificant look
ing and subject, like Mahomet, all his life
to epileptic fits, which are supposed to de-
note feebleness Of mind. The largest pro-
portion of handsome women and fne-look-
ing men to be found are represented in
the rogues' gallery of counterfeiters and
other criminals in Washington. The lee
ture embraced great many more strik-
ing facts about dreams, spiritualism, &c.