Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-12-16
THAcKERAY,s HEAD.
Large hut There Was Lots In It-A Child
Like Heart.

Large but There Was Lots Ia It-A Child
Like Heart.
Thackeray. like most Anglo Indian
infants was sent whom he was about
five years OF oge to the mother-coun-
try for mental and physical nourish-
ment An aunt with whom ne lived.
discovered the child one morning pa
rading about in his uncle's hat which
exactly fitted him. Fearing some
abnormal and dangerous develop
ment OF the brain. she carried him at
ones to famous physician OF the day
who IS reported to have said. Don't
be afraid madam. he has largo head.
but there's a good deal in itp' His
brain. when he died fifty-three years
later weighed fifty-eight and half
ounces In l849 Charlotte Bronte
wrote OF 1hackeray: To me the
broad brow seems TO express in
tellect Certain lines about the
nose and cheek betray the satirist and
cYnIc; tthe mouth indicates q child
like simplicity-perhaps even de-
gree Of irresoluteness Inconsistency
weakness in short but weakness
not unamiable." And Mr. Motley
writing to his wife in 1858 said: II
believe you have never seen Thack-
cray; he has the appearance of col
ossal infant smooth. white shining
ringlety hair haxen alas! with adj
vancing years; roundish face. with
little dab OF a nose upon which it
is petual wonder how he keeps his
spectacles. This broken nose was
always a source of amusement TO
Thackeray himself; he caricatured it
in his drawings he frequently alluded
TO it in his speech and in his letters.
and he was fond OF repeating Douglas
Jerrold's remark to him when he was
to stand as godfather to friends son
Lord. Thackeray. | hope you
won't present the child with your
own mugn d.
1t is not pleasant to look upon the
face OF Thackeray-the face of which
we love to think so pleasantly
distorted by death. He was found
dead in his bed on the morning of
December "a. 1858. so young
man." as Dickens wrote. shat the
mother who blessed him in his first
sleep blessed him in his last The
final words he corrected in print"
continued Dickens were Aud my
heart throbbed with an exquisite
bliss" God grant that on that
Christmas eve when he laid his head
back on his pillow and threw up his
arms as he had been won't TO do when
very weary some consciousness OF
duty done. and Christian hope
throughout life humbly cherished
may have caused his heart so TO throb
when he passed away to his Redeem
ers rest!" And. To-" said Thack-
cray himself once OF the most beau
tiful character in all fiction his own
Thomas Newcome-' And. 10. no
whose heart was as that of little
child had answered to his name and
stood in the presence OF The Masterl'
I'VE think of Thackeray " wrote
DIR. John Brown. OF Edinburg. as OF
our own Chalmers; found dead in
like manner; the same childlike I'M
spoiled open face the same gentle
mouth. the same spaciousness and
softness OF nature. the same look OF
power. What a thing TO think Of
his lying there alone in the dark in
the midst OF his own mighty London;
his mother and his daughters asleep
and it may be. dreaming OF his good
ness. Long years OF sorrow labor
and pain had killed him before his
time. 1t was found after death how
little life he had to live. He looked
always fresh with that Astounding sill
yer hair and his loving. almost in
fantile face; but he was worn to a
shadow. and his hands wasted as IL
by eighty years"
The cast OF Thackeray's face writes
Laurence Hutton in Harper's was
made by Brucciani on that sad Christ
mas morning at the request OF Dr..
now Sir Henry Thompson; aud cast
of his right hand was made at tho
same time-that honest faithful.
beautiful. wasted right hand which
never writ n flattery,
Nor signed the page that registered a lie. "
COnyiucing Testimony.
i was spending the night in n