The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-28
LITTLE BIG MEN.
Some Historical Differences Between
Brains and stature.
(irOm the saturday Evening Post.)

(from the Saturday Evening Post.)
One of the natural instincts Of men is
| that curiosity which all EEL regarding the
personal appearance o. those persons who
have stood mentally high above their fell
| lows. Whenever we read or Tear OF great
| man, and especially when we are familiar
| with his history. we unconsci)uS form a
picture of his looks and stature to which
the contrast of the actual man is often
| very disappointing. Often We refuse to
substitute the strange, unsatisfying reality
| for our own fond creation, especially If the
great man Is found to be a small one-the
| intellectual giant a physical dwarf. As a
rule we overestimate the height and bulk
| of our heroes, and endow them, If attrac-
| tive, with superhuman beauty. or. If hate
full, with ugly and repulsive looks. 1t was
this feeling which made the people at Var
| mouth. England, when Nelson. delicate in
| body and insignificant in appearance, was
passing over the quay to take command of
his first ship, exclaim: why make that
| little fellow captain
| During Napoleon's first campaign in
| Italy, in 1876. the Italians were greatly
surprised at his personal appearance. His
short stature, his pale face, the sickly
| thinness Of his frail body, which seemed
| consumed by the fires of his genius. but
| was in reality made of muscles of steel,
seized the imagination of the people by the
! contrast they presented to his dazzling
| feats of arms. 1t was novel and start
ling experience to find that direct and PEN
| Grating glance, that abrupt, imperious
| gesture. that laconic speech and peremp-
| tory and absolute tone-all which bespoke
| the man born to COMMUNICATIVE
with such a dwarfish and attenuated
| frame.
When man o; extraordinary intellect
ual and moral ability is endowed with
giant body; when great power of thought
ability to govern, or magnetic eloquencS
! is encased in n powerful frame-tiie union
gives, we all know a comma nding infiu-
ence. Constantine at the head of his
| army. or on the throne erected for him at
the EcuInenical Council at Nice; Charlie
! g1AntpSS.
| above all his courtiers, with a high dome
| of a head eyes, large and sparkling, and
| genius to fuse and mold the heteroge-
neous, chaotic elements of Europe into a
! great smpire; William the Conqueror,
man of great stature and fullness of per-
son, majestic in appearance whether
| standing or sitting; Peter the Great.
| founder of civilized RUSSIA and George
| Washington, commander of our Revolu-
! tionary army-all these men satisfied that
| instinct which loves to see an imposing
| appearance associated with intellectual
power and official authority.
| Among Americans in whom greatness
| of body has been linked with greatness of
mind were DR.. Mason and DR.. DIN, the
| powerful pulpit orators: General Scott;
jeremiah Mason. in his day the fore
| most lawyer of New England, who was
| six feet seven inches in height, and well
proportional; and, most remarkable of
all, the great lawyer and statesman Dan
| iel Webster. Few men in the worlds his
| tory have more deeply impressed their
| fellows by the union of mental greatness
with physical than this giant Of the bar
| and the Senate. If many otner great men
| have shamed their worshippers on near
| approach-if their comparatively pygmy
bodies have given the lie to their intel
! lectual pretenslons, their souls being
| physiognomically slandered by their
| bodies-it was not so with him. Whoever
| looked upon this son of the Granite
/ State" with his massive. strongly-knit
| frame, his broad, beeItng brows his deep
| set, brooding, black eyes and ''AIirabeau
1 no a fpl M ct a flfa nc
| an intellectual Titan stood before him. In
| his voice his step. and his bearing there
was a grandeur that took the imaglna-
| ton by storm.
Facts. however. show beyond a doubt
| that a necessary connection between the
size or shape of the body and the strength
| of the mind is purely imaginary, yet
many persist in thinking differently
Spence in his Anecdotes relates that
| Alexander Pope. the pygmy poet, was one
| day with Sir Godfrey Kneller, the cele-
| brated portrait painter, when his neigh
| Dor, a Guinea slave-trader, came in.
| Nephew said Sir Godfrey, you have
! the honor of seeing the two greatest men
| in the world kneller, small man bod
| lily, had very good opinion of himself,
| as well as of his little friend, Pope. and
was hardly prepared for the reply: Il
| don't know how great men you may be,
| but ] don't like your looks. ! have often
] bought man much better than both OF
| you, all muscles and bones, for ten
guineas.
IL is a singular fact that. while nothing
would seem to be easier than TO ascertain
| the exact size of great men. yet IL is
really difficult. and often impossible. to
do so. How long did the grand mon
arch" Louis XIV, pass for a large man.
| being deG1ribed as such by courtiers and
historiansi Yet the measurement of his
| skeleton some years after his death re-
vealed that he was under the average
| size. Napoleon III, while on the throne,
was depicted as majestic in figure; we
now know that he was very short-little
. five FOG haerhf
Indeed. far the larger part of the men
| who have ruled the world either intellec-
tually or with the sword, have been men
| Of small stature. Aristotle, the Greek
| philosopher. who for 1000 years main
:ained despotic sway over the world of
| thought, was a slender man with spindle
! shanks, small eyes, and shrill, STAN
| mering speech. In the great Council of
| Nice. consisting Of 20O0 delegates, the
| most potent spirit, who after long and
| fierce disputes carried the Council with
| him. was Athanasius, man of very
small stature-"a dwarf rather than a
man. says Dean Stanley. but of almost
angelic beauty OF face and expression"
In his little body dWelt a mighty soul
Combining subtlety of thought and pow
| or of eloquence with resoluteness Of will
| Intensity of conviction and intrepidity of
spirit. he fought single-handed and for
| half century the great battle of ortho-
doXy, having no friend but God and
| death" and today the creed OF Athana-
sius is substantially the creed of Christen-
| dom.
| Gregory VII. the mghtiest and haughti-
| est of the Roman POntiffs. who de-
| throned sovereigns at his will. was
diminutive man; and so were Canute the
| Great, and the great Condo. Voltaire, the
| literary autocrat Of the eighteenth century
| and the most brilliant wit of the ages
| was one of the thinnest and most spectral
| Of human beings. Two of the most po-
| tent spirits that directed the storm OF
| the French Revolution, Robespierre and
| Marat, we're far below the average stat
| ure. The former an incarnation of will.
who by the sheer force of his intellect
swayed the multitude and the national
assembly at his pleasure, was but five
| feet and two or three inches high. and
the latter was less than five feet. Many
| Of the most eminent Frenchmen of the
nineteenth century-La Place. Poisson
Fourier Theirs, GuiZot-were small spare
| spirtualized beings, who could distinctly
| feel their own ribs. Montaigne. the father
| of essayists: DR.. Watts, the hynnist; the
sickly Scarron, who. in reference to his
| ill-health and insignificant stature, called
| himself IAN abridgment of human mis-
| cries." Alexander Pope. who wore three
| pairs Of stockings TO plump out his legs to
| a decent size. and also wore stays; Camp
| bell. the author OF 'Hohenlinden," "a
pretty little, delicate ladylike nnical gem
| tieman:" Thomas De Quincy. the
| "Opium-eater' all dwariish men.
Suwarrow, the greatest of Russian gen.
| erals; Frederick the Great; David Gar
rick the wonderful actor, and Alexander
| Hamilton. whom Talleyrand pronounced
one of the three greatest men he had ever
known. were slender and below the mid
| die height The brave General Marion
| was in stature of the smallest size, thin
| as well as low" and DR.. Kane, who sur
| passed all his Arctic companions In BRAY
| ing torrid heat and polar cold, was but
| five feet six in height, and weighed at
| his best but LIS pounds. But more dwarf
ish than any of these ghostly beings was
| that phenomenon OF the eighteenth CEN
tury, the Able Gallant, OF Naples. Per
L Ill., sol