1775-1864
[Sidenote: Crabb Robinson’s _Diary_.]
“He was a man of florid complexion, with large full eyes, and
altogether a _leonine_ man, and with a fierceness of tone well suited
to his name; his decisions being confident, and on all subjects,
whether of taste or life, unqualified, each standing for itself, not
caring whether it was in harmony with what had gone before or would
follow from the same oracular lips. But why should I trouble myself to
describe him? He is painted by a master hand in Dickens’s novel _Bleak
House_, now in course of publication, where he figures as Mr. Boythorn.
The combination of superficial ferocity and inherent tenderness, so
admirably portrayed in _Bleak House_, still at first strikes every
stranger,--for twenty-two years have not materially changed him,--no
less than his perfect frankness and reckless indifference to what he
says.”--1830.
[Sidenote: S. C. Hall’s _Retrospect of a Long Life_.]
“... He was at that time sixty years of age, although he did not look
so old; his form and features were essentially masculine; he was not
tall, but stalwart; of a robust constitution, and was proud even to
arrogance of his physical and intellectual strength. He was a man to
whom passers-by would have looked back and asked, ‘Who is that?’ His
forehead was high, but retreated, showing remarkable absence of the
organs of benevolence and veneration. It was a large head, fullest at
the back, where the animal propensities predominate; it was a powerful,
but not a good head, the expression the opposite of genial. In short,
physiognomists and phrenologists would have selected it,--each to
illustrate his theory.”--1836.
[Sidenote: Harriet Martineau’s _Biographical Sketches_.]
“His tall, broad, muscular, active frame was characteristic, and so was
his head, with the strange elevation of the eyebrows which expresses
self-will as strongly in some cases as astonishment in others. Those
eyebrows, mounting up until they comprehend a good portion of the
forehead, have been observed in many more paradoxical persons than
one. Then there was the retreating but broad forehead, showing the
deficiency of reasoning and speculative power, with the preponderance
of imagination and a huge passion for destruction. The massive
self-love and self-will carried up his head to something more than a
dignified bearing--even to one of arrogance. His vivid and quick eye,
and the thoughtful mouth, were fine, and his whole air was that of
a man distinguished in his own eyes certainly, but also in those of
others. Tradition reports he was handsome in his youth. In age he was
more.”