_Jewish Lineaments_ (Vol. vi., p. 362.).--Is this Query put in reference to
the individual or the race? In either case the lineaments would wear out.
In the first, intermarriage would soon destroy them, as I have an instance
in my own family, wherein the person, though only three removes from true
Jewish blood, retains only the faintest trace of Jewish ancestry. In the
second instance, the cause of the change is more subtle. The Jew, as long
as he adheres to Judaism, mingles with Hebrew people, adopts their manners,
shares their pursuits, and imbibes their tone of thought. Just as the
character is reflected in the countenance, so will he maintain his Jewish
looks; but as soon as he adopts Christian views, and mingles with Christian
people, he will lose those peculiarities of countenance, the preservation
of which depended on his former career. We see examples of this in those
Franks who have resided {297} for a long time in the East, adopting the
dress and customs of the people they have mingled with. Such persons
acquire an Eastern tone of countenance, and many have been mistaken by
their friends for veritable Turks or Arabs, the countenance having acquired
the expression of the people with whom they have mingled most freely. The
same fact is illustrated in the countenances of aged couples, especially in
country places. Frequently these, though widely distinct in appearance when
first married, grow at last exactly like each other, and in old age are
sometimes scarcely to be distinguished by the features.
If not quite to the purpose, these instances illustrate the correspondence
of the life and the looks, which is the philosophy of the Query on Jewish
lineaments.