OF THE JEWISH NOSE.
CLASS IV.—THE JEWISH, or Hawk Nose, is very convex, and preserves its
convexity like a bow, throughout the whole length from the eyes to
the tip. It is thin and sharp.
It indicates considerable Shrewdness in worldly matters; and deep
insight into character, and facility of turning that insight to
profitable account.
This is a good, useful, practical Nose, very able to carry its owner
successfully through the world, that is as success is now-a-days
measured, by weight of purse; nevertheless it will not elevate him to
any very exalted pitch of intellectuality.
It is called the Jewish Nose in conformity with long-established
nomenclature, and is, perhaps more frequent among the Jews than among
most other nations resident in Europe. It is, however a fallacy to
suppose that the peculiar physiognomy called Jewish is confined to the
Jews, or even exclusively characteristic of them. It is in fact a form
of profile common to all the inhabitants of Syria; and Sir G. Wilkinson
has proved in his erudite work on Ancient Egypt, that the nations
represented in the Egyptian sculptures with this cast of countenance are
not always intended for Jews, as was at one time supposed, but for
Syrians. Moreover, this form of countenance is to this day, the usual
one among the Arabs of that part of the world. This Nose should
therefore more properly be called the Syrian Nose.
This fact enables us to extend our illustrations, by adducing divers
national proofs of the correctness of the indications ascribed to this
Nose.
We have said that it is a good, useful, practical Nose, _i. e._ a good
money-getting Nose, a good commercial Nose, and perhaps the latter term
would be an apt secondary designation for it. Hence, those nations which
have been most largely gifted with it, have been always celebrated for
their commercial success.
The Phœnicians were Syrians, and the portraits which we have of these
people on the Egyptian sculptures, as read by Sir G. Wilkinson, all
exhibit this form of Nose. It is unnecessary to enlarge on the very
early commercial activity of this nation, on its extensive traffic, its
flourishing colonies, and its mighty fleets. While the rest of the world
was in barbarism, or kept their low civilization carefully locked up
within their own dominions, the Phœnicians were spreading arts and
letters among the barbarous nations of Europe, and carrying civilization
forward on its destined course towards the West. And the incentive to
this and the means whereby it was effected were the same as those which
now animate modern Tyre to promote the same Westward tendency of
civilization. What Phœnicia, a little western corner of Asia, did for
Europe, England, a little western corner of Europe, has done and is
doing for lands still further West—America and Austral-Asia; destined to
be in their turns the seats of a still progressive civilization, until
every part of the earth shall have been in succession blessed with a
civilization, if not always equal in degree, always adequate to its age,
requirements, and capacity.
Then when the whole circle shall have been accomplished—and of which
more than two-thirds have been already passed over—when civilization in
Austral-Asia shall touch the confines of its original starting point,
the Eastern shores of India, the consummation of all things shall be at
hand; the purpose for which the earth was created, and for which
millions of years have been slowly, surely, and silently beautifying,
storing, and adapting it, until it is like “the Garden of the Lord,”
shall have been fulfilled; and the whole of this beautiful system shall
vanish away like a breath, yet leave no vacuity, no defect, in the vast
and mighty universe, whose limits utterly transcend our notions of time
and space.
Two-thirds of this circle have been already passed over; the remaining
third is rapidly running out: we already stand half-way between the
beginning and the end of this third part; nay, we are nearer the end
than the beginning, we see more clearly and apprehend more closely the
day when Austral-Asia shall be the seat of civilization and
Christianity, than we do the day when those blessings seventeen hundred
years ago, first landed on our shores; we feel more affinity for, and
more sympathy with, the latter age than with the former, and we may be
assured that we do this because we are much nearer in Time to the one
than to the other.
This is an awful contemplation; we cannot but feel that there is an
extra responsibility cast upon us upon whom literally “the ends of the
world are come,” and that it concerns us more than all who have gone
before to be up and be doing; to take heed that while civilization is
progressing geographically, it is also progressing in power and
character; for upon the extent and nature of the Knowledge which we
transmit, depend in a great degree the extent and nature of the
Knowledge which shall ever reign on the earth.
Theologically considered, the subject is infinitely more awful and
important; and the mind cannot contemplate without fear and trembling,
what may be the consequences if we, instead of a pure and perfect,
transmit to the few generations yet to subsist on the earth, an impure
and imperfect, Christianity.
But to return to our more immediate subject. The Jews have always been
celebrated for shrewdness in commercial affairs. Though the
peculiarities of their religion prevented them from taking a leading
part in the general commercial business of the ancient world, yet among
themselves trade always flourished; and in the present age of the world,
the Jews were in all countries the first revivers of commerce after the
stagnation occasioned by the irruptions of the northern hordes, and in
many nations are still almost the only traders.
It does not always follow, however, that the love and capacity for
getting money is accompanied by a sordid disinclination to part with it.
Numerous instances occur of persons who shrewdly bargain for pence, but
liberally give away pounds. As we may seem to have inferred that the
former is a Jewish habit, it is right, and we are happy to be able to
say, that some instances of princely liberality among modern Jews,
afford lessons which Christians would do well to take.
No very exalted intellectuality is to be looked for from the Syrian
Nose. Its sphere of action is widely different from that of mental
exertion for the mere pleasure thence derivable. Hence, we find, that
notwithstanding the free intercourse which the Phœnicians permitted with
all nations, the ancient sages rarely travelled to Phœnicia for
learning. If they went there, they went like Solomon, to traffic. They
sought learning among the Chaldeans, the Indians, and the Egyptians, but
seldom touched in their course on the more accessible shores of
Phœnicia. The Phœnicians have had the reputation of being the inventors
of letters because they introduced them into Europe; but they were the
mere carriers of them for commercial purposes, not the inventors.
Though some attempts have been lately made to prove that the Hebrew
nation has furnished more learned men than any other, the attempts are
an utter failure.
Curious wranglers, ingenious cabalists, fine splitters of hairs, shrewd
perverters of texts, sharp detectors of discrepancies, clever concocters
of analogies, finders of mysteries in a sunbeam, constitute the mass of
modern[41] Jewish scholars. What is the Talmud, the Mishna, the Gemara,
or any of their comments thereon, or on Scripture, but mere puerile
exercises of wit; sometimes ingenious, but always reckless of truth,
decency, or common sense? We search in vain, as far as our knowledge of
those works extends, and all who have studied them corroborate our
opinion, for any expanded views, any comprehensive ideas or extensive
learning. Neither does their ancient history furnish any but inspired
names, to class among the world’s sages.
Education is however rapidly extending among the Jews. For the first
time since they ceased to be a nation they appear to begin to feel the
importance of raising themselves to an equal intellectual rank with the
citizens among whom their lot is cast. This is the natural consequence
of the accordance to them of equal national privileges—a still further
extension of which, even to a seat in the Legislature, would promote
their further elevation in the social scale.
Numerous schools have recently been founded by them for the education of
their own people—both male and female—in England and other European
States. From these the most beneficial results may be anticipated.
It has always been found to be the greatest obstacle to the spread of
Christianity among a people who _à priori_ might be supposed to be the
most ready to receive it as a proof of the truth and fulfilment of their
own Scriptures, that they know not these Scriptures; but are either
immersed in the grossest ignorance, or glean their religion from the
Talmud and the Mishna. It has been justly said, “The Jews must be made
Old Testament Jews before they can be made Christians;” and this can
only be done by education among themselves creating a spontaneous spirit
of inquiry into their own literature, with an anxious desire to read and
comprehend the vast storehouse of Biblical treasure at present almost
unknown to the large majority of them.
The sources of our individual illustrations treating only of those who
have distinguished themselves in Literature or History furnish only a
few examples of the Jewish Nose.
Vespasian,
Correggio,
Adam Smith,
may serve, however, to illustrate and corroborate our theory. As to the
last, the connection between his Nose and the peculiar bias of his mind
is obvious.
“The founder of the Science of Political Economy” must have possessed a
natural attraction towards commercial affairs; and it could only have
been by a very large share of acute observation and shrewd penetration
that he could have worked out the principles of so abstruse a science,
and made it acceptable to the mass of mankind.
“It was,” says one of his admirers, “one of the few, but greatest,
errors of Adam Smith, that he was too apt to consider man as a mere
_money-making_ animal, who will never hesitate to work provided he is
well paid for it. He does not consider that the desire of power and of
esteem are more powerful principles than the desire of wealth.”
[Illustration:
ADAM SMITH.
]
It is impossible to desire a description of his character more exactly
correspondent to the form of his Nose.
It has been much disputed among his biographers whether CORREGGIO was
rich or poor. Many anecdotes are related which indicate his extreme
poverty; while on the other hand, numerous facts seem to prove that he
must at least have been in easy circumstances. He married a lady of good
fortune, and he was well appreciated in his own time, and received many
valuable orders for paintings from patrons of high rank and great
liberality. It is however undisputed that his disposition was penurious
and miserly, and this fact—indicated also by his unusually
well-developed hawk-nose—will serve to reconcile the apparently
contradictory assertions of his biographers.
[Illustration:
CORREGGIO.
]
It is probable that, like most misers, he was always complaining of
poverty, and even denied himself necessaries which he could have well
afforded. Those who credited these complaints, recorded his poverty and
lamented over it with mistaken kindness; while others, who more
critically considered his actual means, would better appreciate them and
reveal the true state of the case. There is an anecdote recorded of him
by his friend and cotemporary, Vasari, which though it may not be wholly
true, has probably some foundation. This characteristic anecdote is to
the effect, that having received a payment of sixty crowns in copper, he
carried it home on foot in sultry weather, and the over-fatigue brought
on a fever, of which he died. It is not, as Gibbon has shrewdly
remarked, of much importance whether an anecdote of a person is actually
true or false; for it almost equally displays the character of the
person of whom it is recorded. A tale of liberality is not told of a
known miser; nor an instance of penuriousness of a liberal man. An
anecdote, to be received, must at least be probable and have an air of
verisimilitude. Neither, considering the character of Correggio, is
there any such inconsistency in the story as to render it incredible.
The objection that sixty crowns in copper would weigh two hundred
pounds, and therefore be an impossible weight for a man to carry, is a
mere quibble. It only proves that the quantity is exaggerated, and not
that the main story is false.
The character of VESPASIAN has been painted in the brightest colours.
Avarice alone sullied his virtues. This must have been no slight or
temporary blot, or his eulogist and client, Tacitus, would not have
recorded it. It was too palpable and notorious to be concealed, and the
historian found himself, however reluctantly, compelled to confess it.
[Illustration:
VESPASIAN.
(_From a coin in the Museum of Florence._)[42]
]
It is not improbable, that he inherited this vice; for his father,
having saved money in the business of a collector of the revenue and
retired from the office, was unable to resist the love of gain, and
subsequently acquired a considerable fortune by lending money at
usurious interest. The prudence and sagacity with which the young
Vespasian regulated his conduct during the dangerous reigns of the
brutal Caligula and Nero, indicates his penetration and sagacity. It
must have been by no trifling tact and ingenuity that he escaped death
for the heinous offence of appearing inattentive while the Emperor Nero
was singing. The same shrewdness and insight into character enabled him
while in a private station to redeem his ruined fortune by
horse-dealing; a science always notorious for its unscrupulous scheming
and dishonest sharp practice; and in which the hawk-nosed Syrian Arabs
have ever excelled all other nations.
TITUS, the successor and son of Vespasian, inherited his father’s
profile, and it is a marked corroboration of our theory that avarice is
the only vice attributed to that otherwise virtuous prince.
It must, however, be observed, that the Noses, both of Vespasian and his
son, were not purely Jewish, but _Judæo-Roman_ IV⁄I; a formation which
corresponds accurately with other peculiarities in the character of
those great generals, too well known to need further elucidation.