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and the tone of mind is greatly affected by them, we infer that his mind was not much encumbered by low associations or inclinations. His motive temperament was fairly developed, giving muscular energy and power of endurance; while his mental, or nervous, greatly prevailed: consequently his enjoyments were mental, not physical, and he was much more disposed to mental than physical action, and willing even to sacrifice physical enjoyments and considerations, for the purpose of giving more time to mental exercises. Such an organization might become dissipated by nervous excitements, but could never become half so degraded as the one representing the lymphatic, in Combe's arrangement. See page 338 of this number.

His phrenological developments are distinct, and interesting to contemplate, because they are so harmonious with his known character. Although we have not examined the living head, yet we have several drawings and different views of it, and have examined his bust, taken after death, with great care, by that excellent artist, E. A. Brackett, of Boston, from which a marble bust was cut.

A profile view of his head shows it to be very high in the coronal region; indicating strong moral sense, regard for duty, justice, hope, enterprise, sense of the future, of the spiritual, marvelous, sacred, superior, and sympathy, with great tenderness of feeling. The moral organs all being apparently large, with such an elevated temperament, must have had a marked influence in the development and direction of his mind— not necessarily in a sectarian channel, but in the regulation of his conduct, the choice of his associates, the formation of his habits, and in the direction of his thoughts and conversation, as well as the productions of his genius. The natural tendency of such an organization is, to revel in the spiritual, and in poetical imagery-enjoying most what his imagination can create, rather than those things addressing the senses.

The same view shows a high crown to the head, indicating great ambition, regard for character, independence of feeling and action, self-reliance, perseverance, and decision of character. His bust and cut both show very large Sublimity and Ideality, giving a capacity to monopolize and direct a majority of the other faculties. Sublimity, combined as it is in his head, would enable him to appreciate all that is grand, extended, magnificent, vast, powerful, and eternal. It would aid greatly in magnificent conceptions, give great range of thought, and powerful combinations, either in nature, art, or oratory. Ideality, with its combinations and temperaments, would furnish him with an exquisiteness of emotion, fineness of feeling, scope and exaltedness of thought, beautiful conceptions, and powerful imagery, seldom equaled. Constructiveness is very large, as seen in the cut, and is connected in development with the organs above, rather than the low and back part of the head. Its manifestation with the latter, and a strong physical temperament, would give delight and suc

cess in rough, heavy work, and in the ruder mechanics; but the superior faculties give it an elevated direction, producing artistical and poetical talent, also conceptions of the highest order. So large a faculty, with such a combination, could not exist, with such a temperament, without a superior manifestation; and its action is as great in the poet, designer, and artist, as in the mechanic. His reasoning faculties are fully devel

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oped, with a predominance of Comparison, giving strong powers of association, combination, illustration, and capacity to criticise, analyze, and draw inferences. This faculty acts upon the past, present, and future, more than any other one faculty, aiding greatly to give perfection of mental action. His perceptive faculties are particularly large, to which he is greatly indebted for the perfection of his art; they gave him uncommon accuracy in observation, and ability to identify physical objects, their qualities and uses. Locality being very large, gave him great facility in grouping objects of art or nature, and, with Ideality and Sublimity, led to the admiration of natural scenery. Color was large, as seen in the cut, which, joined with his Order, Comparison, and Ideality, gave a fine, exquisite taste, and capacity to revel in the enjoyment of the richest colors, properly arranged and blended. Order was very large, as seen also in

the cut; this gave perfection to his plans, system and method in execution, and, with Constructiveness, Ideality, and Comparison, enabled him to add neatness, taste, proper arrangement, and adaptation to all his productions.

Imitation being large, gave ease of manner, versatility of character , and talent, and enabled him to copy, with great accuracy, the works of nature and of art. Language was very large, as seen in the fully developed eye in the cut, which gives but a faint idea of the original. He was free, easy, copious, and correct, in the use of language, and very successful in entertaining his friends. The subjects of his conversation were elevated, and his language refined and chaste. His social feelings were in character strong and active, and manifested among choice friends, and in the bosom of his own family.

Seldom do we have occasion to combine the developments of so elevated an organization, or one so well adapted to his profession. Having great ambition, it was guided by his higher moral and intellectual faculties; he had the rare talent not only to theorize, invent, and design, but to produce and perfect. In his case the spiritual controlled the physical, and the moral the animal. His predominating organs were Constructiveness, Ideality, Sublimity, Imitation, Comparison, Order, Locality, Form, Size, Weight, Color, Language, and the moral organs, with the mental temperament.

From his own statements concerning himself, and those of Dunlap and Lester, in the "Artists of America," we collect the following facts in the history of Mr. Allston:

Washington Allston was born in South Carolina, in 1779. His physicians recommended his removal to a northern climate, and, from his early boyhood, he seems to have made his home in Newport, Rhode Island, where he continued his studies till 1796, when he was entered at Harvard University. It would be difficult not to believe that this boy amused himself with brushes and paints, or had, in lack of such objects, some quiet chit-chat with nature, as Ben Jonson quaintly says. In fact, we have a scrap of authentic history about it, from the pen of the boy himself-now become a man, a poet, and a painter.

"To go back as far as I can-I remember that I used to draw before I left Carolina, at six years of age (by the way, no UNCOMMON thing), and, still earlier, that my favorite amusement, much akin to it, was making little landscapes about the roots of an old tree in the country-meager enough, no doubt the only particulars of which I can call to mind were a cottage built of sticks, shaded by little trees, which were composed of small suckers (I think so called), resembling miniature trees, which I gathered in the woods. Another employment was the converting the forked stalks of the wild fern into little men and women, by winding about them different colored yarn. These were sometimes presented with pitchers, made of the pomegranate flower. These childish fancies were the straws by which, perhaps, an observer might then have guessed which way the current was setting for after life." And then follow a few lines which would guard the reader from drawing too exalted an opinion of his native talent or propensity for art-and Allston had no false modesty; that worst display of insincerity was no part of his nature. Dunlap very properly says "In these delights of Allston's childhood appear the germs of landscape gardening, landscape painting, and scenic composition. Less intellectual children are content

to make mud pies, and form ovens with clay and clam-shells, as if to bake them in. Even when at play, they are haunted by the ghosts of cakes, pies, and puddings." Allston goes on with his sunny sketch: "But even these delights would sometimes give way to a stronger love for the wild and the marvelous. I delighted in being terrified by the tales of witches and hags, which the negroes used to tell me; and I well remember with how much pleasure I recalled these feelings on my return to Carolina-especially on revisiting a gigantic wild grapevine in the woods, which had been a favorite swing for one of these witches." "Here," remarks Dunlap, "may be perceived the germ of that poetic talent which afterward opened, and was displayed both by the pen and the pencil of Mr. Allston."

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The painter now gives an account of his boyhood. My chief pleasure now was in drawing from prints—of all kinds of figures, landscapes, and animals. But I soon began to make pictures of my own-at what age, however, I cannot say. The earliest compositions that I remember, were the Storming of Count Roderick's Castle, from a poor (though to me delightful) romance of that day, and the Siege of Toulon-the first in India ink-the other in water colors. I cannot recall the year in which they were done. To these succeeded many others which have likewise passed into oblivion. Though I never had any regular instructor in the art (a circumstance, I would here observe, both idle and absurd to boast of), I had much incidental instruction, which I have always through life been glad to receive from every one in advance of myself; and I may add, there is no such thing as a self-taught artist, in the ignorant acceptation of the word; for the greatest genius that ever lived must be indebted to others, if not by direct teaching, yet indirectly through their works. I had, in my school days, some of this latter kind of instruction, from a very worthy and amiable man, a Mr. King, of Newport, who made quadrants and compasses, and occasionally painted portraits. I believe he was originally bred a painter, but obliged, from the rare calls upon his pencil, to call in the aid of another craft. I used at first to make frequent excuses for visiting his shop to look at his pictures, but finding that he always received me kindly, I went at last without any, or rather with the avowed purpose of making him a visit. Sometimes I would take with me a drawing, and was sure to get a word of encouragement. It was a pleasant thing to me, some twenty years after this, to remind the old man of these little kindnesses." Pleasant thing, too, it must have been to the old painter, to hear such acknowledgments from the artist who had brought away the prize from the British Institution.

* * * *

He tells us of his progress in art while at the University. "My leisure hours at college were chiefly devoted to the pencil-to the composition equally of figures and landscapes: I do not remember that I preferred one to the other; my only guide in the choice was the inclination of the moment. One of my favorite haunts when a child, in Carolina, was a forest spring, where I used to catch minnows, and, I dare say, with all the callousness of a fisherman; at this moment I can see that spring; and the pleasant conjurer, memory, has brought again those little creatures before me; but how unlike to what they were! They seem to me like the spirits of the woods, which a flash from their little diamond eyes lights up afresh, in all their gorgeous garniture of vases and flowers. But where am I going?"

So always was it with this gifted man. While the painter held the pencil it spoke the language of the soul—when he took up the pen he was a poet-and poetry and painting are only two breathing forms of the same spirit.

In Charleston he painted a head of St. Peter, when he hears the cock crow, and one of Judas Iscariot. He was now at the age of twenty-two, and he determined, in the freshness and enthusiasm of youth, to visit the shrines of art in the old world. Dunlap says, "Allston sacrificed his paternal inheritance to his love of the arts, to which he had devoted HIMSELF. The product of the sale of his hereditary property was appropriated to the support of the student in Europe, and the furtherance of his enlightened ambition! He had generous

offers from friends in Charleston, who, it would appear, wished to prevent any sacrifice of this kind, but the painter preferred independence, and a reliance on his own resources."

* *

* *

Allston has illuminated this period with his own pen. "There was an early friend, long since dead, whom I have omitted to mention, and I cannot but wonder at the omission, since he is one whose memory is still most dear to me. The name of this gentleman was Bowman. * I believe I was indebted for the uncommon interest he was pleased to take in me, to some of my college verses, and to a head of St. Peter (when he hears the cock crow), which I had painted about that time. Be this as it may, his partiality was not of an every day kind: for when I was about to embark for Europe, he proposed to allow me, nay, almost insisted on my accepting, a hundred pounds a year during my stay abroad. This generous offer, however, I declined, having at that time a small income, sufficient for my immediate wants; it would have been sordid to have accepted it. He then proposed to ship for me a few tierces of rice that, too, I declined. Yet he would not let me go without a present, and so I was obliged to limit it to Hume's History of England and a novel by Dr. Moore, whom he personally knew. Such an instance of generosity speaks for itself. But the kindness of manner that accompanied it can only be known to me who saw it. I can see the very expression now. Mr. Bowman was an excellent scholar, and one of the most agreeable talkers I have known.” Soon after Allston's arrival in London he became a student of the Royal Academy. The Gladiator was his first drawing from plaster, and it gained him permission, says Dunlap, to draw at Somerset House-the third procured him the ticket of an entered student. West was then in the zenith of his fame, and he gave him his hand. Here is Allston's tribute to that great reformer in English art. "Mr. West received me with the greatest kindness. I shall not forget his benevolent smile when he took me by the hand; it is still fresh in my memory, linked with the last of like kind which accompanied the last shake of the hand, when I took a final leave of him, in 1818. His gallery was open to me at all times, and his advice always readily and kindly given. He was a man overflowing with the milk of human kindness. If he had enemies, 1 doubt if he owed them to any other cause than his rare virtue."

"I arrived in London about the middle of June, 1801, near the close of the annual exhibition. The next year was the first of my adventuring before the public, when I exhibited three pictures at Somerset House. The principal one a French Soldier telling a story (comic attempt)-a Rocky Coast (half length) with banditti, and a Landscape with horsemen, which I painted at college. received two applications for the French Soldier, which I sold to Mr. Wilson, of the European Museum-for whom I afterward painted a companion of it, also comic-the Poet's Ordinary, where the lean fare was enriched by an incidental arrest."

In writing from the Louvre, Paris, Allston says: "Titian, Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese, absolutely enchanted me, for they took away all sense of subject. When I stood before the Peter Martyr, the Miracle of the Slave, and the Marriage of Cana, I thought of nothing but of the GORGEOUS CONCERT OF COLORS-Or rather of the indefinite forms (I cannot call them sensations) of pleasure with which they filled the imagination. It was the poetry of color which I felt; procreative in its nature, giving birth to a thousand things which the eye cannot see, and distinct from their cause. I did not, however, stop to analyze my feelings-perhaps at that time I could not have done so. I was content with my pleasure, without seeking the cause."

Allston stayed only a few months in Paris during this visit (1804)—but he was not idle. He painted some compositions of his own, and made a copy from Rubens. He then turned his face to the sweet South, and journeyed leisurely on to Italy, crossing the Alps by the Pass of St. Gothard. He has given a few lines to, perhaps, the most beautiful scene on the earth. "I passed a night and saw the sun rise on Lake Maggiore. Such a sunrise! The giant Alps seem

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