CHAPTER VI.OF THE JEWISH NOSE.

ClassIV.—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 countenanceis 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 ofthe 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? Wesearch 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 whoà priorimight 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,

Vespasian,

Correggio,

Adam Smith,

may serve, however, to illustrate and corroborate ourtheory. 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 meremoney-makinganimal, 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.”

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 whetherCorreggiowas 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 hisown 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.

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, mustat 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 ofVespasianhas 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.

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 collectorof 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, butJudæo-RomanIVI; a formation which corresponds accurately with other peculiarities in the character of those great generals, too well known to need further elucidation.

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