CHAPTER XII.

"For the highest degree of organization Gives the highest degree of thought.”—PARMENIDES.

PORTRAITURE-SOCIAL HABITS-TEACHING AND ITS REWARDSLECTURES AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, LONDON-HIS RESIDENCE -HIS RETICENCE ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS-LECTURES IN EDINBURGH, GLASGOW, AND LONDON-HIS CORRESPONDENCE ON A VARIETY OF TOPICS.

JOHN DALTON'S stature was slightly above the middle height, say sixty-eight inches. His robust, muscular frame bore considerable resemblance to a class of men daily met with in the agricultural districts of Cumberland. Seen in country garb, and judged from his mere physique, he might have been looked upon as possessing sufficient of the athlete to become a prizewinner in the Carlisle wrestling-ring; nor would his deep, somewhat gruff voice have been an unworthy accompaniment of such bucolic championship. His slight stoop forward, in part arising from his studious and sedentary habits, and unpolished gait, betrayed the absence of physical training; yet after middle age, it appears he could, without a day's preparation, walk as rapidly and continuously as the most disciplined pedestrian; nay, climb the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn, of three thousand feet, with ease and alacrity.

The real strength and pith of the man lay not in bone and muscle, but in an ample nerve-power and the possession of a fine cerebral development. He had an expressive, thoughtful countenance, and a healthful masculine organisation that could not fail to attract attention. All the portraits of Dalton display a broad, expansive head, bearing no small resemblance to that seen in the engraved portrait of Sir Isaac Newton, And it would appear that the members of the British Association who were present at the Cambridge meeting, in the year 1833, were impressed with Dalton's likeness to Roubiliac's statue of Newton in Trinity College Chapel. Mr Woolley, also an intimate friend of Dalton's, who had a cast of Newton's head placed near Dalton after his decease, has recorded "that the likeness which had been observed during life was in death most striking."

As far as a careful comparison instituted within an interval of four days can be relied upon, I should say the configuration of the head in the statue of Sir Isaac Newton at Grantham resembles very much that of Dalton's standing in front of the Manchester Infirmary. Whether this analogy of form be strictly dependent on the similarity of the crania of the two philosophers, or is in part borrowed from the ideal conception of the sculptors aiming to give breadth to the intellectual organs, is beyond my decision. The statue of Dalton by Chantrey appears to me, both in pose and general treatment, one of his best works. The artist, however, has given undue and unnatural prominence to the part of the forehead immediately above the eyebrows. Among other relics of their

accomplished President preserved by the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, is Dalton's hat, from the shape of which it is easy to see that Dalton's head was of the bracycephalic type, with great width across the temples, or in the tranverse axis of the cranium.

The massive, full contour of Dalton's head impresses you with the stamp of intellectual power, and a capacity for the highest of human efforts; and nobly distinctive as it appeared, it was not a whit more noble in form than the brain-structure it enclosed was in fitting response to those claims which science. exacts from her more distinguished votaries. His prominent eyebrows shaded in deeper setting eyes of quiet discernment, whilst the use of large spectacles added to his general philosophic seeming and force of character. In his marked nose, rather

massive jaws, and firm, deep chin, you saw the features of the sturdy race of the "north countrie," not altogether free of an air of severity at times; these, however, were somewhat toned down by lips less masculine than usual, and a physiognomy that offered blandness as well as firmness and penetration.

The portrait accompanying this memoir is taken from an admirable likeness of John Dalton by Mr J. Lonsdale, engraved by C. Turner, A.R.A. The original picture was in the possession of James Thomson, Esq., F.R.S., of Clitheroe. In preferring Lonsdale's portrait to that by Allen, or the engraving taken from Chantrey's bust, I am guided by those who knew. Dalton long and intimately. There are, it is said, other excellent portraits of the philosopher, whose

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marked facial lineaments were easily rendered by artists of ordinary distinction.

If his cranium, and forehead especially, had much of the contour and type of Sir Isaac Newton, his general demeanour and scientific methods tallied not a little with what I used to observe of his worthy contemporary, Gay Lussac. This noble Frenchman and true savant dressed in country fashion, and steadily held by the subject-matter of his prelections without offering much rhetorical adornment to his science. Perhaps Dalton and Gay Lussac had closer personal and scientific affinities than any two men of their epoch. As it might appear a little incongruous to enter into historical parallels in this brief memoir, I rest content with drawing attention to the cognate scientific relations of Dalton to Berzelius the renowned chemist, and Alexander Von Humboldt the philosopher; both of them possessed the intellectual traits and Teutonic perseverance so markedly seen in Dalton's character. The Swede was the faithful historian and honest exponent of his science, over which his friend Dalton had thrown a halo of light; the German traveller had the keen grasp that could embrace the "Principia" of Newton, the atomic theory of Dalton, and all the ancient and modern philosophies bearing on the elucidation of natural phenomena.

Dalton dressed in Quaker's costume, wearing kneebreeches, dark-grey stockings, and buckled shoes, the fashion of that day. He always appeared in neat attire and good broadcloth, with gloves, gaiters, and a handsome walking-cane, headed or not with silver or gold. His broad-brim beaver showed the finest texture, and his white neckcloth was spotless. He

His Faculties unbent over a Pipe of Tobacco. 227

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did not invariably adopt the phraseology of "Friends" by addressing individuals as "thou" and "thee;" nor was he quite so formal in other ways as the oldfashioned representatives of his religious denomination. In general society he was somewhat reserved, and as a good listener, not much disposed to break the line of conversation unless he could do so succinctly, and with a word or two of dry humour that generally told very happily. Considering his self-possession, to which he was to the manner born, he did not appear to advantage in miscellaneous groupings of people, and still less amid the gatherings of the élite and philosophic of the metropolis. apparent deficiency in his mental manifestations arose from his bringing up, his want of social opportunities, and his comparatively little intercourse with men and women of high culture. When placed among his own circle, and encouraged to certain trains of thought favouring his tendency to exposition, he had no difficulty in sustaining an animated conversation, and at the same time greatly interesting his hearers. His colloquial faculty was at its best over a pipe of tobacco, surrounded by two or three friends in an evening then he was at home, and felt as a philosopher who had something to say, and could say it well. As a general rule, he exhibited much of the golden silence so vauntingly preached by Thomas Carlyle, but so seldom practised by that great historian, whose loquacity is rather a paramount feature in his social fraternisations.

John Dalton enjoyed the constantly happy privileges attendant on a healthy organisation, scarcely experiencing even a day's illness, excepting from