which proves that the character is distinguishable in every part—in each feature, as well as in the whole head.” Dr Oken says upon this subject:[17]—“The face is beautiful whose nose is parallel to the spine. No human face has grown into this estate; but every nose makes an acute angle with the spine. The facial angle is, as is well known, 80°. What, as yet, no man has remarked, and what is not to be remarked, either, without our view of the cranial signification, the old masters have felt through inspiration. They have not only made the facial angle a right angle, but have even stepped beyond this—the Romans going up to 96°, the Greeks even to 100°. Whence comes it that this unnatural face of the Grecian works of art is still more beautiful than that of the Roman, when the latter comes nearer to nature? The reason thereof resides in the fact of the Grecian artistic face representing nature’s design more than that of the Roman; for, in the former, the nose is placed quite perpendicular, or parallel to the spinal cord, and thus returns whither it has been derived.” Other various and conflicting opinions upon this subject have been given to the world; but we find that the principle from which arose the ideal beauty of the head and countenance, as represented in works of ancient Greek art, is still a matter of dispute. When, however, we examine carefully a fine specimen, we find its beauty and grandeur to depend more upon the degree of harmony amongst its parts, as to their relative proportions and mode of arrangement, than upon their excellence taken individually. It is, therefore, clear that those (and they are many) who attribute the beauty of ancient Greek sculpture merely to a selection of parts from various models, must be in error. No assemblage of parts from ordinary nature could have produced its principal characteristic, the excess in the angle of the facial line, much less could it have led to that exquisite harmony of parts by which it is so eminently distinguished; neither can we reasonably agree with Dr Oken and others, who assert that it was produced by an exclusive degree of the inspiration of genius amongst the Greek people during a certain period. That the inspiration of genius, combined with a careful study of nature, were essential elements in the production of the great works which have been handed down to us, no one will deny; but these elements have existed in all ages, whilst the ideal head belongs exclusively to the Greeks during the period in which the schools of Pythagoras and Plato were open. Is it not, therefore, reasonable to suppose, that, besides genius and the study of nature, another element was employed in the production of this excellence, and that this element arose from the precise mathematical doctrines taught in the schools of these philosophers?