In little children, Snub or Celestial Noses are beautiful, because they are congruous with our ideas of the ductility and gentleness of childhood. A child with a great Roman nose projecting from its rounded cheeks and innocent eyes, would be an ugly child, though every feature were individually perfect, because its nose would bespeak a force and independence of mind which are revolting in a little child.
As we should recoil from a child which endeavoured to entertain us with discourse suitable to a man of mature years, instead of with innocent prattle, so we instinctively dislike in a child the features belonging to manhood. The beautiful harmony which reigns throughout all the works of Nature, is in nothing more manifest than in the congruity between the mind and the features, especially in characterizing infantile and undeveloped minds by infantile and undeveloped features.
For the same reasons that the Snub prevails among children, the same form prevails among savage nations and the uneducated classes of civilized states. The Noses of nations very low in the scale of civilization are for the most part of a very flat and mean formation, of which several instances will be adduced in a subsequent chapter; and the Noses of the uneducated classes in every country exhibit for the most part a greater proportion of Snubs and Celestials than the Noses of the more highly educated portions of the community: and this is more marked when the want of education has subsisted for several successive generations.
From fictitious works, which have raised to celebrity imaginary characters of every mental calibre, innumerable examples might be adduced; for all accurate observers, whether ancient or modern, have—without being professed Nasologists—unconsciously verified our hypothesis, and associated the Nose with character.
The inimitable Dickens, and his equally clever illustrator Cruikshank, both of whom owe their power to their correct observation and delineation of character, afford many well-known examples. Had the hypothesis been founded on Oliver Twist and its illustrations, it could not have been more strikingly substantiated by them, than it is—thus proving that if we err, we err in company with observers of more than common accuracy, and whose observations have been verified by the applauses of all. In that work we have the shrewd penetrative Jew with his Hawk-nose; the mild, but high-minded Oliver Twist, with his fine Greek Nose; the Artful Dodger and his brother-pals with their characteristic Snubs and Celestials. A reference to the plates, and the author’s pen-and-ink portraits, in this and other works, will confirm our right to claim these artists in pen and pencil as Nasologists.
The same remarks would be equally applicable to Hogarth’s illustrations of life in every grade. Observe the important use he makes of the Nose to elevate or degrade his characters. Compare for this purpose the Romano-Greek Nose of the Industrious Apprentice with the Snubbo-Celestial Nose of the Idle Apprentice. Nor does Hogarth fall into the vulgar error of ridiculing rank and station by features; with him features indicate mind only. He used them to exhibit intellect and honesty, or imbecility, vice, and vulgarity, in whatever station. The Distressed Poet in his garret has a more intellectual nose and countenance than the vicious and noble in Marriage à-la mode, or the imbecile fop in the Rake’s Progress.
Raffaelle likewise avails himself of the Nose to give intellectual power and dignity to the Apostles, Peter and John, in contrast with the uneducated beggar whose lameness they miraculously cured at the beautiful gate of the Temple.
Even the distinctive characters of the two Apostles are developed in their Noses; the loving, confiding, gentle John by a Greek Nose, the energetic and fiery Peter by a Roman Nose.
But why multiply instances when every accurate pourtrayer of character furnishes abundant examples?
The only authority which we have consulted on the subject of Noses, is one from whose works we have already quoted. It never can be forgotten that the inimitable Tristram Shandy has slightly touched upon the subject when describing the unhappy catastrophe which, even in his very earliest years, demolished his Nose.