PREFACE.
In my little work on “Character as Seen in Body and Parentage” I have put forward not a system, but a number of conclusions touching the relationship which I believe to exist between certain features of character on the one hand and certain peculiarities of bodily configuration, structure, and inheritance on the other. These conclusions, if they are true, should find confirmation in historic narrative, and their value, if they have any, should be seen in the light they throw on historic problems.
The incidents and characters and questions of the Tudor period are not only of unfailing interest, but they offer singularly rich and varied material to the student of body and character.
If the proposal to connect the human body with human nature is distasteful to certain finely-strung souls, let me suggest to them a careful study of the work and aims and views of Goethe, the scientific observer and impassioned poet, whom Madame de Staël described as the most accomplished character the world has produced; and who was, in Matthew Arnold’s opinion, the greatest poet of this age and the greatest critic of any age. The reader of ‘Wilhelm Meister’ need not be reminded of the close attention which is everywhere given to the principle of inheritance—inheritance even of ‘the minutest faculty.’
The student of men and women has, let me say in conclusion, one great advantage over other students—he need not journey to a museum, he has no doors to unlock, and no catalogue to consult; the museum is constantly around him and on his shelves; the catalogue is within himself.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| Note I.—The Various Views of Henry VIII.’s Character. | |
| Momentous changes in sixteenth century | [1] |
| Many characters given to noted persons | [3] |
| A great number given to Henry | [3] |
| The character given in our time | [6] |
| Attempt to give an impartial view | [8] |
| Need of additional light | [14] |
| Note II.—The Relation of Body and Parentage to Character. | |
| Bodily organisation and temperaments | [15] |
| Leading types in both | [16] |
| Elements of character run in groups | [17] |
| Intervening gradations | [20] |
| Note III.—Henry’s Family Proclivities. | |
| Henry of unimpassioned temperament | [21] |
| Took after unimpassioned mother | [22] |
| Derived nothing from his father | [23] |
| Character of Henry VII. | [24] |
| Henry VIII., figure and appearance | [26] |
| Note IV.—The Wives’ Question. | |
| Henry’s marriages, various causes | [27] |
| Passion not a marked cause | [28] |
| Henry had no strong passions | [30] |
| Self-will and self-importance | [31] |
| Conduct of impassioned men | [31] |
| Note V.—The Less Characteristic Features of Henry’s Character. | |
| Characteristics common to all temperaments | [32] |
| Henry’s cruelty | [33] |
| Henry’s piety | [35] |
| Note VI.—The More Characteristic Features of Henry’s Character. | |
| Always doing or undoing something | [37] |
| Habitual fitfulness | [38] |
| Self-importance | [40] |
| Henry and Wolsey: Which led? | [41] |
| Love of admiration | [43] |
| Note VII.—Henry and his Compeers. | |
| Henry’s political helpers superior to theological | [45] |
| Cranmer | [46] |
| Sir Thomas More | [47] |
| Wolsey | [49] |
| Note VIII.—Henry and his People and Parliament. | |
| No act of constructive genius | [51] |
| Parliament not abject, but in agreement | [53] |
| Proclamations | [54] |
| Liberty a matter of race | [55] |
| Note IX.—Henry and the Reformation. | |
| Teutonic race fearless, therefore truthful | [56] |
| Outgrew Romish fetters | [57] |
| French Revolution racial | [58] |
| The essential and the accidental in great movements | [60] |
| Wyclif | [61] |
| Erasmus, Luther, Calvin, Knox | [62] |
| Henry’s part in the Reformation | [64] |
| No thought of permanent division | [65] |
| The dissolution of the monasteries | [66] |
| Note X.—Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary. | |
| Henry VIII. and Elizabeth much alike | [69] |
| Elizabeth less pious but more fitful | [71] |
| Elizabeth and marriage | [72] |
| Elizabeth’s part in the Reformation | [73] |
| Elizabeth and Mary Stuart very unlike | [74] |
| Lofty characters with flaws | [76] |
| Mary’s environment and fate | [79] |
| Bodily peculiarities of the two Queens | [81] |