NOSES.

Evening Star, Issue 4201, 14 August 1876, Page 4

NOSES.

[From the Liverpool Leader.) The Scotchman is a gifted individual , nasally * and' he commonly knows very Well what he is about. Like certain birds of prey, he can smell good things a long way oflL Scotch,, eyes can see an opening for ari-enterprising “ chiel” in trie most unlikely neighborhood,- ’and Caledonia nostrils can scent “ sciller” or snuff at. any distance whatever. . The British : bull-dog has a very peculiar nOse, which that of the British priiefighter very much resembles. Pugnacity is the legend indelibly impressed jjpon the nose of hoth dog and man, and man and dog bear out nature’s recommendations to the utmost; One la all teeth,, and the other all fist, and England has very little reason to be protid L bf\ either. (The man Renealy and?the; dog “ Morgan” notwithstand- \ .' rough,pr ( “ corner nm has a hose of' the pug or snub pattern, end : has much of thO bulhdog, though moropf the pug-fpr cur) m his composition; The - brutes who - beat. their Ml (pending relegation to “ treadjt)*; specie*). of light or kard.lahoi:) areimoatty ugly as to noses: •lid 1 thd; halmda^ r: or';yiragOß;‘; who ialttjfc; next : 'dooir : ,'h^g? l^Prs with hot Water and cold iron or. steel in the ho;.ldfiger' classic) regions Ol iJen Tohnson street, arenas a rule, eijually and similarly ill-favored. ‘ rThbjiglt tbpshape of the bose is occasionally, and not unwarrantably, regaided as a sigti of -the race, nasal conmatron iQ. hpfnO hleasuie, at least, depends on eally treatment. The

babies of the British Isles (we are told "who” outfit to know, though who she* is is a matter of no moment to the present essay) are all of them, without exception, brought into being with noses decidedly snub (as well as unmistakeably soft), and it is the duty of woman, whether midwife, nurse,, or mother, to “ pinch ” the infant nose into shape.

The old Homans were well off as to nose. It is much to be doubted as to whether, if they had not hud such noses, they would have done such deeds. They had very big noses and very short gwords, and they did what, on inquiry, will be found to have been the method adopted by all men of strength and character—they followed their noses. The noses went first, and the sword went after ; and the result was what Dominie Sampson would have called “ prodigious,” but what the present writer, remembering his theme, will describe as being as plain as the nose on the reader’s face.

The twelve Caesars (scamps mostly, see Suetonius), being imperial themselves, had twelve most Ccesarian or imperial noses—Cains Julius’s being almost as bigas his “Commentaries.” Numa Pompilius (vide Lempricre, liossini ) had a nose which was a nose—it was half a foot long; his second name being simply a surname or nickname for a person possessing (in the phraseology of Miss Lydia Thompson), “ the nosiest nose that ever you did see.” All the kings before Tarquin had long noses ; and consequently (!) all of them reigned in peace;,but Tarquin (degenerate Homan that he was) had a small nose; and, therefore, they pulled his throne from under him, and kicked him but of Home. Tarquin was called “ the superb ” —though not on any nasal account that we can discover.

Proverbial philosophy (not Topper’s) has a great deal to say about noses. You know (inter alia) “Prudent men smell far while “The fool has no nose !” Uvidius Naso was indebted for his second name to the reasons for which Nuina Pompilius was indebted for his; and it was on the same ground that it was satirically attempted to console a certain bad poet by the admission, that if he was no Ovid, he was a Naso.

Queen Bess must have had a nose of a goodly size ; otherwise, she could never have “ led” so many men by it, as she admittedly did ; but it is presumable that nasal longitude reached its extremest limits in the case of a certain French gentleman (Cyrano de Bergerac by name) whose nose had attained such observable dimensions that, when out walking (which must have been somewhat of a trial to him) he was forced to keep his hand continually on his sword, by way of warning to anybody (less than himself, we suppose) who dared to look him in the face (or nose) too fixedly or too long.

• There baa been much fun poked at ' noses, both in ancient and in modern times. There was a certain French dauphin, called' “ Count Snub and a celebrity in mediaeval romances of chivalry was one William of Orange, popularly known as “William with.the short nose while historical students need scarcely be reminded that our own Wellington was vulgarly, yet endearingly, termed “Old Nosey.” ! Madame de Genlis, we learn trora her own li Memories,” had a nose very unlike some of the monsters we have been describing. She once soundly 1 rated an engraver for giving her an aquiline nose on a medal. “ That, sir ! That meant for my nose ! It’s not like it at all, sir. This nose of mine (yes, look at it, sir) has been sung in verse : and praised in prose. It is (or was) . the most delicate little nose—the jolliest nose in the world, sir ! Yet you want to sond me out into society on a medal with a nose like that!” [For the information of the bibulous, it may be mentioned that “jolly ” (Gallice, joli), when applied to the nose, has no reference to the effects of beer or other stimulants]. We ourselves like to see a good nose on a man, but in a woman’s case we are content with moderation. We incline to believe that Cornelia, the Eoman matron who “ brought up ” those model young men the Brothers Gracchi, had a nose indicative of her severe character ; but, we fancy, poor Lucretia must have been the owner of a nose which was decidedly weak. Cleopatra, probably, had a fine nose ; but Helen of Troy, nasally, must have shown more of beauty than of strength, while poor Mary Stuart, we opine, had a nose more after the French style than tire Scottish. Nature does the needful in most cases, though she occasionally misses her aim. We have seen a dwarf and a ; giant who had evidently got one another’s noses. Appearances certainly ’.demanded an exchange. Pretty little women usually have pretty 1 little noses; !but it sometimes happens, even where .women; are concerned, that while,.-on the one hand, some ladies show too much cheek ” (we speak anatomically and opt by way of metaphor), some, on the other hand, have too much nose.

The following instance of the pursuit of knowledge under unusual difficulties, on the part of a scholar' attending a school in the Province ;of Nelaon, is given by the Inspector of Schools in his annual report;—“A lad of fifteen, who has had no previous schooling, attends regularly, though his homo is separated from his school by nearly eight miles of a rough hill track and an unfoi dal.de river. To cross the latter he has hewn out a canoe for him'sdlf, and each week trudges seventyfour miles, and ferries himself over a dangerous creek ten times, in- order to obtain instruction that many - who live within a few hundred yards of the school hold very cheap.’' '