Such was the character of this early and most celebrated occupant of the grounds of Mount Auburn. Of his history it is proper to add something, for the satisfaction of such of our readers as may have been less familiar with it than the inhabitants of this vicinity are presumed to be. And here we shall still be indebted to his friend and countryman, Dr. Follen. Gaspar Spurzheim was born on the 31st of December, 1775, at Longvich, a village near the city of Treves, on the Moselle, in the lower circle of the Rhine, now under the dominion of Prussia. His father was a farmer,--in his religious persuasion, a Lutheran. Young Spurzheim received his classical education at the college of Treves; and was destined by his friends for the profession of Theology. In consequence of the war between Germany and France, in 1797, the students of that college were dispersed, and Spurzheim went to Vienna. Here he devoted himself to the study of medicine, and became the pupil, and subsequently the associate of Dr. Gall, then established as a physician at Vienna, and whose attention had long before this been deeply engaged in the investigation of what was afterwards commonly known as Craniology, or the doctrine of the skull:--one of the later improvements of Spurzheim was to entitle it Phrenology, or the doctrine of the mind.[96]
In his meridian blaze of fame,
With mind and heart and courage high,
Man's good his hope,--God's praise his theme,--
He came to die!Lunt.
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Boston, Otis Broaders and Company, 1839.
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