These notes (not transcribed by Finberg) continue on folio 28 verso (
D06775); for convenience they are given in full here:
Carlisle affirms the mind is only | a quick perception and that some having | a quicker degree of perception is Genius | or rather only the common powers of mental | faculties which if carried by enthusiasm | is capable of producing that which it | thinks itself able to obtain and therefore | what has been done by the ancients may | be done again. That the hand & Eye | are mere agents and that discrimination | if cause of nature is not in the power of | vision by the ... power of perception | That the Greeks were very little acquainted | with Anatomy. That they produced the | wonderful dignity of man in their marbles | by Geometrical proportions. Yet many | greek names are admitted among the | ... muscles of the Body | 2nd lecture. denying the Hypotheses | of Craniology that no differences | be found in the Brain corresponding | with the form of the Skull and that | instances have been when some of [continued on folio 28 verso] the brain (the seat of the mind) | by accidental causes have | retained the same faculties although | some parts of the seat (supposed to belong to filial affection) ... I shall in future show the | eye is placed rather divergent | to the side of the Head and looking | thus [here Turner has added a sketch] therefore the transparent part of the [eye] appears to move yet | globe of the eye or is centrically | placed and by being rather out | of the parallel enables the trans | parent part to reflect objects from the side view
For Turner’s notes for his lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy see Introduction to this sketchbook and under folio 15 (
D06749). This additional text is probably connected with his plans for Lecture 1, on perspective and geometry, in which he sought to establish the relationship between his subject and the others taught by the Academy’s Professors, including anatomy and sculpture.
1 It also seems to anticipate his discussion of the subject of vision, developed in his later courses of lectures from 1814 to 1818.
David Blayney Brown
March 2007
