Life, 1886-07-15 · page 7 of 12
Life — July 15, 1886 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "A Meagre Thought" - Life Magazine Satire This page satirizes intellectual laziness and superficial learning. The illustration shows a man reading while reclining, with sparse, thin wisps of thought emanating from his head—visualizing "meagre" (weak/inadequate) thinking. The accompanying poem mocks someone whose mind is "lethargic" and seeks easy entrance to knowledge without genuine effort. The figure represents the dilettante or lazy scholar—someone who wants intellectual credibility but lacks the rigor to achieve it. Below, "Scientific Bumpology" parodies phrenology (the pseudoscience claiming skull bumps indicate character/ability). The satirical lecture on this fraudulent practice further mocks pretentious pseudo-intellectualism of the era. Together, the page ridicules both lazy thinking and the charlatans who exploit it.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
> LEFE - VESTRYMAN—One who thinks the safety of the church is centered chiefly in himself. TREASURER—A person continually employed in subtract- ing the ‘greater from the less and trying to ascertain the exact sum of the remainder. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE—Persons who assist the Treas- urer in making his report as unintelligible as possible. 39 SyNOD—Supposed to be a periodical gathering of clergy and laity for the transaction of business, but in reality a practical means for discovering the precise balance of party. ANNUAL REPORTS—Elaborate reviews of financial in- debtedness. : CHURCH DeEBTS—Investments that invariably kill all spiritual. life. An ecclesiastical system of pawnbroking. A MEAGRE THOUGHT @ eoay MEAGRE Thought came knocking at the door Of a lethargic Mind for entrance there ; ’Till with half-wakefulness and half aware ‘That 't was a meagre Thought and nothing more The too dense Dullard feebly swore, Then energetic grew, the nonce, and tore his hair : Thus help’d it to an entrance, eke to pair With what? Vacuity: his Brainpan’s store. So in got this, so lately in a Book ; It came to rest on Youthful Brains a while ; Passed round the miniature and bony head, Then suddenly its lone departure took Ejaculating: ‘Lord! 0, Lord! how vile Is this dark cell! I'd rather be in—Sheol.” SCIENTIFIC BUMPOLOGY. A LECTURE DELIVERED AT GREAT HEAD (MT. DESERT.) Lapirs AND GENTLEMEN: OME heads are born bumpy, some achieve bumps and some have bumpiness thrust upon them. It is, however, chiefly the second class which receives the attention of the Bumpologist, inasmuch as the acquired cranial swelling is solely the result of character working its way to the surface; and character is what the social scientist wishes to analyze. Bumps, unlike fancy cassimere, have not a nap, consequently the novice can run his fingers over them, in any direction, without perceiv- ing the least difference in the surface. To the professional, however, the same bump may change its surface many times, and happiness, sorrow, anger or love play their parts, and each be detected in the act. Bumps rarely palpitate to any great degree, but slight tremors have been detected at moments when the subject is under extreme mental excitement. G. W. Smithers, of Fort Wayne, has a bump at the base of his frontal bone, which has been known to kick, slightly ; but such cases are rare. To illustrate this lecture we have carefully prepared cranial and other charts, the first of which, Cuart L, SHOWING BUMPAL FORMATION ON HEAD OF COOK'S TOURIST. ‘This man has just returned from a personally conducted tour around the world, and his cranium presents fine specimens of the acquired bump. By observing the size of each swelling you can readily deter- mine just what relative impression each ‘point of interest” made on him, He evidently knew what he wanted to see—and saw it. comicbooks.com