"On the front appear light and gloom, joy and anxiety, stupidity, ignorance, and vice. On this brazen table are deeply engraved every combination of sense and soul. I can conceive no spectator to whom the forehead can appear uninteresting. Here all the Graces revel, or all the Cyclops thunder! Nature has left it bare, that; by it, the countenance may be enlightened or darkened.

"At its lowest extremities, thought appears to be changed into act. The mind here collects the powers of resistance. Here reside the cornua addita pauperi. Here headlong obstinacy and wise perseverance take up their fixed abode.

"Beneath the forehead are its beauteous confines the eyebrows; a rainbow of promise, when benignant; and the bent bow of discord, when enraged; alike descriptive, in each case, of interior feeling.

"I know not any thing which can give more pleasure, to an accurate observer, than a distinct and perfectly arched eyebrow

"The nose imparts solidity and unity to the whole countenance. It is the mountain that shelters the fair vales beneath. How descriptive of mind and character are its various parts; the insertion, the ridge, the cartilage, the nostrils, through which life is inhaled.

"The eyes, considered only as tangible objects, are by their form, the windows of the soul, the fountains of light and life. Mere feeling would discover that their size and globular shape are not unmeaning. The eye-bone, whether gradually sunken, or boldly prominent, equally is worthy of attention; as likewise are the temples, whether hollow or smooth. That region of the face which includes the eyebrows, eye, and nose, also includes the chief signs of soul; that is, of will, or mind, in action.

"The occult, the noble, the sublime, sense of hearing, has nature placed sideways, and half concealed. Man ought not to listen entirely from motives of complaisance to others, but of information to himself; and, however perfect this organ of sensation may be, it is devoid of ornament; or, delicacy, depth, and expansion, such are its ornaments.

"I now come to the inferior part of the face, on which nature bestowed a mask for the male; and, in my opinion, not without reason. Here are displayed those marks of sensuality, which ought to be hidden. All know how much the upper lip betokens the sensations of taste, desire, appetite, and the enjoyments of love; how much it is curved by pride and anger, drawn thin by cunning, smoothed by benevolence, made flaccid by effeminacy; how love and desire, sighs and kisses, cling to it, by indescribable traits. The under lip is little more than its supporter, the rosy cushion on which the crown of majesty reposes. If the parts of any two bodies can be pronounced to be exactly adapted to each other, such are the lips of man, when the mouth is closed.

"It is exceedingly necessary to observe the arrangement of the teeth, and the circular conformation of the cheeks. The chaste and delicate mouth is, perhaps, one of the first recommendations to be met with in the common intercourse of life. Words are the pictures of the mind. We judge of the host by the portal. He holds the flaggon of truth, of love and endearing friendship.

"The chin is formed by the under lip, and the termination of the jaw-bones. If I may speak figuratively, it is the picture of sensuality in man, according as it is more or less flexible, smooth, or carbuncled: it discovers what his rank is among his fellows. The chin forms the oval of the countenance; and when, as in the antique statues of the Greeks, it is neither pointed nor indented, but smooth, and gradually diminishes, it is then the key-stone of the superstructure. A deformity in the chin is indeed much to be dreaded."

My quotation from this work is shorter than I intended, but further extracts will be made hereafter.

Enough, perhaps more than enough, and nothing but what was anticipated. I do not subscribe to all the opinions in these authors, and I shall find an opportunity to repeat some of them; to confirm, to consider them more attentively, and, I hope, sometimes, to correct them, when erroneous. In the mean time, these testimonies contain sufficient information and

proof, though the researches they include are not in my opinion so profound as they ought to be, to supersede, in part, that disrepute into which physiognomy has so generally fallen, and to put that pitiable prejudice to the blush which would rank it with the predictions of astrology.

OF THE UNIVERSALITY OF PHYSIOGNOMONICAL
SENSATION.

By physiognomonical sensation, I here understand "those feelings which are produced at beholding certain countenances, and the conjectures concerning the qualities of the mind, which are produced by the state of such countenances, or of their portraits drawn or painted."

This sensation is very universal; that is to say, as certainly as eyes are in any man, or any animal, so certainly are they accompanied by physiognomonical sensations. Different sensations are produced in each by the different forms that present themselves.

Exactly similar sensations cannot be generated by forms that are in themselves different.

Various as the impressions may be which the same object makes on various spectators, and opposite as the judgments which may be pronounced on one and the same form, yet there are certain extremes, certain forms, physiognomies, figures, and lineaments, concerning which all, who are not idiots, will agree in their opinions. So will men be various in their decisions concerning certain portraits, yet will be unanimous concerning certain others; will say, "this is so like it absolutely breathes," or, "this is totally unlike." Of the numerous proofs which might be adduced of the universality of physiognomonical sensation, it is only necessary to select a few, to demonstrate the fact.

I shall not here repeat what I have already noticed, on the instantaneous judgment which all men give, when viewing exterior forms. I shall only observe that, let any person, but for two days, remark all that he hears or reads, among men,

and he will every where hear and read, even from the very adversaries of physiognomy, physiognomonical judgments concerning men; will continually hear expressions like these: "You might have read it in his eyes"-"The look of the man is enough"-" He has an honest countenance""His manner sets every person at his ease"-"He has evil eyes"—" You read honesty in his looks"-" He has an unhealthy countenance”—“ I will trust him for his honest face"-" Should he deceive me, I will never trust man more"-" That man has an open countenance"-"I suspect that insidious smile"-"He cannot look any person in the face."-The very judgments that should seem to militate against the science are but exceptions which confirm the universality of physiognomonical sensation. "His appearance is against him"-"This is what I could not have read in his countenance"- "He is better or worse than his countenance bespeaks."

If we observe mankind, from the most finished courtier to the lowest of the vulgar, and listen to the remarks they make on each other, we shall be astonished to find how many of them are entirely physiognomonical.

I have lately had such frequent occasion of observing this, among people who do not know that I have published any such work as the present; people, who, perhaps, never heard the word physiognomy; that I am willing, at any time, to risk my veracity on the proof that all men, unconsciously, more or less, are guided by physiognomonical sensation.

Another, no less convincing, though not sufficiently noticed, proof, of the universality of physiognomonical sensation, that is to say, of the confused feeling of the agreement between the internal character and the external form, is the number of physiognomonical terms to be found, in all languages, and among all nations; or, in other words, the number of moral terms, which, in reality, are all physiognomonical; but this is a subject that deserves a separate treatise. How important. would such a treatise be in extending the knowledge of languages, and determining the precise meaning of words! How new! How interesting!

Here I might adduce physiognomonical proverbs; but I