different was my infantine countenance to the present, in form and speech! But, as transgression follows innocence, so doth virtue transgression.

Doth the vessel say to the potter, "wherefore hast thou made me thus?—I am little, but I am 1." He who created me, did not create me to be a child, but a man. Wherefore should I ruminate on the pleasures of childhood, unburthened with cares? I am what I am. I will forget the past, nor weep that I am no longer a child, when I contemplate children in all their loveliness. To join the powers of man with the simplicity of the child, is the height of all my hopes. God grant they may be accomplished!

CHAP. XXXVI.

Physiognomonical Extracts from an Essay inserted in the Deutschen Museum, a German Journal or Review.

FROM this essay I shall extract only select thoughts, and none but such as I suppose importantly true, false, or ill defined.

1.

"Men with arched and pointed noses are said to be witty, and that the blunt noses are not so." A more accurate definition is necessary, which, without drawing, is almost impossible. Is it

meant by arched noses arched in length or in breadth? How arched? This is almost as indeterminate as when we speak of arched foreheads. All foreheads are arched. Innumerable noses are arched, the most witty and the most stupid. Where is the highest point of arching? Where does it begin? What is its extent? What is its strength?

It must be allowed, that people with tender, thin, sharply defined, angular noses, pointed below, and something inclined towards the lip, are witty, when no other features contradict these tokens; but that people with blunt noses are not so, is not entirely true. It can only be said of certain blunt noses, for there are others of this kind extremely witty, though their wit is certainly of a different kind to that of the pointed

nose.

2.

"It is asked, (supposing for a moment, that the arched and the blunt nose denote the presence or absence of wit) is the arched nose the mere sign that a man is witty, which supposes his wit to originate in some occult cause, or is the nose itself the cause of wit?"

I answer, sign, cause, and effect combined. Sign; for it betokens the wit, and is an involuntary expression of wit. Cause; at least cause that the wit is not greater, less, or of a different quality, boundary cause. Effect; produced by the quantity, measure, or activity of the mind,

which suffers not the nose to alter its form, to be greater or less. We are not only to consider the form as form, but the matter of which it is moulded, the conformability of which is determined by the nature and ingredients of this matter, which is probably the origin of the form.

True indeed it is, that there are blunt noses, which are incapable of receiving a certain quantity of wit; therefore it may be said, with more subtlety than philosophy, they form an insuperable barrier.

3.

"The correspondence of external figures with internal qualities is not the consequence of external circumstances, but rather of physical combination. They are related like cause and effect, or, in other words, physiognomy is not the mere image of internal man, but the efficient cause. The form and arrangement of the muscles determine the mode of thought, and sensibility of the man."

I add, these are also determined by the mind of man.

4.

"A broad conspicuous forehead is said to denote penetration. This is natural. The muscle of the forehead is necessary to deep thought. If it be narrow and contracted, it cannot render the same service as if spread out like a sail."

.

I shall here, without contradicting the general

proposition of the author, more definitely add, it is, if you please, generally true, that the more brain the more mind and capacity. The most stupid animals are those with least brain, and those with most the wisest. Man, generally wiser, has more brain than other animals; and it appears just to conclude from analogy, that wise men have more brain than the foolish. But accurate observation teaches, that this proposition, to be true, requires much definition and limitation.

Where the matter and form of the brain are similar, there the greater space for the residence of the brain is, certainly the sign, cause, and effect of more and deeper impression; therefore, cæteris paribus, a larger quantity of brain, and consequently a spacious forehead, is more intelligent than the reverse. But as we frequently live more conveniently in a small well-contrived chamber than in more magnificient apartments, so do we find, that in many small, short foreheads, with less, or apparently less brain than others, the wise mind resides at its ease.

I have known many short, oblique, straightlined (when compared with others apparently arched, or really well-arched) foreheads, which were much wiser, more intelligent, and penetrating, than the most broad and conspicuous; many of which latter I have seen in extremely weak 'men. It seems to me, indeed, a much more general proposition, that short compressed foreheads are wise and understanding; though

this, likewise, without being more accurately defined, is far from being generally true.

But it is true, that large spacious foreheads, which, if I do not mistake, Galen, and after him Huart, have supposed the most propitious to deep thinking, which form a half sphere, are usually the most stupid. The more any forehead (I do not speak of the whole scull) approaches a semispherical form, the more is it weak, effeminate, and incapable of reflection, and this I speak from repeated experience.

The more straight lines a forehead has, the less capacious it must be; for the more it is arched, the more must it be roomy, and the more straight lines it has, the more must it be contracted. This greater quantity of straight lines, when the forehead is not flat like a board, for such flatness takes away all understanding, denotes an increase of judgment, but a diminution of sensibility. There undoubtedly are, however, broad, capacious foreheads, without straight lines, particularly adapted to profound thinking; but these are conspicuous by their oblique outlines.

5.

What the author has said concerning enthusiasts requires much greater precision, before it ought to be adopted as true.

"Enthusiasts are said commonly to have flat, perpendicular foreheads."

Oval, cylindrical, or pointed at top, should