of the science of physiognomy, or than that this truth may be demonstrated: and that I hold him to be a weak and simple person, who shall affirm, that the effects of the impressions made upon him by all possible human countenances, are equal.

CHAP. II.

On the Nature of Man, which is the Foundation of the Science of Physiognomy.-Difference between Physiognomy and Pathognomy.

MAN is the most perfect of all earthly creatures, the most imbued with the principles of life. Each particle of matter is an immensity, each leaf a world, each insect an inexplicable compendium. Who, then, shall enumerate the gradations between insect and man? In him all the powers of nature are united. He is the essence of creation. The son of earth, he is the earth's lord: the summary and central point of all existence, of all powers, and of all life, on that earth which he inhabits.

There are no organized beings with which we are acquainted, man alone excepted, in which are so wonderfully united these different kinds of life, the animal, the intellectual, and the moral. Each of these lives is the compendium of various faculties, most wonderfully compounded and harmonised.

To know, to desire, to act, or accurately to

observe and meditate, to perceive and to wish, to possess the power of motion and resistancethese combined, constitute man an animal, intellectual, and moral being.

Endowed with these faculties, and with this triple life, man is in himself the most worthy subject of observation, as he likewise is himself the most worthy observer. In him each species of life is conspicuous; yet never can his properties be wholly known, except by the aid of his external form, his body, his superficies. How spiritual, how incorporeal soever his internal essence may be, still is he only visible and conceivable from the harmony of his constituent parts. From these he is inseparable. He exists and moves in the body he inhabits, as in his element. This threefold life, which man cannot be denied to possess, necessarily first becomes the subject of disquisition and research, as it presents itself in the form of body, and in such of his faculties as are apparent to sense.

By such external appearances as affect the senses, all things are characterised; they are the foundations of all human knowledge. Man must wander in the darkest ignorance, equally with respect to himself and the objects that surround him, did he not become acquainted with their properties and powers, by the aid of their externals; and had not each object a character peculiar to its nature and essence, which acquaints us with what it is, and enables us to distinguish it from what it is not.

We survey all bodies that appear to sight under a certain form and superficies; we behold those outlines traced which are the result of their organization. I hope I shall be pardoned the repetition of common-place truths, since on these is built the science of physiognomy, or the proper study of man.

The organization of man peculiarly distinguishes him from all other earthly beings; and his physiognomy, that is to say, his superficies, and outlines of this organization, shew him to be infinitely superior to all those visible beings by which he is surrounded. We are unacquainted with any form equally noble, equally majestic with that of man; and in which so many kinds of life, so many powers, so many virtues of action and motion, unite as in a central point. With firm step he advances over the earth's surface, and with erect body raises his head to heaven. He looks forward to infinitude; he acts with facility and swiftness inconceivable, and his motions are the most immediate and the most varied. By whom may their varieties be enumerated? He can at once both suffer and perform infinitely more than any other creature. He unites flexibility and fortitude, strength and dexterity, activity and rest. Of all creatures he can the soonest yield, and the longest resist. None resemble him in the variety and harmony of his powers. His faculties, like his form, are peculiar to himself.

The make and proportion of man, his superior

height, capable of so many changes, and such variety of motion, prove to the unprejudiced observer his superior eminent strength, and astonishing facility of action. The high excellence and physiological unity of human nature, are visible at the first glance. The head, especially the face, and the formation of the firm parts compared to the firm parts of other animals, convince the accurate observer, who is capable of investigating truth, of the greatness and superiority of his intellectual qualities. The eye, the look, the cheeks, the mouth, the forehead, whether considered in a state of entire rest, or during their innumerable varieties of motion,— in fine, whatever is understood by physiognomy -are the most expressive, the most convincing picture of interior sensation, desires, passions, will, and of all those properties which so much exalt moral above animal life.

Although the physiological, intellectual, and moral life of man, with all their subordinate powers, and their constituent parts, so eminently unite in one being; although these three kinds of life do not, like three distinct families, reside in separate parts or stories of the body, but coexist in one point, and by their combination form one whole; yet it is plain, that each of these powers of life has its peculiar station, where it more especially unfolds itself and acts.

It is beyond contradiction evident, that, though physiological or animal life displays itself through all the body, and especially through all the ani

mal parts, yet it acts more conspicuously in the arm, from the shoulder to the ends of the fingers.

It is not less evident that intellectual life, or the power of the understanding and the mind, make themselves most apparent in the circumference and form of the solid parts of the head, especially the forehead; though they will discover themselves, to an attentive and accurate eye, in every part and point of the human body, by the congeniality and harmony of the various parts. Is there any occasion to prove, that the power of thinking resides neither in the foot, in the hand, nor in the back, but in the head, and in its internal parts?

The moral life of man particularly reveals itself in the lines, marks, and transitions of the countenance. His moral powers and desires; his irritability, sympathy, and antipathy; his facility of attracting or repelling the objects that surround him: these are all summed up in, and painted upon his countenance when at rest. When any passion is called into action, such passion is depicted by the motion of the muscles, and these motions are accompanied by a strong palpitation of the heart. If the countenance be tranquil, it always denotes tranquillity in the region of the heart and breast.

This threefold life of man, so intimately interwoven through his frame, is still capable of being studied in its different appropriate parts; and, did we live in a less depraved world, we