conjectures on individual, but the discovery of general character."

The meaning of which is, the discovery of general signs of powers and sensations, which certainly are useless, unless they can be individually applied,since our intercourse is with individuals.

3.

"It would be of great utility to physiognomy were numerous portraits of the same man annually drawn, and the original, by that means, well known."

It is possible, and perhaps only possible, to procure accurate shades, or plaster casts. Minute changes are seldom accurately enough attended to by the painter, for the purpose of physiognomy.

4.

"The most important pursuit of the physiognomist in his researches will ever be, in what manner is a man considered capable of the impressions of sense. Through what kind of perspective does he view the world? What can he give? What receive?

5.

"That very vivacity of imagination, that quickness of conception, without which no man can be a physiognomist, is probably almost inseparable from other qualities which render the

highest caution necessary, if the result of his observations is to be applied to living persons."

This I readily grant; but the danger will be much less if he endeavours to employ his quick sensations in determinate signs; if he be able to pourtray the general tokens of certain powers, sensations, and passions, and if his rapid imagition be only busied to discover and draw resemblances.

Extracts from Winkelmann.

1.

"THE characteristic of truth is internal sensation, and the designer who would present such natural sensation to his academy, would not obtain a shade of the true, without a peculiar addition of something, which an ordinary and unimpassioned mind cannot read in any model, being ignorant of the action peculiar to each sensation and passion.

The physiognomist is formed by internal sensation, which if the designer be not, he will give but the shadow, and only an indefinite and confused shadow, of the true character of nature.

2.

"The forehead and nose of the Greek gods and goddesses form almost a straight line. The heads of famous women, on Greek coins, have similar profiles, where the fancy might not be

indulged in ideal beauties. Hence we may conjecture, that this form was as common to the ancient Greeks as the flat nose to the Calmuc, or the small eye to the Chinese. The large eyes of Grecian heads, in gems and coins, support this conjecture."

This ought not to be absolutely general, and probably was not, since numerous medals shew the contrary, though in certain ages and countries such might have been the most common form. Had only one such countenance, however, presented itself to the genius of art, it would have been sufficient for its propagation and continuance. This is less our concern than the signification of such a form. The nearer the approach to the perpendicular, the less is there characteristic of the wise and graceful; and the higher the character of worth and greatness, the more obliquely the lines retreat. The more straight and perpendicular the profile of the forehead and nose is, the more does the profile of the upper part of the head approach aright angle, from which wisdom and beauty will fly with equally rapid steps. In the usual copies of these famous ancient lines of beauty, I generally find the expression of meanness, and, if I dare to say, of vague insipidity. I repeat, in the copies; in the Sophonisba of Angelica Kauffman, for instance, where probably the shading under the hair has been neglected, and where the gentle arching of the lines, apparently were scarcely attainable.

3.

"The line which separates the repletion from the excess of nature, is very small."

Not to be measured by industry or instrument, yet all powerful, as every thing unattainable is.

4.

"A mind as beautiful as was that of Raphael, in an equally beautiful body, is necessary, first to feel, and afterwards to display, in these modern times, the true character of the ancients.

5.

"Constraint is unnatural, and violence dis

order."

Where constraint is remarked, there let secret, profound, slowly, destructive passion be feared; where violence, there open and quick destroying.

6.

"Greatness will be expressed by the straight and replete, and tenderness by the gently curving."

All greatness has something of straight and replete; but all the straight and replete is not greatness. The straight and replete must be in a certain position, and must have a determinate relation to the horizontal, on which the observer stands to view it.

"It may be proved, that no principle of beauty exists in this profile; for the stronger the arching

of the nose is, the less does it contain of the beautiful; and if any countenance seen in profile is bad, any search after beauty will there be to no purpose."

The noblest, purest, wisest, most spiritual and benevolent countenance, may be beautiful to the physiognomist, who, in the extended sense of the word beauty, understands all moral expressions of good as beautiful; yet the form may not, therefore, accurately speaking, deserve the appellation of beautiful.

7.

"Nothing is more difficult than to demonstrate a self-evident truth."

CHAP. XL.

Extracts from Aristotle and other Authors concerning Beasts.

THE writings of the great Aristotle on physiognomy appear to me very superficial, useless, and often self-contradictory, especially his general reasoning. Still, however, we sometimes meet an occasional thought which deserves to be selected. The following are some of these:

"A monster has never been seen which had the form of another creature, and, at the same time, totally different powers of thinking and acting. Thus, for example, the gròom judges from the mere appearance of the horse; the huntsman, from the appearance of the hound.