difficult to account for them on any known principles, or any lights that can be borrowed from the history of individuals, that some malign influence has been assigned as the cause of them:

"Lo these were they whose breasts the furies steel'd, "And cursed with hearts unknowing how to yield."

While these speculations, however, announce a moral fact, which history and observation would seem to verify, they should rather have a tendency to give energy to our efforts for the improvement of mankind, than to make us feeble and desponding. The original perversity and obliquity of human character should induce us to study it more deeply, that we may multiply to the utmost extent, our resources for counteracting its downward and awful tendencies. These aids must be sought and found, in the opinion of the author, in the assiduous cultivation of the science of Physiognomy, and of the inductive philosophy of the human

Mr. Cooke was of opinion, that the great advantages of Physiognomy resulted from its practical application in ascertaining original powers and dispositions; and that it was on the knowledge thus acquired, that individuals and society were to be ultimately benefited by its discoveries. It was in this way that he rendered it useful to himself and others. "How often, for instance," he would observe, "must men be trusted on the ground of the qualifications assigned to them, and what an important difference, frequently in the final results, between wisdom and the show of it!" Whether the

warrior or the statesman, however, will be eventually selected to guide and govern mankind by the application of physiognomical principles, is a question which, in the present state of the science, the editor ventures not to answer that the want of some certain and conclusive criterion, even of intellectual character, to say nothing of moral dispositions, often leads to serious mistakes in the choice of the leaders of mankind, cannot be doubted. the present state of things, to estimate wisdom,

In

we must ourselves be wise. In the highest situations and most important junctures, profound councils are often rejected because they are not clearly comprehended-as bold, intrepid, and decisive measures are often prevented, from the natural timidity and want of energy which belong to the men by whom they would otherwise be adopted and executed. It is true, that this is an evil which will be felt in a less degree, in proportion as society advances in knowledge and freedom, and as consequently the minds of a large portion of the community are constantly employed in directing its councils, and promoting its interests. It is an evil, however, which, in human life, hath a powerful and sometimes disastrous influence on the conduct of affairs, and the happiness of mankind. These considerations cannot fail to place the science of Physiognomy in an important point of view; and to render its cultivators eager to found it on inductive principles. The brief memoir of the individual under consideration, will be conclusive, however, with those who were best acquainted with him, as to the practical results of the science in his hands.

Before such a scrutator as he had rendered himself, it will be easily supposed that mere pretension had not much chance of suc<ceeding in its object. The editor himself has often witnessed the triumph of Physiognomy, applied by the author in detecting, and sometimes exposing, the weakness and malignity of persons who had won their way to an estimation in the minds of others, to which neither their heads nor hearts entitled them. It was rather entertaining, occasionally, to witness the mortification of such imposing personages, and the indications they exhibited of the conscious conviction that they were unmasked, and presented in their true colours.

This discriminating Physionomist did not always hesitate to avow his opinion of such characters, especially if they were so unfortunate as to excite his disgust, or provoke his resentment, by dogmatically denying the truth of his favourite science. On such occasions, he sometimes chastised them, with little attention even to the rules of politeness, and with a power and

severity of sarcasm marked at once by the truth and poignancy of its representations. These were weapons, however, which he employed only against the mischievous and the dogmatical: the timid, the warm-hearted, the modest, the ingenuous, were sure to find in him a friend; and the editor has seen him shed the tear of genuine tenderness at the recollection of departed excellence. But he had a spirit and a vigor to confront, and often to abash, the insolent and the pretending; and when he detected sly insinuating and malignant individuals, ready to blame, unwilling to praise, seeking the destruction of hope and character, he would frequently express his opinion of them with great warmth and boldness. In the defence of his science, or of a friend, he was not afraid of making an enemy of a cold-hearted bad man; and was very careless as to what might be said or thought of his decision with regard to such:

"To virtue only and her friends, a friend,

"The world besides might censure or commend."