In religion, is Apt to change. Inquisitive. Zealous. Superstitious. In the capacity of a superior, is Compassionate. Imperious Suspicious. Abashed. SECTION IV. CONTAINING TESTIMONIES OF SEVERAL WRITERS TO THE TRUTH AND UTILITY OF THIS SCIENCE, ACCOMPANIED BY ORIGINAL REMARKS AND OBSERVATIONS, TOGETHER WITH A VIEW OF THE PHYSIOGNOMICAL LANGUAGE OF COMMON CONVERSATION; AND A GENERAL STATEMENT OF ITS PHILOSOPHICAL, MORAL, AND RELIGIOUS BENEFITS TO MANKIND. MERE system-makers invariably rely upon the authority of great names for the truth and value of their theories. Nor is this practice confined to those writers, whose chief aim appears to be the establishment of a favourite science; the confirmation of a darling opinionor the selfish support of some abstract position, of no general use to mankind. Philosophers and moralists, theologians and politicians, have resorted to arguments deduced from the authority and concurrent testimony of others. In deed, the human mind, as Lavater has justly remarked, is governed by authority. It is the great inducement, with the multitude, to the reception of truth, as well as the main sanction to error. its The abuse of this argument, and the application of it being generally to the passions rather than to the judgment, ought not to prevent use and efficacy, where it is called in to aid the great and important ends of philosophical research. But how shall I compress into a sufficiently narrow compass what has been written confirmatory of the truth of Physiognomy? The reader will excuse the paucity of the extracts, in consideration of the limits to which I wish to confine myself; and because I would not willingly overpower him with "a cloud of witnesses," to prove a truth which, I am convinced his own heart and experience must have taught him. A truth which, like many others in its operations, is tacitly admitted by even those who openly deny it, or, in the pride of an affected philosophical superciliousness, pretend to treat it with disdain and contempt. 1. SOLOMON. A naughty person, a wicked man; he winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet; he teacheth with his fingers. The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. An high look and a proud heart. There is a generation; O how lofty are their eyes! and their eye-lids are lifted up. Proverbs. 2. JESUS, THE SON OF SIRACH. The heart of a man changeth his countenance, whether it be good or evil. A cheerful countenance is a token of a heart that is in prosperity. A man is known by his look, and a wise man by the air of his countenance. There is a wicked man that hangeth down his head sadly, casting down his countenance, and making as if he heard not. A man's attire, and excessive laughter, and gait shew what he is. The wickedness of a woman changeth her face.. Ecclesiasticus. To these few authorities from the Old Testament, and from some of the best portions of the Apochryphal writings, might be added many others from the New Testament. The reader will find in various parts of these sheets, repeated citations from the sacred Scriptures of this confirmatory character. I have not room for enlargement. Let the diligent physionomist complete the list from that divine and inexhaustless source of almost every species of valuable information. 3. GALEN. Nature has constituted the bodily organs with a suitableness to the qualities of the mind. 4. CICERO. Nature hath bestowed on man a bodily figure com pletely adapted to his mind. She has so exquisitely modelled the human features, that they are capable of expressing the most secret emotions of the soul. The penetrating glances of the eye indicate the corresponding internal affections; and that which is emphatically called the countenance, with an energy communicated to no animal but man, announces his moral character. |