to heaven, and filling my mind with the sublimest emotions of admiration and gratitude. The following observations of Lavater's are very remarkable for their truth: "Nothing," says he, "can be more true than this, because I am satisfied, by evidence which I cannot doubt, that the same persons who affect to make a jest of it in public, are ever the most eager to read or to hear physiognomical decisions; and I boldly appeal to every reader who is prejudiced against this science, or who only pretends to be so, and ask him whether he has not a secret desire, that a physiognomical observer, to whom he was not personally known, and who had never seen him before, but his portrait, should make a comment upon his physionomy? I should be tempted to ask those likewise, who treat my researches as fanciful, if they will be less disposed to read my Physiognomical Essays on that account? I know it, yes, I predict it, without the gift of prophecy.-Ye zealous and interested antagonists of Physiognomy, you will read my book, you will study it, and you will be frequently of my opinion. You will often discover with satisfaction, in these pieces, observations which you have made before, without expressing them in words;--and, nevertheless, you will pretend to refute me in public. In the retirement of your closet, I shall sometimes obtain from you a smile of approbation; yet the next moment you will affect to laugh at the truth of which you have felt the force." If objections were arguments, not even Christianity itself would stand the test of inquiry for what system of philosophy or of morals, was ever subjected to a more severe scrutiny, by the witlings of the present and of former ages? In another part of this work it has been proved that Physiognomy is a science; and mere questions of doubt or suspicion cannot possibly disprove the facts therein stated. No one, not even M. de Buffon himself, ever attempted seriously to refute the general strain of argumentation employed by any sensible physionomist. But nothing is so easy as to laugh -nothing so convenient as sarcasm and ridicule, when sober reason and patient investigation fail to refute any truth, doctrine, or opinion. Some persons seem to be constitutionally possessed of a certain portion of querulousness, not unfrequently mixed up with no small share of ignorance, arrogance, and envy, eternally prompting them to find fault with whatever they do not understand. These persons, unwilling to be thought ignorant of any thing, pretend to be familiarly conversant with every thing; and they imagine they show their shrewdness and dexterity by a sort of wholesale dealing in notes of interrogation. They grant nothing to their opponent; they concede no point; they admit no position, not even for the sake of argument; they are mighty dexterous at a syllogism in their own favour; but uniformly reject the minor, the major, and the ergo from every other quarter. They are, generally, smatterers in some art, or dabblers in some science; and having acquired a T 1 hands his science is perfectly safe. Should they reject his argument, they will not despise his zeal. They will listen to his statements, and compare his facts, though they may not embrace his doctrines. The human mind is variously compounded. That which strikes one person with the force of demonstration, is often rejected by another as abounding with absurdity and error; yet both may be equally sincere in their inquiries after truth, and both equally capable of appreciating its value. On few points do men differ so widely as on that with which one would suppose they must be best acquainted-the knowledge of themselves→→ "The matchless compound, MAN, too much allied To sense, to rest in philosophic pride; Too much to spirit, e'er that rest to find In sense, rude-broken from the grasp of mind! But who, the heir of animated dust, Shall lift that balance high, or scales so nice adjust?” ANON. Anatomy, on its connection with Physiognomy 178 229 94 271 33- 78 ..... 64, 212 Animals, physiognomical observations on 42, 279, 280, 287 ancient...... 131, 132, 135, 136, 283, see note, 292 Aristotle........ 286 Asiatic nations, the prevailing temperament of 232 nomy Avarice and pusillanimity, signs of Bacon, Lord his testimony favourable to Physiognomy 240 Bacchus....... on his Anatomy of Expression... 316, 317 Belle Lettres, on its connection with Physiognomy... 52, 271 196 ............ 212 223, note. 279, 280 Bigots, depicted Black eyes Z 268, 269 166 |