818 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ogy, or the art of deducing mental characteristics from physical indi- 

 cations, would have been recognized as a true science if its apologists 

 had not wasted their efforts in the propaganda of their craniological 

 crotchets. 



Pliny, and his countryman Campanella, already observed that the 

 art of interpreting the features of the human face is a universal one, 

 practiced by unformulated but well-understood rules, ever since man 

 tried to fathom the soul of his fellow-man. " Every one," says Addi- 

 son, " is in some degree master of that art which is generally known 

 by the name of Physiognomy, and naturally forms to himself the 

 character or fortune of a stranger from the features of his face. We 

 are no sooner presented to any one we never saw before, but we are 

 immediately struck with the idea of a proud, a reserved, an affable, or 

 a good-natured man. For my own part, I am so apt to frame a no- 

 tion of every man's humor or circumstances by his looks, that I have 

 sometimes employed myself from Charing Cross to the Royal Exchange 

 in drawing the characters of those who have passed by me. I can not 

 recollect the author of a famous saying to a stranger who stood silent 

 in his company, ' Speak, that I may see thee.' But with all submission 

 I think we may be better known by our looks than by our words, and 

 that a man's speech is much more easily disguised than his counte- 

 nance." Even in their present crude and incoherent condition the 

 rules of this art of symbol-reading have a far greater interest than 

 those of our dogmatic skull-systems, which, besides minor confirma- 

 tions, lack the important one of the vox pojmli. There is a deep mean- 

 ing in the humorous remark of Professor Vogt, that, " if the tenets of 

 Spurzheim were founded on fact, instinct would have taught us long 

 ago to finger the occiput of a suspicious stranger instead of scrutiniz- 

 ing his face " ; and the study of a phrenological bust somehow ob- 

 trudes the idea that a good deal of this cranial topography was sug- 

 gested by verbal analogies, such as the location of our higher faculties 

 in the attic of the skull while the baser propensities occupy the base- 

 ment, or George Combe's conception that an elongated head must de- 

 note sagacity anglice, " long-headedness." Lavater's, Winckelmann's, 

 Cuvier's, and Dr. Redfield's observations, on the other hand, are often 

 indorsed by a multitude of analogous impressions which social studies 

 or self-examination has left in our minds. 



The comparison of modern physiognomic theories with the opin- 

 ions of the ancients suggests many curious reflections, and may fre- 

 quently serve to confirm one of those semi-conscious notions of our 

 own which we derive from experience but neglect to " formulate." 

 " Whitish hair, which at the same time is soft and thin," says Baron 

 Cuvier, " denotes a feeble organization, a temper yielding and easily 

 alarmed. It is commonly combined with an oval face and gently 

 rounded head. Such heads are never found in the descriptions of male- 

 factors. Black, frizzled hair the ancients considered as a sign of a 



