596 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



notions of like conjectural basis. Their common motive is a strong 

 leaning towards the occult. 



The parent view that mental traits are conditioned by bodily com- 

 position affiliated with views of similar ancestry holding that the traits 

 were revealed in bodily signs. Such is the princple of physiognomy, — 

 a doctrine as old as Aristotle, and older. There is the traditional story 

 that the physiognomist Zopyrus, in reading the character of Socrates, 

 pronounced him full of passionate tendencies, thus showing in the 

 opinion of the disciples of Socrates, the vanity of his art. But Socrates 

 came to his defence and confessed the reality of the impulses, which, 

 however, he was able to resist. Aristotle's advocacy of physiognomy 

 was not very pronounced ; it may have been little more than an inclina- 

 tion to recognize the reflection of emotion in feature, or the coordinate 

 growth of body and mind. But the tractate on "Physiognomy" as- 

 cribed to him served as the text to the renaissance adepts in occult 

 lore. Thus restated, even more than in its original setting, it pre- 

 sents the characteristic dependence upon weak analogy in connecting 

 specific bodily features with specific mental traits. Coarse hair, an 

 erect body, a strong sturdy frame, broad shoulders, a robust neck, blue 

 eyes and dark complexion, a sharp but not large brow, were together 

 regarded as marks of the courageous man, while the timid man showed 

 opposite characteristics. The doctrine was reenforced by such analogies 

 as that timid animals, like the rabbit and the deer, had soft fine hair; 

 while the courageous ones, like the lion and the wild boar, were coarse- 

 haired. 



A mental trait may have at once a natural bodily cause and a mani- 

 fest or covert sign. The "humorist" may also be a physiognomist, 

 may both account for and read human character, may prescribe for 

 its ailments according to the one set of influences, and advise as to 

 course and career according to the other. 



There is no more instructive instance to illustrate how the old 

 learning was reinstated with slight alteration in precept and practise 

 than the career of Jerome Cardan (1501-1576). Esteemed by his 

 contemporaries, shrewd and able, he was urged in one direction by his 

 taste for science and in another by his credulity. His autobiography 

 reveals his analytic bent as well as his strong personality. It has been 

 said of him that for all for which his contemporaries thought him 

 wise, we should think him mad; and for what we think him wise, 

 they would have thought him mad. So great was his reputation that 

 he was invited and then inveigled to travel from Naples to Scotland 

 to treat the bishop of St. Andrews. The prelate's ailment had been 

 described as a periodic asthma due to a distillation of the brain into 

 the lungs, which left a "temperature and a condition too moist and 

 too cold, and the flow of the humors coinciding with the conjunctions 

 and oppositions of the moon." With the characteristic prestige that re- 



