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MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



PHYSIOGNOMY FOUNDED ON PHYSIOLOGY. BY ALEXANDER WALKER. 

 SMITH, ELDER AND Co. 



WE cannot convey our sense of the merits of this singular book to 

 the reader in better language perhaps than that of Mr. Walker, in 

 speaking of the pretensions of French writers. " First we find out 

 that it does not contain quite as much as we expected, and next it 

 would be difficult to say what precise addition we have made to our 

 knowledge by reading it." This, it will be said, is very indefinite 

 phraseology. And so we admit it to be ; but in truth it is the most 

 precise we can find. Astrology and physiognomy are looked upon 

 with equal respect by very many in the scientific and literary world. 

 And though phrenology may rank rather more adherents, we sus- 

 pect that the whole three are regarded as very silly pursuits by nine 

 out of every ten individuals who know what these ologies and ono- 

 mies mean. However strong this prejudice may be, we promise the 

 most inveterate railer against the science (if science he will deign to 

 call it) of physiognomy, that Mr. Walker's book will amply repay 

 the time expended in perusing it. It is in many respects a very 

 strange composition. The author is not the least influenced by an 

 enthusiasm for the doctrine of facial erudition ; not all solicitous to 

 enlist the feelings of the reader for or against such divination. He 

 looks upon the subject with the most philosophical placidity, demon^ 

 strates (to our entire satisfaction) the absurdity of many of the lead- 

 ing dogmas of Gall establishes principles, a deviation from which 

 he does not account absolute heterodoxy, and modestly concludes with 

 saying that these principles are to be taken merely as indications of 

 inclination or likings, rather than undeniable rules by which to decide 

 character. Physiognomy per se, does not occupy the greater portion 

 of this volume. There is much new and recondite knowledge 

 scattered through it, and the remarks of the author are at once the 

 most charitable and poignant that we have read for many a day. Pie 

 demolishes the theories of the craniologists with the most perfect 

 mastery, and at the same time without the slightest indication of 

 being at all disturbed in his work of destruction. Like the sword 

 of Harmodius, covered with flowers, he compliments while he 

 wounds ; nor is he at all desirous of personal exaltation because of 

 his enemy being prostrated. We might dispute Mr. Walker's facts 

 as to the origin of the British population ; but as our space would 

 allow at most but a single tilt in the lists of historical disputation, we 

 will e'en let our critical lance remain in its rest. An outline of an 

 analysis of the English, Scotch, and Irish character, together with a 

 few other papers on similar subjects, he tells us, he communicated to 

 Black wood's Magazine in 1829. In a population so extremely sub- 

 divided and mixed up as is that of these islands, we cannot recognize 



M. M. No. 103. P 



