90 ' THE BYRONS. 



Brockbark's " Extract" and subsequently anointing it with Do's 

 ** Balsam of Roses" will wonderfully improve the pliancy of its 

 disposition, and if somewhat obstinate, render it more amenable 

 to rule. The forehead, if high, will be, of course, increased in 

 grandeur, and if low, materially assisted by this style 3 its general 

 character must be that of calm and dignified repose. The brow 

 must, if possible, be of marble ; but when the complexion is ob- 

 stinately sanguine or saturnine, you can but take refuge in '* a 

 cloud," a deep portentous, 8alvator-like shade. The eye, no matter 

 of what hue, whether green as a parrot's, or yellow as a cat's, must 

 be fixed in cold abstraction, or filled with indefinable mysteries of 

 expression, such in short as may lead the common herd of society 

 to suppose that you have committed a murder, or a highway rob- 

 bery, or are leagued with importers of contraband brandy casks 

 and silk handkerchiefs. The under lip must be duly disciplined to 

 describe a projecting ellipsis (what the scientific would term a 

 meniscus) upon all ordinary occasions 3 but should a smile be per- 

 mitted, for effect, to relax its rigidity, it must be faint as the faint- 

 est beam of the moon — an indication and no more, as of unwilling 

 participation in the gaiety which belongs to the vulgar and in- 

 sensible. That it must regularly " wither to a sneer" your own 

 sense of consistency will suggest. There is, however, a discre- 

 tionary latitude extended, when a sardonic character is assumed j 

 in such case the smile may, for some seconds, exercise the muscles 

 of the mouth in a way both forcible and salutary, at the same time 

 deriving considerable assistance from an accordant inflexion of the 

 sourcil varying from a passing frown to a scowl worthy the pencil 

 of Fuseli, or the chisel of Michael Angela. Having touched so far 

 upon the arrangement of features, we may now pass to the 

 consideration of other particulars. Discarding, as abominations, 

 gtock, stifFener, and cravat, you must appear from January to 

 December, bare-necked with the collar of your shirt, innocent 

 of starch, lying in abandonment upon your vest. If your throat 

 be white and smooth, and your head set like that of the Apollo 

 Belvedere, count yourself happy in a fortunate apology for dis- 

 play ; nevertheless though it be swarthy and pimpled, unusually 

 sprinkled with freckles, or partially inclining to either right or 

 left, it must still be denuded — a Byron in a cravat or a spruce 

 military stock, would be an anomaly as terrifying to propriety as 

 the Venus of Praxiteles in a petticoat and shawl. Never turn 

 so as to present a full face to the person whom you address, but 

 study to assume the three-quarter, by which your resemblance 

 to the great original will be continually presented to observation. 

 You will, of course, bear in mind that no single portrait of the 

 noble bard depicts him in a front view, and this will make you 

 sensible that you would lose by venturing to look direct at any 

 one that may address or be addressed by you. As to your ap- 

 parel it may vary with your taste, so long as you do not infringe 

 the decorum of the style you adopt 3 for instance, a pea-green 

 coat, doe-skins aud boots, with a riding- whip, and a broad-brimmed 



