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MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 



On the Science of Physiognomy, from 

 Mr. Fuseli's Advertisement to 

 Hunter's Translation ofLavater's 

 Essays on Physiognomy. 



IT is not the intention of this pre- 

 fatory address, either to prove 

 the claim of physiognomy to a place 

 among the sciences, to demonstrate 

 its utility, or to enlarge in its praise. 

 The immediate effect of form on 

 every eye, the latent principle 

 which is the basis of that effect, and 

 which inhabits every breast, the in- 

 fluence derived from this impression 

 on conduct and action, in every 

 department of life, are self-evident 

 truths, and need as little to be 

 proved as the existence of smell or 

 taste. If not all, at least the most 

 important part, of what can be said 

 on the subject is given in the book ; 

 and to epitomize what the reader is 

 going to consider in detail, or to at- 

 tempt improving the author's argu- 

 ment and method, would be as 

 futile as an attempt to "gild refined 

 gold, or to paint the lily." 



The mistaken humanity of those 

 who find cruelty lurking amid the 

 researches of the physiognomist, 

 deserves our pity rather than an 

 answer; it refutes itself; the general 

 eye has given a tacit verdict before 

 it pronounces one ; it either con- 



VoL. XLII. 



firms by proofs what we have felt, 

 or by proofs corrects our feelings : 

 in either case truth gains, and woe 

 to him who without proof dares to 

 contradict that on which all are 

 agreed. Besides, when the great 

 principle of human nature, that pro- 

 perty which in%'isibly links every 

 individual, from the most genially 

 favoured in organization, to the 

 most neglected or most scantily sup- 

 plied, to infinity, to the immense 

 power that produced him, if per- 

 fectibility be taken into consider- 

 ation, which allows no one to pro- 

 nounce ' So far shalt thou go, and 

 no farther,' all fears of petulant or 

 noxious abuse of the science must 

 necessarily vanish. If self-love be a 

 more than sufficient counterpoise to 

 humility or despondence, if vanity 

 and hope never forsake their chil- 

 dren, what danger can be appre- 

 hended from physiognomy.^ Its 

 verdicts wiU be shifted from face to 

 face; and there will always be out- 

 lets or atoning lines sufficiently wide 

 or soothing in the fatal angles of 

 condemning classes of faces, to let 

 each individual culprit escape, or 

 stand absolved before his own 

 tribunal. 



Men in their fears generally con- 

 found our science with pathology, 

 distinct from it though intimately 



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