436 On Phyfiognomy, 



With all thefe good qualities however, 

 M. Lavater's work has faults that take away 

 confiderably from the deference which his 

 phyfiognomical opinions would otherwife have 

 claimed. And his imagination has in many 

 inftances, fo evidently gotten the better of his 

 judgment, that a reader who fliould take up 

 his volumes for the mere purpofe of amufe- 

 ment, would be ftrongly tempted to rejeft 

 the whole fyftem, as the fanciful conceit of 

 an ingenious but extravagant theorift. 



Among the objedionable parts of his book 

 are the following : 



1. The myfterious air of importance, with 

 which (like many of his predeceflbrs) he has 

 clothed his favourite fcience, and defcribed 

 the whole of the material world as objefts of 

 her dominion.* 



2. The fanciful neceflity which he impofes 

 that a phyfiognomift fhould be a well-fhaped 

 handfome man :-j- 



3. His language very frequently too pe- 

 remptory and decifive j not warranted by the 



• Vol. I. p. 33—38. Vol. II. p. 89. French tranf- 

 latton. 



t Vol. I. p. 126. 



fubftance 



