4 72 London Philosophical Society. 



already proved its action, and anatomy the effects of its 

 action, in the second division of the face. All that was 

 necessary, therefore, was an ideal standard, by which to 

 judije of the moral or immoral propensities of the individual, 

 and this the Greeks had already erected. Their statuaries 

 had two objects in view ; one of which was to eradicate ail 

 violent passions from the faces of their deities, (and this 

 they cfi'ected by reducing and sofienino; down the muscles 

 of the cheeks and nose,) and the second was to leave upon 

 their faces the character of some quality for whic!\ they 

 were distinguished, (and this thev elfected bv strict phy- 

 siognomical rules.) He then detailed the different phy- 

 siognomical expressions of the ancient cods; — the senti- 

 mental laxity of Venus, the purity of Diana, the fortitude 

 and taste of Minerva, the pride of .Tuno, the benevolence 

 of Apollo, and the conscious calm security of Hercules, — all 

 of which he proved by drawings and busts of the antique 

 physiognomically exprest ; nor could his conclusions, he 

 said, be denied without a ridiculous dilemma, that the head 

 of one deity would have answered as well for another. VVe 

 need look no further, then, fora standard for the nobler pro- 

 pensities of our nature. Nor were the characteristics of the 

 ignobler less apparent to investigation. Drunkenness and 

 every species of intemperance distort and caricature the 

 face in proportion as they destroy the intellect and the 

 sentimental emotions — and here the Lecturer alluded to 

 the head of Nero at the Ivluseum, asserting that it was im- 

 possible to contemplate that head without recognising in 

 it the intemperance, the gluttony, the pride, and impiety 

 of that sanguinary monster. Originally handsome, every 

 thing proclaimed the lapse of the man into the brute : the 

 elevated chin, the swollen throat, and depending cheeks, 

 the breathing nostrils, and staring eyes, spoke a language 

 not to be mistaken. 



Mr. C. next adverted to the contrast observable in the 

 faces of Cupid, or Venus and iVIinerva, It was as evident 

 as the contrast between ambition and love, the master- 

 passions of human nature. In the former, the cheeks are 

 rotund ; in the latter, concave; — in the former, the nostrils 

 are dilated, in the latter, rectilinear and compact; — the in- 

 terval, tlierefore, affords a standard to judge of the mixture 

 of these passions in the individual. Hut the Greek head 

 of Pan, the lecturer observed, was a kind of silent phy- 

 siognomical lecture. No one will pretend to say that it 

 does not express passions in quiescence, and no one can 

 doubt the nature of the passions it conveys. — The diagonal 



bearing 



