INSTINCTIVE CRIMINALITY. 281 



upon the features may also be transient, but if it 

 be long continued, or if it frequently recur, be it 

 good or evil, assuredly it will leave an indelible 

 imprint upon the countenance that may be read of all 

 men. 



This was the teaching of the school of which the 

 famous Lavater is the best known exponent, and 

 in it we have to a certainty the origin of Criminal 

 Anthropology. 



For physiognomy there is much to be said. In 

 the concrete it is largely if not absolutely true. But, 

 lacking as it does a scientific basis, it can never be 

 depended upon as a guide in individual cases. Never- 

 theless it is practised daily by every grade of humanity, 

 from the naked savage to the ermine-clad occupant of 

 the seat of justice, as it is also by many of the infe- 

 rior animals. It is by the exercise of this instinctive 

 power of face-reading that the dog knows when his 

 ferocious fellow may be approached in a playful 

 humour, and when it is wise to keep a respectful 

 distance, or that he discovers the mood of his human 

 master at a single look. It is by the exercise of this 

 very same instinct that judges and juries are pre- 

 judiced for and against persons appearing before them 

 in court, and that we ourselves discover the man 

 whom we " wouldn't trust farther than we could throw 

 him," without a shred of evidence against him save 

 what we can see of the inner man shining through 

 his tell-tale countenance. 



Before man arrived at that stage of development 



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