504 MUSCULAR MOTION. 



than this it cannot be depended upon. Yet, in all ages, it has been 

 regarded as the index of individual character. Allusion has been made 

 to the estimate of personal character from the shape of the head, as 

 described by the older poets. Similar indications were conceived to be 

 deducible from the form of the face, expression of the eyes, &c. Thus 

 Shakspeare : 



Ckopat. " Bear'st thou her face in mind? is't long or round 1 

 Messeng. Round, even to faultiness. 

 Cleopat. For the most part, too, 



They are foolish that are so. Her hair, what colour? 

 Messeng. Brown, madam, and her forehead 



As low as she would wish it." 



ANTONT AITD CLEOPATRA, iii. 3. 



And again : 



" Which is the villain ? Let me see his eyes, 

 That when 1 note another man like him, 

 I may avoid him." 



MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHIWG. 



John Baptist Porta ; and Lavater 2 have endeavoured to establish a 

 " science," by which we can be instructed, how to discover the secret 

 dispositions of the head and heart from the examination of particular 

 features. The latter enthusiast, in particular, appears to have carried 

 his notions to the most chimerical extent. "No study," he remarks, 

 " excepting mathematics, more justly deserves to be termed a science 

 than physiognomy. It is a department of physics including theology 

 and belles lettres, and in the same manner with these sciences may be 

 reduced to rule. It may acquire a fixed and appropriate character. It 

 may be communicated and taught." In another place, he remarks, 

 that no person can make a good physiognomist unless he is a well-pro- 

 portioned and handsome man ; 3 yet he himself was by no means highly 

 favoured in these respects ; and it is difficult to say, according to his 

 own theory, how he obtained such progress in the " science !" 



There is one case, and perhaps, one only, in which physiognomy can 

 aid us in the appreciation of character. It has been remarked, that 

 the facial expression may accurately depict the existing emotion. If, 

 therefore, any passion be frequently experienced, or become habitual, 

 its character may remain impressed upon the countenance, and admit 

 of an opinion being formed of the individual. No one, who has seen 

 the melancholy mad, can mistake the piteous expression produced by 

 brooding over the corroding idea that engrosses him. In the sketch 

 (Fig. 207), from Sir Charles Bell, 4 we have the testy, peevish counte- 

 nance, bred of melancholy; of one who is incapable of receiving satis- 

 faction from whatever source it may be offered, and who "cannot endure 

 any man to look steadily upon him, even to speak to him, or laugh, or 

 jest, or be familiar, or hem, or point, without thinking himself contemned, 

 insulted, or neglected." Such a countenance no one can misapprehend. 



1 La Physiognomic Humaine de Jean Baptiste Porta, Rouen, 1655. 



2 Woiks, from the French, by G. Grenville, Esq., Lond.; or Precis Analytique et Raisonne 

 du Systeme de Lavater, par N. J. Ottin, Bruxelles, 1834. 



3 Good's Book of Nature, iii. 309, Lond., 1834. 



4 Anat. of Expression, edit. cit. 



