CHAPTER XVII. 



Physiognomy; study of it in works of art. Movements of expression, their 

 seat. Colouring of the skin; paleness, redness. Expression of the 

 muscles; effort, muscles of the face. Physiognomy of the senses. Ex- 

 pression of the eyes, vision, easy or difficult, blindness. Expression in 

 the act of hearing, easy or difficult, hearing of an orator, musical hear- 

 ing. Expressions of smell and t.iste. Expressions relating to the touch. 



Physiognomy is generally considered as the expression of 

 the features of the face, but it is not so limited in its elements. 

 Attitude, repose or action, fulness or slenderness of form, 

 proportion, bold or graceful relief, and lastly, health or 

 disease have, in the entire contour of the body, a significa- 

 tion which completes that of the face. Physiognomy, there- 

 fore, is the expression which form and motion give to the 

 body. 



In the Caryatides of the temple of Erectheus, we admire 

 the calmness and grandeur, the majesty of the draperies, the 

 simple and grave lines of the figures which support without 

 effort the marble that seems not to weigh upon them. In 

 the Caryatides of Puget at Toulon, we see the display of 

 power in the violently contracted muscles, in the arms which 

 seek to relieve the head from the burden, under which the 

 whole body stiffens, and is about to succumb ! 



Compare a Silenus to the Farnese Hercules. In the old 

 friend of Bacchus, the form is heavy, obese, and flaccid; it is 

 the abjectness of drunkenness; in the other, the powerful 

 muscles, the firm proud attitude, the noble bearing, declare 

 the tamer of monsters and of vices. The Diana Huntress, 

 with her sure and rapid step, is the enemy of idleness and 

 repose ; her manner is severe, and human passion has never 



