The Second Book 107 



they have both of them a spHd ground in nature, and a 

 profitable use in hfe. The(nrst\ s^/)/? vsio^nom y. which dis- 

 covereth the disjjosition of tlieinind by the hneaments of 

 the body: thefeeconJ>is the exposition of natural dream s. 

 which discovereth the state of the body by the imaginations 

 of the mind. In the former of these I note a deficience. 

 For Aristotle hath very ingeniously and dihgently handled 

 the factures of the body, but not the gestures of the body, 

 which are no less comprehensible by art, and of greater use 

 and advantage.^ For the hneaments of the body do disclose 

 the disposition and inchnation of the mind in general ; but 

 the motions of the countenance and parts do not only so, but 

 do further disclose the present humour and state of the mind 

 and will. For as your majesty saith most aptly and ele- 

 gantly. As the tongue speaketh to the ear so the gesture speaketh 

 to the eye.^ And therefore a munber of subtle persons, 

 whose eyes do dwell upon the faces and fashions of men, do 

 well know the advantage of this observation, as being most 

 part of their abihty ; neither can it be denied, but that it is 

 a great discovery of dissimulations, and a great direction in 

 business. 



3. The latter branch, touching impression , hath not been 

 collected into art, but hath been handled dispersedly; and 

 it hath the same relation or antistrophe that the former hath. 

 For the consideration is double : either how, and how far the 

 humours and affects of the body do alter or work upon the mind; 

 or again, how and how far the passions or apprehensions of the 

 mind do alter or work upon the body. The former of these 

 hath been inquired and considered as a part and appendix 

 of medicine, but much more as a part of rehgion or super- 

 stition. For the physician prescribeth cures of the mind 

 in phrensies and melancholy passions ; and pretendeth also 

 to exhibit medicines to exhilarate the mind, to confirm the 

 courage, to clarify the wits, to corroborate the memory, 

 and the like : but the scruples and superstitions of diet and 

 other regimen of the body in the sect of the Pythagoreans, 

 in the heresy of the Manicheans, and in the law of Mohomet, 



^ In the treatises on the History and Parts of Animals. The 

 subject of Gesture may be said to come under the short treatises on 

 the External Phenomena of the Animal Kingdom, and in that on 

 the Motion of Animals. 



" Spedding gives Basilikon Doron, bk. iii., as the place whence this 

 quotation comes. Cf. Horace, Ars Poetica, i8o, i8i. 



