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CHAPTER XI. 



PHYSIOGNOMY. 



Physiognomy, considered with respect to the 

 feelings and the experience of mankind, has been 

 an object of attention in all ages. The counten- 

 ance and general exterior have always been re- 

 garded as furnishing some indication both of the 

 intellectual and moral character. Every one who 

 goes into society, and who observes at all, must 

 receive impressions of this kind involuntarily and 

 without design. It may even be said, that the 

 first dawnings of perception and reasoning in child- 

 ren exhibit abundant proof, that some relation 

 between the dispositions of the mind, and the fea- 

 tures of the countenance, is recognised and un- 

 derstood by them. So far, then, physiognomy has 

 been an object of attention, and of some inquiry 

 in all stages of human knowledge. 



The first time wx hear of this subject being 

 studied as a science, is about the time of Pytha- 

 goras. It is said to have been much cultivated in 

 Egypt and India, when that philosopher visited 

 those countries, and to have been brought by him 

 into Greece. In the time of Socrates physiog- 

 nomy was studied and adopted as a profession *. 

 Plato speaks of it as attended to by the students 



* The story of Zopynis, who undertook to decide on the 

 character of Socrates, by inspecting his countenance, is well 

 known. 



