cnxp. 111.] ott LINES or individual character. 285 



aniples we lia\ e in livy, of Africanus and Cato ; in Tacitus, 

 of Tiberius, Claudius, and Kero ; in Herodian, of Septimiua 

 Severus ; in Philip de Comines, of Lewis the Eleventh ; in 

 Guicciardine, of Ferdinand of Spain, the Emperor Maximilian, 

 Pope Leo, and Pope Clement. For these writers having the 

 image of the person to be described constantly before them, 

 scarce ever mention any of their acts, but at the same time 

 introduce something of their natures. So, likewise, some 

 relations which we have seen of the conclaves at Home give 

 very exact characters of the cardinals : as the letters of 

 ambassadors do of the counsellors of princes. Let, therefore, 

 an accurate and full treatise be wrote upon this fertile and 

 copious subject. But we do not mean, that these characters 

 should be received in ethics as perfect civil images, but 

 rather as outlines, and first draughts of the images them- 

 selves, which, being variously compounded and mixed one 

 among another, afford all kinds of portraits. So that an 

 artificial and accurate dissection may be made of men's minds 

 and natures, and the secret disposition of each particular 

 man laid open, that, from a knowledge of the whole, the 

 precepts concerning the cures of the mind may be more 

 rightly formed.^ 



And not only the characters of dispositions impressed by 

 nature should be received into this treatise, but those also 

 which are otherwise imposed upon the mind by the sex, age, 

 countiy, state of health, make of body, &c. And again, 

 those which proceed from fortune, as in princes, nobles, com- 

 mon people, the rich, the poor, magistrates, the ignorant, thfl 

 happy, the miserable, (fee. Thus we see Plautus makes it a 

 kind of miracle to find an old man beneficent. 



" Benignitas quidem hujus oppid6 ut adolescentuli est."» 

 And St. Paul, commanding a severity of discipline towards 

 the Cretans, accuses the temper of that nation from the poet : 



' Compare " Les Caract^res des Passions," par M. de la Chambre, ed. 

 Amst. 1658; M. Clarmont, "De Conjectandis latentibus Animi Affeeti- 

 bus," reprinted by Conringius ; " !N euheusii Theatrum Ingenii humani, 

 seu de Hominum cognoscenda Indole et Animi Secretis," 1633 ; Mr. 

 Evelyn's digression concerning Physiognomy, in liis Discourse oi Medals ; 

 " Les Caracteres de Theophraste, avec les Moeurs de ce Siecle," par 

 M. de la Bruyere, 1700. See *' Stollii Introductio in Historiam Litera* 

 tiam." p. 823. See also more to this pm-pose above, sect. iv. £d. 



* Miles Gloriosus, act 3, sc. i. v. 39. 



