PHYSIOGNOMY. 365 



are not known, and so the answer itself may be 

 almost any thing. A man under the dominion of 

 any resolved purpose, however he may strive to 

 hide it, is imbued with the character of that pur- 

 pose all over; and he who seeks to determine what 

 that purpose is from the head or the face, or both 

 together, is to the man who actually sees what 

 the purpose is, what any common painter is to 

 Raphael, in painting a blind man. The common 

 painter's blind man, is simply a man with his eyes 

 shut, while all the rest of his body is in perfect 

 repose and confidence that they will open again 

 whenever he needs them. But Elymas, the sor- 

 cerer, in Raphael's cartoon, is blind to the very 

 tips of the fingers and the points of the toes. Con- 

 ceal all the figure, except a hand or a foot, and 

 yet you will immediately perceive that that hand 

 or foot is purposeless and in the dark. 



In the greatest variations, or varieties, as the 

 instances of variation are called, even in those that 

 amount to monstrosities, the changes are never 

 out of the species. Several shoots of the pine 

 often come united together, so that two will be 

 united their whole length, and two pairs of these 

 for half the length, and they will curl outwards at 

 the tips, like the horns of a ram, or the sign (Y) 

 of the constellation Aries upon the globe. Some- 

 times the inosculation will extend to the pith of 

 the two portions ; and sometimes it will be only 

 external; but, in all cases, the substance is the 

 genuine product of the pine. Cultivated plants 

 are all more or less monsters ; the additional petals 

 in double flowers are the parts of fructification 

 changed from their proper forms, and their func- 

 tions are changed along with them. In some cases, 

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