PHYSIOGNOMY. 



tured by enthusiasm, Lavater asserts, 

 that " each creature is indispensable in 

 the vast compass of creation ; but eacli 

 individual," he adds, " is not alike inform- 

 ed of the truth of this fact, as man only 

 is conscious that his own place cannot be 

 supplied by another." The idea thus con- 

 ceived, he thinks one of the best conse- 

 quences of physiognomy, and he exults, 

 that the most deformed and wicked per- 

 sons are still superior to the most perfect 

 and beautiful ammul, because they always 

 have it in their power to amend, and in 

 some degree to restore themselves to the 

 place assigned them in creation ; and 

 however their features may be distorted 

 by the indulgence of their passions, still 

 the image of the Creator remains, from 

 which sin only is to be expelled, to render 

 the likeness nearer perfection. 



The aid of Lavater is not necessary to. 

 inform us, that there exists a national 

 physiognomy, by which a stranger in any 

 given country may be known, by those 

 who are possessed of previous observa- 

 tion, to be a Spaniard, a German, or a 

 Frenchman, and which impels even the 

 very vulgar to exclaim, " He is a foreign- 

 er," though they cannot appropriate him 

 to his country ; but the mind of Lavater, 

 being almost exclusively turned to this 



Eursuit, we must profit and be informed 

 y his relation of the distinguishing traits 

 which point out the natives of different 

 regions. This great physiognomist ob- 

 serves, that the placing of several persons 

 together, selected from nations remotely 

 situated from each other, gives at one 

 glance their surprising varieties of visage ; 

 and yet he acknowledges, that to point 

 out those variations is a task of consider- 

 able difficulty, and his assertion, that 

 this may be done with more facility from 

 an individual than the mass of population, 

 seems extremely probable. The French, 

 he thinks, do not possess equally com- 

 manding traits with the English, nor are 

 they so minute as those of the Germans, 

 and it is to the peculiarities of their teeth, 

 and manner of laughing, that he attribut- 

 ed his power of deciding on their origin. 

 The Italians he appropriated by the form 

 of their noses, their diminutive eyes, and 

 projecting chins. The eye-brows and 

 foreheads are the criterion by which to 

 judge of the natives of England. The 

 Dutch possess a particular rotundity of 

 the head, and have weak, thin hair : the 

 Germans, numerous angles and wrinkles 

 about the eyes and in the cheeks ; and 

 the Kussians are remarkable for black 

 and light coloured hair, and flat noses. 

 VOL. V. 



It must be extremely grateful to the 

 natives of England to reflect, that Lavater 

 considers them, in the aggregate, the 

 most favoured upon the earth with re- 

 spect to personal beauty ; he suys, they 

 have the shortest and best arched fore- 

 heads, and that only upwards, and 

 towards the eye-brows, sometimes gra- 

 dually declining, and in other cases are 

 rectilinear, with full, medullary noses, 

 frequently round, but very seldom point- 

 ed, and lips equally large, well defined, 

 curved, and beautiful, with the addition 

 of full round chins. Still greater perfec- 

 tions are attributed to the eyes of English- 

 men, which are said to possess the ex- 

 pression of manly steadiness, generosity, 

 liberality, and frankness, to which the eye- 

 brows greatly contribute. With com- 

 plexions infinitely fairer than those of the 

 Germans, they have the advantage of es- 

 caping the numerous wrinkles found in 

 the faces of the latter, and their general 

 contour is noble and commanding. 



Judging from the ladies he had seen of 

 our country, and from numerous portraits 

 of others, Lavater was led to say, they ap- 

 peared to him wholly composed of nerve 

 and marrow, tall and slender in their 

 forms, gentle, and as distant from coarse- 

 ness and harshness as earth from heaven. 

 His own countrymen lie found to have 

 many characteristic varieties ; those ol" 

 Zurich are generally meagre, and of the 

 middle size, and either corpulent or very 

 thin. 



To pursue this subject something fur- 

 ther, it will be found, that the people of 

 Lapland, and parts of Tartary, are of 

 very diminutive stature, and of extremely 

 savage countenances, formed by flat faces, 

 broad noses, high cheek bones, large 

 mouths, thick lips, peaked chins, and 

 their eyes are of a yellow brown, almost 

 black, with the lids retiring towards the 

 temples ; nor are the females of this disa- 

 greeable race more favoured by nature ; 

 and each sex is distinguished by the gross- 

 est manners, and minds stupid beyond 

 credibility ; but of all the varieties of 

 the human species, the inhabitants of the 

 coast of New Holland seem the most de- 

 based and miserable; those are tall and 

 slender, and to add to the deformity of 

 thick lips, large noses, and wide mouths, 

 they are taught from their infancy to keep 

 their eyes nearly closed, to avoid the in- 

 sects which swarm around them. 



Turning to the more favourable side of 

 this picture of national physiognomy, we 

 shall find the people of Cachemire, the 

 Georgians, the Circassians, and Mingre- 



T t 



