OR CONSTITUTIONAL PROPENSITIES. 



425 



which case all of them cannot take the rule; and hence that only is, properly- 

 speaking-, the ruling- passion, which takes the lead of the rest, and g-ives to the 

 particular temper or humour a particular variety. Pope has not always paid 

 sufficient attention to this distinction. Roscommon has correctly maintained 

 it in the following couplet:— 



Examine how your humour is inclined, 

 And wliicli the ruling passion of your mind. 



If this view of the subject be correct, it will follow, that erases or tempera- 

 ments are the g-enera or g-rand divisions under which the moral characters or 

 dispositions of mankind, possessing any considerable degree of resemblance 

 to each other, may be naturally arranged. Tempers, humours, or idiosyn- 

 crasies are the species .which compose the different genera and ruling pas- 

 sions, the varieties or singularities of emotion, by which one individual 

 belonging to the same species is distinguished from another. 



The species and varieties may be innumerable, and would require a folio 

 volume for their separate analysis and description, rather than a single lec- 

 ture. Let us, then, confine our attention to the genera, or primary division 

 of moral and physical constitutions into temperaments, and illustrate this part 

 of the preceding classification by a few familiar examples. 



All mental propensities or dispositions, then, may be arranged under five 

 separate heads ; each of which constitutes a temperament, and is distin- 

 guishable by a correspondent effect, produced on the corporeal organs, and the 

 external features and figure. So that the mind and body, for the most part, 

 maintain a mutual harmony, and the powers of the one become, in a general 

 view, a tolerably fair index of those of the other. To these heads, genera, or 

 temperaments I have given the names of sanguineous, bilious or choleric, 

 atrabilious or melancholic, phlegmatic, and nervous. These names and cha- 

 racters, as I have already observed, with the exception of the last, are derived 

 from the Greek physiologists ; the principles of animal chemistry on which 

 they are founded are, in many instances, erroneous : but the physiological 

 facts which they are designed to illustrate are, for the most part, incontro- 

 vertible, and it is not easy to change the general arrangement for a better. 



I. Let us commence with the sanguineous temperament, or that conceived 

 to depend upon a powerful action or peculiar energy of the system of blood- 

 vessels. 



Suppose the heart and arteries, whose harmonious activity produces the 

 circulation of the blood, and throws it over every part of the system, to pos- 

 sess a predominant energy of action, what may we reasonably expect to be 

 the consequence ? The pulse must be strong, frequent, and regular ; the 

 veins blue, full, and large ; the complexion florid ; the countenance animated ; 

 the stature erect ; the figure agreeable, though strongly marked ; the flesh 

 firm, with a proportionate secretion of fat ; the hair of a yellow, auburn, or 

 chestnut colour ; the nervous impressions acute ; the perception quick ; the 

 memory tenacious; the imagination lively and luxuriant; the disposition 

 passionate, but easily appeased; amorous, and fond of good cheer. 



The diseases of this temperament are few but violent, and are chiefly seated 

 in the circulating system ; as hemorrhages and inflammatory fevers. It 

 shows itself with peculiar prominence in the season of spring ; and especially 

 in the season of youth, which is the spring of life. The best external or 

 corporeal marks of the sanguineous temperament are, perhaps, to be met 

 with in the beautiful statues of Antinous and the Apollo of Belvidere ; the 

 best moral character of it in the lives of Alcibiades and Marc Antony, as 

 drawn by the masterly hand of Plutarch ; and the most perfect type of this 

 construction which has been offered in modern times, is to be found, in the 

 judgment of M. Richerand, from whom I have copied the chief part of this 

 description, in the person of the celebrated Duke de Richelieu.* 



If men of this temperament devote themselves to labour of any kind, that 



♦ Nouveau El^rnens de Physiologic, &c. torn. ii. sect, ccxxix. p. 445, 8vo. Paris, 1804. 



