ON PHYSIOGNOMY AND CRANIOGNOMY. 



437 



Born in yon blaze of orient sky, 



Sweet May, thy radiant form unfold ; 

 .Unclose thy bhie, voluptuous eye, 



And wave thy shadowy locks of gold. 

 For thee the fragrant zephyrs blow ; 



For thee descends the sunny shower ; 

 The rills in softer murmurs How, 



And brighter blossoms gem the bower. 

 Light Graces, dress'd in flowry wreaths, 



And tip-toe joys their hands combine ; 

 While Love the fond contagion breathes, 

 ■ And, laughing, dances round thy shrine. 



This subject is a pleasing- one ; but it swells before me to infinity, and I 

 must drop it. In the lecture for next week, we shall enter upon the doctrine 

 of physiognomy, or the permanent influence of the mind upon the exterior 

 of the body. 



LECTURE XIII. 



m( PHYSIOGNOMY AND CRANIOGNOMY, OR THE EXPRESSION OF THE TEMPER 



AND TALENTS. 



The ingenuity of man is never satisfied with research. In tracing out the 

 disposition of the mind by the variable features of the face, it has been dis- 

 covered that this last, thoug-h a general criterion, is not always an infallible 

 sign. It does not in every instance, it is said, disclose even the present and 

 acting emotion ; for, in some persons, the symbols are naturally slight and 

 evanescent ; while in others, from a long and skilful course of hypocrisy and 

 dissimulation, they are repressed, or even fraudulently exchanged, for symbols 

 representative of affections which have no real existence. But still less do 

 they manifest the fixed and permanent propensity of the mind, which is ever 

 pursuing its specific drift, whatever be the transition of the passions or of the 

 features from one character to another. And it has hence been inquired 

 whether there may not be some soberer and less variable index by which the 

 natural bent and tendency of the mind may be detected ; a something- that 

 no art can imitate, no dissimulation conceal, inwoven in the toughest and 

 hardest, as well as in the softer and more flexible parts of the body — in the 

 very tissue and figure of the bones ; and, consequently, which 



Grows with our growth, and strengthens with our strength. 



From such inquiries has arisen the study, for it can scarcely be called the 

 science, of physiognomy, — Temper-indication, or Temper-dialling, — for such 

 is the meaning of physiognomy, when strictly translated. It is a figurative 

 term, which supposes the body to be a dial-plate on which the habitual turn 

 or bearing of the mind is shadowed by means of the index or gnomon of some 

 fixed and prominent external distinction, which retains its power and pur- 

 pose amid all the fleeting changes of the passions, and the mask of made-up 

 smiles and serenity. 



This study is of early date, and in its descent to our own day has met with 

 a perpetual alternation of evil report and good report, in proportion as it has 

 acquired the favouritism or encountered the rejection of public opinion. 

 Aristotle appears to have been the first philosopher who attempted to reduce 

 it to any thing like a scientific pursuit, and to fix it upon any thing like per- 

 manent and undeniable principles. His definition of it is excellent: " It is 

 the science," says he, " by which the dispositions of mankind are discover- 

 able by the features of the body, and especially by those of the countenance." 

 And in the developement of this pursuit he advanced it as a leading doctrine, 

 that a peculiar form of body is invariably accompanied by a peculiar dispo- 



