438 ON PHYSIOGNOMY 



sition of mind ; that a human intellect is never found in the corporeal form 

 of a beast ; and that the mind and body exercise a reciprocal influence over 

 each other : referring us for examples of the former to delirium and intoxi- 

 cation, in which the mental follows upon the corporeal derangement ; and, 

 for examples of the latter, to the passions of fear and joy, in which the body 

 inversely displays the aff'ections of the mind. 



As the result of this principle and illustration, he argues, and no modern 

 writer upon the subject has ever argued more clearly, that whenever among 

 mankind a certain bodily character appears, .which by prior experience and 

 observation has been found uniformly accompanied by a certain mental dis- 

 position, we have a right to infer that it is necessarily connected with it ; and 

 we may fairly and legitimately ascribe it to the individual that exhibits such 

 character. And, pursuing this line of application, he tells us farther, that our 

 observations may be drawn from other animals as well as from men; for, as 

 a lion possesses one bodily form and mental character, and a hare another, 

 the corporeal characteristics of the lion, such as strong hair, deep voice, 

 large extremities, when discernible in a human being, cannot fail to raise in 

 the mind an idea of the strength and courage of that noble animal; while the 

 slender limbs, soft down, and other features of the hare, whenever visible, or 

 approximated among mankind, betray the mental character of that pusillani- 

 mous quadruped. 



It is impossible to refuse our assent to sentiments so just and obvious ; and 

 to this extent almost every one is a physiognomist by nature; for no man 

 can walk the streets without noticing, in the first place, a marked and striking 

 difference between one face and another face, one form and another form ; 

 and, in the second place, without ascribing, in consequence of such difference, 

 the possession of vigour to one person that passes by, wisdom to a second, 

 magnanimity to a third, folly to a fourth, debility to a fifth, and meanness to 

 a sixth. 



Physiognomy, therefore, as to its general principles, has perhaps never 

 been altogether neglected; it seems in almost every age to have influenced 

 men's opinion and conduct in first associating with strangers ; and has not 

 unfrequently excited a favourable or an unfavourable prepossession before a j 

 word has been spoken or an action performed. As a science, though an im- 

 perfect one, it was pursued, upon the general doctrines of Aristotle, among 

 the Greeks and Romans, till the downfall of all the S(iiences upon the irrup- 

 tion of the nortliern barbarians into Europe, towards the close of the fifth cen- 

 tury; and was for a long time so systematically cultivated at Rome, that 

 Cicero was in the habit of publicly availing himself of its force whenever, by 

 employing it so as to excite contempt or hatred, it could be turned to the 

 advantage of his client ; of which we have striking examples in his orations 

 against Piso, and in favour of Roscius; while we learn from Suetonius that 

 the emperor Titus engaged a professed physiognomist, of the name of Nar- 

 cissus, to examine the features of Fritannicus as to his character and chance 

 of success in his claims upon the empire against himself; who, it appears, 

 gave an opinion in favour of Titus, and declared, and, according to the event, 

 declared truly, that Britannicus would never live to assume the imperial purple. 



In this curious fact of history we find physiognomy united at an early pe- 

 riod of the Roman empire with magic or judicial astrology ; and we also find 

 that upon its revival, on the general resurrection of science about the middle 

 of the fifteenth century, one of its first and most unfortunate occurrences was 

 a connexion of the same kind ; from which it only separated to form other 

 and successive alliances with metaphysical theology, alchymy, the doctrine 

 of signatures and sympathies, and the theosophy of the Mystics and Rosicru- 

 cians. So that it again fell into contempt with the most liberal and enlight- 

 ened part of mankind ; who, however, did not give themselves the trouble to 

 sift the wheat from the chafi. And though occasionally started afresh in 

 literary journals, and other publications of considerable merit and authority, 

 as, for example, by Dr. Gwyther and Dr. Parsons in our own Philosophical 

 Transactions ; by Pernetti and Le Cat, in the Transactions of the Berlin 



