II.] ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 171 



being purged and restored to their true state, they have both of them 

 a solid ground in nature, and a profitable use in life. The first is 

 physiognomy, which discovereth the disposition of the mind by the 

 lineaments of the body. The second is the exposition of natural 

 dreams, which discovereth the state of the body by the imaginations 

 of the mind. In the former of these I note a deficience, for Aristotle 

 hath very ingeniously and diligently handled the factures of the body, 

 but not the gestures of the body, which are no less comprehensible by 

 art, and of greater use and advantage. For the lineaments of the 

 body do disclose the disposition and inclination of the mind in 

 general ; but the motions of the countenance and parts do not only so, 

 but do farther disclose the present humour and state of the mind and 

 will. For, as your majesty saith most aptly and elegantly, &quot; As the 

 tongue spcaketh to the ear, so the gesture spcakcth to the eye.&quot; And 

 therefore a number of subtle persons, whose eyes do dwell upon the 

 faces and fashions of men, do well know the advantage of this observa 

 tion, as being most part of their ability ; neither can it be denied but 

 that it is a great discoverer of dissimulations, and a great direction in 

 business. 



The latter branch, touching impression, hath not been collected 

 into art, but hath been handled dispersedly ; and it hath the same 

 relation or antistrophe that the former hath. For the consideration is 

 double ; &quot; Either how, and how far the humours and effects of the body 

 do alter or work upon the mind ; or again, How, and how far the 

 passions or apprehensions of the mind do alter or work upon the body.&quot; 

 The former of these hath been inquired and considered, as a part and 

 appendix of medicine, but much more as a part of religion or super 

 stition ; for the physician prescribeth cures of the mind in frenzies 

 and melancholy passions, and pretendeth also to exhibit medicines to 

 exhilarate the mind, to confirm the courage, to clarify the wits, to corro 

 borate the memory, and the like : but the scruples and superstitions of 

 diet, and other regiment of the body, in the sect of the Pythagoreans, 

 in the heresy of the Manicheans, and in the law of Mahomet, do ex 

 ceed : so likewise the ordinances in the ceremonial law, interdicting 

 the eating of the blood and the fat, distinguishing between beasts clean 

 and unclean for meat, arc many and strict. Nay, the faith itself, being 

 clear and serene from all clouds of ceremony, yet retaineth the use of 

 fastings, abstinences, and other macerations and humiliations of the 

 body, as things real and not figurative. The root and life of all which 

 prescripts is, besides the ceremony, the consideration of that depen 

 dency which the affections of the mind are submitted unto upon the 

 state and disposition of the body. And if any man of weak judgment 

 do conceive, that this suffering of the mind from the body, doth either 

 question the immortality, or derogate from the sovereignty of the soul, 

 he may be taught in easy instances, that the infant in the mother s 

 womb is compatible with the mother, and yet separable : and the most 

 absolute monarch is sometimes led by his servants, and yet without 

 subjection. As for the reciprocal knowledge, which is the operation 

 of the conceits and passions of the mind upon the body ; we see all 



