488 



ON PATHOGNOMY, OR 



pression — the natural characters of the countenance — the softened cheek 

 — the smiling lip — the beaming eye — the mild and open forehead — the 

 magic play of the features in full harmony with each other ; — which tell 

 him, and, where artifice does not mimic nature, tell him infallibly, that 

 the mind to which they belong, is all sympathy, benevolence, and friend- 

 ship, and will assuredly return the confidence it meets with. But we have 

 sufficiently seen in the last two lectures, that the mind is not always thus 

 constituted ; that at times it is the storehouse of rage, revenge, malevo- 

 lence, suspicion, and jealousy ; and that to confide in it would be misery 

 and ruin. How is a man to be on his guard on such an occasion ? He 

 again looks at the countenance, and, instead of being attracted, he is in- 

 stantly repelled : the characters are now hideous ; and the Almighty, as 

 formerly upon Cain, has set a mark upon the forehead, that it may be 

 known. 



Such, then, is the real use of that instinctive language of the features 

 which is perpetually interpreting the condition of the mind ; a language of 

 the highest importance, and of universal comprehension ; and which, if 

 ever disguised and fallacious, is almost infinitely less so than that of the 

 Hps or language. Its characters are most perfect in mankind; but they 

 are occasionally to be traced m quadrupeds : below which class, however, 

 the signs of the passions, whether sought for in the face, or in any other 

 organ, grow gradually more indistinct ; or, perhaps, from our knowing less 

 of the manners and expression of the inferior classes, they appear so to 

 ourselves, though not so in reality to others of the same kinds. 



Nec ratiooe alia proles cognoscere matrera 

 iNec mater posset proleai ; quod posse videmus ; 

 Nec minus, atque homines, inter se nota ciuer^.''' 



Hence alone 

 Knows the fond mother her appropriate young, 

 Th' appropriate young their mother, mid the brutes 

 As clear discerned as man's subiimer race. 



In contemplating, then, the passions, or other aflfections of the mind, 

 as cognisable by external charactcrss, they easily resolve themselves into 

 two descriptions — the attractive and the repulsive ; the signs of which 

 are to be sought for in man, and the nobler ranks of quadrupeds, chiefly 

 in the face, but considerably also in the attitudes and motions of the body ; 

 while, in other animals, we are so little acquainted with these signs, as to 

 be incapable of offering any very satisfactory or extensive opinion upon 

 the subject. 



In the ATTRACTIVE AFFECTIONS, the fcaturcs, limbs, and muscles are 

 uniformly soft and pliant — in the repulsive, as uniformly tense, and for 

 the most part rigid. The characters of the latter, therefore, are necessarily 

 more marked and imposing than those of the former, though both are 

 equally true to their purpose. And in more definitely answering the 

 question, whether the characters in either case be the effect of habit or 

 voluntary exertion to execute the feeling of the mind at the moment, or 

 whether they be the mind's natural and instinctive symbols ; it may be 

 still farther observe<l, that in all instances they are the latter, and in a few 

 instances both ; for it by no means follows, that they are not instinctive 

 symbols, because they serve at the same time to ward off our danger, or 



♦ De Rer. Nat. ii. 349. 



