96 
PLTKT'S TSTATFRAL HISTOET. [Book XI. 
CHAP. 114.^ — SIGNS OF YITALITY AND OF THE MORAL 
DISPOSITION OF MAN, FROM THE LIMBS. 
I am greatly surprised that Aristotle has not only believed, 
but has even committed it to writing, that there are in the 
human body certain prognostics of the duration of life. Al- 
though I am quite convinced of the utter futility of these re- 
marks, and am of opinion that they ought not to be published 
without hesitation, for fear lest each person might be anxiously 
looking out for these prognostics in his own person, I shall still 
make some slight mention of the subject, seeing that so learned 
a man as Aristotle did not treat it with contempt. He has set 
down the following as indications of a short life — few teeth, 
very long fingers, a leaden colour, and numerous broken lines 
in the palm of the hand. On the other hand, he looks upon the 
following as prognostics of a long life — stooping in the shoul- 
ders, one or two long unbroken lines in the hand, a greater num- 
ber than two-and- thirty teeth, and large ears . He does not, I 
imagine, require that all these symptoms should unite in one 
person, but looks upon them as individually significant : in ray 
opinion, however, they are utterly frivolous, all of them, al- 
though they obtain currency among the vulgar. Our own writer, 
Trogus, has in a similar manner set down the physiognomy as 
indicative of the moral disposition ; one of the very gravest of 
the Eoman authors, whose own^^ words I will here subjoin : — 
Where the forehead is broad, it is significant of a dull and 
sluggish understanding beneath ; and where it is small, it in- 
dicates an imsteady disposition. A rounded forehead denotes 
an irascible temper, it seeming as though the swelling anger 
had left its traces there. Where the eye-brows are extended 
in one straight line, they denote effeminacy in the owner, and 
when they are bent downwards towards the nose, an austere 
disposition. On the other hand, when the eye-brows are bent 
towards the temples, they are indicative of a sarcastic dispo- 
sition ; but when they lie very low, they denote malice and 
envy. Long eyes are significant of a spiteful, malicious nature ; 
and where the corners of the eyes next the nose are fleshy, it 
is a sign also of a wicked disposition. If the white of the eye 
is large, it bears tokens of impudence, while those who are 
incessantly closing the eyelids are inconstant. Largeuess'of 
But tliey are borrowed from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. i. c, 9. 
