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I.

EXTRACTS FROM AUTHORS, WITH

REMARKS.

A.

SOME PHYSIOGNOMONICAL EXTRACTS FROM ΑΝ ESSAY INSERTED IN THE DEUTSCHEN MUSEUM (A GERMAN JOURNAL OB REVIEW.)

I SH

SHALL only extract some particular observations from this essay; and, in general, only those which I suppose to be importantly true, importantly false, or ill defined.

1.

"We are told that men with arched and pointed noses are witty; and that the blunt nosed are not so."

وو

A inore accurate definition is necessary, which, without drawing, is almost impossible. Is it meant, by arched noses, arched in length, or in breadth?

How arched? This is almost as indeterminate as when we speak of arched foreheads. All foreheads are arched. Innumerable

VOL. III.

noses are arched; the most witty and the most stupid. Where is the highest point of arching? Where does it begin? What is its extent? What its strength?

It is true that people with tender, thin, sharply defined, angular, noses, pointed below, and something inclined toward the lip, are witty, when no other features contradict these tokens; but that people with blunt noses are not so is not entirely true. It can only be said of certain blunt noses, for there are others of this kind extremely witty, though their wit is certainly of a very different kind to that of the pointed nose.

2.

"It is asked" (supposing for a moment that the arched and the blunt nose denote the presence or absence of wit)" is the arched nose the mere sign that a man is witty, which supposes his wit to originate in some occult cause; or is the nose itself the cause of wit?"

I answer sign, cause, and effect combined. Sign; for it betokens the wit; is an involuntary expression of wit.

Cause; at least cause that the wit is not greater, less, or of a different quality; boundary cause.

Effect; produced by the quantity, mea

sure, or activity, of the mind, which suffers not the nose to alter its form, to be greater or less. We are not only to consider the form, as form, but the matter of which it is moulded, the conformability of which is determined by the nature and ingredients of this matter, which is, probably, the origin of the form. According to the given mass of this matter must the immortal sov (divine principle) in man, which is limited by it, act. From the moment that the two are united, the determinate elasticity of this spirituality begins, as a spring is rendered active by opposition and constraint.

Thus is it true, and not true, that certain blunt noses are insuperable obstacles to the attainment of wit. Not true; for before the blunt form of the nose was thus defined, the possibility did not exist, that, in this given mind, and in the determinate organization which was the result of this, it should be otherwise formed. The mind, the life, the identity, which the Creator meant not to be witty, wanted the necessary space to sharpen Therefore the nose is not, in it

the nose.

self, an impediment to becoming witty.

But true and certain it is that there are blunt noses which are incapable of receiving a certain quantity of wit; therefore it may

be said, with more subtlety than philosophy, they form an insuperable barrier.

3.

"The correspondence of external figure with internal qualities is not the consequence of external circumstances, but, rather, of physical combination. They are related like cause and effect, or, in other words, physiognomy is not the mere image of internal man, but the efficient cause"-(I should rather say the limiting cause)" The form and arrangement of the muscles determine the mode of thought, and sensibility, of the man." (I add :-these, also, are determined by the mind of man.)

4.

"A broad conspicuous forehead is said to denote penetration. This is natural. The muscle of the forehead is necessary to deep thought; if it be narrow and contracted it cannot render the same service as if spread out like a sail."

Without contradicting the general proposition of the author, I shall here, more defi nitely, add, it is, if you please, generally true that, the more brain the more mind and capacity. The more stupid animals are those with least brain; and those with most the

wiscst. Man, generally wiser, has more brain than other animals; and it appears just to conclude, from analogy, that wise men have more brain than the foolish. But accurate observation teaches that this proposition, to be true, requires much definition and limitation. Where the matter and form of the brain are similar, there the greater space for the residence of the brain is, certainly, the sign, cause, and effect of more and deeper comprehension; therefore, cæteris paribus, a larger quantity of brain, and, consequently, a spacious forehead, is more intelligent than the reverse, But as we frequently live more conveniently in a small well-contrived chamber than in more magnificent apartments, so do we find that in many small, short, foreheads, with less, or apparently less, brain than others, the wise mind resides at its ease. I have known many short, oblique, straightlined (when compared with others apparently arched, or even really well-arched) foreheads which were much wiser, more intelligent and penetrating, than the most broad and conspicuous; many of which latter I have seen in extremely weak men, It seems, indeed to me, a much more general proposition, that short compressed foreheads are wise and understanding; though this, likewise, without being more accurately de

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