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know several of the most refined writers of our present age who are of the same humour.

I might likewise refer my reader to Moliere's thoughts on this subject, as he has expressed them in the character of the Misanthrope;' but those only who are endowed with a true greatness of soul and genius, can divest themselves of the little images of ridicule, and admire nature in her simplicity and nakedness. As for the little conceited wits of the age, who can only shew their judgment by finding fault, they cannot be supposed to admire these productions which have nothing to recommend them but the beauties of nature, when they do not know how to relish even those compositions that, with all the beauties of nature have also the additional advantages of art."

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No. 86. FRIDAY, JUNE 8.

Heu quam difficile est crimen non prodere vultu!

OVID. Met. xi. 447.

How in the looks does conscious guilt appear!

ADDISON.

THERE are several arts which all men are in some measure masters of, without having been at the pains of learning them. Every one that speaks or reasons, is a grammarian and a logician, though he may be wholly unacquainted with the rules of gram mar or logic, as they are delivered in books and systems. In the same manner, every one is in some degree a master of that

1 'Le méchant goût du siècle en cela me fait peur;
Nos pères tout grossiers, l'avaient beaucoup meilleurs;

Et prise bien moins tout ce que l'on admire,

Qu' ne vieille chanson que je m'en vais vous dire.

MIS. Acte 1 sc. 2.-G.

? V. Introduction-Remarks on Addison's signature in the Spee tator.-G.

art which is generally distinguished by the name of pl nomy; and naturally forms to himself the character or fort a stranger, from the features and lineaments of his face. V no sooner presented to any one we never saw before, but immediately struck with the idea of a proud, a reserved, an a or a good-natured man; and upon our first going into a co of strangers, our benevolence or aversion, awe or contempt naturally towards several particular persons, before we heard them speak a single word, or so much as know who

are.

Every passion gives a particular cast to the countenanc is apt to discover itself in some feature or other. I have se eye curse for half an hour together, and an eye-brow call a scoundrel. Nothing is more common than for lovers to plain, resent, languish, despair, and die, in dumb show. F own part, I am so apt to frame a notion of every man's hu or circumstances by his looks, that I have sometimes emp myself from Charing-Cross to the Royal-Exchange in dra the characters of those who have passed by me. When I man with a sour rivelled face, I cannot forbear pitying his and when I meet with an open ingenuous countenance, think the happiness of his friends, his family, and relations.

I cannot recollect the author of a famous saying to a stra who stood silent in his company, 'Speak, that I may see the But, with submission, I think we may be better known by looks than by our words, and that a man's speech is much

1 Socrates-Loquere ut te videam. Socratis vox ad adolescentem: Flor. 1. pr.-C.

"A man cannot be said to "form to himself the character or fort of another, but an idea of the character or fortune. He says below, properly, “to frame a notion of," &c.—H.

Think. It should either be, "thinking" in reference to bear," in the former part of this sentence, or else, "I think."-H.

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easily disguised than his countenance. 1 In this case, however, I think the air of the whole face is much more expressive than the lines of it: the truth of it is, the air is generally nothing else but the inward disposition of the mind made visible.

Those who have established physiognomy into an art, and laid down rules of judging men's tempers by their faces, have regarded the features much more than the air. Martial has a

pretty epigram on this subject.

Crine ruber, niger ore, brevis pede, lumine læsus;
Rem magnam præstas, Zoile, si bonus es.

Ep. liv. 12.

Thy beard and head are of a different die;
Short of one foot, distorted in an eye:

With all these tokens of a knave compleat

Should'st thou be honest, thou'rt a dev'lish cheat.

I have seen a very ingenious author on this subject, who founds his speculations on the supposition, that as a man hath in the mould of his face a remote likeness to that of an ox, a sheep, a lion, an hog, or any other creature, he hath the same resemblance in the frame of his mind, and is subject to those passions which are predominant in the creature that appears in his countenance. Accordingly he gives the prints of several faces that are of a different mould, and by a little overcharging the likeness, discovers the figures of these several kinds of brutal faces in human features. 2 I remember in the life of the famous Prince

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1 The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.' Goldsmith's Bee, No. 3. (Works, vol. i. p. 51, Putnam's ed.) The most recent form in which I remember to have seen this thought, is in one of the numberless witticisms attributed to Talleyrand.-G.

2 J. B. Della Porta, born at Naples 1540, died 1615: founder of the Academy of the Secreti: discoverer of the camera obscura; author of va rious scientific works, besides fourteen comedies, two tragedies, and a tragi comedy. The work here referred to, was published in 1586, under the title of De humana physiognomia.-G.

VOL. V.-11

of Condé, the writer observes, the face of that prince was like the face of an eagle, and that the prince was very well pleased to be told so. In this case, therefore, we may be sure, that he had in his mind some general implicit notion of this art of physiognomy which I have just now mentioned; and that when his courtiers told him his face was made like an eagle's, he understood them in the same manner as if they had told him, there was something in his looks which shewed him to be strong, active, piercing, and of a royal descent. Whether or no the different motions of the animal spirits in different passions, may have any effect on the mould of the face when the lineaments are pliable and tender, or whether the same kind of souls require the same kind of habitations, I shall leave to the consideration of the curious. In the mean time I think nothing can be more glorious than for a man to give the lie to his face, and to be an honest, just, good-natured man, in spite of all those marks and signatures which nature seems to have set upon him for the contrary. This very often happens among those, who, instead of being exasperated by their own looks, or envying the looks of others, apply themselves en tirely to the cultivating of their minds, and getting those beau ties which are more lasting, and more ornamental. I have seen many an amiable piece of deformity: and have observed a certain chearfulness in as bad a system of features as ever was clapped together, which hath appeared more lovely than all the blooming charms of an insolent beauty. There is a double praise due to virtue, when it is lodged in a body that seems to bave been prepared for the reception of vice; in many such cases the soul and the body do not seem to be fellows.

Socrates was an extraordinary instance of this nature. There chanced to be a great physiognomist in his time at Athens, who had made strange discoveries of men's tempers and inclinations by their outward appearances. Socrates' disciples, that they

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might pat this artist to the trial, carried him to their master, whom he had never seen before, and did not know he was then in company with him. After a short examination of his face, the physiognomist pronounced him the most lewd, libidinous, drunken old fellow, that he had ever met with in his whole life. which the disciples all burst out a laughing, as thinking they had detected the falsehood and vanity of his art. But Socrates told them, that the principles of his art might be very true, notwithstanding his present mistake: for that he himself was naturally inclined to those particular vices which the physiognomist had discovered in his countenance, but that he had conquered the strong dispositions he was born with by the dictates of philosophy. 1

We are, indeed, told by an ancient author,' that Socrates very much resembled Silenus in his face; which we find to have been very rightly observed from the statues and busts of both that are still extant; as well as on several antique seals and precious stones, which are frequently enough to be met with in the cabinets of the curious. But, however observations of this nature may sometimes hold, a wise man should be particularly cautious how he gives credit to a man's outward appearance. It is an irreparable injustice we are guilty of towards one another, when we are prejudiced by the looks and features of those whom we do not know. How often do we conceive hatred against a person of worth; or fancy a man to be proud and ill-natured by his as

1 Cum multa in conventu vitia collegisset in eum Zopyrus, qui se natu1am cujusque ex forma prospicere profitebatur, derisus est a cæteris, qui illa in Socrate vitia non agnoscerent: ab illo autem Socrate sublevatus, cum illa sibi signa, sed ratione, a se dejecta diceret. Cicero Tuscul. iv. c. 37.-G.

V. Plato. Symp. c. 32—and Xen. Symp. c. 5.—G.

L.

Better, "and did a ɔt know to be then in company with him," as refer ring to "whom."-H.

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