< When I declared to his majesty,' said Aretino in a letter to his friend, Montese, 'what injury painters and sculptors had done to his countenance,'-' I am not handsome by nature,' interrupted the emperor; and 'am, therefore, obliged to those, who represent me with 'something almost brutish in my appearance; since it thence happens, that when I am seen by persons, 'I seem much less repulsive than they had expected to ' find me.'

III.

SOME persons have been idle enough to judge men by their walk. Fools and coxcombs, whether male or female, may, perhaps, in some degree, be measured thus. But the movements of the second Marquis of L- -, were superlatively dignified. Yet who could the same of his mind? Those of the second Earl of almost resembled the 'forced gait of a shuf'fling nag.' Who, therefore, could imagine, from his motions, that he possessed a mind pre-eminently practical in matters of precedent and routine?

say

L

Campanella affected a curious art. It is thus described by Gafferill*:- Screw up your face, so as to 'counterfeit that of the person designed, and straight 'fancy yourself to have his hair, eyes, nose, mouth, and 'all other parts like him; and you will know what 'natural inclinations he has, and what his thoughts are, by the same you find in yourself during the time ' of your making such faces.'

*Curiosities, p. 174. 1650.

Fulgentius says of Paul Sarpi, that though he had never studied physiognomy, yet, like an able musician, who knows, by the first touch, whether an instrument be good or bad, he knew ('con prestezza ammirabile') the views, interests, resolutions, and genius, of almost every person with whom he conversed. Tooke (author of the 'Diversions of Purley') aspired to the same distinction; with what success I know not; but I have been often told by one, who knew him well, that his features seldom betrayed what was passing within; and that he could be facetious or sarcastic with an unalterable brow.

The elder Scaliger is said to have had such skill in physiognomy, that he never failed in his judgments. Descartes (with equal veracity, no doubt), is said to have discovered the art of prolonging life to a period equal to that of the pyramids. Walsingham insisted that men's faces spoke as much as their tongues; and that countenances were, therefore, true indices. Louis XIV., also, was so credulous as to this art, that he paid particular attention to the physiognomical suggestions of his physician, De la Chambre ; and the Earl of Pembroke was employed for his skill in the same way, in giving hints to James I. in regard to the characters of foreign ambassadors, when they first arrived at the English court.

I shall now give you the best anecdote on record, in respect to this art. Bajazet spared the life of John the Fearless. Wherefore ?— on the recommendation of a Turkish physiognomist. Let him live,' said he to the sultan; for I see, by his lineaments, that more blood

'will be shed on his account, and more cruel wars 'carried on, than can either be believed or hoped for.' The predictions of the physiognomist were, but too faithfully, fulfilled!

Some men have been, or have affected to have been, beyond the skill of physiognomists; and of this number was the Duc de Guise. Neither in my exile at

Rome,' said he, nor during the time that I re'mained at Naples, could any person observe the least change or alteration in my countenance. The different events, as well of my bad as good fortune, never gave me the least uneasiness or inquietude; having always acted with the same sang froid in every thing in which I was concerned, as if I had not the least 'interest in it.'

Talleyrand is said to have the same command. Robespierre, however, was so exceedingly conscious and sensitive, that he wore green spectacles to conceal his countenance, and was in the frequent habit of covering his face with his hands. In regard to Napoleon; when in action and completely off his guard, no man's countenance, we are told, spoke more explicitly; but when he thought himself observed, he is said to have had the power of assuming an indefinite smile and vacancy, not two removes from those of a bust.

Lavater was, doubtless, a man of genius; but he has written more nonsense under the robe and colour of wisdom, than any highly-gifted man of his times. To judge men by their countenances may, as far as I know, be the faculty of some; but to estimate them by the forms of their heads, the motion of their arms, and

their handwriting! Yet a similar belief animated Launcelot de Maniban, General Paoli, and even Shenstone. In all these lines, they seem to have flattered themselves, that they possessed a truer map than botanists now have in respect to the geographical distribution of plants.

Shall we bring Aristotle into court? A dissertation on this subject is printed in most collections of his works; but of this dissertation it may be honestly said that it is (almost) impossible, that from the mental laboratory of the greatest and most profound of Greek philosophers should have emanated such a chaos of metaphysical rubbish. I say rubbish advisedly; for it is not only at variance with Nature, but even with common sense, and the daily experience of every one that lives in civilized society. And let no man marvel at this judgment, who has not lost his time in reading the production to which I refer. It is astonishing!

Seeing tempers and humours, with casual and momentary emotions, through the medium of the features, on sudden, interesting, trying, or even common occasions, is very different from knowing the fixed character by the manner in which those features are permanently adjusted and composed. I ought, however, to be modest, and make my confession. I seldom judge men by their countenances. One of the most insidious that I have known might have sat to a Raffaelle; one of the best to a Caravaggio. I must know a man under various circumstances, before I undertake to give a final judgment in respect to him. Had Nero died the first year in which he came to the empire, he had passed

to posterity as the most virtuous of men. Had Titus died before the death of his father, even the taking of Jerusalem could never have screened him from our contempt; and had Constantine died in the magnificence of manhood, we had never known the extent to which power, pride, and sensual indulgence could disgrace the age of one of the most comprehensive intellects, that ever dignified an imperial station.

CLXXVI.

WHO CANNOT FOLLOW THEIR OWN LESSONS.

BISHOP WATSON recommended a residence in their sees to bishops; and yet lived, all the latter years of his life, as far from Landaff as the county of Westmoreland. In some things, the meanest of mankind are upon a level with the greatest. We can have as little positive conception of a perfect man, as of infinite duration or of infinite space.

Dr. Stewart says, in his Elements of the Human Mind*,' that those have excelled the most in the practice of the law, who have had at first the greatest antipathy to the study.' I am not aware of a single instance; but, for one lawyer that I have known, I dare to say the learned professor of moral philosophy knew

ten.

* Page 475.