Wille speaks the man who passed his life in drawing parallel lines?"

Ardour and phlegm are not incompatible: the most ardent men are the coolest. Scarcely any observation has been so much verified as this: it appears contradictory, but it is not. Ardent, quickly determining, resolute, laborious, and boldly enterprizing men, the moment of ardour excepted, have the coolest of minds. The style and countenance of Wille, if the profile portrait of him in my possession be a likeness, have this character in perfection.

"It appears to me, that Boucher, the painter of the graces, has the aspect of an executioner."

Truly so. Such was the portrait I received. But then, my good M. Sturtz, let us understand what is meant by these painters of the graces. I find as little in his works, as in his countenance. None of the paintings of Boucher were at all to my taste. I could not contemplate one of them with pleasure, and his countenance had the same effect. I can now comprehend, said I, on the first sight of his portrait, why I have never been pleased with the works of Boucher.

"I once happened to see a criminal condemned to the wheel, who, with satanic wickedness, had murdered his benefactor, and who yet had the benevolent and open countenance of an angel of Guido. It is not impossible to discover the head of a Regulus among guilty criminals, or of a vestal in the house of correction."

I can confirm this from experience. Far be

contradiction from me on this subject. But such vicious persons, however hateful with respect to the appearance and effect of their actions, or even to their internal motives, were not originally wicked. Where is the pure, the noble, finely formed, easily irritated man, with angelic sensibility, who has not his devilish moments, in which, were not opportunity happily wanting, he might, in one hour, be guilty of some two or three vices, which would exhibit him, apparently at least, as the most detestable of men; yet may he be a thousand times better and nobler than numerous men of subaltern minds, held to be good, who never were capable of committing acts so wicked, for the commission of which they so loudly condemn him, and, for the good of society, are bound to condemn ?

"Lavater will answer, shew me these men, and I will comment upon them, as I have done upon Socrates. Some small, often unremarked trait, will probably explain what appears to you so enigmatical. But will not something creep into the commentary, which never was in the text?"

Though this may be, yet it ought not to be the case. I will also grant, that a man with a good countenance may act like a rogue; but, in the first place, at such a moment, his countenance will not appear good; and, in the next, he will infinitely oftener act like a man of worth.

"Have we any right, from a known character, to draw conclusions concerning one un

known? or, is it easy to discover what that being is, who wanders in darkness, and dwells in the house of contradiction; who is one creature to-day, and to-morrow the reverse?”

How true, how important is this! How necessary a beacon to warn and terrify the physiognomist!

"What judgment could we form of Augustus, if we were only acquainted with his conduct to Cinna? or of Cicero, if we knew him only from his consulate? How gigantic rises Elizabeth among queens, yet how little, how mean, was the superannuated coquette, James II. a bold general, and a cowardly king! Monk, the revenger of monarchs, the slave of his wife! Algernon Sydney and Russel, patriots worthy of Rome, sold to France! Bacon, the father of wisdom, a bribed judge! Such discoveries make us shudder at the aspect of man, and shake off friends and intimates like coals of fire from the hand. When such cameleon minds can be one moment great, at another contemptible, and alter their form, what can that form say?"

Their form shews what they may, what they ought to be, and their aspect, in the moment of action, what they are. Their countenance shews their power, and their aspect the application of their power. The expression of their littleness may probably be like the spots of the sun, invisible to the naked eye.

"Does not that medium, through which we are accustomed to look, tinge our judgment?

N

Smellfungus views all objects through a blackened glass; another through a prism. Many contemplate virtue through a diminishing, and vice through a magnifying medium.

How excellently expressed!

"A book written by Swift on physiognomy would certainly have been very different from that of Lavater. National physiognomy is still a large uncultivated field. The families of the fair classes of the race of Adam, from the Esquimaux to the Greeks, in Europe, and in Germany alone, what varieties are there which can escape no observer! Heads bearing the stamp of the form of government, which ever will influence education; republican haughtiness, proud of its laws; the pride of the slave, who feels pride because he has the power of inflicting the scourges he has received; Greeks under Pericles, and under Hassan Pacha; Romans, in a state of freedom, governed by emperors, and governed by popes; Englishmen under Henry the Eighth, and Cromwell. How have I been struck by the portraits of Hampden, Pym, and Vane! All produce varieties of beauty, according to the different nations."

It is impossible for me to express how much I think myself indebted to the author of this spirited and energetic essay. How worthy an act was it in him, whom I had unintentionally offended, concerning whom I had published a judgment far from sufficiently noble, to send me this essay, with liberty to make what use of it

I pleased! In such a manner, in such a spirit, may informations, corrections, or doubts be ever conveyed to me! Shall I need to apologize for having inserted it? or rather, will not most of my readers say, give us more such?

CHAP. XXX.

Quotations from Huart, with Remarks thereon.

1.

"MANY, who are really wise, often appear not to be so; and others who appear to be wise, are the reverse. Some, again, neither are, nor appear to be wise, while others have the possession and appearance of wisdom."

A touchstone for many countenances.

2

"The son is often brought in debtor to the great understanding of the father.”

3.

"Wisdom in infancy denotes folly in manhood.”

4.

"No aid can make those bring forth who are not pregnant."

We must not expect fruit where seed has not been sown. How advantageous, how important,

would physiognomy become, were it, by being