acquainted with every sign of intellectual and moral pregnancy, enabled to render aid to all the pregnant!

5.

"The external form of the head is what it ought to be, when it resembles a hollow globe slightly compressed at the sides, with a small protuberance at the forehead and back of the head. A very flat forehead, or a sudden descent at the back of the head, are no good tokens of understanding."

The profile of such a head, notwithstanding the compressure, would be more circular than oval. The profile of a good head ought to form a circle combined only when with the nose; therefore, without the nose it approaches much more to the oval than the circular. "A very flat forehead, (says our author) is no good sign of understanding." True, if the flatness resembles that of the ox; but I have seen perfectly flat foreheads, let me be rightly understood, I mean flat only between and above the eyebrows, in men of great wisdom. Much, indeed, depends upon the position and curves of the outlines of the forehead.

6.

"Man has more brain than any animal. Were the quantity of the brain in two of the largest oxen compared to the quantity found in the smallest man, it would prove to be less."

66

7.

Large oranges have thick skins and little juice. Heads of much bone and flesh have little Large bones, with abundance of flesh

brain.

and fat, are impediments to the mind.”

8.

"The heads of wise persons are very weak, and susceptible of the most minute impressions." Often, not always. And how wise? Wise to plan, but not to execute. Active wisdom must have harder bones. One of the greatest of this earth's wonders is a man in whom the two qualities are united, who has sensibility even to painful excess, and colossal courage to resist the impetuous torrent, the whirlpool, by which he shall be assailed. Such characters possess sensibility from the tenderness of bodily feeling; and strength, not so much in the bones as in the

nerves.

9.

"A thick belly, (says Galen,) a thick understanding."

With equal truth or falsehood, I may add, a thin belly, a thin understanding. Remarks so general, which would prove so many able and wise men to be fools, I value but little. A thick belly certainly is no positive token of understanding, it is rather positive for sensuality, which is detrimental to the understanding; but abstractedly, and unconnected with other indubita

ble marks, I cannot receive this as a general proposition.

10.

"Aristotle holds the smallest heads to be the wisest."

But this, with all reverence for so great a man, I think was spoken without reflection. Let a small head be imagined on a great body, or a great head on a small body, each of which may be found in consequence of accidents that excite or retard growth; and it will be perceived that, without some more definite distinction, neither the large nor the small head is, in itself, wise or foolish. It is true, that large heads, with short triangular foreheads, are foolish; as are those large heads which are fat, and incumbered with flesh; but small, particularly round heads, with the like incumbrance, are intolerably foolish, and generally possess that, which renders their intolerable folly more intolerable, a pretension to wisdom.

11.

"It is a good sign, when a small person has a head somewhat large, and a large person has the head somewhat small."

Provided this extends no farther than somewhat, it may be supportable; but it is certainly for the best, when the head is in such proportion to the body, that it is not remarkable either for its largeness or smallness.

12.

"Memory and imagination resemble the understanding as a monkey does a man."

13.

"Whether the flesh be hard or tender, it is of no consequence to the genius, if the brain do not partake of the same quality; for experience tells us, that the latter is very often of a different temperament to the other parts of the body. But when both the brain and the flesh are tender, they betoken ill to the understanding, and equally ill to the imagination."

14.

66 Phlegm and blood are the fluids which render the flesh tender; and those being moist, according to Galen, render men simple and stupid. The fluids, on the contrary, which harden the flesh, are choler and melancholy, (or bile) and these generate wisdom and understanding. It is therefore a much worse sign to have tender flesh than rough; and tender signifies a bad memory, with weaknes of understanding and imagination."

It occurs to me, that there is an intelligent tenderness of flesh, which announces much more understanding than do the opposite qualities of rough and hard. I can no more class coriaceous flesh as the characteristic of understanding, than I can tenderness of flesh, without being more accurately defined, as the characteristic of folly.

It will be proper to distinguish between tender and porous, or spongy, and between rough and firm without hardness.

15.

"We must examine the hair, if we wish to discover whether the quality of the brain corresponds with the flesh. If the hair be black, strong, rough, and thick, it betokens strength of imagination and understanding."

I am of a different opinion. Let not this be expressed in such general terms. At this moment, I recollect a very weak man, by nature weak, with exactly such hair. This roughness (sprödigheit) is a fatal word, which, taken in what sense it will, never signifies any thing good.

"But if the hair be tender and weak, it denotes nothing more than goodness of memory." Once more too little; it denotes a fine organization, which receives the impression of images at least as strangely as the signs of images.

16.

"When the hair is of the first quality, and we would farther distinguish, whether it betokens goodness of understanding or imagination, we must pay attention to the laugh. Laughter betrays the quality of the imagination."

I may venture to add, of the understanding of the heart, of power, love, hatred, pride, humility, truth, and falsehood. Would I had artists, who would watch for and design the outlines of laugh