Born in yon blaze of orient sky,

Sweet MAY, thy radiant form unfold;
Unclose thy blue, voluptuous eye,

And wave thy shadowy locks of gold.
For thee the fragrant zephyrs blow;
For thee descends the sunny shower;
The rills in softer murmurs flow,

And brighter blossoms gem the bower.
Light Graces, dress'd in flowry wreaths,
And tip-toe joys their hands combine;
While Love the fond contagion breathes,
And, laughing, dances round thy shrine.

This subject is a pleasing one; but it swells before me to infinity, and I must drop it. In the lecture for next week, we shall enter upon the doctrine of physiognomy, or the permanent influence of the mind upon the exterior of the body.

LECTURE XIII.

ON PHYSIOGNOMY AND CRANIOGNOMY, OR THE EXPRESSION OF THE TEMPER AND TALENTS.

THE ingenuity of man is never satisfied with research. In tracing out the disposition of the mind by the variable features of the face, it has been discovered that this last, though a general criterion, is not always an infallible sign. It does not in every instance, it is said, disclose even the present and acting emotion; for, in some persons, the symbols are naturally slight and evanescent; while in others, from a long and skilful course of hypocrisy and dissimulation, they are repressed, or even fraudulently exchanged, for symbols representative of affections which have no real existence. But still less do they manifest the fixed and permanent propensity of the mind, which is ever pursuing its specific drift, whatever be the transition of the passions or of the features from one character to another. And it has hence been inquired whether there may not be some soberer and less variable index by which the natural bent and tendency of the mind may be detected; a something that no art can imitate, no dissimulation conceal, inwoven in the toughest and hardest, as well as in the softer and more flexible parts of the body-in the very tissue and figure of the bones; and, consequently, which

Grows with our growth, and strengthens with our strength.

From such inquiries has arisen the study, for it can scarcely be called the science, of PHYSIOGNOMY,-Temper-indication, or Temper-dialling,—for such is the meaning of physiognomy, when strictly translated. It is a figurative term, which supposes the body to be a dial-plate on which the habitual turn or bearing of the mind is shadowed by means of the index or gnomon of some fixed and prominent external distinction, which retains its power and purpose amid all the fleeting changes of the passions, and the mask of made-up smiles and serenity.

This study is of early date, and in its descent to our own day has met with a perpetual alternation of evil report and good report, in proportion as it has acquired the favouritism or encountered the rejection of public opinion. Aristotle appears to have been the first philosopher who attempted to reduce it to any thing like a scientific pursuit, and to fix it upon any thing like permanent and undeniable principles. His definition of it is excellent: "It is the science," says he, "by which the dispositions of mankind are discoverable by the features of the body, and especially by those of the countenance." And in the developement of this pursuit he advanced it as a leading doctrine, that a peculiar form of body is invariably accompanied by a peculiar dispo

sition of mind; that a human intellect is never found in the corporeal form of a beast; and that the mind and body exercise a reciprocal influence over each other: referring us for examples of the former to delirium and intoxication, in which the mental follows upon the corporeal derangement; and, for examples of the latter, to the passions of fear and joy, in which the body inversely displays the affections of the mind.

As the result of this principle and illustration, he argues, and no modern writer upon the subject has ever argued more clearly, that whenever among mankind a certain bodily character appears, which by prior experience and observation has been found uniformly accompanied by a certain mental disposition, we have a right to infer that it is necessarily connected with it; and we may fairly and legitimately ascribe it to the individual that exhibits such character. And, pursuing this line of application, he tells us farther, that our observations may be drawn from other animals as well as from men; for, as a lion possesses one bodily form and mental character, and a hare another, the corporeal characteristics of the lion, such as strong hair, deep voice, large extremities, when discernible in a human being, cannot fail to raise in the mind an idea of the strength and courage of that noble animal; while the slender limbs, soft down, and other features of the hare, whenever visible, or approximated among mankind, betray the mental character of that pusillanimous quadruped.

It is impossible to refuse our assent to sentiments so just and obvious; and to this extent almost every one is a physiognomist by nature; for no man can walk the streets without noticing, in the first place, a marked and striking difference between one face and another face, one form and another form; and, in the second place, without ascribing, in consequence of such difference, the possession of vigour to one person that passes by, wisdom to a second, magnanimity to a third, folly to a fourth, debility to a fifth, and meanness to a sixth.

Physiognomy, therefore, as to its general principles, has perhaps never been altogether neglected; it seems in almost every age to have influenced men's opinion and conduct in first associating with strangers; and has not unfrequently excited a favourable or an unfavourable prepossession before a word has been spoken or an action performed. As a science, though an imperfect one, it was pursued, upon the general doctrines of Aristotle, among the Greeks and Romans, till the downfall of all the sciences upon the irrup tion of the northern barbarians into Europe, towards the close of the fifth cen tury; and was for a long time so systematically cultivated at Rome, that Cicero was in the habit of publicly availing himself of its force whenever, by employing it so as to excite contempt or hatred, it could be turned to the advantage of his client; of which we have striking examples in his orations against Piso, and in favour of Roscius; while we learn from Suetonius that the emperor Titus engaged a professed physiognomist, of the name of Narcissus, to examine the features of Pritannicus as to his character and chance of success in his claims upon the empire against himself; who, it appears, gave an opinion in favour of Titus, and declared, and, according to the event, declared truly, that Britannicus would never live to assume the imperial purple. In this curious fact of history we find physiognomy united at an early period of the Roman empire with magic or judicial astrology; and we also find that upon its revival, on the general resurrection of science about the middle of the fifteenth century, one of its first and most unfortunate occurrences was a connexion of the same kind; from which it only separated to form other and successive alliances with metaphysical theology, alchymy, the doctrine of signatures and sympathies, and the theosophy of the Mystics and Rosicrucians. So that it again fell into contempt with the most liberal and enlightened part of mankind; who, however, did not give themselves the trouble to sift the wheat from the chaff. And though occasionally started afresh in literary journals, and other publications of considerable merit and authority, as, for example, by Dr. Gwyther and Dr. Parsons in our own Philosophical Transactions; by Pernetti and Le Cat, in the Transactions of the Berlin

Academy; and in the separate writings of Lancisi, Haller, and Buffon; it was not till the appearance of the elegant and popular work of M. Lavater, the well-known dean of Zurich, that physiognomy was again able to establish itself as a scientific pursuit in the good opinion of mankind.

The two grand objects of M. Lavater were to clear physiognomy of its mystical and other adventitious connexions, and to advance it to the rank of an exact and demonstrable science. The first of these was as judicious as the second was absurd: for he himself was at the time in possession of nothing more than a certain number of detached facts or fragments, which he did not venture to communicate to the world in any higher form than that of essays. His work is chiefly distinguished by a spirit of analysis, and at times of anatomy, to which no other work on the subject had hitherto pretended. Instead of generalizing the human form, and taking the features by the group, as was the case with Aristotle, and is the case with mankind at large, he aimed at separating the features from each other, and endeavoured to assign to each its peculiar bearing. And, fully believing that the general character of the mental disposition runs with a uniform and uninterrupted harmony through every feature and every organ, he frequently trusted to a

E single feature or a single organ for its developement. In doing which he

usually selected such as were least flexible, and by the mass of mankind least suspected; as the form of the bones, particularly those of the head or face; the shape of the ears, hands, feet, or even of the nails; and he hereby endeavoured to baffle all dissimulation, and to avoid confounding the permanent temper with those occasional flights of passion by which the flexible features are disturbed and varied.

We have not time to follow up M. Lavater's hypothesis into these points of detail, nor would it be altogether worth our while if we had. The author was a learned and most excellent man, but at the same time a man of a warm and enthusiastic imagination; and notwithstanding that his remarks are in many respects precise, and his distinctions acute, and afford evident proof of their being the result of actual observation; and notwithstanding, moreover, that they are richly illustrated, after the laudable example of Baptista Porta, by expressive and elegant engravings,-the declamatory tenor of his style, the singularity and extravagance of many of his opinions, his peremptory and decisive tone upon the most vague and disputable topics, his puffing up trifles into matters of magnitude, and the absurd extreme to which he pushed his hypothesis, so as to make it embrace and exemplify the face and features of all nature as well as those of man and the higher ranks of quadrupeds; these and various other sproutings of the warm and luxuriant fancy I have just referred to, prevented his work from obtaining more than a transient popularity; and it sunk beneath the attacks of M. Formey and other continental writers, who laboured, and some of them perhaps disingenuously, to point out its defects and extravagances.

Perhaps one of the most whimsical of M. Lavater's opinions is, that no person can make a good physiognomist unless he is a well-proportioned and handsome man; a position which seems to be altogether at variance with his own progress in the study, for the dean of Zurich had few pretensions to such a figure. Another singularity of opinion was that of his extending his physiognomic characters to the peculiarity of the handwriting; and in this instance reviving the reveries of many of the ancient mystics, who pretended to confide in the same mark; while by interweaving into the body of this science a belief in apparitions, and this, too, upon very peculiar and fanciful principles, he has indirectly connected it with the dark and exploded study of divination, from which it was one of his first and most prominent objects to separate it.

I will only farther observe, that in the wide extent to which he carried this favourite and fascinating science of his heart, he describes the whole material world as subject to its dominion; amuses us with a developement of the propensities, partialities, and ruling passions, not only of men and quadrupeds, but of birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects, from the unequivocal language of

their external expression; and makes the reputable class of tradesmen, probably without their knowledge, the deepest physiognomists in the world; for the trader, says he, when in the act of dealing, not only at once decides that his customer has an honest look, a pleasing or forbidding countenance, and trusts or forbears to trust him accordingly; but determines by its colour, its fineness, its exterior, the physiognomy of every article of traffic. How far the former part of this last remark may apply to M. Lavater's own countrymen, the honest and enlightened traders of Zurich, I will not pretend to say; but it is highly probable that there are some before me who have not always felt themselves able to read the characters of the countenance quite so well as is here supposed of them, and to whom a few additional lessons from the Zurich counting-house, or the Zurich professor, might have been every now and then of no small service in the transactions of buying and selling; and have saved them, in various instances, from bad debts and impositions.

Having pointed out these defects, it becomes me to observe, that, with all its blemishes, M. Lavater's Essays form the best and fullest book on the subject we at present possess. To say nothing of its language, which, though far too florid, is animated, and often elegant, it is a rich repository of isolated facts, shrewd remarks, and ingenious suggestions; and with less fancy, and more judgment, would have been, and must have been, the favourite text-book of every physiologist in this branch of natural philosophy. Nor, even as it is, can it ever be neglected by any one who is desirous of establishing physiognomy upon a permanent and sober basis; and of analyzing the causes, and determining the real principles, upon which every one pretends to judge, whether rightly or wrongly, of the internal qualities of the mind, by the external features of the body; and, consequently, as in the case of astronomy, gives proof that the study is founded in nature, although its specific laws have not had the good fortune, like those of gravitation, to be systematically sought out and exemplified.

It is from this last circumstance, in connexion with M. Lavater's desultory and erratic mode of handling his subject, that other philosophers have been induced to abandon altogether the common ground of the general form and features, upon which mankind in all ages, whether learned or unlearned, have hitherto reasoned, and to inquire whether there may not be some less sensible and obvious, but at the same time more fixed and scientific, more exact and immediate, index in some part of the human figure, which may infallibly direct us to the same ends. No minister has hence devised more schemes for taxation, no insurance-broker more modifications for a lottery, than this general research has given rise to this philosophical rage

T'expatiate free o'er all this scene of man,
This mighty maze, but not without a plan;

This wild where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot;
This garden, tempting with forbidden fruit.

Of all these attempts, however, there is but one that is in any degree worthy of notice, or that has acquired any considerable degree even of transitory popularity; and this is the hypothesis of Dr. Gall of Jena, who has been greatly indebted to his friend Dr. Spurzheim for a popular diffusion of his doctrine over most parts of Europe. This learned philosopher, being determined to deviate as far as possible from the beaten path, left the face or front of the head to the rest of the world, and took the crown and back part for his own use. He conceived, first, that as all the faculties of the mind are limited to the common sensory or organ of the brain, nature, like a skilful general, instead of confounding every part with every part, and every faculty with every faculty, has marshalled this important organ into a definite number of divisions, and has given to every faculty the command of a separate post. He conceived, secondly, as the general mass of the brain lies immediately under the cranium or scull-bone, and is impacted into its cavity with the utmost exactness, that if any one or more of the aforesaid faculties, or, which As the same thing, any one or more of the aforesaid divisions of the brain

allotted to their control, should be peculiarly forward and active, such divisions must necessarily grow more abundant, and give some external token of such abundance by a constant pressure against those particular portions of the cranium under which they are immediately seated, and which, by uninterrupted perseverance, and especially in infancy and early life, when the bones of the cranium yield or are absorbed easily, they must elevate and render more prominent than any other part. And, thirdly, he conceived, that every man having some faculty or other more marked or active than the rest, or, in his own phraseology, more sensibly manifested, from which, indeed, his peculiar disposition or propensity takes its cast, must necessarily also have some peculiar prominence, some characteristic bump or embossment, by which his head is distinguishable from all others, or at least from all others of a different temper, or attracted by different objects of pursuit; and that nothing more is necessary than to determine the respective regions of the dif ferent faculties which belong to the brain, in order to determine, at the same time, from the external bump or prominence, the internal propensity or character.

These premises being in his own mind satisfactorily established, Dr. Gall next set to work with a view of deciding the relative parts of the brain possessed by the different faculties or their respective sentient organs. And having settled this important point to his own thorough conviction, he immediately made a map of the outside of the head, divided it into corresponding regions, and was able, in his own opinion, to indicate to a demonstration the characteristic temper or tendency of every man presented to him by a mere glance of the eye, or a mere touch of the finger. For, in the language of Dr. Spurzheim, " in order to distinguish the developement of the organs, it is not always necessary to touch the head; in many cases the eye is sufficient."t

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Let me not, however, do injustice to the talents of the inventor of this hypothesis. For he is not only possessed of a lively ingenuity and fancy, as his speculation, thus far unfolded, must suggest to every one, but he is also a man of learning, and of patient and indefatigable research. And such is the plausibility of his scheme, that he has contrived to enlist under his banners not a few philosophers and physiologists of considerable eminence and merit, among whom I may especially mention Dr. Bojames, who was one of the first to publish an account of this singular line of study to the world, and, as already observed, Dr. Spurzheim, who is at this moment lecturing upon the subject in this metropolis.‡

The allotments of the different parts of the brain, and the consequent laying down of the outside of the cranium into a superficial map of mental qualities or sensations, was a work of great patience and investigation. To accomplish it, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of human sculls, of known characters and propensities, were examined, and their peculiar impressions, whether prominences or indentations, were noticed and arranged. These were afterward compared with the respective tempers and inclinations of the particular subjects while alive; and the whole tried by the craniognomy, as it was called, of other animals celebrated, in common language, for the acute

"It seems to me, that at least a great part of every organ lies at the surface; and that if the part of any organ be well developed, the whole participates of this developement." Spurzheim, Physiognom System, p. 264.-In p. 240, he admits, however, " that the organs are not confined to the surface." Physiog. System, p. 261.

This lecture was delivered at the time of Dr. Spurzheim's first visit to England, for the purpose of illustrating his hypothesis, which has certainly possessed every advantage of which it is susceptible from his exertions and talents. Yet it is well known, that scarcely an individual among the more distinguished anatomists or physiologists of our own country have been led to adopt his views. To the discrepancy of Sir Everard Home's conceptions the author will have occasion to advert in a subsequent note. The following is the opinion of Mr. Charles Bell in his very excellent paper on the nerves of the orbit of the eye, as contained in the Philosophical Transactions for 1823, p. 306:-"But the most extravagant departure from all the legitimate modes of reasoning, though still under the colour of anatomical investigation, is the system of Dr. Gall. It is sufficient to say, that, without comprehending the grand divisions of the nervous system; without a notion of the distinct properties of the individual nerves; or, without having made any distinction of the columns of the spinal marrow; without even having ascertained the difference of cerebrum and cerebellum, Gall proceeded to describe the brain as composed of many particular and independent organs, and to assign to each the residence of some special faculty."