Physiognomy.

In reference to Physiognomy, which professes to enable us, ex vultibus hominum mores colligere, to judge of men's minds from their countenance, we cannot do better, we think, than simply give the very appropriate quotation of Sir David Brewster, as it appeared in a recent issue of the "Evening Star :"—

"The leading argument in favour of the new physiognomy called 'the symbols of the human form,' is derived 'from the nearly universal assent to it implied in the practice of judging of men by their personal appearance.' Addison, for example, asserts that every 'one forms to himself the character and fortune of a stranger from the features and lineaments of his face;' and that 'when he meets with a man that has a sour, shrivelled face, he cannot forbear pitying his wife.' Fielding conceived that 'it is owing to want of skill in the observer that physiognomy is of so little use in the world.' Cowper tells us 'that faces are as legible as books,' and that his 'skill in physiognomy never deceived him.' Sir Thomas alleges that there page 38

Multo mehus ex'sermone quam lineamentis, de morebus hominum judicare.—Phut. (It is much better to judge of men's characters from their words than their features)

are 'characters in our faces which carry in .them the mottos of our souls,' and that the countenance proclaims the heart and inclinations 'Now, all this is common physiognomy, in which we all profess to be adepts, but we never believe that the 'features and lineaments' from which we form our judgments are original in the human face, or 'divinely' placed there for any special purpose. That the emotions of the past and present leave permanent traces on the human countenance is often true. Among all classes of society we encounter faces which we instinctively shun, and others to which we as instinctively cling; but it is out of our power to discover the causes of these abnormal features, or the moral and intellectual condition which is supposed to underlie them.

'I do not like thee, Dr. Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell;
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell,'—

must be the language of every modest physiognomist, who feels how false the world would have interpreted the sad and ruffled expression which may have occasionally darkened his own honest and happy countenance. In judging of the temper and character of a stranger, or of a neighbour, how often have we found our estimate to be false. The repulsive aspect has proved to be the result of physical suffering, of congenial malformation, of domestic disquiet, or of ruined fortunes, and under the bland and smiling countenance, a heart deceitful, vindictive, and 'desperately wicked,' has frequently been concealed. The countenance, too, which in youth and manhood was noble and benign, we may have seen scarred in the battle of life, and furrowed with the deep lines which the baseness of friends and the injustice of the world never fail to imprint. And when the manly aspirant after wealth and fame has been cruelly worsted in the race of ambition, and has displayed on the outer man the impress of the emotions that disturbed him, how often have we seen him, when the world had smiled upon his lot, resuming the joyous expressions of his early days, which misfortune had but temporarily disguised."

The Mind is its Own Place and of Itself
"Can Make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."