XLI. EXCLUSIVE of the ill-defined forehead, there is still enough remaining in the nose, mouth, and the whole outline, to denote the fine penetrating taste of the reflective and gently agitated mind; undisturbed by passions; capable of delicate, religious, sensibility. XLII. HERE or nowhere are conspicuous respectable tranquillity, fortitude, simplicity, superiority; a freedom from passion, a contempt for the mean and a propensity to the natural, the noble, and the great. This countenance, though silent, is more eloquent than hundreds that speak. It looks and penetrates, has the power of forming just decisions, and, in a single word, to pronounce them irrevocably. L. 146 IX. OF BEASTS. A. INTRODUCTION. As the author has little knowledge of beasts, he must leave the labour of examining them, physiognomonically, to some Buffon, or Kamper, of this or a future age. My readers will, therefore, be satisfied with a few general reflections, and some particular remarks, which may be further prosecuted by the enquiries into nature. I hope, however, that those few will be sufficient a) To confirm the general truth of physi ognomy; b) To elucidate certain laws, according to which eternal Wisdom has formed living beings; c) And, still further to display the excellence, the sublimity, of human nature. How much shall I have gained can I but, by the following fragment, obtain these three noble purposes! |