all his simplicity, it is just the same kind of fiction which one of the greatest of the Latin poets has made use of upon a parallel occasion; I mean that passage in Horace, where he describes himself when he was a child, fallen asleep in a desert wood, and covered with leaves by the turtles that took pity on him.' Me fabulosa Vulture in Appulo, Altricis extra limen Apuliæ, Ludo fatigatumque somno Fronde novâ puerum palumbes Texere HOR. 1. iii. Od. 4. In lofty Vulture's rising grounds, Without my nurse Apulia's bounds, When young and tir'd with sport and play, Doves cover'd me with myrtle boughs. CREECH. I have heard that the late Lord Dorset, who had the greatest wit tempered with the greatest candour, and was one of the finest critics, as well as the best poets, of his age, had a numerous collection of old English ballads, and took a particular pleasure in the reading of them. I can affirm the same of Mr. Dryden; and 1 No burial this pretty pair Of any man receives, Did cover them with leaves. Ut. sup. v. 125, &c. A stanza which Gray probably had in his mind when he wrote the exquisite lines which in a moment of unpardonable hypercriticism, he rejected from his elegy. There scattered oft, the earliest of the year, By hands unseen are showers of violets found: And more directly still, Collins, in his 'Dirge in Cymbeline': The Red-breast oft, at evening hours, Shall kindly lend his little aid, With hoary moss and gathered flowers, To deck the ground where thou art laid.'-G. know several of the most refined writers of our present age who are of the same humour. 1 I might likewise refer my reader to Moliere's thoughts on this subject, as he has expressed them in the character of the Misanthrope; but those only who are endowed with a true greatness of soul and genius, can divest themselves of the little images of ridicule, and admire nature in her simplicity and nakedness. As for the little conceited wits of the age, who can only shew their judgment by finding fault, they cannot be supposed to admire these productions which have nothing to recommend them but the beauties of nature, when they do not know how to relish even those compositions that, with all the beauties of nature have also the additional advantages of art.2 L. No. 86. FRIDAY, JUNE 8. Heu quam difficile est crimen non prodere vultu! OVID. Met. xi. 447. How in the looks does conscious guilt appear! ADDISON. THERE are several arts which all men are in some measure masters of, without having been at the pains of learning them. Every one that speaks or reasons, is a grammarian and a logician, though he may be wholly unacquainted with the rules of grammar or logic, as they are delivered in books and systems. In the same manner, every one is in some degree a master of that 1 'Le méchant goût du siècle en cela me fait peur; Mis. Acte 1. sc. 2.-G. V. Introduction-Remarks on Addison's signature in the Spec tator.-G. art which is generally distinguished by the name of physiognomy; and naturally forms to himself the character or fortune of a stranger, from the features and lineaments of his face. We are no sooner presented to any one we never saw before, but we are immediately struck with the idea of a proud, a reserved, an affable, or a good-natured man; and upon our first going into a company of strangers, our benevolence or aversion, awe or contempt, rises naturally towards several particular persons, before we have heard them speak a single word, or so much as know who they are. Every passion gives a particular cast to the countenance, and is apt to discover itself in some feature or other. I have seen an eye curse for half an hour together, and an eye-brow call a man scoundrel. Nothing is more common than for lovers to complain, resent, languish, despair, and die, in dumb show. For my own part, I am so apt to frame a notion of every man's humour or circumstances by his looks, that I have sometimes employed myself from Charing-Cross to the Royal-Exchange in drawing the characters of those who have passed by me. When I see a man with a sour rivelled face, I cannot forbear pitying his wife; and when I meet with an open ingenuous countenance, think on the happiness of his friends, his family, and relations. b I cannot recollect the author of a famous saying to a stranger who stood silent in his company, 'Speak, that I may see thee.' But, with submission, I think we may be better known by our looks than by our words, and that a man's speech is much more 1 Socrates-Loquere ut te videam. Socratis vox ad adolescentem: Apul. Flor. 1. pr.-C. A man cannot be said to "form to himself the character or fortune" of another, but an idea of the character or fortune. He says below, more properly, "to frame a notion of," &c.-H. Think. It should either be, “thinking" in reference to "cannot forbear," in the former part of this sentence, or else, "I think."-H. 1 easily disguised than his countenance. 1 In this case, however, I think the air of the whole face is much more expressive than the lines of it: the truth of it is, the air is generally nothing else but the inward disposition of the mind made visible. Those who have established physiognomy into an art, and laid down rules of judging men's tempers by their faces, have regarded the features much more than the air. Martial has a pretty epigram on this subject. Crine ruber, niger ore, brevis pede, lumine læsus; Ep. liv. 12. Thy beard and head are of a different die; With all these tokens of a knave compleat Should'st thou be honest, thou'rt a dev'lish cheat. I have seen a very ingenious author on this subject, who founds his speculations on the supposition, that as a man hath in the mould of his face a remote likeness to that of an ox, a sheep, a lion, an hog, or any other creature, he hath the same resemblance in the frame of his mind, and is subject to those passions which are predominant in the creature that appears in his countenance. Accordingly he gives the prints of several faces that are of a different mould, and by a little overcharging the likeness, discovers the figures of these several kinds of brutal faces in human features. I remember in the life of the famous Prince 2 1 'The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.' Goldsmith's Bee, No. 3. (Works, vol. i. p. 51, Putnam's ed.) The most recent form in which I remember to have seen this thought, is in one of the numberless witticisms attributed to Talleyrand.-G. J. B. Della Porta, born at Naples 1540, died 1615: founder of the Academy of the Secreti: discoverer of the camera obscura; author of various scientific works, besides fourteen comedies, two tragedies, and a tragi comedy. The work here referred to, was published in 1586, under the title of De humana physiognomia.-G. VOL. IV.-11 of Condé, the writer observes, the face of that prince was like the face of an eagle, and that the prince was very well pleased to be told so. In this case, therefore, we may be sure, that he had in his mind some general implicit notion of this art of physiognomy which I have just now mentioned; and that when his courtiers told him his face was made like an eagle's, he understood them in the same manner as if they had told him, there was something in his looks which shewed him to be strong, active, piercing, and of a royal descent. Whether or no the different motions of the animal spirits in different passions, may have any effect on the mould of the face when the lineaments are pliable and tender, or whether the same kind of souls require the same kind of habitations, I shall leave to the consideration of the curious. In the mean time I think nothing can be more glorious than for a man to give the lie to his face, and to be an honest, just, good-natured man, in spite of all those marks and signatures which nature seems to have set upon him for the contrary. This very often happens among those, who, instead of being exasperated by their own looks, or envying the looks of others, apply themselves entirely to the cultivating of their minds, and getting those beauties which are more lasting, and more ornamental. I have seen many an amiable piece of deformity: and have observed a certain chearfulness in as bad a system of features as ever was clapped together, which hath appeared more lovely than all the blooming charms of an insolent beauty. There is a double praise due to virtue, when it is lodged in a body that seems to have been prepared for the reception of vice; in many such cases the soul and the body do not seem to be fellows. Socrates was an extraordinary instance of this nature. There chanced to be a great physiognomist in his time at Athens, who had made strange discoveries of men's tempers and inclinations by their outward appearances. Socrates' disciples, that they |