their solitary passion, and the love of glory was gratified in that desert! The two reprehensible lines in Pope's Eloisa, too celebrated among certain of its readers, "Not Cæsar's Empress would I deign to prove; are however, found in her original letters. The author of that ancient work, "The Romaunt of the Rose," has given it thus naïvely; a specimen of the natural style in those days. Se le'empereur, qui est a Rome Soubz qui doyvent etre tout homme, Qu'etre Emperiere couronnée. PHYSIOGNOMY. A VERY extraordinary physiognomical anecdcte has been given by De la Place in his "Pieces interessantes et peu connues." Vol. IV. P. 8. A friend assured him that he had seen a voluminous and secret correspondence which had been carried on between Louis XIV. and his favourite physician De la Chambre on this science; the faith of the monarch seems to have been great, and the purpose to which this correspondence tended, was extraordinary indeed, and perhaps scarcely credible. Who will believe that Louis XIV. was so convinced of that talent which De la Chambre attributed to himself, of deciding merely by the physiognomy of persons on the real bent of their character, but also to what employment they were adapted, that the king entered into a secret correspondence to obtain the criticisms of his physiognomist? That Lewis XIV. should have pursued this system, undetected by the hawk-like eye of his own courtiers, is also singular; but it appears by this correspondence that this art positively swayed him in his choice of officers and favourites. On one of the backs of these letters De la Chambre had written, " If I die before his Majesty, he will incur great risk to make many an unfortunate choice!" This collection of physiognomical correspondence, if it does really exist, would form a very curious publication; we have heard nothing of it, though such a lot of papers could hardly escape the inquisitive eye. De la Chambre was a very enthusiastic physiognomist as appears by his works. The Characters of the Passions, four volumes in quarto; the Art of Knowing Mankind; and the Knowledge of Animals. Lavater quotes his "Vote and Interest" in favour of his favourite science. The following curious physiological definition of PHYSIOGNOMY is extracted from a publication by Dr. Gwither, of the year 1604.— "Soft wax cannot receive more various and numerous impressions than are imprinted on a man's face by objects moving his affections: and not only the objects themselves have this power, but also the very images or ideas; that is to say, any thing that puts the animal spirits into the same motion that the object present did, will have the same effect with the object. To prove the first, let one observe a man's face looking on a pitiful object, then a ridiculous, then a strange, then on a terrible or dangerous object, and so forth. For the second, that ideas have the same effect with the object, dreams confirm too often, "The manner I conceive to be thus. The animal spirits moved in the sensory by an object, continue their motion to the brain; whence the motion is propagated to this or that particular part of the body, as is most suitable to the design of its creation; having first made an alteration in the face by its nerves, especially by the pathetic and oculorum motorii actuating its many muscles, as the dial-plate to that stupendous piece of clockwork which shews what is to be expected next from the striking part. Not that I think the motion of the spirits in the sensory continued by the impression of the object all the way, as from a finger to the foot: I know it too weak, though the tenseness of the nerves favours it. But I conceive it done in the medulla of the brain, where is the common stock of spirits; as in an organ, whose pipes being uncovered the air rushes into them; but the keys let go, are stopped again. Now, if by repeated acts or frequent entertaining of the ideas of a favourite idea of a passion or vice, which natural temperament has hurried one to, or custom dragged, the face is so often put into that posture which attends such acts, that the animal spirits find such latent passages into its nerves, that it is sometimes unalterably set: as the Indian Religious are by long continuing in strange postures in their Pagods. But most commonly such a habit is contracted, that it falls insensibly into that posture when some present object does not obliterate that more natural impression by a new, or dissimulation hide it. "Hence it is that we see great drinkers with eyes generally set towards the nose, the adducent muscles being often employed to let them see their loved liquor in the glass at the time of drinking; which were therefore called bibitory. Lascivious persons are remarkable for the Oculorum Mobilis Petulanta, as Petronius calls it. From this also we may solve the Quaker's expecting face, waiting the pretended Spirit; and the melancholy face of the Sectaries; the studious face of men of great application of mind; revengeful and bloody men, like executioners in the act: and though silence in a sort may awhile pass for wisdom, yet, sooner or later Saint Martin peeps through the disguise to undo all. A changeable face I have observed to shew a changeable mind. But I would by no means have what has been said understood as without exception: for I doubt not but sometimes there are found men with great and virtuous souls under very unpromising outsides." We may add here a circumstance 'told of the great Prince of Condé, that he was very expert in a certain kind of physiognomy which shewed the peculiar habits, motions and postures of familiar life and mechanical employments. He would sometimes lay wagers with his friends, that he would guess, upon the Pont Neuf, what trade persons were of that passed by, from their walk and air. CHARACTERS DESCRIBED BY MUSICAL NOTES. THE present extract from a volume of "Philosophical Transactions and Collections," was published at the end of the year 1700. The idea of describing characters under the names of Musical Instruments has been already displayed in two most pleasing papers which embellish the Tatler, written by Addison. He dwells on this idea with uncommon success. It has been applauded for its originality; and in the general |