observations on the subject. The extreme sen+ sibility of my nerves occasioned me, however, to feel certain emotions at beholding certain countenances. I sometimes instinctively formed a judgment according to these first impressions, and was laughed at, ashamed, and became cautious. Years passed away before I again dared, impelled by similar impressions, to venture similar opinions. In the meantime, I occasionally sketched the countenance of a friend, whom by chance I had lately been observing. I had, from my earliest youth, a propensity to drawing, and especially to drawing of portraits, although I had but little genius or perseverance. By this practice my latent feelings began partly to unfold themselves. The various proportions, similitudes, and varieties of the human countenance became more apparent. It has happened that, on two successive days, I have drawn two faces, the features of which had a remarkable resemblance. This awakened my attention; and my astonishment increased when I received certain proofs that these persons were as similar in character as in feature.

I was afterwards induced, by M. Zimmerman, physician to the court of Hanover, to write my thoughts on this subject. I met with many opponents; and this opposition obliged me to make deeper and more laborious researches, till at length the present work on physiognomy was produced.

Here I must repeat the full conviction I feel,

that my whole life would be insufficient to form any approach towards a perfect and consistent whole. It is a field too vast for me singly to till. I shall find various opportunities of confessing my deficiency in various branches of science, without which it is impossible to study physiognomy with that firmness and certainty which are requisite. I shall conclude by declaring, with unreserved candour, and wholly committing myself to the reader who is the friend of truth,

That I have heard, from the weakest men, remarks on the human countenance more acute than those I had made; remarks which made mine appear trifling.

That I believe, were various other people to sketch countenances, and write their observations, those I have hitherto made would soon become of little importance.

That I daily meet an hundred faces concerning which I am unable to pronounce any certain opinion.

That no man has any thing to fear from my inspection, as it is my endeavour to find good in man, nor are there any men in whom good is not to be found.

That since I have begun thus to observe mankind, my philanthropy is not diminished, but, I will venture to say, increased.

And that now (January 1783), after ten years' daily study, I am not more convinced of the certainty of my own existence, than of the truth

of the science of physiognomy, or than that this truth may be demonstrated: and that I hold him to be a weak and simple person, who shall affirm, that the effects of the impressions made upon him by all possible human countenances, are equal.

CHAP. II.

On the Nature of Man, which is the Foundation of the Science of Physiognomy.-Difference between Physiognomy and Pathognomy,

MAN is the most perfect of all earthly creatures, the most imbued with the principles of life. Each particle of matter is an immensity, each leaf a world, each insect an inexplicable compendium. Who, then, shall enumerate the gradations between insect and man? In him all the powers of nature are united. He is the essence of creation. The son of earth, he is the earth's lord: the summary and central point of all existence, of all powers, and of all life, on that earth which he inhabits.

There are no organized beings with which we are acquainted, man alone excepted, in which are so wonderfully united these different kinds of life, the animal, the intellectual, and the moral. Each of these lives is the compendium of various faculties, most wonderfully com-pounded and harmonised.

To know, to desire, to act, or accurately to

C

observe and meditate, to perceive and to wish, to possess the power of motion and resistancethese combined, constitute man an animal, intellectual, and moral being.

Endowed with these faculties, and with this triple life, man is in himself the most worthy subject of observation, as he likewise is himself the most worthy observer. In him each species of life is conspicuous; yet never can his properties be wholly known, except by the aid of his external form, his body, his superficies. How spiritual, how incorporeal soever his internal essence may be, still is he only visible and conceivable from the harmony of his constituent parts. From these he is inseparable. He exists and moves in the body he inhabits, as in his element. This threefold life, which man cannot be denied to possess, necessarily first becomes the subject of disquisition and research, as it presents itself in the form of body, and in such of his faculties as are apparent to sense.

By such external appearances as affect the senses, all things are characterised; they are the foundations of all human knowledge. Man must wander in the darkest ignorance, equally with respect to himself and the objects that surround him, did he not become acquainted with their properties and powers, by the aid of their externals; and had not each object a character peculiar to its nature and essence, which acquaints us with what it is, and enables us to distinguish it from what it is not.

We survey all bodies that appear to sight under a certain form and superficies; we behold those outlines traced which are the result of their organization. I hope I shall be pardoned the repetition of common-place truths, since on these is built the science of physiognomy, or the proper study of man.

The organization of man peculiarly distinguishes him from all other earthly beings; and his physiognomy, that is to say, his superficies, and outlines of this organization, shew him to be infinitely superior to all those visible beings by which he is surrounded. We are unacquainted with any form equally noble, equally majestic with that of man; and in which so many kinds of life, so many powers, so many virtues of action and motion, unite as in a central point. With firm step he advances over the earth's surface, and with erect body raises his head to heaven. He looks forward to infinitude; he acts with facility and swiftness inconceivable, and his motions are the most immediate and the most varied. By whom may their varieties be enumerated? He can at once both suffer and perform infinitely more than any other creature. He unites flexibility and fortitude, strength and dexterity, activity and rest. Of all creatures he can the soonest yield, and the longest resist. None resemble him in the variety and harmony of his powers. His faculties, like his form, are peculiar to himself.

The make and proportion of man, his superior