ford. James J3t*n Mullinger was charged \vithl
wounding Annie Haslam with intent to mur;l<!r
her ; as also with endeavouring to disfigure the |
prosecutrix, and to do h'er some grievous bodily
harm. Mrs. Haslamswas the wife of the prisoner's
stepbrother ; o
had some dis
in tho'4cft si
was old and
and ni**liann
but
ni**
MFQin
e eigh
flight at supper Mullinger
with her, and struck her
ith a knife. The instrument
the lady's dress was padded
done by the first blow ;
inger seized another knife, and inflicted
some eghteen wounds on the throat, face, and
hands of Mrs. Haslam. The injuries proved to be
very superficial, and the prosecutrix, who has nearly
recovered, was merciful enough to forego the graver
charges. The prisoner was therefore found guilty
of nothing more than unlawfully wounding. In
mitigation of punishment, evidence as to character
was called ; and it was shown that he was a graduate
of the University of Cambridge, who had distin-
guished himself during his collegiate career by his
literary and scholastic attainments, having carried
off, among other distinctions, the Le Bas and the
Hulsean prizes. The comparatively mild sentence
of twelve months' imprisonment without hard
labour was then passed upon James Bass Mullin-
ger ; and, while the ends of justice have been
adequately served by this decision, we may re-
mark, that it is better lor Mullinger to spend a
year in prison, than to have been ^acquitted
on the ground of insanity, and ordered to be
detained "during her Majesty's pleasure" — an
issue which has before now entailed the life-
long imprisonment of a man who, perchance, was
only mad during five minutes at a time. The
dreadful case of Mary Lamb and her mother's
apprentice is dismally in point ; but, in the
case of Mullinger, the amentia or the dementia
exhibited might form a topic for close physio-
logical inquiry. Has intense literary application
any tendency to engender ferocity which may
be aggravated into homicidal mania? Burton,
the author of that wonderful collection of learning
and absurdity, the "Anatomy of Melancholy,"
has, in more than one passage, hinted that
both Deniocritus his master, and he himself
" Democritus Junior," were often excited
earnest study to a very perilous frame ofc mim
of which the effects might have been deplorabl
unless judiciously counteracted. It was
custom of the Abderite philosopher, when he foi
his "melancholy" drifting into the^m
to walk down to the haven — u<
-and there divert himself with t
talk of the fishermen. In like manner,
ton, when he deemed that>too
a mischief, wotil' > -tTe banks' o& a: lifij
IBM
m
1
to
to-
face,
nun's
MiS act
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND |
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
nual report on Newgate, by the Rev. P. E.
nes, M.A., the ordinary of the prison, to the
>-or and Court of Aldermen, has just been
Mr. Jones writes : "It may at ouce be con-
it the more thoroughly each rr bitua' criminal
to those whose duty it is to prevent and detect
the more precarious doea hia mode of living
Judging from the tj-pe of criminals who have
rough this prison during the past year there is
noticeable feature — viz., that there has been a
in in the number of those who resort to acts
ay be described as belonging to crime of
ognised type, such an highway rob-
skiug pockets, burglary, dec.; whereas crimes
some skill and address and no violence
L more numerous, and have brought up the total
f those who have passed through the prison to
same as usual. These consist of two classes —
• have no regular employment, and those vfrho
on their wits. The lirst of these are for the
persons who have acquired a fair degree of
, but whose morality has proved of so inferior
,er that society has refused to employ them.
e of that restless disposition which prefers any
3 mode of supplying its possessors' wants to that
f plodding along any of the beaten tracks of re-
>coupatious. When once the unlawful act has
tnittcd with success the few remnants of self-
e swept away ; the overt act is repeated until
.covery ensues. It is extraordinary how anxious
jns are to remove all imputations which can be
linst their criminality ; whereas their moral
lity does not appear in the least degree to be
Their tesi is success ; their only rule is what
oment they deem to be expedient. My endea-
load all these to adopt the most comprehensive
,s for the future direction of their lives, and
L they have never before applied. I lay it down
lighest moral feeling is religious feeling, that
merely negative but positive in its require-
nt where it is in active force it puts a auestion
icfc c-f our lives — not merely, is there no harm?
•rong? but it requires us to know that what
tositively right.
second class, or those who live on their wits,
Ige that they are ready to take every advantage
inexperience of others offers them. They re-
he knavery which preys upon the folly and
of society . All these persons rely upon" their
se and tho powers they have acquired by edu-
carry out, their schemes. There 4iave been
Live indications shown by those who have been
ison during the past year of intellectual de-
t by education, and that integrity and high
e are not necessarily its accompaniments. If
s moral tone of a large portion of the community
ans uneducated, what effect can secular educa-
? It will give a fresh power to unprincipled
) act in an unprincipled \v&y, and will enable
irround themselves with expedients which will
i baffie discovery. Until detectives overtake
ety will prostrate itself at the shrine of Mam-
1 there will exist a hidden pestilence in the
us, which will be slowly but surely affecting
lal character. A low moral tone is essentially
ind selfishness may develop in many
of which need means for their grati-
\Ve have even had such an instance
if a young man of education robbing his master
ICTOR HUGO ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
Apropos of the coining execution pf Bradley the
•rocious murderer, at Jersey, on v iith inst
ictor Hugo writes a letter from Bi™pye -to ft friend'
hich has been published in the Gazette de Guernsey.
he following is a translation of the remarks of the >•»- - A
:>et and philosopher on the impending event :— , r,, .,
I know absolutely nothing of this melanchofo IN M&SSA C
isiness of Bradley. And if I did, alas ! what could ,"j T " 7\
say? Bradley is only a detail ; his agony is lost in * tte
le great universal agony. Civilisation is on a rock e;1
g-horse at present. England has re-established exe- 'v*>
ition by the musket, Russia has re-introduoed tor-
re, Germany banditism. At Paris there is crush-
gof the political conscience, the literary conscience,
e philosophical conscience. The French guillotine
working in a manner to pique the honour of th«
iglish gibbet. Everywhere progress is adjourned—
erywhere liberty is re-bound— every where the ideal
insulted— everywhere reaction prospers under ifo
nous names of good order, good taste, good sense,
od laws, &c.— words which are lies. Jersey, the
tie island, was in advance of great nations. Sh«
is free, honest, intelligent, and humane. It apnean
at Jersey, seeing that all the world is going back-
ird, thinks also of going back. Paris decapitated
nhppe, Jersey is going to hang Bradley- rivalry in
i3 mvorae sense of progress. Jersey coincided with
agress, Jersey is going to coincide with reaction,
fgust the llth-/^e day in the ialnml-thoy ar«
ing to strangle a man ! Jersey maintains her rigM
have, like a king of Prussia or an emperor o!
issia, her fit of ferocity. O, poor little corner oi
? earth ! What a belial of God who has done BO
ich for that charming land! What ingratitudi
vards that soft, serene, and bountiful nature ! A
lows at Jersey ! Alas, those who are happy should
merciful. I love Jersey; I am afflick-d."
wadir
PHYSIOGNOMY;
OR,
THE CORRESPONDING ANALOGY BETWEEN THE
CONFORMATION OF THE FEATURES
AND THE
RULING PASSIONS OF THE MIND :
BBDM
A COMPLETE EPITOME OF THE ORIGINAL WORK
or
J. G. LAVATEK.
iiion.— JUusirulcb.
1 Physiognomy is reading the handwriting of nature upon the human
countenance."
LONDON: WILLIAM TEGG.
1866.
-
£, one of the u
auity.is the utter
< tics. ""
s conspi' .
-Miif
y«a
--I -. ..-
K'OOKQUODALE AND CO., PRINTEES,
TTOEKS, NBWIOIf .
TO TKKVmTOK OF THE ECHO „
-Under the head of << Ho* to H-ld Inam,
ave, in f ^ *$£
at of Fro-' alj
SIR
ou have
<ipoa that of
PREFACE.
bk
Qi<
THERE is undoubtedly no subject in the science of
Natural History more curious, entertaining, and instruc-
tive to the human race in general, than that which
respects the variety of complexion and figure among
mankind. Though much has been written to point out
the sources from whence these varieties arise, and to
investigate the causes which certainly produce* them, yet
hitherto but little accurate information has been derived
from the most arduous and laborious researches of the-
first abstract philosophers of the age.
The same thing has happened to Physiognomy as to
Astronomy: they have both been degraded and disgraced
by the intrigues and artifices of interested knavery. The
first has been connected to palmistry by a notorious set
of dusky impostors, who, roving up and down in the
world, have made a prey of every credulous person they
could meet with ; and the other has been travestied in
the art of divining future events. Hence have arisen con-
iv PREFACE.
jurers; the most notorious of which, combining the
whole together, have not only found admirers in the
less informed ages of the world, but are even daring
enough yet, at the latter end of the eighteenth cen-
tury, to hold up their arguments in defiance of experi-
mental philosophy.
Confused and sophisticated with falsehoods, termed
occult reasonings, the noble science of Physiognomy has
been neglected for near a century, and deemed by the
judicious a mere farcical contrivance to fleece the pockets
and disturb the brains of the unwary. Thus even those
who have suspected there might be some rational grounds
to build hypothesis upon, have been fearful of venturing
to appear even in the slender form of an essay.
From an accurate survey of all that has hitherto been
written upon this subject by the soberest authors of the
preceding age, it will appear that very little knowledge
of man has been derived ; and the falsehoods and errors
with which their writings abound, are daily becoming
more evident. Those systems which were established on
authorities so extremely weak, are now falling into that
contempt and neglect which must necessarily await
every mode of reasoning whose axioms are not founded
on obvious and derivative facts, and supported by phy-
sical causes.
PREFACE. V
The noble ardour for discovering and investigating the
connection between the inward and outward operations
of nature in man gave rise, in a neighbouring nation, to
a splendid and expensive work,* an epitome of which is
here offered to the public, arranged (the Editor hopes he
may say without presumption) with more order and
method, and divested of the numerous repetitions which
the worthy and amiable, but too often rhapsodical
LAVATER, in the warmth of a disinterested love of man-
kind, introduces at every turn.
In the present state of our knowledge, a systematical
view of the physiognomical science can hardly be ex-
pected : a collection of observations arranged but with
little attention to method, is all the industrious Lavater
promises, and all we can reasonably expect However,
he furnishes us with an instance how much may be
accomplished, even by an individual, in a subject replete
with difficulties, when genius and judgment are aided by
labour, and when the object is pursued with a steady
regard to truth and veracity. However, it is not the
Editor's intention to enter into any panegyric upon the
labours of M. Lavater : the public will ever judge for
themselves, and pay the tribute of applause where it is
due.
* Published by William Tegg.
Vi PREFACE.
To preserve the spirit of Lavater's reasoning, inspire
the enthusiasm of his feelings, and the sublimity of his
conceptions, has been the endeavour of the Editor of the
present volume, within the small compass of which, he
flatters himself, he has concentrated, as in a focus, all the
discoveries and truths contained in the original work.
1865.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. I.— INTRODUCTION.-- Physiognomy a Science.— The Truth of
Physiognomy.— The Advantages of Physiognomy.— Its Disadvan-
tages The Ease and Difficulty of studying Physiognomy. — A
Word concerning the Author 1
CHAP. II.— On the Nature of Man, which is the Foundation of the
Science of Physiognomy.— Difference between Physiognomy and
Pathognomy 21
CHAP. III.— Signs of bodily Strength and Weakness.— Of Health
and Sickness 27
CHAP. IV.— The Congeniality of the Human Form .... 32
CHAP. V.— Description of Plates I. and II 89
CHAP. VI.— The universal Excellence of the Form of Man . . 42
CHAP. VII.— Of the Forehead 46
CHAP. VHI.-Of the Eyes and Eyebrows . . . . . 50
CHAP. IX.— Of the Nose- 57
CHAP. X.-Of the Mouth and Lips ....... 59
CHAP. XL— Of the Teeth and Chin 62
CHAP. XIL— OfSkulU 64
CHAP. XIII — Suggestions to the Physiognomist concerning the
Skull 68
CHAP. XIV.— Of the Difference of Skulls as they relate to Sex, and
particularly to Nations.— Of the Skulls of Children ... 73
CHAP. XV.-Description of Plate in 78
CHAP. XVI.— The Physiognomist 80
CHAP. XVIL— Lavater'a own Remarks on National Physiognomy . 88
CHAP. XVIII Extracts from Buffon on National Physiognomy . 91
CHAP. XIX — Some of the most remarkable Passages from an Ex-
cellent Essay on National Physiognomy, by Professor Kant of
Konigsberg 97
CHAP. XX.— Extracts from other Writers on National Physiognomy.
— From Winkelmann's History of Art— From the Recherchea Philo-
sophiques sur lea Americains, by M. de Pauw. — Observations by
Lintz. — From a Letter written by M. Fuessli. — From a Letter
written by Professor Camper 100
CHAP. XXI — Extracts from the Manuscript of a Man of Literature
at Darmstadt, on National Physiognomy 107
CHAP. XXII.— Description of Plate IV 113
CHAP. XX III.— Resemblance between Parents and Children . . 116
CHAP. XXIV.— Remarks on the Opinions of Buffon, Hallcr, and
Bonnet, concerning the Resemblance between Parents and Children 121
V1U CONTENTS.
PAG*
CHAP. XXV.— Observations on the New-born, the Dying, and the
Dead 126
CHAP. XXVI.— Of the Influence of Countenance on Countenance . 128
CHAP. XXVII.— Of the Influence of the Imagination on the Counte-
nance 131
CHAP. XXVIII.— The Effects of the Imagination on the Human Form 133
CHAP. XXIX.— Essay by a late learned Man of Oldenburg, M. Sturtz,
on Physiognomy, interspersed with short Remarks by the Author . 138
CHAP. XXX. Quotations from Huart, with Remarks thereon . . 149
CHAP. XXXI. — Remarks on an Essay on Physiognomy, by Professor
Lichtenberg 154
CHAP. XXXIL— Description of Plate V 176
CHAP. XXXIII.— General Remarks on Women . . . .177
CHAP. XXXIV.— General Remarks on Male and Female A Word
on the Physiognomical Relation of the Sexes 181
CHAP. XXXV — On the Physiognomy of Youth . . . .185
CHAP. XXXVI.— Physiognomical Extracts from an Essay inserted
in the Deutschen Museum, a German Journal or Review . . . 188
CHAP. XXXVII.— Extracts from Maximus Tyrius . . . .198
CHAP. XXXVIII.-Extracts from a Manuscript by Th . . 200
CHAP. XXXIX.— Extracts from Nicolai and Winkelmann . . 208
CHAP. XL. — Extracts from Aristotle and other Authors concerning
Beasts 212
CHAP. XLL— Of Birds, Fishes, Serpents, and Insects . . .225
CHAP. XLII.— Of Shades 229
CHAP. XLIII.— Description of Plate VI 232
CHAP. XLIV.— A Word to Travellers 233
CHAP. XLV.— A Word to Princes and Judges 238
CHAP. XLVL— A Word to the Clergy 241
CHAP.— XLVII.— Physiognomical Elucidations of Countenances . 242
CHAP. XL VIII.— Physiognomical Anecdotes 244
CHAP. XLIX. — Miscellaneous Extracts from Keampfs Essay on
the Temperaments, with Remarks 246
CHAP. L Upon Portrait Painting 248
CHAP. LI.— Description of Plate" VII. 256
CHAP. LIL— Miscellaneous Quotations ...... 258
CHAP, LIII.— Miscellaneous Thoughts 261
CHAP. LIV.— Of the Union between the Knowledge of the Heart and ;
Philanthropy, — Miscellaneous Physiognomical Thoughts from
Holy Writ 265
CHAP, LV.— Of the apparently False Decisions of Physiognomy.— Of
the General Objections made to Physiognomy.— Particular Objec-
tions answered . . ...... 270
PHYSIOGNOMY,
CHAPTER L
INTRODUCTION.
Physiognomy a science — The truth of Physiognomy — The
advantages of Physiognomy — Its disadvantages — The
ease and difficulty of studying Physiognomy* — A word
concerning the Author.
IT has been asserted by thousands, that " though there
may be some truth in physiognomy, still it never can be
a science." These assertions will be repeated, how
clearly soever their objections may be answered, and
however little they may have to reply. Physiognomy is
as capable of becoming a science as any one of the
sciences, mathematics excepted. It is a branch of the
physical art, and includes theology and the belles lettres.
Like these, it may to a certain extent be reduced to
rule, and acquire an appropriate character by which it
may be taught.
Whenever truth or knowledge is explained by fixed
principles, it becomes scientific, so far as it can be im-
parted by words, lines, rules, and definitions. The
question will stand simply thus : whether it be possible
to explain the undeniable striking differences which
exist between human faces and forms, not by obscure
and confused conceptions, but by certain characters,
signs, and expressions ? ' Whether these signs can
B
LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
communicate the strength and weakness, health and
sickness, of the body ; the folly and wisdom, the magna-
nimity and meanness, the virtue and vice, of the mind ?
This is the only thing to be decided ; and he who, instead
of investigating the question, should continue to declaim
against it, must either be deficient in the love of truth,
or in logical reasoning.
The experimental philosopher can only proceed with
his discoveries to a certain extent ; only can communi-
cate them by words ; can only say, " Such and such are
my experiments, such my remarks, such is the number
of them, and such are the inferences I draw : pursue the
track that I have explored." Yet will he not be unable,
sometimes, to say thus much ? Will not his active mind
make a thousand remarks which he will want the power
to communicate ? Will not his eye penetrate recesses
which he shall be unable to discover to that feebler
vision that cannot discover for itself? Is any science
brought to perfection at the moment of its birth ? Does
not genius continually, with eagle eye and flight, antici-
pate centuries ? How long did the world wait for Wolf ?
Who, among the moderns, is more scientific than
Bonnet ? Who more accurately distinguishes falsehood
from truth ? Yet to whom would he be able to com-
municate his sudden perception of the truth ; the result
or resources of those numerous, small, indescribable,
rapid, profound remarks ? To whom could he impart
these by signs, tones, images, and rules ? Is it not the
same with physic, theology, and all the arts and sciences ?
Is it not the same with painting, at once the mother
and daughter of physiognomy ?
How infinitely does he, who is painter or poet born,
soar beyond all written rule ! But must he who pos-
INTRODUCTION. 3
sesses feelings and power -which are not to be reduced
to rule, be pronounced unscientific ? So, physiognomical
truth may, to a certain degree, be defined, communicated
by signs and words, as a science. This is the look of
contempt, this of innocence. Where such signs are, such
and such properties reside.
There can be no doubt of the truth of physiognomy.
All countenances, all forms, all created beings, are not
only different from each other in their classes, races, and
kinds, but are also individually distinct. Each being
differs from every other being of its species. However
generally known, it is a truth the most important to our
purpose, and necessary to repeat, that " there is no rose
perfectly similar to another rose, no egg to an egg, no
eel to an eel, no lion to a lion, no eagle to an eagle, no
man to a man."
Confining this proposition to man only, it is the first,
the most profound, most secure and unshaken founda-
tion-stone of physiognomy, that, however intimate the
analogy and similarity of the innumerable forms of men,
no two men can be found who, brought together and
accurately compared, will not appear to be very remark-
ably different. Nor is it less incontrovertible that it is
equally impossible to find two minds, as two counte-
nances, which perfectly resemble each other.
Considerations like these will be sufficient to make
it received as a truth not requiring farther demonstra-
tion, that there must be a certain native analogy between
the external varieties of the countenance and form,
and the internal varieties of the mind. Anger renders
the muscles protuberant; and shall not, therefore, an
angry mind and protuberant muscles be considered as
cause and effect?
4 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
After repeated observation, that an active and vivid
eye, and an active and acute wit, are frequently found
in the same person, shall it be supposed that there is no
relation between the active eye and the active mind ?
Is this the effect of accident? Ought it not rather to be
considered as sympathy, an interchangeable and instan-
taneous effect, when we perceive that, at the very moment
the understanding is most acute and penetrating, and
the wit the most lively, the motion and fire of the eye
undergo, at that moment, the most visible alteration ?
But all this is denied by those who oppose the truth of
the science of physiognomy. Truth, according to them,
is ever at variance with herself; eternal order is degraded
to a juggler, whose purpose it is to deceive.
Calm reason revolts when it is asserted that the strong
man may appear perfectly like the weak, the man in full
health like another in the last stage of a consumption, or
that the rash and irascible resemble the cold and phleg-
matic. It revolts to hear it affirmed that joy and grief,
pleasure and pain, love and hatred, all exhibit themselves
under the same traits — that is to say, under no traits
whatever — on the exterior of man. Yet such are the
assertions of those who maintain that physiognomy is a
chimerical science. They overturn all that order and
combination by which Eternal Wisdom so highly
astonishes and delights the understanding. It cannot
be too emphatically repeated, that blind chance and
arbitrary disorder constitute the philosophy of fools, and
that they are the bane of natural knowledge, philosophy,
and religion. Entirely to banish such a system is the
duty of the true inquirer, the sage, and the divine.
It is indisputable that all men, absolutely all men,
estimate all things whatever by their physiognomy,
INTRODUCTION. D
their exterior temporary superficies. By viewing these
on every occasion, they draw their conclusions concern-
ing their internal properties. What merchant, if he be
unacquainted with the person of whom he purchases,
does not estimate his wares by the physiognomy or
appearance of those wares ? If he purchase of a distant
correspondent, what other means does he use in judging
whether they are or are not equal to his expectation ? Is
not his judgment determined by the colour, the fineness,
the superficies, the exterior, the physiognomy ? Does he
not judge money by its physiognomy? Why does he
take one guinea and reject another ? Why weigh a third
in his hand ? Does he not determine according to its
colour, or impression, its outside, its physiognomy ? If
a stranger enter his shop as a buyer or seller, will he
not observe him ? Will he not draw conclusions from
his countenance ? Will he not, almost before he is out
of hearing, pronounce some opinion of him, and say,
" This man has an honest look — this man has a pleasing
or forbidding countenance ? " Wljat is it to the purpose
whether his judgment be right or wrong ? He judges ;
and though not wholly, he depends, in part, upon the
exteriot form, and thence draws inferences concerning
the mind.
The farmer, walking through his grounds, regulates
his future expectations by the colour, the size, the
growth, the exterior ; that is to say, by the physiognomy
of the bloom, the stalk, or the ear of his corn, the stem
and shoots of his vine-tree. " This eat of corn is blighted
—that wood is full of sap — this will grow, that not,"
affirms he at the first or second glance. " Though these
vine-shoots look well, they will bear but few grapes."
And wherefore? He remarks in their appearance, as
6 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
the physiognomist in the countenances of shallow men,
the want of native energy. Does he not judge by the
exterior ?
Does not the physician pay more attention to the
physiognomy of the sick than to all the accounts that
are brought him concerning his patient? Zimmerman,
among the living, may be brought as a proof of the great
perfection at which this kind of judgment is arrived ;
and, among the dead, Kempf, whose son has written a
treatise on temperament.
I will say nothing of the painter, as his art too evi-
dently reproves the childish and arrogant prejudices
of those who pretend to disbelieve physiognomy. The
traveller, the philanthropist, the misanthropist, the
lover, (and who not ?) all act according to their feelings
and decisions, true or false, confused or clear, concerning
physiognomy. These feelings, these decisions, excite
compassion, disgust, joy, love, hatred, suspicion, con-
fidence, reserve, or benevolence.
By what rule do we judge of the sky but by its
physiognomy? No food, not a glass of wine or beer,
nor a cup of coffee or tea, comes to table, which is not
judged by its physiognomy, its exterior, and of which
we do not then deduce some conclusion respecting its
interior good or bad properties. Is not all nature
physiognomy, superficies and contents, body and spirit,
exterior effect and internal power, invisible beginning
and visible ending ?
Physiognomy, whether understood in its most exten-
sive or confined signification, is the origin of all human
decisions, efforts, actions, expectations, fears, and hopes;
of all pleasing and unpleasing sensations, which are
occasioned by external objects. From the cradle to the
INTRODUCTION. 7
grave, in all conditions and ages, throughout all
nations, from Adam to the last existing man, from the
worm we tread on to the most sublime of philosophers,
physiognomy is the origin of all we do and suffer.
Every insect is acquainted with its friend and its foe ;
each child loves and fears, although it knows not why.
Physiognomy is the cause : nor is there a man to be
found on earth who is not daily influenced by physio-
gnomy; not a man who cannot figure to himself a
countenance which shall to him appear exceedingly
lovely or exceedingly hateful ; not a man who does not,
more or less, the first time he is in company with a
stranger, observe, estimate, compare, and judge of him
according to appearances, although he might never have
heard of the word or thing called physiognomy ; not a
man who does not judge of all things that pass through
his hands by their physiognomy, that is, their internal
worth by their external appearance.
The act of dissimulation itself, which is adduced as so
insuperable an objection to the truth of physiognomy,
is founded upon physiognomy. Why does the hypocrite
assume the appearance of an honest man, but because
that he is convinced, though not perhaps from any
systematic reflection, that all eyes are acquainted with]
the characteristic mark of honesty ?
What judge, wise or unwise, whether the criminal
confess or deny the fact, does not sometimes in this
sense decide from appearances ? Who can, is, or ought
to be absolutely indifferent to the exterior of persons
brought before him to be judged? What king would
choose a minister without examining his exterior, secretly
at least, and to a certain extent ? An officer will not
enlist a soldier without thus examining his appearance,
8 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
putting his height out of the question. What master or
mistress of a family will choose a servant without con-
sidering the exterior ? No matter that their judgment
may or may not be just, or that it may be exercised
unconsciously.
I am weary of citing such numerous instances, which
are so continually before our eyes, to prove that men,
tacitly and unanimously, confess the influence which
physiognomy has over their sensations and actions. I
feel disgust at being obliged to write thus, in order to
convince the learned of truths which lie within the reach
of every child.
Let him see who has eyes to see ; but should the light,
by being brought too close to his eyes, produce frenzy, he
may burn himself by endeavouring to extinguish the
torch of truth. I am not fond of using such expressions ;
but I dare to do my duty, and my duty is boldly to
declare that I believe myself certain of what I now and
hereafter shall affirm ; and that I think myself capable
of convincing all lovers of truth, by principles which
are in themselves incontrovertible. It is also necessary
to confute the pretensions of certain literary despots, and
to compel them to be more cautious in their decisions.
It is therefore proved, it being an eternal and manifest
truth, that, whether they are or are not sensible of it, all
men are daily influenced by physiognomy ; nay, there is
not a living being which does not, at least after its
manner, draw some inferences from the external to the
internal ; which does not judge concerning that which
is not, by that which is apparent to the senses.
This universal though tacit confession, that the
exterior, the visible, the superficies of objects, indicate
their nature, their properties, and that every outward
INTRODUCTION. U
sign is the symbol of some inherent quality, I hold to
be equally certain and important to the science of
physiognomy.
When each apple, each apricot, has a physiognomy
peculiar to itself, shall man, the lord of the earth, have
none ? The most simple and inanimate object has its
characteristic exterior, by which it is not only distin-
guished as a species, but individually ; and shall the
first, noblest, best harmonized, and most beautiful being,
be denied all characteristic ?
Whatever may be objected against the truth and cer-
tainty of the science of physiognomy by the most
illiterate or the most learned ; how much soever he, who
openly professes faith in this science, may be subject to
ridicule, to philosophic pity and contempt ; it still cannot
be contested, that there is no subject, thus considered,
more important, more worthy of observation, more inte-
resting than man, nor any occupation superior to that of
disclosing the beauties and perfections of human nature.
I shall now proceed to inquire into the advantages of
physiognomy. Whether a more certain, more accurate,
more extensive, and thereby a more perfect knowledge
of man, be or be not profitable ; whether it be or be not
advantageous to gain a knowledge of internal qualities
from external form and feature, is a question most de-
serving of inquiry. This may be classed first as a general
question, Whether knowledge, its extension and increase,
be of consequence to man ?
Certain it is, that if a man has the power, faculties, and
will to obtain wisdom, that he should exercise those
faculties for the attainment of wisdom. How paradoxical
are those proofs, that science and knowledge are detri-
mental to man, and that a rude state of ignorance is to
10 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
be preferred to all that wisdom can teach ! I here dare
assert, that physiognomy has at least as many claims of
essential advantage as are granted by men in general to
other sciences.
With how much justice may we not grant precedency
to that science which teaches the knowledge of men !
What object is so important to man as man himself?
What knowledge can more influence his happiness than
the knowledge of himself? This advantageous know-
ledge is the peculiar province of physiognomy.
Whoever would wish perfect conviction of the advan-
tages of physiognomy, let him imagine, but for a moment,
that all physiognomical knowledge and sensation were
lost to the world. What confusion, what uncertainty
and absurdity must take place, in millions of instances,
among the actions of men ! How perpetual must be the
vexation of the eternal uncertainty in all which we
should have to transact with each other ; and how in-
finitely would probability, which depends upon a multi-
tude of circumstances more or less distinctly perceived,
be weakened by this privation! From how vast a
number of actions, by which men are honoured and
benefited, must they then desist !
Mutual intercourse is the thing of most consequence
to mankind who are destined to live in society. The
knowledge of man is the soul of this intercourse, that
which imparts animation to it, pleasure, and profit. Let
the physiognomist observe varieties, make minute dis-
. tinctions, establish signs, and invent words, to express
these his remarks ; form general abstract propositions ;
extend and improve physiognomical knowledge, language,
and sensation ; and thus will the uses and advantages of
physiognomy progressively increase.
INTRODUCTION. 11
Physiognomy is a source of the purest, the most ex-
alted sensations ; an additional eye, wherewith to view
the manifold proofs of Divine wisdom and goodness in
the creation, and, while thus viewing unspeakable har-
mony and truth, to excite more ecstatic love for their
adorable Author. Where the dark, inattentive sight of
the inexperienced perceives nothing, there the practical
view of the physiognomist discovers inexhaustible foun-
tains of delight, endearing, moral, and spiritual. With
secret delight, the philanthropic physiognomist discerns
those internal motives which would otherwise be first
revealed in the world to come. He distinguishes what
is permanent in the character from what is habitual,
and what is habitual from what is accidental. He,
therefore, who reads man in this language, reads him
most accurately.
To enumerate all the advantages of physiognomy
would require a large treatise. The most indisputable,
though the most important of these, its advantages, are
those the painter acquires, who, if he be not a physiog-
nomist, is nothing. The greatest is that of forming,
conducting, and improving the human heart.
I shall now say something with respect to the dis-
advantages of physiognomy.
Methinks I hear some worthy man exclaim : " 0 thou,
who hast ever hitherto lived the friend of religion and
virtue ! what is thy present purpose ? What mischief
shall not be wrought by this thy physiognomy ? Wilt
thou teach man the unblessed art of judging his brother
by the ambiguous expressions of his countenance ? Are
there not already sufficient of censoriousness, scandal,
and inspection into the failings of others ? Wilt thou
teach man to read the secrets of the heart, the latent
feelings, and the various errors of thought ?
12 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
" Thou dwellest upon the advantages of the science ;
sayest thou shalt teach men to contemplate the beauty.
of virtue, the hatefulness of vice, and by these means
make them virtuous ; and that thou inspirest us with an
abhorrence ojf vice by obliging us to feel its external
deformity. And what shall be the consequence ? Shall
it not be, that for the appearance, and not the reality of
goodness, man shall wish to be good ? that, vain as he
already is, acting from the desire of praise, and wishing
only to appear what he ought determinately to be, he
will yet become more vain, and will court the praise of
men, not by words and deeds alone, but by assumed
looks and counterfeited forms? Oughtest thou not
rather to weaken this already too powerful motive for
human actions, and to strengthen a better ; to turn the
eyes inward, to teach actual improvement and silent
innocence, instead of inducing him to reason on the out-
ward fair expressions of goodness, or the hateful ones of
wickedness ? "
This is a heavy accusation, and with great appearance
of truth. Yet how easy is defence to me, and how
pleasant, when my opponent accuses me from motives
of philanthropy, and not of splenetic dispute ! The
charge is twofold, censoriousness and vanity. I will
answer these charges separately; and now proceed to
reply to the first objection.
I teach no black art ; no nostrum, the secret of which
I might have concealed, which is a thousand times in-
jurious for once that it is profitable, the discovery of
which is therefore so difficult. I do but teach a science,
the most general, the most palpable, with which all men
are acquainted ; and state rny feelings, observations, and
their consequences.
INTRODUCTION. 13
It ought never to be forgotten, that the very purport
of outward expression is to teach what passes in the
mind, and that to deprive man of this source of know-
ledge were to reduce him to utter ignorance ; that every
man is born with a certain portion of physiognomical
sensation, as certainly as that every man who is not
deformed is born with two eyes ; that all men, in their
intercourse with each other, form physiognomical deci-
sions according as their judgment is more or less clear ;
that it is well known, though physiognomy were never
to be reduced to a science, most men, in proportion as they
have mingled with the world, derive some profit from
their knowledge of mankind, even at the first glance,
and that the same effects were produced long before this
question was in agitation. Whether, therefore, to teach
men to decide with more perspicuity and certainty,
instead of confusedly ; to judge clearly with refined sen-
sations, instead of rudely and erroneously with sensations
more gross ; and, instead of suffering them to wander in
the dark, and venture abortive and injurious judgments,
to learn them by physiognomical experiments, by the
rules of prudence and caution, and the sublime voice of
philanthrophy, to mistrust, to be diffident and slow to
pronounce, where they imagine they discover evil :
whether this, I say, can be injurious, I leave the world
to determine.
I think I may venture to affirm, that very few persons
will, in consequence of this work, begin to judge ill of
others who had not before been guilty of the practice.
The second objection to physiognomy is, that "it
renders men vain, and teaches them to assume a plausible
appearance." The men thou wouldst reform are not
children who are good, and know that they are so ; but
H
men who must, from experience, learn to distinguish
between good and evil; men who, to become perfect,
must necessarily be taught their own various, and con-
sequently their own beneficent, qualities. Let, therefore,
the desire of obtaining approbation from the good, act in
concert with the impulse to goodness. Let this be the
ladder, or, if you please, the crutch, to support tottering
virtue. Suffer men to feel that God has ever branded
vice with deformity, and adorned virtue with inimitable
beauty. Allow man to rejoice when he perceives that
his countenance improves in proportion as his heart is
ennobled; Inform him only that to be good from vain
motives is not actual good, but vanity ; that the orna-
ments of vanity will ever be inferior and ignoble ; and
that the dignified mien of virtue never can be truly
attained but by the actual possession of virtue, unsullied
by the leaven, of vanity.
Let me now say a word or two as to the ease and
difficulties attending the study of physiognomy. To
learn the lowest, the least difficult of sciences, at first
appears an arduous undertaking, when taught by words
or books, and not reduced to actual practice. What
numerous dangers and difficulties might be started
against all the daily enterprises of men, were it not
undeniable that they are performed with facility. How
might not the possibility of making a watch, and still
more a watch worn in a ring, or of sailing over the vast
ocean, and of numberless other arts and inventions, be
disputed, did we not behold them constantly practised ?
How many arguments might be urged against the
practice of physic ? and, though some of them be unan-
swerable, how many are the reverse?
It is not just too hastily to decide on the possible ease
INTRODUCTION. 15
or difficulty of any subject which we have not yet exa-
mined. The simplest may abound with difficulties to
him who has not made frequent experiments ; and, by
frequent experiments, the most difficult may become
easy.
Whoever possesses the slightest capacity for, and has
once acquired the habit of, observation and comparison,
should he see himself daily and incessantly surrounded
by hosts of difficulties, yet he will certainly be able to
make a progress. There is no study, however difficult,
which may not be attained by perseverance and reso-
lution.
We have men constantly before us. In the very
smallest towns there is a continual influx and reflux of
persons of various and opposite characters : among these,
many are known to us without consulting physiognomy;
and that they are patient or choleric, credulous or suspi-
cious, wise or foolish, of moderate or weak capacity, we
are convinced past contradiction. Their countenances
are as widely various as their characters, and these varie-
ties of countenances may each be as accurately drawn as
their varieties of character may be described.
There are men with whom we have daily intercourse,
and whose interests and ours are connected; be their
dissimulation what it may, passion will frequently for a
moment snatch off" the mask, and give us a glance, at
least a side-view, of their true form.
Has Nature bestowed on man the eye and ear, and yet
made her language so difficult, or so entirely unintelli-
gible? And not the eye and ear alone, but feeling,
nerves, internal sensations, and yet has rendered the
language of the superficies so confused, so obscure ? She
who has adapted sound to the ear, and the ear to sound ;
16 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
she who has created light for the eye, and the eye for
light ; she who has taught man so soon to speak, and to
understand speech ; shall she have imparted innumerable
traits and marks of secret inclinations, powers, and pas-
sions, accompanied by perception, sensation, and an im-
pulse to interpret them to his advantage; and, after
bestowing such strong incitements, shall she have denied
him the possibility of quenching this his thirst of know-
ledge ? She who has given him penetration to discover
sciences still more profound, though of much inferior
utility; who has taught him to trace out the paths and
measure the curves of comets ; who has put a telescope
into his hand, that he may view the satellites of the
planets, and has endowed him with the capability of cal-
culating their eclipses through revolving ages ; shall so
kind a mother have denied her children — her truth -
seeking pupils, her noble philanthropic offspring, who
are so willing to admire and rejoice in the majesty of the
Most High, viewing man his masterpiece — the power of
reading the ever-present, ever-open book of the human
countenance ; of reading man, the most beautiful of all
her works, the compendium of all things, the mirror of
the Deity ?
Awake ! view man in all his infinite forms ! Look,
for thou mayest eternally learn ; shake off thy sloth, and
behold ! Meditate on its importance ; take, resolution to
thyself, and the most difficult shall become easy.
Let me now mention the difficulties attending this
study. There is a peculiar circumstance attending the
starting of difficulties. There are some who possess the
particular gift of discovering and inventing difficulties,
without number or limits, on the most common and easy
subjects. I shall be brief en the innumerable difficulties
INTRODUCTION 17
of physiognomy ; because, it not being my intention to
cite them all in this place, the most important will occa-
sionally be noticed and answered in the course of the
work. I have an additional motive to be brief, which
is, that most of these difficulties are included in the in-
describable minuteness of innumerable traits of character,
or the impossibility of seizing, expressing, and analyzing
certain sensations and observations.
Nothing can be more certain than that the smallest
shades, which are scarcely discernible to an inexperiened
eye, frequently denote total opposition of character. How
wonderfully may the expression of countenance and
character be altered by a small inflexion or diminishing,
lengthening or sharpening, even though but of a hair's
breadth !
How difficult, how impossible, must this variety of
the same countenance, even in the most accurate of the
arts of imitation, render precision ! How often does it
happen that the seat of character is so hidden, so envel-
oped, so masked, that it can only be caught in certain,
and perhaps uncommon, positions of the countenance ;
which will again be changed, and the signs all disappear,
before they have made any durable impression ! or, sup-
posing the impression made, these distinguishing traits
may be so difficult to seize, that it shall be impossible to
paint, much less to engrave, or describe them by language.
It is with physiognomy as with all other objects of
taste, literal or figurative, of sense or of spirit. How
many thousand accidents, great and small, physical and
moral ; how many secret incidents, alterations, passions ;
how often will dress, position, light and shade, and innu-
merable discordant circumstances, show the countenance
so disadvantageously, or, to speak more properly, betray
c
18 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
the physiognomist into a false judgment on the true
qualities of the countenance and character ! How easily
may these occasion him to overlook the essential traits
of character, and form his judgment on what is wholly
accidental ! How surprisingly may the small-pox, during
life, disfigure the countenance ! How may it destroy,
confuse, or render the most decisive traits imperceptible !
We will therefore grant the opposer of physiognomy
all he can ask, although we do not live without hope
that many of the difficulties shall be resolved, which at
first appeared to the reader and to the author inexpli-
cable.*
It is highly incumbent upon me that I should not
lead my readers to expect more from me than I am able
to perform. Whoever publishes a considerable work on
physiognomy, gives his readers apparently to understand
that he is much better acquainted with the subject than
any of his contemporaries. Should an error escape him,
he exposes himself to the severest ridicule ; he is con-
temned, at least by those who do not read him, for pre-
tensions which probably they suppose him to make, but
which in reality he does not make.
The God of truth, and all who know me, will bear
testimony, that from my whole soul I despise deceit, as
I do all silly claims to superior wisdom and infallibility,
which so many writers, by a thousand artifices, endeavour
to make their readers imagine they possess.
First, therefore, I declare, what I have uniformly
declared on all occasions, although the persons who
speak of me and my works endeavour to conceal it from
themselves and others, that I understand but little of
* The following lines, to the end of the Introduction, contain Mr.
Lavater's own remarks on himself.
INTRODUCTION. 19
physiognomy ; that I have been, and continue daily to
be, mistaken in my judgment ; but these errors are the
most natural and most certain means of correcting, con-
firming, and extending my knowledge.
It will probably not be disagreeable to many of my
readers to be informed, in part, of the progress of my
mind in this study.
Before I reached the twenty-fifth year of my age, there
was nothing I should have supposed more improbable
than that I should make the smallest inquiries concern-
ing, much less that I should write a book on, physio-
gnomy. I was neither inclined to read nor make the
slightest 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 pro-
pensity to drawing, and especially to drawing of por-
traits, although I had but little genius or perseverance.
By this practice my latent feelings began partly to un-
fold 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 atten-
tion ; and my astonishment increased when I received
certain proofs that these persons were as similar in
character as ID feature.
20 LA.VATEU'8 PHYSIOGNOMY.
I was afterwards induced by M. Zimmerman, physi-
cian 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 physio-
gnomy 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 opportu-
nities of confessing my deficiency in various branches of
science, without which it is impossible to study physio-
gnomy with that firmness and certainty which are requi-
site. 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 physio-
THE NATURE OF MAX. 21
gnomy, or than that this truth may be demonstrated ;
and that I hold him to be a weak and simple person
who shall affirm that j;he effects of the impressions made
upon him by all possible human countenances are equal.
CHAPTEE II.
On the nature of Man, which is the foundation of the
science of Physiognomy — Difference between Physio-
gnomy 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 enume-
rate 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 won-
derfully 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
compounded and harmonized.
To know, to desire, to act, or accurately to observe
and meditate, to perceive and to wish, to possess the
power of motion and resistance — these, combined, con-
stitute 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 obser-
vation, as he likewise is himself tb£ most worthy observer
22 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
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 physio-
gnomy, 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 organi-
zation, show him to be infinitely superior to all those
visible beings by which he is surrounded. We are un-
acquainted with any form equally noble, equally
THE NATURE OF MAX. 23
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
he raises his head to heaven. He looks forward to
infinitude; he acts with facility and swiftness incon-
ceivable, 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 height,
capable of so many changes and such variety of motion,
prove to the unprejudiced observer his superior emi-
nent strength, and astonishing facility of action. The
high excellence and physiological unity of human nature,
are visible at the first glance. The head, especially the
face and the formation of the firm parts, compared to
the firm parts of other animals, convince the accurate
observer who is capable of investigating truth, of the
greatness and superiority of his intellectual qualities.
The eye, the look, the cheeks, the mouth, the forehead,
whether considered in a state of entire rest, or during
their innumerable varieties of motion — in fine, whatever
is understood by physiognomy — are the most expressive,
the most convincing picture of interior sensation, desires,
passions, will, and of all those properties which so much
exalt moral above animal life.
Although the physiological, intellectual, and moral
24 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
life of man, with all their subordinate powers and their
constituent parts, so eminently unite in one being ; al-
though these three kinds of life do not, like three
distinct families, reside in separate parts or stories of
the body, but coexist in one point, and by their com-
bination form one whole ; yet it is plain that each of
these powers of life has its peculiar station where it
more especially unfolds itself and acts.
It is beyond contradiction evident, that, though phy-
siological or animal life displays itself through all the
body, and especially through all the animal parts, yet it
acts more conspicuously in the arm, from the shoulder
to the ends of the fingers.
It is not less evident that intellectual life, or the
power of the understanding and the mind, make them-
selves most apparent in the circumference and form of
the solid parts of the head, especially the forehead;
though they will discover themselves to an attentive
and accurate eye in every part and point of the human
body, by the congeniality and harmony of the various
parts. Is there any occasion to prove that the power
of thinking resides neither in the foot, in the hand,
nor in the back, but in the head and in its internal
parts ?
The moral life of man particularly reveals itself in the
lines, marks, and transitions of the countenance. His
moral powers and desires; his irritability, sympathy,
and antipathy ; his facility of attracting or repelling the
objects that surround him : these are all summed up in,
and painted upon his countenance when at rest. When
any passion is called into action, such passion is depicted
by the motion of the muscles, and these motions are
accompanied by a strong palpitation of the heart. If the
THE NATURE OF MAN. 25
countenance be tranquil, it always denotes tranquillity
in the region of the heart and breast.
This threefold life of man, so intimately interwoven
through his frame, is still capable of being studied in
its different appropriate parts ; and, did we live in a less
depraved world, we should find sufficient data for the
science of physiognomy.
The animal life, the lowest and most earthly, would
discover itself from the rim of the belly to the organs of
generation, which would become its central or focal
point. The middle or moral life would be seated in the
breast, and the heart would be its central point. The
intellectual life, which of the three is supreme, would
reside in the head, and have the eye for its centre. If
we take the countenance as the representative and epi-
tome of the three divisions, then will the forehead to
the eyebrows be the mirror or image of the understand-
ing ; the nose and cheeks, the image of the moral and
sensitive life ; and the mouth and chin, the image of the
animal life ; while the eye will be to the whole as its
summary and centre.
All that has been hitherto advanced is so clear, so
well known, so universal, that we should blush to insist
upon such common-place truths, were they not, first, the
foundation on which we must build all we have to pro-
pose ; and, again, had not these truths (can it be believed
by futurity ?) in this our age been so many thousand
times mistaken and contested with the most inconceiv-
able affectation.
The science of physiognomy, whether understood in
the most enlarged or most confined sense, indubitably
depends on these general and incontrovertible principles;
yet, incontrovertible as they are, they have not been
26 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
without their opponents. Men pretend to doubt of the
most striking, the most convincing, the most self-evident
truths ; although, were these destroyed, neither truth nor
knowledge would remain. They do not profess to doubt
concerning the physiognomy of other natural objects;
yet do they doubt the physiognomy of human nature —
the first object the most worthy of contemplation, and
the most animated the realms of nature contain.
We have already hinted to our readers, that they are
to expect only fragments on physiognomy from us, and
not a perfect system. However, what has been said
may serve as a sketch for such a system. We shall
conclude this chapter with showing the difference be-
tween Physiognomy and Pathognomy.
Physiognomy is the science or knowledge of the cor-
respondence between the external and internal man, the
visible superficies and the invisible contents. Physio-
gnomy, opposed to pathognomy, is the knowledge of the
signs of the powers and inclinations of men — pathognomy
is the knowledge of the signs of the passions. Physio-
gnomy therefore teaches the knowledge of character at
rest, and pathognomy of character in motion. Character
at rest, is taught by the form of the solid and the appear-
ance of the moveable parts while at rest. Character
impassioned, is manifested by the moveable parts in
motion.
Physiognomy may be compared to the sum-total of
the mind ; pathognomy, to the interest which is the pro-
duct of this sum-total. The former shows what man is
in general, the latter what he becomes at particular
moments ; or, the one what he might be, the other what
he is. The first is the root and stem of the second, the
soil in which it is planted. Whoever believes the latter
SIGNS OF STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 27
and not the former, believes in fruit without a tree, in
corn without land.
CHAPTER III.
Signs of Bodily Strength and Weakness — Of Health
and Sickness.
WE call that human body strong which can easily
alter other bodies without being easily altered itself.
The more immediately it can act, and the less immedi-
ately it can be acted upon, the greater is its strength ; and
the weaker, the less it can act or withstand the action of
others. There is a tranquil strength, the essence of
which is immobility; and there is an active strength,
the essence of which is motion. The one has motion,
the other stability, in an extraordinary degree. There
is the strength of the rock and the elasticity of the
spring.
There is the Herculean strength of bones and' sinews ;
thick, firm, compact, and immoveable as a pillar.
There are heroes less Herculean, less firm, sinewy,
large ; less set, less rocky ; who yet, when roused, when
opposed in their activity, will meet oppression with so
much strength, will resist weight with such elastic force,
as scarcely to be equalled by the most muscular strength.
The elephant has native, bony strength. Irritated or
not, he bears prodigious burdens, and crushes all on
which he treads. An irritated wasp has strength of a
totally different kind; but both have compactness for
their foundation, and especially the firmness of con-
struction. All porosity destroys strength.
The strength, like the understanding of a man, is
28 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
discovered by its being more or less compact. The
elasticity of a body has signs so remarkable, that they
will not permit us to confound such body with one that
is not elastic. How manifest are the varieties of strength
between the foot of an elephant and a stag, a wasp and
a fly!
Tranquil, firm strength, is shown in the proportions
of the form, which ought rather to be short than long.
In the thick neck, the broad shoulders, and the counte-
nance, which, in a state of health, is rather bony than
fleshy. In the short, compact, and knotty forehead;
and especially when the sinus frontales are visible, but
not too far projecting ; flat in the middle, or suddenly
indented, but not in smooth cavities. In horizontal eye-
brows, situated near the eye. Deep eyes and steadfast
look. In the broad, firm nose, bony near the forehead,
especially in its straight angular outlines. In short,
thick, curly hair of the head and beard ; broad teeth,
standing close to each other. In compact lips, of which
the under rather projects than retreats. In the strong,
prominent, broad chin. In the strong, projecting os
occipitis. In the bass voice, the firm step, and in sitting
still.
Elastic strength, the living power of irritability, must
be discovered in the moment of action; and the firm
signs must afterwards be abstracted when the irritated
power is once more at rest. " This body, therefore, which
at rest was capable of so little, acted and resisted so
weakly, can, thus irritated, and with this degree of
tension, become thus powerful." We shall find on
inquiry that this strength, awakened by irritation,
generally resides in thin, tall, but not very tall, and
bony rather than muscular bodies ; in bodies of dark or
SIGNS OF STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 29
pale complexions ; of rapid motion, joined with a certain
kind of stiffness ; of hasty and firm walk ; of fixed pene-
trating look ; and with open lips, but easily and accu-
rately to be closed.
Signs of weakness are, disproportionate length of body ;
much flesh; little bone; extension; a tottering frame;
a loose skin ; round, obtuse, and particularly hollow out-
lines of the forehead and nose ; smallness of nose and
chin ; little nostrils ; the retreating chin ; long, cylindri-
cal neck; the walk very hasty or languid, without
firmness of step; the timid aspect; closing eyelids;
open mouth ; long teeth ; the jawbone long, but bent
towards the ear ; whiteness of complexion ; teeth inclined
to be yellow or green ; fair, long, and tender hair ; shrill
voice.
I shall now proceed to consider Medicinal Semeiotics,
or the signs of health and sickness. Not I, but an experi-
enced physician, ought to write on the physiognomical
and pathognomical semeiotica of health and sickness,
and describe the physiological character of the body,
and its propensities to this or that disorder. I am beyond
description ignorant with respect to the nature of dis-
orders and their signs : still may I, in consequence of
the few observations I have made, declare with some
certainty, by repeatedly examining the firm parts and
outlines of the bodies and countenances of the sick, that
it is not difficult to predict what are the diseases to
which the man in health is most liable.
Of what infinite importance would such physiognomi-
cal semeiotics, or prognostics of possible or probable
disorders, be, founded on the nature and form of the
body ! How essential were it, could the physician say to
the healthy, "You naturally have, some time in your life,
30
to expect this or that disorder. Take the necessary pre-
cautions against such or such a disease. The virus of
the small-pox slumbers in your body, and may thus or
thus be put in motion : thus the hectic, thus the inter-
mittent, and thus the putrid fever." Oh, how worthy,
Zimmerman, would a treatise on physiognomical dicetetice
(or regimen) be of thee !
Whoever shall read this author's work on experience,
will see how characteristically he describes various dis-
eases which originate in the passions. Some quotations
from this work, which will justify my wish, and contain
the most valuable semeiotical remarks, cannot be unac-
ceptable to the reader : —
" The observing mind examines the physiognomy of
the sick, the signs of which extend over the whole body ;
but the progress and change of the disease is principally
to be found in the countenance and its parts. Some-
times the patient carries the marks of his disease ; in
burning, bilious, and hectic fevers ; in the chlorosis ; the
common and black jaundice ; in worm cases." I, who
know so little of physic, have several times discovered
the disease of the tape- worm in the countenance.
" In the furor uterinus the least observant can read
the disease. The more the countenance is changed in
burning fevers, the greater is the danger. A man whose
natural aspect is mild and calm, but who stares at me,
with a florid complexion, and wildness in his eyes, prog-
nosticates an approaching delirium. I have likewise
seen a look indescribably wild, accompanied by paleness,
when nature, in an inflammation of the lungs, was com-
ing to a crisis, and the patient was becoming excessively
cold and frantic. The countenance relaxed, the lips
pale and hanging, in burning fevers, are bad symptoms,
SIGNS OF HEALTH AND SICKNESS. 31
as they denote great debility ; and if the change and
decay of the countenance be sudden, the danger is great.
When the nose is pointed, the face of a lead colour, and
the lips livid, inflammation has produced gangrene.
"There is frequently something dangerous to be
observed in the countenance, which cannot be known
from other symptoms, and which yet is very significant.
Much is to be observed in the eyes. Boerhaave
examined the eyes of the patient with a magnifying glass,
that he might see if the blood entered the smaller
vessels. Hippocrates held that the avoiding of light,
involuntary tears, squinting, one eye less than the other,
the white of the eye inflamed, the small veins inclined
to be black, too much swelled, or too much sunken,
were each and all bad symptoms.
" The motion of the patient, and his position in bed,
ought likewise to be enumerated among the particular
symptoms of disease. The hand carried to the forehead,
waved, or groping in the air, scratching on the wall, and
pulling up the bed-clothes, are of this kind. The
position in bed is a very significant sign of the internal
situation of the patient, and therefore deserves every
attention. The more unusual the position is in any
inflammatory disease, the more certainly we may con-
clude that the anguish is great, and consequently the
danger. Hippocrates has described the position of the
sick in such cases with an accuracy that leaves nothing
to be desired. The best position in sickness is the usual
position in health."
I shall add some other remarks from this physician
and physiognomist, whose abilities are superior to envy,
ignorance, and quackery. " Swift was lean while he was
the prey of ambition, chagrin, and ill-temper ; but, after
32 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
the loss of his understanding, he became fat." His de-
scription of envy, and its effects on the body, is incompa-
rable : — " The effects of envy are visible, even in children.
They become thin, and easily fall into consumptions.
Envy takes away the appetite and sleep, and causes
feverish motion ; it produces gloom, shortness of breath,
impatience, restlessness, and a narrow chest. The good
name of others, on which it seeks to avenge itself by
slander, and feigned but not real contempt, hangs like
the sword suspended by a hair over the head of envy,
that continually wishes to torture others, and is itself
continually on the rack. The laughing simpleton be-
comes disturbed as soon as envy, that worst of fiends,
takes possession of him, and he perceives that he vainly
labours to debase that merit which he cannot rival. His
eyes roll, he knits his forehead, he becomes morose,
peevish, and hangs his lips. There is, it is true, a kind
of envy that arrives at old age. Envy in her dark cave,
possessed by toothless furies, there hoards her poison,
which, with infernal wickedness, she endeavours to eject
over each worthy person and honourable act. She de-
fends the cause of vice, endeavours to confound right
and wrong, and vitally wounds the purest innocence."
CHAPTER IV.
Of ike Congeniality of the Human Form.
THE same vital powers that make the heart beat, give
motion to the finger ; that which roofs the skull, arches
the finger-nail. Art is at variance with herself : not so
Nature. Her creation is progressive. From the head
to the back, from the shoulder to the arm, from the arm
CONGENIALITY OF THE HUMAN FORM. 33
to the hand, and from the hand to the finger ; from the
root to the stem, the stem to the branch, the branch to
the twig, the twig to the blossom and fruit, each depends
on the other, and all on the root : each is similar in
nature and form. There is a determinate effect of a
determinate power. Through all nature each deter-
minate power is productive only of such and such
determinate effects. The finger of one body is not
adapted to the hand of another body. Each part of an
organized body is an image of the whole. The blood in
the extremity of the finger has the character of the blood
in the heart. The same congeniality is found in the
nerves, in the bones. One spirit lives in all. Each
member of the body is in proportion to that whole of
which it is a part. As from the length of the smallest
member, the smallest joint of the finger, the proportion
of the whole, the length and breadth of the body, may
be found ; so also may the form of the whole from the
form of each single part. When the head is long all is
long, or round when the head is round, or square when
it is square. One form, one mind, one root, appertain to
all : therefore is each organized body so much a whole,
that, without discord, destruction, or deformity, nothing
can be added or diminished.
Every thing in man is progressive ; every thing con-
genial; form, stature, complexion, hair, skin, veins,
nerves, bones, voice, walk, manner, style, passion, love,
hatred. One and the same spirit is manifest in alL He
has ' a determinate sphere in which his powers and
sensations are allowed, within which they may be freely
exercised, but beyond which he cannot pass. Each
countenance is indeed subject to momentary change,
though not perceptible, even in its solid parts; but
D
34 LAVATEB'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
these changes are ail proportionate : each is measured,
each proper and peculiar to the countenance in which it
takes place. The capability of change is limited. Even
that which is affected, assumed, imitated, heterogeneous,
still has the properties of the individual originating in
the nature of the whole, and is so definite that it is only
possible in this, but in no other being.
I almost blush to repeat this in the present age.
What, Posterity, wilt thou suppose, thus to see me so
often obliged to demonstrate to pretended sages that
nature makes no emendation ? She labours from one
to all Hers is not disjointed organization nor mosaic
work. The more there is of the mosaic in the works of
artists, orators, or poets, the less are they natural ; the
less do they resemble the copious streams of the foun-
tain ; the stem extending itself to the remotest branch.
The more there is of progression, the more there is of
truth, power, and nature ; the more extensive, general,
durable, and noble is the effect. The designs of nature
are the designs of a moment ; one form, one spirit, appear
through the whole. Thus nature forms her least plant,
and thus her most exalted man. I shall have effected
nothing by my physiognomical labours, if I am not able
to destroy that opinion, so tasteless, so unworthy of the
age, so opposite to all sound philosophy, that nature
patches up the features of various countenances, in order
to make one perfect countenance; and I shall think
them well rewarded, if the congeniality, uniformity, and
agreement of human organization be so demonstrated,
that he who shall deny it will be declared to deny the
light of the sun at noonday.
The human body is a plant, each part of which has
the character of the stem. Suffer me to repeat this con-
CONGENIALITY OF THE HUMAN FOR3I. 35
tinually, since this most evident of all things is continu-
ally controverted, among all ranks of men, in words,
deeds, books, end works of art. I, therefore, mid the
greatest incongruities in the heads of the greatest masters.
I know no painter of whom I can say he has thoroughly
studied the harmony of the human outline, not evi-n
Poussin — no, not even Eaphael himself. Let any one
class the forms of their countenances, and compare them
with the forms of nature. Let him, for instance, draw
the outlines of their foreheads, and endeavour to lind
similar outlines in nature, and he will find incongruities
which could not have been expected in such great
masters.
Chodowiecki, excepting the too great length and
extent, particularly of his human figures, perhaps had
the most exact feeling of congeniality in caricature ; that
is to say, of the relative propriety of the deformed, tin;
humorous, or other characteristical members and features.
For as there is conformity and congeniality in the beau-
tiful, so is there also in the deformed. Every cripple
has the distortion peculiar to himself, the effects of which
are extended to his whole body. In like manner, the
evil actions of the evil, and the good actions of the good,
have a conformity of character; at least they are all
tinged with this conformity of character.
Little as this seems to be remarked by poets and
painters, still is it the foundation of their art ; for wher-
ever emendation is visible, there admiration is at an end.
Why has no painter yet been pleased to place the blue
eye beside the brown one ? Yet, absurd as this would
be, no less absurd are the incongruities continually en-
countered by the physiognomical eye — the nose of Venus
on the head of Madona. I have been assured by a man
36 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
of fashion, that at a masquerade, with only the aid of an
artificial nose, he entirely concealed himself from the
knowledge of all his acquaintance. So much does nature
reject what does not appertain to herself.
I have never yet met with one Eoman nose among a
hundred circular foreheads in profile. In a hundred
other square foreheads, I have scarcely found one in
which there were not cavities and prominences. I never
yet saw a perpendicular forehead with strongly arched
features in the lower part of the countenance, the double
chin excepted.
I meet no strong-bowed eyebrows combined with
bony perpendicular countenances.
Wherever the forehead is projecting, so in general are
the under lips, children excepted.
I have never seen gently arched, yet much retreating
foreheads, combined with a short snub nose, which in
profile is sharp and sunken.
A visible nearness of the nose to the eye, is always
attended by a visible wideness between the nose and
mouth.
A long covering of the teeth, or, in other words, a long
space between the nose and mouth, always indicates
small upper lips. Length of form and face is generally
attended by well-drawn fleshy lips.
I shall at present produce but one more example,
which will convince all who possess acute physiognomi-
cal sensation, how great is the harmony of all nature's
forms, and how much she hates the incongruous.
Take two, three, or four shades of men remarkable for
understanding ; join the features so artificially that no
defect shall appear as far as relates to the act of joining ;
that is, take the forehead of one, add the nose of a
CONGENIALITY OF THE HUMAN FORM. 37
second, the mouth of a third, the chin of a fourth, and
the result of this combination of the signs of wisdom
shall be folly. Folly is, perhaps, nothing more than the
emendation of some heterogeneous addition. " But let
these four wise countenances be supposed congruous."
Let them so be supposed, or as nearly so as possible, still
their combination will produce the signs of folly.
Those, therefore, who maintain that conclusion can-
not be drawn from a part, from a single section of the
profile, to the whole, would be perfectly right if un-
arbitrary nature patched up countenances like arbitrary
art; but so she does not. Indeed, when a man, being
born with understanding, becomes a fool, there expression
of heterogeneousness is the consequence. Either the
lower part of the countenance extends itself, or the eyes
acquire a direction not conformable to the forehead, the
mouth cannot remain closed, or the features of the
countenance, in some other manner, lose their consistency :
all becomes discord ; and folly, in such a countenance, is
very manifest. Let him who would study physiognomy
study the relation of the. constituent parts of the coun-
tenance : not having studied these, he has studied
nothing.
He only is an accurate physiognomist, and has the
true spirit of physiognomy, who possesses sense, feeling,
and sympathetic proportion of the congeniality and
harmony of nature ; and who hath a similar sense and
feeling for all emendations and additions of art and
constraint. He is no physiognomist who doubts of the
propriety, simplicity, and harmony of nature, or who
has not this physiognomical essential ; who supposes
nature selects members to form a whole, as a compositor
in a printing-office does letters to make up a word ; who
38 LAYATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
can suppose the works of nature are the patchwork of a
harlequin jacket. Not the most insignificant of insects
is so compounded, much less man, the most perfect of
organized beings. He respires not the breath of wisdom
who doubts of this progression, continuity, and simplicity
of the structure of nature. He wants a general feeling
for the works of nature ; consequently of art, the imita-
tor of nature. I shall be pardoned this warmth. It is
necessary. The consequences are infinite, and extend to
all things. He has the master-key of truth who has
this sensation of the congeniality of nature, and, by
necessary induction, of the human form.
All imperfection in works of art, productions of the
mind, moral actions, errors in judgment ; all scepticism,
infidelity, and ridicule of religion, naturally originate in
the want of this knowledge and sensation. He soars
above all doubt of the Divinity and Christ who hath
them, and who is conscious of this congeniality. He also
who, at first sight, thoroughly understands and feels the
congeniality of the human form, and that from the want
of this congeniality arises the difference observed between
the works of nature and of art, is superior to all doubt
concerning the truth and divinity of the human coun-
tenance.
Those who have this sense, this feeling, call it which
you please, will attribute that only, and nothing more,
to each countenance which it is capable of receiving.
They will consider each according to its kind, and will
as little seek to add a heterogeneous character as a
heterogeneous nose to the face. Such will only unfold
what nature is desirous of unfolding, give what nature
is capable of receiving, and take away that with which
nature would not be encumbered. They will perceive in
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 39
the child, pupil, friend, or wife, when any discordant
trait of character makes its appearance; and will
endeavour to restore the original congeniality, the
equilibrium of character and impulse, by acting upon
the still remaining harmony, by co-operating with the
yet unimpaired essential powers. They will consider
each sin, each vice, as destructive of this harmony;
will feel how much each departure from truth in the
human form, at least to eyes more penetrating than
human eyes are, must be manifest, must distort, and
must become displeasing to the Creator, by rendering it
unlike his image. Who, therefore, can judge better of
the works and actions of man ; who less offend or be
offended; who more clearly develop cause and effect,
than the physiognomist, possessed of a full portion of
this knowledge and sensation ?
CHAPTER V.
Description of Plates I. and II.
WE shall occasionally introduce some figures, in order
to support and elucidate those opinions and propositions
which may be advanced. These plates refer to objects
that have been already alluded to in the preceding
pages.
Description of Plate I. Number I.
This is a boldly sketched portrait of ALBERT DUKER.
Whoever examines this countenance cannot but perceive
in it the traits of fortitude, deep penetration, determined
perseverance, and inventive genius. At least, every one
will acknowledge the truth of these observations when
made.
40 LAYATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
Number 2. FAP. MONCRIF.
There are few men capable of observation who will
class this visage with the stupid. In the aspect, the eye,
the nose especially, and the mouth, are proofs, not to be
mistaken, of the accomplished gentleman and the man
of taste.
Number 3. DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
The most unpractised eye will easily discover in this
sketch of Johnson, the acute, the comprehensive, the
capacious mind, not easily deceived, and rather inclined
to suspicion than credulity.
Number 4. W. SHAKSPEARE.
How deficient must all outlines be ! Among ten
thousand can one be found that is exact ? Where is the
outline that can portray genius? Yet, who does not
read in this outline, imperfect as it is, from pure physio-
gnomical sensation, the clear, the capacious, the rapid
mind, all conceiving, all embracing that, with equal
swiftness and facility, imagines, creates, produces ?
Number 5. L. STERNE.
The most unpractised reader in physiognomy will not
deny to this countenance all the keen, the searching
penetration of wit, the most original fancy, full of fire,
and the powers of invention. "Who is so dull as not to
view in this countenance somewhat 6f the spirit of poor
Yorick ?
Number 6. S. CLARKE.
Perspicuity, benevolence, dignity, serenity, dispas-
sionate meditation, the powers of conception and perse-
verance, are the most apparent characteristics of this
1 'la i,- 11.
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 41
countenance. He who can hate such a face, must labo-
riously counteract all those physiognomical sensations
with which he was born.
Description of Plate II.
Hitherto we have beheld nature in the most perfect
of her productions : we must now view the reverse : we
must proceed to contemplate her in her deformity. In
this also, how intelligibly does she speak to the eyes of
all at the first glance !
Number 1.
Who does not here read reason debased, and stupidity
almost sunken to brutality ? This eye, these wrinkles
of a lowering forehead, this projecting mouth, the whole
position of the head, do they not all denote manifest
dulness and debility ?
Number 2. A Fool.
From the small eyes in this figure, the open mouth,
particularly from the under part of the countenance, no
man whatever will expect penetration, reasoning, or
wisdom.
Number 3.
True or false, nature or caricature, this countenance
will, to the common sensations of all men, depict an
inhuman and brutal character. It is impossible that
brutality should be overlooked in the nose and mouth,
or in the eye, though still it deserves to be called a
human eye.
Number 4.
Let us proceed to the characters of passion, which are
intelligible to every child; so that concerning these
42 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
there can be no dispute, if we are in any degree ac-
quainted with their language. The more violent th(?
passion is, the more apparent are its signs. The effect
of the stiller passions is to contract, and of -the violent
to distend the muscles. Every one will perceive in this
countenance fear mingled with abhorrence.
Number 5.
No man will expect cheerfulness, tranquillity, content,
strength of mind, and magnanimity, from this counte-
nance. Fear and terror are here strongly marked.
Number 6.
Terror, heightened by native indocility of character,
is here strongly marked.
Such examples might be produced without end ; but
to adduce some of the most decisive of the various
classes is sufficient. We shall give some farther speci-
mens hereafter.
CHAPTER VI.
The universal Excellence of the Form of Man.
EACH creature is indispensable in the immensity of
God's creation ; but each creature does not know it is
thus indispensable. Of all earth's creatures, man alone
rejoices in his indispensability. No man can render any
other man dispensable. The place of no man can be
supplied by another.
This belief of the indispensability and individuality
of all men, and in our own metaphysical indispensability
and individuality, is one of the unacknowledged, the
noble fruits of physiognomy; a fruit pregnant with most
EXCELLENCE OF THE HUMAN FOR1T. 43
precious seed, whence shall spring lenity and love. Oh,
may posterity behold them nourish ! may future ages
repose under their shade ! The most deformed, the most
corrupt of men, is still indispensable in this world of
God, and is more or less capable of knowing his own
individuality and unsuppliable indispensability. The
wickedest, the most deformed of men, is still more noble
than the most beauteous and perfect animal. Contem-
plate, 0 man ! what thy nature is, not what it might be,
not what is wanting. Humanity, amid all its distortions,
will ever remain wondrous humanity !
Incessantly might I repeat doctrines like this. Art
thou better, more beauteous, nobler, than many others
of thy fellow-creatures ? If so, rejoice, and ascribe it
not to thyself, but to Him who, from the same clay,
formed one vessel for honour, another for dishonour;
to Him who, without thy advice, without thy prayer,
without any desert of thine, caused thee to be what
thou art.
Yea, to Him ! " for what hast thou, 0 man ! that thou
didst not receive ? Now, if thou didst receive, why dost
thou glory as if thou hadst not received?" "Can the
eye say to the hand, I have no need of thee ? " " He
that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker." " God
hath made of one blood all nations of men." Who more
deeply, more internally, feels all these divine truths than
the physiognomist ? the true physiognomist, who is not
merely a man of literature, a reader, a reviewer, an author,
but — a man !
I am ready to acknowledge that the most humane
physiognomist, he who so eagerly searches whatever is
good, beautiful, and noble in nature; who delights in
the ideal; who duly exercises, nourishes, refines his
44 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
taste, with humanity more improved, more perfect, more
holy; even he is in frequent danger, at least is fre-
quently tempted, to turn from the common herd of
depraved men — from the deformed, the foolish, the apes,
the hypocrites, the vulgar of mankind ; in danger of for-
getting that these misshapen forms, these apes, these
hypocrites, also are men ; and that, notwithstanding all
his imagined or his real excellence, all his noble feelings,
the purity of his views, (and who has cause to boast of
these ?) all the firmness, the soundness of his reason, the
feelings of his heart, the powers with which he is en-
dowed, still he is very probably, from his own moral
defects, in the eyes of his superior beings, in the eyes of
his much more righteous brother, as distorted as the
most ridiculous, most depraved moral or physical mon-
ster appears to be in his eyes.
Liable as we are to forget this, reminding is necessary
both to the writer and reader of this work. Forget not
that even the wisest of men are men. Forget not how
much *positve good may be found even in the worst, and
that they are as necessary, as good in their place, as thou
art. Are they not equally indispensable, equally un-
suppliable ? They possess not, either in mind or body,
the smallest thing exactly as thou dost. Each is wholly,
and in every part as individual as thou art. Consider
each as if he were single in the universe ; then wilt thou
discover powers and excellences in him which, abstract-
edly of comparision, deserve all attention and admiration.
Compare him afterwards with others, his similarity, his
dissimilarity to so many of his fellow-creatures. How
must this incite thy amazement ! How wilt thou value
the individuality, the indispensability of his being!
How wilt thou wonder at the harmony of his parts, each
EXCELLENCE OF THE HUMAN FORM. 45
contributing to form one whole ; at their relation, the
relation of his million-fold individuality, to such mul-
titudes of other individuals ! Yes, we wonder at and
adore the so simple, yet so infinitely varied expression
of Almighty power inconceivable, so especially and so
gloriously revealed in the nature of man.
No man ceases to be a man, how low soever he may sink
beneath the dignity of human nature. Not being beast,
he still is capable of amendment, of approaching perfec-
tion. The worst of faces still is a human face. Humanity
ever continues the honour and ornament of man.
It is as impossible for a brute animal to become man,
although he may in many actions approach, or almost
surpass him, as for man to become a brute ; although
many men indulge themselves in actions which we can-
not view in brutes without abhorrence.
But the very capacity of voluntarily debasing him-
self in appearance even below brutality, is the honour
and privilege of man. This very capacity of imitating
all things by an act of his will and the powers of his
understanding, this very capacity man only has, beasts
have not. The countenances of beasts are not suscep-
tible of any remarkable deterioration, nor are they
capable of any remarkable amelioration or beautifying.
The worst of the countenances of men may be still more
debased; but they may also, to a certain degree, be
improved and ennobled.
The degree of perfection or degradation of which
man is capable, cannot be described. For this reason
the worst countenance has a well-founded claim to the
notice, esteem, and hope of all good men. Again, in
every human countenance, however debased, humanity
is still visible ; that is, the image of the Deity.
46 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
I have seen the worst of men in their worst of
moments ; yet could not all their vice, blasphemy, and
oppression of guilt, extinguish the light of good that
shone in their countenances, the spirit of humanity, the
ineffaceable traits of internal, external perfectibility.
The sinner we would exterminate, the man we must
embrace. 0, physiognomy, what a pledge art thou of
the everlasting clemency of God towards man ! 0, man,
rejoice with whatever rejoices in its existence, and
condemn no being whom God doth not condemn !
CHAPTEE VII.
Of the Forehead.
I SHALL appropriate this and some of the following
chapters to remarks on certain individual parts of the
human body. The following are my own remarks on
foreheads : —
The form, height, arching, proportion, obliquity, and
position of the skull or bone of the forehead, show the
propensity, degree of power, thought, and sensibility of
man ; the covering or skin of the forehead, its position,
colour, wrinkles, and tension, denote the passions and
present state of the mind. The bones give the internal
quantity, and their covering the application of power.
Though the skin be wrinkled, the forehead bones
remain unaltered ; but this wrinking varies according to
the various forms of the bones. A certain degree of
flatness produces certain wrinkles ; a certain arching is
attended by certain other wrinkles ; so that the wrinkles,
separately considered will give the arching; and this,
THE FOREHEAD. 47
vice versa, will give the wrinkles. Certain foreheads
can only have perpendicular, others horizontal, others
curved, and others mixed and confused, wrinkles. Cup-
formed (smooth) cornerless foreheads, when they are
in motion, commonly have the simplest and least per-
plexed wrinkles.
I consider the peculiar delineation of the outline and
position of the forehead, which has been left unattempted
by ancient and modern physiognomists, to be the most
important of all the things presented to physiognomical
observation. Wo may divide foreheads, considered in
profile, into three principal classes, the retreating, the
perpendicular, and the projecting. Each of these classes
has a multitude of variations, which may easily again be
classed, and the chief of which are rectilinear; half
round, half rectilinear, flowing into each other; half
round, half rectilinear, interrupted ; curve-lined, simple ;
the curve-lined, double and triple.
I shall add some more particular remarks, which I
apprehend will not be unacceptable to my readers : —
1. The longer the forehead, the more comprehension
and less activity.
2. The more compressed, short, and firm the forehead,
the more compression, firmness, and less volatility in
the man.
3. The more curved and cornerless the outline, the
more tender and flexible the character ; the more rectili-
near, the more pertinacity and severity.
4. Perfect perpendicularity, from the hair to the eye-
brows, want of understanding.
5. Perfect perpendicularity, gently arched at the top,
denotes excellent propensities of cold, tranquil, profound
thinking.
48 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
6. Projecting — imbecility, immaturity, weakness, stu-
pidity.
7. Ketreating, in general, denotes superiority of ima-
gination, wit, and acuteness.
8. The round and prominent forehead above, straight
lined below, and on the whole perpendicular, shows much
understanding, life, sensibility, ardour, and icy coldness.
9. The oblique, rectilinear forehead, is also very
ardent and vigorous.
10. Arched foreheads appear properly to be feminine.
11. A happy union of straight and curved lines, with
a happy position of the forehead, express the most
perfect character 'of wisdom. By happy union, I mean
when the lines insensibly flow into each other ; and by
happy position, when the forehead is neither too per-
pendicular nor too retreating.
12. I might almost establish it as an axiom, that right
lines considered as such, and curves considered as such,
are related, as power and weakness, obstinacy and flexi-
bility, understanding and sensation.
13. I have hitherto seen no man with sharp projecting
eye-bones who had not great propensity to an acute
exercise of the understanding, and to wise plans.
14. Yet there are many excellent heads which have
not this sharpness, and which have the more solidity, if
the forehead, like a perpendicular wall, sink upon the
horizontal eyebrows, and be greatly rounded on each
side towards the temples.
15. Perpendicular foreheads, projecting so as not im-
mediately to rest upon the nose, which are small,
wrinkly, short, and shining, are certain signs of weak-
ness, little understanding, little imagination, little
sensation.
THE FOREHEAD. 49
16. Foreheads with many angular, knotty protube-
rances, ever denote much vigorous, firm, harsh, oppressive,
ardent activity, and perseverance.
17. It is a sure sign of a clear, sound understanding,
and a good temperament, when the profile of the forehead
has two proportionate arches, the lower of which projects.
18. Eye-bones with defined, marked, easily delineated,
firm arches, I never saw but in noble and in great men.
All the ideal antiques have these arches.
19. Square foreheads, that is to say, with extensive
temples and firm eye-bones, show circumspection and
certainty of character.
20. Perpendicular wrinkles, if natural to the forehead,
denote application anjl power ; horizontal wrinkles, and
those broken in the middle or at the extremities, in
general, negligence or want of power.
21. Perpendicular deep indentings in the bones of the
forehead, between the eyebrows, I never met with but in
men of sound understanding, and free and noble minds,
unless there were some positively contradictory feature.
22. A blue vena frontalis in the form of a Y, when
in an open, smooth, well-arched forehead, I have only
found in men of extraordinary talents, and of an ardent
and generous character.
23. The following are the most indubitable signs of
an excellent, a perfectly beautiful and significant, intel-
ligent, and noble forehead : —
An exact proportion to the other parts of the counte-
nance. It must equal the nose or the under part of the
face in length, that is, one-third
In breadth, it must either be oval at the top (like the
foreheads of most of the great men of England) or nearly
square.
50 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
A freedom from unevenness and wrinkles, yet with
the power of wrinkling when deep in thought, afflicted
by pain, or from just indignation.
Above it must retreat, project beneath.
The eye-bones must be simple, horizontal, and, if seen
from above, must present a pure curve.
There should be a small cavity in the centre from
above to below, and traversing the forehead so as to
separate into four divisions, which can only be percep-
tible by a clear descending light.
The skin must be more clear in the forehead than in
the other parts of the countenance.
The forehead must every where be composed of such
outlines as, if the section of one-tMrd only be viewed, it
can scarcely be determined whether the lines are straight
or circular.
24. Short, wrinkled, knotty, regular, pressed in one
side, and sawcut foreheads, with intersecting wrinkles,
are incapable of durable friendship.
25. Be not discouraged so long as a friend, an enemy,
a child, or a brother, though a transgressor, has a good,
well-proportioned, open forehead; there is still much
certainty of improvement, much cause of hope.
CHAPTER VIII.
Of the Eyes and Eyebrows.
BLUE eyes are generally more significant of weakness,
effeminacy, and yielding, than brown and black. True
it is there are many powerful men with blue eyes ; but
I find more strength, manhood, and thought, combined
with brown than with blue. Wherefore does it happen
THE EYES AND EYEBROWS. 51
that the Chinese, or the people of the Philippine Islands^
are very seldom blue-eyed ; and that Europeans only, or
the descendants of Europeans, have blue eyes in those
countries ? This is the more worthy of inquiry because
there are no people more effeminate, luxurious, peaceable,
or indolent than the Chinese.
Choleric men have eyes of every colour, but more
brown, and inclined to green, than blue. This propen-
sity to green is almost *a decisive token of ardour, fire,
and courage.
I have never met with clear blue eyes in the melan-
cholic, seldom in the choleric ; but most in the phleg-
matic temperament, which, however, had much activity.
When the under arch described by the upper eyelid is
perfectly circular, it always denotes goodness and ten-
derness, but also fear, timidity, and weakness.
The open eye, not compressed, forming a long acute
angle with the nose, I have but seldom seen except in
acute and understanding persons.
Hitherto I have seen no eye where the eyelid formed
a horizontal line over the pupil, that did not appertain
to a very acute, able, subtle man ; but be it understood
that I have met with this eye in very worthy men, but
men of great penetration and simulation.
Wide, open eyes, with the white seen under the apple,
I have often observed in the timid and phlegmatic, and
also in the courageous and rash. When compared, how-
ever, the fiery and the feeble, the determined and the
undetermined, will easily be distinguished. The former
are more firm, more strongly delineated, have less obli-
quity, have thicker, better cut, but less skinny eyelids.
52 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
ADDITION.
From the Qoiha Court Calendar, 1771, or rather from
Buffon.
"The colours most common to the eyes are, the
orange, yellow, green, blue, grey, and grey mixed with
white. The blue and orange are most predominant, and
are often found in the same eye. Eyes supposed to be
black are only yellow, brown, or a deep orange; to
convince ourselves of which, we need but look at them
closely ; for when seen at a distance, or turned towards
the light, they appear to be black, because the yellow-
brown colour is so contrasted to the white of the eye,
that the opposition makes it supposed black. Eyes also
of a less dark colour pass for black eyes, but are not
esteemed so fine as the other, because the contrast is not
so great. There are also yellow and light yellow eyes,
which do not appear black, because the colours are not
deep enough to be overpowered by the shade.
"It is not uncommon to perceive shades of orange,
yellow, grey, and blue, in the same eye ; and whenever
blue appears, however small the tincture, it becomes the
predominant colour, and appears in streaks over the
whole iris. The orange is in flakes, round, and at some
little distance from the pupil; but it is so strongly
effaced by the blue that the eye appears wholly blue,
and the mixture of orange is only perceived when closely
inspected.
" The finest eyes are those which we imagine to be
black or blue. Vivacity and fire, which are the princi-
pal characteristics of the eyes, are the more emitted
when the colours are deep and contrasted, rather than
THE EYES AND EYEBROWS. 53
when slightly shaded. Black eyes have most strength
of expression, and most vivacity; but the blue have
most mildness, and perhaps are more arch. In the
former there is an ardour uninterruptedly bright, because
the colour, which appears to us uniform, every way
emits similar reflections. But modifications are distin-
guished in the light which animates blue eyes, because
there are various tints of colour which produce various
reflections.
"There are eyes which are remarkable for having
what may be said to be no colour. They appear to be
differently constituted from others. The iris has only
some shades of blue or grey, so feeble that they are in
some parts almost white; and the shades of orange
which intervene are so small that they scarcely can be
distinguished from grey or white, notwithstanding the
contrast of these colours. The black of the pupil is
then too marking, because the colour of the iris is not
deep enough, and, as I may say, we see only the pupil
in the centre of the eye. These eyes are unmeaning, and
appear to be fixed and aghast
" There are also eyes the colour of the iris of which
is almost green ; but these are more uncommon than the
blue, the grey, the yellow, and the yellow-brown. There
are also people whose eyes are not both of the same
colour.
" The images of our secret agitations are particularly
painted in the eyes. The eye appertains more to the
soul than any other organ ; seems affected by, and to
participate in, all its motions ; expresses sensations the
most lively, passions the most tumultuous, feelings the
most delightful, and sentiments the most delicate. It
explains them in all their force, in all their purity, as
54 LAVATERS PHYSIOGNOMY.
they take birth ; and transmits them by traits so rapid
as to infuse into other minds the fire, the activity, the
very image with which themselves are inspired. The
eye at once receives and reflects the intelligence of
thought, and the warmth of sensibility. It is the sense
of the mind, the tongue of the understanding."
Again, "As in nature, so in art, the eyes are differently
formed in the statues of the gods, and in heads of ideal
beauty; so that the eye itself is the distinguishing token.
Jupiter, Juno, and Apollo, have large, round, well-arched
eyes, shortened in length, in order that the arch may be
the higher. Pallas, in like manner, has large eyes ; but
the upper eyelid, which is drawn up, is expressive of
attraction and languishment. Such an eye distinguishes
the heavenly Venus Urania from Juno ; yet the statue
of this Venus bearing a diadem, has for that reason often
been mistaken, by those who have not made this obser-
vation, for the statue of Juno. Many of the modern
artists appear to have been desirous of excelling the
ancients, and to give what Homer calls the ox-eye, by
making the pupil project, and seem to start from the
socket. Such an eye has the modern head of the erro-
neously supposed Cleopatra, in the Medicean villa, and
which presents the idea of a person strangled. The
same kind of eye a young artist has given to the statue
of the Holy Virgin, in the church St. Carlo al Torso."
I shall quote one more passage from Paracelsus, who,
though an astrological enthusiast, was a man of pro-
digious genius : —
" To come to the practical part, and give proper signs
with some of their significations, it is to be remarked
that blackness in the eyes generally denotes health, a
firm mind — not wavering, but courageous, true, and
THE EYES AND EYEBROWS. 55
honourable. Grey eyes generally denote deceit, insta-
bility, and indecision. Short sight denotes an able pro-
jector, crafty, and intriguing in action. The squinting
or false-sighted, who see on both sides, or over and
under, certainly denotes a deceitful crafty person, not ...
easily deceived, mistrustful, and not always to be
trusted ; one who willingly avoids labour when he can,
indulging in idleness, play, usury, and pilfering. Small
and deep sunken eyes are bold in opposition ; not dis-
couraged, intriguing, and active in wickedness ; capable
of suffering much. Large eyes denote a covetous greedy
man, and especially when they are prominent. Eyes in
continual motion signify short or weak sight, fear, and
care. The winking eye denotes an amorous disposition
and foresight, and quickness in projection. The down-
cast eye shows shame and modesty. Ked eyes signify
courage and strength. Bright eyes, slow of motion,
bespeak the hero, great acts, audacious, cheerful, one
feared by his enemies."
It will not be expected I should subscribe to all
these opinions, they being most of them ill-founded,
at least ill-defined.
The Eyebrows.
Eyebrows regularly arched are characteristic of
feminine youth ; rectilinear and horizontal, are mascu-
line; arched and the horizontal combined, denote
masculine understanding and feminine kindness.
Wild and complexed, denote a corresponding mind,
unless the hair be soft, and they then signify gentle
ardour.
Compressed, firm, with the hair running parallel
as if cut, are one of the most decisive signs of a firm,
56 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
manly, mature understanding, profound wisdom, and
a true and unerring perception.
Meeting eyebrows, held so beautiful by the Arabs,
and by the old physiognomists supposed to be the
mark of craft, I can neither believe to be beautiful
nor characteristic of such a quality. They are found
iii the most open, honest, and worthy countenances.
It is true they give the face a gloomy appearance,
and perhaps denote trouble of mind and heart.
Sunken eyebrows, says Winkelmann, impart some-
thing of the severe and melancholy to the head of
Antinous.
I never yet saw a profound thinker, or even a man
of fortitude and prudence, with weak, high eyebrows,
which in some measure equally divide the forehead.
Weak eyebrows denote phlegm and debility, though
there are choleric and powerful men who have them;
but this weakness of eyebrows is always a deduction
from power and ardour.
Angular, strong, interrupted eyebrows, ever denote
fire and productive activity.
The nearer the eyebrows are to the eyes, the more
earnest, deep, and firm the character.
The more remote from the eyes, the more volatile,
easily moved, and less enterprising.
Eemote from each other, warm, open, quick sensation.
White eyebrows signify weakness; and dark brown
firmness.
The motion of the eyebrows contains numerous ex-
pressions, especially of ignoble passions, pride, anger,
and contempt.
THE NOSE. 57
CHAPTEK IX.
Of the Nose.
I HAVE generally considered the nose as the founda-
tion or abutment of the brain. Whoever is acquainted
with the Gothic arch, will perfectly understand what
I mean by this abutment : for upon this the whole
power of the arch of the forehead rests, and without
it the mouth and cheeks would be oppressed by
miserable ruins.
A beautiful nose will never be found accompanying
an ugly countenance. An ugly person may have fine
eyes, but not a handsome nose. I meet with thousands
of beautiful eyes before one such nose ; and wherever I
find the latter it denotes an extraordinary character.
The following is requisite to the perfectly beautiful
nose : —
Its length should equal the length of the forehead.
At the top should be a gentle indenting. Viewed in
front, the back should be broad, and nearly parallel, yet
above the centre something broader. The button or end
of the nose must be neither hard nor fleshy, and its
under outline must be remarkably definite, well deline-
ated, neither pointed nor very broad. The sides seen
in front must be well defined, and the descending
nostrils gently shortened. Viewed in profile, the bottom
of the nose should not have more than one-third of its
length. The nostrils above must be pointed; below,
round, and have in general a gentle curve, and be
divided into two equal parts by the profile of the upper
lip. The sides or arch of the nose must be a kind of
wall Above, it' must close well with the arch of the
58 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
eye-bone, and near the eye must be at least half an inch
in breadth. Such a nose is of more worth than a king-
dom. There are, indeed, innumerable excellent men
with defective noses, but their excellence is of a very
different kind. I have seen the purest, most capable,
and noblest persons, with small noses, and hollow in
profile ; but their worth most consisted in suffering,
listening, learning, and enjoying the beautiful influences
of imagination ; provided the other parts of the form
were well organized. Noses, on the contrary, which are
arched near the forehead, are capable of command, can
rule, act, overcome, destroy. Rectilinear noses may be
called the keystone between the two extremes. They
equally act and suffer with power and tranquillity.
Boerhaave, Socrates, Lairesse, had, more or less, ugly
noses, and yet were great men ; but their character was
that of gentleness and patience.
I have never yet seen a nose with a broad back,
whether arched or rectilinear, that did not appertain to
an extraordinary man. We may examine thousands of
countenances, and numbers of portraits of superior men,
before we find such a one.
These noses were possessed, more or less, by Eaynal,
Faustus Socinus, Swift, Caesar Borgia, Clepzecker, An-
thony Pagi, John Charles von Enkenberg (a man of
Herculean strength), Paul Sarpi, Peter de Medicis,
Francis Caracci, Casini, Lucas van Leyden, Titian.
There are also noses that are not broad backed, but
small near the forehead, of extraordinary power; but
their power is rather elastic and momentary than
productive.
The Tartars generally have flat indented noses ; the
negroes broad, and the Jews hawk noses. The noses of
THE MOUTH AND LIPS. 59
Englishmen are seldom pointed, but generally round.
The Dutch, if we may judge from their portraits, seldom
have handsome or significant noses. The nose of the
Italian is large and energetic. The great men of France,
in my opinion, have the characteristic of their greatness
generally in the nose : to prove which, examine the col-
lection of portraits by Perrault and Morin.
Small nostrils are usually an indubitable sign of un-
enterprising timidity. The. open breathing nostril is as
certain a token of sensibility, which may easily degene-
rate into sensuality.
CHAPTER X.
Of the Mouth and Lips.
THE contents of the mind are communicated to the
mouth. How full of character is the mouth, whether at
rest or speaking, by its infinite powers !
Whoever internally feels the worth of this member, so
different from every other member, so inseparable, so not
to be defined, so simple, yet so various ; whoever, I say,
knows and feels this worth, will speak and act with
divine wisdom. Oh ! wherefore can I only imperfectly
and tremblingly declare all the honours of the mouth —
the chief seat of wisdom and folly, power and debility,
virtue and vice, beauty and deformity, of the human
mind — the seat of all love, all hatred, all sincerity, all
falsehood, all humility, all pride, all dissimulation, and
all truth ?
Oh ! with what adoration would I speak, and be silent,
were I a more perfect man ! Oh ! discordant, degraded
humanity ! Oh ! mournful secret of my misinformed
60 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
youth ! When, Omniscience, shalt thou stand revealed ?
Unworthy as I am, yet do I adore. Yet worthy I shall
be ; worthy as the nature of man will permit : for he
who created me gave a mouth to glorify Him I
Painters and designers, what shall I say that may in-
duce you to study this sacred organ, in all its beauteous
expressions, all its harmony and proportion ?
Take plaster impressions of characteristic mouths of
the living and the dead ; draw after, pore over them •
learn, observe, continue day after day to study one only;
and, having perfectly studied that, you will have studied
many. Oh ! pardon me ; my heart is oppressed^ Among
ten or twenty draughtsmen, to whom for three years I
have preached, whom I have instructed, have drawn ex-
amples for, not one have I found who felt as he ought to
feel, saw what was to be seen, or could represent that
which was evident. What can I hope ?
Every thing may be expected from a collection of
characteristic plaster impressions, which might so easily
be made were such a collection only once formed. But
who can say whether such observations might not declare
too much ? The human machine may be incapable of
suffering to be thus analyzed. Man, perhaps, might not
endure such close inspection ; and therefore, having eyes,
he sees not. I speak it with tears ; and why I weep,
thou knowest, who with me inquirest into the worth of
man. And you weaker yet candid, though on this occa-
sion unfeeling, readers, pardon me !
Observe the following rules : Distinguish in each
mouth the upper lip singly; the under lip the same;
the line formed by the union of both when tranquilly
closed, if they can be closed without constraint ; the
middle of the upper lip, in particular, and of the under
THE MOUTH AXD LIPS. Cl
lip ; the bottom of the middle line at each end ; and,
lastly, the extending of the middle line on both sides.
For, unless you thus distinguish, you will not be able
to delineate the mouth accurately.
As are the lips, so is the character. Firm lips, firm
character; weak lips and quick in motion, weak and
wavering character.
Well defined, large, and proportionate lips, the middle
line of which is equally serpentine on both sides, and
easy to be drawn, though they may denote an inclination
to pleasure, are never seen in a bad, mean, common, false,
crouching, vicious countenance.
A lipless mouth, resembling a single line, denotes cold-
ness, industry, a love of order, precision, housewifery;
and, if it be drawn upwards at the two ends, affectation,
pretension, vanity, and, which may ever be the pro-
duction of cool vanity, malice.
Very fleshy lips must ever have to contend with sen-
suality and indolence : the cut-through, sharp-drawn lip,
with anxiety and avarice.
Calm lips, well closed without constraint, and well
delineated, certainly betoken consideration, discretion,
and firmness.
A mild overhanging upper lip generally signifies
goodness. There are innumerable good persons also with
projecting under lips; but the goodness of the latter is
rather cold fidelity and well-meaning, than warm active
friendship.
The under lip, hollowed in the middle, denotes a fanci-
ful character. Let the moment be remarked when the
conceit of the jocular man descends to the lip, and it
will be seen to be a little hollow in the middle.
A closed mouth, not sharpened, not affected, always
62 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
denotes courage and fortitude; and the open mouth
always closes where courage is indispensable. Openness
of mouth speaks complaint; and closeness, endurance.
Though physiognomists have as yet but little noticed,
yet much might be said concerning the lip improper, or
the fleshy covering of the upper teeth, on which anatomists
have not, to my knowledge, yet bestowed any name, and
which may be called the curtain, or pallium, extending
from, the beginning of the nose to the red upper lip
proper.
If the upper lip improper be long, the proper is always
short ; if it be short and hollow, the proper will be large
and curved — another certain demonstration of the con-
formity of the human countenance. Hollow upper lips
are much less common than flat and perpendicular ; the
character they denote is equally uncommon.
CHAPTER XL
Of the Teeth and Chin.
NOTHING is more striking, or continually visible, than
the characteristics of the teeth, and the manner in which
they display themselves. The following are the obser-
vations I have made thereon : —
Small short teeth, which have generally been held by
the old physiognomists to denote weakness, I have
remarked in adults of extraordinary strength ; but they
seldom were of a pure white.
Long teeth are certain signs of weakness and pusilla
nimity. White, clean, well-arranged teeth, visible as
soon as the mouth opens, but not projecting, nor always
I
THE TEETH AND CHIN. 63
entirely seen, I have never met with in adults, except
in good, acute, honest, candid, faithful men.
I have also met foul, uneven, and ugly teeth, in per-
sons of the above good character; but it was always
either sickness, or some mental imperfection, which gave
this deformity.
Whoever leaves his teeth foul, and does not attempt
to clean them, certainly betrays much of the negligence
of his character, which does him no honour.
As are the teeth of man, that is to say, their form,
position, and cleanliness, (so far as the latter depends
on himself,) so is his taste.
Wherever the upper gum is very visible at the first
opening of the lips, there is generally much cold and
phlegm.
Much, indeed, might be written upon the teeth, though
they are generally neglected in all historical paintings.
To be convinced of this, we need but observe the teeth
of an individual during the course of a single day, or
contemplate an apartment crowded with fools. We
should not then, for a moment, deny that the teeth, in
conjunction with the lips, are very characteristic ; or
that physiognomy has gained another token which
triumphs over all the arts of dissimulation.
The Chin.
I am, from numerous experiments, convinced that the
projecting chin ever denotes something positive, and the
retreating something negative. The presence or absence
of strength in man is often signified by the chin.
I have never seen sharp indentings in the middle of
the chin but in men of cool understanding, unless when
something evidently contradictory appeared in the
countenance.
64 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
The pointed chin is generally held to be a sign of
acuteness and craft, though I know very worthy persons
with such chins. Their craft is the craft of the best
dramatic poetry.
The soft, fat, double chin generally points out the
epicure ; and the angular chin is seldom found but in
discreet, well-disposed, firm men.
Flatness of chin speaks the cold and dry ; smallness,
fear ; and roundness, with a dimple, benevolence.
CHAPTER XII.
Of Skulls.
How much may the anatomist see in the mere skull
of man ! How much more the physiognomist ! And
how much the most the anatomist who is a physiogno-
mist ! I blush when I think how much I ought to
know, and of how much I am ignorant, while writing on
a part of the body of man which is so superior to all
that science has yet discovered — to all belief, to all con-
ception !
I consider the system of the bones as the great out-
line of man, and the skull as the principal part of that
system. I pay more attention to the form and arching
of the skull, as far as I am acquainted with it, than all
my predecessors ; and I have considered this most firm,
least changeable, and far best defined part of the human
body, as the foundation of the science of physiognomy.
I shall therefore be permitted to be particular in my
observations on this member of the human body.
I confess, that I scarcely know where to begin, where
to end, what to say, or what to omit. I think it advis-
SKULLS. 65
able to premise a few words concerning the generation
and formation of human bones.
The whole of the human foetus is at first supposed to
be only a soft mucilaginous substance, homogeneous in
all its parts ; and that the bones themselves are but a
kind of coagulated fluid, which afterwards becomes
membraneous, then cartilaginous, and at last hard bone.
As this viscous congelation, originally so transparent
and tender, increases, it becomes thicker and more
opaque, and a dark point makes its appearance different
from the cartilage, and of the nature of bone, but not yet
perfectly hard. This point may be called the kernel of
the future bone, the centre round which the ossification
extends.
We must, however, consider the coagulation attached
to the cartilage as a mass without shape, and only with
a proper propensity for assuming its future form. In
its earliest, tenderest state, the traces of it are expressed
upon the cartilage, though very imperfectly.
With respect to the bony kernels, we find differences
which seem to determine the form of the future bones.
The simple and smaller bones have each only one kernel;
but in the more gross, thick, and angular, there are
several in different parts of the original cartilage ; and
it must be remarked that the number of the joining
bones is equivalent to the number of the kernels.
In the bones of the skull the round kernel first is
apparent in the centre of each piece ; and the ossifica-
tion extends itself, like radii from the centre, in filaments,
which increase in length, thickness, and solidity, and are
interwoven with each other like network. Hence these
delicate, indented features of the skull, when its various
parts are at length joined.
F
66 LAVATEKS PHYSIOGNOMY.
We have hitherto only spoken of the first stage of
ossification. The second begins about the fourth or
fifth month, when the bones, together with the rest of
the parts, are more perfectly formed, and, in the progress
of ossification, include the whole cartilage, according to
the more or less life of the creature, and the original
different impulse and power of motion in the being.
Agreeable to their original formation through each
succeeding period of age, they will continue to increase
in thickness and hardness. But on this subject anato-
mists disagree — so let them. Future physiognomists
may consider this more at large. I retreat from contest,
and will travel in the high-road of certainty, and confine
myself to what is visible.
Thus much is certain, that the activity of the muscles,
vessels, and other parts which surround the bones,
contributes much to their formation, and gradual in-
crease in hardness.
The remains of the cartilaginous in the young bones
will, in the sixth and seventh month, decrease in
quantity, harden, and whiten, as the bony parts ap-
proach perfection. Some bones obtain a certain degree
of firmness in much less time than others; as, for
example, the skull bones, and the small bones within
the ear. Not only whole bones, but parts of a single
bone, are of various degrees of hardness. They will be
hardest at the place where the kernel of ossification
began, and the parts adjacent; and the rigidity increases
more slowly and insensibly the harder the bones are,
and the older the man is. What was cartilage will
become bone ; parts that were separate will grow toge-
ther, and the whole bones be deprived of moisture.
Anatomists divide the form into the natural or the
SKULLS. 67
essential, which is generally the same in all bones in the
human body, how different soever it may be to other
bodies; and into the accidental, which is subject to
various changes in the same individual, according to the
influence of external objects, or, especially, of the
gradations of age.
The first is founded in the universality of the nature
of parents, and the circumstances which naturally and
invariably attend propagation. Anatomists consider
only the designation of the bones individually ; on this,
at least, is grounded the agreement of what they call the
essential form in distinct subjects. This, therefore, only
speaks to the agreement of human countenances, so tar
as they have each two eyes, one nose, one mouth, and
other features thus or thus disposed.
This natural formation is certainly as different as
human countenances afterwards are; which difference is
the work of nature, the original destination of the Lord
and Creator of all things. The physiognomist dis-
tinguishes between original form and deviations.
Each bone hath its original form, its individual
capacity of form. It may, it does continually alter; but
it never acquires the peculiar form of another bone,
which was originally different. The accidental changes
of bones, however great, or different from the original
form, are yet ever governed by the nature of this original
individual form; nor can any power of pressure ever so
change the original form, but that, if compared to an-
other system of bones that has suffered an equal
pressure, it will be perfectly distinct. As little as the
Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots,
whatever be the changes to which they may be subject,
68 LAYATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
as little can the original form of any bone be changed
into the original form of any other bone.
Vessels every where penetrate the bones, supplying
them with juices and marrow. The younger the bone
is the more are there of these vessels; consequently the
more porous and flexible are the bones, and the reverse.
The period when such or such changes take place in the
bones cannot easily be defined; it differs according to
the nature of men in accidental circumstances.
Large and long and multiform bones, in order to
facilitate their ossification and growth, at first consist of
several pieces, the smaller of which are called supple-
mental. The bone remains imperfect till these become
incorporated. Hence their possible distortion in children
by the rickets, and other diseases.
CHAPTEE XIII.
Suggestions to the Physiognomist concerning the Skull.
THE scientific physiognomist ought to direct his at-
tention to the distortion of the bones, especially those of
the head. He ought to learn accurately to remark,
compare, and define, the first form of children, and the
numerous relative deviations. He ought to have attained
that precision that should enable him to say, at behold-
ing the head of a new-born infant of half a year, a year,
or two years old, "Such and such will be the form of the
system of the bones, under such and such limitations;"
and on viewing the skull at ten, twelve, twenty, or
twenty-four years of age, "Such or such was the form,
eight, ten, or twenty years ago; and such or such will be
the form, eight, ten, or twenty years hence, violence
SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING THE SKULL. 69
excepted." He ought to be able to see the youth in the
boy, and the man in the youth; and, on the reverse, the
youth in the man, the boy in the youth, the infant in the
boy, and, lastly, the embryo in its proper individual form.
Let us, 0 ye who adore that Wisdom which has
framed all things ! contemplate a moment longer the
human skull There are, in the bare skull of man, the
same varieties as are to be found in the whole external
form of the living man.
As the infinite variety of the external form of man is
one of the indestructible pillars of physiognomy, no less
so, in my opinion, must the infinite varieties of the skull
itself be. What I have hereafter to remark will, in part,
show that we ought particularly to begin by that, if,
instead of a subject of curiosity and amusement, we
would wish to make the science of physiognomy univer-
sally useful.
I shall show that from the structure, form, outline,
and properties of the bones, not all indeed, but much
may be discovered, and probably more than from all the
other parts.
Objection and Answer.
What answer shall I make to that objection, with
which a certain anti-physiognomist has made himself so
merry?
" In the catacombs near Kome," says he, " a number
of skeletons were found, which were supposed to be the
relics of saints, and as such were honoured. After
some time, several learned men began to doubt whether
these had really been the sepulchres of the first Chris-
tians and martyrs, and even to suspect that malefactors
and banditti might have been buried there. The piety
70 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
of the faithful was thus much puzzled; but if the science
of physiognomy be so certain, they might have removed
all their doubts by sending for Lavater, who with very
little trouble, by merely examining and touching them,
might have distinguished the bones of the saints from
the bones of the banditti, aud thus have restored the
true relics to their just and original pre-eminence."
" The conceit is whimsical enough," answers a cold
and phlegmatic friend of physiognomy ; " but, having
tired ourselves with laughing, let us examine what
would have been the consequence had this story been
fact. According to our opinion, the physiognomist
would aave remarked great differences in a number of
bones, particularly in the skulls, which to the ignorant
would have appeared perfectly similar; and having
classed his heads, and shown their immediate gradations,
and the contrast of the two extremes, we may presume
the attentive spectator would have been inclined to pay
some respect to his conjectures on the qualities and
activity of brain which each formerly contained.
" Besides, when we reflect how certain it is that many
malefactors have been possessed of extraordinary abili-
ties and energy, and how uncertain it is whether many
of the saints who are honoured with red-letter days in
the calendar ever possessed such qualities, we find the
question so intricate that we should be inclined to par-
don the poor physiognomist were he to refuse an answer,
and leave the decision to the great infallible Judge."
Further Reply.
Let us endeavour further to investigate the question ;
for, though this answer is good, it is insufficient. Who
SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING THE SKULL. 71
ever yet pretended absolutely to distinguish saints from
banditti, by inspecting only the skull.
To me it appears that justice requires we should, in
all our decisions concerning books, men, and opinions,
judge each according to their pretensions, and not ascribe
pretensions which have not been made to any man.
I have heard of no physiognomist who has had, and I
am certain that I myself never have had, any such pre-
sumption. Notwithstanding which, I maintain as a
truth most demonstrable, that by the mere form, pro-
portion, hardness, or weakness of the skull, the strength
or weakness of the general character may be known witli
the greatest certainty. But, as hath been often repeated,
strength and weakness are neither virtue nor vice, sainf
nor malefactor.
Power, like riches, may be employed to the advantage
or detriment of society, the same as wealth may be in
the possession of a saint or a demon ; and as it is with
wealth or arbitrary positive power, so is it with natural
innate power. As in an hundred rich men there are
ninety-nine who are not saints, so will there scarcely
be one saint among an hundred men born with this
power.
When, therefore, we remark in a skull great original
and percussive power, we cannot indeed say this man
was a malefactor; but we may affirm there was this
excess of power which, if it were not qualified and tem-
pered during life, there is the highest probability it
would have been agitated by the spirit of conquest,
would have become a general, a conqueror, a Csesar, a
Cartouch. Under certain circumstances he would pro-
bably have acted in a certain manner, and his actions
would have varied according to the variation of circum-
72
stances ; but lie would always have acted with ardour,
tempestuously — always as a ruler and a conqueror.
Thus, also, we may affirm of certain other skulls
which in their whole structure and form discover ten
derness, and resemblance to parchment, that they denote
weakness ; a mere capability of perceptive without per-
cussive, without creative power. Therefore, under
certain circumstances, such persons would have acted
weakly. They would not have had the native power of
withstanding this or that temptation, of engaging in this
or that enterprise. In the fashionable world they would
have acted the fop, the libertine in a more confined
circle, and the enthusiastic saint in a convent.
Oh ! how differently may the same power, the same
sensibility, the same capacity, act, feel, and conceive
under different circumstances ! And hence we may, in
part, comprehend the possibility of predestination and
liberty in one and the same subject.
Take a man of the commonest understanding to a
charnel-house, and make him attentive to the differences
of skulls; in a short time he will either perceive of
himself, or understand when told, here is strength, there
weakness ; here obstinacy, and there indecision.
If shown the bald head of Caesar as painted by
Rubens or Titian, or that of Michael Angelo, what man
would be dull enough not to discover that impulsive
power, that rocky comprehension, by which they were
peculiarly characterised; and that more ardour, more
action, must be expected than from a smooth, round,
flat head?
How characteristic is the skull of Charles XII.!
How different from the skull of his biographer, Voltaire !
Compare the skull of Judas with the skull of Christ
THE DIFFERENCE OF SKULLS. 73
after Holbein, discarding the muscular parts, and I
doubt, if asked which was the wicked betrayer, which
the innocent betrayed, whether any one would hesitate.
I will acknowledge that" when two determinate heads
are presented to us with such striking differences, the
one of which is known to be that of a malefactor, the
other that of a saint, it is infinitely more easy to decide;
but he who can distinguish between them, should not
therefore affirm he can distinguish the skulls of saints
from the skulls of malefactors.
To conclude this chapter. "Who is unacquainted with
the anecdote of Herodotus, that it was possible many
years afterwards, on the field of battle, to distinguish the
skulls of the effeminate Medes from those of the manly
Persians? I think I have heard the same remark made
of the Swiss and the Burgundians. This at least proves
it is granted that we may perceive, in the skull only,
a difference of strength and manners as well as of
nations.
CHAPTEE XIV.
Of the Difference of Skulls as they relate to Sex, and
particularly to Nations. — Of the Skulls of Children.
AN Essay on the difference of bones, as they relat
to sex, and particularly to nations, has been published
by M. Fischer, which is well deserving of attention.
The following are some thoughts on the subject, concern-
ing which nothing will be expected from me, but very
much from M. Kamper.
Consideration and comparison of the external and
internal make of the body, in male and female, teaches
74 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
us that the one is destined for labour and strength, ana
the other for beauty and propagation. The bones
particularly denote masculine strength in the former;
and, so far as the stronger and the prominent are more
easy to describe than the less prominent and the weaker,
so far is the male skeleton and the skull the easier to
define.
The general structure of the bones in the male, and of
the skull in particular, is evidently of stronger formation
than in the female. The body of the male increases,
from the hip to the shoulder, in breath and thickness ;
hence the broad shoulders and square form of the strong :
whereas the female skeleton gradually grows thinner and
weaker from the hip upwards, and by degrees appears as
if it were rounded.
Even single bones in the female are more tender,
smooth, and round ; have fewer sharp edges, cutting and
prominent corners.
We may here properly cite the remark of Santorinus
concerning the difference of skulls as they relate to sex.
" The aperture of the mouth, the palate, and in general
the parts which form the voice, are less in the female ;
and the more small and round chin, consequently the
under part of the mouth, correspond."
The round or angular form of the skull may be very
powerfully and essentially turned to the advantage of
the physiognomist, and becomes a source of innumerable
individual judgments. Of this the whole work abounds
with proofs and examples.
No man is perfectly like another, either in external
construction or 'internal parts, whether great or small,
or in the system of the bones. I find this difference not
only between nations, but between persons of the nearest
THE DIFFERENCE OF SKULLS. 75
kindred ; but not so great between these, and between
persons of the same nation, as between nations remote
from each other, whose manners and food are very dif-
ferent. The more confidently men converse with, the
more they resemble each other, as well in the formation
of the parts of the body, as in language, manners, and
food ; that is, so far as the formation of the body can be
influenced by external accidents. Those nations, in a
certain degree, will resemble each other that have com-
mercial intercourse, they being acted upon by the effect
of climate, imitation, and habit, which have so great an
influence in forming the body and mind — that is to say,
the visible and invisible powers of man; although
national character still remains, and which character, in
reality, is much easier to remark than to describe.
We shall leave more extensive inquiries and observa-
tions concerning this subject to some such person as
Kamper, and refrain, as becomes us ; not having obtained
sufficient knowledge of the subject to make remarks of
our own of sufficient importance.
Differences with respect to strength, firmness, struc-
ture, and proportion of the parts, are certainly visible in
all the bones of the skeletons of the different nations ;
but most in the formation of the countenance, which
every where contains the peculiar expression of nature,
of the mind.
The skull of a Dutchman, for example, is in general
rounder, with broader bones, curved, and arched in all
its parts, and with the sides less flat and compressed.
A Calinuc skull will be more rude and gross ; flat on
the top, prominent at the sides ; the parts firm and com-
pressed, the face broad and flat.
The skull of the Ethiopian is steep, suddenly elevated ;
76 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
as suddenly small, sharp above the eyes; beneath
strongly projecting ; circular and high behind.
In proportion as the forehead of the Calmuc is flat
and low, that of the Ethiopian is high and narrow;
while the back part of an European head has a much
more protuberant arch, and spherical form behind, than
that of a negro.
Of the Skulls of Children.
The skull or head of a child, drawn upon paper,
without additional circumstance, will be generally
known, and seldom confounded with the head of an
adult. But, to keep them distinct, it is necessary the
painter should not be too hasty and incorrect in his
observations of what is peculiar, or so frequently gene-
ralize the particular, which is the eternal error of painters,
and of so many pretended physiognomists.
Notwithstanding individual variety, there are certain
constant signs proper to the head of a child, which as
much consist in the combination and form of the whole,
as in the single parts.
It is well known that the head is larger in proportion
to the rest of the body, the younger the person is ; and
it seems to me, from comparing the skull of the embryo,
the child, and the man, that the part of the skull which
contains the brain is proportionably larger than the
parts that compose the jaw and the countenance. Hence
it happens that the forehead in children, especially the
upper part, is generally so prominent.
The bones of the upper and under jaw, with the teeth
they contain, are later in their growth, and more slowly
attain perfect formation. The under part of the head
generally increases more than the upper, till it has
THE DIFFERENCE OF SKULLS. 77
attained full growth. Several processes of the bones, as
the processes mamillares, which lie behind and under
the ears, form themselves after the birth ; as do also, in a
great measure, various hidden sinuses or cavities in
these bones. The quill form of these bones, with their
various points, ends, and protuberances, and the nume-
rous muscles which are annexed to them, and continually
in action, make the greater increase and change more
possible and easy than can happen in the spherical bony
covering of the brain, when once the sutures are entirely
become solid.
This unequal growth of the two principal parts of the
skull must necessarily produce an essential difference
in the whole, without enumerating the obtuse extremities,
the edges, sharp corners, and single protuberances, which
are chiefly occasioned by the action of the muscles.
As the man grows, the countenance below the fore-
head becomes more protuberant ; and as the sides of the
face, that is to say, the temple bones, which are also slow
in coming to perfection, continually remove further from
each other, the skull gradually loses that pear form
which it appears to me to have had in embryo.
The sinus frontales first form themselves after birth.
The prominence at the bottom of the forehead, between
the eyebrows, is likewise wanting in children. The
forehead joins the nose without any remarkable curve.
This latter circumstance may also be observed in some
grown persons, when the sinus frontales are either want-
ing or very small; for these cavities are found very
different in different subjects.
The nose, during growth, alters exceedingly; but I am
unable to explain in what manner the bones contribute
to this alteration, it being chiefly cartilaginous. Ac-
78 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
curately to determine this, many experiments on the
heads and skulls of children, and grown persons, would
be necessary; or, rather, if we could compare the same
head with itself at different ages, which might be done
by the means of shades, such gradation of the head or
heads would be of great utility to the physiognomist.
CHAPTER XV.
Description of Plate III.
Number 1.
THIS outline, from a bust of Cicero, appears to me an
almost perfect model of congeniality; the whole has the
character of penetrating acuteness, an extraordinary
though not a great profile. All is acute; all is sharp:
discerning, searching, less benevolent than satirical,
elegant, conspicuous, subtle.
Number 2.
Another congenial countenance. Too evidently nature
for it to be mistaken for ideal, or the invention and
emendation of art. Such a forehead does not betoken
the rectilinear, but the nose thus bent. Such an upper
lip, such an open, eloquent mouth ! The forehead does
not lead us to expect high poetical genius; but acute
punctuality, and the stability of retentive memory. It
is impossible to suppose this a common countenance.
Number 3.
The forehead and nose not congenial. The nose shows
the very acute thinker. The lower part of the forehead,
.
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE III. 79
on the contrary, especially the distance between the eye-
brow and eye, do not betoken this high degree of mental
power. The stiff position of the whole is much at vari-
ance with the eye and mouth, but particularly with the
nose. The whole, the eyebrow excepted, speaks a calm,
peaceable, mild character.
Number 4.
The harmony of the mouth and nose is self-evident.
The forehead is too good, too comprehensive, for this very
limited under part of the countenance. The whole be-
speaks a harmless character; nothing delicate nor severe.
Number 5.
We have here a high bold forehead, with a short-
seeming blunt nose, and a fat double chin. How do
these harmonize ! It is almost a general law of nature,
that where the eyes are strong drawn, and the eyebrows
near, the eyebrows must also be strong. This counte-
nance, merely by its harmony, its prominent congenial
traits, is expressive of sound, clear understanding ; the
countenance of reason.
Number 6.
The perfect countenance of a politician. Faces which
are thus pointed from the eyes to the chin always have
lengthened noses, and never possess large, open, power-
ful, and piercing eyes. Their firmness partakes of
obstinacy, and they rather follow intricate plans than
the dictates of common-sense.
80
CHAPTEE XVI.
The Physiognomist.
ALL men have talents for all things; yet we may
venture to assert that very few have the determinate and
essential talents. All men have talents for drawing :
they can all learn to write, well or ill; yet not an excel-
lent draftsman will be produced in ten thousand. The
same may be affirmed of eloquence, poetry, and physio-
gnomy. All men who have eyes and ears have talents
to become physiognomists ; yet not one in ten thousand
can become an excellent physiognomist.
It may therefore be of use to sketch the character of
the true physiognomist, that those who are deficient of
the requisite talents may be deterred from the study of
physiognomy. The pretended physiognomist, with a
foolish head and a wicked heart, is certainly one of the
most contemptible and mischievous creatures that crawls
on the face of the earth.
No one whose person is not well formed can become
a good physiognomist. Those painters were the best
whose persons were the handsomest. Kubens, Vandyke,
and Raphael, possessing three gradations of beauty,
possessed three gradations of the genius of painting.
The physiognomists of the greatest symmetry are the
best. As the most virtuous can best determine on
virtue, and the just on justice, so can the most handsome
countenances on the goodness, beauty, and noble traits of
the human countenance, and consequently on its defects
and ignoble properties. The scarcity of human beauty
is the reason why physiognomy is so much decried, and
finds so many opponents.
THE PHYSIOGNOMIST. 81
No person, therefore, ought to enter the sanctuary of
physiognomy who has a debased mind, an ill-formed
forehead, a blinking eye, or a distorted mouth. " The
light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be
single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine
eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness :
if, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how
great is that darkness!"
Any one who would become a physiognomist cannot
meditate too much on this text. 0 single eye! that
beholdest all things as they are, seest nothing falsely,
with glance oblique, nothing overlookest ! 0 most perfect
image of reason and wisdom ! — why do I say image ? —
thou art reason and wisdom themselves! Without thy
resplendent light would all that appertains to physio-
gnomy become dark !
He who does not, at the first aspect of any man, feel a
certain emotion of affection or dislike, attraction or
repulsion, never can become a physiognomist.
He who studies art more than nature, and prefers
what the painters call manner to the truth of drawing
he who does not feel himself moved almost to tears, at
beholding the ancient ideal beauty, and the present
depravity of men and imitative art ; he who views
antique gems, and does not discover enlarged intelligence
in Cicero, enterprising resolution in Caesar, profound
thought in Solon, invincible fortitude in Brutus, in
Plato godlike wisdom ; or, in modern medals, the height
of human sagacity in Montesquieu, in Haller the ener-
getic contemplative look, and the most refined taste ; the
deep reasoner in Locke, and the witty satirist in Voltaire,
even at the first glance, never can become a physio-
gnomist.
G
82
He who does not dwell with fixed rapture on the aspect
of benevolence in action, supposing itself unobserved ;
he who remains unmoved by the voice of innocence, the
guiltless look of unviolated chastity, the mother
contemplating her beauteous sleeping infant ; the warm
pressure of the hand of a friend, or his eye swimming in
tears ; he who can lightly tear himself from scenes like
these, and turn them to ridicule, might much easier com-
mit the crime of parricide than become a physiognomist.
If such be the case, what then is required of the
physiognomist? What should his inclination, talents,
qualities, and capabilities be ?
In the first place, as hath been in part already
remarked, his first of requisites should be a body well
proportioned and finely organized ; accuracy of sensation,
capable of receiving the most minute outward impres-
sions, and easily transmitting them faithfully to memory,
or, as I ought rather to say, impressing them upon the
imagination and the fibres of the brain. His eye, in
particular, must be excellent, clear, acute, rapid, and
firm.
The very soul of physiognomy is precision in obser-
vation. The physiognomist must possess a most delicate,
swift, certain, most extensive spirit of observation. To
observe is to be attentive, so as to fix the mind on a
particular object, which it selects, or may select, for
consideration, from a number of surrounding objects.
To be attentive is to consider some one particular object,
exclusively of all others, and to analyze ; consequently,
to distinguish what is similar, what dissimilar; to discover
proportion and disproportion, is the office of the under-
standing.
If the physiognomist has not an accurate, superior,
THE PHYSIOGNOMIST.
and extended understanding, he will neither be able
rightly to observe, nor to compare and class his obser-
vations, much less to draw the necessary conclusions.
Physiognomy is the highest exercise of the understand-
ing the logic of corporeal varieties.
To the clearest and profoundest understanding, the
true physiognomist unites the most lively, strong, com-
prehensive imagination, and a fine and rapid wit.
Imagination is necessary to impress the traits with
exactness, so that they may be renewed at pleasure ; and
to range the pictures in the mind as perfectly as if they
still were visible, and with all possible order.
A keen penetration is indispensable to the physio-
gnomist, that he may easily perceive the resemblance
that exists between objects. Thus, for example, he sees
a head or forehead possessed of certain characteristic
marks : these marks present themselves to his imagina-
tion, and a keen penetration discovers to what they are
similar. Hence greater precision, certainty, and expres-
sion, are imparted to his images. He must have the ca-
pacity of uniting the approximation of each trait that he
remarks, and be able to define the degree of this approx-
imation. Ho one, who is not inexhaustibly copious in
language, can become a physiognomist ; and the highest
possible copiousness is poor, comparatively with the
wants of physiognomy. All that language can express
the physiognomist must be able to express. He must
be the creator of a new language, which must be equally
precise and alluring, natural and intelligible.
Every production of art, taste, and mind ; all vocabu-
laries of all nations ; all the kingdoms of nature, must
obey his command, must supply his necessities.
The art of drawing is indispensable, if he would be
84 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
precise in his definitions and accurate in his decisions.
I Drawing is the first, most natural, and unequivocal
language of physiognomy ; the best aid of the imagina-
tion, the only means of preserving and communicating
numberless peculiarities, shades, and expressions, which
are not by words or any other mode to be described.
The physiognomist who cannot draw hastily, accurately,
and characteristically, will be unable to make, much less
to retain or communicate, innumerable observations.
The knowledge of anatomy is indispensable to him ;
as also is physiology, or the science of the human body
in health ; not only that he may be able to remark any
disproportion, as well in the solids as in the muscular
parts, but that he may likewise be capable of naming
these parts in his physiognomical language. He must
also be acquainted with the temperament of the human
body ; not only its different colours and appearances,
occasioned by the mixture of the blood, but also the
constituent parts of the blood itself, and their different
proportions. Still more especially must be understood
the external symptoms of the constitution, relative to
the nervous system; for on this depends more than
even on the knowledge of the blood.
"What an extensive knowledge ought he to have of
the human heart and the manners of the world ! How
thoroughly ought he to inspect, to feel himself ! That
most essential, yet most difficult of all knowledge, to the
physiognomist, ought to be possessed by him in all
possible perfection. In proportion only as he knows
himself will he be enabled to know others.
Not only is this self-knowledge, this studying of man,
by the study of his own heart, with the genealogy and
cpnsanguinity of inclinations and passions, their various
THE PHYSIOGNOMIST. 85
symptoms and changes, necessary to the physiognomist
for the foregoing causes, but also for an additional
reason.
" The peculiar shades, " I here cite the words of one
of the critics on my first essay, " the peculiar shades of
feeling, which most affect the observer of any object,
frequently have relation to his own mind, and will be
soonest remarked by him in proportion as they sym-
'pathize with his own powers. They will affect him most,
according to the manner in which he is accustomed to
survey the physical and moral world. Many, therefore,
of his observations are applicable only to the observer
himself ; and, however strongly they may be conceived
by him, he cannot easily impart them to others. Yet*
these minute observations influence his judgment. For
this reason the physiognomist must, if he knows
himself, which he in justice ought to do before he
attempts to know others, once more compare; his remarks
with his own peculiar mode of thinking, and separate
those which are general from those which are individual,
and appertain to himself. " I shall make no commen-
tary on this important precept. I shall here only repeat,
that an accurate and profound knowledge of his own
heart is one of the most essential qualities in the
, character of the physiognomist.
Reader, if thou hast not often blushed at thyself, even
though thou shouldest be the best of men, for the best
of men is but man ; if thou hast not often stood with
downcast eyes in presence of thyself and others ; if thou
hast not dared to confess to thyself, and to confide to
thy friend, that thou art conscious the seeds of every
vice are latent in thy heart ; if, in the gloomy calm of
solitude, having no witness but God and thy own con-
86
science, tliou hast not a thousand times sighed and
sorrowed for thyself; if thou wantest the power to
observe the progress of the passions from their very
commencement ; to examine what the impulse was
which determined thee to good or ill, and to avow the
motive to God and thy friend, to whom thou mayest
thus confess thyself, and who also may disclose the
recesses of his soul to thee ; a friend who shall stand
before thee the representative of man and God, and in
whose estimation thou also shalt be invested with the
same sacred character ; a friend in whom thou mayest see
thy very soul, and who shall reciprocally behold him-
self in thee : if, in a word, thou art not a man of worth,
thou never canst learn to observe or know men well ;
thou never canst be, never wilt be, worthy of being a
good physiognomist. If thou wishest not that the
talent of observation should be a torment to thyself,
and an evil to thy brother, how good, how pure, how
affectionate, how expanded ought thy heart to be ! How
mayest thou ever discover the marks of benevolence
and mild forgiveness, if thou thyself art destitute of
such gifts ? How, if philanthropy does not make thine
eye active, how mayest thou discern the impressions of
virtue, and the marks of the sublimest sensations ?
How often wilt thou overlook them in a countenance
disfigured by accident ! Surrounded thyself by mean
passions, how often will such false observers bring false
intelligence ! Put far from thee self-interest, pride, and
envy, otherwise " thine eye will be evil, and thy whole
body full of darkness." Thou wilt read vices on the
forehead whereon virtue is written, and wilt accuse
others of those errors and failings of which thy own
heart accuses thee. Whoever bears any resemblance to
THE PHYSIOGNOMIST. 87
thine enemy, will by thee be accused of all those failings
and vices with which thy enemy is loaded by thy own
partiality and self-love. Thine eye will overlook the
beauteous traits and magnify the discordant. Thou wilt
behold nothing but caricature and disproportion.
But, to draw to a conclusion: the physiognomist
should know the world; he should have intercourse with
all manner of men, in all various ranks and conditions ;
he should have travelled, should possess extensive know-
ledge, a thorough acquaintance with artists, mankind,
vice, and virtue, the wise and the foolish, and particu-
larly with children ; together with a love of literature,
and a taste for painting and the other imitative arts. I
say, can it need demonstration that all those and much
more are to him indispensable ? To sum up the whole :
to a well-formed, well-organized body, the perfect phy-
siognomist must unite an acute spirit of observation, a
lively fancy, an excellent judgment, and, with numerous
propensities to the arts and sciences, a strong, benevolent,
enthusiastic, innocent heart; a heart confident in itself,
and free from the passions inimical to man. No one,
certainly, can read the traits of magnanimity, and the
high qualities of the mind, who is not himself capable
of magnanimity, honourable thoughts, and sublime
actions.
Thus have I pronounced judgment against myself in
writing these characteristics of the physiognomist. Not
false modesty, but conscious feeling, impels me to say,
that I am as distant from the true physiognomist as
heaven is from earth. I am but the fragment of a phy-
siognomist, as this work is but the fragment of a system
of physiognomy.
88 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
CHAPTEE XVII.
Lavaters own Remarks on National Physiognomy.
IT is undeniable that there is national physiognomy
as well as national character. Whoever doubts of this
can never have observed men of different nations, nor
have compared the inhabitants of the extreme confines
of any two. Compare a Negro and an Englishman, a
native of Lapland and an Italian, a Frenchman and an
inhabitant of Terra del Fuego. Examine their forms,
countenances, characters, and minds. Their difference
will be easily seen, though it will sometimes be very
difficult to describe it scientifically.
It seems to me probable that we shall discover what
is national in the countenance better from the sight of
an individual at first than of a whole people ; at least,
so it appears to me from my own experience. Individual
countenances discover more the characteristic of a whole
nation, than a whole nation does that which is national
in individuals. The following infinitely little is what I
have hitherto observed from the foreigners with whom I
have conversed, and whom I have noticed, concerning
national character.
I am least able to characterise the French. They
have no trait so bold as the English, nor so minute as
the Germans. I know them chiefly by their teeth and
their laugh. The Italians I discover by the nose, small
eyes, and projecting chin. The English by their fore-
heads and eyebrows. The Dutch by the rotundity of
the head, and the weakness of the hair. The Germans
by the angles and wrinkles round the eyes and in the
NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 89
cheeks. The Eussians by the snub nose, and their
light-coloured or black hair.
I shall now say a word concerning Englishmen in
particular. Englishmen have the shortest and best
arched foreheads ; that is to say, they are arched only
upwards, and, towards the eyebrows, either gently recline
or are rectilinear. They very seldom have pointed, but
often round, full, medullary noses; the Quakers and
Moravians excepted, who, wherever they are found, are
generally thin-lipped. Englishmen have large, well-
defined, beautifully curved lips. They have also a round
full chin ; but they are peculiarly distinguished by the
eyebrows and eyes, which are strong, open, liberal, and
steadfast. The outline of their countenance is in general
great, and they never have those numerous, infinitely
minute traits, angles, and wrinkles, by which the Ger-
mans are so especially distinguished. Their complexion
is fairer than that of the Germans.
All English women, whom I have known personally
or by portrait, appear to be composed of marrow and
nerve. They are inclined to be tall, slender, soft, and
as distant from all that is harsh, rigorous, or stubborn,
as heaven is from earth.
The Swiss have generally no common physiognomy,
or national character, the aspect of fidelity excepted.
They are as different from each other as nations the
most remote. The French Swiss peasant is as distinct
as possible from the peasant of Appenzel. It may be
that the eye of a foreigner would better discover the
general character of the nation, and in what it differs
from the French or German than that of the native.
I find characteristic varieties in each canton of Swit-
zerland. The inhabitants of Zurich, for instance, are
90 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
middle-sized, more frequently meagre than corpulent,
but usually one or the other. They seldom have ardent
eyes, and the outline is not often grand or minute. The
men are seldom handsome, though the youth are incom-
parably so ; but they soon alter. The people of Bern
are tall, straight, fair, pliable, and firm, and are most
distinguished by their upper teeth, which are white,
regular, and easily to be seen. The inhabitants of Basle,
or Basil, are more rotund, full, and tense of countenance,
the complexion tinged with yellow, and the lips open
and flaccid. Those of Schafhausen are hard-boned.
Their eyes are seldom sunken, but are generally pro-
minent. The sides of the forehead diverge over the
temples, the cheeks fleshy, and the mouth wide and
open. They are commonly stronger built than the peo-
ple of Zurich, though in the canton of Zurich there is
scarcely a village in which the inhabitants do not differ
from those of the neighbouring village, without attending
to dress, which, notwithstanding, is also physiognomic.
I have seen many handsome, broad-shouldered, strong,
burden-bearing men, round Wadenschweil and Oberreid.
At Weiningen, two leagues from Zurich, I met a company
of well-formed men, who were distinguished for their
cleanliness, circumspection, and gravity of deportment.
An extremely interesting and instructing book might
be written on the physiognomic character of the peasants
of Switzerland. There are considerable districts where
the countenances, the nose not excepted, are most of
them broad, as if pressed flat with a board. This dis-
agreeable form, wherever found, is consistent with the
character of the people. What could be more instruc-
tive than a physiognomic and characteristic description of
such villages, their mode of living, food, and occupation ?
NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 91
CHAPTER XVIII.
Extracts from Buffon on National Physiognomy.
TRAVERSING the surface of the earth, and beginning
in the north, we find in Lapland, and on the northern
coast of Tartary, a race of men small of stature, singular
of form, and with countenances as savage as their
manners.
These people have large flat faces, the nose broad, the
pupil of the eye of a yellow-brown inclining to a black,
the eyelids retiring towards the temples, the cheeks
extremely high, the mouth very large, the lower part of
the face narrow, the lips full and high, the voice shrill,
the head large, the hair black and sleek, and the com-
plexion brown or tanned. They are very small and
squat, though meagre. Most of them are not above four
feet, and hardly any exceed four feet and a half. The
Borandians are still smaller than the Laplanders. The
Samoiedes more squat, with large heads and noses, and
darker complexions. Their legs are shorter, their knees
more turned outwards, their hair is longer, and they
have less beard. The complexion of the Greenlanders
is darker still, and of a deep olive colour.
The women, among all these nations, are as ugly as
the men ; and not only do these people resemble each
other in ugliness, size, and the colour of their eyes and
hair, but they have similar inclinations and manners,
and are all equally gross, superstitious, and stupid.
Most of them are idolaters; they are more rude than
savage, wanting courage, self-respect, and modesty.
If we examine the neighbouring people of the long
slip of land which the Laplanders inhabit, we shall find
92 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
they have no relation whatever with that race, excepting
only the Ostiachs and Tongusians. The Samoiedes and
the Borandians have no resemblance with the Russians ;
nor have the Laplanders with the Finlanders, the Goths,
Danes, or Norwegians. The Greenlanders are alike
different from the savages of Canada. The latter are
tall and well made ; and, though they differ very much
from each other, yet they are still more infinitely
different from the Laplanders. The Ostiachs seem to be
Samoiedes, something less ugly and dwarfish, for they
are small and ill-formed.
All the Tartars have the upper part of the countenance
very large and wrinkled, even in youth ; the nose short
and gross, the eyes small and sunken, the cheeks very
high, the lower part of the face narrow, the chin long
and prominent, the upper jaw sunken, the teeth long
and separated, the eyebrows large, covering the eyes,
the eyelids thick, the face flat, their skin of an olive
colour, and their hair black. They are of a middle
stature, but very strong and robust ; have little beard,
which grows in small tufts like that of the Chinese,
thick thighs, and short legs.
The Little or Nogais Tartars have lost a part of their
ugliness by having intermingled with the Circassians.
As we proceed eastward into free or independent
Tartary, the features of the Tartars become something
less hard, but the essential characteristics of their race
ever remain. The Mogul Tartars, who conquered China,
and who were the most polished of these nations, are
at present the least ugly and ill-made ; yet have they,
like the others, small eyes, the face large and flat, little
beard, but always black or red, and the nose short and
compressed.
BUFFON ON NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 93
Among the Kergisi and Teheremisi Tartars there is a
whole nation or tribe, among whom are very singularly
beautiful men and women. The manners of the Chinese
and Tartars are wholly opposite, more so than are their
countenances and forms. The limbs of the Chinese are
well proportioned, large, and fat. Their faces are round
and capacious, their eyes small, their eyebrows large,
their eyelids raised, and their noses little and compressed.
They only Jiave seven or eight tufts of black hair on
each lip, and very little on the chin.
The natives of the coast of New Holland, which lies
in sixteen degrees fifteen minutes of south latitude, and
to the south of the isle of Timor, are perhaps the most
miserable people on earth, and of all the human race
most approach the brute animal They are tall, upright,
and slender. Their limbs are long and supple, their
heads great, their forehead round, their eyebrows thick,
and their eyelids half shut. This they acquire by habit
in their infancy, to preserve their eyes from the gnats,
by which they are greatly incommoded ; and, as they
never much open their eyes, they cannot see at a
distance, at least and unless they raise the head as if
they wished to look at something above them. They
have large noses, thick lips, and wide mouths. It
should seem that they draw the two upper fore teeth,
for neither man nor woman, young nor old, have these
teeth. They have no beard; their faces are long and
very disagreeable, without a single pleasing feature ;
their hair not long and sleek, like that of most of the
Indians, but short, black, and curly, like the hair of the
Negroes. Their skin is black, and resembles that of the
Indians of the coast of Guinea.
Let us now examine the natives inhabiting a more
94 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
temperate climate, and we shall find that the people
of the northern provinces of the Mogul empire, Persia,
the Armenians, Turks, Georgians, Mingrelians, Circas-
sians, Greeks, and all the inhabitants of Europe, are the
handsomest, wisest, and the best formed of any on earth ;
and that, though the distance between Cachemire and
Spain, or Circassia and France, is very great, there is still
a very singular resemblance between people so far from
each other, but situated in nearly the same latitude. The
people of Cachemire are renowned for beauty, are as
well formed as the Europeans, and have nothing of the
Tartar countenance, the flat nose, and the small pig's
eyes, which are so universal among their neighbours.
The complexion of the Georgians is still more beau-
tiful than that of Cachemire ; no ugly face is found in
the country, and nature has endowed most of the women
with graces which are nowhere else to be discovered.
The men also are very handsome, have natural understand-
ing, and would be capable of arts and sciences, did not
their bad education render them exceedingly ignorant and
vicious ; yet with all their vices the Georgians are civil,
humane, grave, and moderate; they seldom are under
the influence of anger, though they become irreconcilable
enemies having once entertained hatred.
The Circassians and Mingrelians are equally beautiful
and well formed. The larne and the crooked are seldom
seen among the Turks. The Spaniards are meagre, and
rather small; they are well shaped, have fine heads,
regular features, good eyes, and well-arranged teeth ; but
their complexions are dark, and inclined to yellow. It
has been remarked that in some provinces of Spain, as
near the banks of the river Bidassoa, the people have
exceedingly large ears.
BUFFON ON NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 95
M. Lavater here makes this digression : Can large
ears hear better than small ? I know one person with
large rude ears, whose sense of hearing is acute, and
who has a good understanding ; but, him excepted, I have
particularly remarked large ears to betoken folly ; and
that, on the contrary, ears inordinately small appertain
to very weak, effeminate characters, or persons of too
great sensibility. — Thus far Lavater, let us now return
to Buffon.
Men with black or dark-brown hair begin to be rather
uncommon in England, Flanders, Holland, and the
northern provinces of Germany ; and few such are to be
found in Denmark, Sweden, and Poland. According to
Linnaeus the Goths are very tall, have sleek, light-
coloured, silver hair, and blue eyes. The Finlanders are
muscular and fleshy, with long and light yellow hair,
the iris of the eye a deep yellow.
If we collect the accounts of travellers, it will appear
that there are as many varieties among the race of
negroes as the whites. They also have their Tartars
and their Circassians. The blacks on the coast of
Guinea are extremely ugly, and emit an insufferable
scent. Those of Sofala and Mozambique are handsome,
and have no ill smell. These two species of negroes
resemble each other rather in colour than features.
Their hair, skin, the odour of their bodies, their manners
and propensities, are exceedingly different. Those of
Cape Verd have by no means so disagreeable a smell as
the natives of Angola. Their skin also is more smooth
and black, their body better made, their features less
hard, their tempers more mild, and their shape better.
The negroes of Senegal are the best formed, and best
receive instruction. The Nagos are the most humane,
9G LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
the Mondongos the most cruel, the Mimes the most
resolute, capricious, and subject to despair.
The Guinea negroes are extremely limited in their
capacities. Many of them appear to be wholly stupid ;
or, never capable of counting more than three, remain in
a thoughtless state if not acted upon, and have no
memory ; yet, bounded as is their understanding, they
have much feeling, have good hearts, and the seeds of
all virtue.
The Hottentots have all very flat and broad noses;
but these they would not have, did not their mothers
suppose it their duty to flatten the nose shortly after
birth. They have also very thick lips, especially the
upper; the teeth white, the eyebrows thick, the head
heavy, the body meagre, and the limbs slender.
The inhabitants of Canada and all these confines, are
rather tall, robust, strong, and tolerably well made, have
black hair and eyes, very white teeth, tawny complexion,
little beard, and no hair, or almost none, on any other
part of the body. They are hardy and indefatigable in
marching, swift of foot, alike support the extremes of
hunger or excess in feeding; are daring, courageous,
haughty, grave, and moderate. So strongly do they
resemble the eastern Tartars in complexion, hair, eyes,
the almost want of beard and hair, as well as in their
inclinations and manners, that we should suppose them
the descendants of that nation, did we not see the two
people separated from each other by a vast ocean. They
also are under the same latitude, which is an additional
proof of the influence of climate on the colour, and
even on the form of man.
KANT ON NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 97
CHAPTEE XIX.
Some of the most remarkable Passages from an excellent
Essay on National Physiognomy, by Professor Kant
of Konigsberg.
THE supposition of Maupertuis, that a race of men
might be established in any province, in whom under-
standing, probity, and strength should be hereditary,
could only be realized by the possibility of separating
the degenerate from the conformable births; a project
which, in my opinion, might be practicable, but which,
in the present order of things, is prevented by the wiser
dispositions of nature, according to which the wicked
and the good are intermingled, that, by the irregularities
and vices of the former, the latent powers of the latter
may be put in motion, and impelled to approach perfec-
tion. If nature, without transplantation or foreign
mixture, be left undisturbed, she will, after many gene-
rations, produce a lasting race that shall ever remain
distinct.
If we divide the human race into four princi-
pal classes, it is probable that the intermediate ones,
however perpetuating and conspicuous, may be imme-
diately reduced to one of these : — 1. The race of Whites.
2. The Negroes. 3. The Huns (Monguls or Calmucs).
4. The Hindoos, or people of Hindostan.
External things may well be the accidental, but not
the primary causes of what is inherited or assimilated
As little as chance, or physico-mechanical causes, can
produce an organized body, as little can they add any
thing to its power or propagation; that is to say, produce
H
98 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
a thing which shall propagate itself by having a peculiar
form or proportion of parts.
Man was undoubtedly intended to be the inhabitant
of all climates and all soils. Hence the seeds of many
internal propensities must be latent in him, which shall
remain inactive or be put in motion according to his
situation on the earth. So that, in progressive genera-
tions, he shall appear as if born for that particular soil
in which he seems planted.
The air and the sun appear to be those causes which
most influence the powers of propagation, and effect a
durable development of germ and propensities ; that is
to say, the air and the sun may be the origin of a distinct
race. The variations which food may produce must
soon disappear on transplantation. That which affects
the propagating powers must not act upon the support
of life, but upon its original source, its first principle,
animal conformation, and motion.
A man transplanted to the frigid zone must decrease
in stature, since, if the power or momentum of the heart
continues the same, the circulation must be performed
in a shorter time, the pulse become more rapid, and the
heat of the blood increased. Thus Crantz found the
Greenlanders not only inferior in stature to the Euro-
peans, but also that they had a remarkably greater heat
of body. The very disproportion between the length of
the body and the shortness of the legs, in the northern
people, is suitable to their climate; since the extremes of
the body, by their distance from the heart, are more
subject to the attacks of cold.
The prominent parts of the countenance, which can
less be guarded from cold, by the care of nature for
their preservation, have a propensity to become more
KANT ON NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 99
flat. The rising cheek-bone, the half-closed blinking
eye, appear to be intended for the preservation of sight
against the dry cold air, and the effusions of light from
the snow, (to guard against which the Esquimaux use
snow spectacles,) though they may be the natural effect
of the climate, since they are found only in a smaller
degree in milder latitudes. Thus gradually are produced
the beardless chin, the flattened nose, thin lips, blinking
eyes, flat countenances, red-brown complexion, black
hair, and, in a word, the face of the Calmuc. Such
properties, by continued propagation, at length form a
distinct race, which continues to remain distinct even
when transplanted into warmer climates.
The copper colour, or red-brown, appears to be as
natural an effect of the aridity of the air, in cold
climates, as the olive-brown of the alkaline and bilious
juices in warm ; without taking the native disposition
of the American into the estimate, who appears to have
lost half the powers of life, which may be regarded as
the effect of cold.
The growth of the porous parts of the body must
increase in the hot and moist climates. Hence the thick
short nose and projecting lips. The skin must be oiled,
not only to prevent excessive perspiration, but also
imbibing the putrescent particles of the moist air. The
surplus of the ferruginous or iron particles, which have
lately been discovered to exist in the blood of man, and
which, by the evaporation of the phosphoric acidities,
of which all negroes smell so strong, being cast upon the
retiform membrane, occasions the blackness which
appears through the cuticle ; and this strong retention of
the ferruginous particles seems to be necessary in order
to prevent the general relaxation of the parts. Moist/-
100 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
warmth is peculiarly favourable to the growth of
animals, and produces the negro, who, by the providence
of nature, perfectly adapted to his climate, is strong,
muscular, agile ; but dirty, indolent, and trifling.
The trunk or stem of the root may degenerate ; but
this having once taken root, and stifled other germs,
resists any future change of form, the character of the
race having once gained a preponderance in the propa-
gating powers.
CHAPTEK XX.
Extracts from other Writers on National Physiognomy. —
From WinJcelmann's History of Art. — From the
Recherches Philosophises sur les Americains, by M. de
Pauw. — Observations byLintz. — From a Letter writtenlty
M. Fuessli. — From a Letter written ty Professor Camper.
From Winkelmann's History of Art.
WITH respect to the form of man, our eyes convince
us that the character of nation as well as of mind is
visible in the countenance. As nature has separated
large districts by mountains and seas, so likewise has
she distinguished the inhabitants by peculiarity of
features. In countries far remote from each other,
the difference is likewise visible in other parts of the
body, and in stature. Animals are not more varied,
according to the properties of the countries they inhabit,
than men are ; and some have pretended to remark that
animals even partake of the propensities of the men.
The formation of the countenance is as various as
language — nay, indeed, as dialects — which are thus or
NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 101
thus various in consequence of the organs of speech. In
cold countries the fibres of the tongue must be less
flexible and rapid than in warm. The natives of Green-
land, and certain tribes of America, are observed to want
some letters of the alphabet, which must originate in
the same cause. Hence it happens that the northern
languages have more monosyllables, and are more clogged
with consonants, the connecting and pronouncing of
which is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to other
nations.
A celebrated writer has endeavoured to account for
the varieties of the Italian dialects, from the formation
of the organs of speech. "For this reason," says he,
"the people of Lombardy, inhabiting a cold country,
have a more rough and concise pronunciation; the
inhabitants of Florence and Rome speak in a more
measured tone; and the Neapolitans, under a still
warmer sky, pronounce the vowels more open, and speak
with more fulness."
Persons well acquainted with various nations, can
distinguish them as justly from the form of their coun-
tenance as from their speech. Therefore, since man has
ever been the object of art and artists, the latter have
constantly given the forms of face of their respective
nations ; and that art among the ancients gave the form
and countenance of man, is proved by the same effect
having taken place among the moderns. German, Dutch,
or French, when the artists neither travel nor study
foreign forms, can be known by their pictures as perfect-
ly as Chinese or Tartars. After residing many years in
Italy, Eubens continued to draw his figures as if he had
never left his native land.
102 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
Another passage from Winkclmann.
The projecting mouths of the negroes, which they
have in common with their monkeys, is an excess of
growth, a swelling occasioned by the heat of the climate ;
like as our lips are swelled by heat or sharp saline
moisture, and also in some men by violent passion.
The small eyes of the distant northern and eastern
nations, are in consequence of the imperfection of their
growth. They are short and slender. Nature produces
such forms the more she approaches extremes, where
she has to encounter heat or cold. In the one she is
prompter and exhausted, and in the other crude, never
arriving at maturity. The flower withers in excessive
heat, and, deprived of sun, is deprived of colour. All
plants degenerate in dark and confined places.
Nature forms with greater regularity the more she
approaches her centre, and in more moderate climates.
Hence the Grecian and our own idea of beauty, being
derived from more perfect symmetry, must be more
accurate than the idea of those in whom, to use the
expression of a modern poet, the image of the Creator
is half defaced.
From the Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains,
ly M. de Pauw.
The Americans are most remarkable, because that many
of them have no eyebrows, and none have beards; yet
we must not infer that they are enfeebled in the organs of
generation, since the Tartars and Chinese have almost
the same characteristics. They are far, however, from
being very fruitful, or much addicted to love. True
it is, the Chinese and Tartars are not absolutely
NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 103
beardless. When they are about thirty a small penciled
kind of whisker grows on the upper lip, and some
scattered hairs at the end of the chin.
Exclusive of the Esquimaux, who differ in gait, form,
features, and manners, from other savages of North
America, we may likewise call the Arkansans a variety,
whom the French have generally named the handsome
men. They are all tall and straight, have good features,
without the least appearance of beards ; have regular
eyelids, blue eyes, and fine fair hair ; while the neighbour-
ing people are low of stature, have abject countenances,
black eyes, the hair of the head black as ebony, and
of the body thick and rough.
Though the Peruvians are not very tall, and generally
thick set, yet they are tolerably well made. There are
many, it is true, who by being diminutive are monstrous.
Some are deaf, dumb, blind, and idiots ; and others want
a limb when born. In all probability, the excessive
labour to which they have been subjected by the barbarity
of the Spaniards, has produced such numbers of defective
men. Tyranny has an influence on the very physical
temperament of slaves. Their nose is aquiline, their
forehead narrow, their hair black, strong, smooth, and
plentiful; their complexion an olive-red, the apple of
the eye black, and the white not very clear. They never
have any beard, for we cannot bestow that name on some
short straggling hairs which sprout in old age ; nor have
either men or women the downy hair which generally
appears after the age of puberty. In this they are
distinguished from all people on earth, even from the
Tartars and Chinese. As in eunuchs, it is the character
of their degeneracy.
Judging by the rage which the Americans have to
'104 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
mutilate and disfigure themselves, we should suppose
they were all discontented with the proportions of their
limbs and bodies. Not a single nation has been dis-
covered in this fourth quarter of the globe, which has
not adopted the custom of artificially changing either
the form of the lips, the hollow of the ear, or the shape
of the head, by forcing it to assume an extraordinary
and ridiculous figure.
There are savages whose heads are pyramidal or
conical, with the top terminating in a point. Others
have flat heads with large foreheads, and the back part
flattened. This caprice seems to have been the most
fashionable, at least it was the most common. Some
Canadians had their heads perfectly spherical. Though
the natural form of the head really approaches the
circular, these savages who, by being thus distorted,
acquired the appellation of bowl or bullet-head, do not
appear less disgusting for having made the head too
round, and perverted the original purpose of nature, to
which nothing can be added, from which nothing can
be taken away, without some essential error being the
result, which is destructive to the animal.
In short, we have seen, on the banks of the Maragnon,
Americans with square or cubical heads ; that is to say,
flattened on the face, the top, the temples, and the
occiput, which appears to be the last stage of human
extravagance.
It is not easy to conceive how it was possible to com-
press and mould the bones of the skull into so many
various forms, without most essentially injuring the
seat of sense and the organs of reason, or occasioning
either madness or idiotism; since we so often have
examples, that violent contusions in the region of the
NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 105
temples have occasioned lunacy, and deprived the suf-
ferers of intellectual capacity. For it is not true, as
ancient narratives have affirmed, that all Indians with
flat or sugar-loaf heads were really idiots. Had this
been the case there must have been whole nations in
America either foolish or frantic, which is impossible
even in supposition.
Observation Try Lintz.
To me it appears very remarkable that the Jews
should have taken with them the marks of their country
and race to all parts of the world ; I mean their short,
black, curly hair, and brown complexion. Their quick-
ness of speech, haste and abruptness in all their actions,
appear to proceed from the same causes. I imagine the
Jews have more gall than other men.
Extract from a Letter written by M. Fuessli, dated
at Presburg.
My observations have been directed (says this great
designer and physiognomist) not to the countenance
of nations only; being convinced from numberless
experiments that the general form of the human body,
its attitude and manner, the sunken or raised posi-
tion of the head between or above the shoulders, the
firm, the tottering, the hasty, or slow walk, may
frequently be less deceitful signs of this or that cha-
racter, than the countenance separately considered. I
believe it possible so accurately to characterize man,
from the calmest state of rest to the highest gradation
of rage, terror, and pain, that from the carriage of
the body, the turn of the head, and gestures in general,
we shall be able to distinguish the Hungarian, the
A
106 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
Sclavonian, the Illyrian, the Wallachian ; and to obtain
a full and clear conception of the actual, and in
general the prominent, characteristics of this or that
nation.
Extract of a Letter from Professor Camper.
It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to give
you my particular rules for delineating various nations
and ages with mathematical certainty, especially if I
would add all that I have had occasion to remark
concerning the beauty of the antiques. These rules I
have obtained by constant observations on the skulls
of different nations, of which I have a large collection,
and by a long study of the antiques.
To draw any head accurately in profile takes me
much time. I have dissected the skulls of people
lately dead, that I might be able to define the lines
of the countenance, and the angle of these lines with
the horizon. I was thus led to the discovery of the
maximum and minimum of this angle. I began with
the monkey, proceeded to the Negro and the European,
till I ascended to the countenances of antiquity, and
examined a Medusa, an Apollo, or a Venus de Medicis.
This concerns only the profile. There is another
difference in the breadth of the cheeks, which I have
found to be the largest among the Calmucs, and much
smaller among the Asiatic Negroes. The Chinese,
and inhabitants of the Molucca and other Asiatic
islands, appear to me to have broad cheeks with
projecting jawbones ; the under jawbone in particular
very high, and almost forming a right angle, which
among Europeans is very obtuse, and still more so
among the African Negroes.
NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 107
I have not hitherto been able to procure a real skull
of an American, and therefore cannot say any thing
on that subject.
I am almost ashamed to confess that I have not yet
been able accurately to draw the countenance of a
Tew, although they are so very remarkable in their fea-
tures ; nor have I yet obtained precision in delineating
the Italian face. It is generally true that the upper and
under jaw of the European is less broad than the
breadth of the skull, and that among the Asiatics
they are much broader; but I have not been able to
determine the specific differences between European
nations.
By physiognomical sensations I have very frequently
been able to distinguish the soldiers of different nations
— the Scotchman, the Irishman, and the native of
England; yet I have never been able to delineate
the distinguishing traits. The people of our provinces
are a mixture of all nations ; but in the remote and
separated cantons I find the countenance to be more
flat, and extraordinarily high from the eyes upward.
CHAPTER XXI.
Extracts from the Manuscript of a Man of Literature
at Darmstadt, on National Physiognomy.
ALL tribes of people who live in uncultivated coun-
tries, and consequently are pastoral, not assimilated in
towns, would never be capable of an equal degree of
cultivation with Europeans, though they did not live
thus scattered. Were the shackles of slavery taken
off, still their minds would eternally slumber ; therefore
108 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
whatever remarks we can make upon them must be
pathognomonical (or physiognomical), and we must
confine ourselves to their respective powers of mind,
not being able to say much of their expression.
Such people as do not bear our badges of servitude,
are not so miserable as we suspect. Their species of
slavery is more supportable in their mode of existence.
They are incomparably better fed than German
peasants, and have neither to contend with the cares
of providing, nor the excesses of labour. As their
race of horses exceeds ours in strength and size, so
do their people those among us who have, or suppose
they have, property. Their wants are few, and their
understanding sufficient to supply the wants they have.
The Eussian or Polish peasant is of necessity carpenter,
tailor, shoemaker, mason, thatcher, &c. ; and when we
examine their performances we may easily judge of
their capacities. Hence their aptitude at mechanical
and handicraft professions, as soon as they are taught
their principles. Invention of what is great they have
no pretensions to; their mind, like a machine, is at
rest when the necessity that sets it in motion no
longer impels.
Of the numerous nations subject to the Russian
sceptre, I shall omit those of the extensive Siberian
districts, and confine myself to the Russians properly
so called, whose countries are bounded by Finland,
Eastland, Livonia, and the borders of Asia. These
are distinguishable by prodigious strength, firm sinews,
broad breast, and colossal neck, which in a whole ship's
crew will be the same, resembling the Farnesian
Hercules; by their black, broad, thick, rough, strong
Jiair, head and beard ; their sunken eyes, black as pitch;
NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 1 09
their short forehead, compressed to the nose, with an
arch. We often find thin lips, though in general they are
pouting, wide, and thick. The women have high cheek
bones, hollow temples, snub noses, and retreating arched
foreheads, with very few traits of ideal beauty. Their
power of propagation exceeds belief, and at a certain
period of life both sexes become frequently corpulent.
The Ukranians, of whom most of the regiments of
Cossacks are formed, dwell in the centre. They are
distinguished among the Eussians almost as the Jews
are among Europeans. They generally have aquiline
noses, and are nobly formed ; amorous, yielding, crafty,
and without strong passions; probably because, for
some thousands of years, they have followed agriculture,
have lived in society, had a form of government, and
inhabit a fruitful country, in a moderate climate re-
sembling that of France. Among all these people the
greatest activity and strength of body are united. They
are as different from the German boor as quicksilver is
from lead ; and how our ancestors could suppose them
to be stupid is inconceivable.
Thus, too, the Turks resemble the Kussians. They are
a mixture of the noblest blood of Asia Minor with the
more material and gross Tartar. The Natolian, of a
spiritual nature, feeds on meditation : he will for days
contemplate a single object, seat himself at the chess-
board, or wrap himself up in the mantle of taciturnity.
The eye, void of passion or great enterprise, abounds in
all the penetration of benevolent cunning ; the mouth
eloquent ; the hair of the head and beard, and the small
neck, declare the flexibility of the man.
The Englishman is erect in his gait, and generally
stands as if a stake were driven through his body. His
110
nerves are strong, and he is the best runner. He is dis-
tinguished from all other men by the roundness and
smoothness of his face. If he neither speak nor move,
he seldom declares the capability and mind he possesses
in so superior a degree. His silent eye seeks not to
please. His hair, coat, and character, are alike smooth.
Not cunning, but on his guard ; and, perhaps, but little
colouring is necessary to deceive him on any occasion.
Like the bull-dog, he does not bark; but, if irritated,
rages. As he wishes not for more esteem than he merits,
so he detests the false pretensions of his neighbours, who
would arrogate excellence they do not possess. Desirous
of private happiness, he disregards public opinion, and
obtains a character of singularity. His imagination, like
a seacoal fire, is not the splendour that enlightens a
region, but expands genial warmth. Perseverance in
study, and pertinacity for centuries in fixed principles,
have raised and maintained the British spirit, as well as
the British government, trade, manufactures, and marine.
He has punctuality and probity, not trifling away his
time to establish false principles, or making a parade
with a vicious hypothesis.
In the temperament of nations the French class is
that of the sanguine. Frivolous, benevolent, and osten-
tatious, the Frenchman forgets not his inoffensive
parade till old age has made him wise. At all times
disposed to enjoy life, he is the best of companions. He
pardons himself much ; and therefore pardons others if
they will but grant that they are foreigners, and he is a
Frenchman. His gait is dancing, his speech without
accent, and his ear incurable. His imagination pursues
the consequences of small things with the rapidity of
the second-hand of a stop-watch, but seldom gives those
NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. Ill
loud, strong, reverberating strokes which proclaim new
discoveries to the world. Wit is his inheritance. His
countenance is open, and at first sight speaks a thousand
pleasant, amiable things. Silent he cannot be, either
with eye, tongue, or feature. His eloquence is often
deafening ; but his good-humour casts a veil over all his
failings. His form is equally distinct from that of other
nations, and difficult to describe in words. No other man
has so little of the firm or deep traits, or so much motion.
He is all appearance, all gesture; therefore the first
impression seldom deceives, but declares who and what
he is. His imagination is incapable of high flights, and
the sublime in all arts is to him offence. Hence his
dislike to whatever is antique in art or literature, his
deafness to true music, his blindness to the higher
beauties of painting. His last most marking trait is,
that he is astonished at every thing, and cannot
comprehend how it is possible men should be other
than they are at Paris.
The countenance of the Italian is soul, his speech
exclamation, his motion gesticulation. His form is the
noblest, and his country the true seat of beauty. His
short forehead, his strong marked eyebones, the fine
contour of his mouth, give a kindred claim to the
antiquities of Greece. The ardour of his eyes denotes
that the beneficent sun brings forth fruit more perfect in
Italy than beyond the Alps. His imagination is ever in
motion, ever sympathizing with surrounding objects, and
as in the poem of Ariosto the whole works of creation
are reflected, so are they generally in the national spirit.
That power which could bring forth such a work,
appears to me the general representative of genius. It
sings all, and from it all things are sung. The sublime
112 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
in arts is the birthright of the Italian. Modern religion
and politics may have degraded and falsified his charac-
ter, may have rendered the vulgar faithless and crafty,
but the superior part of the nation abounds in the
noblest and best of men.
The Dutchman is tranquil, patient, confined, and
appears to will nothing. His walk and eye are long
silent, and an hour of his company will scarcely produce
a thought. He is little troubled by the tide of passions,
and he will contemplate unmoved the parading streamers
of all nations sailing before his eyes. Quiet and com-
petence are his gods ; therefore those arts alone which
can procure these blessings employ his faculties. His
laws, political and commercial, have originated in that
spirit of security which maintains him in the possession
of what he has gained. He is tolerant in all that relates
to opinion, if he be but left peaceably to enjoy his
property, and to assemble at the meeting-house of his
sect. The character of the ant is so applicable to the
Dutch, that to this literature itself conforms in Holland.
All poetical powers, exerted in great works or small, are
foreign to this nation. They endure pleasure from the
perusal of poetry, but produce none. I speak of the
United Provinces, and not of the Flemings, whose jovial
character is in the midway between the Italian and
French. A high forehead, half-open eyes, full nose,
hanging cheeks, wide open mouth, fleshy lips, broad
chin and large ears, I believe to be characteristic of
the Dutchman.
A German thinks it disgraceful not to know every
thing, and dreads nothing so much as to be thought a
fool. Probity often makes him appear a blockhead. Of
nothing is he so proud as of honest moral under-
Plate jy.
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE IV. 113
standing. According to modern tactics he is certainly
the best soldier, and the teacher of all Europe.
He is allowed to be the greatest inventor, and often
with so little ostentation, that foreigners have for
centuries, unknown to him, robbed him of his glory.
From the age of Tacitus, a willing dependent, he has
exerted faculties for the service of his masters which
others only exert for freedom and property. His counte-
nance does not, like a painting in fresco, speak at a
distance ; but he must be sought and studied. His good
nature and benevolence are often concealed under ap-
parent moroseness, and a third person is always neces-
sary to draw off the veil, and show him as he is. He is
difficult to move, and without the aid of old wine is
silent. He does not suspect his own worth, and wonders
when it is discovered by others. Fidelity, industry, and
secresy, are his principal characteristics. Not having
wit, he indulges his sensibility. Moral good is the
colouring which he requires in all acts. His epic and
lyric spirit walk in unfrequented paths. Hence his
great, and frequently gigantic sense, which seldom per-
mits him the clear aspect of enthusisam, or the glow
of splendour. Moderate in the use of this world's
delights, he has little propensity to sensuality and extra-
vagance ; but he is therefore formal, and less social than
his neighbour.
CHAPTEE XXII.
Description of Plate TV.
Number 1.
WE may certainly call noses arched and pointed like
this, witty ; but the wit is restrained and moderated by
I
114
the acute understanding of the forehead, the sincere
religion of the eye, and the phlegm of the chin.
Number 2.
The descent from the nose to the lips in the phleg-
matic countenance is unphlegmatic and heterogeneous ;
nor does the curvature of the upper eyelids sufficiently
agree with the temperament. The outlines of the
phlegmatic are relaxed, obtuse, and hanging ; the outline
of the eye oblique. Be it understood there are other
tokens, and that all phlegmatic persons have not these
signs, although whoever has them is certainly phleg-
matic. If the projecting under lip, which is itself a
sign of phlegm, since it is evidently a superabundance
and not a want of matter, be angular, and sharply
delineated, then it is a sign of choleric phlegm ; that is
to say, of the ebullition of humidity. If it be flexible,
obtuse, powerless, and drooping, it is then pure phlegm.
The forehead, nose, chin, and hair, are here very phleg-
matic.
Number 3.
The choleric ought to have a more angularly pointed
nose, and lips more sharply delineated. The character
of choler is much contained in the drawing of the eyes,
either when the pupil projects, and much of the under
part of the white is visible, or when the upper eyelid
retreats, so that it scarcely can be perceived ; when the
eyes open, or when the eye is sunken, and the outlines
are very definite and firm, without much curvature. In
this example, the forehead, eyebrows, nose, chin, and
hair, are very choleric ; but the upper part of the coun-
tenance more so than the under.
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE IV. 115
Number 4.
The sanguine needs but little correction, except that
the nose ought to be a little farther from the mouth, and
the eye not so choleric. The levity of the sanguine
temperament waves, flutters upon the lip, which, how-
ever, at the bottom is too phlegmatic.
Number 5.
There ought to be a deeper cavity above the nose,
and also of the jawbone, beside the ear, in this melan-
cholic countenance. I have observed in many melan-
cholic persons, that the nose declines towards the lips ;
nor have I seen this in any who were not sometimes
inclined to the melancholic, who likewise have projecting
under lips, and small, but not very round nor very
fleshy chins.
There are melancholy persons with very sanguine
temperaments ; men of fine irritability and moral feel-
ings, who are hurried into vices which they deeply
abhor, and which they have not the power to withstand.
The gloomy and dispirited character of such is percep-
tible in the eye that shuns examination, and the wrinkles
of the forehead standing opposite to each other. Persons
of a real melancholic temperament generally have their
mouths shut, but the lips are always somewhat open in
the middle. Many melancholy persons have small
nostrils, and seldom well-arranged, clean, white teeth.
Number 6.
Strength and ardour, enterprise, courage, contempt of
danger, fortitude of the irritated and irritable. This
strength is rather oppressive than patient and enduring ;
116 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
it proclaims its own qualities, respectable in a state of
rest, terrible when roused.
CHAPTEE XXIII.
Resemblance between Parents and Children.
THE resemblance between parents and children is
very commonly remarkable. Family physiognomy is as
undeniable as national. To doubt this is to doubt what
is self-evident ; to wish to interpret it is to wish to ex-
plore the inexplicable secret of existence. Striking and
frequent as the resemblance between parents and
children is, yet have the relations between the characters
and countenances of families never been inquired into.
No one has, to my knowledge, made any regular obser-
vations on this subject. I must also confess that I
myself have made but few with that circumstantial
attention which is necessary. All I have to remark is
as follows : —
When the father is considerably stupid, and the
mother exceedingly the reverse, then will most of the
children be endured with extraordinary understanding.
When the father is good, truly good, the children will
in general be well-disposed ; at least most of them will
be benevolent.
The son generally appears to inherit moral goodness
from the good father, and intelligence from the intelli-
gent mother ; the daughter partakes of the character
of the mother.
If we wish to find the most certain marks of re-
semblance between parents and children, they should be
observed within an hour or two after birth. We may
then perceive whom the child most resembles in its
FAMILY PHYSIOGNOMY. 117
formation. The most essential resemblance is usually
afterwards lost, and does not perhaps appear again for
many years ; or not till after death.
When children, as they increase in years, visibly
increase in the resemblance of form and features to their
parents, we cannot doubt but there is an increasing resem-
blance of character. How much soever the characters
of children may appear unlike that of the parents they
resemble, yet will this dissimilarity be found to origi-
nate in external circumstances ; and the variety of these
must be great indeed, if the difference of character is
not at length overpowered by the resemblance of form.
I believe that from the strongly delineated father the
firmness and the kind (I do not say the form, but the
kind) of bones and muscles are derived ; and from the
strongly delineated mother the kind of nerves and form
of countenance, if the imagination and love of the
mother have not fixed themselves too deeply in the
countenance of the man.
Certain forms of countenance, in children, appear for
a time undecided whether they shall take the resem-
blance of the father or the mother ; in which case I will
grant that external circumstances, preponderating love
for the father or mother, or a greater degree of inter-
course with either, may influence the form.
We sometimes see children who long retain a remark-
able resemblance to the father, but at length change, and
become more like the mother. I undertake not to
expound the least of the difficulties that occur on this
subject; but the most modest philosophy may be per-
mitted to compare uncommon cases with those which
are known, even though they were inexplicable ; and this,
I believe, is all that philosophy can and ought to do.
118 LA VATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
We know that all longings or mother's marks, and
whatever may be considered as of the same nature, do
«iot proceed from the father, but from the imagination of
the mother. We also know that children most resemble
the father only when the mother has a very lively imagi-
nation, and love for or fear of the husband. Therefore,
as has before been observed, it appears that the matter
and quantum of the power and of the life proceed from
the father; and from the imagination of the mother,
sensibility, the kind of nerves, the form, and the appear-
ance.
There are certain forms and features of countenance
which are long propagated, and others which as suddenly
disappear. The beautiful and the deformed (I do not
say forms of countenances, but what is generally sup-
posed to be beauty and deformity) are not the most
easily propagated ; neither are the middling and insig-
nificant; but the great and the minute are easily
inherited, and of long duration.
Parents with small noses may have children with the
largest and strongest defined ; but the father or mother
seldom, on the contrary, have a very strong, that is to
say, large-boned nose, which is not communicated at
least to one of their children, and which does not remain
in the family, especially when it is in the female line.
It may seem to have been lost for many years, but soon
or late will again make its appearance, and its resem-
blance to the original will be particularly visible a day
or two after death.
Where any extraordinary vivacity appears in the eyes
of the mother, there is almost a certainty that these eyes
will become hereditary ; for the imagination of the mother
is delighted with nothing so much as with the beauty
FAMILY PHYSIOGNOMY. 119
of her own eyes. Physiognomical sensation has been
hitherto much more generally directed to the eye than
to the nose and form of the face ; but if women should
once be induced to examine the nose and form of the
face, as assiduously as they have done their eyes, it is
to be expected that the former will be no less strikingly
hereditary than the latter.
Well-arched and short foreheads are easy of inheri-
tance, but not of long duration ; and here the proverb is
applicable, Quod citb fit, vitb perit. (Soon got, soon gone.)
It is equally certain and inexplicable, that some
remarkable physiognomies of the most fruitful persons
have been wholly lost to their posterity; and it is as
certain and inexplicable that others are never lost. Nor
is it less remarkable that certain strong countenances of
the father or mother disappear in the children, and per-
fectly revive in the grandchildren.
As a proof of the powers of the imagination of the
mother, we sometimes see that a woman shall have
children by the second husband, which shall resemble
the first at least in the general appearance. The Italians,
however, are manifestly too extravagant when they sup-
pose children who strongly resemble their father are
base-born. They say that the mother, during the com-
mission of a crime so shameful, wholly employs her
imagination concerning the possibility of surprise b};
and the image of, her husband. But were this fear so
to act, the form of the children must not only have the
very image of the husband, but also his appearance of
rage and revenge, without which the adulterous wife
could not imagine the being surprised by, or image of,
her husband. It is this appearance, this rage that she
fears, and not the man.
120 LAVATEK'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
Natural children generally resemble one of their
parents more than the legitimate.
The more there is of individual love, of pure, faithful,
mild affection, the more is this love reciprocal and
unconstrained between the father and mother — which
reciprocal love and affection imply a certain degree of
imagination, and the capacity of receiving impressions —
the more will the countenances of the children appear
to be composed of the features of the parents.
The sanguine, of all the temperaments, is the most
easily inherited, and with it volatility ; and, being once
introduced, much industry and suffering will be necessary
to exterminate this volatility.
The natural timidity of the mother may easily com-
municate the melancholy temperament of the father.
Be it understood that this is easy if, in the decisive
moment, the mother be suddenly seized by some pre-
dominant fear ; and that it is less communicable when
the fear is less hasty and more reflective. Thus we find
those mothers who, during the whole time of their preg-
nancy, are most in dread of producing monstrous or
marked children, because they remember to have seen
objects that excited abhorrence, generally have the best
formed and freest from marks ; for the fear, though real,
was the fear of reason, and not the sudden effect of an
object exciting abhorrence rising instantaneously to sight.
When both parents have given a deep root to the
choleric temperament in a family, it may probably be
some centuries before it be again moderated. Phlegm
is not so easily inherited, even though both father and
mother should be phlegmatic; for there are certain
moments of life when the phlegmatic acts with its whole
power, though it acts thus but rarely, and these moments
FAMILY PHYSIOGNOMY. 121
may and must have their effects ; but nothing appears
more easy of inheritance than activity and industry,
when these have their origin in organization, and the
necessity of producing alteration. It will be long before
an industrious couple, to whom not only a livelihood,
but business, is in itself necessary, shall not have a
single descendant with the like qualities, as such mothers
are generally prolific.
CHAPTEK XXIV.
Remarks on the Opinions of Buffon, Halter, and Bonnet,
concerning the Eesemllance between Parents
and Children.
THE theory or hypothesis of Buffon, concerning
the cause of the human form, is well known, which
Haller has abridged and more clearly explained in the
following manner : —
" Both sexes have their semen, in which are active
particles of a certain form. From the union of these the
fruit of the womb arises. These particles contain the
resemblance of all the parts of the father or mother.
They are by nature separated from the rude and un-
formed particles of the human juices, and are impressed
with the form of all the parts of the body of the father
or mother. Hence arises the resemblance of children to
their parents. This will account for the mixture of the
features of father and mother in the children; for
the spots of animals, when the male and female are of
different colours ; for the Mulatto produced by a Negro
and a White ; and for many other phenomena difficult
to be resolved.
122 LA VATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
" Should it be asked how these particles can assume
the internal structure of the body of the father, since
they can properly be only the images of the hollow
vessels, it may be answered that we know not all the
powers of nature, and that she may have preserved to
herself, though she has concealed it from her scholar,
man, the art of making internally models and impres-
sions which shall express the whole solidity of the
model."
Haller, in his preface to Buffon's Natural History, has
in my opinion indisputably confuted this system. But
he has not only forborne to elucidate the resemblance
between fathers and children, but while opposing Buffon,
he has spoken so much on the natural physiological
dissimilarity of the human body, that he appears to have
denied this resemblance. Buffon's hypothesis offended
all philosophy ; and though we cannot entirely approve
the theory of Bonnet, yet he has very effectually
opposed the incongruities of Buffon, to which Buffon
himself could scarcely give any serious faith. But he,
as we shall soon see, has either avoided the question of
resemblance between parents and children, or, in order
to strengthen his own system, has rather sought to
palliate than to answer difficulties.
BONNET, concerning organized Bodies.
"Are the germs of one and the same species of
organized bodies perfectly like each other, or individu-
ally distinct ? Are they only distinct in the organs
which characterize sex, or have they a resembling
difference to each other, such as we observe in indi-
vidual substances of the same species of plants or
animals ? "
FAMILY PHYSIOGNOMY. 123
ANSWER. — " If we consider the infinite variety to be
observed in all the products of nature, the latter will
appear most probable. The differences which are to be
observed in the individuals of the same species, probably
depend more on the primitive form of the germs than
in the connexion of the sexes."
On the resemblance between Children and their Parents.
" I must own that, by the foregoing hypothesis, I
have not been successful in explaining the resemblance
of features found between parents and children. But
are not these features very ambiguous? Do we not
suppose that to be the cause which probably is not so ?
The father is deformed, the son is deformed after the
same manner, and it is therefore concluded that defor-
mity is inherited. This may be true, but it may be
false. The deformity of each may arise from very
different causes, and these causes may be infinitely
varied.
" It is not so difficult to explain hereditary diseases.
"We can easily conceive that defective juices may pro-
duce defective germs ; and, when the same parts of the
body are affected by disease in father or mother, and
in child, this arises from the similar conformation of
the parts, by which they are subject to like inconve-
niences. Besides, the misshapen body often originates
in diseases being hereditary, which much diminishes
the first difficulty. For, since the juices conducted to
those parts are of a bad quality, the parts must be more
or less ill formed, according as they are more or less
capable of being affected by these juices/'
124 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
REFLECTION.
Bonnet cannot find the origin of family likeness in his
system. Let us, however, take this his system in the part
where he finds the origin of hereditary disease. Shall the
defective juices of father or mother very much alter the
germ, and produce, in the very parts where the father or
mother is injured, important changes of bad formation,
more or less, according to the capability of the germ, and
its power of resistance ? And shall the healthy juices
of the parent in no manner affect the germ? Why
should not the healthy juices be as active as the un-
healthy? "Why should they not introduce the same
qualities in miniature which the father and mother
have in the gross ; since the father and mother assimilate
the nutriment they receive to their own nature, and
since the seminal juices are the spiritual extract of all
their juices and powers, as we have just reason to con-
clude from the most continued and accurate observations?
Why should they not as naturally, and as powerfully,
act upon the germ, to produce all possible resemblance ?
But which resemblance is infinitely varied, by different-
ly changeable and changed circumstances ; so that the
germ continually preserves sufficient of its own original
nature and properties, yet is always very distinct from
the parents, and sometimes even seems to have derived
very little from them, which may happen from a thou-
sand accidental causes or changes.
Hence family resemblance and dissimilarity being
summarily considered, we shall find that nature, wholly
employed to propagate, appears to be entirely directed
to produce an equilibrium between the individual power
of the germ in its first formation, and the resembling
FAMILY PHYSIOGNOMY. 125
power of the parents ; but the originality of the first
form of the germ may not wholly disappear before
the too great power of resemblance to the parents, but
that they may mutually concur, and both be subject to
numberless circumstances, which may increase or di-
minish their respective powers, in order that the riches
of variety, and the utility of the creature, and its de-
pendence on the whole and the general Creator, may be
the greater and more predominant.
Every observation on the resemblance between parents
and children, which I have been enabled to make, con-
vinces me that neither the theories of Bonnet nor Buffbn
give any systematic explanation of phenomena, the
existence of which cannot be denied by the sophistry of
hypothesis. Diminish the difficulties as much as we
will, facts will still stare us in the face. If the germ
exist preformed in the mother, can this germ, at that
time, have physiognomy ? Can it, at that time, resemble ,
the future, promiscuous, first, or second father ? Is it
not perfectly indifferent to either ? or, if the physiogno-
mical germ exist in the father, how can it sometimes
resemble the mother, sometimes the father, often both,
and often neither ?
I am of opinion that something germ-like, or a whole
capable of receiving the human form, must previously
exist in the mother ; but which is nothing more than the
foundation of the future fatherly or motherly I know
not what, and is the efficient cause of the future living
fruit. This germ-like something, which, most especially
constituted agreeable to the human form, is analogous to
the nature and temperature of the mother, receives a
peculiar individual personal physiognomy, according to
the propensities of the father or mother, the disposition
126
of the moment of conception, and probably of many
other future decisive moments.
Still much remains to the freedom and predisposition
of man. He may deprave or improve his state of the
juices, he may oalm or agitate his mind, may awaken
every sensation of love, and by various modes increase
or relax them. Yet I think that neither the nature of
the bones, nor the muscles and nerves, consequently the
character, depends on the physiognomical preformation
preceding generation ; at least they are far from de-
pending on these alone, though I allow the organizable,
the primitive form, always has a peculiar individuality,
which is only capable of receiving certain subtile in-
fluences, and which must reject others.
CHAPTEE XXV.
Observations on the New-lorn, the Dying, and the Dead.
I HAVE had opportunities of remarking in some
children, about an hour after a birth attended with no
difficulties, a striking though infantine resemblance in
the profile to the profile of the father; and that in a
few days this resemblance had nearly disappeared. The
impression of the open air, nutriment, and perhaps of
position, had so far altered the outlines that the child
seemed entirely different.
Of these children I saw two dead, the one about six
weeks, and the other about four years old ; and, nearly
twelve hours after death, I observed the same profile
which I had before remarked an hour after birth ; with
this difference, that the profile of the dead child, as is
natural, was something more tense and fixed than the
THE NEW-BORN, DYING, AND DEAD. 127
living. A part of this resemblance, however, onv the
third day was remarkably gone.
One man of fifty, and another of seventy years of age,
who fell under my observation while they were living
and after death, appeared while living not to have the
least resemblance to their sons, and whose countenance?
seemed to be of a quite different class ; yet, the second
day after death, the profile of the one had a striking
resemblance to that of his eldest, and of the other to
the profile of his third son, as much so as the profile of
the dead children before mentioned resembled the living
profile an hour after birth, stronger indeed, and, as a
painter would say, harder. On the third day here also
a part of the resemblance vanished.
I have uniformly observed, among the many dead
persons I have seen, that sixteen, eighteen, or twenty-
four hours after death, according to the disease, they
have had a more beautiful form, better defined, more
proportionate, harmonized, homogeneous, more noble,
more exalted, than they ever had during life.
It occurred to me that there might be in all men an
original physiognomy, subject to be disturbed by the
ebb and flow of accident and passion; and is not this
restored by the calm of death, like as troubled waters,
being again left at rest, become clear 1
I have observed some among the dying who had been
the reverse of noble or great during life, and who
some hours before their death, or perhaps some moments,
(one was in a delirium,) have had an inexpressible
ennobling of the countenance. Every body saw a new
man ; colouring, drawing, and grace — all was new, all
bright as the morning; beyond expression noble and
.exalted ; the most inattentive must see, the most insert-
128 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
sible feel, the image of God. I saw it break forth and
shine through the ruins of corruption, was obliged to
turn aside and adore in silence. Yes, glorious God;
still art thou there, in the weakest, most fallible men !
CHAPTEE XXVI.
Of the Influence of Countenance on Countenance.
As the gestures of our friends and intimates become
our own, so in like manner does their appearance.
Whatever we love we would assimilate to ourselves;
and whatever in the circle of affection does not change
us into itself, that we change, as far as may be, into
ourselves.
All things act upon us, and we act upon all things,
but nothing has so much influence as what we love ;
and, among all objects of affection, nothing acts so
forcibly as the countenance of man. Its conformity to
our countenance makes it most worthy our affection.
How might it act upon, how attract our attention, had it
iiot some marks, discoverable or undiscoverable, similar
to, at least of the same kind, with the form and feature
of our own countenance !
Without, however, wishing farther to penetrate into
what is impenetrable, or to define what is inscrutable,
the fact is indubitable, that countenances attract
countenances, and also that countenances repel coun-
tenances; that similarity of features between two
sympathetic and affectionate men, increase with the de-
velopment and mutual communication of their peculiar
individual sensations. The reflection, if I may so say,
INFLUENCE OF COUNTENANCE. 129
of the person beloved remains upon the countenance of
the affectionate.
The resemblance frequently exists only in a single
point — in the character of mind and countenance. A
resemblance in the system of the bones presupposes a
resemblance of the nerves and muscles.
Dissimilar education may affect the latter so much,
that the point of attraction may be invisible to the
unphysiognomical eye. Suffer the two resembling forms
to approach, and they will reciprocally attract and repel
each other; remove every intervening obstacle, and
nature will soon prevail. They will recognize each
other; and rejoice in the flesh of their flesh, and the
bone of their bone : with hasty steps will proceed to
assimilate. Such countenances also, which are very
different from each other, may communicate, attract, and
acquire resemblance; nay, their likeness may become
more striking than that of the former, if they happen to
be more flexible, more capable, and to have greater
sensibility.
This resemblance of features, in consequence of
mutual affection, is ever the result of internal nature
and organization, and, therefore, of the character of the
persons. It ever has its foundation in a preceding,
perhaps imperceptible resemblance, which might never
have been animated or suspected, had it not been set in
motion by the presence of the sympathetic being.
To give the character of those countenances which
most easily receive and communicate resemblance, would
be of infinite importance. It cannot but be known that
there are countenances that attract all, others that repel
all, and a third kind which are indifferent. The all-
repelling render the ignoble countenances, over which
K
1 30 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
they have continued influence, more ignoble. The in-
different allows no change. The all-attracting either
receive, give, or reciprocally give and receive. The first
change a little, the second more, the third most. " These
are the souls (says Hemsterhuys the younger) which,
happily or unhappily, add the most exquisite discern-
ment to that excessive internal elasticity which occa-
sions them to wish and feel immoderately; that is to
say, the souls which are so modified, or situated, that
their attractive force meets the fewest obstacles in its
progress."
To study the influence of countenance, this intercourse
of mind would be of the utmost importance. I have
found the progress of resemblance most remarkable
when two persons, the one richly communicative, the
other apt to receive, have lived a considerable time to-
gether without foreign intervention; when he who
gave had given all, or he who received could receive no
more, physiognomical resemblance had attained its
grand point.
Youth, irritable, and easy to be won, let me here say
a word to thee. Oh ! pause, consider, throw not thyself
too hastily into the arms of an untried friend. A gleam
of sympathy and resemblance may easily deceive thee.
If the man who is thy second self have not yet appeared,
be not rash, thou shalt find him at the appointed hour.
Being found, he will attract thee to himself, will give and
receive whatever is communicable. The ardour of his
eyes will nurture thine, and the gentleness of his voice
temper thy too piercing tones. His love will shine in
thy countenance, and his image will appear in thee.
Thou wilt become what he is, and yet remain what thou
art. Affection will make qualities in him visible to thee,
INFLUENCE OF COUNTENANCE. 131
which never could be seen by an uninterested eye. This
capability of remarking, of feeling what there is of
divine in him, is a power which will make thy counte-
nance assume his resemblance. -
CHAPTER XXVII.
On the Influence of the Imagination on the Countenance.
I MUST not leave this subject wholly in silence ; but
must content myself with saying only a few words, on
which volumes might be written. The little, the nothing
I have to say upon it, can only act as an inducement to
deeper meditations on a theme so profound.
Our own countenance is actuated by imagination,
rendering it in some measure resembling the beloved or
hated image which is living, present, and fleeting before
us, and is within the circle of our immediate activity.
If a man deeply in love, and supposing himself alone,
were ruminating on his beloved mistress, to whom his
imagination might lend some charms which, if present,
he would be unable to discover; were such a person
observed by a man of penetration, it is probable that
traits of the mistress might be seen in the countenance
of this meditating lover. So might, in the cruel
features of revenge, the features of the enemy be read,
whom imagination represents as present. And thus is
the countenance a picture of the characteristic features
of all persons exceedingly loved or hated.
It is possible that an eye less penetrating than that
of an angel, may read the image of the Creator in the
countenance of a truly pious person. He who languishes
after Christ, the more lively, the more distinctly, the
132 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
more sublimely, he represents to himself the very pre-
sence and image of Christ, the greater resemblance will
his own countenance take of this image. The image of
imagination often acts more effectually than the real
presence; and whoever has seen him of whom we speak,
the great HIM, though it were but an instantaneous
glimpse, oh ! how incessantly will the imagination repro-
duce his image in the countenance !
Our imagination also acts upon other countenances.
The imagination of the mother acts upon the child ; and
hence men long have attempted to influence the imagi-
nation for the production of beautiful children. In my
opinion, however, it is not so much the beauty of
surrounding forms as the interest taken concerning
forms in certain moments : and here, again, it is not so
much the imagination that acts as the spirit, that being
only the organ of the spirit. Thus, it is true that it is
the spirit that quickeneth the flesh, and the image of the
flesh (merely considered as such) profiteth nothing.
A look of love from the sanctuary of the soul, has
certainly greater forming power than hours of deliberate
contemplation of the most beautiful images. This form-
ing look, if so I may call it, can as little be premedi-
tatedly given, as any other naturally beautiful form can
be imparted by a studious contemplation in the looking-
glass. All that creates and is profoundly active in the
inner man, must be internal, and be communicated from
above ; as I believe it suffers itself not to be occasioned,
at least not by forethought, circumspection, or wisdom
in the agent, to produce such effects. Beautiful forms
or abortions are neither of them the work of art or
study, but of intervening causes, of the quick-guiding
providence, the pre-determining God.
EFFECTS OF IMAGINATION ON THE FORM. 133
Endeavour to act upon affection instead of the senses.
If thou canst but incite love, it will of itself seek and
find the powers of creation ; but this very love must
itself be innate before it can be awakened. Perhaps,
however, the moment of this awakening is not in our
power ; and therefore to those who would, by plan and
method, effect that which is in itself so extraordinary, and
imagine they have had I know not what wise and phy-
siological circumspection when they first awaken love, I
might exclaim in the words of the enraptured songster :
" I charge you, 0 ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes
and the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor awake
my love till he please." Here behold the forming
genius — "Behold he cometh, leaping upon the moun-
tains, skipping upon the hills, like a young hart."
Unforeseen moments, rapid as the lightning, in my
opinion form and deform. Creation of every kind is
momentaneous ; the development, nutriment, change,
improving, injuring, is the work of time, art, industry,
and education. Creative power suffers itself not to be
studied ; creation cannot be premeditated. Marks may
be moulded, but living essence, within and without re-
sembling itself, the image of God, must be created,
born, " not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God."
CHAPTEE XXVIII.
The Effects of the Imagination on the Human Form.
THAT by the strength of imagination there are marks
communicated by mothers to children during pregnancy,
is equally tiue and comprehensible; that there are
134
images, animals, fruit, or other substances, on the body
of the child ; marks of the hand on the very parts where
the pregnant person has been suddenly touched;
aversion to things which have occasioned disgust in the
mother ; and a continued scurvy communicated to the
child by the unexpected sight of a putrid animal. So
many marks on the bodies of children, arising not from
imaginary but real accidents, must oblige us to own that
there is truth in that which is inconceivable. There-
fore the imagination of the mother acts upon the child.
Of the innumerable examples that might be produced,
I shall cite the two following : —
A woman during the time of her pregnancy was en-
gaged in a card party, and only wanted the ace of spades
to win all that was staked. It so happened, in the
change of cards, that the so-much- wished-for ace was
given her. Her joy at this success had such an effect
upon her imagination, that the child of which she was
pregnant, when born, had the ace of spades depicted in
the apple of the eye, and without injury to the organ of
sight.
The following anecdote is certainly true, and still
more astonishing : —
A lady of Eeinthal had, during her pregnancy, a
desire to see the execution of a man who was sentenced
to have his right hand cut off before he was beheaded.
She saw the hand severed from the body, and instantly
turned away and went home, without waiting to see the
death that was to follow. This lady bore a daughter,
who was living at the time this fragment was written,
and who had only one hand. The right hand came
away with the after-birth.
Moral marks as well as physical are perhaps possible.
EFFECTS OF IMAGINATION ON THE FORM. 135
I have heard of a physician who never failed to steal
something from all the chambers through which he
passed, which he would afterwards forget ; and in the
evening his wife, who searched his pockets, would find
keys, snuff-boxes, tois-cases, scissors, thimbles, spec-
tacles, buckles, spoons, and other trinkets, which she
restored to the owners. I have been likewise told of a
child who, at two years of age, was adopted when beg-
ging at the door of a noble family, received an excellent
education, and became a most worthy man except that
he could not forbear to steal. The mothers of these
two extraordinary thieves must, during pregnancy, have
had an extraordinary desire to pilfer. It will be self-
evident that, however insufferable such men are in a
state of society, they are rather unfortunate than
wicked. Their actions may be as involuntary as
mechanical, and, in the sight of God, probably as
innocent as the customary motions of our fingers when
we tear bits of paper, or do any other indifferent,
thoughtless action.
The moral worth of an action must be estimated by
its intention, as the political worth must by its con-
sequences. As little injury as the ace of spades, if the
story be true, did to the countenance of the child, as
little probably did this thievish propensity to the heart.
Such a person certainly had no roguish look, no
avaricious, downcast, sly, pilfering aspect, like one who
is both soul and body a thief. I have not yet seen any
man of such an extraordinary character, and therefore
cannot judge of his physiognomy by experience ; yet we
have reason previously to conclude, that men so uncom-
mon must bear some marks in their countenance of such
deviation of character.
136 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
Those extraordinary large or small persons, by us
called giants and dwarfs, should perhaps be classed
among these active and passive effects of the imagi-
nation. Though giants and dwarfs are not properly
born such, yet it is possible, however incomprehensible,
that nature may first, at a certain age, suddenly enlarge
or contract herself.
We have a variety of examples that the imagination
appears not only to act upon the present, but on absence,
distance, and futurity. Perhaps apparitions of the dying
and the dead may be attributed to this kind of effect.
Be it granted that these facts, which are so numerous,
are true, and including not only the apparitions of the
dead, but of the living, who have appeared to distant
friends; after collecting such anecdotes, and adding
others on the subject of presage and prediction, many
philosophical conjectures will thence arise, which may
probably confirm my following proposition.
The imagination, incited by the desire and languish-
ing of love, or inflamed by passion, may act in distant
places and times. The sick or dying person, for example,
sighs after an absent friend who knows not of his
sickness, or thinks of him at the time. The pining of
the imagination penetrates, as I may say, walls, and
appears in the form of the dying person, or gives signs
of his presence similar to those which his actual presence
gives. Is there any real corporeal appearances? No.
The sick or dying person is languishing in his bed, and
has never been a moment absent; therefore there is no
actual appearance of him whose form has appeared.
What, then, has produced this appearance ? What is it
that has acted thus at a distance on another's senses or
imagination? — Imagination; but the imagination through
EFFECTS OF IMAGINATION OX THE FORM. 137
the focus of passion. — How? — It is inexplicable. But
who can doubt such facts who does not mean to laugh
at all historical facts ?
Is there any improbability that there may be similar
moments of mind when the imagination shall act alike
inexplicably on the unborn child ? That the inexplicable
disgusts, I will grant ; I feel it perfectly. But is it not
the same in the foregoing examples, and in every example
of the kind? Like as cripples first become so many
years after birth, which daily experience proves, may
not, after the same inconceivable manner, the seeds of
what is gigantic or dwarfish be the effects of the imagi-
nation on the fruit, which does not make its appearance
till years after the child is born ?
\\Vre it possible to persuade a woman to keep an
accurate register of what happened, in all the powerful
moments of imagination during her state of pregnancy,
she then might probably be able to foretell the chief
incidents, philosophical, moral, intellectual, and physio-
gnomical, which would happen to her child. Imagination,
actuated by desire, love, or hatred, may, with more than
lightning swiftness, kill or enliven, enlarge, diminish,
or impregnate, the organized foetus with the germ of
enlarging or diminishing wisdom or folly, death or life,
which shall first be unfolded at a certain time, and under
certain circumstances. This hitherto unexplored, but
sometimes decisive and revealed, creative and changing
power of the soul, may be in its essence identically the
same with what is called faith- working miracles, which
latter may be developed and increased by external
causes, wherever it exists, but cannot be communicated
where it is not. A closer examination of the foregoing
conjectures, which I wish not to be held for any thing
138 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
more than conjectures, may perhaps lead to the pro-
foundest secrets of physiognomy.
CHAPTEE XXIX.
Essay by a late Learned Man of Oldenburg, M. Sturtz,
on Physiognomy, interspersed with short Remarks by
the Author.
" LIKE Lavater, I am perfectly convinced of the truth
of physiognomy, and of the all significance of each limb
and feature. Certain it is that the mind may be read
in the lineaments of the body, and its motion in its
features and their shades.
"Cause and effect, connection and harmony, exist
through all nature ; therefore between the external and
internal of man. Our form is influenced by our parents,
by the earth on which we walk, the sun that warms us
with his rays, the food that assimilates itself with our
substance, the incidents that determine the fortune of
our lives. These all modify, repair, and chisel forth the
body, and the marks of the tool are apparent both in
body and in mind. Each arching, each sinuosity of the
externals, adapts itself to the individuality of the
internal. It is adherent and pliable, like wet drapery.
Were the nose but a little altered, Caesar would not be
the Caesar with whom we are acquainted.
" The soul being in motion, it shines through the body
as the moon through the ghosts of Ossian, each passion
throughout the human race has ever the same language."
From * east and to west, envy nowhere looks with the
* Those passages which are not marked with inverted commas are
the observations of M. Lavater on the different parts of M. Sturtz's
Essay.
STURTZ OX PHYSIOGNOMY. 139
satisfied air of magnanimity, nor will discontent appear
like patience. Wherever patience is, there is it expressed
by the same signs, as likewise are anger, envy, and every
other passion.
" Pliiloctetes certainly expresses not the sensation of
pain like a scourged slave. The angels of Raphael must
smile more nobly than the angels of Rembrandt ; but
joy and pain still have each their peculiar expression :
they act according to peculiar laws upon peculiar
muscles and nerves, however various may be the shades
of their expression; and the oftener the passion is
repeated or set in motion, the more it becomes a pro-
pensity, a favourite habit, the deeper will be the furrows
it ploughs.
" But inclination, capacity, modes and gradations of ca-
pacity, talents, and an ability for business, lie much more
concealed. A good observer will discover the wrathful,
the voluptuous, the proud, the discontented, the malig-
nant, the benevolent, and the compassionate with little
difficulty ; but the philosopher, the poet, the artist, and
their various partitions of genius, he will be unable to
determine with equal accuracy. And it will be still
more difficult to assign the feature or trait in which the
token of each quality is seated, whether understanding
be in the eyebone, wit in the chin, and poetical genius
in the mouth."
Yet I hope, I believe — nay, I know — that the pre-
sent century will render this possible. The penetrating
author of this essay would not only have found it
possible, but would have performed it himself, had he
only set apart a single day to compare and examine a
well-arranged collection of characters, either in nature
or well-painted portraits.
140 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
"Whenever we meet with a remarkable man, our
attention is always excited, and we are more or less
empirical physiognomists. We perceive in the aspect,
the mien, the smile, the mechanism of the forehead,
sometimes wit, at others penetration. We expect and
presage, from the impulse of latent sensation, very deter-
mined qualities from the form of each new acquaintance ;
and when this faculty of judging is improved by an
intercourse with the world, we often suceed to admiration
in our judgment on strangers.
"Can we call this feeling, internal unacquired
sensation, which is inexplicable; or is it comparison,
indication, conclusion from a character we have examined
to another which we have not, and occasioned by some
external resemblance ? Feeling is the segis of enthusiasts
and fools, and, though it may often be conformable to
truth, is still neither demonstration nor confirmation of
truth ; but induction is judgment founded on experience,
and this way only will I study physiognomy.
"With an air of friendship I meet many strangers,
with cool politness I recede from others, though there is
no expression of passion to attract or to disgust. On
farther examination, I always found that I have seen in
them some trait either of a worthy or a worthless person
with whom I was before acquainted.
" A child, in my opinion, acts from like motives when
he evades, or is pleased with, the caresses of strangers,
except that he is actuated by more trifling signs ; perhaps
by the colour of the clothes, the tone of the voice, or
often by some motion which he has observed in the
parent, the nurse, or the acquaintance."
This cannot be denied to be often the case, and indeed
much more often than is commonly supposed; yet I
STUUTZ ON PHYSIOGNOMY. 341
make no doubt of being able to prove that there are,
in nature and art, a multitude of traits, especially of the
extremes of passionate as well as dispassionate faculties,
which of themselves, and without comparison with
former experiments, are with certainty intelligible to
P the most unpractised observer. I believe it to be incor-
porated in the nature of man, in the organization of our
eyes and ears, that he should be actuated or repulsed by
certain countenances as well as by certain tones. Let a
child who has seen but a few men, view but the open jaws
of a lion or a tiger, and the smile of a benevolent person,
and his nature will infallibly shrink from the one, and
meet the smile of benevolence with a smile ; not from
reason and comparison, but from the original feelings of
nature. For the same reason we listen with pleasure to
a delightful melody, and shudder at discordant shrieks.
As little as there is of comparison or consideration on
such an occasion, so is there equally little on the first of
an extremely pleasing, or an extremely disgusting
countenance.
" Mere sensation, therefore, is not the cause, since I
have good reason, when I meet a person who resembles
Turenne, to expect sagacity, cool resolution, and ardent
enterprise. If, in three men, I find one possessed of the
eyes of Turenne and the same marks of prudence;
another with his nose and high courage ; the third with
his mouth and activity; I then have ascertained the
seat where each quality expresses itself, and am justified
in expecting similar qualities wherever I meet similar
features.
"Had we, for centuries past, examined the human
form, arranged characteristic features, compared traits,
and exemplified inflections, lines, and proportions, and
142 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
had we added explanations to each, then would our
Chinese alphabet of the race of man be complete, and
we need but open it to find the interpretation of any
countenance. Whenever I indulge the supposition that
such an elementary work is not absolutely impossible,
I expect more from it than even Lavater. I imagine
we may obtain a language so rich and so determinate,
that it shall be possible, from description only, to restore
the living figure; and that an accurate description of
the mind shall give the outline of the body, so that the
physiognomist, studying some future Plutarch, shall
regenerate great men, and ideal form shall, with facility,
take birth from the given definition."
This is excellent ; and, be the author in jest or ear-
nest, this is what I entirely, without dreaming and most
absolutely, expect from the following century; for which
purpose, with God's good pleasure, I will hereafter hazard
some essays.
" With these ideal forms shall the chambers of future
princes be hung, and he who comes to solicit employ-
ment shall retire without murmuring, when it is proved
to him that he is excluded by his nose."
Laugh or laugh not, friends or enemies of truth, this
will, this must happen.
" By degrees, I imagine to myself a new and another
world, where error and deceit shall be banished."
Banished they would be were physiognomy the
universal religion, were all men accurate observers, and
were not dissimulation obliged to recur to new arts, by
which physiognomy, at least for a time, may be rendered
erroneous.
" We have to inquire whether we should therefore be
happier ? "
STURTZ ON PHYSIOGNOMY. 143
We should certainly be happier, though the present
contest between virtue and vice, sincerity and dissimu-
lation, which so contributes to the development of the
grand faculties of man, renders, as I may say, human
virtue divine, exalting it to heaven.
" Truth is ever found in the medium : we will not
hope too little from physiognomy, nor will we expect
too much. Here torrents of objections break in upon
me, some of which I am unable to answer. Do so many
men in reality resemble each other ? Is not the re-
semblance general ; and, when particularly examined,
does it not vanish, especially if the resembling persons
be compared feature by feature ? Does it not happen
that one feature is in direct contradiction to another ;
that a fearful nose is placed between eyes which betoken
courage ? "
In the firm parts, or those capable of sharp outlines,
accidents excepted, I have never yet found contradictory
features, but often have between the firm and the
flexible, or the ground-form of the flexible and their
apparent situation. By ground-form I mean to say that
which is preserved after death, unless distorted by
violent disease.
" It is by no means proved that resemblance of form
universally denotes resemblance of mind. In families
where there is most resemblance, there are often the
greatest varieties of mind. I have known twins not to
be distinguished from each other, between whose minds
there was not the least similarity."
If this be literally true, I will renounce physiognomy,
and whoever shall convince me of it, I will give him
my copy of these fragments, and an hundred physiogno-
mical drawings. Nor will I be my own judge : I leave
144 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
•
it to the worthy author of this remark to choose three
arbiters. Let them examine the fact accurately, and,
if they confirm it, I will own my error. Shades, how-
ever, of these twin brothers will first be necessary. In
all the experiments I have made, I declare, upon my
honour, I have never made any such remark.
" In what manner shall we be able to explain the in-
numerable exceptions which almost Overwhelm rule ? I
will only produce some from my own observation. Dr.
Johnson had the appearance of a porter ; not the glance
of the eye, not any trait of the mouth, speak the man of
penetration or of science."
When a person of our author's penetration and judg-
ment thus affirms, I must hesitate, and say — He has
observed this, I have not. But how does it happen that,
in, more than ten years' observation, I have never met
any such example ? I have seen many men, especially
in the beginning of my physiognomical studies, whom I
supposed to be men of sense, and who were not so ; but
never, to the best of my knowledge, did I meet a wise
man whom I supposed a fool In the frontispiece is an
engraving of Johnson. Can a countenance more tran-
quilly fine be imagined, one that more possesses the
sensibility of understanding, planning, scrutinizing ? In
the eyebrows only, and their horizontal position, how
great is the expression of profound, exquisite, pene-
trating understanding ?
"The countenance of Hume was that of a common
man."
So says common report. I have no answer but that
I suspect the aspect, or flexible features, on which most
observers found their physiognomical judgment, have,
as I may say, effaced the physiognomy of the bones ; as,
STURTZ ON PHYSIOGNOMY. 145
for example, the outline and arching of the forehead, to
which scarcely one in a hundred direct their attention.
" Churchill had the look of a drover ; Goldsmith of a
simpleton ; and the cold eyes of Strange do not betray
the artist."
The greatest artists have often the coldest eyes. The
man of genius and the artist are two persons. Phlegm
is the inheritance of the mere artist.
" Who would say that the apparent ardour of Wille
speaks the man who passed his life in drawing parallel
lines ?"
Ardour and phlegm are not incompatible : the most
ardent men are the coolest Scarcely any observation
has been so much verified as this : it appears contradic-
tory, but it is not. Ardent, quickly determining,
resolute, laborious, and boldly enterprising men, the
moment of ardour excepted, have the coolest of minds.
The style and countenance of Wille, if the profile portrait
of him in my possession be a likeness, have this character
in perfection.
" It appears to me that Boucher, the painter of the
graces, has the aspect of an executioner."
Truly so. Such was the portrait I received. But
then, my good M. Sturtz, let us understand what is
meant by these painters of the graces. I find as little
in his works as in his countenance. None of the paint-
ings of Boucher were at all to my taste. I could not
contemplate one of them with pleasure, and his counte-
nance had the same effect. I can now comprehend, said
I, on the first sight of his portrait, why I have never
been pleased with the works of Boucher.
" I once happened to see a criminal condemned to the
wheel, who with satanic wickedness had murdered his
L
146 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
benefactor, and who yet had the benevolent and open
countenance of an angel of Guido. It is not impossible
to discover the head of a Eegulus among guilty crimi-
nals, or of a vestal in the house of correction."
I can confirm, this from experience. Far be contra-
diction from me on this subject. But such vicious
persons, however hateful with respect to the appearance
and effect of their actions, or even to their internal
motives, were not originally wicked. Where is the
pure, the noble, finely-formed, easily-irritated man, with
angelic sensibility, who has not his devilish moments,
in which, were not opportunity happily wanting, he
might, in one hour, be guilty of some two or three vices
which would exhibit him, apparently at least, as the
most detestable of men ? Yet may he be a thousand
times better and nobler than numerous men of subaltern
minds, held to be good, who never were capable of com-
mitting acts so wicked, for the commission of which
they so loudly condemn him, and, for the good of society,
are bound to condemn.
"Lavater will answer, 'Show me these men, and I
will comment upon them, as I have done upon Socrates.
Some small, often unremarked trait, will probably
explain what appears to you so enigmatical/ But will
not something creep into the commentary which never
was in the text ? "
Though this may be, yet it ought not to be the case.
I will also grant that a man with a good countenance
may act like a rogue ; but, in the first place, at such a
moment his countenance will not appear good ; and, in
the next, he will infinitely oftener act like a man of
\\oifh.
" Have we any right, from a known character, to draw
STURTZ ON PHYSIOGNOMY. 147
conclusions concerning one unknown ? or, is it easy to
discover what that being is, who wanders in darkness,
and dwells in the house of contradiction; who is one
creature to-day, and to-morrow the reverse ? "
How true, how important is this ! How necessary a
beacon to warn and terrify the physiognomist !
"What judgment could we form of Augustus, if we
were only acquainted with his conduct to Cinna ? or of
Cicero, if we knew him only from his consulate ? How
gigantic rises Elizabeth among queens ; yet how little,
how mean was the superannuated coquette ! James II., a
bold general and a cowardly king ! Monk, the revenger
of monarchs, the slave of his wife ! Algernon Sydney
and Eussell, patriots worthy of Koine, sold to France !
Bacon, the father of wisdom, a bribed judge ! Such dis-
coveries make us shudder at the aspect of man, and
shake off friends and intimates like coals of fire from
the hand. When such cameleon minds can be one
moment great; at another contemptible, and alter their
form, what can that form say ? "
Their form shows what they may, what they ought to
be, and their aspect in the moment of action what they
are. Their countenance shows their power, and their
aspect the application of their power. The expression
of their littleness may probably be like the spots of the
sun, invisible to the naked eye.
" Does not that medium through which we are accus-
tomed to look tinge our judgment ? Smellfuugus views
all objects through a blackened glass ; another through
a prism. Many contemplate virtue through a diminish-
ing, and vice through a magnifying, medium."
How excellently expressed !
"A book written by Swift on physiognomy would
148 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
certainly have been very different from that of Lavater.
National physiognomy is still a large uncultivated field.
The families of the fair classes of the race of Adam, from
the Esquimaux to the Greeks in Europe, and in Ger-
many alone what varieties are there which can escape
no observer ? Heads bearing the stamp of the form of
government, which ever will influence education; repub-
lican haughtiness, proud of its laws; the pride of the
slave, who feels pride because he has the power of
inflicting the scourges he has received; Greeks, under
Pericles and under Hassan Pacha ; Romans in a state
of freedom, governed by emperors and governed by
popes ; Englishmen under Henry the Eighth and Crom-
well. How have I been struck by the portraits of
Hampden, Pym, and Yane ! All produce varieties of
beauty, according to the different nations."
It is impossible for me to express how much I think
myself indebted to the author of this spirited and
energetic essay. How worthy an act was it in him,
whom I had unintentionally offended, concerning whom
I had published a judgment far from sufficiently noble,
to send me this essay, with liberty to make what use of
it I pleased ! In such a manner, in such a spirit, may
informations, corrections, or doubts be ever conveyed to
me ! Shall I need to apologize for having inserted it *
or rather, will not most of my readers say, Give us more
such.
QUOTATIONS FROM HUART. 149
CHAPTEK XXX.
Quotations from Huart, with Remarks thereon.
1. .
" MANY, who are really wise, often appear not to be
so ; and others who appear to be wise, are the reverse.
Some, again, neither are nor appear to be wise, while
others have the possession and appearance of wisdom."
A touchstone for many countenances.
2.
"Tho son is often brought in debtor to the great
understanding of the father."
3.
" "Wisdom in infancy denotes folly in manhood."
4.
"No aid can make those bring forth who are not
pregnant"
We must not expect fruit where seed has not been
sown. How advantageous, how important, would physio-
gnomy become, were it, by being acquainted with every
sign of intellectual and moral pregnancy, enabled to
render aid to all the pregnant !
5.
" The external form of the head is what it ought to
be, when it resembles a hollow globe slightly compressed
at the sides, with a small protuberance -at the forehead
and back of the head. A very flat forehead, or a sudden
descent at the back of the head, are no good tokens of
un derstanding. "
The profile of such a head, notwithstanding the com-
150 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
pressure, would be more circular than oval. The profile
of a good head ought to form a circle only when
combined with the nose ; therefore, without the nose it
approaches much more to the oval than the circular.
" A very flat forehead (says our author) is no good sign
of understanding." True, if the flatness resembles that of
the ox ; but I have seen perfectly fiat foreheads— let me
be rightly understood, I mean flat only between and
above the eyebrows — in men of great wisdom. Much,
indeed, depends upon the position and curves of the
outlines of the forehead.
6.
"Man has more brain than any animal. Were the
quantity of the brain in two of the largest oxen compared
to the quantity found in the smallest man, it would
prove to be less."
7.
"Large oranges have thick skins and little juice.
Heads of much bone and flesh have little brain. Large
bones, with abundance of flesh and fat, are impediments
to the mind."
8.
" The heads of wise persons are very weak, and sus-
ceptible of the most minute impressions."
Often, not always. And how wise ? Wise to plan,
but not to execute. Active wisdom must have harder
bones. One of .the greatest of this earth's wonders is a
man in whom the two qualities are united, who has
sensibility even to painful excess, and colossal courage
to resist the impetuous torrent, the whirlpool, by whicli
he shall be assailed. Such characters possess sensibility
QUOTATIONS FROM HUABT. 151
from the tenderness of bodily feeling ; and strength not
not so much in the bones as in the nerves.
9.
" A thick belly," says Galen, " a thick understanding."
With equal truth or falsehood, I may add, a thin
belly a thin understanding. Remarks so general, which
would prove so many able and wise men to be fools, I
value but little. A thick belly certainly is no positive
token of understanding, it is rather positive for sen-
suality, which is detrimental to the understanding ; but
abstractedly, and unconnected with other indubitable
marks, I cannot receive this as a general proposition.
10.
" Aristotle holds the smallest heads to be the wisest."
But this, with all reverence for so great a man, I
think was spoken without reflection. Let a small head
be imagined on a great body, or a great head on a small
body, each of which may be found in consequence of
accidents that excite or retard growth ; and it will be
perceived that, without some more definite distinction,
neither the large nor the small head is, in itself, wise or
foolish. It is true that large heads with short trian-
gular foreheads are foolish, as are those large heads
which are fat, and incumbered with flesh ; but small,
particularly round heads, with the like incumbrance, are
intolerably foolish, and generally possess that which
renders their intolerable folly more intolerable, a preten-
sion to wisdom.
11.
" It is a good sign when a small person has a head
somewhat large, and a large person has the head some-
what small"
152 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
Provided this extend no farther than somewhat, it
may be supportable; but it is certainly for the best
when the head is in such proportion to the body, that
it is not remarkable either for its largeness or smallness.
12.
" Memory and imagination resemble the understand-
ing, as a monkey does a man."
13.
"Whether the flesh be hard or tender, it is of no
consequence to the genius, if the brain do not partake of
the same quality; for experience tells us that the latter
is very often of a different temperament to the other
parts of the body. But when both the brain and the
flesh are tender, they betoken ill to the understanding,
and equally ill to the imagination."
14.
" Phlegm and blood are the fluids which render the
flesh tender ; and those being moist, according to Galen,
render men simple and stupid. The fluids, on the con-
trary, which harden the flesh, are choler and melancholy,
(or bile,) and these generate wisdom and understanding.
It is, therefore, a much worse sign to have tender flesh
than rough ; and tender signifies a bad memory, with
weakness of understanding and imagination."
It occurs to me that there is an intelligent tenderness
of flesh, which announces much more understanding
than do the opposite qualities of rough and hard. I can
no more class coriaceous flesh as the characteristic of
understanding, than I can tenderness of flesh, without
being more accurately defined, as the characteristic of
folly. It will be proper to distinguish between tender
QUOTATIONS FROM HUABT. 153
and porous or spongy, and between rough and firm
without hardness.
15.
" We must examine the hair, if we wish to discover
whether the quality of the brain corresponds with the
flesh. If the hair be black, strong, rough, and thick, it
betokens strength of imagination and understanding."
I am of a different opinion. Let not this be expressed
in such general terms. At this moment I recollect a
very weak man, by nature weak, with exactly such hair.
This roughness (sprodiyheif) is a fatal word, which, taken
in what sense it will, never signifies any good.
" But if the hair be tender and weak, it denotes
nothing more than goodness of memory."
Once more too little ; it denotes a fine organization,
which receives the impression of images at least as
strongly as the signs of images.
16.
" When the hair is of the first quality, and we would
farther distinguish whether it betokens goodness of
understanding or imagination, we must pay attention
to the laugh. Laughter betrays the quality of the ima-
gination."
I may venture to add, of the understanding, of the
heart, of power, love, hatred, pride, humility, truth, and
falsehood. Would I had artists who would watch for
and design the outlines of laughter ! The physiognomy
of laughter would be the best of elementary books for
the knowledge of man. If the laugh be good, so is the
person. It is said of Christ that he never laughed. I
believe it ; bat, had he never smiled, he would not have
154 LAVATERS PHYSIOGNOMY.
been human. The smile of Christ must have contained
the precise outline of brotherly love.
17.
" Heraclitus says, A dry eye, a wise mind."
18.
" We shall discover few men of great understanding
who write a fine hand."
i
It might have been said, with more accuracy, a school-
master's hand.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Remarks on an Essay on Physiognomy by Professor
Lichteriberg.
MUCH intelligence, much ornament, and a mild dif-
fusive eloquence, are blended in this essay. It is the
work of a learned, penetrating, and, in many respects,
highly meritorious person, who appears to possess much
knowledge of men, and a large portion of the prompt
spirit of 'observation. This essay merits the utmost
attention and investigation. It is so interesting, so com-
prehensive, affords so much opportunity of remark for
the physiognomist, and of remarks which I have yet to
make, that I cannot avoid citing the most important
passages, and submitting them to an unprejudiced and
accurate examination.
It is far from my intention or wish to compare myself
with the excellent author, to make any pretensions to
his fanciful and brilliant wit, and still less to his learn-
ing and penetration. It is perhaps my wish, though I
REMARKS ON LICHTENBERO. 155
dare not hope, to meet and answer him with the same
elegance as his polished mind and fine taste seem to
demand. I am sensible of those wants which are
peculiar to myself, and which must remain mine even
when I have truth on my side. Yet, worthy sir, be
assured that I shall never be unjust, and that, even
where I cannot assent to your observations, I shall never
forget the esteem I owe your talents, learning, and
merits.
We will now, in supposition, sit down in friendship
with your essay before us, and with that benevolence
which is most becoming men, philosophers in particu-
lar, explain our mutual sentiments concerning nature
and truth.
ON PHYSIOGNOMY.
" Certainly," says our author, " the freedom of thought,
and the very recesses of the heart, were never more
severely scrutinized than in the present age."
I cannot help thinking that, at the very beginning,
an improper point of view is taken, which may probably
lead the author and reader astray through the whole
essay. For my own part, at least, I know of no attacks
on the freedom of thought, or the secret recesses of the
heart. It is universally known that my labours have
been less directed to this than to the knowledge of pre-
dominant character, capacities, talents, powers, inclina-
tions, activity, genius, religion, sensibility, irritability,
and elasticity of men in general, and not to the discovery
of actual and present thought. As far as I am con
cerned, the soul may and can, in our witty author's own
words, " brood as secretly over its treasures as it might
have done centuries ago ; may as tranquilly smile at the
150 LAVATEU'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
progress of all Babylonian works, at all proud assailants
of heaven, convinced that, long before the completion of
their work, there shall be a confusion of tongues, and
the master and the labourers shall be scattered."
I should enjoy the laugh as much as any one, at the
arrogance of that physiognomist who should pretend to
read in the countenance the most secret thoughts and
motions of the soul at any given moment, although
there are moments in which they are legible to the most
unpractised physiognomist.
I am also of opinion that the secrets of the heart
belong to pathognomy, to which* I direct my attention
much less than to physiognomy ; of which the author
says, more wittily than truly, " it is as unnecessary to
write as on the art of love."
The author is very right in reminding us, " that we
ought to seek physiognomical instruction from known
characters with great caution, and even diffidence."
Our author then says, " Whether physiognomy, in its
utmost perfection, would promote philanthropy, is at
least questionable."
I confidently answer unquestionable, and I hope
immediately to induce the reasonable and philanthropic
author to say the same. Physiognomy, in its utmost
perfection, must mean the knowledge of men in its
utmost perfection. And shall not this promote the love
of man ? or, in other words, shall it not discover innu-
merable perfections which the half physiognomist, or
the unphysiognomist, are unable to discover? Noble
and penetrating friend of man, while writing this you
had forgotten what you had so truly, so beautifully said,
" that the most hateful deformity might, by the aid of
virtue, acquire irresistible charms :" and to whom more
REMARKS ON LICHTENBERG. 157
irresistible, more legible, than to the perfect physio-
gnomist? Irresistible charms certainly promote not
hatred, but love. From my own experience, I can
sincerely declare that the improvement of my physio-
gnomical knowledge has extended and increased the
power of love in my heart.
Though this knowledge may sometimes be the author
of affliction, still it is ever true that the affliction occa-
sioned by certain countenances, endears, sanctifies, and
renders enchanting whatever is noble and lovely, which
often glows in the human countenance like embers
among ashes. My attention to the discovery of this
secret goodness is increased, and the object of my labours
is its increase and improvement; and how do esteem
and love extend themselves wherever I perceive a pre-
ponderance of goodness ! On a more accurate observation,
the very countenances that afflict me, and which for
some moments incense me against humanity, do but
increase a tolerant and benevolent spirit; for I then
discern the load and the nature of that sensuality against
which they have to combat.
All truth, all knowledge of what is, of what acts
upon us, and on which we act, promotes general and
individual happiness. "Whoever denies this is incapable
of investigation. The more perfect this knowledge is,
the greater are its advantages. Whatever profits,
whatever promotes happiness, promotes philanthropy.
Where are happy men to be found without philanthropy ?
Are such beings possible ? Were happiness and philan-
thropy to be destroyed or lessened by any perfect
science, truth would war with truth, and eternal wisdom
with itself.
He who can seriously maintain that a perfect science
158 LATATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
may be detrimental to human society, or may not promote
philanthropy, (without which happiness among men
cannot be supposed,) is certainly not a man in whose
company our author would wish to philosophize, as he
certainly will, with me, assume it as an axiom that
" the nearer truth the nearer happiness." The more our
knowledge and judgment resemble the knowledge and
judgment of the Deity, the more will our philanthropy
resemble the philanthropy of the Deity. He who knows
how man is formed, who remembers that he is but dust,
is the most tolerant friend of man.
I believe angels to be better physiognomists and more
philanthropic than men, though they may perceive in
us a thousand failings and imperfections which may
escape the most penetrating eye of man. God, having
the most knowledge of spirit, is the most tolerant of
spirits. And who was more tolerant, more affectionate,
more lenient, more merciful than thou, who needest not
that any should testify of man, for thou knewest what was
in man ?
"It is certain that the industrious, the insinuating
and active blockheads in physiognomy, may do much
injury to society."
Be assured, my worthy sir, it is my earnest desire, my
known endeavour, to deter such blockheads from study-
ing physiognomy. This evil can be prevented only by
accurate observation. True it is that every science may
become dangerous when studied by the superficial and
the foolish, and the very reverse when studied by the
accurate and the wise. According to your own princi-
ples, therefore, we must agree in this, that none but the
superficial, the blockhead, the fanatical enemy of know-
ledge and learning in general can wish to prevent " all
REMARKS ON LICHTENBERG. 159
investigation of physiognomical principles;" none but
such a person "can oppose physiognomical labours;
none but a blockhead will suppose it unworthy and
impracticable in these degenerate days to awaken sensi-
bility and the spirit of observation, or to improve the
arts and the knowledge of men." To grant all this as
you, sir, do, and yet to speak with bitterness against
physiognomy and physiognomists, I call sowing tares
among the good seed.
Our author next proceeds to distinguish between
physiognomy and pathognomy. "Physiognomy (he
defines to be) a capability of discovering the qualities of
the mind and heart from the form and qualities of tho
external parts of the body, especially the countenance,
exclusive of all transitory signs of the motion of the
mind; and pathognomy, the whole semeiotica of the
passions, or the knowledge of the natural signs of the
motions of the mind, according to all their gradations
and combinations."
I entirely agree with this distinction, and likewise
subscribe to these given definitions.
It is in the next place asked, Is there physiognomy ?
is there pathognomy? To the latter the author justly
replies, " This no man ever yet denied ; for what would
all theatrical representations be without it? The
language of all ages and nations abounds with pathogno-
niical remarks, and with which they are inseparably
interwoven."
However, after reading the work several times, I can-
not discover whether the author does or does not grant
the reality of physiognomy. In one passage the author
very excellently says, " No one will deny that in a world
where all thing are cause and effect, and where miracles
100 LAVATERS PHYSIOGNOMY.
are not to be found, each part is a mirror of the whole.
We are often able to conclude from what is near to what
is distant, from what is visible to what is invisible, from
the present to the past and the future. Thus the history
of the earth is written, in nature's characters, in the form
of each tract of country, of its sands, hills, and rocks.
Thus each shell of the seashore proclaims the once
included mind, connected, like the mind of man, with
this shell. Thus also might the internal of man be
expressed by the external on the countenance, concern-
ing which we particularly mean to speak. Signs and
traces of thought, inclination, and capacity, must be
perceptible. How visible are the tokens impressed upon
the body by trade and climate ! yet what are trade and
climate compared to the ever-active soul, creative in
every fibre, of whose absolute legibility from all and to
all no one doubts?"
The writer of the above excellent passage is the last
person from whom I should have expected the follow-
ing : — " What ! the physiognomist will exclaim, can the
soul of Newton reside in the head of a Negro, or an
angelic mind in a fiendlike form?"
As little could I have expected this passage : —
" Talents, and the endowments of the mind in general,
are not expressed by any signs in the firm parts of the
head."
I have never in my life met with any thing more con-
tradictory to nature, and to each other, than the foregoing
and the following paragraphs : —
" If a pea were thrown into the Mediterranean, an eye
more piercing than ours, though infinitely less pene-
trating than the eye of Him who sees all things, might
perceive the effects produced on the coast of China."
These are our author's very words.
REMARKS ON LICHTENBERG. 1C1
And shall the whole living powers of the soul,
" creative in every fibre," have no determinate influence
on the firm parts, those boundaries of its activity, which
first were yielding, and, acted upon, impressed by every
muscle ; which resemble each other in no human body,
which are so various as characters and talents, and are
as certainly different as the most flexible parts of man ?
Shall the whole powers of the soul, I say, have no de-
terminate influence on these, or not by these be defined ?
In order to avoid the future imputation of indulging
the shallow stream of youthful declamation, instead of
producing facts and principles deduced from experience,
let us oppose experience to declamation, and facts to
subtleties. But first a word, that we may perfectly re-
move a degree of ambiguity which I should not have
expected from the accuracy of a mathematician.
" Why not," says our author — " why not the soul of
Newton in the head of a Negro ? Why not an angel
mind in a fiend-like form ? Who, reptile, empowered
thee to judge of the works of God ? "
Let us represent things in their proper light. We do
not speak here of what God can do, but of what is to be
expected from the knowledge we have of his works.
We ask what the Author of order actually does, and not
whether the soul of Newton can exist in the body of a
Negro, or an angelic soul in a fiendlike form. The
physiognomical question is, Can an angel's soul act the
same in a fiendlike body as in the angelic body ? or, in
other words, Could the mind of Newton have invented
the theory of light, residing in the head of a Negro,
thus and thus defined ? Such is the question.
Will you, sir, who are the friend of truth — will you
answer, It might? You who have previously said of
M
162 LA ^ATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
the world, " All things in it are cause and effect, and
miracles are not to be found ?"
" I should indeed be a reptile judging the works of
God, did I maintain its impossibility by miracle ; but
the question at present is not concerning miracles ; it is
concerning natural cause and effect."
After having thus stated the argument, permit me, sir,
to decide it by quoting your own words : " Judas
scarcely could be that dirty, deformed mendicant painted
by Holbein. No hypocrite who associates with the
good, betrays with a kiss, and afterwards hangs himself,
has the look of Holbein's Judas. My experience leads
me to suppose Judas must have been distinguished by
an insinuating countenance and an ever-ready smile."
How true ! how excellent ! Yet what if I were to
exclaim, " Who empowered thee, reptile, to judge of the
works of God ? " What if I were to retort the following
just remark, " Tell me first, why a virtuous mind is so
often doomed to exist in an infirm body ? Might not
also, were it God's good pleasure,, a virtuous man have a
countenance like the beggarly Jew of Holbein, or any
other that can be imagined?"
Can this, however, be called wise or manly reasoning ?
How wide is the difference between suffering and dis-
gusting virtue ! or, is it logical to deduce that, because
virtue may suffer, virtue may be disgustful? Is not
suffering essential to virtue ! To ask why virtue must
suffer, is equivalent to asking why God has decreed that
virtue should exist. Is it alike incongruous to admit
that virtue suffers, and that virtue looks like vice?
Virtue void of conflict, of suffering, or of self-denial, is
not virtue accurately considered ; therefore it is folly to
ask, why must the virtuous suffer ? It is in the nature
REMARKS OX LICHTEXBERG. 163
of things ; but it is not in the nature of things, not in the
relation of cause and effect, that virtue should look like
vice, or wisdom like foolishness. How, good sir, could
you forget what you have so expressively said, " There
is no durable beauty without virtue; and the most hate-
ful deformity may, by the aid of virtue, acquire the
most irresistible charms? The author is acquainted
with several women whose example might inspire the
most ugly with hope."
What may be the infirmities of the virtuous we do
not inquire, nor whether a man of genius may become a
fool; we ask whether virtue, while existing, can look
like present vice, or actual folly like actual wisdom?
You, sir, who are so profound an inquirer into the
nature of man, will certainly never grant (who, indeed,
will?) that the soul of the beloved disciple of Christ
could, without a miracle, reside in the dirty, deformed
mendicant, the beggarly Jew of Holbein, and act as freely
in that as in any other body. Will you, sir, continue to
rank yourself, in your philosophical researches, with
those who, having maintained such senseless proposi-
tions, rid themselves of all difficulties by asking. " Who
empowered thee, reptile, to judge of the works of God ?*
Let us proceed to examine a few more passages.
"Our senses acquaint us only with the superficies,
from which all deductions are made. This is not very
favourable to physiognomy, for which something more
definite is requisite, since this reading of the superficies
is the source of all our errors, and frequently of our
ignorance."
So it is with us in nature : we absolutely can read
nothing more than the superficies. In a world devoid
of miracles, the external ever must have a relation to
164 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
the internal ; and, could we prove all reading of the
superficies to be false, what should we effect but the
destruction of all human knowledge ? All our inquiries
produce only new superficies ; all our truth must be the
truth of the superficies. It is not the reading of the
superficies that is the source of all our error ; for, if so,
we should have no truth ; but the not reading, or, which
is the same in effect, the not rightly reading.
If " a pea thrown into the Mediterranean Sea would
effect a change in the superficies which should extend
to the coast of China," any error that we might commit
in our conclusions concerning the action of this pea,
would not be because we read only the superficies, but
because we cannot read the superficies.
"That we can only read the superficies is not very
favourable to physiognomy, for which something more
definite is requisite." Something more definite we have
endeavoured to give, and wish to hear the objections
of acute inquirers. But let facts be opposed to facts.
Does not our author, by the expression "since the internal
is impressed upon the external," seem to grant the
possibility of this impression ? And if so, does not the
superficies become the index of the internal ? Does he
not thereby grant the physiognomy of the firm parts ?
He proceeds to ask, "If the internal be impressed upon
the external, is the impression to be discovered by the
eyes of men ? " Dare I trust my eyes that I have read
such a passage in the writings of a philosopher ?
We certainly see what we see. Be the object there or
be it not, the question ever must be, Do we or do we not
see? That we do see, and that the author, whenever
he pleases, sees also, his essay is a proof, as are his other
works, Be this as it may, I know not what would
REMARKS ON LICHTEXBERG. 1(>J
)me of all our philosophers and philosophy, were we,
every new discovery of things, or the relations of things,
to ask, Was this thing placed there to be discovered ?
With what degree of ridicule would our witty author
treat the man who should endeavour to render astronomy
contemptible by asking, " Though the wisdom of God is
manifest in the stars, were the stars placed there to be
discovered ?
" Must not signs and effects which we do not seek,
conceal and render those erroneous of which we are in
search ? "
The signs we seek are manifest, and may be known :
they are the terminations of causes, therefore effects,
therefore physiognomical expessions. The philosopher is
an observer, an observer of that which is sought or not
sought. He sees and must see that which presents
itself to his eyes ; and that which presents itself is the
symbol of something that does not present itself. What
he sees can only mislead him when he does not see
rightly. If the conclusion be true, "that signs and
effects which we do not seek, must conceal and render
erroneous those of which we are in search," then ought
we to seek no signs and effects, and thus all sciences
vanish.
I have reason to hope that a person of so much learn-
ing as is our author, would not sacrifice all human
sciences for the sole purpose of heaping physiognomy on
a pile. I grant the possibility and facility of error is
there ; and this should teach us circumspection, should
teach us to see the thing that is, without the addition
of any thing that is not. But to wish, by any pretence,
to divert us from seeing and observing, and to render
inquiry contemptible, whether with rude or refined wit,
166 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
would be the most ridiculous of all fanaticism. Such
ridicule, in the mouth of a professed enemy of false
philosophers, would be as vapid as false. I am indeed
persuaded that my antagonist is not serious, and in
earnest.
" Were the growth of the body (says the author) in
the most pure of atmospheres, and modified only by the
emotions of the mind, undisturbed by any external
power, the ruling passion and the prevailing talent, I
allow, might produce, according to their different gra-
dations, different forms of countenance, like as different
salts crystallize in different forms, when obstructed by
no impediment. But is the body influenced by the
mind alone, or is it not rather exposed to all the
impulses of various contradictory powers, the laws of
which it is obliged to obey ? Thus each mineral, in its
purest state, has its peculiar form; but the anomalies
which its combination with others occasions, and the
accidents to which it is subjected, often cause the most
experienced to err when they would distinguish it by
its form."
How strange is this simile ! Salts and minerals
compared to an organized body, internally animate ! A
grain of salt, which the least particle of water will
instantaneously melt, to the human skull, which has
defied misfortune and millions of external impressions
for centuries ! Dost thou not blush, Philosophy ? Not
to confine ourselves to the organization or the skulls of
men and other animals, do we find that even plants,
which have not the internal resistance, the elasticity of
man, and which are exposed to millions of counteracting
impressions from light, air, and other bodies, ever change
their form in consequence of such causes ? Which of
REMARKS ON LICHTENBERG. 167
iem is ever mistaken for another by the botanist?
most violent accidents scarcely could effect such a
change, so long as they should preserve their organiza-
tion.
" Thus is the body mutually acted upon by the mind
and external causes, and manifests not only our inclina-
tions and capacities, but also the effects of misfortune,
climate, diseases, food, and thousands of inconveniences
to which we are subjected, not always in consequence of
our vice, but often by accidents, and sometimes by our
virtues."
Nobody can or will attempt to deny this. But is the
foregoing question hereby answered ? We are to attend
to that. Does not our essayist himself say, " The body is
acted upon by the mind and external causes ? " There-
fore not by external causes alone. May it not equally
be affected by the internal energy or inactivity of the
mind ? What are we contending for ? Has it not (if in-
deed the author be in earnest) the appearance of sophistry
to oppose external to internal effects, and yet own
the body is acted upon by both? And will you, sir,
acute and wise as you are, maintain that misfortune can
change a wise, a round, and an arched, into a cylindrical
forehead; one that is lengthened into one that is square;
or the projecting into the short retreating chin ? Who •
can seriously believe and affirm that Charles XII.,
Henry IV., and Charles V., men who were undoubtedly
subject to misfortunes if ever men were, thereby acquired
another form of countenance, (we speak of the firm parts,
not of scars,) and which forms denoted a different charac-
ter to what each possessed previous to such misfortunes ?
Who will maintain that the noses of Charles XII. or
Henry IV., denoting power of mind previous to their
168 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
reverse of fortune, the one at Pultowa, the other by the
hand of Ravaillac, suffered any change, and were debased
to the insignificant pointed nose of a girl ? Nature acts
from within upon the bones ; accident and suffering act
on the nerves, muscles, and skin. If any accident
attack the bones, who is so blind as not to remark such
physical violence ? The signs of misfortune are either
strong or feeble : when they are feeble, they are effaced
by the superior strength and power of nature ; when
strong, they are too visible to deceive, and by their
strength and visibility warn the physiognomist not to
suppose them the features of nature. By the physiogno-
mist I mean the unprejudiced observer, who alone is the
real physiognomist, and has the right to decide ; not the
man of subtlety, who is wilfully blind to experience.
" Are the defects which I remark in an image of wax
always the defects of the artist, or are they not the
consequences of unskilful handling, the sun's heat, or
the warmth of the room ? "
Nothing, dear friend of truth, is more easy to observe,
in an image of wax, than the original hand of the master,
although it should, by improper handling, accidental
pressure, or melting, be injured. This example, sir,
militates against yourself. If the hand of the master be
visible in an image of wax, where it is so easily defaced,
how much more perceptible must accident be in an
organized body, so individually permanent ? Instead
of an image of wax, the simile, in my opinion, would be
improved were we to substitute a statue ; and in this
every connoisseur can distinguish what has been broken,
chopped, or filed off, as well as what has been added by
a later hand. And why should not this be known in
man? Why should not the original form of man be
REMARKS ON LICHTENBERG. 1 69
more distinguishable, in despite of accident, than the
beauty and workmanship of an excellent statue which
has been defaced ?
" Does the mind, like an elastic fluid, always assume
the form of the body ? And if a flat nose were the sign
of envy, must a man, whose nose by accident should be
flattened, consequently become envious ? "
The inquirer will gain but little, be this question
answered in the negative or affirmative. What is gained
were we to answer, "Yes ; the soul is an elastic fluid,
which always takes the form of the body?" Would it
thence follow that the flattened nose has lost so much
of its elasticity as would be necessary to propel the
nose ? or where would be the advantage should we reply,
" No ; all such comparisons are insignificant except to
elucidate certain cases ; we must appeal only to facts ? "
But what would be answered to a less subtle and
more simple question, Is there no example of the mind
being injured by the maiming of the body ? Has not a
fractured skull, by compressing the brain, injured the
understanding? Does not castration render the male
half female ? — But to answer wit with reason, says a
witty writer, is like endeavouring to hold an eel by the
tail.
We wholly subscribe to the affirmation, that "it is
absurd to suppose the most beautiful mind is to be fount1
in the most beautiful body, and the most deformed mind
in the most deformed body."
We have already explained ourselves so amply on
this subject, that being supposed to hold a contrary
opinion appears incomprehensible. We only say there
is a proportion and beauty of body which is more
capable of superior virtue, sensibility, and action, than
170 LAVATER S PHYSIOGNOMY.
the disproportionate. We say with the author, " Virtue
beautifies, vice deforms." We must cordially grant that
honesty may be found in the most ugly, and vice in
men of the most beautiful forms.
We cannot, however, help differing from him concern-
ing the following assertion : " Our languages are ex-
ceedingly barren of physiognomical terms. Were it a
true science, the language of the vulgar would have
been proverbially rich in its terms. The nose occurs in
a hundred proverbs and phrases, but always pathogno-
mically, denoting past action, but never physiognomically,
betokening character or disposition."
Instead of a hundred, I am acquainted with only one
such phrase, nasen rumfe, to turn up the nose. Homo
obesce, obtusce naris, said the ancients ; and, had they not
said it, what could thence have been adduced, since we
can prove a posteriori that the nose is a physiognomical
sign of character ?
I have not learning sufficient, nor have I the inclina-
tion to cite .sufficient proofs of the contrary from Homer,
Suetonius, Martial, and an hundred others. That which
is is, whether perceived by the ancients or not. Such
dust might blind a school-boy, but not the eyes of a sage,
who sees for himself, and who knows that each age has
its measure of discovery, and that there are those who
fail not to exclaim against all discoveries which were
made by the ancients.
" I should be glad to know, (says our author,) not what
man may become, but what he is."
I must confess that I wish to know both. Many
vicious men resemble valuable paintings, which have
been destroyed by varnish. Would you pay no atten-
tion to such a painting ? Is it wholly unworthy of you,
REMARKS ON LICHTENBERG. 171
though a connoisseur should assure you the picture is
damaged, but there is a possibility of clearing away the
varnish, as this master's colours are so strongly laid on,
and so essentially good, that no varnish can penetrate
deep enough, if we are but careful in bringing it away
not to injure the picture ? Is this of no importance ?
You observe the smallest change of position in the polar
star. Days are dedicated to examine how many ages
shall elapse before it will arrive at the nearest point of
approach. I do not despise your labours. But is it of
no importance to you, to fathers, mothers, guardians,
teachers, friends, and statesmen, to inquire what a man
may become, or what must be expected from this or that
youth, thus and thus formed and educated? Many
foolish people are like excellent watches, which would
go well were the regulator but rectified.
Is the goodness of the mechanism of no consequence
to you, although a skilful watchmaker should tell you,
this was and is an excellent piece of workmanship,
infinitely better than that which you see set with
brilliants, which, I grant, will go well for a quarter of a
year, but will then stop? Clean this, repair it, and
straighten the teeth of this small wheel. Is this advice
of no importance ? Will you not be informed what it
might have been, what it may yet probably be ? Will
you not hear of a treasure that lies buried, and, wliile
buried, I own useless ; but will you content yourself
with the trifling interest arising from this or that small
sum?
Is your attention paid only to the fruit of the present
year, and which is perhaps forced ? And do you
neglect the goodness of a tree which, with attention,
may bring forth a thousandfold, though under certain
172 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
circumstances it may have brought forth none ? Have
the hot blasts of the south parched up its black leaves,
or has the storm blown down its half-ripened fruit, and
will you therefore not inquire whether the root does not
still nourish ?
I find I grow weary, and perhaps weary others,
especially as I am more and more convinced that our
pleasant author, at least hitherto, meant only to amuse
himself. I shall therefore only produce two more con-
tradictions which ought not to have escaped the author,
and scarcely can escape any thinking reader.
He very properly says in one place, " pathognomical
signs, often repeated, are not always entirely effaced, but
leave physiognomical impressions. Hence originate the
lines of folly, ever gaping, ever admiring, nothing under-
standing; hence the traits of hypocrisy ; hence the hollowed
cheek, the wrinkles of obstinacy, and heaven knows how
many other wrinkles. Pathognomical distortion, which
accompanies the practice of vice, will likewise, in con-
sequence of the disease it produces, become more distorted
and hateful. Thus may the pathognomical expression
of friendship, compassion, sincerity, piety, and other
moral beauties, become bodily beauty to such as can
perceive and admire these qualities. On this is founded
the physiognomy of Gallert, which is the only true part
of physiognomy. This is of infinite advantage to virtue,
and is comprehended in a few words — virtue beautifies,
vice deforms."
The branch therefore hath effect, the root none ; the
fruit has physiognomy, the tree none; the laugh of
self-sufficient vanity may therefore arise from the most
humble of hearts, and the appearance of folly from the
perfection of wisdom. The wrinkles of hypocrisy,
REMARKS ON LICHTENBERG. 173
therefore, are not the result of any internal power or
weakness. The author will always fix our attention on
the dial-plate, and will never speak of the power of the
watch itself. But take away the dial-plate, and still the
hand will go. Take away those pathognomical traits
which dissimulation sometimes can effect, and the
internal power of impulse will remain. How contra-
dictory therefore is it to say, the traits of folly are there,
but not the character of folly; the drop of water is
visible, but the fountain, the ocean, is not !
Again. It is certainly incongruous to say, " There is
pathognomy, but this is as unnecessary (to be written)
as an act of love. It chiefly consists in the motion of
the muscles of the countenance and the eyes, and is
learned by all men. To teach this would be like an
attempt to number the sands of the sea !"
Yet the author in the very next page, with great
acuteness begins to teach pathognomy, by explaining
twelve of the countenances of Chodowiecki, in which how
much is there included of the science of physiognomy !
Give me now leave, my worthy antagonist — yet no
longer antagonist, but friend convinced by truth, and
the love of truth — I say, give me leave to transcribe, in
one continued quotation, some of your excellent thoughts
and remarks from your essay, and elucidations on the
countenances of Chodowiecki, part of which have
been already cited in this fragment, and part not. I am
convinced they will be agreeable to my readers.
"Our judgment concerning countenances frequently
acquires certainty, not from physiognomical nor patho-
gnomical signs, but from the traces of recent actions,
which men cannot shake off. Debauchery, avarice,
beggary, have each their livery, by which they are as
174 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
well known as the soldier by his uniform, or the chimney-
sweeper by his sooty jacket. The addition of a trifling
expletive in discourse will betray the badness of educa-
tion ; and the manner of putting on the hat what is the
company we keep, and what the degree of our folly."
Suffer me here to add, Shall not then the whole form of
man discover any thing of his talents and dispositions ?
Can the most milky candour here forget the straining at
a gnat and swallowing a camel ?
"Maniacs will often not be known to be disordered
in their senses, if not in action. More will often be
discovered concerning what a man really is, by his dress,
behaviour, and mode of paying his compliments, at his
first visit and introduction, in a single quarter of an
hour, than in all the time he shall remain. Cleanliness
and simplicity of manner will often conceal passions.
" No satisfactory conclusions can often be drawn from
the countenances of the most dangerous men. Their
thoughts are all concealed under an appearance of
melancholy. Whoever has not remarked this, is un-
acquainted with mankind. The heart of the vicious
man is always less easy to be read the better his
education has been, the more ambition he has, and the
better the company he has been accustomed to keep.
" Cowardice and vanity, governed by an inclination to
pleasure and indolence, are not marked with strength
equivalent to the mischief they occasion ; while, on the
contrary, fortitude in defence of justice, against all
opponents whatever, be their rank and influence what it
may, and the conscious feeling of real self-worth, often
look very dangerous, especially when unaccompanied by
a smiling mouth.
" Specious as the objections brought by the sophistry
REMARKS ON LICHTENBERG. 175
of the sensual may be, it is notwithstanding certain, that
there is no possible durable beauty wiihout virtue, and
the most hateful deformity may, by the aid of virtue,
acquire irresistible charms. Examples of such perfection,
among persons of both sexes, I own are uncommon, but
not more so than heavenly sincerity, modest compliance
without self-degradation, universal philanthropy without
busy intrusion, a love of order without being minute, or
neatness without foppery, which "are the virtues that
produce such irresistible charms.
"Vice, in like manner, in persons yielding to its
influence, may highly deform ; especially when, in conse-
quence of bad education, and want of knowledge of the
traits of moral beauty, or of will to assume them, the
vicious may find no day, no hour, in which to repair the
depredations of vice.
"Where is the person who will not listen to the
mouth, in which no trait, no shade of falsehood, is dis-
coverable? Let it preach the experience of what
wisdom, what science it may, comfort will ever be the
harbinger of such a physician, and confidence hasten to
welcome his approach.
" One of the most hateful objects in the creation, says
a certain writer, is a vicious and deformed old woman.
We may also say that the virtuous matron, in whose
countenance goodness and the ardour of benevolence
are conspicuous, is an object most worthy our reverence.
Age never deforms the countenance when the mind
dares appear unmasked; it only wears off the fresh
varnish, under which coquetry, vanity, and vice were
concealed. Wherever age is exceedingly deformed, the
same deformity would have been visible in youth to the
attentive observer.
176 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
" This is no difficult matter, and were men to act from
conviction, instead of flattering themselves with the
hope of fortunate accidents, happy marriages would be
more frequent; and, as Shakspeare says, the bonds
which should unite hearts would not so often strangle
temporal happiness."
This certainly is the language of the heart. Oh ! that
I could have written my fragments in company with
such an observer! Who could have rendered greater
services to physiognomy than the man who, with the
genius of a mathematician, possesses so accurate a spirit
of observation ?
CHAPTER XXXIL
Description of Plate V.
Number 1.
WILLIAM HONDIUS, a Dutch engraver, after Vandyck.
We here see mild, languid, slow industry, with enter-
prising, daring, conscious heroism. This forehead is
rounded, not indeed common nor ignoble. The eyebrows
are curved, the eyes languid and sinking, and the whole
countenance oval, ductile, and maidenly.
Number 2.
This head, if not stupid, is at least common ; if not
rude, clumsy. I grant it is a caricature ; yet, however,
there is something sharp and line in the eye and mouth,
which a connoisseur will discover.
Number 3.
This is manifestly a Turk, by the arching and position
of the forehead, the hind part of the head, the eyebrows,
REMARKS OX WOMEN. 177
and particularly the nose. The aspect is that of obser-
vation, with a degree of curiosity : the open mouth
denotes remarking, with some reflection.
Number 4.
It must be a depraved taste which can call this grace-
ful, and therefore it must be far from majestic. I should
neither wish a wife, mother, sister, friend, relation, nor god-
dess, to possess a countenance so cold, insipid, affected,
stony, unimpassioned, or so perfectly a statue.
Number 5.
The strong grimace of an important madman, who
distorts himself without meaning. In the ey.e is neither
attention, fury, littleness, nor greatness.
Number 6.
The eyes in this head are benevolently stupid.
Wherever so much white is seen as in the left eye, if in
company with such a mouth, there is seldom much
wisdom.
CHAPTER XXXIIL
General Remarks on Women.
IT may be necessary for me to say, that I am but
little acquainted with the female part of the human
race. Any man of the world must know more of them
than I can pretend to know. My opportunities of
seeing them at the theatre, at balls, or at the card-table,
where they best may be studied, have been exceedingly
few. In my youth I almost avoided women, and was
never in love.
H
178 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
Perhaps I ought, for this very reason, to have left this
very important part of physiognomy to one much better
informed, having myself so little knowledge of the fair
sex. Yet might not such neglect have been dangerous ?
Might another have treated the subject in a manner
which I could wish ? or, would he have said the little I
have to say, and which, though little, I esteem to be
necessary and important ?
I cannot help shuddering when I think how ex-
cessively, how contrary to my intention, the study of
physiognomy may be abused when applied to women.
Physiognomy will perhaps fare no better than philosophy,
poetry, physic, or whatever may be termed art or science.
A little philosophy leads to atheism, and much to Chris-
tianity. Thus must it be with physiognomy ; but I will
not be discouraged ; the half precedes the whole. "We
learn to walk by falling, and shall we forbear to walk
lest we should fall ?
I can with certainty say, that true pure physiogno-
mical sensation, in respect to the female sex, best can
season and improve life, and is the most effectual pre-
servative against the degradation of ourselves and others.
Best can season and improve human life. — What better
can temper manly rudeness, or strengthen and support-
the weakness of man, what so soon can assuage the rapid
blaze of wrath, what more charm masculine power, what
so quickly dissipate peevishness and ill-temper, what so
well can while away the insipid tedious hours of life, as
the near and affectionate look of a noble, beautiful
woman ? What is so strong as her soft delicate hand ?
What so persuasive as her tears restrained ? Who but
beholding her must cease to sin ? How can the spirit
of God act more omnipotently upon the heart, than by
I
REMARKS ON WOMEN. 1 79
the extending and increasing physiognomical sensation
for such an eloquent countenance ? "What so well can
season daily insipidity ? I scarcely can conceive a gift
of more paternal and divine benevolence.
This has sweetened every bitter of my life ; this alone
has supported me under the most corroding cares, when
the sorrows of a bursting heart wanted vent, my eyes
swam in tears, and my spirit groaned with anguish.
Then, when men have daily asked, " Where is now thy
God?" when they rejected the sympathy, the affection of
my soul, with rude contemptuous scorn ; when acts of
honest simplicity were calumniated, and the sacred im-
pulse of conscious truth was ridiculed, hissed at, and
despised; in those burning moments, when the world
afforded no comfort, even then did the Almighty open
mine eyes — even then did he give me an unfailing
source of joy, contained in a gentle, tender, but internally
firm, female mind ; an aspect like, that of unpractised,
cloistered virginity, which felt and was able to efface each
emotion, each passion in the most concealed feature of
her husband's countenance, and who by those means,
without any thing of what the world calls beauty, shone
forth beauteous as an angel. Can there be a more noble
or important practice than that of physiognomical sensa-
tion for beauties so captivating, so excellent as these ?
This physiognomical sensation is the most effectual
preservative against the degradation of ourselves and others.
— What can more readily discover the boundary between
appetite and affection, or cunning under the mask of
sensibility? What sooner can distinguish desire from
love, or love from friendship ? WTiat can more reverently,
internally, and profoundly feel the sanctity of innocence,
the divinity of maiden purity, or sooner detect coquetry
180 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
unblessed, with wiles affecting every look of modesty ?
How often will such a physiognomist turn contemptuous
from the beauties most adored, from the wretched pride
of their silence, their measured affectation of speech, the
insipidity of their eyes, arrogantly overlooking misery
and poverty; their authoritative nose, their languid,
unmeaning lips, relaxed by contempt, blue with envy,
and half-bitten through by artifice and malice ! The
obviousness of these and many others will preserve him
who can see, from the dangerous charms of their shame-
less bosoms ! How fully convinced is the man of pure
physiognomical sensation, that he cannot be more
degraded than by suffering himself to be ensnared by
such a countenance! Be this one proof among a
thousand.
But if a noble, spotless maiden but appear; all
innocence, and all soul ; all love, and of love all worthy,
which must as suddenly be felt as she manifestly feels ;
if in her large arched forehead all the capacity of im-
measurable intelligence which wisdom can communicate,
be visible ; if her compressed but not frowning eyebrows
speak an unexplored mine of understanding, or her gentle
outlined or sharpened nose, refined taste, with sympa-
thetic goodness of heart, which flows through the clear
teeth over her pure and efficient lips ; if she breathe
humility and complacency ; if condescension and mild-
ness be in each motion of her mouth, dignified wisdom
in each tone of her voice ; if her eyes, neither too open
nor too close, but looking straight forward, or gently
turned, speak the soul that seeks a sisterly embrace;
is she be superior to all the powers of description ; if all
the glories of her angelic form be imbibed like the mild
and golden rays of an autumnal evening sun ; may not
BEMARKS ON MALE AND FEMALE. 181
then this so highly-prized, physiognomical sensation be a
destructive snare or sin, or both ?
" If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full
of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give
thee light." And what is physiognomical sensation but
this singleness of eye ? The soul is not to be seen with-
out the body, but in the body ; and the more it is thus
seen, the more sacred to thee will the body be. What !
man, having this sensation, which God has bestowed,
wouldst thou violate the sanctuary of God? "VVouldst
thou degrade, defame, debilitate, and deprive it of sen-
sibility ? Shall he, whom a good or great countenance
does not inspire with reverence and love, incapable of
offence, speak of physiognomical sensation ; of that
which is the revelation of the spirit ? Nothing main-
tains chastity so entire, nothing so truly preserves the
thoughts from brutal passion, nothing so reciprocally
exalts souls, as when they are mutually held in sacred
purity. The contemplation of power awakens reverence,
and the picture of love inspires love ; not selfish grati-
fication, but that pure passion with which spirits of
heaven embrace.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
General Remarks on Male and Female. — A Word on the
Physiognomical Relation of tlie Sexes.
GENERALLY speaking, how much more, pure, tender,
delicate, irritable, affectionate, flexible, and patient, is
woman than man ! The primary matter of which they
are constituted appears to be more flexible, irritable, and
elastic than that of man. They are formed to maternal
182 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
mildness and affection. All their organs are tender,
yielding, easily wounded, sensible, and receptible.
Among a thousand females there is scarcely one with-
out the generic feminine signs, the flexible, the circular,
and the irritable. They are the counterpart of man,
taken out of man, to be subject to man ; to comfort him
like angels, and to lighten his cares. " She shall be safe
in child-bearing, if they continue in faith, and charity,
and holiness, with sobriety." — (1 Tim. ii. 15.)
This tenderness and sensibility, this light texture of
their fibres and organs, this volatility of feeling, render
them so easy to conduct and to tempt; so ready of
submission to the enterprise and power of the man ; but
more powerful through the aid of their charms than
man, with all his strength. The man was not first
tempted, but the woman, afterwards the man by the
woman. And not only easily to be tempted, she is
capable of being formed to the purest, noblest, most
seraphic virtue ; to every thing which can deserve praise
or affection.
Truly sensible of purity, beauty, and symmetry, she
does not always take time to reflect on internal life,
internal death, internal corruption. " The woman saw
that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
and she took of the fruit thereof/'
The female thinks not profoundly ; profound thought
is the power of the man. Women feel more : sensibility
is the power of women. They often rule more effec-
tually, more sovereignly, than man. They rule with
tender looks, tears, and sighs, but not with passion and
threats ; for if they so rule, they are no longer women,
but abortions.
REMARKS ON MALE AND FEMALE. 183
They are capable of the sweetest sensibility, the most
profound emotion, the utmost humility, and the excess
of enthusiasm. In the countenance are the signs of
sanctity and inviolability, which every feeling man
honours, and the effects of which are often miraculous.
Therefore, by the irritability of their nerves, their in-
capacity for deep inquiry and firm decision, they may
easily, from their extreme sensibility, become the most
irreclaimable, the most rapturous enthusiasts.
The love of woman, strong and rooted as it is, is very
changeable ; their hatred almost incurable, and only to
be effaced by continued and artful flattery. Men are
most profound, women are more sublime. Men most
embrace the whole; women remark individually, and
take more delight in selecting the minutice which form
the whole. Man hears the bursting thunders, views the
destructive bolt with serene aspect, and stands erect
amidst the fearful majesty of the streaming clouds.
Woman trembles at the lightning and the voice of
distant thunder, and shrinks into herself, or sinks into
the arms of man.
A ray of light is singly received by man ; woman
delights to view it through a prism, in all its dazzling
colours. She contemplates the rainbow as the promise
of peace ; he extends his inquiring eye over the whole
horizon.
Woman laughs, man smiles ; woman weeps, man
remains silent. Woman is in anguish when man weeps,
and in despair when man is in anguish; yet has she
often more faith than man. Without religion, man is a
diseased creature, who would persuade himself he is
well, and needs not a physician : but woman, without
religion, is raging and monstrous A woman with a
184 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
beard is not so disgusting as a woman who acts the free-
thinker ; her sex is formed to pity and religion. To
them Christ first appeared; but he was obliged to
prevent them from too ardently and too hastily embra-
cing him — Touch me not. They are prompt to receive
and seize novelty, and become its enthusiasts.
In the presence and proximity of him they love, the
whole world is forgotten. They sink into the most
incurable melancholy, as they rise to the most
enraptured heights.
There is more imagination in male sensation, in the
female more heart. When communicative, they are
more communicative than man; when secret, more
secret. In general they are more patient, long-suffering,
credulous, benevolent, and modest.
Woman is not a foundation on which to build. She
is the gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
(1 Cor. iii. 12 ;) the materials for building on the male
foundation. She is the leaven, or, more expressively,
the oil to the vinegar of man ; the second part to the
book of man. Man singly is but half a man, at least
but half human ; a king without a kingdom. Woman,
who feels properly what she is, whether still or in
motion, rests upon the man ; nor is man what he may
and ought to be but in conjunction with woman.
Therefore " It is not good that man should be alone, but
that he should leave father and mother, and cleave to
his wife, and that they two shall be one flesh."
A Word on the Physiognomical Relation of the Sexes.
Man is the most firm, woman the most flexible.
Man is the straightest, woman the most bending.
Man stands steadfast, woman gently retreats.
PHYSIOGNOMY OF YOUTH. 185
Man surveys and observes, woman glances and feels.
Man is serious, woman is gay.
Man is the tallest and broadest, woman the smallest
and weakest.
Man is rough and hard, woman is smooth and soft.
Man is brown, woman is fair.
Man is wrinkly, woman is not.
The hair of man is strong and short, of woman more
long and pliant.
The eyebrows of man are compressed, of woman less
frowning.
Man has most convex lines, woman most concave.
Man has most straight lines, woman most curved.
The countenance of man, taken in profile, is not so
often perpendicular as that of the woman.
Man is the most angular, woman most round.
CHAPTEK XXXV.
On the Physiognomy of Youth.
Extracts from Zimmerman's Life of Haller.
" THE first years of the youth include the history of
the man. They develop the qualities of the soul, the
materials of future conduct, and the true features of
temperament. In riper years dissimulation prevails, or,
at least, that modification of our thoughts which is the
consequence of experience and knowledge.
"The characteristics of the passions, which are
undeniably discovered to us by the peculiar art
denominated physiognomy, are effaced in the counte-
nance by age ; while, on the contrary, their true signs
186 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
are visible in youth. The original materials of man
are unchangeable ; he is drawn in colours that have no
deceit. The boy is the work of nature, the man of art."
My worthy Zimmerman, how much of the true, how
much of the false, at least of the indefinite, is there in
this passage ! According to my conception, I see the
clay, the mass, in the youthful countenance ; but not
the form of the future man. There are passions and
powers of youth, and passions and powers of age. These
often are contradictory in the same man, yet are they
contained one within the other. Time produces the
expression of latent traits. A man is but a boy seen
through a magnifying-glass ; I always, therefore, per-
ceive more in the countenance of a man than of a boy.
Dissimulation may indeed conceal the moral materials,
but not alter their form. The growth of powers and
passions imparts, to the first undefined sketch of what is
called a boy's countenance, the firm traits, shading, and
colouring of manhood.
There are youthful countenances which declare
whether they ever shall, or shall not, ripen into man.
This they declare, but they only declare it to the great
physiognomist. I will acknowledge when, which seldom
happens, the form of the head is beautiful, conspicuous,
proportionate, greatly featured, well defined, and not
too feebly coloured, it will be difficult that the result
should be common or vulgar. I likewise know that
where the form is distorted, especially when it is trans-
verse, extended, undefined, or too harshly defined, much
can rarely be expected. But how much do the forms of
youthful countenances change, even in the system of
the bones !
A great deal has been said of the openness, undegene-
PHYSIOGNOMY OF YOUTH. 187
racy, simplicity, and ingenuousness of a childish and
youthful countenance. It may be so ; but, for my own
part, I must own I am not so fortunate as to be able
to read a youthful countenance with the same degree of
quickness and precision, however small that degree, as
one that is manly. The more I converse with and
consider children, the more difficult do I find it to
pronounce, with certainty, concerning their character.
Not that I do not meet countenances, among children
and boys, most strikingly and positively significant ; yet
seldom is the great outline of the youth so definite as for
us to be able to read in it the man. The most remark-
ably advantageous young countenances may easily,
through accident, terror, hurt, or severity in parents or
tutors, be internally injured, without any apparent injury
to the whole. The beautiful, the eloquent form, the
firm forehead, the deep sharp eye, the cheerful, open,
free, quick-moving mouth remain ; there will only be a
drop of troubled water in what else appears so clear; only
an uncommon, scarcely remarkable, perhaps convulsive
motion of the mouth. Thus is hope overthrown, and
beauty rendered indistinct.
As simplicity is the soil of variety, so is innocence for
the products of vice. Simplicity, not of a youth, but of
a child, in thee the Omniscient only views the progress
of sleeping passion ; the gentle wrinkles of youth, the
deep of manhood, and the manifold and relaxed of age.
Oh ! how different was my infantine countenance to the
present, in form and speech! But, as transgression
follows innocence, so doth virtue transgression.
Doth the vessel say to the potter, "Wherefore hast
thou made me thus ? — / am little, but I am I." He
who created me, did not create me to be a child, but a
188 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
man. Wherefore should I ruminate on the pleasures of
childhood, unburthened with cares ? I am what I am.
I will forget the past, nor weep that I am no longer a
child, when I contemplate children in all their loveliness.
To join the powers of man with the simplicity of the
child, is the height of all my hopes. God grant they
may "be accomplished !
CHAPTEE XXXVI.
Physiognomical Extracts from an Essay inserted in tJie
Deutschen Museum, a German Journal or Review.
FROM this essay I shall extract only select thoughts,
and none but such as I suppose importantly true, false,
or ill defined.
" Men with arched and pointed noses are said to be
witty, and that the blunt noses are not so."
A more accurate definition is necessary, which,
without drawing, is almost impossible. Is it meant by
arched noses, arched in length or in breadth? How
arched ? This is almost as indeterminate as when we
speak of arched foreheads. ALL foreheads are arched.
Innumerable noses are arched, the most witty and the
most stupid. Where is the highest point of arching?
Where does it begin? What is its extent? What is
its strength ?
It must be allowed that people with tender, thin,
sharply- defined, angular noses, pointed below, and some-
thing inclined towards the lip, are witty, when no other
features contradict these tokens ; but that people with
PHYSIOGNOMICAL EXTRACTS. 189
blunt noses are not so, is not entirely true. It can only
be said of certain blunt noses; for there are others of this
kind extremely witty, though their wit is certainly of a
different kind to that of the pointed nose.
" It is asked, (supposing for a moment that the arched
and the blunt nose denote the presence or absence of
wit,) Is the arched nose the mere sign that a man is witty,
which supposes his wit to originate in some occult
cause, or is the nose itself the cause of wit ? "
I answer, sign, cause, and effect combined Sign ; for
it betokens the wit, and is an involuntary expression
of wit. Cause ; at least cause that the wit is not greater,
less, or of a different quality, boundary cause. Effect ;
produced by the quantity, measure, or activity of the
mind, which suffers not the nose to alter its form, to be
greater or Jess. We are not only to consider the form
as form, but the matter of which it is moulded, the
conformability of which is determined by the nature and
ingredients of this matter, which is probably the origin
of the form.
True indeed it is, that there are blunt noses which
are incapable of receiving a certain quantity of wit;
therefore it may be said, with more subtlety than
philosophy, they form an insuperable barrier.
3.
" The correspondence of external figures with internal
qualities is not the consequence of external circumstances,
but rather of physical combination. They are related
like cause and effect; or, in other words, physiognomy is
not the mere image of internal man, but the efficient
190 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
cause. The form and arrangement of the muscles deter-
mine the mode of thought and sensibility of the man."
I add, these are also determined by the mind of man.
"A broad conspicuous forehead is^eaid to denote
penetration. This is natural. The muscle of the fore-
head is necessary to deep thought. If it be narrow and
contracted, it cannot render the same service as if spread
out like a sail."
I shall here, without contradicting the general pro-
position of the author, more definitely add — It is, if you
please, generally true, that the more brain the more
mind and capacity. The most stupid animals are those
with least brain, and those with most the wisest. Man,
generally wiser, has more brain than other animals ;
and it appears just to conclude from analogy, that wise
men have more brain than the foolish. But accurate
observation teaches, that this proposition, to be true,
requires much definition and limitation.
Where the matter and form of the brain are similar,
there the greater space for the residence of the brain is,
certainly the sign, cause, and effect of more and deeper
impression ; therefore, cceteris paribus, a larger quantity
of brain, and consequently a spacious forehead, is more
intelligent than the reverse. But as we frequently live
more conveniently in a small well-contrived chamber
than in more magnificent apartments, so do we find that
in many small, short foreheads, with less, or apparently
less brain than others, the wise mind resides at its ease.
I have known many short, oblique, straight-lined
(when compared with others apparently arched, or really
well arched) foreheads, which were much wiser, more
PHYSIOGNOMICAL EXTRACTS. 191
intelligent, and penetrating, than the most broad and
conspicuous ; many of which latter I have seen in
extremely weak men. It seems to me, indeed, a much
more general proposition, that short compressed foreheads
are wise and understanding; though this, likewise,
without being more accurately defined, is far from being
generally true.
But it is true that large spacious foreheads, which, if
I do not mistake, Galen, and after him Huart, have
supposed the most propitious to deep thinking, which
form a half sphere, are usually the most stupid. The
more any forehead (I do not speak of the whole skull)
approaches a semi-spherical form, the more is it weak,
effeminate, and incapable of reflection, and this I speak
from repeated experience.
The more straight lines a forehead has, the less capa-
cious it must be ; for the more it is arched the more
must it be roomy, and the more straight lines it has the
more must it be contracted. This greater quantity of
straight lines, when the forehead is not flat like a board,
for such flatness takes away all understanding, denotes an
increase of judgment, but a diminution of sensibility.
There undoubtedly are, however, broad capacious fore-
heads, without straight lines, particularly adapted to
profound thinking ; but these are conspicuous by their
oblique outlines.
5.
What the author has said concerning enthusiasts
requires much greater precision before it ought to be
adopted as true.
" Enthusiasts are said commonly to have flat perpen-
dicular foreheads."
192 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
Oval, cylindrical, or pointed at top, should have been
said of those enthusiasts who are calm, cold-blooded,
and always continue the same. Other enthusiasts, that
is to say, such as are subject to a variety of sensation,
illusion, and sensual experience, seldom have cylindrical
or sugar-loaf heads. The latter when enthusiasts, heat
their imagination concerning words and types, the
signification of which they do not understand, and are
philosophical, unpoetical enthusiasts. Enthusiasts of
imagination or of sensibility seldom, have flat forms of
the countenance.
"Obstinate, like enthusiastic, persons have perpen-
dicular foreheads."
The perpendicular always denotes coldness, inactivity,
narrowness ; hence firmness, fortitude, pertinacity, obsti-
nacy, and enthusiasm may be there. Absolute perpen-
dicularity and absolute folly are the same.
7.
" Such disposition of mind is accompanied by a certain
appearance or motion of the muscles ; consequently the
appearance of man, which is natural to, and ever present
with him, will be accompanied by, and denote his
natural disposition of mind. Countenances are so
formed originally, that to one this, and to another that
appearance is the easiest. It is absolutely impossible
for folly to assume the appearance of wisdom, otherwise
it would no longer be folly. The worthy man cannot
assume the appearance of dishonesty, or he would be
dishonest."
This is all excellent, the last excepted. No man is so
PHYSIOGNOMICAL EXTRACTS. 193
good as not, under certain circumstances, to be liable to
become dishonest. He is so organized that he may be
so overtaken by the pleasure of stealing, when ac-
companied by the temptation. The possibility of the
appearance must be there, as well as the possibility of
the act. He must also be able to assume the appear-
ance of dishonesty when he observes it in a thief,
without ne'cessarily becoming a thief. The possibility
of assuming the appearance of goodness is, in my
opinion, very different. The appearance of vice is
always more easily assumed by the virtuous, than the
appearance of virtue by the vicious ; as it is evidently
much easier to become bad when we are good, than
good when we are bad. Understanding, sensibility,
talents, genius, virtue, or religion, may with much
greater facility be lost than acquired. The bSst may
descend as low as they please, but the worst cannot
ascend to the height they might wish. The wise man
may physically, without a miracle, become a fool, and
the most virtuous vicious; but the idiot-born cannot,
without a miracle, become a philosopher, nor the
distorted villain noble and pure of heart. The most
beautiful complexion may become jaundiced, may be
lost ; but the Negro cannot be washed white. I shall
not become a Negro because, to imitate him, I blacken
my face, nor a thief because I assume the appearance
of one.
8.
"It is the business of a physiognomist to inquire
what is the appearance the countenance can most easily
assume, and he will thence learn what is the disposition
of mind ; not that physiognomy is therefore an easy
0
194 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
science. On the contrary, this rather shows how much
ability, imagination, and genius, are necessary to the
physiognomist. Attention must not only be paid to
what is visible, but what would be visible under various
other circumstances."
This is excellent ; and I add, that as a physician can
presage what alteration of colour, appearance, or form,
shall be the consequence of a known disease, of the
existence of which he is certain, so can the accurate
physiognomist what appearances or expressions are easy
or difficult to each kind of muscle and form of forehead,
what action is or is not permitted, and what wrinkles
may or may not take place, under any given circum-
stances.
9.
"When a learner draws a countenance, we shall
commonly find it is foolish, and never malicious, satirical,
and the like. May not the essence of a foolish counte-
nance hence be abstracted ? Certainly ; for what is the
cause of this appearance ? The learner is incapable of
preserving proportion, and the strokes are unconnected.
What is the stupid countenance ? It is one, the parts
of which are defectively connected, and the muscles im-
properly formed and arranged. Thought and sensation,
therefore, of which these are the inseparable instruments,
must be alike feeble and dormant.
10.
" There is another substance in the body, exclusive of
the muscles ; that is to say, the skull, or bones in gene-
ral, to which the physiognomist attends. The position
of the muscles depends on these. How might the
PHYSIOGNOMICAL EXTRACTS. 195
muscle of the forehead have the position proper for
thought, if the forehead bones, over which it is extended,
had not the necessary arch and superficies ? The figure
of the skull, therefore, defines the figure and position of
the muscles which define thought and sensation."
11.
" The hair affords us the same observation, as from
the parts and position of the hair conclusions may be
drawn. Why has the Negro woolly hair ? Tho thick-
ness of the skin prevents the escape of certain of the
particles of perspiration, and these render the skin
opaque and black. Hence the hair shoots with diffi-
culty, and scarcely has it penetrated before it curls, and
its growth ceases. The hair spreads according to the
form of the skull and the position of the muscles, and
gives occasion to the physiognomist to draw conclusions
from the hair to the position of the muscles, and to
deduce other consequences."
It is clearly my opinion that our author is in the
right road. He is the first who, to my knowledge, has
perceived and felt the totality, the combination, the
uniformity, of the various parts of the human body.
What he has affirmed, especially concerning the hair,
that we may from that make deductions concerning the
nature of the body, and still farther of the mind, the least
accurate observer may convince himself is truth, by
daily experience. White, tender, clear, weak hair, always
denotes weak, delicate, irritable, or rather a timid and
easily oppressed organization. The black and curly will
never be found on the delicate, tender, medullary head.
As is the hair, so the muscles ; as the muscles, so the
nerves ; as the nerves, so the bones : their powers are
196
mutual, and the powers of the mind to act, suffer,
receive, and give, proportionate. Least irritability
always accompanies short, hard, curly, black hair, and
the most the flaxen and the tender; that is to say,
irritability without elasticity. The one is oppressive
without elasticity, and the other oppressed without
resistance.
Much hair, much fat; therefore, no part of the
human body is more conspicuously covered with hair
than the head and armpits. From the elasticity of the
hair, deductions may with certainty be made to the
elasticity of the character. The hair naturally betokens
moisture, and may properly determine the quantity of
moisture. The inhabitants of cold countries have hair
more white, and, on the contrary, those of hot countries,
black. Lionel Wafer observes, that the inhabitants of
the isthmus of Darien have milkwhite hair. Few, if
any, have green hair, except those who work in copper
mines. We seldom find white hair betokening dis-
honesty, but often dark brown or black, with light-
coloured eyebrows. Women have longer hair than men.
Men with long hair are always rather effeminate than
manly. Dark hair is harsher than light, as is the hair
of a man than that of a boy.
12.
" As all depends on the quality of the muscles, it is
evident that in these muscles which are employed for
certain modes of thought and sensation, ought to be
sought the expression of similar thoughts and sen-
sations."
The search should not be neglected, though perhaps
it will be difficult to find them; and they certainly
PHYSIOGNOMICAL EXTRACTS. 197
there be defined with greater difficulty than in the
forehead.
13.
"The most important instrument to the abstract
thinker is the muscle of the forehead ; for which reason
we always seek for abstract thought in the forehead."
Rather near and between the eyebrows. It is of con-
sequence to remark the particular moment when the
thinker is listening, or when he is preparing some acute
answer. Seize the moment, and another of the im-
portant tokens of physiognomy is obtained.
14
"Among people who do not abstract, and whose
powers of mind are all in action, men of wit, exquisite
taste, and genius, all the muscles must be advanta-
geously formed and arranged. Expression therefore, in
such, must be sought in the whole countenance.
Yet may it be found in the forehead alone, which is
less sharp, straight-lined, perpendicular, and forked.
The skin is less rigid, more easily moved, more flexible.
15.
"How laborious has been the trouble to convince
people that physiognomy is only generally useful ! "
It is at this very moment disputed by men of the
strongest minds. How long shall it continue so to be ?
Yet I should suppose that he who curses the sun while
exposed to its scorching rays, would, when in the shade,
acknowledge its universal utility.
"How afflicting is it to hear, from persons of the
greatest learning, and who might be expected to enlarge
198 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
the boundaries of human understanding, the most
superficial judgments ! How much is that great era to
be wished, when the knowledge of man shall become a
part of natural history; when psychology, physiology,
and physiognomy, shall go hand in hand, and lead us
towards the confines of more general, more sublime
illumination ! "
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Extracts from Maximus Tyrius.
" As the soul of man is the nearest approach to the
Deity, it was not proper that God should clothe that
which most resembled himself in dishonourable gar-
ments; but with a body befitting a mortal mind, and
endowed with a proper capability of motion. This is
the only body on earth that stands erect. It is
magnificent, superb, and formed according to the best
proportion of its most delicate parts. Its stature is not
terrific, nor is its strength formidable. The coldness of
its juices occasions it not to creep, nor their heat to fly.
Man eats not raw flesh from the savageness of his
nature, nor does he graze like the ox ; but he is framed
and adapted for the execution of his functions. To the
wicked he is formidable, mild and friendly to the good.
By nature he walks the earth, swims by art, and flies by
imagination. He tills the earth, and enjoys its fruits.
His complexion is beautiful, his limbs firm, his counte-
nance is comely, and beard ornamental. By imitating
his body, the Greeks have thought proper to honour
their deities."
Why am I not able to speak with sufficient force?
PHYSIOGNOMICAL EXTRACTS. 199
Oh ! that I could find faith enough with my readers, to
convince them how frequently my soul seems exalted
above itself, while I contemplate the unspeakably
miraculous nature of the human body ! Oh ! that all
the languages of the earth would lend me words, that I
might turn the thoughts of men, not only to the
contemplation of others, but, by the aid of these, to 'the
contemplation of themselves ! No anti-physiognomist
can more despise my work than I myself shall, if I am
unable to accomplish this purpose. How might I
conscientiously write such a work, were not such my
views ? If this be not impulse, no writer has impulse.
I cannot behold the smallest trait, nor the inflection of
any outline, without reading wisdom and benevolence,
or without waking as if from a sweet dream into
rapturous and actual existence, and congratulating
myself that I also am a man.
In each, the smallest outline of the human body, and
how much more in all together — in each member sepa-
rately, and how much more in the whole body, however
old and ruinous the building may appear — how much
is there contained of the study of God, the genius of
God, the poetry of God ? My trembling and agitated
breast frequently pants after leisure to look into the
revelations of God.
" Imagine to thyself the most translucent water flow-
ing over a surface on which grow beauteous flowers,,
whose bloom, though beneath, is seen through the pellu-
cid waves ; even so it is with the fair flower of the soul,
planted in a beauteous body, through which its beau-
teous bloom is seen. The good formation of a youthful
200 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
body is no other than the bloom of ripening virtue, and,
as I may say, the presage of far higher perfection ; for,
as before the rising of the sun, the mountain-tops are
gilded by his rays, enlivening the pleasing prospects,
and promising the full approach of day, so also the future
maturity of an illustrious soul shines through the body,
and is to the philosopher the pleasing sign of approach-
ing happiness."
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Extracts from a Manuscript ly Tl
" THE relation between the male and female counte-
nance is similar to that between youth and manhood.
Our experience, that the deep or scarcely visible outline
is in proportion to the depth or shallowness of thought,
is one of the many proofs that Nature has impressed
such forms upon her creatures as shall testify their
qualities. That these forms or signs are legible to the
highly perceptive soul is visible in children, who cannot
endure the deceitful, the tell-tale, or the revengeful ; but
run with open arms to the benevolent stranger.
" We may properly divide our remarks on this subject
into complexion, lines, and pantomime. That white,
generally speaking, is cheerful, and black gloomy and
terrific, is the consequence of our love of light, which
acts so degenerately, as it were, upon some animals, that
they will throw themselves into the fire; and of our
abhorrence of darkness. The reason of this our love of
light is, that it makes us acquainted with things, provides
for the soul hungry after knowledge, and enables us to
find what is necessary, and avoid what is dangerous. I
EXTRACTS FROM A MANUSCRIPT. 201
only mention this to intimate, that this our love of
light originates in our inclination for every thing that is
perspicuous. Certain colours are, to certain animals,
particularly agreeable or disagreeable."
What is the reason of this ? Because they are the
expression of something which has a relation to their
character, that harmonizes with it or is discordant.
Colours are the effect of certain qualities of object and
subject ; they are therefore characteristic in each, and
become more so by the manner in which they are mu-
tually received and repelled. This would be another
immense field of inquiry, another ray of the sun of
truth. All is physiognomy !
" Our dislike is no less for every thing which is
clothed in dark colours ; and nature has warned animals,
not only against feeding on earth, but also on dark-green
plants ; for the one is as detrimental as the other. Thus
the man of a dark complexion terrifies an infant that is
incapable of judging of his character.
" So strikingly significant are the members of the
body, that the aspect of the whole attacks our feelings,
and induces judgments as sudden as they are just.
Thus, to mention two extremes, all will acknowledge at
the first aspect the elephant to be the wisest, and the
fish the most stupid of creatures.
" The upper part of the countenance, to the root of
the nose, is the seat of internal labour, thought, and re-
solution ; the under, of these in action. Animals with
very retreating foreheads have little brain, and the reverse.
" Projecting nose and mouth betoken persuasion, self-
confidence, rashness, shamelessness, want of thought,
dishonesty, and all such feelings as are assembled in
hasty expression."
202 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
This is a decision after the manner of the old physio-
gnomists, condemning and indefinite.
" The nose is the seat of derision ; its wrinkles con-
temn. The upper lip, when projecting, speaks arrogance,
threats, and want of shame ; the parting under lip,
ostentation and folly. These signs are confirmed by the
manner and attitude of the head when drawn back,
tossed, or turned round. The first expresses contempt,
during which the nose is active ; the latter is a proof of
extreme arrogance, during which the projection of the
under lip is the strongest.
" The in-drawn lower parts of the countenance, on
the contrary, denote discretion, modesty, seriousness,
diffidence, and its failings are those of malice and
obstinacy."
Not so positive. The projecting chin is much oftener
the sign of craft than the retreating. The latter is
seldom scheming and enterprising.
" The straight formation of the nose betokens gravity ;
inbent and crooked, noble thoughts. The flat, pouting
upper lip, when it does not close well with the under,
signifies timidity ; the lips resembling each other, cir-
cumspection of speech."
"We may divide the face into two principal kinds.
The first is that in which the cheeks present a flat sur-
face, the nose projecting like a hill, and the mouth has
the appearance of a sabre wound prolonged on an even
surface, while the line of the jawbone has but little in-
flection. Such a form makes the countenance more
broad than long, and exceedingly rude, inexpressive,
stupid, and in every sense confined. The principal
characteristics are obstinacy and inflexibility.
" The second kind is, when the nose has a sharp ridge,
EXTRACTS FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
and the parts on both sides make acute angles with each
other. The cheekbones are not seen, consequently the
muscular parts between them and the nose are full and
prominent. The lips retreat on each side of the mouth,
assume or open into an oval, and the jawbones come to
a point at the chin."
This face denotes a mind more subtle, active, and
intelligent.
" The better to explain myself, I must here employ
the si mil P. of two ships. The first, a merchant vessel
built for deep loading, has a broad bottom, and her ribs
long and flat. This resembles the broad, flat counte-
nance. The frigate, built for swift sailing, has a sharp
keel or bottom, her ribs forming acute angles. Such is
the second countenance. Of these two extremes, the
first presents to me the image of the meanest, most con-
tracted, self-love ; the second of the most zealous, the
noblest philanthropy.
" I am sensible that nature does not delight in ex-
tremes. Still the understanding must take its departure
from these as from a lighthouse, especially when sailing
in unknown seas. The defects and excesses which are
in all works of nature will then be discovered, and one
or both the boundaries ascertained.
" If we proceed to a farther examination and appli-
cation of the above hypothesis, it will perhaps extend
through all nature. A broad countenance is accom-
panied by a short neck, broad shoulders and back, and
their known character is selfishness and obtuse sen-
sation. The long small countenance has a long neck,
small or low shoulders, and small back. From such I
should expect more justice, disinterestedness, and a
general superiority of social feelings.
204 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
"The features and character of men are essentially
altered by education, situation, intercourse, and inci-
dents; therefore we are justified in maintaining, that
physiognomy cannot look back to the origin of the
features, nor presage the changes of futurity; but from
the countenance only, abstracted from all external acci-
dents by which it may be affected, it may read what any
given man may be, with the following addition at most :
such shall be the empire of reason, or such the power of
sensuality. This man is too stubborn to be instructed :
that so flexible, he may be led to good or ill
"From this formation we may in part explain why
so many men appear to be born for certain situations,
although they may have rather been placed in them by
accident than by choice. Why the prince, the nobleman,
the overseer of the poor, have a lordly, a stern, or a pe-
dantic manner ; why the subject, the servant, the slave,
are pusillanimous and spiritless; or the courtesan affect-
ed, constrained, or insipid. The constant influence of
circumstances on the mind far exceeds the influence of
nature." Far the contrary.
" Although it is certain that innate servility is very
distinct from the servility of one whom misfortune has
rendered a servant ; like as he whom chance has made
a ruler over his brother, is very different from one who
is by nature superior to vulgar souls."
There is no such thing as innate servility. It is true
that, under certain circumstances, some are much more
disposed than others to become servile.
" The unfeeling mind of the slave has vacuity more
complete, or, if a master, more self-complacency and
arrogance, in the open mouth, the- projecting lip, and
the turned-up nose. The noble mind rules by the com-
EXTRACTS FROM A MANUSCRIPT. 205
prehensive aspect, while in the closed lips moderation
is expressed. He will serve with sullenness, with down-
cast eye, and his shut mouth will disdain to complain.
"These causes will undoubtedly make durable
impressions, so will the adventitious occasion transitory
ones, while their power remains. The latter are more
apparent than the signs of the countenance at rest, but
may be well denned by the principal characteristics of
the agitated features ; and, by comparison with counte-
nances subject to similar agitations, the nature of the
mind may be fully displayed. Anger in the unreason-
able, ridiculously struggles ; in the self-conceited, it is
fearful rage; in the noble-minded it yields, and brings
opponents to shame ; in the benevolent, it has a mix-
ture of compassion for the offender, moving him to
repentance.
" The affliction of the ignorant is outrageous, and of
the vain ridiculous ; of the compassionate, abundance in
tears and communicative ; of the resolute serious, internal,
the muscles of the cheeks scarcely drawn upwards, the
forehead little wrinkled.
" Violent and eager is the love of the ignorant ; of the
vain, disgusting, which is seen in the sparkling eyes, and
the forced smile of the forked cheeks, and the indrawn
mouth ; of the tender, languishing, with the mouth con-
tracted to entreat ; of the man of sense, serious, stead-
fastly surveying the object, the forehead open, and the
mouth prepared to plead.
" On the whole, the sensations of a man of fortitude
are restrained, while those of the ignorant degenerate
into grimace. The latter, therefore, are not the proper
study of the artist, though they are of the physiogno-
mist and the moral teacher, that youth may be warned
206 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
against too strong an expression of the emotions of tho
mind, and of their ridiculous effects.
" In this manner do the communicative and moving
sensations of the benevolent inspire reverence ; but those
of the vicious, fear, hatred, or contempt.
"The repetition of passions engraves their signs so
deeply, that they resemble the original stamp of nature.
Hence certainly may be deduced, that the mind is
addicted to such passions. Thus are poetry and the
dramatic art highly beneficial, and thus may be seen
the advantage of conducting youth to scenes of misery
and of death.
" Such a similarity is formed by frequent intercourse
between men, that they not only assume a mental
likeness, but frequently contract some resemblance of
voice and features. Of this I know several examples.
"Each man has his favourite gesture, which might
decipher his whole character, might he be observed with
sufficient accuracy to be drawn in that precise posture.
The collection of such portraits would be excellent for
the first studies of the physiognomist, and increase the
utility of the fragments of Lavater tenfold.
"A series of drawings of the motions peculiar to
individuals, would be of equal utility. The number of
them in lively men is great, and they are transitory. In
the more sedate, they are less numerous and more grave.
"As a collection of idealized individuals would
promote an extensive knowledge of various kinds of
men, so would a collection of the motions of a single
countenance promote a history of the human heart, and
demonstrate what an arrogant, yet pusillanimous thing
the unformed heart is, and the perfection it is capable of,
from the efforts of reason and experience.
EXTRACTS FROM A MANVSCRIPT. 207
"It would be an excellent school for youth to see
Christ teaching in the Temple, asking, Whom seek you ?
agonizing in the Garden, expiring on the Cross. Ever
the same God-man ! Ever displaying, in these various
situations, the same miraculous mind, the same steadfast
reason, the same gentle benevolence. Ccesar jesting
with the pirates when their prisoner, weeping over the
head of Pompey, sinking beneath his assassins, and
casting an expiring look of affliction and reproach while
he exclaims, Et tu, Brute? Belshazzar, feasting with
his nobles, turning pale at the handwriting on the wall
The tyrant enraged, butchering his slaves, and surrounded
by condemned wretches entreating mercy from the
uplifted sword.
" Sensation having a relative influence on the voice,
must not there be one principal tone or key by which
all the others are governed ; and will not this be the key
in which he speaks when unimpassioned, like as the
countenance at rest contains the propensities to all such
traits as it is capable of receiving ? These keys of voice
a good musician with a fine ear should collect, class,
and learn to define, so that he might place the key of
the voice beside any given countenance, making proper
allowances for changes occasioned by the form of the
lungs, exclusive of disease. Tall people, with a flatness
of breast, have weak voices.
"This idea, which is more difficult to execute than
conceive, was inspired by the various tones in which I
have heard yes and no pronounced. The various
emotions under which these words are uttered, whether
of assurance, decision, joy, grief, ridicule, or laughter,
will give birth to tones as various. Yet each man has
his peculiar manner, respondent to his character, of
208 L,AVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
saying yes, no, or any other word. It will be open,
hesitating, grave, trifling, sympathizing, cold, peevish,
mild, fearless, or timid. What a guide for the man of
the world, and how do such tones display or betray the
mind !
" Since we are taught by experience, that at certain
times the man of understanding appears foolish, the
courageous cowardly, the benevolent perverse, and the
cheerful discontented, we might, by the assistance of
these accidental traits, draw an idea of each motion;
and this would be a most valuable addition, and an
important step in the progress of physiognomy."
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Extracts from Nicolai and Wirikelmann.
Extracts from Nicolai.
1.
"THE distorted or disfigured form may originate as
well from external as from internal causes ; but the
consistency of the whole is the consequence of con-
formity between internal and external causes ; for which
reason moral goodness is much more visible in the
countenance than moral evil"
This is true, those moments excepted when moral
evil is in act.
"The end of physiognomy ought to be, not con-
jectures on individual, but the discovery of general
character."
EXTRACTS FROM NICOLAI. 209
The meaning of which is, the discovery of general
Mi:ns of powers and sensations, which certainly are
useless unless they can be individually applied, since
our intercourse is with individuals.
3.
"It would be of great utility to physiognomy were
numerous portraits of the same man annually drawn,
and the original by that means well known."
It is possible, and perhaps only possible, to procure
accurate shades or plaster casts. Minute changes are
seldom accurately enough attended to by the painter,
tor the purpose of physiognomy.
" The most important pursuit of the physiognomist in
his researches will ever be, in what manner is a man
considered capable of the impressions of sense ? Through
what kind of perspective does he view the world?
What can he give ? What receive ?
" That very vivacity of imagination, that quickness of
conception, without which no man can be a physiogno-
mist, is probably almost inseparable from other qualities,
which render the highest caution necessary if the result
of his observations is to be applied to living persons."
This I readily grant ; but the danger will be much
less if he endeavour to employ his quick sensations in
determinate signs ; if he be able to portray the general
tokens of certain powers, sensations, and passions, and
if his rapid imagination be only busied to discover and
draw resemblances.
p
210 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
Extracts from WinJcelmann.
1.
" The characteristic of truth is internal sensation, and
the designer who would present such natural sensation
to his academy, would not obtain a shade of the true,
without a peculiar addition of something, which an
ordinary and unimpassioned mind cannot read in any
model, being ignorant of the action peculiar to each
sensation and passion.
" The physiognomist is formed by internal sensation,
which, if the designer be not, he will give but the
shadow, and only an indefinite and confused shadow, of
the true character of nature."
" The forehead and nose of the Greek gods and god-
desses form almost a straight line. The heads of famous
women on Greek coins have similar profiles, where the
fancy might not be indulged in ideal beauties. Hence
we may conjecture that this form was as common to the
ancient Greeks as the flat nose to the Calmuc, or the
small eye to the Chinese. The large eyes of Grecian
heads in gems and coins support this conjecture."
This ought not to be absolutely general, and probably
was not, since numerous medals show the contrary,
though in certain ages and countries such might have
been the most common form. Had only one such
countenance, however, presented itself to the genius of
art, it would have been sufficient for its propagation and
continuance. This is less our concern than the signi-
fication of such a form. The nearer the approach to the
EXTRACTS FROM WIXKELMAXN. 211
perpendicular, the less is there characteristic of the wise
and graceful; and the higher the character of worth
and greatness, the more obliquely the lines retreat.
The more straight and perpendicular the profile of the
forehead and nose is, the more does the profile of the
upper part of the head approach a right angle, from
which wisdom and beauty will fly with equally rapid
steps. In the usual copies of these famous ancient lines
of beauty, I generally find the expression of meanness,
and, if I dare say, of vague insipidity. I repeat, in the
copies ; in the Sophonisba of Angelica Kauffman, for
instance, where probably the shading under the hair has
been neglected, and where the gentle arching of the line
apparently were scarcely attainable.
3.
"The line which separates the repletion from the
excess of nature, is very small."
Not to be measured by industry or instrument, yet
all powerful, as every thing unattainable is.
"A mind as beautiful as was that of Kaphael, in an
equally beautiful body, is necessary, first to feel, and
afterwards to display, in these modern times, the true
character of the ancients.
5.
" Constraint is unnatural, and violence disorder."
Where constraint is remarked, there let secret, pro-
found, slowly destructive passion be feared; where
violence, there open and quick destroying.
212 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
6.
"Greatness will be expressed by the straight and
replete, and tenderness by the gently curving."
All greatness has something of straight and replete ;
but all the straight and replete is not greatness. The
straight and replete must be in a certain position, and
must have a determinate relation to the horizontal, on
which the observer stands to view it.
" It may be proved that no principle of beauty exists
in this profile ; for the stronger the arching of the nose
is, the less does it contain of the beautiful ; and if any
countenance seen in profile is bad, any search after
beauty will there be to no purpose."
The noblest, purest, wisest, most spiritual and benevo-
lent countenance, may be beautiful to the physiognomist,
who, in the extended sense of the word beauty, under-
stands all moral expressions of good as beautiful; yet
the form may not therefore, accurately speaking, deserve
the appellation of beautiful.
7.
"Nothing is more difficult than to demonstrate a
self-evident truth."
CHAPTER XL.
Extracts from Aristotle and other Authors concerning
Beasts.
THE writings of the great Aristotle on physiognomy
appear to me very superficial, useless, and often self-
contradictory, especially his general reasoning. Still,
EXTRACTS FROM ARISTOTLE, ETC. 213
however, we sometimes meet an occasional thought
which deserves to be selected. The following are some
of these : —
"A monster has never been seen which had the form of
another creature, and, at the same time, totally different
powers of thinking and acting. Thus, for example, the
groom judges from the mere appearance of the horse ;
the huntsman, from the appearance of the hound. We
find no man entirely like a beast, although there are
some features in man which remind us of beasts.
" Those who would endeavour to discover the signs of
bravery in man, would act wisely to collect all the signs
of bravery in animated nature, by which courageous
animals are distinguished from others. The physiogno-
mist should then examine all such animated beings,
which are the reverse of the former with respect to
internal character, and, from the comparison of these
opposites, the expressions or signs of courage would be
manifest.
" As weak hair is a mark of fear, so is strong hair of
courage. This observation is applicable not only to men
but to beasts. The most fearful of beasts are the deer,
the hare, and the sheep, and the hair of these is weaker
than that of other beasts. The lion and wild-boar, on
the contrary, are the most courageous, which property
is conspicuous in their extremely strong hair. The same
also may be remarked of birds ; for, in general, those
among them which have coarse feathers are courageous,
and those that have soft and weak feathers are fearful.
" This may easily be applied to men. The people of
the north are generally courageous, and have strong
hair ; while those of the west are more fearful, and have
more flexible hair.
214 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
"Such beasts as are remarkable for their courage
simply give their voices vent, without any great con-
straint, while fearful beasts utter vehement sounds.
Compare the lion, ox, the barking dog, and cock, which
are courageous, to the deer and the hare. The lion
appears to have a more masculine character than any
other beast. He has a large mouth, a four-cornered not
too bony visage. The upper-jaw does not project, but
exactly fits the under ; the nose is rather hard than soft,
the eyes are neither sunken nor prominent, the forehead
is square, and sometimes flattened in the middle.
" Those who have thick and firm lips, with the upper
hung over the under, are simple persons, according to
the analogy of the ape and monkey."
This is most indeterminately spoken. He would have
been much more true and accurate had he said, those
whose under-lips are weak, extended, and projecting
beyond the upper, are simple people.
" Those who have the tip of the nose hard and firm,
love to employ themselves on subjects that give them
little trouble, similar to the cow and the ox."
Insupportable ! The few men, who have the tip of
the nose firm, are the most unwearied in their researches.
I shall transcribe no farther. His physiognomical re-
marks, and his similarities to beasts, are generally
unfounded in experience.
Porta, next to Aristotle, has most observed the re-
semblance between the countenances of men and beasts,
and has extended this inquiry the farthest. He, as far
as I know, was the first to render this similarity apparent,
by placing the countenances of men and beasts beside
each other. Nothing can be more true than this fact ;
and, while we continue to follow nature, and do not
EXTRACTS FROM ARISTOTLE, ETC. 215
endeavour to make such similarities greater than they
are, it is a subject that cannot be too accurately exa-
mined. But in this respect the fanciful Porta appears
to me to have been often misled, and to have found
resemblances which the eye of truth never could dis-
cover. I could find no resemblance between the hound
and Plato, at least from which cool reason could draw
any conclusions. It is singular enough that he has also
compared the heads of men and birds. He might more
effectually have examined the excessive dissimilarity
than the very small and almost imperceptible resem-
blance which can exist. He speaks little concerning
the horse, elephant, and monkey, though it is certain
that these animals have most resemblance to man.
A generic difference between man and beast is par-
ticularly conspicuous in the structure of the bones.
The head of man is placed erect on the spinal bone.
His whole form is as the foundation pillar for that arch
in which heaven should be reflected, supporting that
skull by which, like the firmament, it is encircled.
This cavity for the brain constitutes the greater part of
the head. All our sensations, as I may say, ascend
and descend above the jawbone, and collect themselves
upon the lips. How does the eye, that most eloquent of
organs, stand in need, if not of words, at least of the
angry constraint of the cheeks, and all the intervening
shades, to express the strong internal sensation of man !
The formation of beasts is directly the reverse of this.
The head is only attached to the spine. The brain, the
extremity of the spinal marrow, has no greater extent
than is necessary for animal life, and the conducting of
a creature wholly sensual, and formed but for temporary
existence. For although we cannot deny that beasts
216 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
have the faculty of memory, and act from reflection ; yet
the former, as I may say, is the effect of primary sensa-
tion, and the latter originates in the constraint of the
moment, and the preponderance of this or that object.
We may perceive in the most convincing manner, in
the difference of the skull, which defines the character
of animals, how the bones determine the form, and
denote the properties of the creature.
As the character of animals are distinct, so are their
forms, bones, and outlines. From the smallest winged
insect to the eagle that soars and gazes at the sun ; from
the^weakest worm impotently crawling beneath our feet,
to the elephant or the majestic lion, the gradations of
physiognomical expression cannot be mistaken. It
would be more than ridiculous to expect from the worm,
the butterfly, and the lamb, the power of the rattlesnake,
the eagle, and the lion. Were the lion and lamb, for the
first time, placed before us, had we never known such
animals, never heard their names, still we could not
resist the impression of the courage and strength of the
one, or of the weakness and sufferance of the other.
Let me ask the question, Which are, in general, the
weakest animals, and the most remote from humanity,
the most incapable of human ideas and sensations ?
Beyond all doubt, those which in their form least
resemble man. To prove this, let us, in imagination,
consider the various degrees of animal life, from the
smallest animalcule to the ape, lion, and elephant ; and,
the more to simplify and give facility to such compari-
son, let us only compare head to head ; as, for example,
the lobster to the elephant, the elephant to the man.
Permit me here just to observe, how worthy would
such a work be of the united abilities of a Buffon, a
EXTRACTS FROM ARISTOTLE, ETC. 2 1 7
Kamper, and a Euler, could they be found united, that
the forms of heads might be enumerated and described
philosophically and mathematically; that it might be
demonstrated that universal brutality, in all its various
kinds, is circumscribed by a determinate line ; and that,
among the innumerable lines of brutality, there is not
one which is not internally and essentially different from
the line of humanity, which is peculiar and unique.
Thoughts of a Friend on Brutal and Human
Physiognomy.
" Every brute animal is distinguished from all others
by some principal quality. As the make of each is
distinct from all others, so also is the character. This
principal character is denoted by a peculiar and visible
form. Each species of beast has certainly a peculiar
character, as it has a peculiar form. May we not hence
by analogy infer, that predominant qualities of the
mind are certainly expressed by predominant forms of
the body, as that the peculiar qualities of a species are
expressed in the general form of that species ?
"The principal character of the species in animals
remain such as it was given by nature ; it neither can
be obscured by accessory qualities, nor concealed by
art. The essential of the character can as little be
changed as the peculiarity of the form. May we not
therefore, with the greatest degree of certainty, affirm
such a form is only expressive of such a character ?
"Let us now inquire whether this be applicable to
man, and whether the form, which denotes individual
character in a beast, is significant of similar character
in man, granting that in man it may continually be
more delicate, hidden, and complicated. If. on exami-
218 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
nation, this question be definitely answered in the
affirmative, how much is thereby gained ! But it is
conspicuously evident that in man the mind is not one
character or quality, but a world of qualities interwoven
with and obscuring each other. If each quality be ex-
pressed by its peculiar from, then must variety of
qualities be attended with variety of forms ; and these
forms, combining and harmonizing together, must be-
come more difficult to select and decipher.
" May not souls differ from each other merely accord-
ing to their relative connection with bodies ? May not
souls also have a determinate capacity, proportionate to
the form and organization of the body ? Hence, each
object may make a different impression on each
individual ; hence one may bear greater burthens and
more misfortunes than another. May not the body be
considered as a vessel with various compartments,
cavities, pipes, into which the soul is poured, and, in
consequence of which, motion and sensation begin to
act? And thus may not the form of the body
define the capacity of the mind ? "
My unknown friend, thus far have I followed you.
Figurative language is dangerous when discoursing on
the soul; yet how can we discourse on it otherwise?
I pronounce no judgment, but rely on sensation and
experience, not on words and metaphors. What is is,
be your language what it will Whether effects all act
from the external to the internal, or the reverse, I know
not, cannot, need not know. Experience convinces us
that, both in man and beast, power and form are un-
changeable, harmonized proportion ; but whether the form
be determined by the power, or the power by the form,
is a question wholly insignificant to the physiognomist.
EXTRACTS FROM ARISTOTLE, ETC. TlO
Observations on some Animals, and particularly of ike
Horse.
The dog lias more forehead above the eyes than most
other beasts ; but as much as he appears to gain in the
forehead he loses in the excess of brutal nose, which has
every token of acute scent. Man too, in the act of
smelling, elevates the nostrils. The dog is also defective
in the distance of the mouth from the nose, and in the
meanness or rather nullity of the chin.
Whether the hanging ears of a dog are characteristic
of slavish subjection, as Buifon has affirmed, who has
written much more reasonably on brute than on human
physiognomy, I cannot determine to my own satisfaction.
The camel and the dromedary are a mixture of the
horse, sheep, and ass, without what is noble in the first.
They also appear to have something of the monkey, at
least in the nose. Not made to suffer the bit in the
mouth, the power of jaw is wanting. The determining
marks concerning the bit are found between the eyes
and the nose. No traces of courage or daring are found
in these parts. The threatening snort of the ox and
horse is not perceptible in these ape-like nostrils ; none
of the powers of plunder and prey in the feeble upper
and under jaw. Nothing but burthen-bearing patience
in the eyes.
Wild cruelty, the menacing power of rending, appear
in the bear, abhorring man, the friend of ancient savage
nature.
The most indolent, helpless, wretched creature, and of
the most imperfect formation, is the eunau ai, or sloth.
How extraordinary is the feebleness of the outline of the
head, body, and feet ! no sole of the feet, no toes small
220 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
or great, which move independently, having but two or
three long inbent claws, which can only move together.
Its sluggishness, stupidity, and self-neglect are inde-
scribable.
In the wild-boar every one may read ferocity, a want
of all that is noble, greediness, stupidity, blunt feeling,
gross appetite; and in the badger, ignoble, faithless,
malignant, savage gluttony.
Eemarkable is the profile of the lion, especially the
outline of the forehead and nose. A man whose profile
of forehead and nose should resemble that of the lion,
would certainly be no common man ; but such I have
never seen. I own, the nose of the lion is much less
prominent than that of man, but much more than that
of any other quadruped. Royal, brutal strength, and
arrogant usurpation, are evident ; partly in the arching
of the nose, partly in its breadth and parallel lines, and
especially in the almost right angle, which the outline
of the eyelid forms with the side of the nose.
In the eye and snout of the tiger, what bloodthirsty
cruelty, what insidious craft ! Can the laugh of Satan
himself, at a fallen saint, be more fiend-like than the
head of the triumphant tiger ? Cats are tigers in minia-
ture, with the advantage of domestic education. Little
better in character, inferior in power. Unmerciful to
birds and mice, as the tiger to the lamb. They delight
in prolonging torture before they devour, and in this
they exceed the tiger.
The more violent qualities of the elephant are dis-
coverable in the number and size of his bones; his
intelligence in the roundness of his form, and his docility
in the massiness of his muscles ; his art and discretion
in the flexibility of his trunk ; his retentive memory in
EXTRACTS FROM ARISTOTLE, ETC. 221
the size and arching of his forehead, which approaches
nearer to the outline of the human forehead than that of
any other beast. Yet how essentially different is it from
the human forehead, in the position of the eye and
mouth, since the latter generally makes nearly a right
angle with the axis of the eye and the middle line of
the mouth.
The crocodile proves how very physiognomical teeth
are. This, like other creatures, but more visibly and in-
fallibly than others, in all its parts, outlines, and points,
has physiognomy that cannot be mistaken. Thus de-
based, thus despicable, thus knotty, obstinate, and wicked,
thus sunken below the noble horse, terrific, and void of
all love and affection, is this fiend incarnate.
Little acquainted as I am with horses, yet it seems to
me indubitable, that there is as great a difference in the
physiognomy of horses as in that of men. The horse
deserves to be particularly considered by the physio-
gnomist, because it is one of those animals whose physio-
gnomy, at least in profile, is so much more prominent,
sharp, and characteristic than that of most other beasts.
Of all animals the horse is that which, to largeness of
size, unites most proportion and elegance in the parts of
his body ; for, comparing him to those which are imme-
diately above or below him, we shall perceive that the
ass is ill made, the head of the lion is too large, the legs
of the ox too small, the camel is deformed, and the
rhinoceros and elephant too unwieldy. There is scarcely
any beast has so various, so generally marking, so speak-
ing a countenance, as a beautiful horse.
" The upper part of the neck from which the mane
flows, in a well-made horse, ought to rise at first in a
right line; and, as it approaches the head, to form a
222 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
curve somewhat similar to the neck of the swan. The
lower part of the neck ought to be rectilinear in its
direction from the chest to the nether jaw, but a little
inclined forward ; for, were it perpendicular, the shape
of the neck would be defective. The upper part of the
neck should be thin and not fleshy; nor the mane,
which ought to be tolerably full, and the hair long and
straight. A fine neck ought to be long and elevated,
yet proportionate to the size of the horse. If too long
and small, the horse would strike the rider with his
head ; if too short and heavy, he would bear heavy on
the hand. The head is advantageously placed when the
forehead is perpendicular to the horizon. The head
ought to be bony and small, not too long ; the ears near
each other, small, erect, firm, straight, free, and situated
on the top of the head. The forehead should be narrow
and somewhat convex, the hollows filled up ; the eyelids
thin ; the eyes clear, penetrating, full of ardour, tolerably
large as I may say, and projecting from the head, the
pupil large, the under jaw bony, and rather thick ; the
nose somewhat arched, the nostrils open and well slit,
the partition thin; the lips fine, the mouth tolerably
large, the withers high and sharp." I must beg pardon
for this quotation from the Encycloptdie, and for insert-
ing thus much of the description of a beautiful horse, in
a physiognomical essay intended to promote the know-
ledge and the love of man.
The more accurately we observe horses, the more shall
we be convinced that a separate treatise of physiognomy
might be written on them. I have somewhere heard a
general remark, that horses are divided into three
classes, the swan-necked, the stag-necked, and the hog-
necked. Each of these classes has its peculiar counte-
EXTRACTS FROM ARISTOTLE, ETC. 223
nance and character, and from the blending of which
various others originate.
The heads of the swan-necked horses are commonly
even, the forehead small, and almost flat ; the nose
extends, arching, from the eyes to the mouth; the
nostrils are wide and open ; the mouth small ; the ears
little, pointed, and projecting ; the eyes large and round ;
the jaw below small; above, something broader; the
whole body well proportioned, and the horse beautiful.
This kind is cheerful, tractable, and high-spirited. They
are very sensible of pain, which when dressing they
sometimes express by the voice. Flattery greatly excites
their joy, and they will express their pride of heart by
parading and prancing. I will venture to assert that a
man with a swan-neck, or, what is much more deter-
minate, with a smooth projecting profile, and flaxen
hair, would have similar sensibility and pride.
The stag-necked has something, in the make of his
body, much resembling the stag itself. The neck is
small, large, and scarcely bowed in the middle. He
carries his head high. I have seen none of these. They
are racers and hunters, being particularly adapted for
swiftness by the make of the body.
The hog-necked. The neck above and below is alike
broad; the head hanging downwards; the middle of
the nose is concave in profile ; the ears are long, thick,
and hanging; the eyes small and ugly; the nostrils
small, the mouth large, the whole body round, and the
coat long and rough. These horses are intractable, slow,
and vicious, and will run the rider against a wall, stone, or
tree. When held in they rear, and endeavour to throw
the rider. Blows or coaxing are frequently alike ineffec-
tual ; they continue obstinate and restive.
224 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
If we examine the different heads of horses, we shall
find that all cheerful, high-spirited, capricious, courageous
horses, have the nosebone of the profile convex; and
that most of the vicious, restive, and idle, have the same
bone flat or concave. In the eyes, mouth, and especially
in the nostrils and jawbones, are remarkable varieties,
concerning which I shall say nothing. I shall here add
some -remarks on the horse, communicated by a friend.
The grey is the tenderest of horses, and we may here
add that people with light hair, if not effeminate, are
yet, it is well known, of tender formation and constitu-
tion. The chestnut and iron grey, the black and bay, are
hardy ; the sorrel are the most hardy, and yet the most
subject to disease. The sorrel, whether well or ill
formed, is treacherous. All treacherous horses lay their
ears on their neck. They stare and stop, and lay down
their ears alternately.
The following passage, on the same subject, is cited
I from another writer : " "When a horse has broad, long,
widely separated, hanging ears, we are well assured he
is bad and sluggish. If he lays down his ears alternately,
he is fearful, and apt to start. Thin, pointed, and pro-
jecting ears, on the contrary, denote a horse of good
disposition."
We never find that the thick, hog-necked horse is
sufficiently tractable for the riding-house, or that he is
of a strong nature when the tail shakes like the tail of
a dog. We may be certain that a horse with large
cheerful eyes, and a fine shining coat, if we have no other
tokens, is of a good constitution and understanding.
These remarks are equally applicable to oxen and
sheep, and probably to all other animals. The white ox
is not so long serviceable for draught or labour as the
OF BIRDS, ETC. 225
black or red ; he is more weak and silly than these. A
sheep with short legs, strong neck, broad back, and cheer-
ful eyes, is a good breeder, and remains peaceably with
the flock. I am clearly of opinion that, if we may judge
of the internal by the external of beasts, men may be
judged of in the same manner.
CHAPTER XLI.
Of Birds, Fishes, Serpents, and Insects.
BIRDS.
BIRDS, whether compared to each other, or to other
creatures, have their distinct characters. The structure
of birds throughout is lighter than that of quadrupeds.
Nature, ever steadfast to truth, thus manifests herself in
the form of birds. Their necks are more pliant, their
heads smaller, their mouths more pointed, and their garb
more light and strong, than those of quadrupeds.
Their distinction of character, or gradation of passive
and active power, is expressed by the following physio-
gnomical varieties.
1. By the form of the skull. The more flat the skull
the more weak, flexible, tender, and sensible is the
character of the animal. This flatness contains less,
and resists less.
2. By the length, breadth, and arching, or obliquity
of their beaks. And here again we find, when there is
arching, there is a greater extent of docility and capacity.
3. By the eyes, which appear to have an exact cor-
respondence with the arching of the beak.
4. Particularly by the middle line, I cannot say of
the mouth, but what is analogous to the mouth, the
Q
226
beak ; the obliquity of which is ever in a remarkable
proportion with the outline of the profile of the head.
Who can behold the eagle hovering in the air, the
powerful lord of so many creatures, without perceiving
the seal, the native star of royalty, in his piercing round
eye, the form of his head, his strong wings, his talons of
brass, and in his whole form his victorious strength, his
contemptuous arrogance, his fearful cruelty, and his
ravenous propensity ?
Consider the eyes of all living creatures, from the
eagle to the mole ; where else can be found that light-
ning glance which defies the rays of the sun ? — where
that capacity for the reception of light? How truly,
how emphatically, to all who will hear and understand,
is the majesty of his kingly character visible, not alone
in his burning eye, but in the outline of what is ana-
logous to the eyebone, and in the skin of the head,
where anger and courage are seated ? But throughout
his whole form where are they not ?
Compare the vulture with the eagle, and who does
not observe in his lengthened neck and beak, and in his
more extended form, less power and nobility than in the
eagle ? In the head of the owl, the ignoble greedy prey ;
in the . dove, mild, humble timidity ; and in the swan,
more nobility than in the goose, with less power than
in the eagle, and tenderness than in the dove ; more
pliability than in the ostrich ; and, in the wild-duck,
a more savage animal than in the swan, without the
force of the eagle ?
Fish.
How different is the profile of a fish from that of a
man ? — how much the reverse of human perpendicu-
OF FISH. 227
larity ! How little is there of countenance when com-
pared to the lion ! How visible is the want of mind,
reflection, and cunning ! What little or no analogy to
forehead ! What an impossibility of covering or entirely
closing the eyes ! The eye itself is merely circular and
prominent, has nothing of the lengthened form of the
eye of the fox or elephant.
Serpents.
I will allow physiognomy, when applied to man, to
be a false science, if any being throughout nature can
be discovered void of physiognomy, or a countenance
which does not express its character. What has less,
yet more, physiognomy than the serpent ? May we not
perceive in it tokens of cunning and treachery ? Cer-
tainly not a trace of understanding or deliberate plan.
No memory, no comprehension, but the most unbounded
craft and falsehood. How are these reprobate qualities
distinguished in their forms? The very play of their
colours, and wonderful meandering of their spots, appear
to announce and to warn us of their deceit.
All men possessed of real power are upright and
honest ; craft is but the substitute of power. I do not
here speak of the power contained in the folds of a
serpent ; they all want the power to act immediately,
without the aid of cunning. They are formed to " bruise
the heel, and to have the head bruised." The judgment
which God has pronounced against them is written on
their flat, impotent forehead, mouth, and eyes.
Insects.
How inexpressibly various are the characteristics im-
pressed by the eternal Creator on all living beings !
228 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
How has lie stamped on each its legible and peculiar
properties ! How especially visible is this in the lowest
classes of animal life ! The world of insects is a world
of itself. The distance between this and the world ot
men, I own, is great ; yet were it sufficiently known,
how useful would it be to human physiognomy ! What
certain proofs of the physiognomy of men must be ob-
tained from insect physiognomy !
How visible are their powers of destruction, of suffer-
ing and resisting, of sensibility and insensibility, through
all their forms and gradations ! Are not all the compact,
hard-winged insects physiognomically and characteris-
tically more capable and retentive than the various light
and tender species of the butterfly ? Is not the softest
flesh the weakest, the most suffering, the easiest to de-
stroy ? Are not the insects of least brains the beings
most removed from man, who has the most brain ? Is
it not perceptible in each species whether it be warlike,
defensive, enduring, weak, enjoying, destructive, easy to
be crushed, or crushing ? How distinct in the external
character are their degrees of strength, of defence, of
stinging, or of appetite !
The great dragon fly shows its agility and swiftness,
in the structure of its wings; perpetually on flight in
search of small flies. How sluggish, on the contrary, is
the crawling caterpillar ! How carefully does he set his
feet as he ascends a leaf ! How yielding his substance,-
incapable of resistance ! How peaceable, harmless, and
indolent is the moth ! How full of motion, bravery, and
hardiness is the industrious ant ! How loath to remove
on the contrary, is the harnessed lady-bird !
ON SHADES. 229
CHAPTER XLII.
On Shades, f/icxd:^
THOUGH shades are the weakest and most vapid, yet
they are at the same time, when the light is at a proper
distance, and falls properly on the countenance, to take
the profile accurately, the truest representation that can
be given of man. The weakest, for it is not positive; it is
only something negative, only the boundary line of half
the countenance. The truest, because it is the imme-
diate expression of nature, such as not the ablest painter
is capable of drawing by hand after nature. What can
be less the image of a living man than a shade ? Yet
how full of speech ? Little gold, but the purest.
The shade contains but one line; no motion, light,
colour, height, or depth; no eye, ear, nostril, or cheek;
but a very small part of the lip ; yet how decisively it
is significant! Drawing and painting, it is probable,
originated in shades. They express, as I have said, but
little ; but the little they do express is exact. No art
can attain to the truth of the shade taken with precision.
Let a shade be taken after nature with the greatest
accuracy, and with equal accuracy be afterwards reduced
upon tine transparent oil-paper. Let a profile of the
same size be taken by the greatest master in his happiest
moment, then let the two be laid upon each other, and
the difference will be immediately evident.
I never found, after repeated experiments, that the
best efforts of art could equal nature either in freedom
or in precision, but that there was always something
more or less than nature. Nature is sharp and free ;
whoever studies sharpness more than freedom, will be
hard, and whoever studies freedom more than sharpness
230 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
will become diffuse and indeterminate. I can admire
him only who, equally studious of her sharpness and
freedom, acquires equal certainty and impartiality.
To attain this, artist, imitator of humanity ! first ex-
ercise yourself in drawing shades ; afterwards copy
them by hand, and next compare and correct. Without
this you will with difficulty discover the grand secret of
uniting precision and freedom.
I have collected more physiognomical knowledge from
shades alone than from every other kind of portrait ;
have improved physiognomical sensation more by the
sight of them than by the contemplation of ever mutable
nature. Shades collect the distracted attention, confine
it to an outline, and thus render the observation more
simple, easy, and precise. Physiognomy has no greater,
more incontrovertible certainty of the truth of its object,
than that imparted by shade. If the shade, according
to the general sense and decision of all men, can decide
so much concerning character, how much more must the
living body, the whole appearance, and^action of the
man ! If the shade be oracular, the voice of truth, the
word of God, what must the living original be, illumi-
nated by the spirit of God !
Hundreds have asked, and hundreds will continue to
ask, " What can be expected from mere shades ?" Yet
no shade can be viewed by any one of these hundred,
who will not form some judgment on it, often accu-
rately, more accurately than I could have judged.
In order to make the astonishing significance of
shades conspicuous, we ought either to compare opposite
characters of men taken in shade, or, which may be
more convincing, to cut out of black paper, or draw,
imaginary countenances widely dissimilar. Or, again,
ON SHADES. 231
when we have acquired some proficiency in observation,
to double black paper, and cut two countenances ; and
afterwards, by cutting with the scissors, to make slight
alterations, appealing to our eye, or physiognomical
feeling, at each alteration; or, lastly, only to take
various shades of the same countenance, and compare
them together. Such experiments would' astonish us,
to perceive what great effects are produced by slight
alterations.
The common method of taking shades is accompanied
with many inconveniences. It is hardly possible the
person drawn should sit sufficiently still ; the designer
is obliged to change his place; he must approach so
near to the person that motion is almost inevitable, and
the designer is in the most inconvenient position;
neither are the preparatory steps every where possible,
nor simple enough. A seat purposely contrived would
be more convenient. The shade should be taken on post
paper, or rather on thin oil-paper, well dried. Let the
head and back be supported by a chair, and the shade
fall on the oil-paper behind a clear, flat, polished glass.
Let the drawer sit behind the glass, holding the frame
with his left hand, and, having a sharp black-lead
pencil, draw with the right. The glass, in a detached
sliding frame, may be raised or lowered, according to the
height of the person. The bottom of the glass frame,
being thin, will be best of iron, and should be raised so
as to rest steadily upon the shoulder. In the centre,
upon the glass, should be a small piece of wood or iron,
to which fasten a small round cushion, supported by a
short pin, scarcely half an inch long, which also may be
raised or lowered, and against which the person drawn
may lean.
232 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
CHAPTEE XLIII.
Description of Plate VI.
Number I. MENDELSSOHN.
IN the forehead and nose, penetration and sound un-
derstanding are evident. The mouth is much more deli-
cate than the mouth of 2.
Number II. J. SPALDING.
Clear ideas, love of elegance, purity, accuracy of
thought and action ; does not easily admit the unnatural.
The forehead not sufficiently characteristic, but fine taste
in the nose.
Number III. EOCHOW.
Has more good sense ; prompt, accurate perception of
truth and delicacy, than 4; but I suspect less acuteness.
Number IV. P. NICOLAI.
Whoever hesitates concerning the character of this
head, never can have observed the forehead. This arch,
abstractedly considered, especially in the upper part, has
more capacity than Nos. 2 and 3. In the upper outline,
also, of the under part, understanding and exquisite
penetration cannot be overlooked.
Number V.
One of those masculine profiles which generally please.
Conceal the under chin, and an approach to greatness is
perceptible ; except that greater variation in the out-
line is wanting, especially in the nose and forehead.
The choleric phlegmatic man is visible in the whole ;
especially in the eyebrows, nose, and bottom part of the
A WORD TO TRAVELLERS. 233
chin ; as likewise are integrity, fidelity, goodness, and
complaisance.
Number VI. J. C. LAVATER.
This shade, though imperfect, may easily be known.
It must pass without comment, or rather the commentary
is before the world— is in this book. Let that speak ;
I am silent.
~7
CHAPTER XLIV.
A Ward to Travellers.
THERE appear to me to be three things indispensable
to travellers — health, money, and physiognomy. There-
fore a physiognomical word to travellers. I could wish
indeed, that, instead of a word, a traveller's physiognomical
companion were written ; but this must be done by an
experienced traveller. In the mean time I shall bid him
farewell, with the following short advice : —
What do you seek, travellers ? what is your wish ?
"What would you see more remarkable, more singular,
more rare, more worthy to be examined, than the varieties
of humanity ? This indeed is fashionable. You inquire
after men ; you seek the wisest, best, and greatest men,
especially the most famous. Why is your curiosity
limited to seeing only ? Would it not be better you
should illuminate your own minds by the light of others,
and animate yourselves by their ardour ?
His curiosity is childish which is merely confined to
seeing, whose ambition desires only to say, I have be-
held that man. He who would disregard views so con-
fined, must study such men physiognomically ; if he
would learn wisdom, he must be able to compare and
234 nAVATEIl's PHYSIOGNOMY.
judge of the relation between their works, their fame,
and their form. By this only may much be learned.
By this may the stream be compared to the fountain,
the quality of the waters examined, their course, their
gentle murmurs, or more boisterous war. The inquirer
may ask, what is the degree of originality of those men,
what is borrowed, what is internal, what external?
This forehead and these eyebrows will thus versify, thus
translate, thus criticise ; therefore on this eye depends
the fate of the writer, the blockhead, or the man of genius.
This nose thus estimates the mortal and the immortal
in the human performances. As are the features so will
be the mind.
Yes, scholars of nature, you have much to learn from
the countenances of famous men. In them you will
read that the wasp will dare to alight on the nose of
the hero. To me it will be pleasure when you have
acquired this physiognomical sensation ; for, without
this, you will but travel in the dark ; you will but be
led through a picture-gallery blindfold, only that you
might say, I too have been in that gallery.
Could I travel unknown, I would also visit artists,
men of learning, and philosophers, men famous in their
respective countries ; but it should either be my adieu,
as the thing least important, or as a recreation on
my arrival. Pardon me, men of renown ; I have been
credulous in your favour, but I daily become more cir-
cumspect. Far be it from me to depreciate your worth.
I know many whose presence does not diminish but in-
crease fame ; yet will I be careful that remorse shall
neither dazzle nor cloud my reason.
It would be much more agreeable to me to mix un-
known with the multitude, visit churches, public walks,
A WORD TO TRAVELLERS. 235
hospitals, orphan-houses, and assemblies of ecclesiastics
and men of the law. I would first consider the general
form of the inhabitants, their height, proportion, strength,
weakness, motion, complexion, attitude, gesture, and gait.
I would observe them individually, see, compare, close
my eyes, trace in imagination all I have seen, open them
again, correct my memory, and close and open them
alternately. I would study for words, write, and draw,
with a few determinate traits, the general form, so easy
to be discovered. I would compare my drawings with
the known general form of the people. How easily
might a summary, an index of the people, be obtained !
Having made these familiar to me, I would descend
to the particular, would search for the general form of
the head, would ask, Is it most confined to the cylindri-
cal, the spherical, the square, the convex, or the concave ?
Is the countenance open, is it writhed, is it free, or
forked ? I would next examine the forehead, then the
eyebrows, the outline and colour of the eyes, the nose,
and especially the mouth when it is open ; and the teeth,
with their appearances, to discover the national charac-
teristic.
Could I but define the line of the opening of the lips
in seven promiscuous countenances, I imagine I should
have found the general physiognomical character of the
nation or place. I almost dare to establish it as an
axiom, that what is common to six or seven persons of
any place, taken promiscuously, is more or less common
to the whole. Exceptions there may be, but they will
be rare.
In the next place, I would plant myself in a public
walk, or at the crossing of streets. There I would wait
patiently for the unknown noble countenance, uncor-
236 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
rupted by fame and adulation, which certainly, most
certainly, I should find : for, in all countries on earth
wherever a hundred common men are assembled, one
not common may be found ; and out of a thousand, ten.
I must have indeed little eye, little sensibility for
noble humanity, little faith in Providence, which seeks
its adorers, if I did not find this one in a hundred, or at
least in the ten among a thousand. He that seeketh
shall find. I waited not in vain. He came, I found
him, he passed by me. And what were the tokens by
which I discovered him in every town, in every nation,
under every cope of heaven, and among all people,
kindred, and tongues ? By the general combination of
the countenance, by the upper outline of the forehead, the
eyebrows, the basis of the nose, and the mouth, so con-
formable to each other, so parallel and horizontal, at the
first glance. By the wrinkless, compressed yet open
forehead, the powerful eyebrows ; the easily discerned,
easily delineated space between the eyebrows, which
extends itself to the back of the nose, like the great
street from the market-place to the chief gate of a
city. By the shut but freely breathing mouth ; the
chin neither haggard nor fleshy; the deep and shining
attraction of the eye ; which all, incautiously and unin-
tentionally, betrayed themselves to my research ; or, I
discovered him even in his foreign and distorted form,
from which the arrogant, self-supposed handsome, would
turn with contempt. I see through his disguise, as I
should the hand of a great master through the smear of
varnish.
I approach the favourite of heaven. I question him
concerning what I do, and what I do not wish to know,
that I may hear the voice of the soul proceeding from
A WORD TO TRAVELLERS. 237
the mouth ; and, viewing him nearer, I see all the obli-
quities of distortion vanish. I ask him concerning his
occupation, his family, his place of residence. I inquire
the road thither. I come unexpectedly upon him into
his house, into his workshop ; he rises, I oblige him to
be seated, to continue his labour. I see his children, his
wife, and am delighted. He knows not what I want,
nor do I know myself, yet am I pleased with him, and
he with me. I purchase something or nothing, as it
happens. I inquire particularly after his friends. " You
have but few, but those few are faithful." He stands
astonished, smiles or weeps, in the innocence and good-
ness of his heart, which he wishes to conceal, but which
is open as day. He gains my affection; our emotions
are reciprocally expanded and strengthened ; we separate
reluctantly, and I know I have entered a house which is
entered by the angels of God.
Oh ! how gratefully, how highly is he rewarded for
his labours who travels, interested in behalf of humanity,
and, with the eyes of a man, to collect in the spirit
the children of God, who are scattered over the world !
This appears to me to be the supreme bliss of man, as it
must be of angels.
If I do not meet him, I have no resource but in
society. Here I hear him most who speaks least, mild-
est, and most unaffectedly. Wherever I meet the smile
of self-sufficiency, or the oblique look of envy, I turn
away, and seek him who remains oppressed by the loud
voice of confidence. I set myself rather beside the
answerer than the man of clamorous loquacity; and still
rather beside the humble inquirer than the voluble
solver of all difficulties.
He who hastens too fast, or lags behind, is no com-
238 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
panion of mine. I rather seek him who walks with a
free, firm, and even step ; who looks but little about
him ; who neither carries his head aloft, nor contemplates
his legs and feet. If the hand of affliction be heavy on
him, I set myself by his side, take his hand, and, with a
glance, infuse conviction to his soul, that God is love.
In my memory I retain the simple outlines of the
loud and the violent, the laughter and the smiles,
of him who gives the key, and him who takes. I then
commit them to paper; my collection increases. I
compare, arrange, judge, and am astonished. I every
where find similarity of traits, similarity of character ;
the same humanity every where, and every where the
same tokens.
CHAPTER XLV.
A Word to Princes and Judges.
FOR your use, most important of men, how willingly
would I write a treatise ! Who, so much as you, need a
perfect knowledge of man, free from cabal or the inter-
vention of self-interest? Suffer me to approach your
throne, and present my address.
In your most secret commonplace-book keep an index
to each class of character among men, taken from at
least ten of the most accurate proofs ; not at a distance,
not among foreigners, but seek at home for the wisest
and best of your own subjects. Wherever a wise and
good prince governs, there are excellent subjects. Such
a prince believes that he has such subjects, although .at
the moment he should be unacquainted with them ; or,
at least, that he has subjects capable of wisdom and
goodness. Wherever one good person is, there certainly
A WORD TO PRINCES AND JUDGES. 239
are two, as certainly as where the female is there will
the male be.
Suffer me, princes, consecrated as you are among
men, to entreat you, for the honour of humanity, prin-
cipally to study, to seek for, and to seize on excellence.
Judge not too suddenly, nor by mere appearances.
That which a prince once approves, it may afterwards
be difficult or dangerous to reject. Depend not on the
testimony of others, which, to princes especially, is ever
exaggerated either in praise or blame ; but examine the
countenance, which, though it may dissemble to a prince,
or rather to the dignity of a prince, cannot deceive him
as a man. Having once discovered wisdom and good-
ness in a subject, honour such a subject as the best
blessing which Heaven can in this world bestow upon
its favourites. Seek features that are strong, but not
forbidding ; gentle, yet not effeminate ; positive, without
turbulence ; natural, not arrogant ; with open eyes, clear
aspects ; strong noses near the forehead, and with such
let your thrones be surrounded.
Intrust your secrets to proportionate and parallel
drawn countenances ; to horizontal, firm, compressed
eyebrows; channelled, not too rigorously closed, red,
active, but not relaxed or withered lips. Yet I will for-
bear to delineate, and again only entreat that the coun-
tenance may be sacred to you for the sake of goodness
and wisdom.
As to you, judges, judge not indeed by appearances,
but examine according to appearances. Justice blind-
fold without physiognomy, is as unnatural as blindfold
love. There are countenances which cannot have com-
mitted a multitude of vices. Study the traits of each
vice, and the forms in which vice naturally or unwill-
240 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
ingly resides. There are capabilities and incapabilities
in the countenance, things which it can will, others
which it cannot. Each passion, open or concealed, has its
peculiar language. The appearance of innocence is as
determinate to the experienced eye as the appearance
of health.
Bring guilt and innocence face to face, and examine
them in your presence, and when they suppose you do
not observe them in the presence and in the absence of
witnesses ; with justice see, with justice hear and obey,
the determined voice of unprejudiced conviction. Ke-
mark their walk when they enter, and when they leave
the judgment-hall. Let the light fall upon their coun-
tenances ; be yourself in the shade. Physiognomy will
render the torture unnecessary,* will deliver innocence,
will make the most obdurate vice turn pale, will teach
us how we may act upon the most hardened. Every
thing human must be imperfect ; yet will it be evident that
the torture, more disgraceful to man than the halter, the
axe, and the wheel, is infinitely more uncertain and dan-
gerous than physiognomy. The pain of torture is more
horrible even than the succeeding death, yet it is only
to prove, to discover truth. Physiognomy shall not exe-
cute, and yet it shall prove ; and by its proof vice alone,
and not innocence, shall suffer. 0 ye judges of men, be
men, and humanity shall teach you, with more open
eyes, to see and abhor all that is inhuman I
* A few years since one philosopher wrote to another, The torture will
soon be abolished in Austria. It was asked, What shall be its substitute?
The penetrating look of the judge, replied Sonnenfels. Physiognomy will, in
twenty-five years, become a part of jurisprudence instead of torture, and
lectures will be read in the universities on the Physiognomice forense instead of
the Mfdicina forensis.
A WORD TO THE CLERGY. 241
CHAPTER XLVI.
A Word to the Clergy.
You also, my brethren, need a certain degree of phy-
siognomy, and perhaps, princes excepted, no men more.
You ought to know whom you have before you, that
you may discern spirits, and portion out the word of
truth to each, according to his need and capacity. To
whom can a knowledge of the degree of actual and pos-
sible virtue, in all who appear before you, be more ad-
vantageous than to you ?
To me physiognomy is more indispensable than the
liturgy. It is to me alike profitable for doctrine, exhor-
tation, comfort, correction, examination ; with the healthy,
with the sick, the dying, the malefactor ; in judicial ex-
aminations, and the education of youth. Without it, I
should be as the blind leading the blind.
I might be robbed of my ardour or inspired with en-
thusiasm by a single countenance. Whenever I preach,
I generally seek the most noble countenance, on which
I endeavour to act, and the weakest when teaching
children. It is generally our own fault if our hearers
are inattentive, if they do not themselves give the key
in which it is necessary they should be addressed.
Every teacher possessed of physiognomical sensation
will easily discern and arrange the principal classes
among his hearers, and what each class can and cannot
receive. Let six or seven classes, of various capacities,
be selected ; let a chief, a representative, a characteristic
countenance of each class be chosen : let these counte-
nances be fixed in the memory, and let the preacher
accommodate himself to each ; speaking thus to one, and
thus to another, and in such a manner to a third.
242
I.AVATER S PHYSIOGNOMY.
There cannot be a more natural, effective, or definite
incitement to eloquence, than supposing some characte-
ristic countenance present, of the capacity of which almost
mathematical certainty may be obtained. Having six
or seven, I have nearly my whole audience before me.
I do not then speak to the winds. God teaches us by
physiognomy to act upon the best of men according to
the best of means.
CHAPTER XLVII.
Physiognomical Elucidations of Countenances.
A regular well-formed countenance is where all the
parts are remarkable for their symmetry ; the principal
features, as the eyes, nose, and mouth, neither small nor
bloated. In which the position of the parts, taken to-
gether and viewed at a distance, appears nearly horizon-
tal and parallel.
A beautiful countenance, is that in which, besides the
proportion and position of the parts, harmony, uniformity,
and mind are visible ; in which nothing is superfluous,
nothing deficient, nothing disproportionate, nothing
super-added, but all is conformity and concord.
A pleasant countenance does not necessarily require
perfect symmetry and harmony ; yet nothing must be
wanting, nothing burdensome. Its pleasantry will princi-
pally exist in the eye and lips, which must have nothing
commanding, arrogant, contemptuous, but must generally
speak complacency, affability, and benevolence.
A gracious countenance arises out of the pleasant;
when, far from any thing assuming, to the mildest bene-
volence are added affability and purity.
A charming countenance must not simply consist
PHYSIOGNOMICAL ELUCIDATIONS. 243
either of the beautiful, the pleasant, or the gracious ; but
when to these is added a rapid propriety of motion, which
renders it charming.
An insinuating countenance leaves no power to active
or passive suspicion. It has something more than the
pleasant, by infusing that into the heart which the
pleasant only manifests.
Other species of these delightful countenances are, the
attracting, the winning, the irresistible.
Very distinct from all these are the amusing, the
divertingly loquacious, the merely mild, and also the
tender and delicate.
Superior, and more lovely still, is the purely innocent,
where no distorted oblique muscle, whether in motion
or at rest, is ever seen.
This is still more exalted when it is full of soul, of
natural symapthy, and power to excite sympathy.
When in a pure countenance good power is accom-
panied by a spirit of order, I may call it an Attic
countenance.
Spiritually beautiful may be said of a countenance
where nothing thoughtless, inconsiderate, rude, or severe,
is to be expected ; and the aspect of which immediately
and mildly incites emotion in the principal powers of
the mind.
Noble is when we have not the least indiscretion to
fear, and when the countenance is exalted above us,
without a possibility of envy ; while it is less sensible of
its own superiority than of the pleasure we receive in
its presence.
A great countenance will have few small secondary
traits; will be in grand divisions, without wrinkles;
must exalt, must affect us, in sleep, in plaster of Paris,
244
in every kind of caricatures ; as, for example, that of
Philip de Comines.
A sublime countenance can neither be painted nor de-
scribed ; that by which it is distinguished from all others
can only be felt. It must not only move, it must exalt
the spectator. We must at once feel ourselves greater
and less in its presence than in the presence of all others.
Whoever is conscious of its excellence, and can
despise or offend it, may, as hath been before said,
blaspheme against the great Author of his existence.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
Physiognomical Anecdotes.
1.
I HAVE nothing to require of you, said a father to his
innocent son, when bidding him farewell, but that you
bring me back your present countenance.
2.
A noble, amiable, and innocent young lady, who had
been educated principally in the country, saw her face
in the glass as she passed it with a candle in her hand,
retiring from evening prayers, and having just laid
down her Bible. Her eyes were cast to the ground with
inexpressible modesty at the sight of her own image.
She passed the winter in town, surrounded by adorers,
hurried away by dissipation, and plunged in trifling
amusements. She forgot her Bible and her devotion.
In the beginning of spring she returned to her country
seat, her chamber, and the table on which the Bible lay.
Again she had the candle in her hand, and again saw
herself in the glass. She turned pale, put down the
PHYSIOGNOMICAL ELUCIDATIONS. 245
candle, retreated to a sofa, and fell on her knees:
" 0 God ! I no longer know my own face. How am I
degraded ! My follies and vanities are all written in
my countenance. Wherefore have they been neglected,
illegible, to this instant ? 0 come and expel, come and
utterly efface them, mild tranquillity, sweet devotion,
and ye gentle cares of benevolent love ! "
3.
" I will forfeit my life," said Titus of the priest Taci-
tus, " if this man be not an arch knave. I have three
times observed him sigh and weep without cause ; and
ten times turn aside to conceal a laugh he could not
restrain, when vice or misfortune were mentioned."
4.
A stranger said to a physiognomist, "How many
dollars is my face worth ? " — " It is hard to determine,"
replied the latter. — " It is worth fifteen hundred," con-
tinued the questioner, " for so many has a person lent
me upon it, to whom I was a total stranger."
5.
A poor man asked alms, " How much do you want ? "
said the person of whom he asked, astonished at the
peculiar honesty of his countenance. "How shall I
dare to fix a sum ? " answered the needy person. " Give
me what you please, sir, I shall be contented and thank-
ful."— " Not so," replied the physiognomist ; " as God
lives, I will give you what you want, be it little 01
much." " Then, sir, be pleased to give me eight shil-
lings."— "Here they are; had you asked a hundred
guineas you should have had them."
246 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
CHAPTEE XLIX.
Miscellaneous Extracts from Kcempfs Essay on the
Temperaments, with Remarks.
1.
" WILL not physiognomy be to man what the looking-
glass is to an ugly woman ? "
Let me also add, to the handsome woman. The wise
looks in the glass, and washes away spots; the fool
looks, turns back, and remains as he was.
2.
" Each temperament, each character, has its good and
bad. The one has inclinations of which the other is
incapable. The one has more than the other. The ingot
is of more worth than the guineas individually into
which it is coined ; yet the latter are most useful. The
tulip delights by its beauty, the carnation by its smell.
The unseemly wormwood displeases both taste and smell,
yet in medical virtue is superior to both. There it is
that each contributes to the perfection of the whole."
The carnation should not wish to be a tulip, the finger
an eye, nor the weak desire to act within the circle of
the strong. Each has its peculiar circle, as it has its
peculiar form. To wish to depart from this circle is
like wishing to be transported into another1 body.
3,
" Within the course of a year we are assured that the
activity of nature changes the body, yet we are sensible
of no change of mind, although our body has been sub-
jected to the greatest changes, in consequence of meat,
drink, air, and other accidents ; the difference of air and
manner of life does not change the temperament."
EXTRACTS FROM K.EilPF. 247
The foundation of character lies deeper, and is, in a
certain degree, independent of all accidents. It is pro-
bably the spiritual and immortal texture into which all
that is visible, corruptible, and transitory is interwoven.
4.
" A block of wood may be carved by a statuary into
what form he shall please ; he may make it an ^Esop or
an Antinous, but he will never change the inherent
nature of the wood."
To know and distinguish the materials and form of
men, so far as knowledge contributes to their proper
application, is the highest and most effectual wisdom of
which human nature is capable.
5.
"In the eyes of certain persons there is something
sublime, which beams and exacts reverence. This subli-
mity is the concealed power of raising themselves above
others, which is not the wretched effect of constraint, but
primitive essence. Each finds himself obliged to submit
to this secret power without knowing why, as soon as he
perceives that look, implanted by nature to inspire
reverence, shining in the eyes. Those who possess this
natural, sovereign essence, rule as lords or lions among
men by native privilege, with heart and tongue conquer-
ing all."
6.
"There are only four different aspects, all different
from each other, the ardent, the dull, the fixed, and the
fluctuating."
The application is the proof of all general propositions.
Let physiognomical axioms be applied to known indi-
viduals, friends or enemies, and their truth or falsehood,
248 LAVATER S PHYSIOGNOMY.
precision or inaccuracy, will easily be determined. Let
us make the experiment with the above, and we shall
certainly find there are numerous aspects which are not
included within these four; such as the luminous aspect,
very different from the ardent, and neither fixed like the
melancholic, nor fluctuating like the sanguine.
There is the look or aspect which is at once rapid
and fixed, and, as I may say, penetrates and attaches at
the same moment. There is the tranquilly active look,
neither choleric nor phlegmatic. I think it would be
better to arrange them into the giving, receiving, and
the giving and receiving combined; or, into intensive
and extensive ; or, into the attracting, repelling, and
unparticipating ; into the contracted, the relaxed, the
strained, the attaining, the unattaining, the tranquil, the
steady, the slow, the open, the closed, the cold, the
amorous, &c.
CHAPTEE L.
Upon Portrait Painting.
PORTRAIT painting, the most natural, manly, useful,
noble, and, however apparently easy, is the most difficult
of the arts. Love first discovered this heavenly art.
Without love, what could it perform ?
As on this art depends a great part of this present
work, and the science on which it treats, it is proper
that something should be said on the subject. Some-
thing; for how new, how important, and great a
work might be written on this art ! For the honour of
man, and of the art, I hope such a work will be written.
I do not think it ought to be the work of a painter,
however great in his profession, but of the understanding
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 249
friend of physiognomy, the man of taste, the daily con-
fidential observer of the great portrait painter.
Sultzer, that philosopher of taste and discernment, has
an excellent article in his dictionary on this subject,
under the word Portrait. But what can be said, in a
work so confined, on a subject so extensive? Again,
whoever will employ his thoughts on this art, will find
that it is sufficient to exercise all the searching, all the
active powers of man; that it never can be entirely
learned, nor ever can arrive at ideal perfection.
I shall now attempt to recapitulate some of the avoid-
able and unavoidable difficulties attendant on this art ;
the knowledge of which, in my opinion, is as necessary
to the painter as to the physiognomist.
Let us first inquire, What is portrait painting ? It is
the communication, the preservation of the image of
some individual ; the art of suddenly depicting all that
can be depicted of that half of man which is rendered
apparent, and which never can be conveyed in words.
If what Goethe has somewhere said be true, and in my
opinion nothing can be more true, that the best text for
a commentary on man is his presence, his countenance,
his form ; how important, then, is the art of portrait
painting !
To this observation of Goethe's, I will add a passage on
the subject from Sultzer's excellent dictionary : " Since
no object of knowledge whatever can be more important
to us than a thinking and feeling soul, it cannot be
denied but that man, considered according to his form,
even though we should neglect what is wonderful in
him, is the most important of visible objects."
The portrait painter should know, feel, and be pene-
trated with this: penetrated with reverence for the
250 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
greatest works of the greatest masters. Were such the
subject of his meditation, not from constraint, but native
sensation ; were it as natural to him as the love of
life, how important, how sacred to him, would this art
become! Sacred to him should be the living counte-
nance as the text of holy scripture to the translator. As
careful should the one be not to falsify the work, as
should be the other not to falsify the word of God.
Great is the contempt which an excellent translator
of an excellent work deserves, whose mind is wholly
inferior to the mind of his original. And is it not the
same with the portrait painter? The countenance is
the theatre on which the soul exhibits itself : here must
its emanations be studied and caught. Whoever cannot
seize these emanations cannot paint ; and whoever can-
not paint these is no portrait painter.
Each perfect portrait is an important painting, since
it displays the human mind with the peculiarities of
personal character. In such we contemplate a being
where understanding, inclinations, sensations, passions,
good and bad qualities of mind and heart, are mingled
in a manner peculiar to itself. We here frequently see
them better than in nature herself, since in nature no-
thing is fixed, all is swift, all is transient. In nature,
also, we seldom behold the features under that propi-
tious aspect in which they will be transmitted by the
able painter.
If we could, indeed, seize the fleeting transitions of
nature, or had she her moments of stability, it would then
be much more advantageous to contemplate nature than
her likeness ; but this being impossible, and since, like-
wise, few people will suffer themselves to be observed
sufficiently to deserve the name of observation, it is to
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 251
me indisputable, that a better knowledge of man may be
obtained from portraits than from nature, she being thus
'uncertain, thus fugitive.
The rank of the portrait painter may hence be easily
determined; he stands next to the historical painter
Nay, history painting itself derives a part of its value
from its portraits ; for expression, one of the most im-
portant requisites in historical painting, will be the more
estimable, natural, and strong, the more of natural
physiognomy is expressed in the countenances, and
copied after nature. A collection of excellent portraits
is highly advantageous to the historical painter for the
study of expression.
Where shall we find the historical painter who can
represent real beings with all the decorations of fiction ?
Do we not see them all copying copies ? True it is»
they frequently copy from imagination ; but this imagi-
nation is only stored with the fashionable figures of their
own or former times.
Having presumed thus far, let us now enumerate some
of the surmountable difficulties of portrait painting. I
am conscious the freedom with which I shall speak my
thoughts will offend, yet to give offence is far from my
intention. I wish to aid, to teach that art, which is
the imitation of the works of God : I wish improve-
ment. And how is improvement possible without a
frank and undisguised discovery of defects !
In all the works of portrait painters which I have
seen, I have remarked the want of a more philosophical,
that is to say, a more just, intelligible, and universal
knowledge of men. The insect painter, who has no
accurate knowledge of insects, the form, the general, the
particular, which is appropriated to each insect, however
252 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
good a copyist he may be, will certaiuly be a bad painter
of insects. The portrait painter, however excellent a
copyist, (a thing much less general than is imagined by
connoisseurs,) will paint portraits ill if he have not the
most accurate knowledge of the form, proportion, con-
nection, and dependence of the great and minute parts of
the human body, as far as they have a remarkable in-
fluence on the superficies ; if he has not most accurately
investigated each individual member and feature. For
my own part, be my knowledge what it may, it is far
from accurate in what relates to the minute specific
traits of each sensation, each member, each feature ; yet
I daily remark that this acute, this indispensable know-
ledge, is at present every where uncultivated, unknown,
and difficult to convey to the most intelligent painters.
Those who will be at the trouble of considering a
number of men promiscuously taken, feature by feature,
will find that each ear, each mouth, notwithstanding
their infinite diversity, have yet their small curves,
corners, characters, which are common to all, and which
are found stronger or weaker, more or less marking, in all
men who are not monsters born, at least in these parts.
Of what advantage is all our knowledge of the great
proportions of the body and countenance ? (Yet even
that part of knowledge is, by far, not sufficiently studied,
not sufficiently accurate. Some future physiognomical
painter will justify this assertion, till when, be it con-
sidered as nothing more than cavil.) Of what advan-
tage, I say, is all our knowledge of the great proportions,
when the knowledge of the finer traits, which are equally
true, general, determinate, and no less significant, is
wanting ? And this want is so great, that I appeal to
those who are best informed, whether many of the ablest
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 253
painters, who have painted numerous portraits, have any
tolerably accurate or general theory of the mouth only.
I do not mean the anatomical mouth, hut the mouth of
the painter, which he ought to see, and may see, without
any anatomical knowledge.
I have examined volume after volume of engravings
of portraits after the greatest masters, and am therefore
entitled to speak. But let us confine observations
to the mouth. Having previously studied infants, boys,
youth, manhood, old age, maidens, wives, matrons, with
respect to the general properties of the mouth; and
having discovered these, let us compare, and we shall
find that almost all painters have failed in the general
theory of the mouth ; that it seldom happens, and seems
only to happen by accident, that any master has under-
stood these general properties. Yet how indescribably
much depends on them ! What is the particular, what
the characteristic, but shades of the general ! As it is
with the mouth, so it is with the eyes, eyebrows, nose,
and each part of the countenance.
The same proportion exists between the great features
of the face ; and as there is this general proportion in /
all countenances, however various, so is there a similar
proportion between the small traits of these parts.
Infinitely varied are the great features in their general
combination and proportion. As infinitely varied are
the shades of the small traits in these features, however
great their general resemblance. Without an accurate
knowledge of the proportion of the principal features,
as, for example, of the eyes and mouth, to each other, it
must ever be mere accident, an accident that indeed
rarely happens, when such proportion exists in the
works of the painter Without an accurate knowledge
254 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
of the particular constituent parts and traits of each
principal feature, I once again repeat, it must be acci-
dent, miraculous accident, should any one of them be
justly delineated.
The reflecting artist may be induced from this remark
to study nature intimately by principle, and to show
him, if he be in search of permanent fame, that, though
he ought to behold and study the works of the greatest
masters with esteem and reverence, he yet ought to ex-
amine and judge for himself. Let him not make the
virtue modesty his plea, for under this does omnipresent
mediocrity shelter itself. Modesty, indeed, is not so
properly virtue as the garb and ornament of virtue, and
of existing positive power. Let him, I say, examine for
himself, and study nature in whole and in part, as if no
man ever had observed, or ever should observe, but him-
self. Deprived of this, young artist, thy glory will but
resemble a meteor's blaze ; it will only be founded on
the ignorance of your contemporaries.
By far the greater part of the best portrait painters,
when most successful, like the majority of physiogno-
mists, content themselves with expressing the character
of the passions in the moveable, the muscular features
of the face. They do not understand, they laugh at,
rules which prescribe the grand outline of the counte-
nance as indispensable to portrait painting, independent
of the effects produced by the action of the muscles.
Till institutions shall be formed for the improvement
of portrait painting, perhaps till a physiognomical-
society or academy shall produce physiognomical por-
trait painters, we shall at best but creep in the regions
of physiognomy, where we might otherwise soar. One
of the greatest obstacles to physiognomy is the actual,
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 255
incredible imperfection of this art. There is generally a
defect of eye or hand of the painter, or the object is
defective which is to be delineated, or perhaps all three.
The artist cannot discover what is, or cannot draw it
when he discovers it. The object continually alters its
position, which ought to be so exact, so continually the
same ; or should it not, and should the painter be en-
dowed with an all-observing eye, an all-imitative hand,
still there is the last insuperable difficulty, that of the
position of the body, which can but be momentary,
which is constrained, false, and unnatural, when more
than momentary.
Trifling, indeed, is what I have said to what might be
said. According to the knowledge I have of it, this is
yet uncultivated ground. How little has Sultzer him-
self said on the subject ! But what could he say in a
dictionary ? A work wholly dedicated to this is neces-
sary to examine and decide on the works of the best
portrait painters, and to insert all the cautions and
rules necessary for the young artist, in consequence of
the infinite variety, yet incredible uniformity, of the
human countenance.
The artist who wishes to paint portraits perfectly,
must so paint that each spectator may with truth exclaim,
" This is indeed to paint ! this is true, living likeness ;
perfect nature ; it is not painting ! Outline, form, pro-
portion, position, attitude, complexion, light and shade,
freedom, ease, nature ! Nature in every characteristic
disposition ! Nature in the complexion, in each trait, in
her most beauteous, happiest moments, her most select,
most propitious state of mind ; near at a distance, on
every side Truth and Nature ! Evident to all men, all
ages, the ignorant and the connoisseur ; most conspicuous
256 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
to him who has most knowledge ; no suspicion of art ;
a countenance in a mirror, to which we would speak ; that
speaks to us ; that contemplates more than it is contem-
plated ; we rush to it, we embrace it, we are enchanted !"
Young artist ! emulate such excellence, and the least
of your attainments in this age will be riches and honour,
and fame in futurity. With tears you will receive the
thanks of father, friend, and husband, and your work
will honour that Being whose creation is the noblest
gift of man to imitate !
CHAPTER LI.
Description of Plate VII.
Number 1. FREDERICK OF PRUSSIA.
How much yet how little is there of the royal counte-
nance in this copy ! The covered forehead may be sus-
pected from this nose, this sovereign feature. The forked,
descending wrinkles of the nose are expressive of killing
contempt. The great eyes, with a nose so bony, denote
a firmness and fire not easily to be withstood. Wit and
satirical fancy are apparent in the mouth, though de-
fectively drawn. There is something minute seen in the
chin, which cannot well be in nature.
Number 2. CATHERINE, EMPRESS OF RUSSIA.
Except the smallness of the nostril, and the distance
of the eyebrow from the outline of the forehead, no one
can mistake the princely, the superior, the masculine
firmness of this, nevertheless feminine, but fortunate
and kind countenance.
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE VII. 257
Number 3. VOLTAIRE.
Precision is wanting to the outline of the eye, power
to the eyebrows, the sting, the scourge of satire to the
forehead. The under part of the profile, on the contrary,
speaks a flow of wit, acute, exuberant, exalted, ironical,
never deficient in reply.
Number 4. F. DE MALHERBE.
Here is a high, comprehensive, powerful, firm, reten-
tive French forehead, that appears to want the open, free,
noble essence of the former ; has something rude and
productive ; is more choleric ; and its firmness appears
to border on harshness.
Number 5. J. DE VOISIN.
The delicate construction of the forehead, the aspect
of the man of the world, the beauty of the nose, in
particular, the somewhat rash, satirical mouth, the plea-
sure-loving chin, all show the Frenchman of a superior
class. The excellent companion, the fanciful wit, the
supple courtier, are every where apparent.
Number 6. J. C. LAVATER.
A bad likeness of the author of these fragments, yet
not to be absolutely mistaken. The whole aspect, especi-
ally the mouth, speaks inoffensive tranquillity, and
benevolence bordering on weakness ; — more understand-
ing and less sensibility in the nose than the author
supposes himself to possess — some talent for observation
in the eye and eyebrows.
S
258 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY;
CHAPTER LII.
Miscellaneous Quotations.
1.
" CAMPANELLA has not only made very accurate obser-
vations on human faces, but was very expert in mimick-
ing such as were any way remarkable. Whenever he
thought proper to penetrate into the inclinations of those
he had to deal with, he composed his face, his gestures,
and his whole body, as nearly as he could, into the exact
similitude of the person he intended to examine, and
then carefully observed what turn of mind he seemed to
acquire by this change. So that, says my author, he
was able to enter into the disposition and thoughts of
people, as effectually as if he had been changed into the
very man. I have often observed that, on mimicking
the gestures and looks of angry, or placid, or frightened,
or daring men, I have involuntarily found my mind
turned to that passion whose appearance I endeavour to
imitate. Nay, I am convinced it is hard to avoid it,
though one strove to separate the passion from its corre-
spondent gestures. Our minds and bodies are so closely
and intimately connected, that one is incapable of pain
or pleasure without the other. Campanella, of whom
we have been speaking, could so abstract his attention
from any sufferings of his body, that he was able to
endure the rack itself without much pain ; and in lesser
pains every body must have observed that, when we can
employ our attention on any thing else, the pain has
been for a time suspended. On the other hand, if by
any means the body is indisposed to perform such
gestures, or to be stimulated into such emotions as any
passion usually produces in it, that passion itself never
MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS. 259
can arise, though its cause should be never so strongly
in action, though it should be merely mental, and im-
mediately affecting none of the senses. As an opiate or
spirituous liquor shall suspend the operation of grief,
fear, or anger, in spite of all our efforts to the contrary ;
suid this by inducing in the body a disposition contrary
to that which it receives from these passions." This
passage is extracted from Burke on the Sublime and
Beautiful.
2.
" Who can explain wherein consists the difference of
organization between an idiot and another man ? "
The naturalist, whether Buffon or any other, who is
become famous, and who can ask this question, will
never be satisfied with any given answer, even though it
were the most formal demonstration.
3.
" Diet and exercise would be of no use when recom-
mended to the dying."
No human wisdom or power can rectify; but that
which is impossible to man is not so to God.
4.
"The appearance without must be deformity and
shame, when the worm gnaws within."
Let the hypocrite, devoured by conscience, assume
whatever artful appearance lie will, of severity, tran-
quillity, or vague solemnity, his distortion will ever be
apparent to the physiognomist.
5.
"Take a tree from its native soil, its free air, and
mountainous situation, and plant it in the confined cir-
260 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
dilation of a hothouse : there it may vegetate, but in
a weak and sickly condition. Feed this foreign animal
in a den ; you will find it in vain. It starves in the
midst of plenty, or grows fat and feeble."
This, I am sorry to say, is the mournful history of
many a man.
6.
" A portrait is the ideal of an individual, not of men
in general."
A perfect portrait is neither more nor- less than the
circular form of a man reduced to a flat surface, and
which shall have the exact appearance of the person for
whom it was painted seen in a camera obscura.
7.
I once asked a friend, " How does it happen that art-
ful and subtle people always have one or both eyes
rather closed ?" — "Because they are feeble," answered
he. "Who ever saw strength and subtlety united?
The mistrust of others is meanness towards ourselves."
This same friend, who to me is a man of ten thousand
for whatever relates to mind, wrote two valuable letters
on physiognomy to me, from which I am allowed to
make the following extracts : —
" It appears to me to be an eternal law, that the first
is the only true impression. Of this I offer no proof
except by asserting such as my belief, and by appealing
to the sensations of others. .The stranger affects me by
his appearance, and is to my sensitive being what the
sun would be to a man born blind restored to sight.
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 261
9.
" Rousseau was right when he said of D., That man
does not please me, though he has never done me
any injury ; but I must break with him before it comes
to that."
10.
" Physiognomy is as necessary to man as language.*'
I may add, as natural.
CHAPTER LIII.
Miscellaneous Thoughts,
1.
EVERY thing is good. Every thing may, and must be
misused. Physiognomical sensation is in itself as truly
good, as godlike, as expressive of the exalted worth of
human nature, as moral sensation ; perhaps they are
both the same. The suppressing, the destroying a sen-
sation so deserving of honour, where it begins to act, is
sinning against ourselves, and in reality equal to resist-
ing the good spirit Indeed, good impulses and actions
must have their limits, in order that they may not
impede other good impulses and actions.
2.
Each man is a man of genius in his large or small
sphere. He has a certain circle in which he can act
with inconceivable force. The less his kingdom, the
more concentrated is his power ; consequently the more
irresistible is his form of government. Thus the bee is
the greatest of mathematicians as far as its wants ex-
tend. Having discovered the genius of a man, how
202 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
inconsiderable soever the circle of his activity may be,
having caught him in the moment when his genius is in
its highest exertion, the characteristic token of that
genius will also be easily discovered.
3.
The approach of the Godhead cannot be nearer in the
visible world, and in what we denominate nature, than
in the countenance of a great and noble man. Christ
could not but truly say, " He who seeth Me seeth Him
that sent me." God cannot, without a miracle, be seen
any where so fully as in the countenance of a good man.
Thus the essence of any man is more present, more
certain to me, by having obtained his shade.
4.
Great countenances awaken and stimulate each other,
excite all that can be excited. Any nation, having
once produced a Spenser, a Shakspeare, and a Milton,
may be certain that a Steele, a Pope, and an Addison
will follow. A great countenance has the credentials of
its high original in itself. With calm reverence and
simplicity nourish the mind with the presence of a great
countenance; its emanations shall attract and exalt
thee. A great countenance, in a state of rest, acts more
powerfully than a common countenance impassioned;
its effects, though unresembling, are general. The fortu-
nate disciples, though they knew Him not, yet did their
hearts burn within them while He talked with them by
the way, and opened to them the scriptures. The buyers
and sellers, whom he drove out of the Temple, durst not
oppose Him.
It may from hence be conceived how certain persons,
by their mere persons, have brought a seditious multi-
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 263
tude back to their duty, although the latter had acquired
the full power. That natural, unborrowed, indwelling
power, which is consequently superior to any which can
be assumed, is as evident to all eyes as the thunder of
heaven is to all ears.
5.
Great physiognomical wisdom not only consists in
discovering the general character of, and being highly
affected by the present countenance, or this or that
particular propensity, but in discriminating the indi-
vidual character of each kind of mind, and its capacity,
and being able to define the circle beyond which it
cannot pass ; to say what sensations, actions, and judg-
ments are, or are not to be expected from the man under
consideration, that we may not idly waste power, but
dispense just sufficient to actuate and put him in motion.
No man is more liable to the error of thoughtless
haste than I was. Four or five years of physiognomical
observation were requisite to cure me of this too hasty
waste of power. It is a part of benevolence to give, in-
trust, and participate ; but physiognomy teaches when,
how, and to whom to give. It therefore teaches true
benevolence, to assist where assistance is wanted, and
will be accepted. Oh ! that I could call at the proper
moment, and with proper effect, to the feeling and
benevolent heart. Waste not, cast not thy seed upon the
waters, or upon a rock. Speak only to the hearer ; un-
bosom thyself but to those who can understand thee ;
philosophize with none but philosophers ; spiritualize
only with the spiritual It requires greater power to
bridle strength than to give it the rein. To withhold is
often better than to give. What is not enjoyed will be
264 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
cast back with acrimony or trodden to waste, and thus
will become useless to all.
To the good be good ; resist not the irresistible coun-
tenance. Give the eye that asks, that comes recom-
mended to thee by Providence, or by God himself, and
which to reject is to reject God, who cannot ask thee
more powerfully than when entreating in a cheerful,
open, innocent countenance. Thou canst not more im-
mediately glorify God than by wishing and acting well
to a countenance replete with the spirit of God, nor more
certainly and abhorrently offend and wound the majesty
of God, than by despising, ridiculing, and turning from
such a countenance. God cannot more effectually move
man than by man. Whoever rejects the man of God
rejects God. To discover the radiance of the Creator in
the visage of man, is the pre-eminent quality of man ; it is
the summit of wisdom and benevolence to feel how much
of this radiance is there, to discern this ray of Divinity
through the clouds of the most debased countenances,
and dig out this small gem of heaven from amid the
ruins and rubbish by which it is encumbered.
7.
Shouldest thou, friend of man, esteem physiognomy
as highly as I do, to whom it daily becomes of greater
worth the more I discover its truth ; if thou hast an eye
to select the few noble, or that which is noble in the
ignoble, that which is divine in all men, the immortal in
what is mortal, then speak little, but observe much ;
dispute not, but exercise thy sensation, for thou wilt
convince no one to whom this sensation is wanting.
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 265
When noble poverty presents to you a face in which
humility, -patience, faith, and love, shine conspicuously,
how superior will thy joy be in his words who has told
thee, " Inasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the
least of these my brethren, thou hast done it unto me ! "
With a sigh of hope you will exclaim, when youth
and dissipation present themselves, This forehead was
delineated by God for the search and the discovery of
truth. In this eye rests unripened wisdom.
CHAPTER LIV.
Of the Union between the Knowledge of the Heart and
Philanthropy. — Miscellaneous Physiognomical Thoughts
from Holy Writ.
MAY the union between the knowledge of the heart
and philanthropy be obtained by the same means?
Does not a knowledge of the heart destroy or weaken
philanthropy ? Does not our good opinion of any man
diminish when he is perfectly known ? And if so, how
may philanthropy be increased by this knowledge ?
What is here alleged is truth ; but it is partial truth.
And how fruitful a source of error is partial truth ! It
is a certain truth that the majority of men are losers by
being accurately known ; but it is no less true that the
majority of men gain as much on one side as they lose
on the other by being thus accurately known. Who is
so wise as never to act foolishly ? Where is the virtue
wholly unpolluted by vice; with thoughts at all
moments simple, direct, and pure ? I dare undertake to
maintain that all men, with some very rare exceptions,
lose by being known. But it may also be proved by
2G6 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
the most irrefragable arguments, that all men gain by
being known ; consequently a knowledge of the heart is
not detrimental to the love of mankind, but promotes it.
Physiognomy discovers actual and possible perfec-
tions which, without its aid, must ever have remained
hidden. The more man is studied, the more power and
positive goodness will he be discovered to possess. As
the experienced eye of the painter perceives a thousand
small shades and colours which are unremarked by
common spectators ; so the physiognomist views a multi-
tude of actual or possible perfections, which escape the
general eye of the despiser, the slanderer, or even the
more benevolent judge of mankind.
The good which I, as a physiognomist, have observed
in people round me, has more than compensated that
mass of evil which, though I appeared blind, I could not
avoid seeing. The more I have studied man the more
have I been convinced of the general influence of his
faculties ; the more have I remarked that the origin of
all evil is good; that those very powers which made him
evil — those abilities, forces, irritability, elasticity, were
all in themselves actual, positive good. The absence of
these, indeed, would have occasioned the absence of an
infinity of evil, but so would they likewise of an infinity
of good. The essence of good has given birth to much
evil ; but it contained in itself the possibility of a still
infinite increase of good.
The least failing of an individual incites a general out-
cry, and his character is at once darkened, trampled on,
and destroyed. The physiognomist views and praises
the man whom the whole world condemns. What !
does he praise vice ? — Does he excuse the vicious ? — No ;
lie whispers, or kudly affirms, "Treat this man after
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 267
such a manner, and you will be astonished at what he
is able, what he may be made willing to perform.
He is not so wicked as he appears ; his countenance is
better than his actions. His actions, it is true, are legible
in his countenance, but not more legible than his great
powers, his sensibility, the pliability of that heart which
has had an improper bent. Give but these powers
which have rendered him vicious another direction and
other objects, and he will perform miracles of virtue."
The physiognomist will pardon where the most
benevolent philanthropist must condemn. For myself,
since I have become a physiognomist, I have gained
knowledge so much more accurate of so many excellent
men, and have had such frequent occasions to rejoice
my heart in the discoveries I made concerning such
men, that this, as I may say, has reconciled me to the
whole human race. What I here mention as having
happened to myself, each physiognomist, being himself
a man, must have undoubtedly felt.
Miscellaneous Physiognomical Thoughts from Holy Writ.
" Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret
sins in the light of thy countenance," Psalm xc. 8. —
No man believes in the omniscience, or has so strong
a conviction of the presence of God and his angels, or
reads the hand of Heaven so visible in the human
countenance, as the physiognomist.
" Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit
unto his stature ? — And why take ye thought for rai-
ment?— Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness ; and all these things shall be added unto
you," Matt. vi. 27, 28, 33.— No man,. therefore, can alter
his form. The improvement of the internal will also
be the improvement of the external Let men take care
268 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
of the internal, and a sufficient care of the external will
be the result.
" When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad
countenance; for they disfigure their faces, that they
may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you,
They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest,
anoint thine head and wash thy face ; that thou appear
not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in
secret : and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall re-
ward thee openly," Matt. vi. 16 — 18. Virtue, like vice,
may be concealed from men, but not from the Father in
secret, nor from him in whom his spirit is, who fathoms
not only the depths of humanity but of divinity. He is
rewarded who means that the good he has should be
seen in his countenance.
"Some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls
came and devoured them up ; some fell upon stony
places, where they had not much earth : and forthwith
they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth ;
and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and
because they had no root, they withered away; and
some fell among thorns ; and the thorns sprung up, and
choked them; but others fell into good ground, and
brought forth fruit, some a hundred-fold, some sixty-
fold, some thirty-fold," Matt, xiii 4 — 8. There are
many men, many countenances, in whom nothing can be
planted, each fowl devours the seed ; or, they are hard
like stone, with little earth, (or flesh,) have habits which
stifle all that is good. There are others that have good
bones, good flesh, with a happy proportion of each, and
no stifling habits.
" For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he
shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 269
not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath/'
Matt. xiii. 12. — True again of the good and bad counte-
nance. He who is faithful to the propensities of nature,
he hath, he enjoys, he will manifestly be ennobled. The
bad will lose even the good traits he hath received.
"Take heed that ye despise not one of these little
ones ; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do
always behold the face, of my Father which is in
heaven," Matt, xviii. 10. — Probably the angels see the
countenance of the father in the countenance of the
children.
" If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. Do ye
not perceive, that whatever thing from without entereth
into the man, it cannot defile him ; because it entereth
not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into
the draught, purging all meats? And he said, That
which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man,"
Mark vii. 17 — 20. This is physiognomically true. Not
external accidents, not spots which may be washed
away, not wounds which may be healed, not even scars
which remain, will defile the countenance in the eye of
the physiognomist, neither can paint beautify it to him.
" A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," GaL v. 9.
A little vice often deforms the whole countenance. One
single false trait makes the whole a caricature.
" Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and
read of all men. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly
declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us,
written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living
God," 2 Cor. iii. 2, 3. What need have the good of
letters of recommendation to the good ? The open
countenance recommends itself to the open countenance.
No letters of recommendation can recommend the per-
270 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
fictions countenance, nor can any slanderer deprive the
countenance, beaming with the divine spirit, of its letters
of recommendation. A good countenance is the best
letter of recommendation.
I shall conclude with the important passage from the
eleventh of the Eomans :
"God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he
might have mercy upon all. 0 the depth of the riches
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How un-
searchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding
out ! For who hath known the mind of the Lord ? or
who hath been his counsellor ? or who hath first given
to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.
To whom be glory for ever. Amen."
CHAPTER LV.
Of the apparently false, Decisions of Physiognomy — Of the
general Objections made to Physiognomy — Particular
Objections answered.
ONE of the strongest objections to the certainty of
physiognomy is, that the best physiognomists often
judge very erroneously.
It may be proper to make some remarks on this ob-
jection,
Be it granted that the physiognomist often errs ; that
is to say his discernment errs, not the countenance. But
to conclude there is no such science as physiognomy,
because physiognomists err, is the same thing as to con-
clude there is no reason, because there is much false
reasoning.
OF FALSE DECISIONS. 271
To suppose that, because the physiognomist has made
some false decisions, he has no physiognomical discern-
ment, is equal to supposing that a man who has com-
mitted some mistakes of memory, has no memory ; or,
at best, that his memory is very weak. — We must be
less hasty. We must first inquire in what proportion
his memory is faithful, how often it has failed, how
often been accurate. The miser may perform ten acts
of charity ; must we therefore affirm he is charitable ?
Should we not rather inquire how much he might have
given, and how often it has been his duty to give ? The
virtuous man may have ten times been guilty ; but before
lie is condemned it ought to be asked, in how many hun-
dred instances he has acted uprightly. He who games
must oftener lose than he who refrains from gaming.
He who slides or skates upon the ice is in danger
of many a fall, and of being laughed at by the less
adventurous spectator. Whoever frequently gives alms
is liable occasionally to distribute his bounties to the
unworthy. He indeed who never gives cannot com-
mit the same mistake, and may truly vaunt of his
prudence, since he never furnishes opportunities for
deceit. In like manner, he who never judges can never
judge safely. The physiognomist judges oftener than
the man who ridicules physiognomy ; consequently
must oftener err than he who never risks a physiogno-
mical decision.
Which of the favourable judgments of the benevolent
physiognomists may not be decried as false ? Is he not
himself a mere man, however circumspect, upright,
honourable, and exalted he may be ; a man who has in
himself the root of all evil, the germ of every vice ; or,
in other words, a man whose most worthy propensities,
2 i 2 LAVATER S PHYSIOGNOMY.
qualities, and inclinations, may occasionally be over-
strained, wrested, and warped ?
You behold a meek man who, after repeated and con-
tinued provocations to wrath, persists in silence ; who
probably never is overtaken by anger when he himself
alone is injured. The physiognomist can read his heart,
fortified to bear and forbear, and immediately exclaims,
Behold the most amiable, the most unconquerable gentle-
ness ! You are silent — you laugh — you leave the place
and say, " Fie on such a physiognomist ! How full of
wrath have I seen this man !" — When was it that you
saw him in wrath ? Was it not when some one had mis-
treated his friend ? — " Yes, and he behaved like a frantic
man in defence of his friend, which is proof sufficient
that the science of physiognomy is a dream, and the
physiognomist a dreamer." But who is in an error, the
physiognomist or his censurer? — The wise man may
sometimes utter folly. This the physiognomist knows,
but, regarding it not, reverses, and pronounces him a wise
man. You ridicule the decision, for you have heard this
wise man say a foolish thing. — Once more, who is in an
error ? The physiognomist does not judge from a single
incident, and often not from several combining incidents.
Nor does he, as a physiognomist, judge only by actions.
He observes the propensities, the character, the essential
qualities and powers, which often are apparently con-
tradicted by individual actions.
Again ; he who seems stupid or vicious may yet pro-
bably possess indications of a good understanding, and
propensities to every virtue. Should the beneficent eye
of the physiognomist, who is in search of good, perceive
these qualities and announce them ; should he not pro-
nounce a decided judgment against the man, he .im-
OF FALSE DECISIONS. 273
mediately becomes a subject of laughter. Yet how often
may dispositions to the most heroic virtue be there
buried! How often may the fire of genius lie deeply
smothered beneath the embers ? — Wherefore do you so
anxiously, so attentively, rake among these ashes ? Be-
cause here is warmth, notwithstanding that at the first,
second, third, fourth raking, dust only will fly in the
eyes of the physiognomist and spectator. The latter
retires laughing, relates the attempt, and makes others
laugh also. The former may, perhaps, patiently wait
and warm himself by the flame he has excited. Innume-
rable are the instances where the most excellent qualities
are overgrown and stifled by the weeds of error. Futurity
shall discover why, and the discovery shall not be in
vain. The common unpractised eye beholds only a de-
solate wilderness. Education, circumstances, necessities,
stifle every effort towards perfection. The physiognomist
inspects, becomes attentive, and waits. He sees and ob-
serves a thousand contending contradictory qualities ;
he hears a multitude of voices exclaiming, What a man !
But he hears too the voice of the Deity exclaim, What
a man ! He prays, while those revile who cannot com-
prehend, or, if they can, will not, that in the countenance,
under the form they view, lie concealed beauty, power,
wisdom, and a divine nature.
Still further, the physiognomist, or observer of man,
who is a man, a Christian — that is to say, a wise and
good man — will a thousand times act contrary to his
own physiognomical sensation ; I do not express my-
self accurately — he appears to act contrary to his
internal judgment of the man. He speaks not all he
thinks. This is an additional reason why the physio-
gnomist so often appears to err; and why the true
T
274 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
observer (observation and truth are in him) is so often
mistaken and ridiculed. He reads the villain in the
countenance of the beggar at his door, yet does not turn
away, but speaks friendly to him, searches his heart,
and discovers — 0 God, what does he discover! — An
immeasurable abyss, a chaos of vice ! But does he
discover nothing more, nothing good ? Be it granted he
finds nothing good, yet he there contemplates clay which
must not say to the potter, " Why hast thou made me
thus?" He sees, prays, turns away his face, and hides
a tear which speaks with eloquence inexpressible, not to
man, but to God alone. He stretches out his friendly
hand, not only in pity to a hapless wife whom he has
rendered unfortunate, — not only for the sake of his
helpless, innocent children, but in compassion to him-
self, for the sake of God, who has made all things, even
the wicked themselves, for his own glory. He gives,
perhaps to kindle a spark which he yet perceives, and
this is what is called in Scripture giving his heart.
Whether the unworthy man misuses the gift, or misuses
it not, the judgment of the donor will alike be arraigned.
Whoever hears of the gift will say, How has this good
man again suffered himself to be deceived !
Man is not to be the judge of man ; and who feels this
truth more coercively than the physiognomist? The
mightiest of men, the Euler of man, came not to judge
the world, but to save. Not that he did not see the
vices of the vicious, nor that he concealed them from
himself or others, when philanthropy required they
should be remarked and detected; yet he judged not,
punished not ; he forgave — " Go thy way, and sin no
more." Judas he received as one of his disciples, pro-
tected him, embraced him — him in whom he beheld his
future betrayer.
OF GENERAL OBJECTIONS. 275
Good men are most happy to discover good. Thine
eye cannot be Christian if thou givest me not thine
heart. Wisdom without goodness is folly ; I will judge
justly and act benevolently.
Once more. A profligate man, an abandoned woman,
who have ten times been to blame when they affirmed
they were not, on the eleventh are condemned when
they are not to blame. They apply to the physio-
gnomist. He inquires, and finds that this time they are
innocent. Discretion loudly tells him he will be
censured should he suffer it to be known that he
believes them innocent; but his heart more loudly
commands him to speak, to bear witness for the present
'innocence of such rejected persons. A word escapes
him, and a multitude of reviling voices at once are heard
— " Such a judgment ought not to have been made by a
physiognomist !" Yet who has decided erroneously ?
The above are a few hints and reasons to the discern-
ing, to induce them to judge cautiously concerning the
physiognomist, as they would wish him to judge con-
cerning themselves or others.
Of the General Objections made to Physiognomy.
Innumerable are the objections which may be raised
against the certainty of judgments drawn from the lines
and features of the human countenance. Many of these
appear to me to be easy, many difficult, and some im-
possible to be answered.
Before I select any of them, I will first state some
general remarks, the accurate consideration and proof of
which will remove many difficulties.
It appears to me that, in all researches, we ought first
to inquire what can be said in defence of any proposi-
276 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
tion. One irrefragable proof of the actual existence and
certainty of a thing, will overbalance ten thousand
objections. One positive witness, who has all possible
certainty that knowledge and reason can give, will pre-
ponderate against innumerable others who are only
negative. All objections against a certain truth are in
reality only negative evidence. "We never observed
this : we never experienced that/' Though ten thousand
should make this assertion, what would it prove against
one man of understanding and sound reason who should
answer, " But I have observed, and you also may ob-
serve if you please." No well-founded objection can be
made against the existence of a thing visible to sense.
Argument cannot disprove facts. No two opposing
positive facts can be adduced ; all objections to a fact,
therefore, must be negative.
Let this be applied to physiognomy. Positive proofs
of the true and acknowledged signification of the face
and its features, against the clearness and certainty of
which nothing can be alleged, render innumerable ob-
jections, although they cannot probably be answered,
perfectly insignificant. Let us therefore endeavour to
inform ourselves of those positive arguments which
physiognomy affords. Let us first make ourselves stead-
fast in what is certainly true, and we shall soon be
enabled to answer many objections, or to reject them as
unworthy any answer.
It appears to me, that in the same proportion as a
man remarks and adheres to the positive, will be the
strength and perseverance of his mind. He whose
talents do not surpass mediocrity, is accustomed to
overlook the positive, and to maintain the negative with
invincible obstinacy.
OF GENERAL OBJECTIONS. 277
Thou shouldest first consider what thou art, what is
thy knowledge, and what are thy qualities and powers,
before thou inquirest what thou art not, knowest not,
and what the qualities and powers are that thou hast
not. This is a rule which every man who wishes to be
wise, virtuous, and happy, ought not only to prescribe
to himself, but, if I may use so bold a figure, to incorpo-
rate with, and make a part of his very soul. The truly
wise always first directs his inquiries concerning what
is ; the man of weak intellect, the pedant, first searches
for that which is wanting. The true philosopher looks
first for the positive proofs of the proposition. I say,
first — I am very desirous that my meaning should not
be misunderstood, and therefore repeat, first, The super-
ficial mind first examines the negative objections. This
has been the method pursued by infidels, the opponents
of Christianity. Were it granted that Christianity
were false, still this method would neither be logical,
true, nor conclusive. Therefore such modes of reason-
ing must be set aside as neither logical nor conclusive,
before we can proceed to answer objections.
To return once more to physiognomy, the question
will be reduced to this — " Whether there are any proofs
sufficiently positive and decisive, in favour of physio-
gnomy, to induce us to disregard the most plausible
objections ? " — Of this I am as much convinced as I am of
my own existence ; and every unprejudiced reader will
be the same who shall read this work through, if he
only possesses so much discernment and knowledge as
not to deny that eyes are given us to see ; although
there are innumerable eyes in the world that look and do
not see.
It may happen that learned men of a certain descrip-
278 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
tion will endeavour to perplex me by argument. They,
for example, may cite the female butterfly of Ke'aumur,
and the large- winged ant, in order to prove how much
we may be mistaken with respect to final causes in the
products of nature. They may assert, " Wings undoubt-
edly appear to be given for the purpose of flight, yet
these insects never fly; therefore wings are not given
for that purpose. And, by a parity of reasoning, since
there are wise men who probably do not see, eyes are
not given for the purposes of sight." — To such objections
I shall make no reply, for never in my whole life have
I been able to answer -a sophism. I appeal only to
common sense. I view a certain number of men, who
all have the gift of sight when they open their eyes and
there is light, and who do not see when their eyes are
shut. As this certain number are not select, but taken
promiscuously among millions of existing men, it is the
highest possible degree of probability that all men whose
formation is similar, that have lived, do live, or shall
live, being alike provided with those organs we call eyes,
must see. This, at least, has been the mode of arguing
and concluding among all nations, and in all ages. In
the same degree as this mode of reasoning is convincing,
when applied to other subjects, so it is when applied
to physiognomy, and is equally applicable; and, if untrue
in physiognomy, it is equally untrue in every other
instance.
I am therefore of opinion that the defender of physio-
gnomy may rest the truth of the science on this proposi-
tion, " That it is universally confessed that among ten,
twenty, or thirty men, indiscriminately selected, there
as certainly exists a physiognomical expression, or
demonstrable correspondence of internal power and sen-
OF GENERAL OBJECTIONS. 279
sation, with external form and figure, as that among the
like number of men, in the like manner selected, they
have eyes and can see." Having proved this, he has
as sufficiently proved the universality and truth of phy-
siognomy as the universality of sight by the aid of eyes,
having shown that ten, twenty, or thirty men, by the aid
of eyes, are all capable of seeing. From a part I draw
a conclusion to the whole ; whether those I have seen or
those I have not.
But it will be answered, though this may be proved
of certain features, does it therefore follow that it may
be proved of all ? — I am persuaded it may ; if I am
wrong, show me my error.
Having remarked that men who have eyes and ears
see and hear, and being convinced that eyes were given
him for the purpose of sight, and ears for that of hear-
ing ; being unable longer to doubt that eyes and ears
have their destined office — I think I draw no improper
conclusion, when I suppose that every other sense and
member of this same human body, which so wonder-
fully form a whole, has each a particular purpose ;
although it should happen that I am unable to discover
what the particular purposes of so many senses, members,
and integuments may be. Thus do I reason, also, concern-
ing the signification of the countenance of man, the for-
mation of his body, and the disposition of his members.
If it can be proved that any two or three features have
a certain determinate signification, as determinate as that
the eye is the expression of the countenance, is it not
accurate to conclude, according to the mode of reasoning
above cited, universally acknowledged to be just, that
those features are also significant, with the signification
of which I am unacquainted I think myself able to
280
prove, to every person of the commonest understanding,
that all men without exception, at least under certain
circumstances and in some particular feature, may
indeed have more than one feature of a certain deter-
minate signification, as surely as I can render it compre-
hensible to the simplest person, that certain determinate
members of the human body are to answer certain
determinate purposes.
Twenty or thirty men taken promiscuously, when
they laugh or weep, will, in the expression of their joy
or grief, possess something in common with or similar
to each other. Certain features will bear a greater
resemblance to each other among them than they other-
wise do, when not in the like sympathetic state of mind.
To me it appears evident, that since excessive joy and
grief are universally acknowledged to have their peculiar
expressions, and that the expression of each is as diffe-
rent as the different passions of joy and grief, it must
therefore be allowed that the state of rest, the medium
between joy and grief, shall likewise have its peculiar
expression ; or, in other words, that the muscles which
surround the eyes and lips will indubitably be found
to be in a different state.
If this be granted concerning the state of the mind in
joy, grief, or tranquillity, why should not the same be
true concerning pride, humility, patience, magnanimity,
and other affections ?
According to certain laws, the stone flies upward when
thrown with sufficient force ; by other laws equally
certain, it afterwards falls to the earth ; and will it not
remain unmoved according to laws equally fixed, if suf-
fered to be at rest ? Joy, according to certain laws, is
expressed in one manner, grief in another, and tranquil-
OF GENERAL OBJECTIONS. 281
lity in a third. Wherefore then shall not anger, gentle-
ness, pride, humility, and other passions, be subject to
certain laws ; that is, to certain fixed laws ?
All things in nature are or are not subjected to certain
laws. There is a cause for all things, or there is not. All
things are cause and effect, or are not. Ought we not
hence to derive one of the first axioms of philosophy ?
And, if this be granted, how immediately is physiognomy
relieved from all objections, even from those which wo
know not how to answer ; that is, as soon as it shall be
granted there are certain characteristic features in all
men, as characteristic as the eyes are to the countenace !
But, it will be said, how different are the expressions
of joy and grief, of the thoughtful and the thoughtless !
And how may these expressions be reduced to rule ?
How different from each other are the eyes of men
and of all creatures — the eye of an eagle from the eye of
a mole, an elephant, and a fly ! and yet we believe of all
who have no evident signs of infirmity or death, that
they see.
The feet and ears are as various as are the eyes ; yet
we universally conclude of them all, they were given us
for the purposes of hearing and walking.
These varieties by no means prevent our believing that
the eyes, ears, and feet, are the expressions, the organs of
seeing, hearing, and walking ; and why should we not
draw the same conclusions concerning all features and
lineaments of the human body? The expressions of
similiar dispositions of mind cannot have greater variety
than have the eyes, ears, and feet of all beings that see,
hear, and walk ; yet may we as easily observe and deter-
mine what they have in common, as we can observe and
determine what the eyes, ears, and feet, which are so vari-
282 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
ous among all beings that see, hear, and walk, have also in
common. This well considered, how many objections
will be answered, or become insignificant !
Various Objections to Physiognomy answered.
Objection 1.
" It is said we find persons who from youth to old age,
without sickness, without debauchery, have continually
a pale, death-like aspect; who, nevertheless, enjoy an
uninterrupted and confirmed state of health."
Answer.
These are uncommon cases. A thousand men will
show their state of health by the complexion and round-
ness of the countenance, to one in whom these appear-
ances will differ from .the truth. I suspect that these
uncommon cases are the effect of impressions made on
the mother during her state of pregnancy. Such cases
may be considered as exceptions, the accidental causes
of which may, perhaps, not be difficult to discover.
To me it seems we have as little just cause hence to
draw conclusions against the science of physiognomy,
as we have against the proportion of the human body,
because there are dwarfs, giants, and monstrous births.
^\
Objection 2.
A friend writes me word, " He is acquainted with a
man of prodigious strength, who, the hands excepted,
has every appearance of weakness, and would be sup-
posed weak by all to whom he should be unknown."
PARTICULAK OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 283
Answer.
I could wish to see this man. I much doubt whether
his strength be only expressed in his hands, or, if it were,
still it is expressed in the hands ; and, were no exterior
signs of strength to be found, still he must be considered
as an exception, an example unexampled. But, as I have
said, I much doubt the fact. I have never yet seen a
strong man whose strength was not discoverable in
various parts.
Objection 3.
" We perceive the signs of bravery and heroism in the
countenances of men, who are, notwithstanding, the first
to run away."
Answer.
The less the man is, the greater he wishes to appear.
But what were these signs of heroism? Did they
resemble those found in the Farnesian Hercules ? — Of
this I doubt : let them be drawn, let them be produced ;
the physiognomist will probably say, at the second, if not
at the first glance, quanta species ! Sickness, accident,
melancholy, likewise deprive the bravest men of courage.
This contradiction, however, ought to be apparent to the
physiognomist.
Objection 4.
"We find persons whose exterior appearance denotes
extreme pride, and who in their actions never betray the
least symptom of pride."
284 LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
Answer.
A man may be proud and affect humility.
Education and habit may give an appearance of pride,
although the heart be humble; but this humility of
heart will shine through an appearance of pride, as sun-
beams through transparent clouds. It is true that this
apparently proud man would have more humility had he
less the appearance of pride.
Objection 5.
'* We see mechanics who, with incredible ingenuity,
produce the most curious works of art, and bring them
to the greatest perfection ; yet who, in their hands and
bodies, resemble the rudest peasants and woodcutters ;
while the hands of fine ladies are totally incapable of
such minute and curious performances/'
Answer.
I should desire these rude and delicate frames to be
brought together and compared. Most naturalists de-
scribe the elephant as gross and stupid in appearance;
and according to this apparent stupidity, or rather
according to that stupidity which they ascribe to him,
wonder at his address. Let the elephant and the tender
lamb be placed side by side, and the superiority of
address will be visible from the formation and flexibility
of the body, without further trial.
Ingenuity and address do not so much depend upon
the mass as upon the nature, mobility, internal sensation,
nerves, construction, and suppleness of the body and its
parts.
Delicacy is not power; power is not minuteness.
PARTICULAR OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 285
Apelles would have drawn better with charcoal than
'many miniature painters with the finest pencil. The
tools of a mechanic may be rude, and his mind the very
reverse. Genius will work better with a clumsy hand
than stupidity with a hand the most pliable. I will,
indeed, allow your objection to be well-founded, if
nothing of the character of an artist is discoverable in
his countenance ; but, before you come to a decision, it
is necessary you should be acquainted with the various
marks that denote mechanical genius in the face. Have
you considered the lustre, the acuteness, the penetration
of his eyes ; his rapid, his decisive, his firm aspect ; the
projecting bones of his brow, his arched forehead, the
suppleness, the delicacy, or the massiness of his limbs ?
Have you well considered these particulars ? "I could
not see it in him," is easily said. More consideration is
requisite to discover the character of the man.
Objection 6.
" There are persons of peculiar penetration who have
very unmeaning countenances."
Answer.
The assertion requires proof.
For my own part, after many hundred mistakes, I
have continually found the fault was in my want of
proper observation. At first, for example, I looked for
the tokens of any particular quality too much in one
place ; I sought and found it not, although I knew the
person possessed extraordinary powers. I have been
long before I could discover the seat of character. I was
deceived, sometimes by seeking too partially, at others
too generally. To this I was particularly liable in ex-
28 C LAVATER'S PHYSIOGNOMY.
amining those who had only distinguished themselves
in some particular pursuit; and, in other respects,
appeared to be persons of very common abilities, men
whose powers were all concentrated to a point, to the
examination of one subject ; or men whose powers were
very indeterminate : I express myself improperly,
powers which had never been excited, brought into
action. Many years ago I was acquainted with a great
mathematician, the astonishment of Europe ; who at the
first sight, and even long after, appeared to have a very
common countenance. I drew a good likeness of him,
which obliged me to pay a more minute attention, and
found a particular trait which was very marking and
decisive. A similar trait to this I, many years afterward,
discovered in another person who, though widely diffe-
rent, was also a man of great talents ; and who, this trait
excepted, had an unmeaning countenance, which seemed
to prove the science of physiognomy all erroneous.
Never since this time have I discovered that particular
trait in any man who did not possess some peculiar
merit, however simple his appearance might be.
This proves how true and false, at once, the objection
may be which states, " Such a person appears to be a
weak man, yet has great powers of mind."
I have been written to concerning D'Alembert, whose
countenance, contrary to all physiognomical science, was
one of the most common. To this I can make no an-
swer unless I had seen D'Alembert. This much is
certain, that his profile by Cochin, which yet must be
very inferior to the original, not to mention other less
obvious traits, has a forehead, and in part a nose, which
were never seen in the countenance of any person of
moderate, not to say mean, abilities.
PARTICULAR OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 287
Objection 7.
"We find very silly people with very expressive
countenances."
Who does not daily make this remark? My only
answer, which I have repeatedly given, and which I
think perfectly satisfactory, is, that the endowments of
nature may be excellent; and yet by want of use, or
abuse, may be destroyed. Power is there, but it is
power misapplied; the fire wasted in the pursuit of
pleasure can no longer be applied to the discovery and
display of truth — it is fire without light, fire that in-
effectually burns.
I have the happiness to be acquainted with some of
the greatest men in Germany and Switzerland ; and I
can upon my honour assert, that of all the men of
genius with whom I am acquainted, there is not one who
does not express the degree of invention and powers of
mind he possesses in the features of his countenance,
and particularly in the form of his head.
I shall only select the following names from an
innumerable multitude. Charles XII., Louis XIV.,
Turenne, Sully, Polignac, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot,
Newton, Clarke, Maupertuis, Pope, Locke, Swift, Lessing,
Bodmer, Sultzer, Haller. I believe the character of
greatness in these heads is visible in every well-drawn
outline. I could produce numerous specimens, among
which an experienced eye would scarcely ever be
mistaken.
M'COBQUODALE AND CO., PBINTEKS, LONDON— WOBXS, NEWTON.
rash statements hazarded by the'fanatica of
erance is the assertion that drunkenness is
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-~~ - — --.—in tne early part of October last-
tnere died atRome, with choleraic symptoms Si^nora
Arnalia Earbieri, wife of Count Bennicelli. After \
the funeral solemnities the body was deposited in
the Campo Santo until it could be transferred to the
church of the Maddalena when the tomb which was
being prepared had been completed. The tomb being
finished a few days since, the corpse was uncovered
when the fact became evident that the unfortunate
lady had been placed in her coffin while she was yet
living. _ The hands were bitten, the face was lacerated,
the hair disordered and torn. The lid of the coffin
had been forced up, and the muscles were contracted
" the violent efforts that had been made.
4«,fc: STATISTICS. — The
opolitan police, juet issued,
.1 there were 71,9C1 persons
'") females) taken into custody, of
arged by the magistrates ; 45,608
held to ba-"1
-p con vi *
BERKELEY LIBRARIES
J. ue uuuiuci. uj. ^.jL.owt... ^.^.
J'Locn year since 1$31 has not materially
nding a considerable extension of the
" ''). The highest number was in 1857,
'•prehended, and the lowest in
-In the power of the police.
THE YOITNCr LADIES' JOURNAL
'K
GRAINS OF GOLD.
GREAT is the power of eloquence ; but never
is it so great as when it pleads along with
nature, and the culprit is a child strayed from
his duty and returned to it again with tears.
dl| —Sterne.
mi\ Wa have employments assigned to us for
La\ery circumstance in life. When we are alone,
tha \? tave our thoughts to watch ; in the family,
r tempers ; and in company, our tongues. —
\NVY is an ill-natured vice, and is made up of
undc" /nness and malice. It wishes the force of
?if° /Iness to bo strained, and the measure of hap-
' /ass abated. It laments over prosperity, and
i (na /tens at the sight of health. It oftentimes 5
vf /nts spirit as well as good nature. — Jeremy &
'1J lllier.
bett /EQUALITY is one of tho most consummate
side /oUi^iols that ever crept from the brain of a
po political jugglor : a follow who thrusts his hand
th; into the pocket of honest industry or enterprising
di? talent, and iquanders their hard-earned profits
ale on profligate idleness or indolent stupidity. —
sin EVASIONS are the common shelter of tho hard-
or hearted, the false, and impotent, when called
del upon to assist ; the real great alone plan instan-
be taneous help, even when their looks or words
fjn; presage difficulties. — Lavater.
A BEAUTIFUL eye makes silence eloquent; a
tha kind eye makes contradiction an assent ; an cn-
j wb raged eye makes beauty deformed. This little
' tho member gives life to every other part about us ;
Conaad I believe the story of Argus implies no
san more than that tho eye is in every part— that is
to say, every other part would bo mutilated were
1 ( not its force represented more by tho eye than
even by itself. — Addlson.
Inner cbaracte of in en and women has a I
great effect in moulding their features, which,
though rather a hard doctrine for plain people
'fit no doubt to a certain extent true. Wol
may transfer the theory to state build-l
so far as to bopo that
opinion has seen tho trcawi.
i*T )<>>
to bin
mf**zm--*m m-. I „ - I » «™
at Tyrftijjii Thfl aGHHB^^B
i^l
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