Liable as we are to forget this, reminding is necesary, both to the writer and the reader of this work. Forget not that even the wisest of men are men. Forget not how much positive 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 unsuppliable? 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 excellencies in him which, abstractedly of comparison, deserve all attention, and admiration.

Compare him, afterward, 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 contributing to form one whole; at their relation, the relation of his millionfold individuality, to such multitudes of other individuals! Yes! We wonder and adore the so simple, yet so infinitely varied, expression of almighty power incon

ceivable, 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 per fection. 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 cannot view in brutes without abhor

rence.

But the very capacity of voluntarily debasing himself 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 power of his understanding. This very capacity man only has, beasts have not.-The countenances of beasts are not susceptible 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 still is visible; that is, the image of the Deity.

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, eternal, perfectibility. The sinner we would exterminate, the man we must embrace.

Oh physiognomy! What a pledge art thou of the everlasting clemency of God toward man!

Therefore, enquirer into nature, enquire what actually is.-Therefore, man, be man, in all thy researches; form not to thyself ideal beings, for thy standard of compari

son.

Wherever power is there is subject of admiration; and human, or, if so you would rather, divine power, is in all men. Man is a part of the family of men: thou art man, and every other man is a branch of the same

tree, a member of the same body,-is, what thou art, and more deserving regard than were he perfectly similar, had exactly the same goodness, the same degree of worth thou hast; for he would then no longer be the single, indispensable, unsuppliable, individual which he now is-Oh man! Rejoice with whatever rejoices in its existence, and contemn no being whom God doth not

contemn.

14

III.

ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOGNOMY,

ADDRESSED TO

COUNT THUN, OF VIENNA.

You permit me, honoured Count, to communicate my thoughts to you, on the study of physiognomy. It appears to me that all treatises of this kind have neither precision, perspicuity, nor force sufficient when they are only general, and are not addressed to some one, of whom it is previously known that he is able to prove, and will be at the labour of proving, each proposition; that he will strengthen proof by experiment, and that he will remark each neglect, obscurity, and ambiguity. All I have before written on physiognomy is not of so much importance as what I now intend to write, on the study of that science, and the method to be employed in physiognomonical observation. Should the precepts I give be successful, so will, also, my whole work. Yet do I feel an infinite difficulty in explaining myself, so clearly, accurately, and intelligibly, as is requisite for the promotion of the study of true physiognomy. I know that when I