XVIII.

MISCELLANEOUS COUNTENANCES.

A.

PHYSIOGNOMONICAL DENOMINATIONS OF COUNTENANCES ELUCIDATED.

(a) A REGULAR, well-formed countenance is that in which

(1) All the parts are remarkable for their symmetry.

(2) The principal features, as the nose, and mouth, are neither small nor bloated; but distinct and well defined.

(3) The position of the parts, taken together, and viewed at a distance, appears nearly horizontal and parallel.

(b) A beautiful countenance-is that in which, beside the proportion and position of the parts, harmony, uniformity, and mind, are visible; in which nothing is superfluous, nothing deficient, nothing disproportionate, nothing superadded, but all is conformity and concord.

(c) A pleasant countenance-does not necessarily require perfect symmetry and har

mony; yet nothing must be wanting, nothing burthensome; its pleasantry will principally exist in the eye and lips, which must have nothing commanding, arrogant, con-temptuous; but must, generally, speak complacency, affability, and benevolence.

(g) A gracious countenance-arises out of the pleasant, when, far from any thing assuming, to the mildest benevolence is added affability and purity.

(h) A charming countenance-must not simply consist either of the beautiful, the pleasant, or the gracious, but when to these is added a rapid propriety of motion which renders it charming.

(i) 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.

(k) Other species of these delightful countenances are the attracting, the winning, the irresistible.

(1) Very distinct from all these are the amusing, the divertingly loquacious, the merely mild, and also the tender, and the delicate.

(m) Superior, and more lovely still, is the purely innocent, where no distorted, oblique

muscle, whether in motion, or at rest, is ever

seen.

(n) This is still more exalted when it is full of soul, of natural sympathy, and power to excite sympathy.

(0) When in a pure countenance good power is accompanied by a spirit of order, I may call it an attic countenance.

(p) 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.

(q) 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.

(r) 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, in every kind of caricature. As, for example, that of Philip de Comines.

(s) A sublime countenance-can neither be painted nor described; 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 has been before said, blaspheme against the Holy Ghost.

B.

MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS.

1.

ALL is good. All good may, and must, be misused. Physiognomonical 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 sensation so deserving of honour, where it begins to act, is sinning against ourselves, and, in reality, equal to resisting 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 extend. Having discovered the genius of a man, how inconsiderable soever