Essays on Physiognomy: For the Promotion of the Knowledge and the Love of Mankind, Volume 2

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Page 176 - Hast thou given the horse strength ? Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder ? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper ? The glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength : He goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted ; Neither turneth he back from the sword.
Page 176 - The glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley and rejoiceth in his strength; He goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear and is not affrighted; Neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, The glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage; Neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. He saith among the trumpets, "Ha, Ha!" And he smelleth the battle afar off, The thunder of the captains, and the...
Page 12 - Therefore, man, be man, in all thy researches; form not to thyself ideal beings, for thy standard of comparison. 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...
Page 251 - I once happened to see a criminal condemned to the wheel, who, with satanic wickedness, had murdered his 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 Regulus among guilty criminals, or of a vestal in the house of correction.
Page 32 - To us, indeed, one speaks with a. louder, another with a more gentle, voice ; but the language of all is the same. It is the harmony of innumerable voices proclaiming truth. — There are some moments in which the whispers of nature are more intelligible than her loudest cries. Frequently the passage of an author which shall seem widest of meaning, explains something the most essential. A trifling, inferior trait in the countenance shall often be the key to the whole. The solemn testimony of St....
Page 99 - But if the whole be seen, the past and present general character may be determined. Let him who would study physiognomy, study the relation of the constituent parts of the countenance ; not having studied these he has studied nothing. He, and he alone, is an accurate physiognomist, has the true spirit of physiognomy, who possesses sense, feeling, and sympathetic perception of the congeniality and harmony of nature; and who hath a similar sense and feeling for all emendations and additions of art...
Page 112 - ... 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 oiled 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 slidingframe, may be raised, or lowered, according...
Page 92 - Her creation is progressive. From the head to the back, from the shoulder to the arm, from the arm to the hand, 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.
Page 95 - It is therefore that I find 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 even Poussin ; no, not even Raphael himself. Let any one class the forms of their...
Page 99 - Those, therefore, who maintain that conclusion cannot be drawn from a part, from a single section of the profile, to the whole, would be perfectly right if unarbitrary 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.

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