have of the human heart, and the manners the world! How thoroughly ought he to in spect, to feel himself! That most essential, ye most difficult of all knowledge, to the physiog nomist, ought to be possessed by him in all pos sible perfection. In proportion only as h knows himself will he be enabled to kno others.'

Not only is this self-knowledge, this studyin of man, by the study of his own heart, with th genealogy and consanguinity of inclinations an passions, their various symptoms and change necessary to the physiognomist, for the foregoin causes, but also for an additional reason.

"The peculiar shades (I here cite the word of one of the critics on my first essay) the pecu liar shades of feeling, which most affect the ob server of any object, frequently have relation t his own mind, and will be soonest remarked b him in proportion as they sympathize with hi own powers. They will affect him most, accord ing to the manner in which he is accustomed t 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 easil impart them to others. Yet these minute ob servations influence his judgment. For thi reason, the physiognomist must, if he know himself, which he in justice ought to do before h attempts to know others, once more compare hi 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 commentary 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 conscience, thou 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, himself 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, worth of being a good physiognomist. If thou wishes 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 ex panded ought thy heart to be! How mayes thou ever discover the marks of benevolence an mild forgiveness, if thou thyself art destitute such gifts? How, if philanthropy does no make thine eye active, how mayest thou discer the impressions of virtue, and the marks of th sublimest sensations? How often wilt tho overlook them in a countenance disfigured b accident! Surrounded thyself by mean pas sions, 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 whereof virtue is written, and wilt accuse others of those errors and failings of which thy own heart ac cuses thee. Whoever bears any resemblance to 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 knowledge, a thorough acquaintance with artists, mankind, vice, and virtue, the wise and the foolish, and particularly 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 physiognomist 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 physiognomist, as this work is but the fragment of a system of physiognomy.

CHAP. XVII.

Lavater's own Remarks on National Physiognomy.

It is undeniable, that there is national physiog nomy, as well as national character. Whoever doubts of this can never have observed men of different nations, nor have compared the inha bitants 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 cha

racter.

I am least able to characterise the French.