worth, thou never canft learn to obferve or know men well; thou never canft be, never wilt be, worthy of being a good physiognomift. If thou wifheft not that the talent of observation fhould be a torment to thyfelf, and an evil to thy brother, how good, how pure, how affectionate, how expanded ought thy heart to be! How mayeft thou ever discover the marks of benevolence and mild forgiveness, if thou thyfelf art deftitute of fuch gifts? How, if philanthropy does not make thine eye active, how mayeft thou difcern the impreffions of virtue, and the marks of the fublimeft fenfations? How often wilt thou overlook them in a countenance disfigured by accident! Surrounded thyfelf by mean paffions, how often will fuch false obfervers bring falfe intelligence! Put far from thee felf-intereft, pride and envy, otherwife " thine eye "will be evil, and thy whole body full of dark"nefs." Thou wilt read vices on the forehead whereon virtue is written, and wilt accufe others of thofe errors and failings of which thy own heart accufes 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 felf-love. Thine eye will overlook the beauteous traits, and magnify the difcordant. Thou wilt behold nothing but caricature and difproportion.

But, to draw to a conclufion, the phyfiognomist fhould know the world; he should have intercourfe with all manner of men, in all various ranks and conditions; he fhould have travelled, fhould pofsess extensive knowledge, a thorough acquaintance with artists, mankind, vice, and virtue, the wife and the foolish, and particularly with children; together with a love of literature, and a tafte for

painting,

painting, and the other imitative arts. I fay, can it need demonftration, that all thofe, and much more, are to him indifpenfable? To fum up the whole to a well formed, well organized body, the perfect phyfiognomist muft unite an acute fpirit of obfervation, a lively fancy, an excellent judgment, and, with numerous propenfities to the arts and fciences, a ftrong, benevolent, enthufiaftic, innocent heart; a heart confident in itfelf, and free from the paffions 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 fublime actions.

I have pronounced judgment against myself in writing thefe characteristics of the phyfiognomist. Not falfe modefty, but confcious feeling, impels me to fay, that I am as diftant from the true phyfiognomist as heaven is from earth. I am but the fragment of a phyfiognomist, as. this work is but the fragment of a fyftem of phyfiognomy.

CHAP. XVII.

Lavater's own Remarks on National Phyfiognomy.

T is undeniable, that there is national physiognomy, as well as national character. Whoever doubts of this can never have obferved 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

Terra del Fuego. Examine their forms, countenances, characters, and minds. Their difference will be easily feen, though it will fometimes be very difficult to defcribe it scientifically.

It seems to me probable, that we fhall difcover what is national in the countenance, better from the fight of an individual at first, than of a whole people; at least so it appears to me, from my own experience. Individual countenances difcover 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 obferved from the foreigners with whom I have conversed, and whom I have noticed, concerning national character,

The French I am least able to characterise. They have no traits fo bold as the English, nor so minute as the Germans. I know them chiefly by their teeth and their laugh. The Italians I difcover by the nofe, fmall eyes, and projecting chin. The Englifh by their foreheads 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 cheeks. The Ruffians by the fnub nose, and their light-coloured or black hair.

I shall now fay a word concerning Englishmen in particular. Englishmen have the fhorteft and beft arched foreheads; that is to fay, they are arched only upwards, and, towards the eyebrows, either gently decline, or are rectilinear. They very feldom have pointed, but often round, full, medullary nofes; 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

2

round

round full chin; but they are peculiarly distinguished by the eyebrows and eyes, which are ftrong, open, liberal, and ftedfast. The outline of their countenance is, in general, great; and they never have thofe numerous, infinitely minute traits, angles, and wrinkles, by which the Germans are fo efpecially diftinguished. Their complexion is fairer than that of the Germans.

All English women whom I have known perfonally or by portrait, appear to be composed of marrow and nerve. They are inclined to be tall, flender, foft, and as diftant from all that is harsh, rigorous, or stubborn, as heaven is from earth.

The Swifs have generally no common phyfiognomy or national character, the afpect of fidelity excepted. They are as different from each other as nations the most remote. The French Swifs peasant is as diftinct as poffible from the peafant of Appenzel. It may be that the eye of a foreigner would better difcover the general character of the nation, and in what it differs from the French or "German, than that of the native.

In each canton of Switzerland I find characteristic varieties. The inhabitants of Zurich, for inftance, are middle fized, more frequently meagre than corpulent, but ufually one or the other. They feldom have ardent eyes, and the outline is not often grand or minute. The men are feldom handfome, though the youth are incomparably fo; but they foon alter. The people of Bern are tall, ftraight, fair, pliable, and firm, and are most diftinguished by their upper teeth, which are white, regular, and easily to be feen. The inhabitants of Bafle (or Bafil) are more round, full, and tenfe of countenance, the complexion tinged with yellow, and the lips open and flaccid. Thofe of Schaf

haufen

haufen are hard boned. Their eyes are feldom funken, but are generallly prominent. The fides of the forehead diverge over the temples, the cheeks fleshy, and the mouth wide and open. They are commonly stronger built than the people of Zurich, though in the canton of Zurich there is fcarcely a village in which the inhabitants do not differ from those of the neighbouring village, without attending to drefs, which, notwithstanding, is also phyfiognomonical.

Round Wadenfchweil and Oberreid I have seen =many handsome, broad-shouldered, strong, burdenbearing men. At Weiningen, two leagues from Zurich, I met a company of well-formed men, who were distinguishable for their cleanliness, circumspection, and gravity of deportment.

An extremely interefting and instructive book might be written on the phyfiognomonical character of the peafants of Switzerland. There are confiderable diftricts where the countenances, the nofe not excepted, are most of them broad, as if preffed flat with a board. This difagreeable form, wherever found, is confiftent with the character of the people. What could be more instructive than a phyfiognomonical and characteristic defcription of fuch villages, their mode of living, food, and occupation?

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