CHAPTER XXVI

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PHYSIOGNOMY

"The face is the mirror of the soul," says Finetta, a mediæval Italian writer on the subject of physiognomy; and, to those who take the trouble to study the matter, the intelligence, the sentiments and the instincts of a person are all clearly manifested by the form of the head and features and their relative proportions, by the colouring of the skin, eyes and hair, by the fugitive expressions which, to an attentive observer, are seen to pass over even the most impassable faces, and "last, but certainly not least," by the lines left by the habitual passage of the expression of strong feeling, which, to the physiognomist, are visible even when the face is in repose.

We are in the habit of applying the term physiognomy to the _face_ only, but the word has really a much wider signification. All things animate and inanimate have their physiognomy and, when judging of the character by the form of the features of the face, it would be impossible to ignore that given by the shape of the head, for, without altogether believing that the brain is mapped out in the manner described by phrenologists, there is no doubt that a good development of the front of the head shows intelligence, whilst a head which is inordinately protuberant at the back indicates the dominance of animal instincts in the organisation. If the back of the head is quite flat, it indicates coldness--want of passion in the nature. A head which is large just above the ears shows a tendency to anger and if the signs of benevolence on the brow and lips are entirely wanting it would mean cruelty; but in physiognomy the signs on both the head and face must be considered as a _whole_, and the qualities shown by _both_ must be weighed one against another, before any right judgment can be arrived at. In this study, as in that of graphology and chiromancy, a deductive power of mind is required. Among twenty persons who may be sufficiently interested in physiognomy to study it, there will be scarcely more than one who will become a good physiognomist. One among the countless objections which have been urged against physiognomy is that many physiognomists make erroneous judgments; but, granted that they do so, it is their want of discernment, or more probably their want of deductivity--not the science--which fails.

There is a certain sort of _instinctive_ power of judging character by the face, possessed by children and animals, which is in harmony with the theories of those who have thought and written most upon this interesting subject.

We are all of us--women, perhaps, more than men--daily influenced by this sort of _instinctive_ physiognomy: for there are few people who do not, when they first see a stranger, form a judgment of him, in which they are, of course, only swayed by his outward appearance, although they may never have even heard the word physiognomy.

The _temperament_ has an immense amount of influence over the character and this temperament is shown more especially by the colour and texture of the skin and hair. It is temperament which precipitates, or retards, the effects of illness and age and temperament is the result of the astral influence which presided at our birth.

These temperaments have been classified under four heads--viz., the sanguine or choleric, the lymphatic, the bilious and the melancholic.

The first, the sanguine or choleric, is the result of the astral influence of Mars and Jupiter; the lymphatic, of the Moon and Venus, but more especially the Moon; the bilious (which is especially the intellectual temperament) of the Sun and Mercury and the melancholic temperament is the result of the dominance of the sad planet, Saturn. The sanguine temperament is shown by a skin with a good deal of colour in it, either of a soft pinky white with a rosy peach-like colour on the cheeks, in which case it is Jupiter which dominates in the temperament, or of a deep red colour all over the face, when the sanguine temperament is dominated by Mars, the hair being red or brown, crispy or curling.

The lymphatic temperament is shown by a soft, pale skin of a thick dead white, the lips and cheeks being only slightly coloured; the hair is fine and long, but not thick, and is light, not golden, but rather colourless, or what the French call "_un blond cendré_"--that is, of an ash-coloured fairness, sometimes of a soft brown, when Venus is the dominating planet. The bilious temperament is the result of the combination of the astral influences of the Sun and Mercury, the planets which give artistic feeling and intelligence.

Those having this temperament have yellow skins of a soft, fine texture and when the Sun is the dominant planet they have a vivid colour in the cheeks; the hair of those of the bilious temperament is golden and is generally curly or wavy; if the melancholic temperament given by Saturn is in combination (and it is frequently so in the bilious temperament) with the yellow-tinted skin of the bilious temperament, we find also the straight, deep black hair peculiar to the Saturnian.

The melancholic temperament is that of those born under the dominant influence of Saturn. People of this temperament are of a pale or livid, and, sometimes, of a greenish-tinted or earth-coloured skin and their hair is always of a dead black. It must be remembered that though one planet may dominate at a birth, there are always present others which have also their influences, though in a secondary degree, so no person is of _one_ temperament without any admixture of the others, although one may and often does dominate the others.

Thus no one is _exclusively_ sanguine, bilious, lymphatic, or melancholic. One person could be at once bilious, melancholic and lymphatic. We sometimes see the apparently contradictory temperaments of the melancholic and sanguine in the same person, but, generally speaking, one temperament dominates, modified by one or more of the others. This makes one of the sources of the variety of character we see in those about us, no one person having precisely the same modification of temperament, to say nothing of the difference of intellectual gifts. Now, as the temperament produces the character and the character the passions, it is very necessary, in order to be a good physiognomist that we should be thoroughly expert in being able to assign to each person under judgment the exact amount of domination of each of these four temperaments and this is only to be done by noting the colour and texture of the skin and hair. Aristotle has said that though there is a certain physiognomy of the whole person, the principal signs to guide us in a knowledge of human beings are to be found on the face; and this is perhaps because the skin of the face is somewhat differently constituted to that over the other parts of the body. It is more transparent than that of the other parts of the body, and thus more readily reflects the different colours--the vivid flush of joy, the blush of shame, the livid hue of envy, the pallor of fear, the different passions by which we are agitated. The face also is the seat of the eyes and the lips, both of which features (being continually in movement) make the face, as the old Italian writer has said, "the mirror of the soul."

Even those who habitually deny the power given by a knowledge of the science of physiognomy admit that _in certain moments_ they have been able to judge of what they could ask for from the expression they saw on the face of the person with whom they were dealing. Now, if this were so at one moment, why should it not be so always? When the soul is agitated, that agitation shows itself, at once, upon the face by the variation of its colours and by the contraction of certain muscles about the features. Both this changing of colour and this movement of the features vary according to the passions which produce the agitation and these different expressions most people can read at a glance. No one confounds the expression of happiness with unhappiness, of love with hatred, of hope with despair, of jealousy with trustfulness, of envy with sympathy. Habitual drunkards show their vice on their faces, even when they are perfectly sober; so also do the other vices show themselves by the lines left on the face by the constant recurrence of the contraction of the features when under the immediate and violent influence of the ruling passion. By dint of continually exercising the faculty of observation they come to see expressions and lines on the face which, though perhaps quite lost upon others, give them indications of character which are sometimes startling revelations. Here, again, is another objection which is often advanced against the study of physiognomy. Does it not, by laying bare the vices and weaknesses of human nature, induce a cynical opinion of human nature? No; for, whilst it makes us clear-sighted as to the vices, it also reveals to us many sweet and noble qualities in those by whom we are surrounded, which, perhaps, were never suspected by us. No one better understood his fellow-men, no one was ever more alive to "the sweet, sad music of humanity," than Shakespeare. His large-hearted, sympathetic nature gave him intuitive perception of character, and this, aided by his wonderful powers of observation, must have made him a physiognomist. He "looked quite through the thoughts of men," and yet, with all this wondrous knowledge of human nature, he says, "What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a God!"

[Illustration: _THE PLANETS' PLACES ON THE FACE FACSIMILE FROM AN OLD WOODCUT, DATE 1657_

_To face Chapter XXVII ._]

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