"In lofty Vulture's rifing grounds, "Without my nurfe Apulia's bounds, Od. 4. 1. 3. v. 9. "When young, and tir'd with sports and play, CREECH. I have heard that the late Lord Dorfet, who had the greatest wit tempered with the greatest candor, and was one of the fineft critics as well as the best poets of his age, had a numerous collection of old English ballads, and took a particular pleasure in the reading of them. I can affirm the fame of Mr. Dryden, and know feveral of the moft refined writers of our prefent age who are of the fame humour. I might likewife refer my reader to Moliere's thoughts on this fubject, as he has expreffed them in the character of the mifanthrope; but thofe only who are endowed with a true greatnefs of foul and genius can diveft themselves of the image of ridicule, and admire nature in her fimplicity and nakedness. As for the little conceited wits of the age, who can only fhew their judgment by finding fault, they cannot be fuppofed to admire thefe productions which have nothing to recommend them but the beauties of nature, when they do not know how to relifh even thofe compofitions that, with all the beauties of nature, have also the additional advantages of art. L No. LXXXVI. FRIDAY, JUNE 8. Heu quàm difficile eft crimen non prodere vultu! OVID. Met. 1. 2. v. 447. How in the looks does confeious guilt appear ADDISON. HERE are feveral arts which all men are in fome measure mafters of, without having been at the pains of learning them. Every one that peaks or rea fons fons is a grammarian and a logician, though he may be wholly unacquainted with the rules of grammar or logic, as they are delivered in books and fyftems. In the fame manner, every one is in fome degree a mafter of that art which is generally distinguished by the name of Phyfiognomy; and naturally forms to himself the character or fortune of a stranger, from the features and lineaments of his face. We are no fooner prefented to any one we never faw before, but we are immediately ftruck with the idea of a proud, a reserved, an affable, or a good-natured man; and upon our first going into a company of strangers, our benevolence or averfion, awe or contempt, rifes naturally towards feveral particular perfons, before we have heard them speak a single word, or so much as know who they are. Every paffion gives a particular caft to the countenance, and is apt to difcover itfelf in fome feature or other. I have feen an eye curfe for half an hour together, and an eyebrow call a man a fcoundrel. Nothing is more common than for lovers to complain, refent, languish, despair, and die in dumb fhow. For my own part, I am fo apt to frame a notion of every man's humour or circumftances by his looks, that I have fometimes employed myfelf from Charing-crofs to the Royalexchange in drawing the characters of those who have paffed by me. When I fee a man with a four rivelled face, I cannot forbear pitying his wife; and when I meet with an open ingenuous countenance, think on the happinefs of his friends, his family, and relations. I cannot recollect the author of a famous faying to a franger who stood filent in his 66 company, Speak that I may fee thee." But with fubmiffion, I think we may be better known by our looks than by our words, and that a man's speech is much more easily disguised than his countenance. In this cafe, however, I think the air of the whole face is much more expreffive than the lines of it: the truth of it is, the air is generally nothing else but the inward difpofition of the mind made visible. Thofe Those who have eftablished phyfiognomy into an art and laid down rules of judging mens tempers by their faces, have regarded the features much more than the airMartial has a pretty epigram on this subject. Crine ruber, niger ore, brevis pede, lumine læfus Epig. 54. 1. 12. "Thy beard and head are of a different dye; I have feen a very ingenious author on this subject, who founds his fpeculations on the fuppofition, that as a man hath in the mould of his face a remote likeness to that of an ox, a fheep, a lion, an hog, or any other creature; he hath the fame refemblance in the frame of his mind, and is fubject to thofe paffions which are predominant in the creature that appears in his countenance. Accordingly he gives the prints of feveral faces that are of a different mould, and by a little overcharging the likeness, difcovers the figures of thefe feveral kinds of brutal faces in human features. I remember, in the life of the famous Prince of Conde, the writer obferves, the face of that Prince was like the face of an eagle, and that the Prince was very well pleafed to be told fo. In this cafe therefore we may be fure, that he had in his mind fome general implicit notion of this art of phyfiognomy which I have juft now mentioned; and that when his courtiers told him his face was made like an eagle's, he understood them in the fame manner as if they had told him there was fomething in his looks which thewed him to be ftrong, active, piercing, and of a royal defcent. Whether or no the different motions of the animal spirits, in different paffions, may have any effect on the mould of the face when the lineaments are pliable and tender, or whether the fame kind of fouls require the fame kind of habitations, I fhall leave to the confideration of the curious. curious. In the mean time I think nothing can be more glorious than for a man to give the lye to his face, and to be an honeft, juft, good-natured man, in fpite of all thofe marks and fignatures which nature feems to have fet upon him for the contrary. This very often happens among thofe, who, instead of being exafperated by their own looks, or envying the looks of others, apply themfelves intirely to the cultivating of their minds, and ́ getting those beauties which are more lafting and more ornamental. I have seen many an amiable piece of deformity; and have obferved a certain chearfulness in as bad a fyftem of features as ever was clapped together which hath appeared more lovely than all the blooming charms of an infolent beauty. There is a double praise due to virtue, when it is lodged in a body that feeins to have been prepared for the reception of vice; in many fuch cafes the foul and the body do not feem to be fellows. Socrates, was an extraordinary inftance of this nature. There chanced to be a great phyfiognomist in his time at Athens, who had made ftrange difcoveries of mens tempers and inclinations by their outward appearances. Socrates's difciples, that they might put this artist to the trial, carried him to their mafter, whom he had never feen before, and did not know he was then in company with him. After a fhort examination of his face, the phyfiognomist pronounced him the most lewd, libidinous, drunken old fellow that he had ever met with in his whole life. Upon which the disciples all burst out a laughing, as thinking they had detected the falfhood and vanity of his art. But Socrates told them, that the principles of his art might be very true, notwithstanding his prefent miftake: for that he himself was naturally inclined to thofe particular vices which the phyfiognomist had difcovered in his countenance, but that he had conquered the ftrong difpofitions he was born with by the dictates of philofophy. We are indeed told by an ancient author, that Socrates very much resembled Silenus in his face; which we find to have been very rightly obferved from the ftatues and C bufts bufts of both, that are ftill extant; as well as on feveral antique feals and precious ftones, which are frequently enough to be met with in the cabinets of the curious. But however obfervations of this nature may fometimes hold, a wife man fhould be particularly cautious how he gives credit to a man's outward appearance. It is an irreparable injuftice we are guilty of towards one another, when we are prejudiced by the looks and features of thofe we do not know. How often do we conceive hatred against a person of worth, or fancy a man to be proud or ill-natured by his afpect, whom, we think, we cannot efteem too much when we are acquainted with his real character? Dr. Moore, in his admirable system of Ethics, reckons this particular inclination to take a prejudice against a man for his looks, among the smaller vices in morality, and, if I remember, gives it the name of a Profopolepfia. I No. LXXXVII. SATURDAY, JUNE 9. Nimiùm ne crede colori L. VIRG. Ecl. 2. V. 17. Truft not too much to an enchanting face. T has been the purpose of several of my fpeculations to bring people to an unconcerned behaviour, with relation to their perfons, whether beautiful or defective. As the fecrets of the Ugly Club were expofed to the public, that men might fee there were fome noble fpirits in the age, who are not at all difpleafed with themselves upon confiderations which they had no choice in; fo the discourfe concerning idols tended to leffen the value people put upon themselves from perfonal advantages and gifts of nature. As to the latter fpecies of mankind, the beauties, whether male or female, they are generally the moft untractable people of all others. You are fo exceffively perplexed with the particularities in their behaviour, that, to be at eafe, one would be apt to wish there were no fuch creatures. They expect io great allowances, and give fo little to others, that they who have to do |