To an observant mind there is something very remarkable in the striking contrast between the physiognomies of the leaders in our own Rebellion (as it is historically termed) and of those of the French revolutionists. Besides a certain serious determination, a stern, unflinching, dogged consciousness of right, that nothing could turn to the right hand or to the left, which is visible in the countenances of the former, and to be contrasted with the flippant, wicked, blood-thirsty-looking smirk of the latter, there is a remarkable contrast in their Noses. The thick, broad, Cogitative Nose is visible in all of the former, from Old Noll himself to honest Andrew Marvel; while the void of thought, sharp, captious, _vulpine_ Nose is to be seen in every one of the bloody tyrants of the French _sans-culotterie_. The latter look like men who “Could smile, and murder while they smile.” The former like men who “Put their trust in God, and keep their powder dry.” Wordsworth has so splendidly and truly contrasted the men of either age that we cannot resist inserting his lines entire: “Great men have been among us; hands that penned And tongues that uttered wisdom—better none; The later Sydney, Marvel, Harrington, Young Vane, and others who called Milton friend. These moralists could act and comprehend; They knew how genuine glory was put on; Taught us how rightfully a nation shone In splendour; what strength was, that would not ben But in magnanimous meekness. France, ’tis strange, Hath brought forth no such souls as we had then. Perpetual emptiness! unceasing change! No single volume paramount, no code, No master-spirit, no determined road;— But equally a want of Books and Men!” In the fifth line, “These moralists could _act_ AND _comprehend_,” we have a beautiful and exact paraphrase of the Romano-Cogitative, which we noticed as characteristic of the Cromwellian age—the union of physical energy with mental power. It was a remark which we heard made some thirty years ago, by a very observant man, that there was a wonderful identity of expression in the countenances of all the men of the French Revolution, and that the same peculiar expression is to be seen in the faces of the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot. Subsequent personal observation has confirmed this remark, of which it is a curious and recent corroboration, that the same expression is visible in the countenances of some of the leading Terrorists of the late French Revolution.[23] The countenance of “bloody Mary” is an instance of the same peculiar expression. The old gentleman who made the remark which drew our infantine attention added, (and it was this perhaps which impressed it upon our memory) that there was “_blood_” written in all their faces.