Whether that true philosopher, in the exact import of the word, Sir
Thomas Browne, had formed a system of this kind, or only threw out a
seminal idea from which it might be evolved, the Doctor, who dearly
loved the writings of this most meditative author, would not say. But
that Sir Thomas had opened the same vein of thought appears in what
Dr. Johnson censured in “a very fanciful and indefensible section” of
his Christian Morals; for there, and not among his Pseudodoxia
Epidemica, that is to say Vulgar Errors, the passage is found. Our
Doctor would not only have deemed it defensible, but would have proved
it to be so by defending it. “Since the brow,” says the Philosopher of
Norwich, “speaks often truth, since eyes and noses have tongues, and
the countenance proclaims the heart and inclinations; let observation
so far instruct thee in physiognomical lines, as to be some rule for
thy distinction, and guide to for thy affection unto such as look most
like men. Mankind methinks, is comprehended in a few faces, if we
exclude all visages which any way participate of symmetries and
schemes of look common unto other animals. For as though man were the
extract of the world, in whom all were _in coagulato_, which in their
forms were _in soluto_, and at extension, we often observe that men do
most act those creatures whose constitution, parts and complexion, do
most predominate in their mixtures. This is a corner-stone in
physiognomy, and holds some truth not only in particular persons but
also in whole nations.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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