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.