But this, as I said above, is not the case of the inhabitants of this earth; --our minds shine not through the body, but are wrapt up here in a dark covering of uncrystalized flesh and blood; so that, if we would come to the specific characters of them, we must go some other way to work. Many, in good truth, are the ways, which human wit has been forced to take, to do this thing with exactness. Some, for instance, draw all their characters with wind-instruments. --_Virgil_ takes notice of that way in the affair of _Dido_ and _Æneas_; --but it is as fallacious as the breath of fame; --and, moreover, bespeaks a narrow genius. I am not ignorant that the _Italians_ pretend to a mathematical exactness in their designations of one particular sort of character among them, from the _forte_ or _piano_ of a certain wind-instrument they use, --which they say is infallible. --I dare not mention the name of the instrument in this place; --’tis sufficient we have it amongst us, --but never think of making a drawing by it; --this is ænigmatical, and intended to be so, at least _ad populum_: --And therefore, I beg, Madam, when you come here, that you read on as fast as you can, and never stop to make any inquiry about it. There are others again, who will draw a man’s character from no other helps in the world, but merely from his evacuations; --but this often gives a very incorrect outline, --unless, indeed, you take a sketch of his repletions too; and by correcting one drawing from the other, compound one good figure out of them both. I should have no objection to this method, but that I think it must smell too strong of the lamp, --and be render’d still more operose, by forcing you to have an eye to the rest of his _Non-naturals_. ----Why the most natural actions of a man’s life should be called his Non-naturals, --is another question. There are others, fourthly, who disdain every one of these expedients; --not from any fertility of their own, but from the various ways of doing it, which they have borrowed from the honourable devices which the Pentagraphic Brethren[1.3] of the brush have shewn in taking copies. --These, you must know, are your great historians. One of these you will see drawing a full-length character _against the light_; --that’s illiberal, --dishonest, --and hard upon the character of the man who sits. Others, to mend the matter, will make a drawing of you in the _Camera_; --that is most unfair of all, --because, _there_ you are sure to be represented in some of your most ridiculous attitudes.