I have never seen sharp indentings in the middle of the chin save in men
of cool understanding, unless when something evidently contradictory
appeared in the countenance. The soft, fat, double chin generally points
out the epicure; and the angular chin is seldom found save in discreet,
well-disposed, firm men. Flatness of chin speaks the cold and dry;
smallness, fear; and roundness, with a dimple, benevolence.
SKULLS. HOW much may the anatomist see in the mere skull of man! How
much more the physiognomist! And how much more still the anatomist who
is a physiognomist! If shown the bald head of Caesar, as painted by
Rubens or Titian or Michael Angelo, what man would fail to notice the
rocky capacity which characterises it, and to realise that more ardour
and energy must be expected than from a smooth, round, flat head? How
characteristic is the skull of Charles XII.! How different from the
skull of his biographer Voltaire! Compare the skull of Judas with the
skull of Christ, after Holbein, and I doubt whether anyone would fail to
guess which is the skull of the wicked betrayer and which the skull of
the innocent betrayed. And who is unacquainted with the statement in
Herodotus that it was possible on the field of battle to distinguish the
skulls of the effeminate Medes from the skulls of the manly Persians?
Each nation, indeed, has its own characteristic skull.
_III.--Nation, Sex, and Family_
NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY. It is undeniable that there is a national
physiognomy as well as national character. Compare a negro and an
Englishman, a native of Lapland and an Italian, a Frenchman and an
inhabitant of Tierra del Fuego. Examine their forms, countenances,
characters, and minds. This difference will be easily seen, though it
will sometimes be very difficult to describe it scientifically.
The following infinitely little is what I have hitherto observed in the
foreigners with whom I have conversed.
I am least able to characterise the French, They have no traits so bold
as the English, nor so minute as the Germans. I know them chiefly by
their teeth and their laugh. The Italians I discover by the nose, small
eyes, and projecting chin. The English by their foreheads and eyebrows.
The Dutch by the rotundity of their heads and the weakness of the hair.
The Germans by the angles and wrinkles round the eyes and in the cheeks.
The Russians by the snub nose and their light-coloured or black hair.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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