Though the merry wine must seldom flow, the revel cease for me, Still to thee, my Scottish lassie ! still I'll drink a health to thee. Here's a health, my Scottish lassie! here's a parting health to thee; May thine be still a cloudless lot, though it be far from me! May still thy laughing eye be bright, and open still thy brow, Thy thoughts as pure, thy speech as free, thy heart as light as now! And, whatsoe'er my after fate, my dearest toast shall be, Still a health, my Scottish lassie! still a hearty health to thee! STAGE-COACH PHYSIOGNOMISTS. BY THE LATE RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH, ESQ. I LIVE upon the edge of a small common, through which a great road leads to the metropolis. Nearly twenty stage coaches pass near my door, every day and it is one of my favourite amusements, when I have leisure, to get into one of these vehicles, if I like the looks of the passengers, and to proceed with them, as long as I find any thing in their conversation that is either new or agreeable. I have, sometimes, changed my coach ten times in one day, without meeting a single person that afforded any materials for observation, or any circumstances worth remembering. I was, however, uncommonly fortunate in one of my late excursions. On a fine day, in the beginning of summer, when the weather was neither too hot nor too cold, when the glasses on both sides of the coach were, by tacit consent, left open, and when neither the weather nor the roads were such as to occupy the attention of my fellow travellers, they, by degrees, entered into conversation, and, amongst various subjects, at last, we fell upon that of physiognomy. A thin, pale man, who had the air of a traveller, told us that he had lately been at Zurich, where he had been well acquainted with the famous Lavater. He spoke of him, and of his art, with so much warmth that I, at first, began to suspect that we had got Lavater, himself, in the coach. I, however, soon perceived, by the accent with which he pronounced French, that he was an Englishman. He mentioned various strange opinions, which his master had not ventured to put in his book, but, which were still more absurd than his attributing a character to a dish of tea, and physiognomy to a cockchaffer. At these ridiculous fancies, a fat, fair lady, who sat in one corner of the coach, laughed most heartily. “How is it possible," said she," that a dish of tea can have a character? I have heard say that a cup of coffee may have virtue in fortune-telling-indeed I, once, had a cup of coffee turned upon myself, and it, certainly, was not much out as to my fortune :-and then, a cockchaffer! Lord bless me who ever looked at the features of a cockchaffer!-for my part, I can't tell whether he has eyes, nose, and mouth, or not." "Ma'am," replied the traveller, "the cockchaffer is a species of beetle; you have, I suppose, ma'am, seen a beetle ?"—" Surely, sir.”—“ And, ma'am, as the immortal Shakespeare says, 6 The poor beetle, that we tread upon, Now, madam, don't you think when this poor beetle feels this corporeal pang, he shews his feelings in his countenance, like any other creature?" This speech was uttered with much emphasis, and with such an air of triumph as plainly shewed that the speaker was much pleased with his own eloquence. A corpulent gentleman, dressed in a snuff-coloured coat, with gilt buttons, with a well-combed bob-wig on his head, and a gold-headed cane in his hand, who sat in the corner of the coach, diagonally opposite to the lady, exclaimed, with much vehemence, "the countenance of a cockchaffer!" As I happened to sit opposite to this sententious disputant, my foot narrowly escaped feeling the full force of his argument; for, as he spoke, he struck his goldheaded cane, with great violence, against the bottom of the coach, between my feet, which were not half an inch asunder. From this moment of the debate, whenever the red cheeks of my opposite neighbour began to puff, I kept my eye, steadily, upon his cane, that I might escape the blow with which he, regularly, finished his argument. I could not help observing to the company, that the extraordinary pretensions of Dr. Lavater and his followers were highly prejudicial to the art which they wished to recommend that the reasonable claims of true physiognomists had, by these means, lost their just credit-and that, when a man now talked of forming an opinion of the characters of strangers from their countenances and manners, he was, immediately, suspected of belonging to a school which he disclaimed. A middle-sized, middle-aged officer, now, for the first time, opened his lips: "I agree with you, entirely," said he; 66 a man who has seen the world, necessarily, learns those marks, by which the occupations and characters of individuals may, with some certainty, be discovered." A young gentleman of genteel appearance, who was the fifth passenger, and who was wedged in between the traveller and the gentleman with the cane, smiled such a dissent to the assertions of the last speaker, that, without waiting for a direct answer, the officer confirmed his own opinion, by offering to put it to immediate trial, if the company would give him leave, provided the gentleman who was Lavater's pupil would give a previous specimen of his skill. Our fellow-travellers, with great good humour, agreed to this proposal; and we all promised that we would, without disguise, acknowledge the truth of any successful discovery which either of the physiognomists should make. The traveller, as I call him, very gravely requested the lady to throw aside her handsome silk cloak, and let him see the shape of the olicranon, or tip of her elbow: to this she, cheerfully, consented; but, upon his desiring to see the bones of her head, beyond the precincts of her nice laced cap, she became refractory, and it was with much difficulty that she was persuaded to show a glimpse of the os temporum. The owner of the |