have often profited by thefe accidental readings, and have fometimes found very curious pieces, that are either out of print, or not to be mer with in the fhops of our London bookfellers. For this reafon,, when my friends take a furvey of my library, they are very much furprized to find, upon the shelf of folios, two long band-boxes ftanding upright among my books, till I let them fee that they are both of them lined with deep erudition and abftrufe literature. I might likewife mention a paper kite, from which I have received great improvement; and a hat-cafe, which I would not exchange for all the beavers in Great-Britain. This my inquifitive temper, or rather impertinent humour of prying into all forts of writing, with my natural averfion to loquacity, gives me a good deal of employment when I enter any houfe in the country; for I cannot for my heart leave a room, before I have thoroughly ftudied the walls of it, and examined the feveral printed papers which are usually pafted upon them. The last piece that I met with upon this occafion, gave me a moft exquifite pleasure. My Reader will think I am not ferious, when I acquaint him that the piece I am going to speak of was the old Ballad of the Two Children in the Wood, which is one of the darling Songs of the common people, and has been the delight of most Englishmen in fome part of their age. This Song is a plain fimple copy of nature, deftitute of all the helps. and ornaments of art. The tale of it is a pretty tragical story, and pleafes for no other reafon but because it is a copy of nature. There is even a despicable fimplicity in the verfe; and yet, because the fentiments ap pear genuine and unaffected, they are able to move the mind of the most polite Reader with inward meltings of humanity and compaflion. The incidents grow out of the fubject, and are fuch as are the most proper to excite pity; for which reason the whole narration has fomething in it .very moving, notwithstanding the Author of it (whoever he was) has delivered it in fuch an abject phrase and poorness of expreffion, that the quoting any part of it would look like a defign of turning it into ridicule. But though the language is mean, the thoughts, as I have before faid, from one end to the other are natural, and therefore cannot fail to please those who are not judges of language, or those who, notwithstanding they are judges of language, have a true and unprejudiced taste of nature. The condition, fpeech, and behaviour of the dying parents, with the age, innocence, and distress of the children, are fet forth in fuch tender circumstances, that it is impoffible for a Reader of common humanity not to be affected with them. As for the circumftance of the Robin-red-breaft, it is indeed a little poetical ornament; and to fhew the genius of the Author amidst all his fimplicity, it is juft the fame kind of fiction which one of the greatest of the Latin Poets has made use of on a parallel occafion; I mean that paffage in Horace, where he defcribes himself when he was a child, fallen afleep in a defart wood, and covered with leaves by the Turtles that took pity on him. up I have heard that the late Lord Dorset, who had the greatest wit tempered with the greatest candour, and was one of the finest Criticks as well as the best Poets, of his age, had a numerous collection of old English Ballads, and took a particular pleasure in the reading of them. I can affirm the fame of Mr. Dryden, and know feveral of the moft refined writers of our prefent age who are of the same humour. I might likewife refer my Reader to Moliere's thoughts on this fubject, as he has expreffed them in the character of the Mifanthrope; but those only who are endowed with a true greatness of Soul and Genius, can diveft themselves of the little Images of Ridicule, and admire nature in her fimplicity and nakedness. As for the little conceited Wits of the age, who can only fhew their judgment by finding fault, they cannot be fuppofed to admire these productions which have nothing to recommend them but the beauties of nature, when they do not know how to relish even thofe compofitions that, with all the beauties of Nature, have also the additional advantages of Art. Friday, N° 86. Friday, June 8. Heu quam difficile eft crimen non prodere vultu! T Ovid. HERE are feveral Arts which all men are in fome measure mafters of, without having been at the pains of learning them. Every one that speaks or reasons is a Grammarian and a Logician, though he may be wholly unacquainted with the rules of Grammar or Logick, as they are delivered in books and systems. In the fame manner, every one is in fome degree a master of that Art which is generally distinguished by the name of Phyfiognomy; and naturally forms to himself the character or fortune of a stranger, from the features and lineaments of his face. We are no fooner prefented to any one we never faw before, but we are immediately struck with the idea of a proud, a reserved, an affable, or a good-natured man; and upon our first going into a company of strangers, our benevolence or averfion, awe or contempt, rifes naturally towards several particular perfons, before we have heard them speak a fingle word, or fo much as know who they are. Every paffion gives a particular caft to the countenance, and is apt to discover it self in fome feature or other. I have seen an eye curfe for half an hour together, and an eye-brow call a man fcoundrel. Nothing is more common than for lovers to complain, refent, languish, defpair, and die, in dumb show. For my own part, I am so apt to frame a notion of every man's humour or circumstances by his looks, that I have sometimes employed my felf from Charing-Cross to the Royal-Exchange in When I fee a drawing the characters of those who have paffed by me. man with a four rivell'd face, I cannot forbear pitying his wife; and when I meet with an open ingenuous countenance, think on the happiness of his friends, his family, and relations. I cannot recollect the Author of a famous faying to a stranger who ftood filent in his company, Speak that I may fee thee: But, with fubmiffion, I think we may be better known by our looks than by our words, and that a man's fpeech is much more easily disguifed than his counteEeee VOL. II. nance. nance. In this cafe, however, I think the air of the whole face is much more expreffive' than the lines of it: the truth of it is, the air is generally nothing else but the inward difpofition of the mind made visible. Those who have established Phyfiognomy into an art, and laid down rules of judging mens tempers by their faces, have regarded the features much more than the air. Martial has à pretty Epigram on this fubject. Crine ruber, niger ore, brevis pede, lumine læfus; Rèm magnam præftas, Zoile, fi bonus es. Thy beard and head are of a different die; I have seen a very ingenious Author on this fubject, who founds his fpeculations on the fuppofition, that as a man hath in the mould of his face a remote likeness to that of an Ox, a Sheep, a Lion, an Hog, or any other creature; he hath the fame resemblance in the frame of his mind, and is fubject to those paffions which are predominant in the creatüre that appears in his countenance. Accordingly he gives the prints of feveral faces that are of a different mould, and by a little over-charging the likeness, discovers the figures of these feveral kinds of brutal faces in human features. I remember in the life of the famous Prince of Conde the writer obferves, the face of that Prince was like the face of an Eagle, and that the Prince was very well pleased to be told fo. In this cafe therefore we may be fure, that he had in his mind fome general implicit notion of this art of Phyfiognomy which I have juft now mentioned; and that when his Courtiers told him his face was made like an Eagle's, he understood them in the fame manner as if they had told him, there was fomething in his looks which fhewed him to be strong, active, piercing, and of a royal defcent. Whether or no the different motions of the animal fpirits in different paffions, may have any effect on the mould of the face when the lineaments are pliable and tender, or whether the fame kind of fouls require the fame kind of habitations, I fhall leave to the confideration of the curious. In the mean time I think nothing can be more glorious than for a man to give the lie to his face, and to be an honest, juft, good-natured man, in fpite of all thofe marks and fignatures which nature feems to have fet upon him for the contrary. This very often happens among thofe, who inftead of being exafpera ted ted by their own looks, or envying the looks of others, apply themfelves entirely to the cultivating of their minds, and getting those beauties which are more lafting, and more ornamental. I have seen many an amiable piece of deformity; and have obferved a certain chearfulness in as bad a system of features as ever was clapped together, which hath appeared more lovely than all the blooming charms of an infolent beauty. There is a double praise due to virtue, when it is lodged in a body that feems to have been prepared for the reception of vice; in many such cafes the foul and the body do not feem to be fellows. Socrates was an extraordinary inftance of this Nature. There chanced to be a great Phyfiognomist in his time at Athens, who had made strange discoveries of mens tempers and inclinations by their outward appearances. Socrates's difciples, that they might put this Artift to the tryal, carried him to their master, whom he had never feen before, and did not know he was then in company with him. After a short examination of his face, the Phyfiognomift pronounced him the most lewd, libidinous, drunken old fellow that he had ever met with in his whole life. Upon which the difciples all burst out a laughing, as thinking they had detected the falfhood and vanity of his art. But Socrates told them, that the principles of his art might be very true, notwithstanding his present mistake; for that he himself was naturally inclined to thofe particular vices which the Phyfiognomist had discovered in his countenance, but that he had conquered the strong difpofitions he was born with by the dictates of Philofophy. We are indeed told by an ancient Author, that Socrates very much refembled Silenus in his face; which we find to have been very rightly obferved from the ftatues and bufts of both, that are ftill extant; as well as on feveral antique feals and precious ftones, which are frequently enough to be met with in the cabinets of the curious. But however obfervations of this nature may fometimes hold, a wife man should be particularly cautious how he gives credit to a man's outward appearance. It is an irreparable injustice we are guilty of towards one another, when we are prejudiced by the looks and features of those whom we do not know. How often do we conceive hatred against a person of worth, or fancy a man to be proud and ill-natnred by his afpect, whom we think we cannot esteem too much when we are acquainted with his real cha. racter? Dr. Moore, in his admirable fyftem of ethicks, reckons this particular inclination to take a prejudice against a man for his looks, among the smaller vices in morality, and, if I remember, gives it the name of a Profopolepfia. Eeee 2 Tuesday, |
