may be immense, while the essence is immutable and fixed. To explain my idea, let us examine a few attitudes. The proud man (Plate III.) thrusting one hand into his bosom, carries it as high as he is able, and places the elbow of the other arm a-kimbo; his head is thrown a little backwards; his turned-out feet are at a distance from each other; he rests on one leg, while the other is thrown before it with extended dignity. A mild character (I do not mean an effeminate one) carries the arms folded across the middle of the body; his head rests in a vertical position; it is neither thrown back, nor reposed on the breast; his steps are short; and his feet, though not turned in, are far from running into the opposite extreme. The hands joined behind the back, and consequently removed from the active powers they possess in the contrary position, give ideas of much phlegm, and a perfect want of curiosity and attention. (See Plate IV.) The largeness of the belly, which sometimes makes the arms fall (naturally as it were) behind, might render this position more commodious, although one equally easy might take place here, to wit, that of propping the arms by the sides: the ex Ph + cess of fat naturally excites the suspicion of a phlegmatic character. When a vain man assumes this character, it is neither less speaking nor less expressive (see Plate V). Inattention and incuriosity have a strong resemblance to pride; and in such a position, the chest and body are thrust more prominently forward, but we do not remark in this figure, as in the first, that the feet are rather turned in, or the head resting on the chest. One judges of a character with less certainty from particular traits than when we contemplate them combined together. By the head, which, not being properly placed on the neck, sinks upon the bosom; the open lip, which draws down the chin with its natural weight; the eyes of which the pupils are almost obscured by the ids; the knees bending out, and the feet turned in all these marks present an attitude of which the signification is remarkably striking (as in Plate VI.) One cannot avoid acknowledging a soft soul and an idle mind, unsusceptible of any attention, uninfluenced by any interest, which is never thoroughly awake, and does not even possess the feeble energy which is necessary to give the tension requisite for the muscles and for the proper support of the members of his body. An |