Of this idea Sir Charles Bell remarks thus:

Those who have professedly written on the antique say that to arrive at the perfection of the ancient statue the artist must avoid what is human and aim at the divine. But we speak of what stands materially before us, to be seen, touched, and measured. With what divine essence is the comparison to be made? When the artist models his clay he must have recourse to some abstract idea of perfection in his own mind; whence has he drawn his idea of perfection? This brings us to the right path in the inquiry. The idea of representing divinity is palpably absurd. We know nothing of form but from the contemplation of man. The only interpretation of divinity in the human figure, as represented by the ancient sculptor, is that the artists avoided individuality; that they studied to keep free of any resemblance to any individual; giving no indication of the spirit or of the sentiments or affections, conceiving that all these movements destroy the unity of the features and are foreign to beauty in the abstract.*

There is one gross error in the minds of the masses in regard to beauty of expression, and that is, that in order to have perfect beauty there must be present certain mathematical measurements. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Beauty of expression is not confined to such a rigorous standard. Nature herself gives the lie to this, and all of the best writers on art-beauty, etc., coincide upon the subject. Says Sir Charles Bell :

Every scheme by which it shall be proposed to elicit the reasons of our feelings of admiration, love, or disgust by measuring the comparative areas of the head and face will fail.†

This eloquent writer quotes Addison as saying that

No woman can be handsome by the force of features alone any more than she can be witty only by the help of speech.

it

Hence, measured regularity of feature and harmonious proportion alone do not constitute all there is of beauty. If mobility of the facial muscles is wanting, or clearness and color of the eyes and complexion, true beauty is absent. In statues, I grant, there is beauty, but it is the beauty of form alone, true to Nature; hence, possesses the same beauty that is seen in a grand marble temple or cathedral. It reflects the mentality of the artist. Beauty of form and outline are in the statue, but motion, color, and the play of the emotions upon the face and in the body are lacking. The body in motion as well as in repose displays great beauties of transitory form, and expresses by its movements a thousand characteristics. The Celtic races in conversation use not only the body to assist language, but they use all of the features of the face as well as the hands, arms, shoulders, and legs. Emerson says that the

* Anatomy of Expression, Sir Charles Bell, M.D., p. 22.

↑ Ibid., pp. 25, 29.

"Englishman speaks with all his body." Dr. Maudsley remarks

that

He is a poor medical psychologist who cannot see idiocy in the walk as well as in the talk of his patients.

There are three modes of approaching the analysis and description of the face. One is by following the course of the evolution of the facial features. This plan would begin with a description of the mouth, as this feature was the first evolved. The second method would be to commence with a description of the forehead and follow down the face to the chin. The third method is the one I have employed all through this work; this is by commencing with a description of the chin and thence working upward, believing this to be a method the most easily comprehended, and also because it follows very nearly the course of evolution in face-building, for the mouth was the first facial feature evolved, and the signs of character about the mouth and in its immediate neigh borhood-upon the chin-are all directly related to the action of the digestive functions. This method then follows most closely the course of the evolution of the domestic faculties and functions, and consequently of their associated signs in the chin and mouth.

Previous to discussing the various facial features I shall call attention to the several elements of Form as illustrated in the face and body. The application of these elements is essential to a just knowledge of each feature, face, and body.

THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF FORM AS EXHIBITED IN THE FEATURES.

In giving a comprehensive résumé of the human face, as I do in this chapter, it is here opportune to recapitulate the basic principles of Form and show how and to which feature each element of Form applies.

The normal factors of Form, as described in Chapter III, Part I, are as follow: The point, the line, the sphere, the angle, the square, and the cube. All of these find representation in the human countenance, and are significant of much that is both simple and complex. Not only so, but each of these elements has an occult or hidden meaning which cannot be elaborated in this work, but may appear in some subsequent work devoted entirely to that phase of physiognomy.

Each element of Form has an inherent meaning which it car ries with it, and wheresoever found it announces its meaning without a word of explanation, for straightness indicates truth, uprightness, normalcy. Crookedness or imperfect curvation reveals

untruthfulness or lack of normal capacity, and so of each distinct fundamental form; each one is self-explanatory.

The straight form or line, or horizontal and straight line, is the form appertaining to the mouth; that is to say, this is the normal standard for that feature. The sphere or circle belongs to the eyeball; the acute angle, to the commissure or corner of the eye. The true curve-a section of a circle-is the normal standard for the cheeks, the jaws, the chin, the outer edges of the red or upper margin of the lip, certain parts of the nose, the eyebrows or portions of them, the eyelashes, the head, and the forehead. Some foreheads are very much arched; others less so. The sphere is also well represented in the ear, as it abounds in curves, and some ears describe a semicircle in the upper part of the shell; also in certain barrel-shaped bodies. The square is exhibited in the bones of the face as well as in the bones of the body, and in certain noses which form a perfect square or angle in the junction of the nostril with the cheek. The cube finds representation in the rectangular and solid form of highly developed moral and scientific faces and bodies.

The curious student of universal principles who desires to find a common basis for all created forms, and who dreams that somewhere in the universe all the elements of Form may be found epitomized, has not far to go to find the realization of his dreams. The human face combines and illustrates all of the prime elements of Form; not one is here wanting.

THE POINT.

The point, or "least element of Form," is represented by the "blind spot" of the eye, so-called. This is the place where the optic nerve pierces the anterior surface of the eyeball. This point also represents the unit,-the number one. It is also analogous to the nucleus or germinating spot of cellular tissue. This least element of Form finds its illustration in the feature through which the forms of the world enter the mind-the eye. The point is the representative of the starting-point of growth, and corresponds to the beginning of the germinating process in all animal things.

THE SPHERE.

The sphere or globe is the most primitive of forms, and is exhibited by the eyeball-the only perfect circle in the human organism. It is true that the primitive cells of vegetable and animal tissue are spherical, but they are not fixed, and yield to pressure, and assume irregular forms. The eyeball retains permanently its

perfect globular form, hence is the best representative of the sphere in the human face.

The opening of the iris is always round in man, but in animals, whose range of vision requires to extend widely in a horizontal direction (as the herbivorous animals), it is in the form of an ellipse. In animals, on the other hand, that leap up and down in pursuit of their food, as the cat, and other carnivorous animals that seek their prey in the same manner, the pupil has the elliptical form, but with the long diameter vertical.*

It is thus shown that the true circle is exhibited only in the human eye.

THE CURVE.

The curve is a section of a circle, and finds its illustration many times repeated in the human face. It is calculated that there are "thirty-six curves in the face, and one hundred and forty-four altogether in the human organism." The curve and sphere belong together as factors of form, and produce ease, motion, and variety of movement and expression.

THE LINE.

The line is conspicuously displayed in the physiognomy of man in the form of the normal-shaped mouth, and suggests, as its resultant signification, trueness, regularity, straightness, the basic element of squareness, hence the form best adapted to the expres sion of truth and integrity, or wholeness,-"the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." The straight line is the repre sentation of moral principle, hence is the only form which would be in harmony with the expression of the truth through the use of language.

THE ANGLE.

The angle finds its highest representation in the angles of the eye and of the nose, where it joins the upper lip. The more acute the angle of the corners of the eye, the greater is the power for truth in language, as well as for fidelity in the monogamic relation, or lore for one only, either in marriage or out of it. The obtuse angle exhibits much less capacity for fidelity in love and marriage where the eye presents an acute angle. This is in harmony with the basic principles of Form throughout Nature, and especially in the human physiognomy.

The eye is not only the sign for language, but it is also one of the prominent signs of Amativeness, or love of the opposite sex; hence, its highest manifestation would call for that form

*Hooker's Human Physiology, p. 295,

Book of Wisdom.

which Nature has assigned to integrity, fidelity, and truthfulness. And again, the angle is one of the elements of the cube, the "grand or completed form;" therefore, when we observe the acute angle in the corners of the eye, we shall surely find in its owner a certain degree of the truth-telling quality; also fidelity in dealing with the opposite sex.

In painting portraits of the human countenance, artists draw several straight lines and angles, and from these they produce the curves of the features, an instance of inversion quite significant; for, whereas Nature builds the human face by curvilinear processes, as is observed in the primitive cell of animal tissue, the artist works out upon his canvas the human physiognomy by first drawing straight lines and angles, and from these he constructs the "thirtysix curves" essential to the expression of a highly-developed Caucasian face,-a fine exemplification of the necessity of the scientific element of Form with which to produce a pictured representation of Nature's grandest achievement in architecture-the human face.

THE CUBE.

This form is best exemplified in the solid thorax of such bodies as that of Washington, Martin Luther, Napoleon, and other cubical-shaped bodies. This form of this part denotes powerful and perfect action of the inclosed viscera, and this combination gives force and vigor to the body and brain, and results in the grandest achievements of humanity, whether they be exhibited in great physical feats and labors, or by great moral, mental, or executive power, as in the case of Washington, Luther, and Napoleon.

It is thus that the cubical form stands representative of wholeness, soundness, or integrity of the thoracic structure. Those features and outlines of the face which present a tendency to cubic form belong to the most solid-minded characters, and herein is another application of this form.

THE SIGNS IN THE CHIN.

For convenience in localizing the signs that are in the chin, I divide it into three parts, by drawing two horizontal lines across it (Fig. 131, page 770); the lowest, just above the oval, or point of the chin; the second, just below the arching of the lower lip; while the line of closure of the mouth creates the third line, and thus assists the student in finding the signs of character in the chin.

In commencing a description of the features of the face I shall first describe the chin as being the base or lowest part of the