women and animals, and those with superfluous members, as well as congenital idiots, drunkards, and criminals, are proofs and illustrations of a falling away from righteousness in the past of ourselves or of our ancestors. "Genius is ofttimes to madness near allied," and the infraction of certain laws by some has produced sometimes very talented persons. This infraction of laws on the part of others has evolved an idiot or criminal. Maudsley tells us "insanity in one generation often induces immorality in the next," and vice versa. When the. law of the slant is allowed to govern we cannot predict where the warping will end, nor yet what form it will assume and exhibit. Of one thing we may be sure, that it will produce biased, warped, eccentric, insane, or criminal characters. How essential, then, the constant study of what I have named the "divine sciences," viz., Anatomy, Physiology, Heredity, Hygiene, and Physiognomy! How necessary the application of their laws! For, "beyond the principles of each science there is a philosophy of the sciences. The principles of one science fully comprehended are a key to the interpretation of all sciences. They are the same footsteps of Nature treading upon several subjects."* This philosophy or universal law is illustrated at its completion by forms which possess the normal principles of form. The highest expression of divine architectural skill is in the human body and face. To comprehend the basic laws which produce the most perfection in this direction should be our aim, and the three domains of Nature, Art, and Science are the fields wherein the human being may co-operate with the Creator in improving by design, through law, the human family. Nature, Art, and Science are the true factors of Being which are found in varying degrees of power in all natural objects. The plant, cultivated up to a high state of perfection (as most of our garden vegetables have been from wild stock, wholly uneatable), is a product of Nature, Art, and Science combined, the scientific factor here dominating because the perfection has arisen through the application of scientific laws in regard to the best soil, location, treatment, etc. Here Nature and Art are subdominant, and the triumphs of science in vegetable products are every day witnessed upon our tables. Let any one follow the course of the development of the potato, the cucumber, the radish, the beet, the tomato, the celery, or other vegetable, and he will receive a most instructive lesson in the scientific culture of natural products which will be quite astonishing. In some instances the cultivation seems to have left but a mere suggestion of shape and flavor of the original wild edible. Just so it would be with the human race if scientific law were allowed scope in the matter of reproduction, instead of childish instinct, blind passion, or selfish indulgence. These are not the forces we put into horticulture or horse-breeding, for here they would not pay. The blending or co-operation of Nature, Art, and Science in the evolution of the human race is shown in many ways. To those accustomed to take the very limited view of Art, that it consists merely in painting pictures, singing, acting, etc., the idea of man being in part an art-product, will appear strange, but this will seem plainer when it is stated that those born in barbarism are more nearly children of Nature; those born in civilization are more nearly children of Art, i.e., born under the influences of education and refinement, and are hence cultivated products by preponderance. Children whose parents have intermarried according to the laws of fitness and adaptation, with the intention of becoming the progenitors of superior offspring, are more particularly the product of Science, with a subdominance of Nature and Art intermingled in their make-up. Such children may not necessarily be superior to all other children, but are undoubtedly superior to what either of those parents would have perpetuated had they intermarried with more unsuitable mates. The law of "natural selection," so happily elaborated by Mr. Darwin, is the method which Nature pursues to improve the human race and all races, in accordance with a law of progressive development, which, it appears, is one of the most important factors in carrying forward the evolution of the race toward a higher grade of development. Those born under the spontaneous operation of this law are almost purely natural products. In civilization, the choice of the woman by the man, on the ground of some real or fancied excellence, is an aid-a slight oneto the former slow method of improvement. This is the triumph of Art over Nature. The third method, that which is pursued by a very limited number of persons, indeed, in civilized life.-the plan of intermarrying because of mutual adaptation and fitness,— produces a scientific result in offspring, born according to law, bred with the design of improving the race by scientific culture. This method, if universally practiced, would carry forward the evolution of the race with great rapidity, and if the higher, scientific plan of reproduction were followed instead of the instinctive or animal-like method (which is the lowest form of reproduction, and the one commonly pursued in civilization as well as in barbarism, in obedience to a blind, sexual impulse or selfish gratification), there would be evolved a race of wonderful beings far transcending any which have ever appeared on earth. The principal and most important use of the knowledge of the Basic Principles of Form is found in its application to scientific physiognomy, and the most important use of this science is toward the scientific culture of the human race. To study the science for the simple desire of knowing what certain faces and forms reveal is mere childish curiosity. The application of its principles is its highest use. My motive in elaborating this system proceeds primarily from a desire to improve the race by practical methods, to bring it up to a higher grade of moral, physical, and intellectual excellence, instead of relying upon the slow and uncertain natural way advised by theologists, which is the merely sentimental phase of improvement, slow and uncertain, not radical and certain. I do not wish to underrate theology or any other system of ethics which promotes in any degree, however slight, the morality and integrity of humanity; but what I urge is that fundamental principles of life are now, at this particular stage of the world's development, greatly needed, and I add this, my contribution, in a true missionary spirit, as being the attitude of benevolence I hold and have ever held toward my fellow-beings. The form of its expression has, however, changed with advancing years; for, whereas in my youth I thought it my duty to proceed to Africa and Christianize the barbarous races, I now believe it my duty to remain at home and appeal to the most enlightened and refined of the Christian races, and to instruct them in divinely constituted scientific law instead of teaching inspirational, intuitive beliefs to the heathen. The latter belongs to the infantile stage of man and the race and the former to the adult stage of mind. In the preceding pages each primal principle of form has been considered. There now remains only the duty of giving a tabulated summation of the several discriminations of form, together with their related symbols or significations. The six simple mechanical powers involved in Nature, or the working forces which operate the world and man's organism alike,-viz., the lever, the wheel, the axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge and screw,—will be treated of when we arrive at the discussion of the moving forces or dynamics of the human mind and body. This chapter is devoted more particularly to the application of the factors of Form to the human organism, regardless of the operation and effects of the mechanical forces and visceral organs which produce them, except in the most primitive and elementary sense, as connected with primitive geometry or the form and motions of the planets. Let it be understood in the following summary that the term "artistic" is used in its most comprehensive sense, including not only the art-side of Nature, but also all of the arts of man, such as sculpture, painting, acting, singing, musical instrumentation, athletics of all sorts, and the semi-artistic professions, such as photography, phonography, telegraphy, and all other arts which are a combination of art and science, with the art principles dominant, and a subdominance of the scientific laws. The term "scientific" is also used comprehensively, and includes mechanism, invention, and all scientific pursuits in which mechanical or scientific principles dominate the artistic. THE NORMAL FACTORS OF FORM AND BEING IN NATURE, ART, AND SCIENCE. THE LAW OF IMPERFECT CURVATION, ILLUSTRATED BY THE ABNORMAL FACTORS OF FORM AND BEING, SKEWISM OR SCALENISM. OBLIQUITY, ECCENTRICITY, One-sidedness, Immorality. Non-stability, Genius, Ugliness, or Mad- IMPERFECT CURVATION, Sophistry, Knavery, Defective Func tions. Perversion of Form and Motion, as in SINISTRALITY OR LEFT HANDEDNESS, Awkward and Inapt Movements. Imperfection. Imperfect curvation, or crookedness of the features, the head, the limbs, the organs, and body, producing malformation of the organs of speech, hearing, and sight. UNNATURAL, INARTISTIC, UNSCIENTIFIC. Product, The crooked or perverted man (abnormal type). |