and are then transmitted in that highly specialized condition. It is by such course of action (which is carried on in most cases without reference to this end) that races of singers, actors, judges, and even giants and dwarfs are created as distinct types. It is a historical fact that there were fifty-seven eminent musicians of the Bach family in Germany in the course of eight generations, and hundreds of good musicians who did not take rank as eminent. We find in history, also, a record of the race of giants which Frederick William and William II created by marrying the tallest women in the kingdom to their guardsmen, men who had been selected for their height.* This method of scientific selection is but rarely attempted, yet such a plan for the improvement of the race by design should be put in practice by all intending marriage. The advice of a good physiognomist or physician should be had. The reason why we find so many perverted specimens of humanity is explained in the following extract: In most cases, however, man does not use his reason and observation in a positive manner for improving the race, but the process which we call evolution, or progressive development in man, animal, and plant, is carried forward by what is denominated "natural selection." This is a sort of blind, instinctive, unconscious manner of selecting mates, and in this slow method the races of all the departments of Nature have progressed through the ages that have passed.† When we observe so many vicious, weak, sickly-looking parents endeavoring to rear offspring we often think that the race must surely become extinct, and were it not for another circumstance which we may say really acts as a law the extinction of the human race would ensue. The "survival of the fittest" is a term that the late Mr. Darwin has made popular, and it is by the survival of the fittest that the race is carried forward slowly, yet surely, by that progressive development which naturalists and physiologists know to be an undeniable fact in Nature. When the laws of our physiology have been so outraged as to produce types too weak to survive the period of childhood, they die off and leave only those who have sufficient vitality to become the progenitors of a superior race or type. This weeding-out process, which acts naturally and unconsciously, is the salvation of humanity, and we shall find, if we observe with the eyes of science, that in Nature outraged law executes its own penalties. "The man who sinneth he shall die" says the Scripture, and we know that men do not have to wait until life is extinct to suffer for their own transgression as well as for the transgressions of their forefathers. We are not living for *Hereditary Genius, Francis Galton, p. 239. ourselves exclusively, but really and truly for eternity. It is a duty-a religious duty-to study the physiology, anatomy, and hygiene, as well as the physiognomy, both of animals and men. İn this way our knowledge of Human Nature will be perfected, and thus we shall be able to assist in selecting suitable persons to become the progenitors of a higher race, morally, mentally, and physiologically; and, since all experiences are transmitted, our own perfection in character-reading may descend to children and children's children unto many generations. This is another use to which we can put our knowledge of Human Nature. Common sense, like Human Nature, is only inherited experience. Children while yet in the stage of animal instinct evince a large share of this faculty, as all mothers can testify when they find their infants, even, taking advantage of their love as well as of their weakness of mind, playing upon their feelings as skillfully as a professor upon the piano. Now, I do not use the term " instinct " in a degraded or ignoble sense, for it is in many ways superior to reason, and it is the faculty most relied upon by animals in their intercourse with men. The infant also relies upon it entirely until education and training modify it, and he then looks to rules, laws, and precepts for his guidance in place of his inherited perceptions or instincts; while partial idiots are much lower than infants in this sense and not so high as dogs or horses. Savages, too, rely in a great measure upon their feelings in regard to approaching others, while all the higher domestic animals possess and exhibit an instinctive perception of character of a high order. Dogs seldom approach or endeavor to make friends with one who does not like animals. Of the manifold and beneficial uses of the faculty of Human Nature I have scarcely space to speak. Its possession in a large degree robs one of suspicion and of the hatred and jealousies founded on misinterpretation of character and motives. A good, true physiognomist, one born such, has neither jealousy nor suspicion in his composition. Were this the case he could not give a correct rendering of character, for he would substitute his suspicions for truths and thus falsities and errors would mark his renderings of character. A lack of this faculty makes one narrow-minded, and such persons are ill-fitted to comprehend the infinite opulence of Nature or to decipher her ethnic hieroglyphics, as observed in the faces and forms of savage races, idiots, and criminals, for the laws of undevelopment must be understood as well as the laws of development. "Nature's speaking marvels" in the characters of man and beast are truly wonderful, yet can be comprehended by those who possess the right equipments of character, and no shadowy sophisms will deceive the naturalist who has an eye for truth and who is at once "a devotee to facts and a master of the highest abstractions,' —such, for example, as Aristotle, Newton, or Bacon. The graphic methods which Nature uses to reveal the characteristics of plant, animal, and mineral are as correct as numerous. It is the duty and province of such as heredity and evolution have furnished with natural gifts to make known to those less favored the signals, emblems, and significations of form, size, color, and quality which are the distinguishing features of every separate atom, organized object, and being in existence. These high gifts should be cultivated and devoted to the service of humanity in a religious spirit. It is in this spirit-the spirit of truth-that such men as the Herschels, Darwin, Spencer, Cuvier, Linnæus, Lavoisier, Count Rumford, Joseph Black, Descartes, Agricola, Paracelsus, Tycho Brahe, Wollaston, Faraday, Fraunhofer, and the rest of the grand army of truth-seekers have proceeded to enlighten the world with the truths of God's laws, which are at once both gospel and revelation. The moral character of the scientific classes stands head and shoulders above that of almost all other classes, and this results from the fact that a true scientist's character must be built on truth,-on Conscientiousness, else he would be as incapable of discerning and discovering truths as an artist would be of using colors were he naturally colorless and pallid. The principles which one deals with most successfully in his trade or profession must be largely represented in his own organism. The direction which Human Nature will take in its manifestations depends upon the faculties in combination. Where the practical faculties are dominant and Human Nature large, the individual is capable of becoming a physician, physiognomist, or anatomist, and, with large reflective faculties, an inventor. Those with Agreeability, Language, and Human Nature large are adepts in managing people; they are plausible and persuasive, and make good salesmen. With large Approbativeness added, they have the combination for political life; with large Locality combined, they evince a love of travel and discovery. The signs for Human Nature and Locality are very conspicuous in the faces of Captain Cook and Marco Polo. All great artists, orators, poets, and actors possess large Human Nature and Amativeness. This gives the combination for creative efforts, especially in the delineations and descriptions of human characters, forms, figures, etc. The celebrated detectives, Fouché and Pinkerton, disclose Human Nature most decidedly. Talleyrand also exhibits several of the signs for this faculty, and history tells us that he was an adept not only in reading character, in discerning motives, but also that he had that most rare faculty, the capacity for managing and using men at his will. The science of Human Nature is yet in its infancy. My own contribution gives a foundation-system based on natural laws. The superstructure of accumulated facts must be the work of generations of observers. The scope of this science is not second to the solar system, and as each astronomer adds to our knowledge of its vastness, so must good, observing physiognomists leave to posterity well-demonstrated truths which are incontrovertible and corroborated by all the other departments of science, and thus rescue this, the grandest and noblest of all sciences, from the hands of the charlatan, ignoramus, quack, and pretender. No profession demands more purity of life, loftier principles, greater knowledge of God's eternal laws, than that of physiognomy. No profession demands a more reverent, devout, and religious spirit, nor one more devoted to absolute truth than this; hence, it becomes its professors to hold the standard of character high, and be their own exemplars of the highest conscientiousness and of demonstrable truths. ACQUISITIVENESS. Definition. The desire to gain, obtain, earn, or win money, property, fame, ability, learning, applause, knowledge, or power; the provider and commercialist. The direction which Acquisitiveness will take depends upon the other faculties in combination in each individual. An excess causes one to be frugal, stingy, and small in savings; perverted, it imparts a love for gambling and games of chance, and when unrestrained shows by dishonest methods of business. It gives an insatiable desire for the acquisition of property, knowledge, power, position, fame, reputation, friends, or whatever the dominating traits call for. A deficiency causes one to be careless of money or possessions, and tends to prodigality, improvidence, poverty, ignorance, loss of reputation, and no desire for power and its advantages. Facial and Bodily Signs.-In the human face the most decisive signs for Acquisitiveness are found in the head, eye, ear, nose, jaw, and mouth. A thick, heavy upper eyelid, which discloses a large surface while the eye is open, giving a sleepy look, is a very noticeable sign of this trait. This sign is observed mainly in Oriental races. Another sign is shown by a fullness and breadth of the sides of the nose just above the nostril. The high-arched, convex, or hooked nose, resembling the beak of the bird of prey, is another sign of commercial rapacity, as well as of the love of over coming one's enemy or of removing obstacles in the way of glory, fame, or learning. Wide, predaceous jaws and large mouth, and head wide above the ears, are also evidences of commercial Acquisitiveness. Most of the great bankers, financiers, and money-kings have very large ears; full, round foreheads, and large, round, stocky frames. Misers, whose sole aim is accumulation, exhibit a pallid, thin, dry, wrinkled under-lip, and body bent forward, the countenance sometimes covered with fine wrinkles, falling in every direction. Numerous small and fine wrinkles all over the face and lips disclose a life of petty cares and small earnings. The hands of misers, as George Combe observes, "go out at the sides as if grasping something." This is caused by the constant effort of the extensor muscles of the hand and arm in reaching forward as if to seize something. This movement arises from the dominant idea of getting, and all the outward shapes which the body and limbs assume, if long continued, reveal the dominant impulse within. In animals, Acquisitiveness is shown by prominence of the middle incisor teeth, narrow mouth, and flexibility of the muscles, particularly of the flexor muscles of the fore-paws. This description applies to the rodents, such as the squirrel, rat, etc., while predaceous energy is shown in the carnivorous class by width of jaw, breadth and roundness of the head, prominence of the muscles, broad nose and nostrils, capacious chest, and strong digestive powers. In the bird of prey it is shown by the convexity of the beak, thick neck, and arching of the claws, and powerful muscular system. DESCRIPTION OF ACQUISITIVENESS.-The physiological base of Acquisitiveness is derived from the nutritive functions; its signs in the mouth and nose are proofs of this statement. Its animal manifestations are another proof, while its sign in the nose, situated next to Constructiveness, and assisting to form the sign for the stomach (width of the bridge of the nose), is still further evidence of its purpose and power in the human organism. The reader will naturally ask what right Acquisitiveness has to settle itself in the artistic and literary group. He will naturally conclude that this trait has strayed away from its position in the vegetative division, and settled in a territory not at all suitable to such a grasping, foraging creature as this Mr. Acquisitiveness appears to be. On the face of it this would seem to be a correct way to look at this faculty, but we must not lose sight of the fact that the primary use of nearly all the mental faculties relates to our bodily wants, and that their secondary aspect leads to the improvement and advancement of the race. Ideality tends to the evolution of the race by giving man a love of the beautiful, and thus leads him |