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No. 86.  Friday, June 8, 1711.  Addison.

      ‘Heu quam difficile est crimen non prodere vultu!’

      Ovid.

There are several Arts which [all Men are [1]] in some measure [Masters [2]] of, without having been at the Pains of learning them.  Every one that speaks or reasons is a Grammarian and a Logician, tho’ he may be wholly unacquainted with the Rules of Grammar or Logick, as they are delivered in Books and Systems.  In the same Manner, every one is in some Degree a Master of that Art which is generally distinguished by the Name of Physiognomy; and naturally forms to himself the Character or Fortune of a Stranger, from the Features and Lineaments of his Face.  We are no sooner presented to any one we never saw 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, [3]] our Benevolence or Aversion, Awe or Contempt, rises naturally towards several particular Persons before we have heard them speak a single Word, or so much as know who they are.

Every Passion gives a particular Cast to the Countenance, and is apt to discover itself in some Feature or other.  I have seen an Eye curse for half an Hour together, and an Eye-brow call a Man Scoundrel.  Nothing is more common than for Lovers to complain, resent, languish, despair, 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 self from Charing-Cross to the Royal-Exchange in drawing the Characters of those who have passed by me.  When I see a Man with a sour 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 Saying to a Stranger who stood silent in his Company, Speak that I may see thee:_ [4] But, with Submission, I think we may be better known by our Looks than by our Words; and that a Man’s Speech is much more easily disguised than his Countenance.  In this Case, however, I think the Air of the whole Face is much more expressive than the Lines of it:  The Truth of it is, the Air is generally nothing else but the inward Disposition of the Mind made visible.

Those who have established Physiognomy 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 a pretty Epigram on this Subject: 

  Crine ruber, niger ore, brevis pede, lumine loesus: 
  Rem magnam proestas, Zoile, si bonus es.

  (Epig. 54, 1. 12)

  Thy Beard and Head are of a diff’rent Dye;
  Short of one Foot, distorted in an Eye: 
  With all these Tokens of a Knave compleat,
  Should’st thou be honest, thou’rt a dev’lish Cheat.