“Through those two inlets of soul, the eye and ear, how wonderful are the worlds of light and sound, the words and images that find entrance!
“How significant are the descending locks that shade this mountain, this seat of the gods! their luxuriance, their partition, their intermingling!
“The head is elevated upon the neck. Olympus resting upon an eminence in which are united freedom and strength, compression and elasticity, descriptive of the present and the future. The neck it is that expresses, not what man was originally, but what he is, by habit or accident, become; whether erect in defence of freedom, stretched forth and curbed in token of patient suffering, rising a Herculean pillar of fortitude, or sinking between the shoulders, the image of degradation; still it is incontestably expressive of character, action, and truth.
“Let us proceed to the countenance, in which shine forth mind and divinity.
“On the front appear light and gloom, joy and anxiety, stupidity, ignorance, and vice. On this brazen table are deeply engraved every combination of sense and soul. I can conceive no spectator to whom the forehead can appear uninteresting. Here all the graces revel, or all the Cyclops thunder! Nature has left it bare, that, by it, the countenance may be enlightened or darkened.
“At its lowest extremities, thought appears to be changed into act. The mind here collects the powers of resistance. Here reside the cornua addita pauperi. Here headlong obstinacy and wise perseverance take up their fixed abode.
“Beneath the forehead are its beauteous confines the eyebrows; a rainbow of promise, when benignant; and the bent bow of discord, when enraged; alike descriptive, in each case, of interior feeling.
“I know not any thing which can give more pleasure, to an accurate observer, than a distinct and perfectly arched eyebrow.
“The nose imparts solidity and unity to the whole countenance. It is the mountain that shelters the fair vales beneath. How descriptive of mind and character are its various parts; the insertion, the ridge, the cartilage, the nostrils, through which life is inhaled!
“The eyes, considered only as tangible objects, are by their form the windows of the soul, the fountains of light and life. Mere feeling would discover that their size and globular shape are not unmeaning. The eye-bone, whether gradually sunken, or boldly prominent, equally is worthy of attention; as likewise are the temples, whether hollow or smooth. That region of the face which includes the eyebrows, eye, and nose, also includes the chief signs of soul; that is, of will, or mind, in action.