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
, 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.
cannot recollect the Author of a famous Saying to a Stranger who stood
silent in his Company,
Speak that I may see thee:
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 lœsus:
Rem magnam prœstas, 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.
have seen a very ingenious Author on this Subject,
who
founds
his Speculations on the Supposition, That as a Man hath in the Mould of
his Face a remote Likeness to that of an Ox, a Sheep, a Lion, an Hog, or
any other Creature; he hath the same Resemblance in the Frame of his
Mind, and is subject to those Passions which are predominant in the
Creature that appears in his Countenance
. Accordingly he gives the
Prints of several Faces that are of a different Mould, and by
a little
overcharging the Likeness, discovers the Figures of these several Kinds
of brutal Faces in human Features.
remember, in the Life of the famous
Prince of
Conde
the Writer observes,
the
Face of that
Prince was like the Face of an Eagle, and that the Prince was very well
pleased to be told so. In this Case therefore we may be sure, that he
had in his Mind some general implicit Notion of this Art of Physiognomy
which I have just now mentioned; and that when his Courtiers told him
his Face was made like an Eagle's, he understood them in the same manner
as if they had told him, there was something in his Looks which shewed
him to be strong, active, piercing, and of a royal Descent. Whether or
no the different Motions of the Animal Spirits, in different Passions,
may have any Effect on the Mould of the Face when the Lineaments are
pliable and tender, or whether the same kind of Souls require the same
kind of Habitations, I shall leave to the Consideration of the Curious.
In the mean Time I think nothing can be more glorious than for a Man to
give the Lie to his Face, and to be an honest, just, good-natured Man,
in spite of all those Marks and Signatures which Nature seems to have
set upon him for the Contrary. This very often happens among those, who,
instead of being exasperated by their own Looks, or envying the Looks of
others, apply themselves entirely to the cultivating of their Minds, and
getting those Beauties which are more lasting and more ornamental. I
have seen many an amiable Piece of Deformity; and have observed a
certain Chearfulness in as bad a System of Features as ever was clapped
together, which hath appeared more lovely than all the blooming Charms
of an insolent Beauty. There is a double Praise due to Virtue, when it
is lodged in a Body that seems to have been prepared for the Reception
of Vice; in many such Cases the Soul and the Body do not seem to be
Fellows.
Socrates
was an extraordinary Instance of this Nature.
chanced to be a great Physiognomist in his Time at
Athens
,
who had made strange Discoveries of Mens Tempers and Inclinations by
their outward Appearances.
Socrates's
Disciples, that they might
put this Artist to the Trial, carried him to their Master, whom he had
never seen before, and did not know
he was then in company with him
. After
short Examination of his Face, the Physiognomist
pronounced him the most lewd, libidinous, drunken old Fellow that he had
ever
met with
in his
whole
Life. Upon which the Disciples all
burst out a laughing, as thinking they had detected the Falshood and
Vanity of his Art. But
Socrates
told them, that the Principles of
his Art might be very true, notwithstanding his present Mistake; for
that he himself was naturally inclined to those particular Vices which
the Physiognomist had discovered in his Countenance, but that he had
conquered the strong Dispositions he was born with by the Dictates of
Philosophy.
are indeed told by an ancient Author, that
Socrates
very much
resembled
Silenus
in his Face
; which we find to have been
very rightly observed from the Statues and Busts of both,
that
are still extant; as well as on several antique Seals and precious
Stones, which are frequently enough to be met with in the Cabinets of
the Curious. But however Observations of this Nature may sometimes hold,
a wise Man should be particularly cautious how he gives credit to a
Man's outward Appearance.
is an irreparable Injustice
we
are
guilty of towards one another, when we are prejudiced by the Looks and
Features of those whom we do not know. How often do we conceive Hatred
against a Person of Worth, or fancy a Man to be proud and ill-natured by
his Aspect, whom we think we cannot esteem too much when we are
acquainted with his real Character?
.
Moore
, in his
admirable System of Ethicks, reckons this particular Inclination to take
a Prejudice against a Man for his Looks, among the smaller Vices in
Morality, and, if I remember, gives it the Name of a
Prosopolepsia
.
every Man is
Master
unknown Persons
Socrates. In Apul.
Flor
.
that
The idea is as old as Aristotle who, in treating of arguing
from signs in general, speaks under the head of Physiognomy of
conclusions drawn from natural signs, such as indications of the temper
proper to each class of animals in forms resembling them. The book
Addison refers to is Baptista della Porta '
De Humanâ
Physiognomiâ
'
Histoire du Louis de Bourbon II du Nom Prince de Condé,
Englished by Nahum Tate in 1693.
that the
Cicero,
Tusc. Quæst.
Bk. IV. near the close. Again
de Fato
, c. 5, he says that the physiognomist Zopyrus pronounced
Socrates stupid and dull, because the outline of his throat was not
concave, but full and obtuse.
who he was.
seen
Plato in the
Symposium
; where Alcibiades is made to
draw the parallel under the influence of wine and revelry. He compares
the person of Socrates to the sculptured figures of the Sileni and the
Mercuries in the streets of Athens, but owns the spell by which he was
held, in presence of Socrates, as by the flute of the Satyr Marsyas.
which
that we
Dr Henry More.
Contents
|
Saturday, June 9, 1711 |
Steele |
It has been the Purpose of several of my Speculations to bring People to
an unconcerned Behaviour, with relation to their Persons, whether
beautiful or defective. As the Secrets of the
Ugly Club
were
exposed to the Publick, that Men might see there were some noble Spirits
in the Age, who are not at all displeased with themselves upon
Considerations which they had no Choice in: so the Discourse concerning
Idols
tended to lessen the Value People put upon themselves from
personal Advantages, and Gifts of Nature. As to the latter Species of
Mankind, the Beauties, whether Male or Female, they are generally the
most untractable People of all others. You are so excessively perplexed
with the Particularities in their Behaviour, that, to be at Ease, one
would be apt to wish there were no such Creatures. They expect so great
Allowances, and give so little to others, that they who have to do with
them find in the main, a Man with a better Person than ordinary, and a
beautiful Woman, might be very happily changed for such to whom Nature
has been less liberal. The Handsome Fellow is usually so much a
Gentleman, and the Fine Woman has something so becoming, that there is
no enduring either of them. It has therefore been generally my Choice to
mix with chearful Ugly Creatures, rather than Gentlemen who are Graceful
enough to omit or do what they please; or Beauties who have Charms
enough to do and say what would be disobliging in any but themselves.
Diffidence and Presumption, upon account of our Persons, are equally
Faults; and both arise from the Want of knowing, or rather endeavouring
to know, our selves, and for what we ought to be valued or neglected.
But indeed, I did not imagine these little Considerations and Coquetries
could have the ill Consequences as I find they have by the following
Letters of my Correspondents, where it seems Beauty is thrown into the
Account, in Matters of Sale, to those who receive no Favour from the
Charmers.
June 4
Mr. Spectator,.
After I have assured you I am in every respect one of the Handsomest
young Girls about Town — I need be particular in nothing but the make
of my Face, which has the Misfortune to be exactly Oval. This I take
to proceed from a Temper that naturally inclines me both to speak and
hear.
With this Account you may wonder how I can have the Vanity to offer my
self as a Candidate, which I now do, to a Society, where the
Spectator
and
Hecatissa have been admitted with so much Applause. I don't
want to be put in mind how very Defective I am in every thing that is
Ugly: I am too sensible of my own Unworthiness in this Particular, and
therefore I only propose my self as a Foil to the Club.
You see how honest I have been to confess all my Imperfections, which
is a great deal to come from a Woman, and what I hope you will
encourage with the Favour of your Interest.
There can be no Objection made on the Side of the matchless
Hecatissa, since it is certain I shall be in no Danger of
giving her the least occasion of Jealousy: And then a Joint-Stool in
the very lowest Place at the Table, is all the Honour that is coveted
by
Your most Humble and Obedient Servant,
Rosalinda.
P.S. I have sacrificed my Necklace to put into the Publick Lottery
against the Common Enemy. And last
Saturday, about Three a
Clock in the Afternoon, I began to patch indifferently on both Sides
of my Face.
London, June 7, 1711.
Mr.
Spectator,
'Upon reading your late Dissertation concerning
Idols, I cannot
but complain to you that there are, in six or seven Places of this
City, Coffee-houses kept by Persons of that Sisterhood. These
Idols sit and receive all Day long the adoration of the Youth
within such and such Districts: I know, in particular, Goods are not
entered as they ought to be at the Custom-house, nor Law-Reports
perused at the Temple; by reason of one Beauty who detains the young
Merchants too long near
Change, and another Fair One who keeps
the Students at her House when they should be at Study. It would be
worth your while to see how the Idolaters alternately offer Incense to
their
Idols, and what Heart-burnings arise in those who wait
for their Turn to receive kind Aspects from those little Thrones,
which all the Company, but these Lovers, call the Bars. I saw a
Gentleman turn as pale as Ashes, because an
Idol turned the
Sugar in a Tea-Dish for his Rival, and carelessly called the Boy to
serve him, with a
Sirrah! Why don't you give the Gentleman the Box
to please himself? Certain it is, that a very hopeful young Man
was taken with Leads in his Pockets below Bridge, where he intended to
drown himself, because his
Idol would wash the Dish in which
she had but just
then1 drank Tea, before she would let him use it.
I am, Sir, a Person past being Amorous, and do not give this
Information out of Envy or Jealousy, but I am a real Sufferer by it.
These Lovers take any thing for Tea and Coffee; I saw one Yesterday
surfeit to make his Court; and all his Rivals, at the same time, loud
in the Commendation of Liquors that went against every body in the
Room that was not in Love. While these young Fellows resign their
Stomachs with their Hearts, and drink at the
Idol in this
manner, we who come to do Business, or talk Politicks, are utterly
poisoned: They have also Drams for those who are more enamoured than
ordinary; and it is very common for such as are too low in
Constitution to ogle the
Idol upon the Strength of Tea, to
fluster themselves with warmer Liquors: Thus all Pretenders advance,
as fast as they can, to a Feaver or a Diabetes. I must repeat to you,
that I do not look with an evil Eye upon the Profit of the
Idols, or the Diversion of the Lovers; what I hope from this
Remonstrance, is only that we plain People may not be served as if we
were Idolaters; but that from the time of publishing this in your
Paper, the
Idols would mix Ratsbane only for their Admirers, and
take more care of us who don't love them.
I am,
Sir,
Yours,
T.T.
2
R.
just before
This letter is ascribed to Laurence Eusden.
Contents
This to give Notice,
That the three Criticks
who last Sunday
settled the Characters
of my Lord Rochester
and Boileau,
in the Yard of a Coffee House in Fuller's Rents,
will meet this next Sunday
at the same Time and Place,
to finish the Merits of several Dramatick Writers:
And will also make an End of the Nature of True Sublime.
|
Monday, June 11, 1711 |
Steele |
Quid Domini facient, audent cum tulia Fures?
Virg.
translation
May 30, 1711.
Mr.
Spectator,
I have no small Value for your Endeavours to lay before the World what
may escape their Observation, and yet highly conduces to their
Service. You have, I think, succeeded very well on many Subjects; and
seem to have been conversant in very different Scenes of Life. But in
the Considerations of Mankind, as a
Spectator, you should not omit
Circumstances which relate to the inferior Part of the World, any more
than those which concern the greater. There is one thing in particular
which I wonder you have not touched upon, and that is the general
Corruption of Manners in the Servants of
Great Britain. I am a Man
that have travelled and seen many Nations, but have for seven Years
last past resided constantly in
London, or within twenty Miles of
it: In this Time I have contracted a numerous Acquaintance among the
best Sort of People, and have hardly found one of them happy in their
Servants. This is matter of great Astonishment to Foreigners, and all
such as have visited Foreign Countries; especially since we cannot but
observe, That there is no Part of the World where Servants have those
Privileges and Advantages as in
England: They have no where else
such plentiful Diet, large Wages, or indulgent Liberty: There is no
Place wherein they labour less, and yet where they are so little
respectful, more wasteful, more negligent, or where they so frequently
change their Masters. To this I attribute, in a great measure, the
frequent Robberies and Losses which we suffer on the high Road and in
our own Houses. That indeed which gives me the present Thought of this
kind, is, that a careless Groom of mine has spoiled me the prettiest
Pad in the World with only riding him ten Miles, and I assure you, if
I were to make a Register of all the Horses I have known thus abused
by Negligence of Servants, the Number would mount a Regiment. I wish
you would give us your Observations, that we may know how to treat
these Rogues, or that we Masters may enter into Measures to reform
them. Pray give us a Speculation in general about Servants, and you
make me
Pray do not omit the Mention
of Grooms in particular.
Yours,
Philo-Britannicus
This honest Gentleman, who is so desirous that I should write a Satyr
upon Grooms, has a great deal of Reason for his Resentment; and I know
no Evil which touches all Mankind so much as this of the Misbehaviour of
Servants.
The Complaint of this Letter runs wholly upon Men-Servants; and I can
attribute the Licentiousness which has at present prevailed among them,
to nothing but what an hundred before me have ascribed it to, The Custom
of giving Board-Wages: This one Instance of false Œconomy is sufficient
to debauch the whole Nation of Servants, and makes them as it were but
for some part of their Time in that Quality. They are either attending
in Places where they meet and run into Clubs, or else, if they wait at
Taverns, they eat after their Masters, and reserve their Wages for other
Occasions. From hence it arises, that they are but in a lower Degree
what their Masters themselves are; and usually affect an Imitation of
their Manners: And you have in Liveries, Beaux, Fops, and Coxcombs, in
as high Perfection as among People that keep Equipages. It is a common
Humour among the Retinue of People of Quality, when they are in their
Revels, that is when they are out of their Masters Sight, to assume in a
humourous Way the Names and Titles of those whose Liveries they wear. By
which means Characters and Distinctions become so familiar to them, that
it is to this, among other Causes, one may impute a certain Insolence
among our Servants, that they take no Notice of any Gentleman though
they know him ever so well, except he is an Acquaintance of their
Master's.
My Obscurity and Taciturnity leave me at Liberty, without Scandal, to
dine, if I think fit, at a common Ordinary, in the meanest as well as
the most sumptuous House of Entertainment.
in the other Day at a
Victualling-House near the House of Peers, I heard the Maid come down
and tell the Landlady at the Bar, That my Lord Bishop swore he would
throw her out
a
Window, if she did not bring up more Mild Beer,
and that my Lord Duke would have a double Mug of Purle. My Surprize was
encreased, in hearing loud and rustick Voices speak and answer to each
other upon the publick Affairs, by the Names of the most Illustrious of
our Nobility; till of a sudden one came running in, and cry'd the House
was rising. Down came all the Company together, and away! The Alehouse
was immediately filled with Clamour, and scoring one Mug to the Marquis
of such a Place, Oyl and Vinegar to such an Earl, three Quarts to my new
Lord for wetting his Title, and so forth. It is a Thing too notorious to
mention the Crowds of Servants, and their Insolence, near the Courts of
Justice, and the Stairs towards the Supreme Assembly, where there is an
universal Mockery of all Order, such riotous Clamour and licentious
Confusion, that one would think the whole Nation lived in Jest, and
there were no such thing as Rule and Distinction among us.
The next Place of Resort, wherein the servile World are let loose, is at
the Entrance of
Hide-Park
, while the Gentry are at the Ring.
Hither People bring their Lacqueys out of State, and here it is that all
they say at their Tables, and act in their Houses, is communicated to
the whole Town. There are Men of Wit in all Conditions of Life; and
mixing with these People at their Diversions, I have heard Coquets and
Prudes as well rallied, and Insolence and Pride exposed, (allowing for
their want of Education) with as much Humour and good Sense, as in the
politest Companies.
is a general Observation, That all Dependants run
in some measure into the Manners and Behaviour of those whom they serve:
You shall frequently meet with Lovers and Men of Intrigue among the
Lacqueys, as well as at
White's
or in the Side-Boxes. I
remember some Years ago an Instance of this Kind. A Footman to a Captain
of the Guard used frequently, when his Master was out of the Way, to
carry on Amours and make Assignations in his Master's Cloaths. The
Fellow had a very good Person, and there are very many Women that think
no further than the Outside of a Gentleman: besides which, he was almost
as learned a Man as the Colonel himself: I say, thus qualified, the
Fellow could scrawl
Billets-doux
so well, and furnish a Conversation
on the common Topicks, that he had, as they call it, a great deal of
good Business on his Hands. It happened one Day, that coming down a
Tavern-Stairs in his Master's fine Guard-Coat, with a well-dress'd Woman
masked, he met the Colonel coming up with other Company; but with a
ready Assurance he quitted his Lady, came up to him, and said,
Sir, I
know you have too much Respect for yourself to cane me in this
honourable Habit: But you see there is a Lady in the Case, and I hope on
that Score also you will put off your Anger till I have told you all
another time.
After a little Pause the Colonel cleared up his
Countenance, and with an Air of Familiarity whispered his Man apart,