The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-18 00:00:00

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

THE Quarterly opens with a review of Archbishop
hately's edition of Bacon's Essa) s, illustrated with
many pertinent anecdotes. The four succeeding
articles are useful, sensible, and scholarly. A really
interesting paper is that on physiognomy, which
the writer believes capable of beiug at some time
or another elevated into a science. It strikes us,
however, that there is rather too much assumption
in the article, as, for instance, the following:—

The same general assent to the symbolic science is im-
plied in the numerous familiar terms used to express the
whole character of a man by speaking of a single member
of his body. Such terms as "long-headed," " shallow-
brained," " brazen-faced," " supercilious," " hard-featured,"
" stiff necked," " open-faced," " hard-mouthed," " a good
hand," a cunning hand," and a hundred more that we
could cite, are expressive only because it is generally true
that the bodily characters which they describe are symbo-
lical of the mental natures which they imply. Such
terms are not all arbitrary or fanciful; many among them
express the general belief in the correspondences not only
of mind and body, but of mind and shape.
But when we call a man " brazen-faced," we only
mean that he can do an impudent thing without be-
traying any emotion in his countenance ; and when
we speak of a man as a " good hand," we use the
term in the same sense in which we apply it to an
operative as a workman. But these are slight ble-
mishes compared with the whole character of the
article. The following is the account of the eye :
Dark blue eyes are most common in persons of delicate,
refined, or effeminate nature; light blue, and much more,
grey eyes, in the hardy and active. Greenish eyes have,
generally, the same meaning as the grey : Lavater says
they are,—" in some sort, a distinctive sign of vivacity and
courage." "Hazel eyes are the more usual indications of
a mind masculine, vigorous, and profound; just as genius
properly so called, is almost always associated with eyes of
a yellowish cast bordering on hazel."—Essays, iii. 338.

The brightness and the dullness of the eye ere as evident
in their opposite meanings as are the contrasts of light
and darkness. And scarcely less clear is the glance or
flash of the eye, like a light, to illuminate and show the
depth of meaning in every expression with which it appears.
A volume might be written on it, inexplicable as it is, and
in each person so inimitable by others, and therefore so
characteristic, that, as Cares suggests, instead of saying
" Le style c'est lliomme," we might more justly aay,
der Blick ist der Mensch."
We had always been under the impression that the
grey eye was the " masculine and vigorous " one.
" The Declining Efficienc), of Parliament" is a
well-written political essay, adopting the view that
has been advocated in this Journal for months past—
that Government by Party is the correct method of
carrying out the English Constitution ; but in at
tempting to account for the decline of Party, the
writer becomes a little obscure. He says, further-
more, that the Opposition ought to have a policy,
and that it. is not enough to say that the present Go-
vernment is Conservative. The number of Go-
vernment failures is put down with appalling
accuracy in this article.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.—Ocr. 16.

BOOKS.

Sermons on the Seasons of the Church. Vol. llr.
J. and C. Mozley.
Animal .Ifagnelism and Somnambulism. Newby.
Later Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent
Regions. Murray.