Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-08-17
80 Realine Nof ; go.

Face Reading Not Science
New York Nail and Express.
"PhysiognOmy is rather q vagary
of the Imagination than q SCIENCE
said a prominent student of human
nature the other day, and, there
fore, y he continued, Il deny that the
expression ofaman's face isreaIly the
index of the persons soul, as it is
generally conceded to be, and as the
object of language, Is said to be the
cOncealment of thought, so the eX-
preston of ones cOuntenance is but
the mask to conceal ones inner self,
"There is q tradition that far back
In the days of which history tells us
nothing there was no speech or IAN
guage among men, but that men
read each others want and wishes in
their faces, and as the world was pure
nothing but purity appeared in the
expression of the human face. But
wlckedness crept in, and men sought
to keep from their faces the evil that
was IN their hearts, thus preventing
the cOuntenance from becoming the
index Of the soul.
mo" the speaker went on, 81 have
no faith whatever in physiOgnOmy as
q science, for as a science tits fanciful
and wild. Take, for instance, thu
portraits of men who have become
famous in the world of statesman
ship, philosophy, science, art or let
tiers, and search and scan their faces
for traces to mark their fame, and
how often will you be disappointed.
The same is the case with men adopts
In vice, cunning and crime. Little
can be told from the external appear
ance OF individuals as to their pecu-
liar traits and characteristics by
which they are known to their fellow
men.
"That certain habits of life affix
their stamp to face or form is, no
doubt, true, but the solution of that
condition is not in the reflex action
OF the mind and soul, but for the rea-
son that q certain set of muscles are
brought babitually into play and
cause q special develOpement. is the
man necessarily all smiles and laugh
ter that has wrinkles at the outer
I corner of his eyes and upward curry
ing lines around his mouth. Yet
those are the mechanical lines which
would Indicate a merry-hearted man,
/ if the science of physiOgnOmy is true.
Those lines are only muscular, sim
ply the result of habit, and may be
dictated by the rankest hypocrisy.
Naturally the brutal and ignorant
classes will have cOarser features,
and will possess brutal and animal
! faces, generally resulting from inner
/ tied qualities, and, therefore, they
will do coarse and brutal things. 1t
will be an easy matter to trace q re-
! semblance between the faces and the
crimes of such people, in whom
! COarseness and brutality predOmi-
nate, but where will you find the lines
/ and ear marks of brutality in the
faces of the handsome Wilkes Booth
or the cultured and elegant Eugene
Aram? Look upon the canvases
bearing the portraits of the beautiful
and angelic fends that ruled the En-
perOrs of Rome, and you viii see only
patrician faces, but they brought the
empire to destruction
Instances of this character might
be given indefinitely, but every one
who hasmade q careful study of the
subject will agree that the connection
between the facial expression and the
inner spiritual nature is a very diff
! cult one to trace"