Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-03
TELL-TALE DOUBLE CHINS.
What They Signify to the Reader of Character.
London Standard.

What They Signify to the Reader of Character.
London Standard.
The great Justification of the double
chin rests, of course, on its unriyaled
value as an index of character-and such
| character! 1t is really NATURES
patent of nobility. This was long
ago discerned by the great master of
physiognomy. 1t is not difficult to define
what Lavater thought of a double chin.
He carefully points out that man differs
from the animals chiefly by his chin, lay
ing it down as an axiom that the chin is
the distinctive characteristic of human
ity; consequently, double chinned peo-
pie are double differentiated from the
beasts that perish, which is
greatly to their credit. He
expressly takes for his model of
''the thinker, full of sagacity and pene-
tratiOn, q man with flash double chin,
coupled with nose rounded at the end
The portrait he gives is even better than
the letter-press, as the gentleman is
limned with at least five chins, so that
his lower jaw is vista of magnificent
distances, like Washington, Tkis happy
physiogonQmy of the double chin, coupled
with the rounded nose, chaFacteFlzes,
he tells us, the mind which can rise to
heights, and which follows its designs
with rejecting frmness, unalloyed by
ohstinacy, Let, therefore, those with
double chins rejoiue, whether they pos
sess rounded noses or not, and quote
Lavater in gratitude. He gives again
another example of the double men
ton, and the face so en-
reason 5 OWE image. He quite revels in
this faaflIpa "a talEaS On avop1rIa Of
Raphael, with beautifully rounded
double chin, and in oritioising it he ae-
knowledges that the profile is wanting in
truth, harmony and graeei but then,
asks he, how is it it so strongly takes
captive our sympathy? Where lies the
illusion? Merely in the chin, he an
sWers, and as the chin is double one the
matter is no longer mystery. He points
triumphantly to Cicero 3 magnificent
double chin, and, in a burst of elo-
queuce, says OF Wren S, that if Won can
find man with (among other things)
such a chin as that without being gifted
with some extraordinary talent he re-
nounces forever the science of physiog-
Monty. What Layater has thus laid down
experience amply eorrohorates. The
double-chinned therefore, should hold
their heads up higher, in the conscious
IESS " iAlOhCAt AI4CllLJ dl4N SlfO lIS6 play
and just prominence to their certificates
of character.
1t is, as limited above, rather difficult
at present to tell who is endowed and
who is not. Portrait-painters are craven
enough to dissimulate a double chin; thew
leave it to the carieaturist, who seem to
think it great fun for n popular states
man or poet to have two chins, whereas
these appendages are the secret
of their success. Some of our
more obseryant writers have
got a glimpse of the truth; Mr.
Wilkie Collins, for instance. He very
properly credits Count Fosoo, the man of
daring, resource and determination, with
a double chin, to which Fosco 5 pet cock
alto calls public attention by rubbing his
head against it in the most appreeiatiye
manner possible. But your ordinary novel
list would never have thought of that As an
Englishman, by the way, one naturally
turns to Shakespeare to see whether his
appearance eorroborates Lavater's views.
Shakespeare undoubtedly foresaw the
point, as he foresaw everything else, but
he was sufficiently artful to wear just
enough beard to place il in eter-
nal doubt whether he had double chin
or not. Thus he leaves it open TO all
parties, single-ehined or double, to quote
him as ar instance of anything they like,
which, after all, is the great use which
Shakespeare has always been put to.