The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-01-06
TRLLTALE DOUBLE cHINs.
What They Signify to the Reader
~ Of Characters aA.es y.

The great justification OF the double
chin rests, of course, on its uprivalei
value rs an index of character-anc
such q character It's really nature
patent of nobility. This was long age
disoerned by the great master of ply
siognomy. 1t is not difficult to define
what Lavater thought of double chin.
He carefully points out that man differs
from the animals chiefly by. his chin,
laying it down as an axiom that the
chin is the distinctive characteristic Of
humanity; consequently. double chined
people are doubly 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 penetration" man with fash
double chin, coupled with a nose
rounded at the end. The portrait he
gives is even better than the letterpress,
as the gentleman is limned with at least
five chins, so that his lower jaw is q
vista of magnificent distances, like
Washington. This happy phi ysiognomy
of the double, coupled with the Rounded
nose, characterizes, he tells. us, the
mind which can rise to heights, and
which follows its designs with rejecting
firmness. unalloyed by obstinacy. Let,
therefore, those with double chins re-
joice, whether they possess rounded
noses or not. and quote LaVater in
gratitude. He gives again another
example of the double mention, and
the face so endowed, he says enthusiast
tically, is reasons own image. He
quite revels in this feature. He takes
an example of Raphael, with a teauti-
fully rounded double chin, and in criti-
cising it he acknowledges that the pro-
file is venting ia truth, harmony and
grace; but then, asks he, how is it it so
strongly takes captive our sympathy?
Where lies the illusion2 Merely in the
chin, he answers, and, as the chin is 8
double chin. the matter is no longer q
mystery. He points triumpaantly to
Cicero's magnificent double chin. and,
in burst eloquence, says of Wren's
that, if you can find man with
(among others things) such chin as
that, without being gifted with some
extraordinary talent, he renounces
forever the science of physiognomy.
What Lavater has thus laid down, ex-
perience amply corroborates. The
double chined, therefore, should hold
their heads up higher, in the cons cious-
ness of modest merit, and give free play
and just prominence to their certificates
of character.
tbs, as limited above, rather difficult
at present to tell who is endowed and
who is not. Portrait painters are
raven enough to disslmula.e a double
chin; they leave it to the caricaturlst,
who seem to think it great fun for q
popular statesman or poet to have two
chins, whereas these appendages are the
secret of,their success. Some of our more
obsefvant writer's have got a glimpse
of the truth; Mr.. Wilkie Collins, for
instance. He very properly credits
Count Fosco, the man of daring,
resource and determination, with
double chin, to which Fosco's
pet cockatoo calls public atten-
ton by rubbing his head against
it in the most appreciatiVe manner pos
sible. But your ordinary novelist
would never have thoueht of that.
As an Enelishman, by the way, one
naturally turns to shakespeare to see
whether his appearance corroborates
Lavater's views. Shakespeare IN
doubtedly foresaw the point, as he
foresaw everything else, but he was
sufficiently artful to wear just enough
beard to place it in eternal doubt
whether he had a double chin or not.
Thus he leaves it open to all parties,
single-chinned or double, to quote him
as an instance of anything they like,
which after all, is the great use which
Shakespeare has always been put to-
London Standard.