Clarksville evening chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn) 1886-1890, 1889-02-15

TELL TALE DOUBLE ChIlNS.
What They Are Said to Signify to the
Reader of Character.

Inc great JuStlllcatlOn OF the double
chili rests, of course, on its unrivaled
value as an index of character-and
such a charactcrl 1t is really natures
patent Of nobility. This was long ago
discerned 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 diff
fers from the animals chiefly by his
chin, laying il down as an axiom that
the chin is the distinctive character
istic of humanity; consequently, dou-
bic chinned people are doubly diff
ferentiated, from the beasts that perish,
which is greatly to their credit. He
expressly takes for his model of ''the
thinker full of sagacity and penetra-
ton, man with a flash double chin,
coupled with a nose rounded at the
end. The portrait he gives is even
better than the letter press, as the gen
tloman is limned with at least five
chins, SO that his lower jaw is vista
of magnificent distances, like Wash
ington.
This happy physiogonomy of the
double chin, coupled with the round
ed nose, characterizes, he tells us, the
mind which can rise to heights, and
which follows its designs with reflect
ing firmness, unalloyed by obstinacy
Let, therefore, those with double chins
rejoice, 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 enthu-
siastically, is Reasons own image,
He quite revels in this feature. He
takes an example of Raphael, with a
beautifully rounded double chin, and
in criticising it he acknowledges that
the profile is wanting in truth, har-
mony and grace; but then, asks he,
how is it it SO strongly takes captive
our sympathy2
Where lies the illusion2 Merely in
the chin, he answers, and, as the chin
is double one, the matter is no longer
a mystery. He points triurnphantly
to Cicero's magnificent double chin,
and, in burst of cloquence, says of
Wren's, that, if you can find a man
with (am0ng other things such chin
as that without being gifted with
some extraordinary talent, he ronoun-
ces forever the science of physiog-
nomy. What Lavater has thus laid
down experience amply corroboratos.
The double chinned, therefore, should
hold their heads up higher, in the con-
seriousness of modest merit, and give
free play and just prominence to their
oo,.ti e A nc Df n, oIn
1t is, as limited above, rather diff
cult at present to tell who is endowed
and who is not. Portrait painters are
craven enough to dissimulate double
chin; they leave it to the caricaturist,
who seems to think it great fun for o
popular statesman or poet to have
to have two chins, whereas these ap
pendages are the secret of their sue
cess. Some of our more observant
writers have got glimpse of the
truth, Mr. Wilkie Collins, for instance.
He very properly credits Count Fosco,
the man of daring, resource and de-
termination, with a double chin, to
which Fosco's pet cockatoo calls pub
lie attention by rubbing his head
against it in the most appreciative
manner possible. But your ordinary
novelist would never have thought of
that As an Englishman, by the way,
one naturally turns to Shakespeare to
SEQ whether his appearance CORRIDOR
ates Lavatcr's views. Shakespeare un-
doubtedly forcsaw the point, rs he
foresaw everything else, but he was
sufficiently artful to wear just enough
beard to place it in eternal doubt
whether he had double chin or not.
Thus he leaves it open to all parties,
single chiuncd 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.