The Twelve Qualities of Mind, or Outlines of a New System of Physiognomy, Vol. 2 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Twelve Qualities of Mind, or Outlines of a New System of Physiognomy, Vol. 2

Every faculty of the mind has an exact sign in the face, and is indicated also by exact signs in other parts of the body. The signs in the face indicate the highest action of the faculties; that is, their voluntary action; and only this quality of the mind in a degree approaching perfection could entitle the face to the appellation of the human face divine. The majority of animals have not, properly speaking, faces, but only heads. Some few animals - those which approximate to man in habits and dispositions, as the monkey tribe - may be spoken of, without any great impropriety, as having faces; but we more naturally say the head of a horse, of an ass, &c. And in speaking of fishes and insects, it would be ridiculous to ascribe to them any faces at all. Yet insects possess very many faculties in common with man, and which are of a higher order, even, than those possessed by the most superior of the inferior animals. They provide for their young, build curious habitations, make provision for the future, and do many other things in which man might well take example from them - and all without any volition or intelligence such as renders man the superior being that he is.

It is evident, then, that there must be different qualities, so to speak, of all the faculties; that the quality of the mind indicated in the face is not the same as that indicated in the tones of the voice, and that the quality indicated in the voice is not the same as that indicated in the gestures, and so on. Inquiry into this subject has discovered twelve qualities of the mind, belonging to each of the faculties or to the mind as a whole, and that these qualities have their signs in different parts of the body, and in certain other external manifestations. These qualities stand in a particular order in relation to each other; and in this order it will be well to speak of them in the succeeding letters.

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