views objects-all this is too individual (if we may adopt our Author's term), too peculiar, of too fpiritual a nature to be juftly reprefented, or reprefentable, by the chiffel or the pencil, the phrafes of the orator, or the images of the poet. All, therefore, that can be expreffed in the sketch, or picture, of a great man, is only what M. LAVATER calls the folid mask of his mental countenance and character. This, no doubt, contains lines of grandeur; and it is curious to obferve fuch lines even in thofe heads of Henry, which reprefent him under the moft difadvantageous afpects. VOLTAIRE's thirty-three faces would excite laughter in the graveft and moft auftere of human beings. One of these is the true refemblance of that extraordinary man, and all its features are found in the other thirty-two heads, but with such variations as form the drolleft feries of caricaturas we have ever feen. If the name of the well-known Hubert was not at the bottom of this plate, it would eafily pafs for the production of our Hogarth; for it carries the ftrongest and most expreffive marks of his humour and genius. M. LAVATER looks upon the whole as caricaturas, in which he is mistaken; but taking the lines obfervable in every head for the effential lines of the countenance of Voltaire, he makes his remarks upon them.If we confidered thefe remarks as a trial of his talent, they would not be fufficient to decide that matter, however juft they might be, because the character of the original is fuppofed to be pretty generally known: fome of these remarks deserve mention. The eye,' fays he, has much the fame character in all these heads; its look is piercing, and full of fire; but it has nothing gracious, nothing fublime.-Goodnefs, cordiality, and fimplicity, are not the lines of character that we meet with in the faces of this curious groupe; nor do we find any thing here that infpires affection, or opens the heart to effufion and confidence. Greatnefs, mixed with good nefs, does not only excite in us a confcioufnefs of our inferiority and weakness, but, by a fecret charm, raifes us above ourselves, and communicates to us fome lines of its elevation and dignity; not fatiffied with admiring fuch greatnefs, we love it; and, inftead of being borne down under the weight of its fuperiority, the heart finds itself ennobled, dilated, and opens itself to complacence and joy. The faces of this plate produce no fuch effect; -when we look at them fteadily, they only feem to threaten us with a fatyrical fally, a malicious ftroke of wit. This is the language of every lip in the whole groupe.But though (continues M. LAVATER) we do not find in any of these faces the expreffion of benignity, of a noble fimplicity, of an indulgent and easy temper, yet it is not to be denied, that there are many paffages in the writings of this extraordinary man, which breathe a fpirit of true humanity, and excite the tendereft emotions: now that which is really in the writings or actions of a man must also be in his mind, and that which paffes in his mind must be, more or less, reprefented in the face, which is its mirror. But-thefe lines of moral beauty, thefe amiable internal movements, are often so fine and delicate, that in faces which carry a ftrong expreffion of different qualities, they are lefs perceptible; they are loft, as it were, in the bold effect of features more prevalent, so that neither the pencil nor chifel can hit them off-more efpecially when the pencil and chifel are in the hands of an artist who makes caricaturas.'-All this we understand, and think it judicious. But we own that we do not understand him so well, if we understand him at all, when he makes the following myfterious obfervation on the pencil of M. Hubert: I must obferve, with due refpect to the ingenious drawer of thefe heads, that if Voltaire be the Author of the works that bear his name, his forehead ought to be differently arched, and its profile ought to have quite other contours.' This may be true for aught we know. The 9th fragment relates to the inferior animals. They alfo belong to the fphere of phyfiognomonical fcience. M. LAVATER, however, acknowledges that he has not studied the natural hiftory of this clafs of beings with affiduity enough to qualify him for interpreting their phizzes with fo much accuracy as he does thofe of his own fpecies. Here, therefore, he profeffes confining himself to general reflections, and fome particular remarks, which may lead the obferver of nature to new difcoveries, and by which he proposes, in the mean time, to confirm the univerfality of phyfiognomical expreffion; to point out fome of those laws which the eternal wisdom has followed in the creation of living beings; and to render ftill more evident and palpable the dignity and prerogatives of human nature. However, he expatiates in this new field much farther than he seems to have intended to do: he lays Buffon under violent contribution, in his rich and admirable defcriptions of the animal creation; and he adds the mysteries and lights of phyfiognomical science to the delightful magic of Buffon's eloquence. In short, the whole brute creation paffes before him in review, and he tells every one of them his own. More especially he difcovers very little complaifance for the monkey-tribe, and rather pushes them backward, than brings them forward in the great fcale of being. This relieved us from a painful apprehenfion we began to entertain of their putting in as pretenders to near relationship, when we faw five-and-twenty of their phizzes exhibited in one of the plates of this fragment. More especially we were alarmed at M. LAVATER's defcription of the OurangQutang and the Gibbon. The former is well known, and is cer T 14 tainly tainly a mere beaft. The latter, in the plate before us, has a much more humanized face than the former, and our Author defcribes his moral character in the following words: "This monkey is of a good natural temper; his manners are mild and gentle, and his motions are neither too violent nor precipitate; he takes, with an air of benignity and contentment, the food that is offered to him-and so on." "But," adds our Author, "the whole of his figure taken together, has nothing in it human." We think this rather a fhuffling fentence, and should not be furprized to fee Pug lodging an appeal. Two figures, upon the whole, may differ, while fome of their respective parts may be fimilar; and as there is fomething (often much) of the beaft in man, why may there not be fomething of man in the beaft? However, we do not mean to give the brutes too extentive privileges; but we are not afraid of giving them their due, as we need be under no apprehenfion of their encroaching upon our domain, or coming in for their fhare of cur advanta ges and emoluments. Our fecurity here does not, indeed, proceed from M. LAVATER'S rules and obfervations with refpect to the peculiarities in the ftructure of their skulls, jawbones, and other parts, but from another circumftance, which will ever keep them in their own sphere, and at an eternal diftance from all human promotion, and that is-that they are phyfically incapable of making fpeeches. This the ingenious and celebrated anatomift CAMPER has proved abundantly in his treatife on the Qurang-Outang. [To be continued. ] ART. XIV. Decude Epiftolar Sobre el Estado, &c. i. e. Ten Letters concerning the prefent State of French Literature. Written from Paris in the Year 1780. By Don FRANCIS MARIA DE SILVA. Madrid. 1781. D. F. MARIA DE SILVA is nothing lefs than the Duke D'ALMODAVAR, who was ambaffador at our court before the breaking out of the late war; and we are perfuaded that this fpecimen of his tafte for elegant literature, will do him ftill more honour than he would receive even from the publication of his political tranfactions. He feems to be a warm friend of the arts and fciences, and of thofe that cultivate them; and indeed the work here announced is little more than a collection of the literary portraits of Voltaire, Rouffeau, D'Alembert, the Marquis of Condoreet, Marmontel, Thomas, de la Harpe, (si dis placet) Robinet, Diderot, Du Buffon, de la Lande, de Jaucourt, de Briffon, de Portal, Valmont, de Bomarre, d'Arcet, Sage, cum multis aliis quos nunc perfcribere longum eft. ART. ART. XV. Hiftoire de Academie Royale des Sciences, &c. i. e. The Hiftory and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, for 1779, 4to. Paris. 1782. PHYSIC s. Mem. CONCERNING French Wool, compared with that of other Countries. By M. DAUBENTON.-This eminent Academician, whofe extenfive knowledge is become, by its happy application, a rich fource of useful improvements and difcoveries, has been long employed, and to great purpofe, on the object of commerce that is treated in this Memoir. All the means of improving the quality, and increafing the quantity, of wool in France, fuch as the manner of feeding, lodging, and tending the fleecy tribe, of fheering their wool, and of making them breed with foreign races, have been obferved and examined by him with unremitting affiduity and attention. But in order to eftimate the influence of the different methods of treating fheep upon their wool, it is neceffary to have a fure rule, by which an accurate judgment may be formed of the fineness of the wool. This has been hitherto wanting among manufacturers, who often place different kinds of wool in the fame clafs, and whofe claffes are neither numerous enough, nor fufficiently diftinguished from each other, by certain marks or characters. M. DAUBENTON has been led to an accurate method of judging in this matter by a particular circumftance: after a very attentive examination of the different kinds of wool that came under his obfervation, he remarked, that in all flocks of wool whatever, there are threads of the greatest fineness, and that confequently it is not from the fineft threads of a flock of wool that we must judge of the degree of its fineness, but from the thickness of the coarse threads of the flock. He accordingly conftructed a micrometer, that measures the hundred and fortieth part of a line: this is the term, or highest degree of fineness, of the groffer threads of a flock of wool of the firft quality. This term being known, our Academician divides wool into five claffes: the fuperfine-the diameter of whose threads or filaments is from th of a line to % — the fine, whofe diameters are between and 14, and so on through the other claffes, to which he gives the names of the middling, coarfe, and fuper-coarse wools. The difference of diameter from one clafs to another being thus, the 4th of a line, this will be fufficient to make the careful obferver diftinguifh, in each clafs, wool of the first and fecond quality. M. DAUBENTON ufed this inftrument with fuccefs, to affure himself of the effects which the different methods he had employed produced upon wool, and to compare the French wool with that - of of other countries. As, however, it is not probable that hepherds or farmers, or even the greatest part of proprietors and manufacturers, will make ufe of this micrometer, our Academician has contrived for them an eafier and plainer method of proceeding. It confifts in placing upon a black ground famples of the wools of each clafs, at equal diftances from each other. Between these must be placed the fample, which is to be examined and compared with them, in order to have its finenefs and its clafs determined. By obferving it with a magnifying glafs when thus placed, it will be known, with more accuracy than by the ordinary method of feeling and handling, to what clafs it belongs. ANATOM Y. Mem. I. First Memoir, concerning the Voice.-Concerning the Structure of the Organs which form the Voice, confidered in Man, and in different claffes of Animals comparatively. By M. Vico d'AzYR. We have feen, in this ingenious Academician's memoir concerning the organ of hearing, his method of proceeding in treating that fubject *. After a comparative examination of the parts of that organ in different animals, he diftinguished thofe that are effentially neceffary to that fenfation from those which are only of a fecondary utility in this refpect; and he judged the fenfe of hearing to be more perfect in birds than in other animals, though the organ in them be remarkable for its fimplicity. In the memoir now before us, on a fimilar fubject, the learned anatomiit proceeds in the fame manner. He defcribes the vocal organ in man, in a great number of monkeys, in quadrupeds of different kinds, in birds, in fome reptiles; and in this examination it appeared to him under a great variety of afpects. Our Author's circumftantial account of thefe is moft curious: it is illuftrated by fifty-two figures admirably engraved, and exhibits the wifeft arrangement, the most beautiful mechanifm, difplayed in an infinite diverfity of means, that all tend to the fame ultimate, benevolent end. All this must be seen in the piece itself, from which, however, we shall extract fome particulars, and the general refult of our Acade mician's refearches on this interefting fubject. In feveral kinds of monkeys, membraneous bags, or receptacles, are obferved, which communicate with the larynx, and by receiving and difcharging the air alternately, ferve to form the cries of thefe animals. The howling-monkey t, fo called from the ftrength of his voice, has this bag, or receptacle, of a bony fubftance; and the peculiar conftruction of his vocal or See the Appendix to our laft Volume. The Red Monkey of Guiana, which Meffrs, de Buffon and Daubenton place in the Sap-jou clafs. |