Physiognomy; being a sketch only of a larger work upon the same plan; wherein the different tempers, passions, and manners of men, will be particularly considered / By the editor of the History and antiquities of Wheatfield in Suffolk [i.e. J. Clubbe].

  • Clubbe, John, 1703?-1773.
Date:
1763
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiognomy; being a sketch only of a larger work upon the same plan; wherein the different tempers, passions, and manners of men, will be particularly considered / By the editor of the History and antiquities of Wheatfield in Suffolk [i.e. J. Clubbe]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    vious knowledge of their feveral cafes, they enter upon their office with the certainty of Sir George Trueman in the Drummer, of the Haunted Houfe, when, in the difguife of a conjurer, he is confulted by his fervants. By fome fuch fecret intelligence, in all probability, the difpofition of Socrates was difcovered to Zopyrus : he worked by the affiftance of fome fervant, or perhaps an idle fcholar of the Philofopher’s, who watched the good old man in an unguarded hour, and then betrayed him.—Sometimes intelli¬ gence is picked up from the votaries themfelves; who, under the influence of prepoffefiion or fudden aftonifhment, gape out their own fecrets, and then impute the difcovery to the fuperior abili¬ ties of the Pra&itioners, Upon thefe fandy and fallacious foun¬ dations ftands the fcience of Phyjiognomy. But as all forgeries and counterfeits take their firft rife from re¬ alities, or the fuppofed want of them ; fo this art implies there being fuch a power in nature, or that fuch a power would be ufeful to mankind. And, indeed, the utility of the thing itfelf is a good prefumptive proof of its exifting fomewhere; becaufe to none, but atheiftical and narrow-minded men, are there any deficiencies, or dejiderata in nature. The difficulty is to trace it out with that precifion and exactnefs, as will exclude all con- iedhire or furmife; for nothing can be more arbitrary than de¬ terminations founded upon mere imagination, becaufe it has not one property that can abfolutely be depended upon. To remedy this evil, I fhall endeavour to put this fcience into a different channel, ftill retaining the name, and by a courfe of Jiatical ex¬ periments to reduce it to a fyftem that cannot be controverted; thereby ftriking off the artful and lucrative decifions of fome, the uncandid Prognofticks of others, and the common errors and ab- iurdities of all who pretend to Phyjiognomy. At the fame time, I would not be thought to bear any malevolence at the Profeffors themfelves, by thus queftioning the certainty of their principles ; oil the contrary, (as they are fit lor nothing elfe) I wifh them all places