Page images
PDF
EPUB

like a drunken man." Despair is in every face, and death sits threatening on every surge. But when Omnipotence pleases to command, the storm is hushed to silence; the lightnings lay aside their fiery bolts, and the billows cease to roll.

Frank.

DIALOGUE ON PHYSIOGNOMY.

IT

Enter FRANK and HENRY.

T appears strange to me that people can be so imposed upon. There is no difficulty in judging folks by their looks. I profess to know as much of a man, at the first view, as by half a dozen years acquaintance.

Henry. Pray how is that done? I should wish to learn such an art.

Fr. Did you never read Lavater on Physiognomy?

Hen. No. What do you mean by such a hard word? Fr. Physiognomy means a knowledge of men's hearts, thoughts, and characters, by their looks. For instance, if you see a man, with a forehead jutting over his eyes like a piazza, with a pair of eyebrows, heavy like the cornice of a house; with full eyes, and a Roman nose, depend on it he is a great scholar, and an honest man.

Hen. It seem to me I should rather go below his nose to discover his scholarship.

Fr. By no means: if you look for beauty, you may descend to the mouth and chin ; otherwise never go

below the region of the brain.

Enter GEORge.

Geor. Well, I have been to see the man hanged. And he is gone to the other world, with just such a great forehead and Roman nose, as you have always been praising.

Fr. Remember, George, all signs fail in dry weather.

Geor. Now, be honest, Frank, and own that there

The only way

is nothing in all this trumpery of yours. to know men is by their actions. If a man commit burglary, think you a Roman nose ought to save him from punishment?

Fr. I don't carry my notions so far as that; but it is certain that all faces in the world are different; and equally true, that each has some marks about it, by which one can discover the temper and character of the person.

Enter PETER.

Peter. [to Frank.] Sir, I have heard of your fame from Dan to Beersheba; that you can know a man by his face, and can tell his thoughts by his looks. Hearing this, I have visited you without the ceremony of an introduction.

Fr. Why, indeed, I do profess something in that

way.

Pet. By that forehead, nose, and those eyes of yours, one might be sure of an acute, penetrating

mind.

Fr. I see that you are not ignorant of physiog

nomy.

Pet. I am not; but still I am so far from being an adept in the art, that, unless the features are very remarkable, I cannot determine with certainty. But yours is the most striking face I ever saw. There is a certain firmness in the lines, which lead from the outer verge to the centre of the apple of your eye, which denotes great forecast, deep thought, bright invention, and a genius for great purposes.

Fr. You are a perfect master of the art. And to show you that I know something of it, permit me to observe, that the form of your face denotes frankness, truth, and honesty. Your heart is a stranger to guile, your lips, to deceit, and your hands, to fraud.

Pet. I must confess that you have hit upon my true character; though a different one, from what Í have sustained in the view of the world.

Fr.

Fr. [To Henry and George.] Now see two strong examples of the truth of physiognomy. [While he is speaking this, Peter takes out his pocket-book, and makes off with himself.] Now, can you conceive, that without this knowledge, I could fathom the character of a total stranger?

Hen. Pray tell us by that in his heart and lips hands no fraud ?

what marks you discovered no guile, and in his

was

Fr. Aye, leave that to me; we are not to reveal our secrets. But I will show you a face and character, which exactly suits him. [Feels for his pocket-book in both pockets, looks wildly and concerned.]

Geor. [Tauntingly.] Aye, "in his heart is no guile, in his lips no deceit, and in his hands no fraud ! Now we see a strong example of the power of physiognomy !"

Fr. He is a wretch! a traitor against every good sign! I'll pursue him to the ends of the earth. [Of fers to go.]

Hen. Stop a moment. His fine honest face is far enough before this time. You have not yet discovered the worst injury he has done you.

Fr. What's that? I had no watch or money for him to steal.

Hen, By his deceitfel lips, he has robbed you of any just conception of yourself; he has betrayed you into a foolish belief that you are possessed of most extraordinary genius and talents. Whereas separate from the idle whim about physiognomy, you have had no more pretence to genius or learning than a common school-boy. Learn henceforth to estimate men's hands by their deeds, their lips, by their words, and their hearts, by their lives.

ORATION

ORATION DELIVERED AT PARIS BY CITIZEN CARNOT, PRESIDENT OF THE EXECUTIVE DIAT THE FESTIVAL OF GRATITUDE AND VICTORY, CELEBRATED AT THE CHAMP-DE-MARS, MAY 29, 1796.

RECTORY,

IT

T is at the moment when nature is renovated, when the earth, adorned with flowers and dressed in green, promises new harvests; when all beings proclaim in their own language, the beneficent Intelligence which renovates the universe, that the French people assemble on this great festival, to render a distinguished homage to those talents and virtues of the friends of the country and humanity. What day can better unite all hearts! What citizen, what man can be a stranger to the influence of gratitude! We exist only through an uninterrupted course of beneficence, and our life is but a continual exchange of services.

As soon as born, our eyes, fixed on the heavens, appear already to acknowledge a primary Benefactor. Weak, without support, the love of our parents watches over our infancy, and provides for wants continually renewed. They direct our first steps; their patient solicitude assists in developing our organs; we receive from them our first ideas of what we are ourselves, and of surrounding objects. Additional care models our hearts to affection, our minds to knowledge, and our bodies to useful labour. It is for our happiness, that the wise have reflected on the duties of man; that the learned have diven into the secrets of nature; that the magistrate watches, and that the legislator prepares in deliberation protecting laws.

Soon we are enabled to be useful. Good children. we strew flowers over the age of our parents, and their trembling voice blesses us in their last moments. Be come parents in our turn, we prepare, in the education of our children, the felicity of our declining years

and we thus continue in a new generation the chain of benevolence and gratitude. Sensibility is not restricted within the family circle; the indigent is searched for under the thatch; succors and consolation are lavished; and the donor, at first paid for the good action by the pleasure of having performed it, is doubly rewarded by the gratitude of the object. Benevolence! how happy are thy votaries, and how much to be pitied, the soul that knows thee not!

He who is a good son and a good father is also a good citizen. He loves his country; renders with alacrity the tribute of services; he delights in returning to his brothers the protection he has received from them. Either magistrate or warrior, manufacturer or farmer; in the temple of the arts; in the Senate; in the fields of glory, or the workshops of industry, he shows himself ambitious of contributing towards the prosperity of his country, and to deserve one day its gratitude. For there is a national gratitude for individuals. At this moment a people are all assembled to express their gratitude to the virtuous citizens who have deserved it. How agreeable is the task! How we delight in paying you that homage; you to whom the country owes its safety, its glory, and the foundation of its prosperity!

You, to whom France owes its political regeneration ; courageous philosophers, whose writings have planted the seeds of the revolution, corroded the ferters of slavery, and blunted by degrees the ravings of fanaticism. You, citizens, whose dauntless courage effected this happy revolution; founded the republic, and contended these seven years against crime and ambition, royalism and anarchy. You all, in a word, who lacour to render France happy and flourishing; who red it illustrious by your talents, and enrich it by your discov eries; receive the solemn testimony of national gratitude.

[ocr errors]

Receive that testimony particularly, republican ar mies; you, whose glory and successes are fresh ju the

recollection

« PreviousContinue »