The American Literary Magazine (Volume 3-4) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1848. Excerpt: ... peculiar duties and responsibilities assigned him as the sterner sex. There is the high or low forehead, the nose Roman, Grecian, or celestial, (oftener called pug, ) the mouth broadly expanding or diminishing, the chin prominent or retreating. In the female these attributes are less observable, the individual features are less strongly marked, and the whole aspect of the face is characterized by gentleness rather than sternness. Indeed, the lineaments of the male and female countenance are to be judged of by altogether a different standard of beauty, as what in the one might be considered appropriate to his character, is not always so in the case of the other. In the latter, the forehead has a softer outline, the nose is less striking, the eyes are more sparkling or brilliant, the mouth smaller and more expressive, and the chin rounded with peculiar grace--where, combined as theso lineaments often are with the presence of high intellectual qualities, we have the personification of the finest type of womanhood. Not to speak of many others of what has been called the seraph sex, what these attributes may be in their peculiar loveliness, is seen in the countenance of Mrs. Humans, in looks as well as character, the belle-ideal of English poetic genius. But to turn from this general survey of the subject of physiognomy to a few particulars. A fine, prominent forehead, all will admit, is a noble feature, regarded as the index of calm deliberation and pure thought. Whether relaxed with a smile or contracted into a frown, it is here that the soul is particularly mirrored. We have seen such foreheads, with their lofty bearing indicative of intellectual greatness and masculine strength. Such is Webster's, with its broad massiveness and depth, beetling, as we have sometimes thought, like a cra...