 Foot.
Will ye now affirm, or can ye conceive, that any Trace of native Bashfulness and Lowliness should remain in the Frontlet of this Piece of Court-Petrefaction? No such Trace can remain.
As I observed to ye before, that every Affection of the human Soul has its distinct and respective Interpreter in the Countenance; I am further to take Notice that each, of those many Interpreters, hath its respective Set of Tubes and Fibres leading thereto, through which the Blood and Spirits flow on their respective Emotion. Thus, whatever the general Tenour of a Person's Temper may be, such as joyous, or melancholy, irascible, or placid, and so forth; the Vessels, relative to these Affections, are kept open and full, by an almost constant Flow of the Blood and animal Spirits, and impress such evident Characters of that Person's Disposition, as are not to be suppressed, except for a Time, and that too by some powerful and opposite Passion. For the Muscles, so employed, grow stronger and more conspicuous by Exercise; as we see the Legs of a Chairman, and the Shoulders of a Porter, derive Bulk and Distinction from the Peculiarity of their Occupation.
Now, I will take the Argument in the strongest Light against myself. I will suppose a Man to be naturally of a melancholy Cast of Countenance; that he has the additional unhappiness of a bilious Constitution; and, that he is confirmed in this Look and Habit of Despondence, by a Train of distressful Circumstances, till he arrives at his twentieth or thirtieth Year. I will then suppose that his Habit of Body, and Temper of Mind are totally changed, by Medicine, a Flow of Success, a happy Turn of Reason and Resignation, or perhaps of Complacence in the divine Dispensations. He now grows sociable, benevolent, cheerful, always joyous when in Company and placid when alone. I ask, on this Occasion, will ye continue to see the same Cast and Habit of Melancholy in this Man's Countenance? No more than ye can see the Gloom of last Winter, in the smiling Serene of a Summer's-Evening. For some Time, I admit, it will be difficult for the Set of joyous Muscles, and Glances, to overpower their Adversaries who have so long kept the Field; but, in the End, they must prevail; they will receive constant Supplies, from within; and the Passages, for their Reinforcement, will be opened more and more; while their Opponents daily subside, give Place, and disappear.
What I have observed,
