Volume Iii Part 55 (1/2)

'Here lies the Body of Daniel Saul, Spittle-fields Weaver, and that's all.'

'I will not dismiss you, whilst I am upon this Subject, without sending a short Epitaph which I once met with, though I cannot possibly recollect the Place. The Thought of it is serious, and in my Opinion, the finest that I ever met with upon this Occasion. You know, Sir, it is usual, after having told us the Name of the Person who lies interr'd to lanch out into his Praises. This Epitaph takes a quite contrary Turn, having been made by the Person himself some time before his Death.

'Hic jacet_ R. C. _in expectatione diei supremi. Qualis erat dies iste indicabit.' [2]

Here lieth _R. C_. in expectation of the last Day. What sort of a Man he was, that Day will discover.

_I am, SIR, &c_.

The following Letter is dated from _Cambridge_. [3]

_SIR_,

'Having lately read among your Speculations, an Essay upon Phisiognomy, I cannot but think that if you made a Visit to this ancient University, you might receive very considerable Lights upon that Subject, there being scarce a young Fellow in it who does not give certain Indications of his particular Humour and Disposition conformable to the Rules of that Art. In Courts and Cities every body lays a Constraint upon his Countenance, and endeavours to look like the rest of the World; but the Youth of this Place, having not yet formed themselves by Conversation, and the Knowledge of the World, give their Limbs and Features their full Play.

'As you have considered Human Nature in all its Lights, you must be extremely well apprized, that there is a very close Correspondence between the outward and the inward Man; that scarce the least Dawning, the least Parturiency towards a Thought can be stirring in the Mind of Man, without producing a suitable Revolution in his Exteriors, which will easily discover it self to an Adept in the Theory of the Phiz.

Hence it is, that the intrinsick Worth and Merit of a Son of _Alma Mater_ is ordinarily calculated from the Cast of his Visage, the Contour of his Person, the Mechanism of his Dress, the Disposition of his Limbs, the Manner of his Gate and Air, with a number of Circ.u.mstances of equal Consequence and Information: The Pract.i.tioners in this Art often make use of a Gentleman's Eyes to give 'em Light into the Posture of his Brains; take a Handle from his Nose, to judge of the Size of his Intellects; and interpret the over-much Visibility and Pertness of one Ear, as an infallible mark of Reprobation, and a Sign the Owner of so saucy a Member fears neither G.o.d nor Man. In conformity to this Scheme, a contracted Brow, a lumpish down-cast Look, a sober sedate Pace, with both Hands dangling quiet and steddy in Lines exactly parallel to each Lateral Pocket of the Galligaskins, is Logick, Metaphysicks and Mathematicks in Perfection. So likewise the _Belles Lettres_ are typified by a Saunter in the Gate; a Fall of one Wing of the Peruke backward, an Insertion of one Hand in the Fobb, and a negligent Swing of the other, with a Pinch of right and fine _Barcelona_ between Finger and Thumb, a due Quant.i.ty of the same upon the upper Lip, and a Noddle-Case loaden with Pulvil. Again, a grave solemn stalking Pace is Heroick Poetry, and Politicks; an Unequal one, a Genius for the Ode, and the modern Ballad: and an open Breast, with an audacious Display of the Holland s.h.i.+rt, is construed a fatal Tendency to the Art Military.

'I might be much larger upon these Hints, but I know whom I write to.

If you can graft any Speculation upon them, or turn them to the Advantage of the Persons concerned in them, you will do a Work very becoming the _British Spectator_, and oblige'

_Your very Humble Servant_,

Tom. Tweer.

[Footnote 1: Of the two letters which form this number the second is by John Henley, known afterwards as 'Orator Henley,' of whom see a note to No. 396.]

[Footnote 2: The European Magazine for July, 1787, says that the exact copy of this Epitaph, which is on a Thomas Crouch, who died in 1679, runs thus:

_Aperiet Deus tumulos et educet nos de sepulchris Qualis eram, dies isti haec c.u.m venerit, scies._.]

[Footnote 3: By John Henley.]

No. 519. Sat.u.r.day, October 25, 1712. Addison.

'Inde Hominum pecudumque genus, vitaeque volantum, Et quae marmoreo fert Monstra sub aequore pontus.'