this, is to doubt what is self-evident; to wish t interpret it, is to wish to explore the inexplicabl secret of existence. Striking and frequent the resemblance between parents and childre is, yet have the relations between the characte and countenances of families never been inquir into. No one has, to my knowledge, made at regular observations on this subject. I mu also confess, that I myself have made but fe with that circumstantial attention which is n cessary. All I have to remark is as follows:

When the father is considerably stupid, a the mother exceedingly the reverse, then w most of the children be endued with extraordi nary understanding.

When the father is good, truly good, the chi dren will in general be well-disposed; at leas most of them will be benevolent.

The son generally appears to inherit mor goodness from the good father, and intelligend from the intelligent mother; the daughter par takes of the character of the mother.

If we wish to find the most certain marks resemblance between parents and children, the should be observed within an hour or two after birth. We may then perceive whom the child most resembles in its formation. The most es sential resemblance is usually afterwards lost and does not perhaps appear again for many years; or not till after death.

When children, as they increase in years, visibly increase in the resemblance of form and

eatures to their parents, we cannot doubt but here is an increasing resemblance of character. How much soever the characters of children nay appear unlike that of the parents they resemble, yet will this dissimilarity be found to ›riginate in external circumstances; and the vaiety of these must be great indeed, if the differnce of character is not at length overpowered y the resemblance of form.

I believe, that from the strongly delineated ther, the firmness and the kind (I do not say e form, but the kind) of bones and muscles are erived; and from the strongly delineated moer, the kind of nerves and form of the coun. nance; if the imagination and love of the moer have not fixed themselves too deeply in the untenance of the man.

Certain forms of countenance, in children, ppear for a time undecided whether they shall take the resemblance of the father or the mother; in which case I will grant, that external circumstances, preponderating love for the father or mother, or a greater degree of intercourse with either, may influence the form.

We sometimes see children who long retain a emarkable resemblance to the father, but at ngth change, and become more like the moher. I undertake not to expound the least of difficulties that occur on this subject; but he most modest philosophy may be permitted to ompare uncommon cases with those which are nown, even though they were inexplicable;

and this, I believe, is all that philosophy can, a ought to do.

We know that all longings, or mother's mark and whatever may be considered as of the san nature, do not proceed from the father, b from the imagination of the mother. We al know, that children most resemble the fath only when the mother has a very lively im gination, and love for, or fear of the husban Therefore, as has before been observed, it a pears that the matter and quantum of the pow and of the life, proceed from the father; a from the imagination of the mother, sensibilit the kind of nerves, the form, and the appea

ance.

There are certain forms and features of cou tenance which are long propagated, and othe which as suddenly disappear. The beautiful an the deformed (I do not say forms of countenance but what is generally supposed to be beauty an deformity) are not the most easily propagated neither are the middling and insignificant; b the great and the minute are easily inherite and of long duration.

Parents with small noses may have childr with the largest and strongest defined; but th father or mother seldom, on the contrary, hav a very strong, that is to say, large boned nose which is not communicated at least to one their children, and which does not remain in th family, especially when it is in the female line It may seem to have been lost for many years

t soon or late will again make its appearance, d its resemblance to the original will be parularly visible a day or two after death. Where any extraordinary vivacity appears in eeyes of the mother, there is almost a certainty at these eyes will become hereditary; for the agination of the mother is delighted with nong so much as with the beauty of her own 8. Physiognomonical sensation has been hirto much more generally directed to the eye, in to the nose and form of the face; but if men should once be induced to examine the e, and form of the face, as assiduously as they ve done their eyes, it is to be expected that former will be no less strikingly hereditary in the latter.

Well-arched and short foreheads are easy of eritance, but not of long duration; and here proverb is applicable, Quod cito fit, cito perit. Soon got, soon gone.)

It is equally certain and inexplicable, that some emarkable physiognomies, of the most fruitful ersons, have been wholly lost to their posterity; ad it is as certain and inexplicable, that others e never lost. Nor is it less remarkable, that rtain strong countenances, of the father or other, disappear in the children, and perfectly vive in the grand-children.

he

As a proof of the powers of the imagination of mother, we sometimes see, that a woman hall have children by the second husband, which shall resemble the first, at least in the

general appearance. The Italians, however, a manifestly too extravagant, when they suppo children, who strongly resemble their fathe are base born. They say that the mother, du ing the commission of a crime so shameful, whol employs her imagination concerning the poss bility of surprise by, and the image of, her hu band. But, were this fear so to act, the form the children must not only have the very imag of the husband, but also his appearance of rag and revenge, without which the adulterous wi could not imagine the being surprised by, image of, her husband. It is this appearanc this rage, that she fears, and not the man.

Natural children generally resemble one their parents more than the legitimate.

The more there is of individual love, of pure faithful, mild affection, the more is this love re ciprocal and unconstrained between the fathe and mother, which reciprocal love and affectio imply a certain degree of imagination, and th capacity of receiving impressions, the more w the countenances of the children appear composed of the features of the parents.

to

The sanguine of all the temperaments is the most easily inherited, and with it volatility and, being once introduced, much industry an suffering will be necessary to exterminate th volatility.

The natural timidity of the mother may easily communicate the melancholy temperament the father. Be it understood that this is easy,