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sides of the incision are healed they have very much the
appearance of lips. In this artificial mouth they wear a
shell, which is cut to resemble a row of teeth.
These different customs prove that the most polished and
the most savage nations agree in attaching a high degree of
importance to the teeth, which is evinced by some consider-
ing their preservation and cleanliness as a religious duty, and
others offering some of their principal teeth as a sacrifice to
their deities.
Lavater extends his physiognomical remarks on teeth, even
to those of brutes. Of the river horse Behemoth, he says :
! How irregular are
" How stupidly savage and inexorable
the position and figure of the teeth. How peculiar the
character of satanic, but foolish self destructive malignity."
"The crocodile proves how very physiognomical teeth
are."
Of the teeth "There is as little wildnessin the line of the
mouth, as in the form and position of the teeth."
It is certain that the " countenance is the theatre on which
the soul exhibits itself;" but it is the action of the muscles of
the face which gives to it the expression of the inward work-
ings of the mind, and not the size, form, or position of the
teeth. The same countenance may one moment express the
ferocity of the tiger, or the most inexorable, savage stupidity,
and the next, exhibit the meekness of the lamb, and this
without any alteration in the teeth. How then are the teeth
so very physiognomical ? How unreasonable, how uncharit-
able as well as unjust, would it be to suspect all those, who
have irregular teeth, of possessing the horrid disposition
attributed to the river-horse ; or to bar our doors against
those who have long and separated teeth, lest they should
prove robbers, like the Tartars. The case is different with
respect to beauty and deformity: no countenance, I believe