remove mountains, and to
prove himself a new apostle in deeds and miracles, if once his soul
received the true inspiration, and the Holy Spirit worked its way through
him. Besides this, he imbibed all the follies and quackeries which
others had rejected,--a circumstance in which visionaries entirely differ
from philosophers. The young monk, like every theorist who is inspired
with the importance of his subject, was a fiery orator; he thereby soon
won over the minds of the simple, especially of the women, who were
easily caught by any warm and impassioned appeal. His imagination,
however, quickly formed for him another magic wand; for as he, on account
of his alliance with the highest of all beings, had a lofty opinion of
man, he formed the design of physiognomically dissecting the masterpiece
of creation, this favourite of heaven, and of allotting to him his
interior qualities by means of his exterior appearance. Men of his
character so frequently deceive themselves, that it is impossible to say
whether some remaining spark of understanding had whispered to him that
this new delusion would give a fresh polish to the old one; and that more
pious souls would come to him than ever, in order to be told so many
wondrous things about their faces. As he had only seen the four walls of
his cell, his penitents, and people of his own cast, and as he was as
ignorant in regard to mankind, the world, and true science, as men of
sanguine imaginations usually are,--it may be concluded that fancy alone
excited him to this scheme. His words and his writings operated
prodigiously upon the minds of all those who would much rather be
confused than think clearly. This is the case with the greater part of
mankind; and, as the hours of life glide away very pleasantly when
self-love is tickled, it was impossible that he should be without
disciples, for he flattered every body. Our monk did not confine his
researches to man alone; for he descended to the more ignoble beasts of
the earth, allotted to them their qualities by examining their faces and
the structure of their bodies, and imagined that he had made a wonderful
discovery when he proved--from the mighty claws, the teeth, and the
aspect of the lion, and from the tender, light fabric of the hare--why
the lion was not a hare, and the hare a lion. He was strangely surprised
that he had succeeded in pointing out so clearly the appropriate and
unalterable signs of brute nature, and to