from those of France generally. Nearly all have the character here described.

It is under this species that the nervous temperament falls, which is constituted by great sensibility and corresponding mobility, and therefore belongs to the first and the last of those varieties; a temperament chiefly to be found among women.

This temperament scarcely exists in the athletic, is weak in the phlegmatic, is moderate in the sanguine, and is rather active in the bilious.

It is characterised by the smallness and emaciation of the muscles, the quickness and intensity of the sensations, and the suddenness and fickleness of the determinations.

It is seldom natural, but commonly depends on a sedentary and inactive life, on a diseased condition of the brain produced by reading works of imagination, and on habits of sensual indulgence. In confirmation of this, we are told that the Roman ladies became subject to nervous affections only in consequence of those depraved manners which marked the decline of the empire; and that these affections were extremely common in France in the licentious times preceding the fall of the corrupt and corrupting monarchy.

Another partial view falling under this species,

and properly under the second variety, is the cerebral temperament, which results from the energy and influence of the brain.

This temperament, being thus determined by an excess in the power of the brain, has been called the temperament of genius. When it is increased by education and habits, the other organs are generally more feeble.

In woman, the cerebral temperament is more particularly characterised by a predominance of imagination, which is evidently dependent on the organization which has already been described.

It has been truly observed, that to contribute to the perfection of reason as well as to the preservation of health, the brain ought to be exercised and developed in every direction; that the mere exercise of memory carried too far renders persons foolish; that the predominance of imagination disposes to nervous affections, and even to alienation; that meditation alters the digestive functions; and that the dry and minute contention which business requires, disposes, when joined to a defect of exercise (and I suspect to the vinous excesses in which men of business indulge), to apoplexy, and to paralysis.