An anatomical lecture of man, or, A map of the little world, delineated in essayes and characters by Samuell Person ...

Character of a Cha∣racter.

IT is an Hyerogliphick, a little Enchiridion that Ensphears much, like Ho∣mers Iliads in a nut shell, or the Chariot and Hor∣ses curtained with the wing of Myrmicedes Fly; It may be termed a Chrystaline Mirrour or Looking-Glass, wherein every man may see his Face; a stigmatizing Iron to those that are bad, branding them with a black Theta, the worst characteristical letter that may be, and also it will be an R. in their cre∣dit; but like the Planet Mercury, its good with the good, and bad with bad, it will

set a glorious glore upon the virtuous, but an ignominious mark upon the vi∣tious; it makes the former petty Proe∣bus's, and their virtues are like those twinckling winking eyes that attracts all other to behold them; for when as virtuous man sees himself delineated, he by and by accounts himself another Felix. Policrates and Narcissus-like, falls in love with himself, and that fair face of virtue he saw in the forementioned myrrour; But when the virtuous mans Antipode vir, a wicked one studies Op∣ticks and Glances into this Glass that reflects his true Shape and Effigies, he will be fit to do with this, as the de∣formed woman did with her Looking-Glass, who broke it and made it a mul∣tiplying one, because she saw such a Spectrum as through her self, and by that means reduplicated her deformed Face and Image, and made her a Janus faced Monster, just thus will he be ser∣ved, who out of his Vatinian hatred to Images (being conscious of his fair one) will dispise those that are reflected by this Speculum; A Character is the Pi∣cture or Draught of each person, it has not only the signatura rerum, but also,

Personarum stamped upon it; it is the Counterpane of Natures Book, and also of each Individuum; the Mark or Badge that every man hath, by which he may be known, it alters with a man as (Ge∣murists say) the Turmois in a ring looks wel or ill as with him, the umbra or shad∣dow which continually follows him, and is his concomitant; they may be term∣ed petty Chronologies or Chronicles, the impress and token that is stamped upon each man, his Nature, Dispositi∣ons, and Qualities are here known; the pulse by which you may know whether well or ill with him; a Microcosmo∣graphy or a Map of man, the Anotamy of the Soul, which rips up mens Quali∣ties, as old Democritus did Beasts in his Garden at Abdera, and there sees with∣in them; a kind of Legitimate augury that looks into the intestines of things, then it may be called the hand in the dyal, that points at each one its mimi∣cal, that imitates all things Cynical, that carps at all things Scomical, that de∣rides all things with the forenamed Phy∣losopher; It is a Tautological eccho, a greater blab then Patto, they are the Registers that put all things upon Re∣cord,

the Diurnal that tells News of such and such men, and gives notice in what State and Condition things are; no dumb Mercuries, but give intelli∣gence, yea and understanding too; to the Reader they are not Flesh-marks, but infallible symptoms of things and persons; it may properly be Baptized a mans Zodiack, for in it are all his signs, both good and bad, especially a bad mans Character may be named, so be∣cause there be so many Beasts and Mon∣sters in it, and it is his Flag, Banner, or Ensign that hangs out, intimating whats within; Characterizing is a kind of Physiogmony, and that which is writ∣ten in the book of a mans Soul, it be∣holds and copies it out, and transcribes it into another Book, in blak and white Characters, whatsoever was inscribed, they are Hierogliphical, or Emblemati∣cal Writings (such as the Egyptians used) that write with the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, great and little Letters in Na∣tures Alphabet, rather then other Printed Letters, for here a man writes a great deal in a little room, and so these Characters will in this sense agree with those other Characters, called Brachi∣graphy,

and certainly those Figures or Letters drawn by Natures pencil, are more significant then those that are the result of a mans fancy; Characters are like Ingenious Pictures that look at every one, they are the Prospectives that a man should well eye, the Wea∣ther-glasses, or Urinals in which one may take a survey of humours; It is good for all men, good and bad, to look in these, as the Phylosophers coun∣sell'd his Schollers to see themselves in their reflecting Glasses, so that if they be Fair and Beautiful to do that which becomes them, if soule and deformed, then to compensate it by the beauty of the internals; so let them rectifie their obliquities by the straight lines of this Coppy; I would counsel them to have (as one Antipheron thought he did,) car∣ry their Images before them in their sight, or else they will never obey that oracular precept, Nosce te ipsum; but many will call the Character of some bad man, A Libel, that is, a Bell with a lye that rings about the Coun∣try, but it is far otherwise, the worst mischief of it is, that it is true, to con∣clude, a Character is every mans Phy∣sicks

Epitomized, viz. his Nature; Hi∣storia animalium, it is an harmonious clinching of divers senses, all ending with a sweet finiall flowrishing cloze, and relish: the word Character intimates a thing engraven, so that it should have a deep impression upon men, and now my Character is conceived, and brought into.