482. Temperaments
Temperaments are four in number, to wit, the Sanguine, the Choleric, the Melancholic and the Phlegmatic. They are merely inclinations of the animus, or those differences in the animus into which we are born.
The sanguine temperament has reference to an animus prone to the reception of sensations and the production of ideas, and similarly prone in the matter of affections; thus, to an animus not tenacious of its own opinion, accommodating, lively. An animus of this kind shines out in the countenance, the eyes, the speech, the voice, the gestures and the several actions, and is described by physiologists. 1 The choleric temperament indicates an animus not so prone to various pleasures and desires, but serious and sometimes indignant and morose if another does not favor one's opinion and one's love. Otherwise, the man is a good man, and, for the most part, a lover of what is honorable. His face and outward form is also described by physiologists. The melancholic temperament indicates a sad mind, immersed in fantasies, indulging more in internal sensations than in external, more a stranger to pleasures, an internal rather than an external man. As opposed to the sanguine temperament, the melancholic is tenacious of its opinion; believes hypotheses and opinions to be truths, and thinks itself wiser than others; is vehement in the affections into which it falls, and augments them with its own fantasies; is a lover of solitude, or else of companions to whom it is accustomed; a hater of variety. The phlegmatic temperament indicates an animus prone neither to anger nor to any other affection, tacit, keeping its thoughts to itself; it is patient, but inwardly heated; sluggish in action, and so forth.
Footnotes:
1. See Note Book, p. 8.
