Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/402

386 on Olympus. Who ever saw a man commanding a man-of war or driving a locomotive with the contentious lip of a school usher?

The typical expressions of the members of those three liberal professions which Sir Thomas Browne says are all founded upon the Fall of Adam are well enough recognized to have been long the prey of the caricaturist. The several distinctive traits of each, and the possible causes which give rise to them, are too complex to be dealt within a single article. Speaking very generally, the cleric's face is indicative of authority (of the thin-lipped kind) and of a dignified sense of the sanctity of his office. The doctor's jaw and mouth are less rigid, yet tell of decision. His eye is vigilant and sympathetic, and his whole facial aspect conveys the idea of a fund of untapped wisdom. The lawyer's countenance is confident and confidential, with a pouncing alertness of the eye, and a prevailing expression of weighty perspicacity.

Of course it must be understood that in such a summary one is dealing with the broadest generalities. Marked exceptions to the rule for each class will be within every one's experience. I am inclined to think that in the learned professions the facial characteristics are much less marked than formerly. This may partly be accounted for by the modern laxity of fashion as to shaving the lip and chin. But also, there can be little doubt that the custom of carrying a sort of perpetual personal trade-mark is diminishing. Military officers no longer wear their uniform in private life, and the doctor and lawyer have both acquired a weakness to be classed, socially, as human beings.

It is noteworthy (and here my own observation has been supported by one of the most alert minds of this generation) that the leading members of the medical and legal professions do not display the facial symbols to anything like the same extent as the rank and file. This is especially so with regard to the expression of the mouth, and may be due to the absence of that anxious endeavor to look like a wise doctor or lawyer which possesses most ordinary practitioners in their earlier years.

The fact that two people who live long together tend to grow alike is accounted for by unconscious mimicry reacting upon the muscles of expression in the same way that a ruling passion does. This tendency to facial imitation is very general—in fact, almost universal—and may be so marked as to be easily noticed; so that when two people are engaged in animated conversation, the expression of the listener may often be seen to echo that of the speaker. How "infectious" is a smile or a laugh, even when the idea which gave rise to it in the first case is not transferred!

Several times, when talking to young people, I have suddenly and purposely adopted some change of expression, such as the