Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/167

 THE PHILOSOPHY OF EXPRESSION.

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��(luadrupeds. We hear of pig-headed and mutton-headed men. They are hard to drive or coax alone ; but in herds they become tractable. j It is not certain, however, that these terms are derived from the expression or external form of the face ; though such a supposition is not improbable. The terms are as old as written language. The greatest of the Homeric heroes did not hesitate to call each other ^^do^- faced," when one would charge an antagonist with immodesty ; and, ever since the Trojan war, men have de- lighted to describe certain forms of expression in ''the human face divine" by epithets derived from the animal kingdom. Our language has a well- stored armory of such missiles. Such are the words wolfish, foxy, swinish, pig-headed, bull-headed, dogged, sheepish, owlish, eagle-eyed, hawk- nosed, &c.

J>om this somewhat desultory enu- meration or particulars, I have en- deavored to show that the body takes its conformation from the soul ; that the external very significantly repre- sents the internal man ; that there is a harmony between the physical and spiritual in our constitution. Can these signs be reduced to a science ? Is it possible to determine from the features and expression of the face, from the size and form of the brain, the true character of the man? The multiplied failures of such attempts show that no certainty can be reached by such philosophers. Much usefiil knowledge may be acquired, undoubt- edly, by a careful comparison of dif- ferent faces and heads, and many general conclusions may be deduced, but there is such an infinite diversity of form in the human head and face, that it is idle to talk of estimating char- acter and intellect with accuracy, by a brief inspection of the skull and countenance. Consider for a mo- ment how strangely the expression of the face is altered by a very slight de- rangement of a single feature which may be induced by accident or dis- ease. Let one eye be elevated or depressed a trifle at its external or in- VII— 10

��ternal angle, or the corners of the the mouth be turned up or down but a grain, or let tlie chin project or re- treat a iitde, or the nose be slightly shortened or lengthened or turned up, and what a sinister or quizzical ex- pression is imparted to the whole countenance ! Indeed, painters tell us that the only difference between laughing and weeping consists in the depression or elevation of the muscles about the corners of t]:;e mouth and eyes.

It was a fcivorite notion of Plato that i^hysical beauty always accom- panies and indicates moral and intel- lectual beauty ; but the pug nose and ugly face of his own teacher, Socrates, were sufficient to refute such a theory , even if the handsome person of his fellow-student, the reckless, profligate, and unprincipled Alcibiades, had not hung in the other scale, a living refu- tation of it. The laws of expression cannot, therefore, be inferred by in- duction, like the laws of gravitation, so as to serve as an unerring guide to the student of nature. Even if such certainty in judging of character were possible, passion, habit, and prejudice would prevent its application to real life. Besides, the experience neces- sary to an accurate estimate of men from external signs, comes too late in our history to be available. Phrenol- ogists, in vain, direct young persons to select their partners for life by their cranial developments or temperaments. To the young, beauty and goodness are generally synonymous. The phi- losophy which distinguishes them is the fruit sometimes of bitter experi- ence. In judging of female accom- plishments, most men. I think, would agree with the witty Sidney Smith. He says : "I am no great physiogno- mist, nor have I much confidence in a science which pretends to discover the inside from the out ; but where I have seen fine eyes, a beautiful com- plexion, grace and sym.metry in wo- men, I have generally thought them amazingly well-infomied and extremely philosophical. In contrai^y instances^ seldom or never."

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