18681874] EXPRESSION III 



must keep to my old opinion, and I dare say you will say that Letter 477 

 I am an obstinate old blockhead. 



The book has sold wonderfully ; 9,000 copies have now 

 been printed. 



To Chauncey Wright. Letter 478 



Down, Sept. 2ist, 1874. 



I have read your long letter with the greatest interest, 

 and it was extremely kind of you to take such great trouble. 

 Now that you call my attention to the fact, I well know the 

 appearance of persons moving the head from side to side 

 when critically viewing any object ; and I am almost sure 

 that I have seen the same gesture in an affected person when 

 speaking in exaggerated terms of some beautiful object not 

 present. I should think your explanation of this gesture was 

 the true one. But there seems to me a rather wide difference 

 between inclining or moving the head laterally, and moving 

 it in the same plane, as we do in negation, and, as you truly 

 add, in disapprobation. It may, however, be that these two 

 movements of the head have been confounded by travellers 

 when speaking of the Turks. Perhaps Prof. Lowell would 

 remember whether the movement was identically the same. 

 Your remarks on the effects of viewing a sunset, etc., with 

 the head inverted are very curious. 1 We have a looking-glass 

 in the drawing-room opposite the flower garden, and I have 



1 The letter dated Sept. 3rd, 1874, is published in Mr. Thayer's 

 Letters of Chauncey Wright, privately printed, Cambridge, Mass., 1878. 

 Wright quotes Mr. Sophocles, a native of Greece, at the time Professor 

 of Modern and Ancient Greek at Harvard University, to the effect that 

 the Turks do not express affirmation by a shake of the head, but by a 

 bow or grave nod, negation being expressed by a backward nod. From 

 the striking effect produced by looking at a landscape with the head 

 inverted, or by looking at its reflection, Chauncey Wright was led to the 

 lateral movement of the head, which is characteristic of critical inspec- 

 tion e.g. of a picture. He thinks that in this way a gesture of delibera- 

 tive assent arose which may have been confused with our ordinary sign 

 of negation. He thus attempts to account for the contradictions between 

 Lieber's statement that a Turk or Greek expresses " yes" by a shake of 

 the head, and the opposite opinion of Prof. Sophocles, and, lastly, Mr. 

 Lowell's assertion that in Italy our negative shake of the head is used in 

 affirmation (see Expression of the Emotions, Ed. II., p. 289). 



