6 INTRODUCTION. 



gave a course of lectures on Expression at the Sorbonne, 

 and his notes were published (1865) after his death, 

 under the title of ' De la Physionomie et des Mouve- 

 ments d'Expression.' This is a very interesting work, 

 full of valuable observations. His theory is rather com- 

 plex, and, as far as it can be given in a single sentence 

 (p. 65), is as follows :— " II resulte, de tous les faits que 

 j'ai rappeles, que les sens, rimagination et la pensee elle- 

 meme, si elevee, si abstraite qu'on la suppose, ne peu- 

 vent s'exercer sans eveiller un sentiment correlatif, et 

 que ce sentiment se traduit directement, sympathique- 

 ment, symboliquement ou metaphoriquement, dans 

 toutes les spheres des organs exterieurs, qui la racontent 

 tous, suivant leur mode d'action propre, comme si chacun 

 d'eux avait ete directement aifecte." 



Gratiolet appears to overlook inherited habit, and 

 even to some extent habit in the individual; and there- 

 fore he fails, as it seems to me, to give the right explana- 

 tion, or any explanation at all, of many gestures and ex- 

 pressions. As an illustration of what he calls symbolic 

 movements, I will quote his remarks (p. 37), taken from 

 M. Chevreul, on a man playing at billiards. " Si une 

 bille devie legerement de la direction que le joueur pre- 

 tend lui imprimer, ne l'avez-vous pas vu cent fois la pous- 

 ser du regard, de la tete et meme des epaules, comme si 

 ces mouvements, purement symboliques, pouvaient recti- 

 fier son trajet? Des mouvements non moins significatifs 

 se produisent quand la bille manque d'une impulsion 

 sumsante. Et chez les joueurs novices, ils sont quelque- 

 fois accuses au point d'eveiller le sourire sur les levres 

 des spectateurs." Such movements, as it appears to me, 

 may be attributed simply to habit. As often as a man 

 has wished to move an object to one side, he has always 

 pushed it to that side; when forwards, he has pushed it 



