CHAPTER IT. 

 General Principles of Expression — continued. 



The Principle of Antithesis — Instances in the dog* and cat 

 — Origin of the principle — Conventional signs — The 

 principle of antithesis has not arisen from opposite 

 actions being consciously performed under opposite im- 

 pulses. 



We will now consider our second Principle, that of 

 Antithesis. Certain states of the mind lead, as we have 

 seen in the last chapter, to certain habitual movements 

 which were primarily, or may still be, of service; and 

 we shall find that when a directly opposite state of mind 

 is induced, there is a strong and involuntary tendency 

 to the performance of movements of a directly opposite 

 nature, though these have never been of any service. 

 A few striking instances of antithesis will be given, 

 when we treat of the special expressions, of man; but 

 as, in these cases, we are particularly liable to confound 

 conventional or artificial gestures and expressions with 

 those which are innate or universal, and which alone 

 deserve to rank as true expressions, I will in the present 

 chapter almost confine myself to the lower animals. 



When a dog approaches a strange dog or man in a 

 savage or hostile frame of mind he walks upright and 

 very stiffly; his head is slightly raised, or not much 

 lowered; the tail is held erect and quite rigid; the hairs 

 bristle, especially along the neck and back; the pricked 



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