210 EXPRESSION OF HIGH SPIRITS. Chap. VIII. 



at about the same age, viz. forty-five days; and in a 

 third, at a somewhat earlier age. The second infant, 

 when sixty-five days old, smiled much more broadly and 

 plainly than did the one first mentioned at the same 

 age; and even at this early age uttered noises very like 

 laughter. In this gradual acquirement, by infants, of 

 the habit of laughing, we have a case in -some degree 

 analogous to that of weeping. As practice is requisite 

 with the ordinary movements of the body, such as walk- 

 ing, so it seems to be with laughing and weeping. The 

 art of screaming, on the other hand, from being of serv- 

 ice to infants, has become finely developed from the 

 earliest days. 



High spirits, cheerfulness. — A man in high spirits, 

 though he may not actually smile, commonly exhibits 

 some tendency to the retraction of the corners of his 

 mouth. From the excitement of pleasure, the circula- 

 tion becomes more rapid; the eyes are bright, and the 

 colour of the face rises. The brain, being stimulated by 

 the increased flow of blood, reacts on the mental powers; 

 lively ideas pass still more rapidly through the mind, 

 and the affections are warmed. I heard a child, a little 

 under four years old, when asked what was meant by 

 being in good spirits, answer, " It is laughing, talking, 

 and kissing." It would be difficult to give a truer and 

 more practical definition. A man in this state holds his 

 body erect, his head upright, and his eyes open. There 

 is no drooping of the features, and no contraction of the 

 eyebrows. On the contrary, the frontal muscle, as Mo- 

 reau observes, 17 tends to contract slightly; and this 

 smooths the brow, removes every trace of a frown, arches 



17 ' La Physionomie,' par G. Lavater, edit, of 1820, vol. 

 iv.'p. 224. See, also, Sir C. Bell, 'Anatomy of Expression,' 

 p. 172, for the quotation given below. 



