422 HISTORY OF 



bends forward, to express humility, shame, or 

 sorrow ; it is turned to one side in languor or in 

 pity ; it is thrown with the chin forward in arro- 

 gance and pride ; erect in self-conceit and obsti- 

 nacy ; it is thrown backwards in astonishment ; 

 and combines its motions to the one side and the 

 other, to express contempt, ridicule, anger, and 

 resentment. " Painters, whose study leads to 

 the contemplation of external forms, are much 

 more adequate judges of these than any natu- 

 ralist can be ; and it is with these a general re- 

 mark, that no one passion is regularly expressed 

 on different countenances in the same manner 

 that grief often sits upon the face like joy ; 

 and pride assumes the air of passion. It would 

 be vain, therefore, in words, to express their ge- 

 neral effect, since they are often as various as the 

 countenances they sit upon ; and in making this 

 distinction nicely, lies all the skill of the physiog- 

 nomist. In being able to distinguish what part of 

 the face is marked by nature, and what by the 

 mind ; what part has been originally formed, and 

 what is made by habit, constitutes this science, 

 upon which the ancients so much valued them- 

 selves, and which we at present so little regard. 

 Some, however, of the most acute men among 

 us have paid great attention to this art ; and, by 

 long practice, have been able to give some cha- 

 racter of every person whose face they examined. 

 Montaigne is well known to have disliked those 

 men who shut one eye in looking upon any ob- 

 ject ; and Fielding asserts, that he never knew a 

 person with a steady glavering smile, but he 



