GESTURES. 493 



to have originated in social life. It can be employed, as it is in many 

 of our operas, to depict the different intellectual and moral conditions, 



"And bid alternate passions fall and rise." 



When the air is accompanied by the words, or is articulated, we are 

 capable of expressing, by singing, any of the thoughts or feelings, that 

 can be communicated by ordinary artificial language. 



Declamation is a kind of singing, except that the intervals between 

 the tones are not entirely harmonic, and the tones themselves not 

 wholly appreciable. With the ancients it has been imagined it dif- 

 fered much less from singing than with the moderns, and probably re- 

 sembled the recitative of the operas. The ingenious work of Dr. James 

 Rush of Philadelphia, 1 may be consulted on all this subject, with great 

 advantage. 



b. Creatures. 



Under this appellation, and that of muteosis, are included those 

 functions of expression, that are addressed to the sight and touch. It 

 comprises not only the partial movements of the face, but also those of 

 the upper extremities ; besides the innumerable outward signs that cha- 

 racterize the various emotions. In many tribes of animals, the con- 

 ventional language appears to be almost, if not entirely, confined to 

 the gestures; and even in man favoured beyond all animals in the 

 facility of communicating his sentiments by the voice the language of 

 gestures is rich and comprehensive. It is in the gestures of the face 

 chiefly, that he far exceeds other animals. This is, indeed, in him, the 

 great group of organs of expression. In animals, the function is dis- 

 tributed over different parts of the body, the face assuming but little 

 expression, whilst the animal is labouring under any emotion, if we 

 make exception of the brute passion of anger and of one or two others. 

 Hence it is, that, by some naturalists, man has been defined, by way of 

 distinction, "a laughing and crying animal." In animals, almost all 

 the facial expression of internal feeling is confined to the eye and mouth, 

 but, in addition, the attitude of the body is variously modified, and the 

 hair is raised by the panniculus carnosus, as we see on the back of the 

 dog when enraged. 



In the human countenance, alone, in the state of society, can the 

 passions be read, the rest of the body being covered by clothing; and 

 even were it not, the absence of a coat of hair, and of a panniculus 

 carnosus, would enable it to minister but little to expression. The skin 

 of the face is very fine, and on certain parts, as the lips and cheeks, is 

 habitually more or less florid, and admits of considerable and expressive 

 variations in its degree of colour. The union of the different parts 

 composing the face gives occasion to numerous reliefs, which are called 

 traits or features; and beneath the skin are muscles, capable, by their 

 contraction, of modifying the features in a thousand ways. 



To comprehend fully the physiology of the facial expression of the 



1 Philosophy of the Human Voice, 3d edit., Philad., 1845. 



