192 A HISTORY OF 



imitate all the other passions, as they are raised and depressed, at 

 command ; the rest of the features are generally fixed ; or, when pu< 

 into motion, they do not obey the will ; the mouth and eyes, in an 

 actor, for instance, may, by being violently distorted, give a very dif 

 ferent expression from what he would intend ; bat the eye-brows can 

 scarcely be exerted improperly ; their being raised, denotes all those 

 passions which pride or pleasure inspire ; and their depression marks 

 those which are the effects of contemplation and pain ; and such who 

 have this feature, therefore, most at command, are often found to ex 

 eel as actors." ^ > 



The eye-lashes have an effect, in giving expression to the eye, par- 

 ticularly when long and close ; they soften its glances, and improve 

 its sweetness. Man and apes are the only animals that have eye- 

 lashes both upon the upper and lower lids ; all other animals want 

 them on the lid below. 



The eye-lids serve to guard the ball of the eye, and to furnish it 

 with a proper moisture. The upper lid rises and falls ; the lower has 

 scarce any motion ; and although their being moved depends on the 

 will, yet it often happens that the will is unable to keep them open, 

 when sleep or fatigue oppresses the mind. In birds, and amphibious 

 quadrupeds, the lower lid alone has motion ; fishes and insects have 

 no eye-lids whatever. 



The forehead makes a large part of the face, and a part which 

 chiefly contributes to its beauty. It ought to be justly proportioned ; 

 neither too round nor too flat ; neither too narrow nor too low ; and 

 the hair should come thick upon its extremities. It is known to every 

 body how much the hair tends to improve the face ; and how much 

 the being bald serves to take away from beauty. The highest part of 

 the head is that which becomes bald the soonest, as well as that part 

 which lies immediately above the temples. The hair under the tem- 

 ples, and at the back of the head, is very seldom known to fail, " and 

 women are much less apt to become bald than men ;" Mr. Buffon 

 seems to think they never become bald at all ; but we have too many 

 instances of the contrary among us, not to contradict very easily the 

 assertion. Of all parts or appendages of the body, the hair is that 

 which is found most different in different climates ; and often not only 

 contributes to mark the country, but also the disposition of the man. 

 It is in general thickest where the constitution is strongest ; and more 

 glossy and beautiful where the health is most permanent. The ancients 

 held the hair to be a sort of excrement, produced like the nails ; the 

 part next the root pushing out that immediately contiguous. But the 

 moderns have found that every hair may be truly said to live, to re- 

 ceive nutriment, to fill and distend itself like the other parts of the 

 body. The roots, they observe, do not turn gray sooner than the 

 extremities, but the whole hair changes colour at once ; and we have 

 many instances of persons who have grown gray in one night's time.* 

 Each nair, if viewed with a microscope, is found to consist of five or 

 MX lesser ones, all wrapped up in one common covering ; it appears 



Mr Buffon says, that the hair begins lo giow ^ray at the points, but the fact Is othei 



