ANIMALS 195 



This is the most dangerous state of mind : accidents or friendship m;iy 

 lessen the louder kinds of grief ; but all remedies for this must be had 

 from within : and there, despair too often finds the most deadly 

 enemy." 



Laughter is a sound of the voice, interrupted and pursued for some 

 continuance. The muscles of the belly and the diaphragm are em 

 ployed in its slightest exertions ; but those of the ribs are stronglj 

 agitated in the louder : and the head sometimes is thrown backward, 

 in order to raise them with greater ease. The smile is often an indi- 

 cation of kindness and good will : it is also often used as a mark of 

 contempt and ridicule. 



Blushing proceeds from different passions, being produced by 

 shame, anger, pride, and joy. Paleness is often also the effect of 

 anger ; and almost ever attendant on fright and fear. These altera- 

 tions in the colour of the countenance are entirely involuntary ; all the 

 other expressions of the passions are, in some small degree, under con- 

 trol ; but blushing and paleness betray our secret purposes ; and we 

 might as well attempt to stop them as the circulation of the blood, by 

 which they are caused. 



The whole head, as well as the features of the face, takes peculiar 

 attitudes from its passions : it 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 arrogance and pride ; erect in self 

 conceit and obstinacy ; it is thrown backwards in astonishment ; and 

 combines its motions to the one side, and the other, to express con 

 tempt, ridicule, anger, and resentment. " Painters, whose study leads 

 to the contemplation of external forms, are much more adequate judges 

 of these than any naturalist can be ; and it is with these a general re- 

 mark, that no one passion is regularly expressed on different counte- 

 nances in the same manner : that grief often sits upon the face like 

 joy ; and pride assumes the air of passion. It would be vain, there- 

 fore, in words, to express their general effect, since they are often as 

 various as the countenances they sit upon ; and in making this dis- 

 tinction nicely, lies all the skill of the physiognomist. 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 themselves, 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 charac- 

 ter of every person whose face they examined. Montaigne is weH. 

 known to have disliked those men who shut one eye in looking upon 

 any object ; and Fielding asserts, that he never knew a person with a 

 steady glavering smile, but he found him a rogue. However, most of 

 these observations, tending to a discovery of the mind by the face, are 

 nerely capricious ; and nature has kindly hid our hearts from each 

 other, to keep us in good humour with our felloe -creatures." 



The parts of the head which give the least expression to the face, 

 ttre the ears ; and they are generally found hidden under the hair. 

 These, which are immoveable, and make so small an appearance in 

 man, are very distinguishing features in quadrupeds. Thev serve o 



