42 EXPRESSION. 



exhibit the resolution of a Cromwell in a face with 

 a small and narrow jaw, or with one of those pretty 

 chins like a bagatelle ball, not uncommon in certain 

 localities. And the chin is the more remarkable as 

 a feature of expression since its projection forwards 

 is distinctive of the higher races of humanity, and 

 has nothing to do with the muscles of mastication in 

 connection with which the lower jaws of savages 

 are often heavy and strong. It has no physical 

 function whatever, so far as I am aware. None of 

 the lower animals have a vestige of it, and the 

 lower races of humanity approximate to them 

 in this respect, without loss of power either in the 

 lips or jaw. Curiously it happens that the levatores 

 menti, muscles correctly named by the old anato- 

 mists musculi superbi, adapted by pushing the 

 lower lip upwards to aid that closure of the mouth 

 by which is expressed a resolve to resist, accom- 

 panied with an assertion of superiority, it happens 

 that those muscles render the integuments of the 

 chin more prominent ; and if they were sufficiently 

 strong, and if the integuments to which their fibres 

 descend were adherent to the bone, their habitual 

 action would increase the forward prominence ; but 

 both they and the other muscles of the face 

 attached to the chin are far too small for the 

 wildest fancy to suppose that they can possess 



