52 EXPRESSION. 



anticipated. Similarly, if an artist wished to express 

 sympathy he would bend the figure forwards toward 

 the object of the emotion, with the fingers stretched in 

 the same direction, as if ready to help, and the palm 

 probably inclined downwards, as if in token of pro- 

 tection, but not because there is anything actually 

 to be covered by them. 



In exercising authority the body is raised to its 

 full height, because the moral attitude is one of 

 superiority, and the hand may be brought down to 

 indicate that opposition will be dealt with in the 

 way which in the symbolism of language is ex- 

 pressed as "put down." Again, a speaker in ex- 

 plaining his views may bring the fingers of one 

 hand down on the other, as if he were producing a 

 visible object and placing it on his hand before you, 

 or were pointing to a visible statement on paper, the 

 downward movement not now giving the idea of de- 

 struction, but of that which is symbolically called 

 " laying down " his propositions. Here the move- 

 ment of the hand keeps pace with the success of the 

 speaker's effort to put his ideas in words ; the 

 movement is arrested and the muscles tense, as in a 

 state of mental tension he struggles with a difficulty; 

 then as he overcomes the difficulty down goes the 

 hand, as everybody knows, with energy parallel to 

 that which he wishes to give to his statement. 



