ON ACQUIRED FACIAL EXPRESSION. 381 



vented. That the association is instinctive, and not acquired 

 through individual or racial education, is shown by the fact that 

 the facial changes which accompany the sentiments of fear, ha- 

 tred, contempt, merriment, or mockery are practically identical 

 the world over. 



The extreme rarity of the man who can always keep his coun- 

 tenance, even when his will is fully awake, is as complete a proof 

 of this intimate and automatic bond between the mental appara- 

 tus and the facial muscles as need be brought forward. Are we 

 not all aware of exercising a restraining effort upon our features 

 when we endeavor to hide our emotions ? And is not the com- 

 mon phrase, " He gave way to his feelings," a recognition of the 

 fact that the invariable instinctive tendency is, when the emotions 

 are stirred, to yield to those outward manifestations which are 

 obvious to the eye of another, and which are the results of motor 

 nervous impulse ? 



Now, this fact is most important in the study of what may 

 be called " static physiognomy/' which treats of the interpreta- 

 tion of habitual expression when the countenance is at rest. It 

 shows that in all probability every emotion, however slight, sends 

 an impulse to the appropriate muscles, although the immediate 

 nervous provocation may be much too faint to produce any 

 marked movement. That such trivial and evanescent nerve im- 

 pulses, although their effect may be at the time unfelt by the 

 subject himself and imperceptible to lookers-on, may be, if often 

 repeated, efficient factors in the formation of a habitual cast of 

 countenance, I shall presently show. 



It is plain that such effects will become more perceptible when 

 the first rotundity of youth has disappeared. We naturally look 

 at a young face for a prophecy, and at an old one for a record. 

 But the materials from which we attempt to inform ourselves are 

 of a very different character in the two classes. In the one case 

 we see a general arrangement of features, which, according to 

 some utterly inscrutable law, accompanies certain traits of mental 

 and moral character. No satisfactory theory has ever been put 

 forward to account for such facts as that human beings with a 

 certain inherited squareness of jaw are always of a tenacious dis- 

 position. 



But when we scrutinize an older face, we peruse the linear in- 

 scriptions upon its surface as we read a book of which we know 

 the author. Not only do such and such conformations of its lines 

 have a definite meaning, but we can form an opinion as to why 

 and when (if not how) they were written. The caligraphy, of 

 course, is not uniform in all cases, and there are various com- 

 plexities about it which may render an exact interpretation a 

 matter of difficulty. Trouble or passion, which in one instance is 



