40 EXPRESSION. 



Permanent Expression. 



The most recent, and probably the most profound 

 and elaborate attempt to unravel the mysteries of 

 expression is Mr. Darwin's, and I think it is to be 

 regretted that so acute and original an observer 

 has confined himself so strictly to the expression of 

 the emotions, and neither allowed his mind to 

 diverge to the expression of thought by language, 

 nor to that permanent expression due to form of 

 skeleton and chiselling of soft parts. Of course it 

 is open to any one to take up the position that 

 there is no relationship between the characteristics 

 of the mind and the permanent forms of the body, 

 and such a position is often maintained. But even 

 if it be granted, as it well may be, that conclusions 

 derived from bodily conformation are often liable 

 to be delusive, and even if the extreme view be 

 held that the forms of the features and other 

 parts of the body never afford any key whatever 

 to mental qualities, it yet remains' incontrovert- 

 ible that the mind of the observer is so affected 

 by different bodily forms as to associate them 

 with different mental qualities, and to feel a 

 sense of the unexpected when convinced in any 

 instance that the association is violated by nature. 

 Thus it is one of the acknowledged aims of the 



