464 PSYCHOLOGY. 



We have a mass of other testimony of similar effect. 

 Burke, in his treatise on the Sublime and Beautiful, writes 

 as follows of the physiognomist Campanella : 



" This man, it seems, had not only made very accurate observations 

 on human faces, but was very expert in mimicking such as were in any 

 way remarkable. When he had a mind to penetrate into the inclinations 

 of those he had to deal with, he composed his face, his gesture, and his 

 whole body, as nearly as he could, into the exact similitude of the per- 

 son he intended to examine ; and then carefully observed what turn of 

 mind he seemed to acquire by the change. So that, says my author, he 

 was able to enter into the dispositions and thoughts of people as effec- 

 tually as if he had been changed into the very men. I have often ob- 

 served [Burke now goes on in his own person] that, on mimicking the 

 looks and gestures of angry, or placid, or frightened, or daring men, I 

 have involuntarily found my mind turned to that passion whose appear- 

 ance I strove to imitate ; nay, I am convinced it is hard to avoid it, 

 though one strove to separate the passion from its corresponding ges- 

 tures." * 



Against this it is to be said that many actors who per- 

 fectly mimic the outward appearances of emotion in face, 

 gait, and voice declare that they feel no emotion at all. 

 Others, however, according to Mr. Wm. Archer, who has 

 made a very instructive statistical inquiry among them, 

 say that the emotion of the part masters them whenever 

 they play it well.f Thus : 



"'I often turn pale,' writes Miss Isabel Bateman, 'in scenes of 

 terror or great excitement. I have been told this many times, and I 

 can feel myself getting very cold and shivering and pale in thrilling 

 situations.' 'When I am playing rage or terror,' writes Mr. Lionel 

 Brough, ' I believe I do turn pale. My mouth gets dry, my tongue 

 cleaves to my palate. In Bob Acres, for instance (in the last act), I 



* Quoted by Dugald Stewart, Elements, etc. (Hamilton's ed.), m. 140. 

 Fechner (Vorscbule der Aestbetik, 156) says almost the same thing of him- 

 self : "One may hnd by one's own observation that the imitation of the 

 bodily expression of a mental condition makes us understand it much 

 better than the merely looking on. . . . When I walk behind some one 

 whom I do not know, and imitate as accurately as possible his gait and 

 carriage, I get the most curious impression of feeling as the person himself 

 must feel. To go tripping and mincing after the fashion of a young wo- 

 man puts one, so to speak, in a feminine mood of mind." 



f 'The Anatomy of Acting,' in Longman's Magazine, vol. xi. pp. 366, 

 375, 498 (1888), since republished in book form. 



