68 Facial Expression. 



When we come to speak of the movements of the face we shall 

 find that this absence of a ground for true comparison is 

 reversed, and discover that here we have much in common 

 with the animal world ; if not in fact a common language of 

 expression by which we can largely understand their feelings, 

 and they in turn can appreciate our sentiments towards them- 

 selves. I hope I have in this sufficiently emphasized the 

 important distinction between the mere shape of a feature and 

 its power of appropriate movement, in constituting it an organ 

 of expression, and that I shall be able still further to show that 

 while the former is a useful and even necessary adjunct to the 

 total effect of facial expression, yet it by no means compares 

 in actual importance in this respect with the vital activity that 

 declares itself in the movements of the features. But before 

 we leave the subject of the form of the face, I must refer to one 

 or two other matters closely germane to our present subject. 

 Firstly, in what light are we to consider the claims of the 

 phrenologists, who attribute to certain local developments or 

 non-developments of the face and head an important correlative 

 influence upon the presence or absence of certain distinctive 

 features of the mental economy ? The system of Spurzheim, 

 like that of Lavater, was for many years extremely popular, 

 but like it also, it was based on a misconception. The bony 

 thickenings found in various localities on the surface of the 

 skull have no relation to any increase in the parts of the brain 

 that lie beneath them, and therefore an exact delineation of 

 character based on these appearances is no more likely to be 

 correct than a similar estimate based on a study of height, 

 weight, or complexion solely ; and much less likely to contain 

 a germ of truth than the recently resuscitated science of 

 palmistry. There is no doubt a certain amount of truth in a 

 physical sense, and perhaps even to a slight extent in a moral, 

 in the old saying ex pede Herculem ; but surely a foot is a 

 very much more expressive token of the character of the man, 

 and the nature of his heroic work in the world, than any con- 

 catenation of bumps and hollows on the surface of his skull ! 

 But this lecture is in no sense intended to deal with Phrenology, 



