jo Facial Expression. 



go far to confirm the supposition that a duly formulated 

 Science of Beauty once existed among the Greeks. It is also 

 most suggestive, as a hint for further enquiries into human 

 capacities, to find that this law of Beauty expressed in form 

 conforms exactly to the tonic relation of musical notes in a 

 chord. It seems highly probable that there is a deep-lying 

 unity of the senses ; that a similar principle underlies the 

 activity of all of them ; and that in enjoying the perfection of 

 a contour we may be realising a subtle sense of true proportion, 

 that might equally express its essential nature in blended colour 

 or harmonious sound. 



Having said so much about the form of the face as affecting 

 its powers of expression, let us now consider the movements of 

 which its features are capable ; and in the first place the 

 mechanism by which those movements are effected. Move- 

 ments here, as elsewhere throughout the body, depend upon the 

 presence of muscle, or contractile tissue ; and the muscular 

 system of the face is one of the most complex and delicate of 

 those that carry on the actual work of the body. But the 

 muscles of the face are distinguished from all others by the 

 delicacy of their structure, the lightness of their labour, and the 

 great economic importance of the office they perform. Hence 

 they may not inappropriately be termed the aristocracy of the 

 muscular system ; for whereas other coarse grained muscles 

 toil laboriously in lifting heavy bones and moving the levers of 

 complicated joints, these delicate structures merely act upon a 

 soft and pliant skin, as with deftly working fibres they throw 

 it into furrows, and construct a charming dimple or elaborate a 

 smile. They are so light and so respondent that the slightest 

 breath of nerve activity sets them in motion, whereas a strong 

 impulse is needed to awaken their more weighty neighbours to 

 the discharge of their more massive duties. The only other 

 muscles that compare with them are the active little group 

 that move the eye, and those that give such quickness and pre- 

 cision to the movements of the fingers. In striking conformity 

 with these facts is the law by which Herbert Spencer has 

 attempted to explain how it is that the face is in so especial 



