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Show 6 INTRODUCTION. are least under the separate control of. the ~vill. He enters very little into theoretical con~Ideratlons, and seldom attempts to explain why certain muscles a~cl not others contract under the influence of certain emotions. . A distinguished French ~~atomi~t, Pierre Gratiolot, gave a course of lectures on Expression at the ~orbonne, and his notes were published (1865) after his death, under the title of 'De la Physionomie et des Mouvements d'Expression.' This is a ve~·y interesti~g work, full of valuable observations. His theory IS rather complex, and, as far as it can be given in a single sentence (p. 65 ), is as follows :-" Il resu:~e, d~ to~s les " faits que j'ai rappeles, que les sens, !Imagination et " la pensee elle-meme, si elevee, si a~str.aite qu'on l~ " suppose, ne peuvent s' exercer sans eveiller un sent~" ment correlatif, et que ce sentiment se tradtnt " directement, sympathiquement, symboliquement ou "metaphoriquement, dans toutes les spheres des or" ganes exterieurs, qui le racontent tous, suivant leur "mode d'action propre, comme si chacun d'eux avait " ete directement affecte." Gratiolet appears to overlook inherited habit, and even to some extent habit in the individual ; and therefore he fails, as it seems to me, to give the right explanation, or any explanation at all, of many gestures and expressions. As an illustration of what he calls symbolic movements, I will quote his remarks (p. 37), taken from M. Chevreul, on a man playing at billiards. "Si nne bille devie leo·erement de la direc- o " tion que le joueur pretend lui in1primer, no l'avez-vous "pas vu cent fois la pousser du regard, de la tote et " :qteme des epaules, comme si' ces mouvements, pure,, ment symboliques, pouvaient rectifier son trajet? Des " mouvements non moins significatifs se produisent lN'rRODUC'l'IUN. 7 " q uand la bille manque cl'une impulsion suffisante. Et, " chez les joueurs novices, ils sont quelquefois accuses " au point d' eveiller le sourire sur les levres des spec" tateurs." Such movements, as it appears to me, may be attributed simply to habit. .A .. s often as a man has wished to move an object to one side, he has always pushed it to that side; when forwards, he has pushed it forwards ; and if he has wished to arrest it, he has pulled backwards. Therefore, when a man sees his ball travelling in a wrong direction, and he intensely wishes it to go in another direction, he cannot avoid, fro~ lo~g habit, unconsciously performing movements which In other cases he has found effectual. As an instance of sympathetic movements Gratiolet gives (p. 212) the following case:-" un jeune chien. a " oreilles droites, auquel son maitre presente de lOin " quelque viande appetissa.nte, fixe avec ardeur ses " yeux sur cet objet dont il suit tous les mouvements, " et pendant que les yeux regardent, les deux oreilles " se portent en avant comrne si cet objet pouvait etre " entendu." Here, instead of speaking of sympathy between the ears and eyes, it appears to me more simple to believe, that as dogs during many g~nerations have, whilst intently looking at any obJect, pricked their ears in order to perce~ve any . sou~d; and conversely have looked intently In the duect1on of a sound to which they 1nay have listened, the movements of these organs have become firmly associated too·ether through lon0'-continued habit. 0 b . Dr. Piderit published in 1859 an essay on Expression, which I have not seen, but in which, as he states, he forestalled Gratiolet in many of his views. In 1867 he published his 'vVissenschaftliches S!stem de: Mi~nik und Physiognomik.' It is hardly possible to give In a few sentences a fair notion of his views; perhaps tho |
