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Show 328 BLUSHING. CrrAr. XIII. " the slightest attempt to examine their peculiarities " invariably" caused them to Llush deeply. W o1nen are much more sensitive about their personal appearance than men are, especially elderly won1en in comparison with elderly men, and they blush Inuch more freely. The young of both sexes are much more sensitive on this sa1ne head than the old, and they also blush much 1nore freely than the old. Children at a very early age do not blush; nor do they show those other signs of self-consciousness wbieh generally accompany blushing; and it is one of their chief charms that they think nothing about what others think of them. At this early age they will stare at a stranger with a fixed gaze and unblinking eyes, as on an inanimate object, in a manner which we elders cannot imitate. It is plain to every one that young men and women are highly sensitive to the opinion of each other with reference to their personal appearance; and they blush incomparably more in the presence of the opposite sex than in that of their own.25 A young man, not very liable to blush, will blush intensely at any slight ridicule of his appearance from ·a girl whose judgment on any important subject he would disregard. No happy pair of young lovers, valuing each other's admiration and love more than anything else in the world, probably ever courted each other without many a blush. Even the barbarians of rrierra del Fuego, according to Mr. Bridges, blush " chiefly in regard to " women, but certainly also at their own personal '' appearance." Of all parts of the body, the face is 1nost considered 25 Mr. Bain ('The Emotions and the 'Vill,' 1865, p. 65) remarks on " the shyness of manners which is induced between the sexes · · · · " from the influence of mutual regard, by the apprehension on eitllrr " side of not standing well with the other." CHAT'. XUI. BLUSHING. 32!1 and regarded, as is natural from its bein()' the chief s at of cxpres. ion n.ncl the source of tho v i e. It is al tho ehief seat of beauty and of uglin ss, and throughout the world is the most ornamented. 26 ~rho face th ref ore, will have been subjected during many gen~rations to much closer and more earnest self-attention than any other part of the body ; and in accordance with th principle here advanced we can understand why it should be t!1e most liable to blush. Although exposure ~o alternatiOns of temperature, &c., has probably much Increased the power of dilatation and contraction in the ?apillar!es of the face and adjoining parts~ yet this by Itself w1ll harclly account for these parts blushing much 1nore than the rest of the body; for it docs not explain the fact of the hands rar ly blushing. vVith Europeans the whole body tingles slightly when tho face blushes intensely; and with the races of men who habitually go nearly naked, the blushes extend over a much larger surface than with us. These facts are, to a certain extent, intelligible, as the self-attention of primeval man, as well as of the existing races which still go naked, will not have been so exclusively confined to their faces, as is the case with the people who now go clothed. vVe have seen that in all parts of the world persons who feel shame for some n1oral delinquency, are apt to avert, bend down, or hide their faces, independently of any thought about their personal appearance. ~rhe object can hardly be to conceal their blushes for the face is thus averted or hidden under circumst~nces which exclude any desire to conceal sha1ne as when guilt is fully confessed and repented of. It is', however probable that prilneval man before he had acquire(l - -- -------- 26 R , for evidence on thi subject, ''l'he Descent of 1\Ian,' &c., yoJ. ii. pp. 71, 34.1. |