E S S A Y IY.
OF TH E EXPRESSION OF PASSION, AS ILLU STRA TED BY A COMPARISON
O F THE MUSCLES OF THE FACE IN MAN AND IN ANIMALS, AND
OF THE MUSCLES PECULIAR TO MAN, AND T H E IR EFFE C TS IN
BESTOWING HUMAN EXPRESSION.
T h e violent passions mark themselves so distinctly on the countenance,
both of man and of animals, that we are led even in the very
first inquiry to consider the movements hy which they are indicated,
as certain signs or characters provided hy nature for the express
purpose of intimating the internal emotion; and to suppose that
they are interpreted by the observer, in consequence of a peculiar
and instinctive, faculty. This view, however, which appears to me
so natural and just, is not received; an opposite theory has prevailed,
in which instinctive agency is rejected, and the appearances
are explained from a consideration of the necessities and the voluntary
exertions of the animal. With regard to the observer, it has
been asserted, that it is by experience alone that he distinguishes the
signs of the passions; that we learn, while infants, to consider smiles