as expressions of kindness, because they are accompanied by acts of
beneficence, and by endearments; and frowns as the contrary, because
we find them followed by blows; that the expression of anger
in a brute is only that which has been observed to precede his
biting, and that of fondness, his fawning and licking of the hand.
With regard to the creature itself, it is said, what have been called
the external signs of passion are merely the concomitants of those
voluntary movements, which the passion or habits suggest; that the
glare of the lion’s eye, for example, is the consequence of a voluntary
exertion to see his prey more clearly—his grin or snarl, the
natural motion of uncasing his fangs before he uses them. Men
will reason in this manner who have not duly considered the instrument
or apparatus of expression. But, on the other hand, the
power over the voluntary muscles may be retained, while the expression
is destroyed; and although the muscles serve two purposes
which may be confounded, there is no expression, properly so
called, unless these muscles be moved by an appropriate nerve of
expression.
Attending merely to the evidence furnished by anatomical investigation,
a remarkable difference is to be found between , the
anatomy and range of expression in man and in animals: In the
former, there seems to be a systematic provision for that mode of
communication and that natural language, which is to be read in
the changes of the countenance; there is no emotion in the mind
of man which has not its appropriate signs; and there are even
muscles in the human face, to which no other use can be assigned
than to serve as the organs of this language.
In brutes the strongest and most marked expression is that of
rage; the object of which is opposition, resistance, and defence.
But on examination it will be found that the strength of the expression
is in exact proportion to the strength of the principal action
in the creature when thus excited.
The graminivorous animals, which seek their subsistence not
by preying upon others, nor by the ferocity, contest, and victory
which supply the carnivorous with food, have in their features no
strong expression of rage. Their expression is chiefly confined to
the effect produced on the general system. Thus the inflamed
eye and the breathing nostrils of the bull are induced by the
general excitement. His only proper expression of rage is in the
position of the head, with the horns turned obliquely to the ground,
ready to strike; and indeed it may be observed in general, that
animals which strike with the horns show little indication either of
fear or rage, except in the position of the head, and in the excitement
of the eye; for the breath ejected from the expanded nostril
is the consequence of mere exertion, and may belong to different
conditions of the frame. In all graminivorous animals, the skin of
the head is closely attached to the skull, and capable only of very
i 2