Action of the respiratory muscles and the circulation in expression. 350. But it is the muscles of the respiratory organs which sympathize most with the muscles of the face in expression. This sympathy is the result of a nervous connection, and the nerve of expression in the face is therefore, as before stated, sometimes called the respiratory nerve of the face. Observe the prominent agency which the muscles of the chest have in the decided expression of the passions and feelings. In laughing the individual draws in a full breath, and then lets it out in short interrupted jets, the muscles of the throat, neck and chest, especially the diaphragm, being convulsively agitated. And if the laughter be strong and continued, he holds his sides, which become really sore, from the violent action of the respiratory muscles in this expression of his emotions. In weeping too, these same muscles are affected. The diaphragm acts spasmodically, the breathing is cut short by sobbing, the inspiration is quick, and the expiration is slow, and often with a melancholy note. But it is not alone in these marked cases that the respiatory muscles are seen to act, but you can observe their action in many of the slighter expressions of feeling. 351. There are certain effects produced by emotions upon the circulation, which heighten the expression resulting from muscular action. I have already referred to the blush of modesty, and the paleness of fear. In both laughter and weeping the spasmodic action of the muscles of respiration impedes the flow of blood through the lungs; and hence the countenance becomes flushed or suffused with the blood of the impeded circulation. This is very different from common blushing, which has nothing to do with the state of the general circulation, but is entirely a local effect, confined to the capillaries of the part, where it occurs. These capillaries are affected by the emotion through nervous connections, just as the minute secreting vessels in the tear glands are excited to unusual action. 352. From the views which I have presented of the capabilities of the human countenance in expression, you must be as much struck with its adaptation to the mind that moves it, as you were with the hand in this respect. Both are instruments of the mind, by which it accomplishes its purposes; and they would be out of place in any other animal, even one of a higher order, because he has not a mind capable of using such instruments to advantage. Man needs the face, with all its endowments, to express his thoughts and feelings, and the hand to do the handiwork which his mind designs; and the Creator has Training of the muscles of expression. Beauty depends much on their action. proportioned the capabilities of these instruments to the necesities and the mental powers of man. 353. As the muscles of the face perform such high functions, as the instruments of the mind in expression, it is important that they should be well trained in these functions. Much is often said about the importance of grace in the attitudes and movements of the body, while seldom is a thought given to the attitudes and movements of the countenance. Muscles are at work in the one case as well as in the other, and the muscles of the face can be trained to work skillfully and gracefully as well as the muscles of any other part of the body. Indeed, grace of action is much more important in the face than in the body generally, because the muscles there are used so much more for expression than in any other part. And yet the speaker, who aims to gesture gracefully with his arms, is often very careless in regard to the gestures, for so we may call them, which are made by his face. So too the parent, who takes unwearied pains to make the gait and attitudes of her child graceful, often allows most uncouth attitudes of countenance to grow into a habit. Many a child that has been drilled most faithfully, in order to overcome awkwardness of movement, is suffered to become incurably awkward in the face, as some one has aptly expressed it. Sometimes even a habit of making grimaces is unconsciously contracted, which utterly prevents the countenance from accompanying the words that are uttered with any thing like appropriate expression. 354. Beauty depends much upon the attitudes and movements of the face, and not alone upon the shape of the features. We often see a face which is beautiful in repose, that becomes ugly the moment that it is in action, because the movements of the muscles are so ungainly. And, on the other hand, we often see faces which are quite at fault in the shape of the features, display great beauty when in action, from the movements which play so easily and gracefully among the muscles. It is a great triumph of the spiritual over the physical, when the mind within thus puts its impress of beauty upon a material form which is destitute of symmetry. When it does this, there is more to challenge our admiration, than when the sculptor chisels the marble into beauty. And if he were to undertake, in imitation of what we often see in living nature, to put beauty into illshapen features, he would signally fail. This can be done only by the active mind within, moving plastic features by the subtle agency of nerves and muscles. In relation to the inadequacy Skill in the use of the muscles of expression. of mere symmetry of form to meet our ideas of beauty in the living countenance, Addison has justly said, "No woman can be handsome by the force of features alone, any more than she can be witty only by the help of speech." 355. There is nearly as much difference in skill in the use of the muscles of the face, as in the use of those of the hand. And we need not go to the accomplished orator or actor, as furnishing us alone with the higher examples of this skill. It is often seen exhibited in the ordinary intercourse of life, in those who have great capacity of expression, together with a mind uncommonly refined and susceptible. In them every shade of thought and feeling is clearly and beautifully traced in the countenance. While this is the result of education of the muscles of expression, an education of which the individual is for the most part unconscious, no direct attempt in the training of these muscles will succeed, unless the mind itself be of the right character. Intelligence and kindness cannot be made to beam from the countenance, if they do not exist in the moving spirit within. They are often awkwardly counterfeited, the one by the bustling air assumed by the face of the shallow pretender, and the other by the smirk of him who smiles only to get favor or profit from others. The counterfeit is often mistaken for the reality; and in relation to the truly intelligent and kind, there is often much error in the estimate put upon their intelligence and kindness, from the different degrees in which these qualities, when existing in the same amounts, are exhibited in the expression of the countenance. In some, the muscles of expression respond more readily and aptly to the thought and feeling within, than they do in others. 356. I know not of any more beautiful and striking exemplification of the influence of the mind and heart upon the expression of the countenance, than is to be seen in those institutions where juvenile outcasts from society are redeemed from their degradation by the hand of benevolence. You can often note most clearly the progress of the mental and moral cultivation in the lineaments of the face, as lively intelligence takes the place of stolid indifference, and refined sentiment that of brutal passion. Sometimes a few weeks suffice to change the whole character of the expression. The dill eye becomes bright, not from any change in the eye itself, but from the intelligence and sentiment which now play upon the muscles in its neighborhood. Those muscles which impart a lively and pleasant cast to the countenance when they are in action, are awakened from their The habitual expression of the countenance after death. long continued dormant state by the magic wand of benevolence, and thus give outward expression to the thoughts and feelings, which genial influences are producing in the mind and the heart. The change is often as great in a little time, as it would be in the face of an idiot, if he could be suddenly brought into the full possession of the mental faculties. 357. The habitual expression of the countenance, depending as it does upon the habitual condition of the muscles, is seen after death. In the state of relaxation which immediately occurs at death the face is very inexpressive, because its muscles are, together with those of the whole body, so entirely relaxed. But very soon they begin to contract, and they assume that degree of contraction to which they were habituated during life, and therefore give to the countenance its habitual expression. It is when this has taken place-when the muscles, recovering from the relaxation of the death-hour, resume their accustomed attitude, as we may express it, that the countenance of our friends appears so natural to us, and we are held, as if by a charm, gazing upon the intelligence and affection beaming there amid the awful stillness of death, till it seems as if those lips must have language. And this expression is retained through all the period of rigidity, till it is dissolved by the relaxation which succeeds this state and ushers in the process of decay. It is thus that the soul, as it takes its flight, leaves its impress upon the noblest part of its tabernacle of flesh; and it is not effaced till the last vestige of life is gone, and the laws of dead matter take possession of the body. The state of countenance which I have described is thus beautifully alluded to by Byron. He who hath bent him o'er the dead, Ere the first day of death has fled, The first dark day of nothingness, The last of danger and distress, (Before decay's effacing fingers Have swept the lines where beauty lingers), 'The doom he dreads yet dwells upon; Superiority of the vocal apparatus to musical instruments. Some moments, aye, one treacherous hour, The first, last look by death revealed! ment. CHAPTER XIV. THE VOICE. 358. THE apparatus of the voice is truly a musical instruWe can see therefore, in its construction and arrangement, the application of those principles, which usually regulate the production of musical sounds, and which man observes in making the various instruments which his ingenuity has invented to delight the ear. It is, however, a much more perfect instrument than any which man has invented. Almost every musical instrument, it is true, has a greater compass than that of the human voice; but it is by no means the chief excellence of an instrument that it can command a great extent of the scale. The apparatus of the voice can execute enough of the scale for all common purposes. It is wonderful that its compass is so great as it is, for it is a very small instrument, occupying a space of less than an inch square where the vibrating ligaments are situated. In every respect besides compass this instrument far excels all others. Listen to a good voice which has been well educated. Its transitions have an ease and a grace which the workmanship of man can not equal; the richness and sweetness of its tones are above all imitation with the most perfect instruments; and utterance is given to its various notes with so little apparent effort, with so little show of machinery, in comparison with the instruments made by man, that we are filled with wonder at the effects produced by so simple, delicate, and beautiful a piece of mechanism. But the most important circumstance to be noticed is, that there are parts connected with. this apparatus, which give articulation to the voice as it comes from the vocal chords, thus making it the principal medium of communication between man and man. This distinguishes it from every other musical instrument, and constitutes |