thp: philosophy of expression.
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��tentment, and causes the eye to beam upon all with benignity and love. To those who covet ^^ood looks here is presented a secondary motive for the cultivation oi i:;ood fee/ings. The Rev. Leonard VVithington, in his advice to married ladies, says : " I have no hes- itation in saying it is your duty to be handsome. But what? Can we con- trol a quality which is the gift of na- ture ? Yes ; you can ; for the ugliest face that ever deformed the workman- ship of God, comes from some bad passion corroding in the heart. I say again, it is your duty to be handsome ; not by paint and artifice ; but by be- nevolence and good nature — a face ar- rayed in smiles and an eye that spark- les with love — the beauty of expression which is the best of all beauties." When we recollect that the beauty which we most admire and which can alone make an impression on the heart, consists in those significant looks which reveal the emotions of the soul, rather than in the force of regular features and fine complexion, this advice of the antiquary seems to be the dictate of true wisdom. One of our own poets has drawn a pleasing portrait of a lady whose beauty consisted not in mere form, features and complexion, but in the sprightliness and animation which an active intellect and a kind heart give to the expression of the face, to the tones of the voice, and the move- ment of the limbs :
" She was not very beautiful, if it be
beauty's test To match a classic model when perfectly
at rest ; And she did not look bewitchingly, if
witchery it be To have a forehead and a lip transparent
as the sea. The fashion of her gracefulness was not
a followed rule, And her effervescent sprightliness was
never learnt at school, And her words were all peculiar, like the
faii-y's who spoke pearls, And her tone was ever sweetest, 'mid the
cadences of girls. Said I, she was not beautiful V Her eyes
upon your sight Broke with the lambent purity of plan- etary light.
��And an intellectual beauty, like a light within a vase.
Touched every line with glory, of her an- imated face."
The plainest features become inter- esting when they are made the indices of indwelling virtues.
" Beauties in vain their pretty eyes mav
roll, Charms strike the sight, but merit wins
the soul."
Socrates is said to have resembled Silenus in the face. He was exces- sively ugly. Plato compares him to the gallipots of the Athenian apothe- caries, which were painted on the ex- terior with grotesque figures of apes and owls, but contained within a pre- cious balm. This repulsive counte- nance was the true index of his natu- ral tendencies. When charged with sensuality by a physiognomist of his own times, he confessed that the charge was true, so far as propensities were in- dicated, but that he had subdued them by the study and practice of philoso- phy. This is the man who, by his persuasive eloquence and virtuous life, won the love of the most cultivated men of his own age, and the admira- tion of all succeeding ages. Homer, in one instance, has described a malig- nant buffoon, showing by it his convic- tion of the correspondence of the physical and mental constitution in men. This picture is nearly 3000 years old :
" Thersites only clamored in the throng,
Loquacious, loud and turbulent of tongue ;
Awed by no shame, by no respect con- troled,
In scandal busy, in reproaches bold;
With witty malice, studious to defame ;
Scorn all his joy and laughter all his aim.
But chief he gloried, with licentious style,
To lash the great and nionarchs to revile.
His figure such as might his soul pro- claim.
One eye was blinking, one leg was lame,
His mountain shoulders half his breast o'erspread.
Thin hairs bestrewed his long, misshapen head.
Spleen to mankind his envious heart po.s- sessed.
And much he hated all, but mosl the best." ( To be continued.)
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