The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-06-02
Responsibility for Our Looks.

The question Of how far the mind forms the
face is always an interesting one and not soon
to be settled. According TO a newspaper
story now in circulation, well-known United
States Senator decided it of hand" in the
case Of a witness before an investigating CON-
mttee. The witness in question was so for
bidding in countenance that il was said Ibis
looks ought to hang him." This elected the
usual defense in such cases-that a man Is
not responsible for his looks-to which the
Senator replied: But a man OF fifty years 10
responsible for his looks" In series OF
articles appearing in the Chaperone maya
zine Mr.. W. H. Little takes somewhat the
same view. The face TO him is soul pic
turen where the mind expresses itself in per-
manent lines. The idea is highly .poetical,
and Hood has expressed it in his beautiful
fragment, The Sea OF Death"
And there we're neighbor brows, Scared by tho
brunt
OF STRIFE and sorrowing, where care has set
His crooked autograph and marred the jet
OF glossy locks; with hollow eyes f0rorn
And lips that curled in bitterness and scorn,
As though they Dreathed OF this worlds pain.
And so beoueathed IL to the world again.
While the poetical Imagination far outstrips
exact science, it nearly always leads the way
in science. In illustrating his own theories of
the effect of the mind on the face, hr Little
incidentally illustrates this by choosing the
face Of Morse, the inventor of the telegraph.
as study Morse invented the telegraph
because he was poet and painter because
he had trained his Imagination so highly that
when he put aside pen and brush as means Of
expression he was capable of express
ing thought in the greatest invention
of any age For the poetic imagination
all questions of the influence of the mind on
the face are settled To poetical insight the
face is the reflex Of the mind on which care
and passion leave their crooked autograph"
IL ,,.tE 80
sible for his looks" But in the poetical mind,
AS in the common mind, the idea of the good
and the beautiful are so closely associated
that much of the value of poetical insight is
here lost for science. II is true in general.
but not always IN particular, that essential
goodness manifests itself physically IN
the beautiful and pleasing, yet our COM
mon sense takes that for granted as
invariably true. In our pictures the
angels are made as beautiful as possible while
the idea of evil is expressed in derormity ard
ugliness. IN Durer's extraordinarily ugly
devils and in RaphaePs ideally beautiful
chernbs the poetic Imagination has Ok
pressed an idea in which the common-sense
of the civilized world has concurred for gen.
GRAFTON after generation-in which 10 still con-
ours But though poetry and common-seDse
agree here as they do not always. they still
fall short of science. They leave unconsidered
too many conditions. Science many grant
that pure lie Oh clluel poolIiNc b'Ouucoo VI
negative nnOcency will result IN lace ex-
pressive of these mental characteristics and,
however. that such a face will always ex-
press the beautiful or the pleasing. But this
With a proyso that such a life must be I'M
troubled and comfortable Self-sacrlfce. the
struggle for mastery of passion the self-de-
yotion of men who take on themselves the
trouble of Others, will leave on the face
lines of ugliness under the same law
which makes oalosities on the hand OF
the laborer Poverty deprivation, hard
ship, whether injured voluntarily OF
inyoluntarily, .rave their marks on
the face ia lines which, if not repulslye, are
at least ugly. Remove such conditions: sub
stitute for them conditions of positive com
fort and the face changes accordingly 10
Closer approximation TO the beautiful-if not
in one generation, then in the next. This is
constantly obseryablei in European immigrants
10 this country and in their children. II Is
never TO be forgotten by science, though
poetrv must forget il, that the stomach has az
much influence on the face as the soul. il
the face is a soul picture IL IS also stomach
picture. One of the most cherubic countenances
mat a man ever possessed is that OF q profess
siona American politician with national
reputation as the most interruptions OF an un-
| scruuulous class. Every line OF it speaks OF
mind at peace, of goodwill TO men. OF all an
cello qualities. It's owner may have no con-
science at all certainly not enough 10 inter
| fere with "A stomach that Is perfect III its ore
ratiOns. Observing such phenomena as tiis,
the Wis, ancents made the stomach the seat
of the soul No matter whore we locate II, II
is always to be remembered that IN attempt
mo 10 read the soul in the face we may DO
reading only the stomach.-St. LOUIS he-
nublfp-