ANGER

Anger is an intense form of feeling. By it the circulation of the blood is more or less disturbed, the face, sometimes, as in rage or fury, becoming alternately purple and livid, while the veins on the forehead and neck are distended. In this excited state the eyes burn or glare, the corrugating muscles lower the brows, bringing them near together; the lower jaw is firmly set to the upper one; the nostrils are dilated, and lips closed, except in extreme cases, where the teeth are uncovered. Under anger may be included all the lights and shades of feeling from earnestness, determination, indignation, to hatred, rage, and fury.

Exercises

Earnest Resolve

"On such occasions, I will place myself on the extreme boundary of my right, and bid defiance to the arm that would push me from it."

From "Freedom of Debate "-Webster.

Indignation

"A word, but one, one little, kindly word,
Not one to spare her; out upon you flint!
You love nor her, nor me, nor any; nay,

You shame your mother's judgment, too. Not one?
You will not? Well-no heart have you!"

From "The Princess "-Tennyson.

Anger

"Read o'er this:

And after, this! And then to breakfast-with

What appetite you have!"

From "Henry VIII"-Shakespeare.

Hatred

"Poisons, be their drink

Gall-worse than gall, the daintiest meat they taste;
Their sweetest shade, a grove of cypress trees;
Their sweetest prospects, murd'ring basilisks!
Their music-frightful as the serpent's hiss,
And boding screech owls make the concert full,
All the foul terrors of dark-seated hell!"

From "Henry VI"-Shakespeare.

Rage

"I trample on your offers, and on you;
Begone! we will not look upon you more!"
From "The Princess"-Tennyson.

SCORN

Closely allied to anger is scorn and its associated feelings of disdain, contempt, defiance, derision, and disgust. In these emotions, however, there is often a partial closure of the eyelids, the nose is more or less elevated, the nostrils partly closed, the canine tooth on one side of the face, wholly or partly uncovered, the contraction of the muscle on that side of the face usually making a furrow in the cheek, and wrinkles under the eye; in disgust, the upper lip is strongly raised.

Exercises

Contempt

"Thou slave! thou wretch! thou coward!
Thou little valiant, great in villainy!

Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!"

From "King John "—Shakespeare.

Disdain

"You have done well and like a gentleman,
And like a prince; you have our thanks for all;
And you look well, too, in your woman's dress;
Well have you done, and like a gentleman."

From "The Princess"-Tennyson.

Derision

"So, fare you well, my little,, good lord cardinal." From "Henry VIII"-Shakespeare.

SURPRISE

In surprise, the eyebrows are raised, and eyes and mouth sometimes widely open. Modifications of surprise, or its attendant lights and shades, are found in attention, interest, wonder, astonishment, amazement, terror, and horror; in the latter cases, there is strong dilation of nostrils, and eyes seeming to start from their sockets.

Exercises

Attention-Listening

"Hush! hark! Did stealing steps go by,
Came not faint whispers near?"

Amazement

Anon.

"As sure as there's breath in man, it's auld Ellangowan

risen from the dead!"

From "Guy Mannering "-Scott.

Terror

"And now, from forth the frowning sky,
From the Heaven's topmost height,
I heard a voice,-the awful voice
Of the blood avenging Sprite!"

From "Dream of Eugene Aram "-Hood.

Any of the facial conditions already named may be manifested in their separateness, or may be blended with others; as there is complexity of feeling, so will there be complexity in manifestation. Darwin fittingly remarks: "Many complex conditions emanate from the passions, which will not admit of description, and in regard to the feelings of jealousy, envy, avarice, revenge, suspicion, deceit, slyness, guilt, vanity, ambition, pride, and humility, it is doubtful if the conditions of mind are revealed with any fixed expression, to be described or delineated, but many of them can be detected by the eye."

Miscellaneous Practice Exercises for Attitude, Gesture, and Facial Expression.

I

"Never stoops the soaring vulture
On his quarry in the desert,
On the sick or wounded bison,
But another vulture, watching
From his high aerial look-out,

Sees the downward plunge, and follows;
And a third pursues the second,
Coming from the invisible ether,
First a speck, and then a vulture,
Till the air is dark with pinions.

So disasters come not singly;
But as if they watched and waited,
Scanning one another's motions,
When the first descends, the others
Follow, follow, gathering flock-wise
Round their victim, sick and wounded,
First a shadow, then a sorrow,
Till the air is dark with anguish."

From "Hiawatha "-Longfellow.

II

"If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they

will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds, if we imbue them with right principles, with the just fear of God and love of our fellow-men, we engrave on those tablets something which will brighten to all eternity."-Daniel Webster.

III

"The winds, as at their hour of birth
Leaning upon the wingéd sea,
Breathed low around the rolling earth
With mellow preludes, 'We are free.'
The streams through many a lilied row
Down carolling to the crispéd sea,
Low-tinkled with a bell-like flow

Atween the blossoms, 'We are free.'"
From "We Are Free"-Tennyson.

IV

"Like unto ships far off at sea

Outward or homeward bound are we,
Before, behind, and all around

Floats and swings the horizon's bound,
Seems at its distant rim to rise

And climb the crystal wall of the skies,
And then again to turn and sink

As if we could slide from its outward brink.

Ah! it is not the sea

It is not the sea that sinks and shelves,
But ourselves

That rock and rise

With endless and uneasy motion,
Now touching the very skies,
Now sinking into the depth of ocean.
Ah! if our souls but poise and swing
Like the compass in its brazen ring,
Ever level and ever true

To the toil and the task we have to do,
We shall sail securely, and safely reach

The Fortunate Isles, on whose shining beach
The sights we see and the sounds we hear,
Will be those of joy and not of fear."

From "Launching of the Ship"-Longfellow