FACIAL EXPRESSION.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 205, 1 September 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

FACIAL EXPRESSION.

Mr. Walter JJontloy has coined \ new word and not very pretty word tor an old fact. "Faceology" is the name ho gives to what used to he called phy siognomy. Both are ugly terms, and liard to say. Face-reading would be better, only "faceology,' 1 about which Mr. Bentlcy lectured in a very interesting way last we.ok, means more than just reading the expression. It means the inward force or feeling that builds up the outward and v : siblc expression, as well as tolling the tale of a person's face. The character or disposition mkes the difference >in faces. Was t not Humpty Dunipty who complained that he could not go by the face in remembering Alice, because her features wer of exactly the same number ns the features o| everybody else? We laugh at Humpty Dunipty for putting his grumble so quaintly, just as we laugh at the nigger who sang, "All Coons Look Alike to Me," but it is a very extraordinary thing, when one comes to think of lit. that of all the millions of people in the world, no two faces are exactly alike, .except of course, in eases of accidental "doubles." It is strange that there are so few doubles among mankind. Faces can be trained, just like am l other part of the body, the difference in the training—and it is n great dstinction—being that thought trains th t face while muscular energy trains the body. A man or a woman by choosing a profession logins the face-training Thus we have recognised types ]ik o tnc clergyman, the Victor, the" doctor, ihe schoolmistress, the housewife, the lady, thp business woman ; nil are such well marked types that we can p'efc them out as we scan —it is to be hoped we do not let the igknee become a stare —on fellow passengers in tho tram. Tn religious fanes ,jt : s even easy to distinguish the Methodist race from the Anglican, and the Catholic face from Presbyterian: while among the women it its even easier. "She's an actress," we immediately say to ourselves, when a certain type arrives mi the scene. That does not imply that thp lady has been using paint and powder freely, for nearly every woman seems to "make up'" more or less now. But the "footlight face" seems to be merely a reflecting medium, just as the windows of a house tint faces the sea acquire a kind of expressive blandnoss that rs unmistakable. Houses have expression as faces have. The cinema is teaching us more and more about facial expresion. As Jie films develop the producers trust more and more for their effect, to the power of the actors to show the story in ther faces. Emotions of the cruder kind are expressed by "making ugly faces.'' and the number of moving picture actors who s : mnry grimace is by no means small. It is laughable to see. a prettv nc-trcs* trying to look as if she has tem peramc.nt, without the words to nelp when '-he has obviously only temper ot a very violent kind; or a man with a face like the outside of a matchbox trying to work his wooden features into a melting expression of pure devotion. Yet the .stern command of business is training the usually onirwbilc American expression to break up a little more and more for every grimace means a n'so in the salary list. \o doubt in a £ew years the audience, by lip-reading and face-reading, will oe able to follow the story without words as perfectly as a blackfellow can trace the story, in the bush tracks, of every horse on the run, every blackfellow in the tribe and even of the tribe a stranger belongs to. The blacks have the Ulackfel low's sight for tiny differences. Some people wear masks of course, but others have merely blank, bland faces. How hard it in to tell Chinamen apart. The Japanese are quite easy tu distinguish, because they have energetic minds, which disturb tho suS'face blandnoss of the Oriental. We can mentally ret-all the Japanese whom we have seen in the illustrated papers--Ito, Oyama, Togo; their faces are quite familiar. An expressive face need not be a beautiful ono. Expression denotes that vague something which we call "soul."' Rupert Brooke, in his "Letters from America," has a criticism on the American face which is inteiesting. He says that the men are smooth-faced, and d.i not wrinkle. "It is a nation without a soul. They experience exhilaration anu depression instead of joy and suffering. 1 ' This bears out the ocular testimony of the film drama- alluded to above. To seek the most exquisite expressions we must look on some childish face, because they are like poetry, "exquisite expressions of exquisite impressions." It is very hard to state in prose exactly what is the beauty born of murmuring sound, which we see in a little girl here and there, but when it has passed into her face we recognise it at once. —''Sydney Morning Herald."