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THE FIXE ART OF SMILING.Some theatrical experiments are being madeutthis time to show that all possible cmotious and all shades and gradations of emotion can lx expressed by facial action, and that the method of so expressing them can be reduced to a system, and j taught in a given number of lessons. I It seems a matter of question ! whether one would le more likely I to make love or evince sorrow any more successfully by keeping in ! mind all tho while the detailed catalogue of his flexors and extensors, and contracting and relaxing Xo. 1, 2, or 3, according to the rule. The human memory is a treacherous thing, and what an enormous disaster wonld result from a very slight forgetfulness in such a nicely adjusted system ! The fatal effect of dropping the sapcrior maxillary when one intended to drop to inferior, Jor of applying nervous stimuli to the up track, instead of the down, can easily be conceived. Art ;s art, alter all, be it ever so skillful and triumphant, and science is only a slow reading of hieroglyphs. Xature sets high and serene nbove both, and smiles compassionately on their efforts to imitate and understand. And this brings us to what we have to say about smiling. Do many people realize what a wonderful thing it is that each human being is born into the world with his own smile ? Eyes, nose, mouth may be merely average com-mon-place features ; may look, taken singly, very much like anybody else's eyes, nose, or month. Let whoever doubts tliis try the simplo bat endlessly amusing experiment of setting half a dozen people behind a perforated enrtaiu, and making them put their eyes at the holes. Not one eye in a hundred can be recognized, not even by most fmiliar and loving friends. Bat study smiles; observe, even in the most casual way, the variety onesees in a day, and it will soon be felt what subtle revelation they make, what infinite individuality they possess.The purely natural smile, however, is seldom seen in adults; and it is on this point that we w-ish to dwell. Very early in life people find ont that a smile is a weapon, mighty to avail in all sorts of crises. Hence, we see the treacherous smile of the wily; the patronizing smile of the pompous; the obsequious smile of the flatterer; the cynical smile of the satirist. Very few of these have heard of Delsarte; hot they ontdo him on his own grounds. Their smile is four-fifths of their soeial stock in trade. All such smiles are hideous. The gloomiest, blankest look which a human face can wear is welcomer than a trained smile, or a smile which, if it is not actually and couseiously methodized by its perpetrator, liaB become, by long repitition, so associated with tricks and falsities tliat it partakes of their quality.What, then, is the fine art of smiling?If smiles may not be used for weapons or masks, of what use are they ? That is the shape one wonld think the question took in most men’s minds, if we may judge by their behavior! There are but two legitimate purposes of the smile; but two honest smiles. On all little children's faces such smiles are seen. Woe to us that we so soon waste and lose them!The first use of a smile is to express affectionate good-will. The second, to express mirth.Why do we not always smile whenever we meet the eye of a fellow-being? That is tho true, intended recognition which ought to pass from soul to soul constantly. Little children, in simple commnni ties, do this involuntarily, nnconsci-ously. The honest-hearted German peasant does it. It is like magical sunlight all through that simple land, the perpetnal greeting on the right hand and on the left, between strangers, as they pass by each other, never without a smile. This, then, is 'the fiue art of smiling;' like nil fine art, true art, perfection of art, the simplest following ol Xature.Xow and then one sees a face which has kept its smile pure and nndefield. It is a woman’s face usually; often a face which has traces of great sorrow all over it, till the smile breaks. Such a smile transfigures; such a smile, if the artful but knew it, is the greatest Weapon a face can have. Sickness and age cannot turn its edge; hostility and distrnst cannot withstand its spell; little children know it, and smile back; even dumb animals come closer and look up for another.If we were asked to sum up in one single rule what would most condnce to beauty ill the hnman face, we should say, “Xever tamper with your smile; never once nse it for a purpose. Let it be on your face like the reflection of the sunlight' on a lake. But, unlike the sunlight, your good-will must be perpetual, and your face never be overcast”“What, smile perpetually?” asks the realist. “How silly! ”Yes, smile perpetually! Go to Delsarte here, and learn even from the mechanician of smiles that a smile can be indicated by a movement of moscles so slight that neither instruments nor terms exist to measure or state it; in fact that the subtlest smile is little more than an added brightness to the eye and a tremulonsness of the mouth. One second of time is more than long enough for it; but eternity does not outlast it!In that wonderfully wise and tender and poetic book, the “Layman's Breviary, Leopold ScheferA smile suffices to smile death away; And love defends thee e'en horn wrath devine!Then let what mar befall thee—still smileon!And howe'er Death may rob Utee—still smile on!Lore nerer has to meet a bittor thing:A Paradise blooms around him who smiles.
Newspaper Details
Semi Weekly Louisianian
New Orleans, Louisiana, US
Sun, Feb 11, 1872
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Cynthia S.
USA 08 Jun 2024
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