The Smile; If You Can Do Nothing Else, You Can Smile  (English, Paperback, Curry Samuel Silas)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: QUALITIES OF EXPRESSION The smile as a simple and elementary expression embodies certain characteristics which belong to all expression,—from the most childlike recital to the most finished oration, from the simplest song to the sublimest epic, from the simplest illustration to the most exalted painting, from the humblest memorial to the grandest monument. Therefore as a human act which is easily studied, it enables a careful student to observe the nature and character of the universal laws of all expression and all art. The study of the smile will show us, for one thing, that expression is not intrinsically a physical thing,—that it transcends the merely physical. There is no such thing as " physical expression." Expression is a revelation of mind dominating the body—revealing itself through the body as a medium. Expression has aptly been called " the motion of emotion." Purely volitional movements are not necessarily expressive. Our word " emotion " is so named because it gives rise to motion. As a consequence of its mental character, the smile acts from within outward. The least observation shows us the general application of this fact. A universal fact has been called a law. Accordingly this is a general law of all natural expression. The flower blooms from within. The leaves of the tree are the " outerance," or (as we contract the word) utterance or expression of life emanating from the root. The bird sings from a full heart and the kitten plays because of an exuberance of life. Whatever is natural acts from an inner fullness and inner depth of life. The general term for this law is " spontaneity." The animal moves from within—a machine is actuated from without. A human being is a wonderful co-ordination of spontaneous and deliberative elements. ...