Then there is the Art of Expression, advocated by Delsarte and William
James. The latter, in his “Talks on Psychology,” may not be strictly
accurate and scientific, but at any rate he is practically useful, when
he says:
“_If we only check a cowardly impulse in time--for example, or if
we only don’t strike the blow or rip out with the complaining or
insulting word that we shall regret as long as we live--our feelings
themselves will presently be the calmer and better, with no particular
guidance from us on their own account. Action seems to follow feeling,
but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the
action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can
indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not._
“_Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous
cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, to look round
cheerfully, and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.
If such conduct does not make you soon feel cheerful, nothing else on
that occasion can. So, to feel brave, act as if we_ were _brave, use
all our will to that end, and a courage-fit will very likely replace
the fit of fear. Again, in order to feel kindly toward a person to
whom we have been inimical, the only way is more or less deliberately
to smile, to make sympathetic inquiries, and to force ourselves to
say genial things. One hearty laugh together will bring enemies into
a closer communion of heart than hours spent on both sides in inward
wrestling with the mental demon of uncharitable feeling. To wrestle
with a bad feeling only pins our attention on it, and keeps it still
fastened in the mind: whereas, if we act as if from some better
feeling, the old bad feeling soon folds its tent like an Arab, and
silently steals away._”
An equally good quotation (from Luther Gulick’s “Mind and Work”) will
be found on pages 26-27 of “Economy of Energy.”
He says:
“_Assume the bodily positions and movements and manners and tones of
voice that belong to the emotional state you desire._”
Now the Expression--as the smile that is the expression of
Happiness--may not be the cause of Happiness, but at least it is the
usual accompaniment, if not the essential accompaniment, of ordinary
Happiness.
The eyes are among the most obvious means of Expression, as is
illustrated in the well-known lines:--
“_Smile, once in a while,
’Twill make your heart seem lighter;
Smile, once in a while,
’Twill make your pathway brighter.
Life’s a mirror: if we smile,
Smiles come back to greet us;
If we’re frowning all the while,
Frowns forever meet us._”
The whole face is a part of our Expression--not only the eyes, but
also the mouth, and the lines, which are largely under the ultimate
control of the will, through the control of the muscles.
And there is the whole attitude of the body, the up-holding of the
chest and the head, the correct curve of the spine (so as to bring the
position of “mechanical advantage” and physical and nervous economy),
the deepness and fulness and rhythm of the breathing, the laugh, the
song (sung aloud or “sung silently”), and the tone and the “tune” and
the timbre of the voice.