FACES AND CHARACTER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 6 March 1912, Page 5

FACES AND CHARACTER.

THE AND THE "CHARMING/'

Good looks, actual correctness of feature and proportion, are in everyone's favour, probably too much so. Goodlooking people have no. way to make up befoFe ihe>* begin. To this rule there is oiil¥ Oiie fe?cc ! 6pU(m. The correctness of an j&ck tss ftgainst its owner with most intelligfellfe fTJiis is true whether its mask-likfi inftMition be voluntary or no. The blankness cultivated by certain actors and by certain well-bred men and women who have put pff all expression but one of hauteur is hardly less disagreeable than the blankness bor'll < iiptill tlifj features of the dullard. - Significant ugliness, wlillfe it is ft misfortune to a woman, probably ii6ver stood in any man's way. unless he was making love, and then not for long. Insignificance of appearance is a terrible handicap, and the worst of stumbling blocks to the student of character. It ought, of course, to rule appearance out of coui't so far as the insignificant-look-ing pel'sOii is cfjricevtted. It may be found lit conjunction with great qualities, and has beeft pi'tived to do so just "often enough to be V6ry ptiZziitlg. Occasionally able people . have iIS IGOK of ability, and do look very shy and ill at ease—peculiarities which are hardly judged by those belonging to the classes 'in which they are least often seen—i.e., the Upper and the lower. Too much emotion showing in a face, though an attractive, Is almost always a very weak sign. a mail Should not wear his heart in hia face aiiy more than upon his sleeve. No doubt it often gives one pleasure to see it there, because the preliminaries of acquaintance and of friendship or even of character study are, as a rule, dull. We like to be precipitated into the midst of the plot of character, as it were, but in these circumatancefl. "it ./is seldom - one worth thinking of. In women this emotionalism often constitutes a chai'm, and charm, aa we have saidj destroyu judgment. We do not reason but succumb.

Faces which express a single quality permanently to the exclusion of all others never have any charm- "A strong face," we say, and are ; perhaps attracted, but the attraction -goes off. It is always strong, and soon we .finci it determined, apd then obstinate, arid then a bore, and we -want to- look, at someone else. Benevolent-looking people are very well to sit opposite in, a railway carriage, but on longer acquaintance their expression becomes fatuous. A humorous face must be constantly out of tune with its surroundings, and a sad face, unless if is oldish and the sadness comes of the line of tirti6 and the scars of experience, is very mawkish. There is a predominant expression often found in connection with feminine beauty, which perhaps might be., considered as an exception to what \ve have been saying. It is a permanent look of sudden fear, a look of having ; been startled. It appears to have no: meaning whatever, but it ofiteri, captiyates. the beholder ,by giving h'inr a. subtlt} "Sense that he has made u an>-impression;arid does not count for nothing in-.ihcfr eyes. Like all expressions which should be fleeting, and are stereotyped, it ceases to pl6ase. Among g'rown-up people it" is not the reliable race which has the most charm. Virtue written in plain letters does not spell fascination. We look at people's faces .largely that we may know then minds. It is dull to see nothing ; almost as dull to see everything. All perfectly charming faces are imperfectly decipherable, and leave one quite certain of nothing but sympathy.—"The Spectator."