[19] See the account given by this excellent observer in `Wild Sports
of the Highlands,' 1846, p. 142.
[20] `Philosophical Translations,' 1823, p. 182.
CHAPTER II.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF EXPRESSION--_continued_.
The Principle of Antithesis--Instances in the dog and cat--
Origin of the principle--Conventional signs--The principle
of antithesis has not arisen from opposite actions being
consciously performed under opposite impulses.
WE will now consider our second Principle, that of Antithesis. Certain states
of the mind lead, as we have seen in the last chapter, to certain
habitual movements which were primarily, or may still be, of service;
and we shall find that when a directly opposite state of mind is induced,
there is a strong and involuntary tendency to the performance of movements
of a directly opposite nature, though these have never been of any service.
A few striking instances of antithesis will be given, when we treat of
the special expressions of man; but as, in these cases, we are particularly
liable to confound conventional or artificial gestures and expressions
with those which are innate or universal, and which alone deserve to rank
as true expressions, I will in the present chapter almost confine myself
to the lower animals.
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