For it is not at all
unusual for animals to retain, more or less perfectly, during early youth,
and subsequently to lose, characters which were aboriginally possessed
by their adult progenitors, and which are still retained by distinct species,
their near relations.
Nor is it an anomalous fact that the children of savages
should exhibit a stronger tendency to protrude their lips,
when sulky, than the children of civilized Europeans;
for the essence of savagery seems to consist in the retention
of a primordial condition, and this occasionally holds good even
with bodily peculiarities.[12] It may be objected to this view
of the origin of pouting, that the anthropoid apes likewise
protrude their lips when astonished and even when a little pleased;
whilst with us this expression is generally confined to a sulky
frame of mind. But we shall see in a future chapter that with
men of various races surprise does sometimes lead to a slight
protrusion of the lips, though great surprise or astonishment
is more commonly shown by the mouth being widely opened.
As when we smile or laugh we draw back the corners of the mouth,
we have lost any tendency to protrude the lips, when pleased,
if indeed our early progenitors thus expressed pleasure.
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