The case is similar when a witness so conducts himself and expresses
scorn. He will do the latter when the defendant or a false witness for
the defense accuses him of slander, when indelicate motives are ascribed
to him, or earlier complicity with the criminal, etc. The situations
which give a man opportunity to show that he despises anybody are
generally such as are to the advantage of the scorner. They are
important legally because they not only show the scorner in a good light
but also indicate that the scorn must be studied more closely. It is, of
course, naturally true that scorn is to a great degree simulated, and
for that reason the gestures in question must be attentively observed.
Real scorn is to be distinguished from artificial scorn almost always by
the fact that the latter is attended by unnecessary smiling. It is
popularly and correctly held that the smile is the weapon of the silent.
That kind of smile appears, however, only as defense against the less
serious accusations, or perhaps even more serious ones, but obviously
never when evil consequences attendant on serious accusations are
involved. If indubitable evil is in question, no really innocent person
smiles, for he scorns the person he knows to be lying and manifests
other gestures than the smile. Even the most confused individual who is
trying to conceal his stupidity behind a flat sort of laughter gives
this up when he is so slandered that he is compelled to scorn the liar;
only the simulator continues to smile. If, however, anybody has
practised the manifestation of scorn he knows that he is not to smile,
but then his pose becomes theatrical and betrays itself through its
exaggeration.
Not far from scorn are defiance and spite. They are characterized by
baring the canine teeth and drawing together the face in a frown when
turning toward the person upon whom the defiance or spite is directed. I
believe that this image has got to be variously filled out by the
additional fact that the mouth is closed and the breath several times
forced sharply through the nostrils. This arises from the combination of
resolution and scorn, these being the probable sources of defiance and
spite. As was explained in the discussion of resolution, the mouth is
bound to close; spite and defiance are not thinkable with open mouth.
Scorn, moreover, demands, as we have shown, this blowing, and if the
blowing is to be done while the mouth is closed it must be done through
the nose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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