Gratiolet appears to overlook inherited habit, and even to some extent
habit in the individual; and therefore he fails, as it seems to me, to
give the right explanation, or any explanation at all, of many gestures
and expressions. As an illustration of what he calls symbolic
movements, I will quote his remarks (p. 37), taken from M. Chevreul, on
a man playing at billiards. “Si une bille dévie légèrement de la
direction que le joueur prétend lui imprimer, ne l’avez-vous pas vu
cent fois la pousser du regard, de la tête et même des épaules, comme
si ces mouvements, purement symboliques, pouvaient rectifier son
trajet? Des mouvements non moins significatifs se produisent quand la
bille manque d’une impulsion suffisante. Et cliez les joueurs novices,
ils sont quelquefois accusés au point d’éveiller le sourire sur les
lèvres des spectateurs.” Such movements, as it appeirs to me, may be
attributed simply to habit. As often as a man has wished to move an
object to one side, he has always pushed it to that side when forwards,
he has pushed it forwards; and if he has wished to arrest it, he has
pulled backwards. Therefore, when a man sees his ball travelling in a
wrong direction, and he intensely wishes it to go in another direction,
he cannot avoid, from long habit, unconsciously performing movements
which in other cases he has found effectual.
As an instance of sympathetic movements Gratiolet gives (p. 212) the
following case:—“un jeune chien à oreilles droites, auquel son maître
présente de loin quelque viande appétissante, fixe avec ardeur ses yeux
sur cet objet dont il suit tous les mouvements, et pendant que les yeux
regardent, les deux oreilles se portent en avant comme si cet objet
pouvait être entendu.” Here, instead of speaking of sympathy between
the ears and eyes, it appears to me more simple to believe, that as
dogs during many generations have, whilst intently looking at any
object, pricked their ears in order to perceive any sound; and
conversely have looked intently in the direction of a sound to which
they may have listened, the movements of these organs have become
firmly associated together through long-continued habit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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