Empty heads, - heads without ideas in wholesome variety and sufficient number to furnish food for the mental clockwork, - ill-regulated heads, where the faculties are not under the control of the will, - these are the ones that hold the brains which their owners are so apt to tamper with, by introducing the appliances we have been talking about.Now, when a gentleman's brain is empty or ill-regulated, it is, to a great extent, his own fault; and so it is simple retribution, that, while he lies slothfully sleeping or aimlessly dreaming, the fatal habit settles on him like a vampyre, and sucks his blood, fanning him all the while with its hot wings into deeper slumber or idler dreams! I am not such a hard-souled being as to apply this to the neglected poor, who have had no chance to fill their heads with wholesome ideas, and to be taught the lesson of self-government.I trust the tariff of Heaven has an AD VALOREM scale for them - and all of us.
But to come back to poets and artists; - if they really are more prone to the abuse of stimulants, - and I fear that this is true, -the reason of it is only too clear.A man abandons himself to a fine frenzy, and the power which flows through him, as I once explained to you, makes him the medium of a great poem or a great picture.The creative action is not voluntary at all, but automatic; we can only put the mind into the proper attitude, and wait for the wind, that blows where it listeth, to breathe over it.
Thus the true state of creative genius is allied to REVERIE, or dreaming.If mind and body were both healthy and had food enough and fair play, I doubt whether any men would be more temperate than the imaginative classes.But body and mind often flag, - perhaps they are ill-made to begin with, underfed with bread or ideas, overworked, or abused in some way.The automatic action, by which genius wrought its wonders, fails.There is only one thing which can rouse the machine; not will, - that cannot reach it; nothing but a ruinous agent, which hurries the wheels awhile and soon eats out the heart of the mechanism.The dreaming faculties are always the dangerous ones, because their mode of action can be imitated by artificial excitement; the reasoning ones are safe, because they imply continued voluntary effort.
I think you will find it true, that, before any vice can fasten on a man, body, mind, or moral nature must be debilitated.The mosses and fungi gather on sickly trees, not thriving ones; and the odious parasites which fasten on the human frame choose that which is already enfeebled.Mr.Walker, the hygeian humorist, declared that he had such a healthy skin it was impossible for any impurity to stick to it, and maintained that it was an absurdity to wash a face which was of necessity always clean.I don't know how much fancy there was in this; but there is no fancy in saying that the lassitude of tired-out operatives, and the languor of imaginative natures in their periods of collapse, and the vacuity of minds untrained to labor and discipline, fit the soul and body for the germination of the seeds of intemperance.
Whenever the wandering demon of Drunkenness finds a ship adrift, -no steady wind in its sails, no thoughtful pilot directing its course, - he steps on board, takes the helm, and steers straight for the maelstrom.
- I wonder if you know the TERRIBLE SMILE? [The young fellow whom they call John winked very hard, and made a jocular remark, the sense of which seemed to depend on some double meaning of the word SMILE.The company was curious to know what I meant.]
There are persons - I said - who no sooner come within sight of you than they begin to smile, with an uncertain movement of the mouth, which conveys the idea that they are thinking about themselves, and thinking, too, that you are thinking they are thinking about themselves, - and so look at you with a wretched mixture of self-consciousness, awkwardness, and attempts to carry off both, which are betrayed by the cowardly behaviour of the eye and the tell-tale weakness of the lips that characterize these unfortunate beings.
- Why do you call them unfortunate, Sir? - asked the divinity-student.
Because it is evident that the consciousness of some imbecility or other is at the bottom of this extraordinary expression.I don't think, however, that these persons are commonly fools.I have known a number, and all of them were intelligent.I think nothing conveys the idea of UNDERBREEDING more than this self-betraying smile.Yet I think this peculiar habit as well as that of MEANINGLESS BLUSHING may be fallen into by very good people who met often, or sit opposite each other at table.A true gentleman's face is infinitely removed from all such paltriness, - calm-eyed, firm-mouthed.I think Titian understood the look of a gentleman as well as anybody that ever lived.The portrait of a young man holding a glove in his hand, in the Gallery of the Louvre, if any of you have seen that collection, will remind you of what I mean.
- Do I think these people know the peculiar look they have? - Icannot say; I hope not; I am afraid they would never forgive me, if they did.The worst of it is, the trick is catching; when one meets one of these fellows, he feels a tendency to the same manifestation.The Professor tells me there is a muscular slip, a dependence of the PLATYSMA MYOIDES, which is called the RISORIUSSANTORINI.
- Say that once more, - exclaimed the young fellow mentioned above.
The Professor says there is a little fleshy slip called Santorini's laughing muscle.I would have it cut out of my face, if I were born with one of those constitutional grins upon it.Perhaps I am uncharitable in my judgment of those sour-looking people I told you of the other day, and of these smiling folks.It may be that they are born with these looks, as other people are with more generally recognized deformities.Both are bad enough, but I had rather meet three of the scowlers than one of the smilers.
