which observers ever associate with the passion. No one but can recall some face where petulance, or grief, or pride, has left indelible imprints. Like a mirror, the unguarded expression tells tales of all that is passing within us. The skilled eye reads at a glance the passing thought. This authentic anecdote is told of that expert diplomatist and profound student of human nature, the Prince de Talleyrand. For a short time he was an exile to this country, and resided in New York city. One day he was walking with a friend along the Battery, in those early times a fashionable promenade. Turning and scanning closely the face of his companion, he suddenly exclaimed: "Wretch! you are planning to assassinate me!" Detected by what seemed a superhuman insight, his pretended friend threw himself at his feet, and confessed that he was proposing in his mind to murder and rob the prince.
As men are only too apt to indulge the unpleasant rather than the pleasant emotions, it has ever been advised to control the features, and whether in company or alone, by a mental effort to prevent our thoughts from acting on our expression. Volto sciolto, pensieri stretti, the countenance open, the thoughts shut, is the Italian's motto; and our own Shakspeare sings of his love—
"In many's looks the false heart's history,
Is writ, in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange;
But heaven in thy creation did decree,
