By a sort of instinctive palmistry (applied, not to the
hands, but to the face) we interpret symbols of ineffable sorrow and of
ineffable peace. These, too, are Memnonian,--as is also that infinite
distance which seems to interpose between its subtile meanings and the
very possibility of interpretation. This air of remoteness, baffling the
impertinent crowd not less effectually than the dust which has gathered
for centuries about the heads of Sphinxes, is due partly to the deeply
sunken eyes beneath the wrinkled, overarching forehead; partly it arises
from that childlike simplicity and sweetness which lurk in gentle
undulations of the features,--undulations as of happy wavelets set in
motion ages since, and that cannot cease forever; but chiefly it is born
of a dream-like, brooding eternity of speculation, which we can trace
neither to the eye alone, nor to the mouth, but rather to the effect
which both together produce in the countenance.
This is the face which for more than half a century opium veiled to
mortal eyes, and which refuses to reveal itself save through hints the
most fugitive and impalpable.
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