Vanik's Book Spot

HUNTED DOWN

BY

CHARLES DICKENS

-------------------------------
I.

MOST of us see some romances in life.
In my capacity as Chief Manager of a Life
Assurance Office, I think I have within the
last thirty years seen more romances than
the generality of men, however unpromising
the opportunity may, at first sight, seem.

As I have retired, and live at my ease,
I possess the means that I used to want,
of considering what I have seen, at leisure.
My experiences have a more remarkable aspect,
so reviewed, than they had when they were
in progress. I have come home from the
Play now, and can recall the scenes of
the Drama upon which the curtain has
fallen, free from the glare, bewilderment,
and bustle of the Theatre.

Let me recall one of these Romances of
the real world.

There is nothing truer than physiognomy,
taken in connection with manner. The
art of reading that book of which
Eternal Wisdom obliges every human
creature to present his or her own
page with the individual character
written on it, is a difficult one,
perhaps, and is little studied. It may
require some natural aptitude, and it
must require (for everything does)
some patience and some pains. That these
are not usually given to it,—that numbers
of people accept a few stock commonplace
expressions of the face as the whole
list of characteristics, and neither
seek nor know the refinements that
are truest,—that You, for instance,
give a great deal of time and
attention to the reading of music,
Greek, Latin, French, Italian,
Hebrew, if you please, and do not
qualify yourself to read the face
of the master or mistress looking
over your shoulder teaching it to
you,—I assume to be five hundred
times more probable than improbable.
Perhaps a little self-sufficiency may
be at the bottom of this; facial expression
requires no study from you, you think; it
comes by nature to you to know enough
about it, and you are not to be taken in.

I confess, for my part, that I have been
taken in, over and over again. I have
been taken in by acquaintances, and I
have been taken in (of course) by friends;
far oftener by friends than by any other
class of persons. How came I to be so
deceived? Had I quite misread their faces?

No. Believe me, my first impression of
those people, founded on face and manner
alone, was invariably true. My mistake
was in suffering them to come nearer
to me and explain themselves away.

------------------------------

II.

The partition which separated my own
office from our general outer office
in the City was of thick plate-glass.
I could see through it what passed in
the outer office, without hearing a
word. I had it put up in place of a
wall that had been there for years,
—ever since the house was built.
It is no matter whether I did or
did not make the change in order that
I might derive my first impression of
strangers, who came to us on business,
from their faces alone, without being
influenced by anything they said.

Main Menu

Affiliates

Leave a Comment?