Exquisite shades of significance

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 The human countenance speaks in the most exquisite shades of significance; "the soft, silent wooings of love, the frantic fury of hate, the dancing delirium of joy, the hungry cravings of desire, the settled melancholy of dead hopes,"-all these emotions are vividly pictured. The blanched cheek and skulking figure may express at times a wonderful amount of fear and cowardice, while a noble bearing, flashing eye, and determined expression of face may exhibit a dauntless courage. A haughty, cold, and cruel manner may convey more scorn, contempt, and hatred than could be expressed in words, while a glance, a smile, a tender pressure of the hand may convey a whole world of sympathy and love. The gestures I have described only, as I have said, awkwardly outline the picture; the coloring and beauty and force of expression must be filled in by the manner of making the signs.

The Indian Sign Language, 1884 by Willam Philo Clark page 336

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