Day 51 Countenance

Charlotte M. Mason, Fred Yates

“It is by force of habit that a tendency becomes a temper; and it rests with the mother to hinder the formation of ill tempers, to force that of good tempers. Nor is it difficult to do this while the child's countenance is as an open book to his mother, and she reads the thoughts of his heart before he is aware of them himself. Remembering that every envious, murmuring, discontented thought leaves a track in the very substance of the child's brain for such thoughts to run in again and again––that this track, this rut, so to speak, is ever widening and deepening with the traffic in ugly thoughts––the mother's care is to hinder at the outset the formation of any such track. She sees into her child's soul––sees the evil temper in the act of rising: now is her opportunity.

Change the Child's Thoughts.––Let her change the child's thoughts before ever the bad temper has had time to develop into conscious feeling, much less act: take him out of doors, send him to fetch or carry, tell him or show him something of interest,––in a word, give him something else to think about; but all in a natural way, and without letting the child perceive that he is being treated.”

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“What is it but the impact of spirit upon matter which writes upon the face of flesh that record of character and conduct which we call countenance? And not only upon the face; he is a dull scholar in the lore of human nature who cannot read a man fairly well from a back view. The sculptor knows the trick of it. There is a statue of the late Prince Consort in Edinburgh in which representative groups pay homage to the Prince. Stand so as to get the back view of any one of them and the shoulders of scholar, soldier, peasant, artisan, tell unmistakably the tale of their several lives. What is this but the impress of spirit upon matter?”

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“And the history of a habit is shortly this: 'The cerebrum of man grows to those modes of thought in which it is habitually exercised.' That 'immaterial' thought should mould the 'material' brain need not surprise nor scandalise us, for do we not see with our eyes that immaterial thought moulds the face, forms what we call countenance, lovely or loathsome according to the manner of thought it registers?”

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“It is an interesting fact, that, though a person's principles of conduct are often not put into words, they are always written in characters of their own. Everyone carries his rules of conduct writ large upon his countenance, that he who runs may read.”
 
 
Examen:  Am I a reader of faces and stances?  How may I help a person move to a brighter “track” of thought without crossing any boundaries – making him or her feel “treated?”  What is my own thought hygiene like?

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It is by force:  Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:167–68.
What is it: Charlotte M. Mason, 2:126.
And the history: 2:156.
It is an interesting: Charlotte M. Mason,  Ourselves, 4:189 Bk.I.

Day 51 Countenance meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025

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