Hypocrisy Unmasked: Nature Betrays the Feigned Character
I have known hypocrisy, treachery, pride, malice and lust, assume the opposite semblance of saintship, fidelity, lowliness, benevolence, and chastity. But it is painful to keep the bow of nature long bent; its elasticity will struggle to have it restored; and a skillful discerner, at the time of such delusion, will often detect the difference between a real character and the acting of a part. For when nature dictates, the whole man speaks: all is uniform and consenting in voice, mein, motion, the turn of each feature, and the cast of the eyes. But when art is the spokesman, and nature is not altogether suppressed, the turn of the eye may contradict the tongue, and the muscles of the face may counteract each other in their several workings.—Sel.