The mirror makes two acts possible which are among the human being's most admirable concerns: to know and to improve himself.
The "know thyself" which refers to the soul is also applicable to physical form. Bernardin de St Pierre could have written that water was created so that man, ever since the dawn of time, could see his face reflected in the limpid stillness and act accordingly.
For the human being behaves according to his face.
A man is burning the diary of his youth, the love letters of his whole life. It upsets him so much that he pours himself a drink which he will swallow if he begins to feel unwell. He goes on burning, burning. Suddenly he imagines that his face is fading away... he glances in the mirror, finds himself fresh and healthy; reassured, he continues and finishes his business.
In a Chinese buddhist tale, a young man, jealous on account of his beloved's fickleness, notices in a mirror that his face has turned green (not a figure of speech: his face turned the brightest green, as green as the leaves on a tree). Realising that like this he will never be able to win the girl, he goes and makes a retreat in a buddhist monastery. With his soul at peace, his face will regain its natural colour and with it he will bring his courtship to a satisfactory conclusion.
A man in politics was telling me that whenever he left for a political meeting he examined himself carefully in a mirror. The tone of all his interruptions was determined by the features he had seen there. It seems that middle aged men with a forceful personality are often in politics. Part of their strength comes from their features.
La Bruyere believes that the aim of the art of writing should be to please. A provocative suggestion: the aim of man in his character and conduct should be to displease, one would almost be tempted to say that the fact that the does not please is evidence of his capability.
But, as far as his physical appearance is concerned, the opposite holds true. There is nothing more lawful than the human being's desire to present the least unfavourable picture of himself to his fellow men, to make his tiny contribution to the peace of the world; the efforts he makes in this direction are charitable ones (provided that he does not make the common mistake and confuse improving his appearance with making it less attractive).
In certain ages the power of beauty was extraordinary, quite literally beyond our understanding. Equally absurd, they made men kings because of their beauty. Even in Plutarch there is a Roman (Greek snobbishness is involved) who becomes a general or imperator or something military because, we are told, of his beauty.
Then there are the mirrors. Narcissus pines away and dies because he thought himself too beautiful. Ibn Dawoud, the Persian storyteller of the Middle Ages, tells us about a young man who sees himself in a mirror for the first time; he finds himself so beautiful that he drops dead. As far as I know there are no legendary tales of women being so emotive. But perhaps men are more susceptible: they may well be.
Then there is always this in the old Oriental whimsies. Why does the horse always splash in the water with his hoof before drinking? Because he does not look beautiful? You may well laugh, it's delightful.
A young woman in hospital. She comes out of an operation; her first act is to ask for a mirror, her second for a lipstick. Once I disapproved of this. Now I understand. "I'm alive. But what's the point of being alive without being happy? The answer is to please." Wonderful.
The power of beauty is so extensive that even this can happen. A fourteen year old, rather uncouth working-class boy was bullying his young brother. When asked why, he replied: "I don't like him"—"Yes, but..."—"He's ugly." The little brother was just like anyone else, squinting a bit perhaps, but not so much. Yet in the crude nature of the elder boy there lurked an aesthetic sense which was shocked and irritated.
But that story is nothing compared to this one. I know a father who began to dislike his daughter, a young girl slightly past the marrying age and unhappy because of this, from the day when her face first lost its happy glow. To think that a face can have such an effect on a father!
In conclusion. It's possible that in certain administrative circles, with which I am unfamiliar, mirrors are classed as luxury objects, but they are not that essentially.
As instruments of knowledge and improvement (or without which improvement would be impossible) they can be counted among the inventions which sway individual destinies. The physical and psychological role of mirrors—for they are both there—seem to me of slight importance alongside the human one.
Henry de Montherlant
de l'Académie Française
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When an artist introduces a mirror into his picture he is creating an unexpected pr...
