The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-07
THE WINDOWS OF THE SOUL.
The Eyes through Which our Thoughts
are Read and Seen.


The Eyes through Which our Thoughts
are Read and Seen.
From the San Francisco Chronicle.
Some poetical gentleman has called the
eye ''the window of the soul, " and at all times
and among nearly all people it is regarded
as the great feature of expression; that is,
by persons who are neither amateurs in nor
professors of that quasi science physiog-
nomy. These gentlemen devote their time
and treatises as much to the nose as
to the eyes, propounding rules of
characters deduced from the wrinkles of the
forehead and warts on the cheek, writing
learnedly of the lineaments of the cheek, the
Specification of the chin, the index of the
mouth, and score of other diversitieS of
| feature.
| First, as to the eyes as feature in ma
tional physiognomy. Lavater, when discuss
| ing this question, gives the following as
the result of his observations: That the
| Italians have small eyes; the Germans light
colored eyes, surrounded with many
wrinkles; the English strong, open, liberal
and steadfast eyes, and the Swiss dull eyes.
The Laplanders, according to Button,
have narrow eyes, the pupils of yellow
brown, inclined to black, and the eyelids
retiring towards the temple. The eyelids
retiring towards the temple. The eyes of
the Tartars, he says, are small and sunken,
! the eyebrows large, covering the eyelids
| thick. The eyes of the Chinese are small,
their eyebrows large and the eyelids raised.
The New Hollander had dull, black eye,
| thick eyebrows and eyelids half shut-a
habit acquired in fancy to preserve the eyes
| from the gnats. To the Spaniards Button
gives good eyes, to the Cloths, blue eyes,
and to the Findlanders, heavy lids and the
| iris Of deep yellow.
Winckelmann holds the opinion that the
| shape and color of the eyes are very largely
| the result of climate aud other direct con-
| ditions. Thus, he says, the small, half
| closed, blinking eyes of the Esquimsux are
| due to natures attempt to preserve the
! sight from the dry, cold air and the effu-
| sion of light from the snow amidst which
| they live. The small eyes of all the distant
and Northern nations, he says in another
place, are in consequence of the imperfec-
| ton of their growth. 1t is upon the
authority of phiosophic writer named De
Paw that the Peruvian has an eye the
| apple of which is black and the white not
very clear
| This reminds one of the description
| by Russell of a Senegambian's eye, which
he likens to boiled prune set in plover's
egg. Another authority states that the eye
of the Turks is devoid of passion or great
enterprise, but that it is eloquent in all the
penetration of benevolent cunning. This
! writer also says that the silent eye" of the
| Englishman "seeks not TO please" that the
Italians is ''ardent" and the Dutchman's
"half open and without thought"
| Eyes have always been regarded as tribal
indications. Tacitus, for example, describes
the Germans as ''fierce, with blue eyes and
red hair. The Celts are described as
swarthy and dark eyed, the Gauls are red
haired and light eyed while the Nubians
| and Egyptians have always been spoken of
as dark eyed These characteristics have
not apparently changed, and it may be said
roundly that the people of the temperate
zone have generally light colored eyes,
| while those of the extreme zones are dark.
| OF the races, the only one that can be said
| to be light eyed is the Caucasian, and even
| this race is by no means uniform as to color
| in it ewes. The entire human history goes
to prove that the light haired, blue eyed
races are capable of the highest degree OF
civilization but it Dies not by any means
prove that the highest degree of civiliza-
| ton is confined to the blonde races. There
was period when blue eyed persons were
rarely seen, and to-day seven-eights of the
worlds inhabitants have dark eyes. Not
| only is the ma ority on the side of the dark
| eyed, but-statistcs would seem to indicate
| that that majority is increasing. In paper
|
Anthropological Society it was stated that
| brown eyes were becoming more common
| in Switzerland, North Germany, Belgium
| and Sweden, and that out of every one
| hundred sets of light eyed parents fifty-six
per cent. of the children had dark eyes
| In this calculation blue-gray and gray
eyes were classified as blue, and, if there is
| any weight to be attached to the report, it
would show that blue eyes, even in a blue
| ax-aJ haaoT11iOy daciIaIIx
| scarce, which ought to be good news for the
| blondes
1t will be sequential here to quote para
| graph or two from Lavater concerning the
| color of the eyes, 1.-THE most common to
the eyes, he writes, ''are the orange, yellow,
green, blue, gray and gray mixed with
white. The blue and orange are most pre-
dominant and are often found in the same
eye" Eyes supposed to be black" says
Button, ''are only yellow, brown or a deep
orange; to convince ourselves of which we
need but look at them closely, for when
seen at a distance or turned towards the
light, they appear to be black, because the
yellow brown color is so contrasted to the
white of the eye that the opposition makes
it supposed black.
Eyes also of less dark color pass for
black, but are not esteemed SO fine as the
other because the contrast is not so great.
J
appear black because the colors are not
deep enough to be overpowered by the shade.
1t is net uncommon to perceive shades of
orange, yellow, gray and blue in the same
eye, and wherever blue appears, however
small the tinct re, it becomes the predomi-
nant color and appears in streaks over the
whole iris. The orange is in flakes round
and at some little distance from the pupil,
but is so strongly effaced by the blue that
the eye appears wholly blue, and the mix
ture of orange is only perceived when
closely inspected.
1.-The finest eyes are those which we i'm
agine TO be black or blue. Vivacity and
fire, which are the principal characteristics
of the eyes, are the more emitted when the
colors are deep and contrasted than when
slightly shaded Black eyes have most
strength of expression and most vivacity
but the blue have most mildness and are
more arch. In the former there is an ardor
uninterruptedly bright, because the color,
which appears to us uniform, emits similar
reflections every way we look at it. But
notifications are distinguished in the light
which animates blue ewes, because there are
various tints of color producing various re-
fiections.n
An Imperative Necessity.
What pure air is to an unhealthy locality,
4. -. -