Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-02-07
WINDOWS OF THE SOUL.
THE EYES AS A FEATURE IN Ma
TiONAL pHYSlOGNoMY.
Opinions II BufEon. winck~imaOn and
Other Authoriti-s-Eyes Regarded -
Tribal Indicat tions-A Few Paragraphs
from Iavater-tOnce Color.

oher Auth0rttr~-tNes hegaToSa -
Tribal Indicntions-A Few Paragraphs
from Iayater-COncerning Color.
Some poetical gentleman has called the
eve the window Of the soul, " and at all
times and among nearly all peoples 1t Is
regarded as the great feature of express
sion: that is, persons who are neither anna
teUrs in nor professors of that quasi
science physlognomy. These gentlemen
.lcvotc their time and treatises rs much to
the nose as to the eyes, propounding rules
Of character as deduced from the wrinkles
of the forehead and warts IN the cheek,
writing lcarneily Of the lineaments OF the
cheek. the Specification Of the chin, the
index Of the mouth and score Of other
,liNer>itics Of feature.
First. a~ to the eyes rs n feature in ma
tirnal physognomy. Lavater, when dis
ru->iuc this question, gives the fohowing
a. the result of his observations: That
The Italians have small eyes; the Ger
mans light colored eyes surrounded with
many wrinkles; the English. strong, open,
liberal and steadfast eyes, and the Swiss
dull eyes.
The LaySanders. according to Button,
have narrow eyes. the pupils OF yellow
brown. inclining to "A black, and the eye
lids retiring toward the temple. The
eyes Of the Tartars, he says, are small and
sunken. the eyebrows large, covering the
eyes. and the eyelids thick. The eyes OF
the Chinese are small, their eyebrows
large and the eyelids raised.
The New Hollandcr had a dull. black
eye. thick eyebrows and eyelids half shut
"A habit acquired in fancy TO preserve the
ewes from the gnats. To the Spaniards
Button gives good eyes TO the Goths,
blue eyes. and To the Finlanders, 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 and other di-
rect conditions. Thus, he says, the small,
half closed. blinking eyes Of the Esqui-
manX are due to natures attempt TO pre-
serve the sight from the dry, cold air
and the effusion 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 conse-
quencc Of the imperfection Of their
growth Ii is upon the authority OF
philosophic writer named De Pauw 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 Scnegambian's eye. which he
| likens To boiled prune set in a plover's
egg Another authority states that the
eye OF the Turks Is devoid Of passion or
great enterprise, but that II is eloquent in
all the penetration Of benevolent cunning.
This writer also says that the silent
eve Of the Englishman seeks not TO
please" that the eye Of the Frenchman is
..vivacious and unstable;" thar the ltal-
ian's 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 NubisnS and Egyptians have
always been spoken III rs dark eyed.
These characteristics have not apparently
changed, and it may I've 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 eau lie said TO be
| light eyed Is the Caucasian. and even this
race is by no means uniform US to color
in its eyes. The entire human history
goes to prove that the light haired, blue
eyed races are capable Of the highest
degree of civiIisation. but II does not by
any means prove that the highest degree
of civilization is confined TO the blonde
races There was period when blue
eyed persons were rarely seen, and today
seven -eighths Of the worlds inhabitants
have dark eyes. Not only Is the majority
OIL the side OF the dark eyed. but statistics
would seem to indicate that that majority
! ! !, acfc.,s....ss .acfc.,s.....sss II paper read some time
ago before the Swedish Anthropoiogfcai
| socie,y il was stated that brown eyes were
becomins more common in switzerland,
| North Germany, Belgium and Sweden,
and that out Of every 100 sets OF light eyed
parents sc per cent. Of the children had
dark eyes. In this calculation blue gray
and gray ewes were classified rs blue, ana,
| II there is any weight to be attached 10
the report. 10 would show that blue eyes,
even in blue eyed country, are becoming
decidedly scarce. which ought to be good
news for the blondes.
Ii will be sequential here to quote
paragraph or two from Lavater concern
ing the color Of the eyes. "Ihe coiors
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 predominant and are
often found IN the same eye. Eyes
supposed to he black" says Button, ''are
only yellow. brown or deep oranger;,,
convince ourselves Of which we neg, =, =
lock at them closely, for when .tSb, ,hsv
distance or turned toward tbfbe yellow
appear to be black, eeeei to the white
brown color is 50 OPPOSITION makes it
OF the eye that Ties also OF a less dark
supposed blacSack. but are not esteemed
color pass lother, ,sbecause the contrast
50 me u great. There also are yellow
Is hSright yellow eyes which do not ap-
Par black because the colors are not deep
enough 10 be overpowered by the shade.
IL is no; uncommon 10 perceive shades of
orange. yellow, gray and blue In the
SINE eye, and wherever blue an
pears, however small the tincture, II be-
comes the predominant color and ap-
pears in streaks over the whole iris The
orange is in flakes round, and at some
little distance from the pupil. but is so
strongly effacsd by the blue that the eye
appears wholly blue, and the mixture of
orange Is only perceived when closely in
srected. The finest eyes are those which
we imagine 10 be black or blue Vivacity
and fire, which are the principal charac-
teristicS af the eyes, are the more emitted
when the colnrs are deep and contrasted
than when slightly shaded. Black eyes
have most strength Of expression and
most vivacity; bit the blue have most
mlldneSs and are more arch. In the for
mer there is an ardOr uuinterruptedly
bright. because the color, which appears
to us uniform, emits similar reflections
every way We look at it. But moGifica-
tionS are distinguished in the light which
animates blue eyes. because there are va
rious tints of color producing various re-
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