contraction of the eyebrows, the habit of frowning will thus have been
much strengthened; although it was originally practised during infancy
from a quite independent cause, namely as the first step in the
protection of the eyes during screaming. There is, indeed, much
analogy, as far as the state of the mind is concerned, between intently
scrutinizing a distant object, and following out an obscure train of
thought, or performing some little and troublesome mechanical work. The
belief that the habit of contracting the brows is continued when there
is no need whatever to exclude too much light, receives support from
the cases formerly alluded to, in which the eyebrows or eyelids are
acted on under certain circumstances in a useless manner, from having
been similarly used, under analogous circumstances, for a serviceable
purpose. For instance, we voluntarily close our eyes when we do not
wish to see any object, and we are apt to close them, when we reject a
proposition, as if we could not or would not see it; or when we think
about something horrible. We raise our eyebrows when we wish to see
quickly all round us, and we often do the same, when we earnestly
desire to remember something; acting as if we endeavoured to see it.
_Abstraction. Meditation_. When a person is lost in thought with his
mind absent, or, as it is sometimes said, when he is in a brown
study, he does not frown, but his eyes appear vacant. The lower
eyelids are generally raised and wrinkled, in the same manner as when a
short-sighted person tries to distinguish a distant object; and the
upper orbicular muscles are at the same time slightly contracted. The
wrinkling of the lower eyelids under these circumstances has been
observed with some savages, as by Mr. Dyson Lacy with the Australians
of Queensland, and several times by Mr. Geach with the Malays of the
interior of Malacca. What the meaning or cause of this action may be,
cannot at present be explained; but here we have another instance of
movement round the eyes in relation to the state of the mind.
The vacant expression of the eyes is very peculiar, and at once shows
when a man is completely lost in thought. Professor Donders has, with
his usual kindness, investigated this subject for me. He has observed
others in this condition, and has been himself observed by Professor
Engelmann. The eyes are not then fixed on any object, and therefore
not, as I had imagined, on some distant object. The lines of vision of
the two eyes even often become slightly divergent; the divergence, if
the head be held vertically, with the plane of vision horizontal,
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