amounting to an angle of 2 as a maximum. This was ascertained by
observing the crossed double image of a distant object. When the head
droops forward, as often occurs with a man absorbed in thought, owing
to the general relaxation of his muscles, if the plane of vision be
still horizontal, the eyes are necessarily a little turned upwards, and
then the divergence is as much as 3 , or 3 5 : if the eyes are turned
still more upwards, it amounts to between 6 and 7 . Professor Donders
attributes this divergence to the almost complete relaxation of certain
muscles of the eyes, which would be apt to follow from the mind being
wholly absorbed.[906] The active condition of the muscles of the eyes
is that of convergence; and Professor Donders remarks, as bearing on
their divergence during a period of complete abstraction, that when one
eye becomes blind, it almost always, after a short lapse of time,
deviates outwards; for its muscles are no longer used in moving the
eyeball inwards for the sake of binocular vision.
Perplexed reflection is often accompanied by certain movements or
gestures. At such times we commonly raise our hands to our foreheads,
mouths, or chins; but we do not act thus, as far as I have seen, when
we are quite lost in meditation, and no difficulty is encountered.
Plautus, describing in one of his plays[907] a puzzled man, says, Now
look, he has pillared his chin upon his hand. Even so trifling and
apparently unmeaning a gesture as the raising of the hand to the face
has been observed with some savages. Mr. J. Mansel Weale has seen it
with the Kafirs of South Africa; and the native chief Gaika adds, that
men then sometimes pull their beards. Mr. Washington Matthews, who
attended to some of the wildest tribes of Indians in the western
regions of the United States, remarks that he has seen them when
concentrating their thoughts, bring their hands, usually the thumb and
index finger, in contact with some part of the face, commonly the upper
lip. We can understand why the forehead should be pressed or rubbed,
as deep thought tries the brain; but why the hand should be raised to
the mouth or face is far from clear.
_Ill-temper_. We have seen that frowning is the natural expression of
some difficulty encountered, or of something disagreeable experienced
either in thought or action, and he whose mind is often and readily
affected in this way, will be apt to be ill-tempered, or slightly
angry, or peevish, and will commonly show it by frowning. But a cross
expression, due to a frown, may be counteracted, if the mouth appears
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