226 MEDITATION. Chap. IX. 



as this effort has been habitually accompanied, during 

 numberless generations, by the contraction of the eye- 

 brows, the habit of frowning will thus have been much 

 strengthened; although it was originally practised dur- 

 ing infancy from a quite independent cause, namely as 

 the first step in the protection of the eyes during scream- 

 ing. 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 me- 

 chanical 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 eye- 

 lids are acted on under certain circumstances in a use- 

 less 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 endeav- 

 oured 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 gen- 

 erally raised and wrinkled, in the same manner as when 

 a short-sighted person tries to distinguish a distant ob- 

 ject; and the upper orbicular muscles are at the same 

 time slightly contracted. The wrinkling of the lower 

 eyelids under these circumstances has been observed 



