EYE LANGUAGE. 365 



cate with mind at the moment when the eyes encounter, and that 

 people whom we have acknowledged in this way stand on a some- 

 what more familiar footing with us than before the vague bond 

 became established. 



We, most of us, feel a hesitation about making our presence 

 known, even to a friend, by any other form of advance. The beggar 

 has long ago discovered that he gains by this most informal method of 

 self-introduction. This fact has been brought home to me of late 

 while I have been interested in ocular expression, and have made a 

 habit of looking — perhaps rather more intently than is customary — 

 at the eyes of persons whom I meet upon the pavement. If any 

 member of the cadger fraternity happens to be on business in the 

 streets, he is certain to regard the momentary interchange of glances 

 as an invitation to attempt some more profitable form of commerce. 

 The commonness of the habit can not be better emphasized than by 

 calling attention to the fact that members of Parliament make use 

 of the same mute telegraphy as mendicants when they desire permis- 

 sion to address the House. 



Fencing masters lay great stress upon the importance of pupils 

 keeping their eyes steadily upon those of their opponents. In all 

 probability Kature herself would teach any of us this elementary 

 lesson if we were face to face with a real enemy. I have noticed 

 that all pugilists, trained and untrained, when sparring keep their 

 gaze fixed upon the eyes of their antagonists. That such habits 

 are instinctive is shown by the fact that all apes when they have 

 hostile intentions invariably look steadily at the eyes, and never 

 allow their glance to stray. 



When we study the natural history of ocular expression we soon 

 find an explanation of these facts. Obviously the nervous mechan- 

 ism of such primitive and widely distributed methods of intercourse 

 must be very ancient, and can have but little to do with the higher 

 intellectual faculties. Undoubtedly eye language dates back far 

 beyond the beginning of human speech, and was therefore estab- 

 lished at a time when mental processes were infinitely less complex 

 than they are to-day. One must not attribute the superior truth- 

 fulness of the eye over the tongue and the other organs of expression 

 to any causes which have to do with morality. ISTature knows noth- 

 ing of ethics as we understand the term, and if she can gain an in- 

 finitesimal advantage by deceit she resorts to it without the slightest 

 hesitation. But, unlike many human exponents of the art of lying, 

 she is frugal and businesslike in her output of falsehoods. If it does 

 not pay her to tell a lie her veracity is beyond suspicion. Broadly 

 speaking, the language of the eye is the language of truth, because 

 it was evolved at a time when elaborate lies were useless. When 



