208 Shadowings 



mutual yielding one individual necessarily yields 

 sooner than the other, it does not at all explain 

 the mystery of the individual impulse in cases 

 where the yielding is not mutual ; it does not 

 explain why you feel at one time that you are 

 about to make your vis-d-vis give place, and 

 feel at another time that you must yourself give 

 place. What originates the feeling ? 



A friend once attempted to answer this ques- 

 tion by the ingenious theory of a sort of eye- 

 duel between every two persons coming face to 

 face in a street-throng; but I feel sure that his 

 theory could account for the psychological facts 

 in scarcely half-a-dozen of a thousand such en- 

 counters. The greater number of people hurry- 

 ing by each other in a dense press rarely observe 

 faces: only the disinterested idler has time for 

 that. Hundreds actually pass along the street 

 with their eyes fixed upon the pavement. Cer- 

 tainly it is not the man in a hurry who can 

 guide himself by ocular snap-shot views of 

 physiognomy; he is usually absorbed in his 

 own thoughts. ... I have studied my own case 

 repeatedly. While in a crowd I seldom look at 

 faces; but without any conscious observation 1 

 am always able to tell when I should give way, 



