Conccr)iing Eyes. 20 1 



If wc could leave out the mixed or neutral eyes, 

 which are in a transitional state — blue eyes with some 

 pigment obscuring their blueness, and making tliem 

 quite unclassifiable, as no two pairs of eyes are 

 found alike — then all eyes might be divided into two 

 great natural orders, those witli and those without 

 pigment on the outer surface of the membrane. 

 They could not well be called light and dark eyes, 

 since many hazel eyes are really lighter than purple 

 and dark grey eyes. They might, however, be simply 

 called brown and blue, for in all eyes with the 

 outer pigment there is brown, or something scarcely 

 distinguishable from brown ; and all eyes without 

 pigment, even the purest greys, have some blueness. 



Brown eyes express animal passions rather than 

 intellect and the higher moral feelings. They are 

 frequently equalled in their own peculiar kind of 

 eloquence by the brown or dark eyes in the domestic 

 dog. In animals there is, in fact, often an exag- 

 gerated eloquence of expression. To judge from 

 their eyes, caged cats and eagles in the Zoological 

 Gardens are all furred and feathered Bonnivards. 

 Even in the most intellectual of men the bi'own eye 

 speaks more of the heart than of the head. In the 

 inferior creatures the black eye is always keen and 

 cunning or else soft and mild, as in fawns, doves, 

 aquatic birds, &c. ; and it is remarkable that in 

 man also the black eye — dark brown iris with large 

 pupil — generally has one or the other of these pre- 

 dominant expressions. Of course, in highly- 

 civilized communities, individual exceptions are 



