Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1898 — The Language of the Eyes. [ARTICLE]

The Language of the Eyes.

Consciously or unconsciously, most of us Judge of the people we meet by what we read in their faces, and no part of the human countenance engages our attentions so frequently as the eyes. Indeed, as Dr. Louis Robinson shows in Blackwood’s Magazine, no feature reveals so much of the owner’s personality or emotions, or has such instant effect upon those 1 who observe it. Dogs habitually watch their master’s eyes, and every one has noticed how young children, even before they are able to talk, look at the eyes of persons who approach them and evidently form their opinions and predilection from what those “windows of the soul” express. Sometimes the eyes are more truthful and eloquent than the tongue. We all naturally watch the eyes rather than the lips of those with whom we converse. Steady eyes are regarded as indicative of courage, and an “eagle eye” set under a frowning brow can always command respect, while pronqdnent eyes that are shifty and vacillating produce an exactly opposite impression. Chinese recruits are carefully drilled in the art of looking formidable, their words of command being “Prepare to look fierce! Look fierce! Advance on the enemy!” Perhaps one remnant of this simple strategy is the peaked cap that Is worn by the soldiers of several civilized nations, for the headgear throws the eyes into the shadow, and lends the face a more stern, soldierly expression