Page:The wonders of optics (1869).djvu/27

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white in some places. The shades of hazel in such eyes are so light that they are hardly distinguishable from grey and white, in spite even of the contrast of colour.

For our part, we think that the beauty of the eye consists not so much in its colour, or even in its harmony with the rest of the face, but in its expression.

There are also numerous instances of green eyes. This colour is, of course, much less frequent than blue, grey, or hazel. It often happens, too, that the two eyes vary in colour in the same individual. This defect is not confined to the human species, being shared by the horse and the cat. In most other animals the colour of the two eyes is always similar. The colour of the eye in most animals is either hazel or grey. Aristotle imagined that grey eyes were stronger than blue, that those persons whose eyes are prominent cannot see so far as others, and that brown eyes are less valuable in the dark than those of another tint; but modern investigations have failed to bear out the ancient philosopher's ideas with regard to the human eye.

Although the eye appears to move about in every direction, it has in reality only one movement, that of rotation round its centre, by means of which the eyeball rises or falls, or passes from side to side at will. In man the eyes are parallel with each other in relation to their axes; he can consequently direct them at pleasure upon the same object: but in most animals this parallelism is wanting. In some cases the eyes of animals are set almost back to back, rendering it impossible for them to see the same object with both eyes at once.

Buffon makes the remark, that after the eyes, the eyebrows contribute more strongly than any other part of the face towards giving character to the physiognomy, being, inasmuch as they differ in their nature from the other features, more apparent by contrast, and hence