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Show 228 MEDITATION. CnAP. IX. nR this effort has been habitually accompanied, during nnmb rless generations, by the contraction of the eyebrows the habit of frownin()" will thus have been much ' 0 strengthened; although it was originally practised during infancy from a quite independent cause, namely, as the first step in the protection of the eyes during .·creaming. There is, indeed, much analogy, as ftn a. the state of the mind is concerned, between intently R rutinizing a distant object, and following out an obRcure train of thought, or performing some little and troublesome mechanical work. The belief that the habit of contracting the brows is continued w heu there is no need whatever to exclude too much light, re eives support from the cases formerly alluded to, in which the eyebrows or eyelids are acted on under certain circumstances in a useless manner, frotn having been siinilarly used, under analogous circumstances, for a serviceable purpose. For instance, we voluntarily close our eyes when we do not wish to see any objeet, an·d we are apt to close them, when we reject a proposition, as if we could not or would not see it; or when we think about something horrible. We raise our eyebrows when we wish to see quickly all round us, and we often do the same, when we earnestly desire to remember something; acting as if we endoitvoured to see it. Abstraction. Meditation.-When a per.son is lost in thought with his 1nind absent, or, as it is someti1ncs said, " when he is in a brown study," he does not fro,vn, but his eyes appear vacant. 'fhe lower eyelids are generally raised and wrinkled, in the same manner as when a short-sighted person tries to distinguish a rlistant object; and the upper orbicular muscles are at th0 Ramo time slightly contracted. 'fhe wrinklinp; of CHAP. IX. MEDI'£A'l'ION. 229 the lower ey \lid unler these cir llln. 'tane s has be n ob erved with some savages, a by Mr. Dyson La y with the Australians of Queen land, and several times by l\1r. each with the l\falays of the interior of l\Ialacca. vVhat the meaning or cau of this a ·tiou 1nay bo, cannot at present be explain d; but here we have another in tance of movement round the eyes in relation to the tate of the mind. 'fhe vacant xpres ion of the ey sis v ry peculiar, and at once how when a 1nan is completely lost in thouo-ht. Profes or Donder has, with his usual kindu s , in ve tigated this subject for m . He has observed others in this condition, and has been himself observed by Pro~ s. or Engelmann. 'fhe ey s are not then fixed on any obJect, and therefore not, as I had imagined, on sotne distant obj ct. The lin s of vision of the two y s ~v n often become slightly divergent; the divergenc , 1f the head be held vertically, with the plane of vision horizontal, amounting to an angle of 2° as a maximum. ~rhis was ascertained by observing the cro ·sed double imacre of a distant object. When the head droops forwa~ ·d, as often occurs with a man absorbed in thought, ow1ng to the general relaxation of hi, mu. ·cles, if the plane of vision be till horizonta], the eyes are n ces~ arily a little turned upwards, and then tho diverg nc \ IS a much as S0 , or S0 5': if the y s are turned till 1nore upwards, it amounts to between 6° and 7°. Profe sor Donders attributes this divergence to the alm t ·omplete relaxation of certain muscles of the eyes, which wonld be apt to follow from the n1ind being wholly absorbed.6 The active con(1ition of the muscles of th 8 Gratiolot remarks (De la Phys. p. H5), " Quaud l'a.tt •ution ·. t ., fixce sur quelque image interieure, I' roil regard dans lo vid. , 'L '' s'u oci nutomatiqucment u. la contemplation do l't'Hprit." Bnt tlli~:~ view hardly flcscrves to be called an explanation. . |
