THE EYES, EYEBROWS, EYELASHES, AND THE SENSE

OF SIGHT.

No

PROPER FORM AND COLOR OF THE EYE.

O feature of the face is more expressive than the eye, none is more important to have under command, and to use to the best advantage. Of all senses that of sight is most valuable to us, and provides us the most gratifications. It can supply to an astonishing extent the lack of the sense of hearing. A lady recently told us that some years since she was introduced to, and conversed for an hour with, the wife of the celebrated Professor M., so well known for his discoveries in electricity. What was her astonishment afterwards to learn that that lady was entirely deaf, but had maintained a conversation for that length of time with a stranger without making an error, simply by observing the movements of the mouth and the expression!

The eyes should divide the upper from the middle

third of the face. They should be horizontal, and of a color to correspond with the complexion and the hair. In size they should be medium, and neither sunken nor prominent. Their motion should be free, slow rather than jerky, and always in the same axis, that is, they should not be in the least cross-eyed. They should be bright but not glittering, moist but not languishing, clear but not sharp. As Tennyson elegantly expresses it :

"Eyes not down-dropt nor over bright, but fed

With the clear-pointed flame of chastity,

Clear without heat, undying, tended by

Pure vestal thoughts in the translucent flame

Of the still spirit."

They should be strong enough to read the type in which this book is printed at a distance of four or five feet, and in form, position, color, size, and power, the one should exactly correspond with the other.

THE EYEBROWS.

The eyebrows are very significant of character and emotion. The Latin writer Pliny supposed that a portion of the soul had its dwelling there, and the German historian Herder says that the arched eyebrow is the rainbow of peace, but when contracted it is the strung bow of strife.

Their beauty consists in having them moderately thick, especially at the inner third, the outer extremity

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tapering to a point with soft, silken, regular hairs, of a color a shade darker than the hair of the head, slightly curved upwards, separated on the bridge of the nose, and with their edges clearly defined against the skin.

In some persons the eyebrows join above the nose. According to Goethe, this is indicative of a sensuous nature. It impresses one disagreeably, as it gives the appearance of a perpetual frown. Nevertheless, there are some nations, the Turks and Moors, for instance, who esteem it a beauty. When their women do not have it naturally, it is imitated by dyeing the intervening space with a preparation called surmè, compounded of galls and antimony. As Americans do not approve of this opinion, it is more pertinent to inquire how the obnoxious hairs may be removed. This can readily be done either by the tweezers, or, what is much less painful, by one of the depilatories we shall mention in the chapter on hair.

When the eyebrows are irregular and bristly, the offending hairs may be maintained in their proper place by adhesive pomade, or cut close to the skin one at a time, or removed entirely if they are superfluous. It is not well to trim the eyebrow generally, as it makes it coarse, and in using the tweezers great care must be taken not to pull hairs which ought to remain.

When it is desired to thicken or strengthen them, two or three drops of oil of cajuput may be gently rubbed into the skin every other night; but here, and

always when wiping them, the rubbing should be in the direction of the hair, from the nose outward, and never in the reverse direction.

When it is intended to deepen their hue, it should not be done by a dye, but with a pencil of dark pomatum, which allows the greatest accuracy of application, and has no influence on the skin or eyes; or by means of a needle smoked over the flame of a candle, which is equally innocent, but less permanent.

THE EYELIDS AND EYELASHES.

The eyelids should neither be widely separated nor half-closed. The former habit gives a scared, uneasy look, damaging to the repose of beauty; the latter, either a sleepy or a sensual expression, equally far from the ideal of art. The half-closed lids are characteristic of indulgence, and seem adapted, says an elegant writer on æsthetics, "to diminish or partially to exclude the excess of those sensations which make even pleasure painful." All the pupil should be visible, but none of the white of the eye, either above or below it.

The lids are subject to various disfiguring complaints, most common of which are a redness and swelling of their margins, with more or less discharge, especially during the night. This is called blear-eye, or "lippitudo," and when more severe, "psorophthalmia." Sometimes it is attended with a burning and itching

ABOUT GLYCERINE.

83

sensation, the edges of the lid become ulcerated and sore, and the eyelashes fall out. Frequently it arises from a tendency to scrofula, and from improperly using, or violently rubbing the eyes. When from any temporary cause, this affection can be cured by touching the margin of the lid with a little of the following preparation on the point of a camel-hair pencil, night and morning:

Mix thoroughly and keep in a cool place. Besides using this, wash the eyelid with tepid warm water, several times during the day.

If, however, blear-eye is connected with an enfeebled or scrofulous constitution, a thorough course of medical treatment is necessary.

That common annoyance a stye often causes disproportionate pain and trouble. It is a small, inflamed tumor on the edge of the lid. If taken early, they can be backened by being touched with a solid stick of nitrate of silver, but after a day or two, they must be

1 Whenever glycerine is applied to any part of the body where there is hair, care must be taken to have it chemically pure, as otherwise the salts of lime, one of its most common impurities, will injure and finally destroy the hair bulbs, and cause baldness, dropping of the eyelashes, etc.