So with Charlotte Bronte. Matthew Arnold seems to have thought the most
probable thing to be said of her eyes was that they were grey and
expressive. Thus, after seeing them, does he describe them in one of his
letters. Whereas Mrs Gaskell, who shows signs of attention, says that
Charlotte's eyes were a reddish hazel, made up of "a great variety of
tints," to be discovered by close looking. Almost all eves that are not
brown are, in fact, of some such mixed colour, generally spotted in, and
the effect is vivacious. All the more if the speckled iris has a dark
ring to enclose it.
Nevertheless, the eye of mixed colour has always a definite character,
and the mingling that looks green is quite unlike the mingling that looks
grey; and among the greys there is endless difference. Brown eyes alone
are apart, unlike all others, but having no variety except in the degrees
of their darkness.
The colour of eyes seems to be significant of temperament, but as regards
beauty there is little or nothing to choose among colours. It is not the
eye, but the eyelid, that is important, beautiful, eloquent, full of
secrets.
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