290 ELOQUENCE OF THE EYES. 



of fire, brilliant as the eyes of Minerva, and humid as those of 

 Venus : 



" To de /S\/i/ta vvv a 

 Airb TOV nvpbg 

 A/id yXafcov aig ' 

 A/id 8' vypov w Ku0?/p;g." 



The ancients, it may be remarked, greatly admired this serious 

 expression of the countenance, tempered with sweetness. 



Tasso, who has made so fine a use of many of Virgil's beauties, 

 in representing Rinaldo at the feet of the beautiful Armida, says 



" Ei famelei sguardi avidamente 



In lei pascendo si consume e strugge." 



Burger, delightfully personifying the youthful spring, just 

 awakened amid joyful melodies, a picture which Milton himself 

 might not have disdained, marks his glowing countenance, and par- 

 ticularly his laughing eye : 



" Unter frohen Melodieen 

 1st der junge Lenz erwacht. 

 Seht, wie Stirn und Wang ihm gliihen, 

 Wie sein heller Auge lacht ! 



The same poet, whose " vulgarity" has received the censure of 

 an Edinburgh reviewer, who probably read him with the assistance 

 of a dictionary, thus sweetly sings of eyes illuminated by the ten- 

 derest affections : 



" Blandine sah her, Lenardo sah bin, 



Mis Augen, erleuchtet vom zartlichsten Sinn." 



Perhaps the most poeticel language, applied to the intellectual 

 expression of the eyes, is to be found in Mr. Cornish's British Me- 

 lodies : 



" Her eyes, like wells of intellect, 



A deep clear heaven of light reflect." 



This elegant writer, if he be, as some suspect, the author of the 

 Songs of the Loire, has several beautiful passages, in which this 

 faculty of the visual organs is noticed. In the " Minstrel Bard," 

 for instance : 



" Look into his eyes, ye daughters of beauty ! 

 And trace the rays of his bounding soul." 



And in the ode to lanthe : 



" Still let thine eye, like the gazelle's, 

 Impart what love there be." 



As to the colour of the eyes, their expression certainly does not 



