ELOQUENCE OF THE EYES. 291 



depend upon it ; but poets, when they describe it, generally make 

 them black or blue ; thus Horace : 



" Spectandum nigris oculis, nigroque capillo." 



" Canebat 



Et Lycum, nigris oculis, nigroque 

 Crine decorum." 



In one instance we read in the British Melodies of a blue eye : 



" My Morna's eye, my.Morna's eye, 



What flow'r on earth can match its dye ? 



Nor hyacinths nor violets vie 



With the tender hue of Morna's eye." 



In the passage from Anacreon the colour is of secondary or rather 

 of no importance, for it is not mentioned ; it is the expression of the 

 eye alone which he requires. Mr. Cornish, in another poem, leaves 

 colour to the imagination. 



" Thine eyes are gems so richly set 



In beauty's canopy of love, 

 That gazing on thee, I forget." 



And M. de la Bouisse, in a less beautiful manner, praises his 

 mistress's eyes without particularising their colour : 



" Eleonore, en fixant tes beaux yeux, 

 De tons me sens la volupte s'empare ; 

 Pour moi la terre est preferable aux cieux." 



Moliere's Bourgeois has said much on the fascinating influence 

 of fine eyes, as de la Bouisse, or indeed any poet, and in fewer 

 words : " Belle Marquise, vos beaux yeux me font mourir d'amour." 

 A celebrated toast of the last century declared that the finest compli- 

 ment she ever received was from a coal-heaver, who requested to 

 light his pipe at her eyes. 



M. Petit Radel observes, that the various phenomena exhibited in 

 the eyes, which passion animates, derive a greater intensity of life 

 from their nervous tissue, and from the muscles which serve to 

 move them. These muscles have a much greater quantity of 

 nervous ramification in proportion to their volume than any other 

 muscular part. Here the sensitive and locomotive energy act in 

 concert to modify the operations of life, to elevate or depress its 

 tone, in a manner to respond to the first impressions of sentiment, 

 and to exhibit the soul entirely naked through the transparency of 

 the eyes. The greater number of observers have remarked that 

 these organs take their part also in the ordinary expression of 

 language. 



Their power of expression is undoubtedly proportionate to their 

 fulness : flat eyes, whether originally so formed, or the consequence 

 of age or disease, are almost entirely devoid of this intelligence, 

 which all admire. Emptiness and flippancy are intended to be 



