1856. THE EYE AND THE EAR. 437 



pupil, so black and yet so clear, that you look into it as into 

 some deep, dark well, and see a little face look back at you, 

 which you forget is your own, whilst you rejoice that the days 

 are not yet come for those infant eyes, when ' they that look out 

 of the windows shall be darkened.' And then the soft pink cur- 

 tains which we call eyelids, with their long silken fringes of 

 eyelashes, and the unshed tears bathing and brightening all ! 

 How exquisite the whole ! How precious in the sight of God 

 must those little orbs be when he has bestowed upon them so 

 much beauty ! . . . 



"What a strange interest attaches to that little darkened 

 chamber of the eye ! Into it the sun and the stars, the earth 

 and the ocean, the glory and the terror of the universe, enter 

 upon the wings of light, and demand audience of the soul. And 

 from its mysterious abiding-place the soul conies forth, and in 

 twilight they commune together. No one but HE who made 

 them can gaze upon the unveiled majesty of created things : we 

 could not look upon them and live ; and therefore it is that here 

 we see all things 'through (or rather in) a glass darkly;' and are 

 permitted only to gaze upon their shadows in one small dimly- 

 lighted chamber. . . . 



" Picture to yourself the contrast between a great orchestra, 

 containing some hundred performers and instruments, and that 

 small music-room built of ivory, no bigger than a cherry-stone, 

 which we call an ear, where there is ample accommodation for all 

 of them to play together. The players, indeed, and their instru- 

 ments, are not admitted. But what of that if their music be ? 

 Nay, if you only think of it, what we call a musical performance 

 is, after all, but the last rehearsal. The true performance is 

 within the ear's music-room, and each one of us has the whole 

 orchestra to himself. When we thus realize the wondrous capa- 

 bilities of the organ of hearing, I think we shall not fail to find 

 an intellectual and sesthetical, as well as a great moral admoni- 

 tion in the Divine words, ' He that hath ears to hear, let him 

 hear.' . . . 



" If this apply to earthly music, how much more to heavenly ! 

 Though everything else in the future state may be dim and dark, 

 and in all respects matter of faith or hope, not of vivid realiza- 



