158 



ON BEAUTY IN 



The supposed horribly fascinating power, 

 said to be possessed by the serpent, through 

 the medium of the eye, has no foundation in 

 truth. We give the snake credit for fixing his 

 eye upon us, when in fact he can do no such 

 thing ; for his eye only moves with his body, 

 and it has always the same appearance, and 

 remains in the same position, whether the ani- 

 mal be roused by rage, or depressed by fear. 

 It is shielded by an outward scale, which has 

 no communication with it, and against which it 

 cannot press ; so that when we behold the eye 

 of the serpent, represented by artists as start- 

 ing out of the socket, we know that their 

 delusive imagination has been at work, and 

 that they are lamentably ignorant of the ana- 

 tomy of this animal. If Mr. Swainson be an 

 admirer of correctness in design, I would re- 

 commend him to revise and correct his over- 

 # strained eulogy on a certain overstrained per- 

 formance which he terms, " mocking birds 

 defending their nest from a rattle-snake." — * 

 (See Biography of Birds.) 



The toad, that poor, despised, and harmless 

 reptile, is admirable in its proportions, and has 

 an eye of such transcendant beauty, that when 



