Page:Language of the Eye.djvu/84

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
66
THE LANGUAGE

counterfeits of peace, rather than happy living, intelligent countenances. They also must be there at the judgment; and then, as here, you will see their small grey eye, peering about from the tottering throne of avarice.

The eye of some is full of romance and feeling, and seems to pourtray varied pictures. In some you seem to see foreign lands, sweet wild scenery, and Fancy walks by Ganges' side or Amenia's wilds. In some you may behold lighted halls of pleasure, where living stars of loveliness wear their silver and golden raiment. In some eyes you see genius stepping forth, clad in the grandeur of contemplation, and wearing the damp and fervid heat of ambition: 'tis on such occasions you may see the spirit sitting on its throne of light eternal. The beauty and spirituality of some eyes exceeds the status of mere reason, and yields a path for the majestic step of imagination. Through the eye, love beams and hovers, imparting a luxuriant animation, which causes adoration. The mouth has its beauties and indications, but requires the aid of other features ere it announces much passion or feeling; its progress is slow and irregular, so that we soon seek those channels through which spirits congratulate, contend, and sympathize: 'tis there an altar is ever burning; 'tis there we take great problems and anxious theorems for those alchymists to expound and render intelligible. Rapidly, perfectly, and with minuteness is every conceit of the soul rendered intelligible; those oracles, ancient as the archives of heaven, give language of truth's eloquence, more faithful than any other outward communication. The eye speaks in a language never before spoken, and which belongs to no place, yet is everywhere acknowledged. It has never submitted to be written, and defies transcription of the indifferent. Its tones are softer than a sigh, and yet as loud as the blast of the wild gales which traverse the Atlantic. This incomparable power dashes through all