The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-11-08
The Eye.

The Eye.
The eye was intended by its Maker to be
educated, and to be educated sloaoIy but il
educated fully, its powers are almost bound.
less. 1t il assuredly then thing to be pro-
foundly regretted, that not one man in a
thousand develops the hidden capacities OF
his organ Of vision, either as regards its utili-
tartan or its aesthetic applications. The
great majority of mankind do not and can
not see one fraction of what they were intend.
ed to see. The proverb that "None are SO
blind as those that will not see' is as true oi
physical as of moral vision. By neglect and
carlessness, we have mace ourselves unable
to discern hundreds of things which are be-
fore us to be SEEN Thomas Carlyle has
summed this up in the one pregnant SEN
tence: "The eye sees what it brings the pow
er to see" How true this is The sailor on
the lookout can sec ship where the lands
man sees nothing the Esquimaux can dis.
tinguish white fox amidst the white snow;
the American backwoodsman will fire rifle.
ball so as to strike nut out of the mouth OF
a asquirrel without hurting it the Red Indian
boys hold their hands up as marks to each
other, certain that the unerring arrow will
be shot between the spread-out fingers the
astronomer can see star in the sky, where
to others the blue expanse is unbroken the
shepherd can distinguish the face of every
sheep in his flock the mosaic worker car
detect distinctions of color where others see
none; and multitudes of additional examples
might be given of what education does fol
the eye.
Now, we may not be called upon to hun,
white foxes in the snow or, like William
| Tell, to save our own life and our child's by
| splitting with an arrow an apple on its head
or to identify stolen sheep by looking ir
its face, and swearing to its portrait (; but we
must do every day many things essential t.
our welfare, which we would do great deal
better if we had an eye trained as we might
readily have. For example, it is not every
man that can hit nail on the head, or drive
| it straight in with hammer Very few
persons can draw a straight line, or cut q
| piece of cloth or paper even still fewer can
use pencil as draughtsman and fewer still
can paint with colors Yet assuredly there
is not calling in which an educated eye
nice in distinguishing form, color, size, dis
tance, and the like, will not be of finestimable
service. For although it is not to he denied
that some eyes can be educated to much
greater extent than others, that can be nc
excuse for any one neglecting to educate his
eye. The worse it is, the more it needs ed
| ucation the better it is, the more it viii
repay it.
To describe the mode in which the eye
should be trained is not my purpose and il
would be vain to attempt description of its
powers when educated to the utmost of ITS
p,,t 81 Lac, n
it, notice that in all ages, and by all people
the eye appears to have been the most hon
ored ofthe organs or the senses. 1t has
owed this doubtless, largely to its SURPRISING
beauty, and to the glory with which it lights
ur the countenance. But it owes its place
as queen Of the senses, mainly to the fact
that its empire is far wider than those ruled
over by Its sisters. The ear is tabled to hea,
the music of the spheres, but, in reality, is
limited in space to those sounds which the
earth and its atmosphere yield, and IN time
to the passing moment. The starry abysse.
for it are silent and the past and the future
are equally dumb
The nostrile, the tongue, and the hand
are similarly bounded, perhaps even more so
but the eye so triumphs over space, that i
traverses in moment the boIndless ocear
which stretches beyond our atmosphere. and
takes home to itself stars which are millions
ofmiles away and so far is it from being IA
tigued by its flight, that as the wise king
said: at is not satisfied with seeing" Oul
only physical conception Of limitless infnity
is derived from the longing of the eye to SEE
farther than the fartherest star.
And its empire over time is scarcely less
| bounded. The future it can not pierce /; bu
our eyes are never lifted to the midnigh
heavens without being visited by light which
left the stars from which it comes untold cen
turies ago and suns which had burned ou
eons before Adam was created, are shown t.
US as the blazing orbs which they were il
those immeasurably distant ages, by beam;
which have survived their source through al
that time.
| How far we can thus glance backward;
along ray of light, and literally gaze into
the deepest recess of time, we do not know
and as little can we tell how many ages vii
elapse after our suns torch is quenched be
fore he shall be numbered among lost stars
by dwellers in the sun most distant from us
yet assuredly it is through the eye that We
acquire our most vivid conception of wha
eternity in the sense ofunbeginning and un
ending time may mean.
1t is most natural, then, that the eye whic!
can thus triumph over space and time shoult
hold the pace of honor among the senses. o
all the miricles of healing which our Saviour
performed, if we accept the crowning one o
resurrection from death, none seems to have
made such an impression on the spectator.
as the restoration ofsight to the blind. One
of the blind whose sight was restored by
Christ, triumphantly declared to the doubter.
Of the marvelousncss of the miracle: "Sinct
the world began, was it not heard that any
one opened the eyes Of one that was borr
blindg' The perplexed though not unfaith
full Jews inquired: "Could not this man
which opened the eyes of the blind, have
caused that even this man should not have
died 9' And the opening of the eyes ofth,
blind would startle us as much did we witnes;
| it now. To the end of time men will acknowl
edge that He who formed the eye justly de
clared of it, that "The light Of the body i.
the eye" and all tender hearts will feel ,
peculiar sympathy for those whom it has
| pleased God, in his unsearchabe wisdom, t,
deprive Of sight, and for whom in this lif'
Wisdom is at one entrance quite shut out. y
DR.. Wilson.
How Soon Forgotten.