The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-08-29
THE EYES OF FAMOUS MEN.

Burns, Hawthorne and Shelley We're All
Remarkable for Their Eyes.
Emerson used to say that each man
carried in his eye the exact indication
of his rank in the immense scale OF
men. Another close observer of hui
man nature asserts that persons with
prominent eyes are found to heve great
command of words and to be ready
speakers and writer's. A third holds
the theory that the prevailing color of
the men of genius is gray.
Col. Higginson speaks of Nathaniel
Hawthorne's gray eyes, while f. H.
Underwood "who once studied them
attentively, found them notified gray
and brown, and indescribably soft and
winning" Elsewhere we find it as
serted that mo finer eyes had ap-
peared in the literary circles of Great
Britain since Burns time than those of
Hawthorne.
Shelley's eyes are always spoken of
as magnificent, and fully indicative of
his hayward genius One writer de-
scribes them as 'large and animated,
with dash of wildness in them;" an
other speaks of them as ''such a pair
of eyes as are rarely seen in human
or any other head, intently blue, with
a gentle and lambent expression, yet
wonderfully alert and engrossing."
Medwith, while writing of Shelley's
appearance, refers to his blue eyes,
Every large and prominent. They
were at times, when he was distracted,
as he often was in contemplation, dull,
and, as it were, insensible to external
objects; at others, they flashed with
the fire of intelligence" Tom Moores
eyes were "as dark and fine as you
would wish to see under set of vine
leaves"
Of Coleridge it is reported: His
forehead was prodigious-a great piece
of placid marb)e and his fine eyes, in
which all the activity of his mind
seemed to concentrate, moved under it
with sprightly ease, as if it were pas
time to them to carry all thatthought.
Another friend of his writes: THE up
per part of Coleridge's face was excess
lively fine. His eyes were large, light
gray, and prominent, of liquid brill
fancy, which some eyes of fine char
acter may be observed to possess, as
if the orb itself retreated to the inner
most recess of the BRAIN" In his Life
of Sterling, Carlyle introduces his ia
nous description of Coleridge's ap-
pearance. THE deep eyes, of light
hazel, were" he says, las full of sor-
rows as of inspiration; confused pain
looked mildly from them, as in a kind
of mild establishment"
The eyes of Keats were described by
one of his contemporaries as mellow
and glowing; large, dark and sensi-
tive" Cowden Clarke states that they
were of a brown color, or dark hazel,
thus contradicting Mrs. Proctor's as
sertion that they were blue"
Leigh Hunt, in his "Autobiogra-
ply" speaking of Wordsworth's ap-
pearance, says: II never beheld eyes
that looked so inspired or supernatu-
raj. They were like fires half burn
ing, half smoldering, with a sort OF
acrid fixture of regard, and seated at
the further end of two caverns. One
might imagine Ezekiel or Isaiah to
have had such eyes"
Walter Scott says of Burns: ''There
was strong expression of sense and
shrewdness in all his lineaments; the
eye, alone, l tSink, indicated the poet
ical character and temperament. 1t
was large, and of class that glowed
Il say literally glowed) when Bespoke
with feeling or interest. l never saw
such an eye in a human head, though
l have seen the most distinguished men
OF my time. Frank Leslie's.