Sharp County record., 1890-01-23
THE EYES OF GENIUS.
How the Orbs Of the Poets Have Ap-
pearpd to Observers.

How the Orbs Of the Poets Have Ap-
peared to Observers.
Emerson used to say that each man
carried in his eye the exact indication
Of hi.ranll in the immense scale OF men.
Another close observer Of human nature
asserts that persons with promlnehS
ewes are found to have greaC command
of words and to be ready speakers ana
writer's A third holds the theory that
the prevailing color Of the eyes OF men
Of genius is gray.
Colonel Iigginson speaks Of Nathanlei
Hawthorne's gray eyes while f. H.
Underwood. 'who once studied them al
-antivelv found them notified gray ana
brown and indescribablY soft and VIM
ming" Elsewhere we find it asserted
that mo finer eyes had appeared IN the
literary circle Of Great Britain since
Burns time than those Of Hawthorne
gid Grav's were large and luS-
-roas. and Dante Rossetti's ''gray-Olue,
clear and piercing. and characterized by
that rapid. penetrating gaze so notice
able in Emerson
Shelley's eyes are always spoken Oh
as maqnifcent. and fully indicative OF
his wayward genius. One writer de-
scribes them as large and animated
with a dash of Wildness in them; an
otHsr speaks Of them as such pair OF
ewes as are rarely seen in a human or
anv other head. intently blue, with
GENTLE and lambert expression, yet Won
derfuIy alert and eugrossing.' Med
with. while writing of Shelley'5 appear
ance. refers to his blue eyes, very
large and prominent. They we're at
times. when he was distracted, as he
often was in contemplation, dull, and,
as it were. insensible to external OBJ
iecss; at others, they flashed with the
fire of intelligence Tom Moore's
ewes were as dark and fine as you
would wish to see under q set of vine
leaves .,r.
Of Coleridge it is reported: His
forehead was prodigious-a great piece
of placid marble; and his fine eyes, IN
which all the activity Of his mind
seemed to concentrate, moved under 1T
with sprightly ease, as if it were
Dastime to them to carry
all that thought" Another friend
of his writes: THE upper part
Of Coleridge's face was excessively
fine. His eyes we're large, light gray,
and prominent of liquid brilliancy
which some eyes of fine character may
be observed to possess, as though the
orb itself retreated to the inner
most recess of the brain In his 'Llte
of Sterling" Carlyle introduces his IA
nous description of CoLeridge's appear
ance. The deep eyes, Of light hazel,
were, he says, as full of sorrows as Of
inspiration; confused pain looked mild
" from them, as in kind Of mild as
tonishment'
The eyes of Keats were described by
one of his contemporaries as mellow
and glowing; large, dark and sensitive.
Cowden Clarke states that they were of
a brown color, or dark hazel, thus con-
tradicting Mrs. Proctor's assertion that
A.ev were blue
The finest eyes, in every sense Of
the word, which have seen in a man
lead land have seen many fine ones)
are those of Thomas Carlyle Such IS
the testimony Of Leigh Hunt. IN de-
scription of the Chelsea Sage as
lecturer at Willis rooms, we find the
following: There he stood, rugged OF
feature. brow abrupt like a low cliff
craggv over eyes deep set.0large, pierre
inr. between blue and dark gray, full OF
rolling fire"
Leigh Hunt in his Autobiography .
speaking of WOrdsworths appearance,
SAYS: Il never beheld eyes that looked
so inspired or supernatural They were
like fires half burning, half shoulder
inc. with sort of acrid fixture Of re-
rard. and seated at the further end OF
two caverns. One might imagine Eze-
kiel or Isaiah to have had such eyes.
Walter Scott says of Burns: There
was a strong expression Of sense and
shrewdness in all his lineaments; the
eve alone, think indicated the pOetical
character and temperament. 1t was
large, and of a class that glowed U say
literally glowedl when he spoke with
feeling or interest. 1 never saw such
another eye in a human head, though I
have seen the most distinguished men
of NV time. Chambers Journal.
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