DeSoto times., 1890-01-23
THE EYES OF GENIUS
How the Cribs of the Poets Have Hp-
peared to Observers.

| How the Cribs of the Poets Have Hp-
peared to Observers.
| 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 human nature
asserts that persons with prominent
eyes are found to have great command
OF words and to be ready speakers and
writer's. A third holds the theory that
the prevailing color of the eyes of men
of genius is gray.
| colonel HigginSOn speaks of Nathaniel
hawthorne's gray eyes" while L. H.
Underwood, ''whO once studied them at
tentively, found them mottled gray and
brown and indescribably soft and win
ming" Elsewhere we find it asserted
| that no finer eyes had appeared in the
literary circle of Great Britain since
Burns time than those of Hawthorne"
David Grays were Large and lus-
trouS, and Dante Rossetti's "gray-blue,
clear and piercing, and characterized by
that rapid, penetrating gaze SO notice
able in Emerson"
Shelley's eyes are always spoken Of
as magnificent, and fully indicative of
his wayward genius. One writer de-
scribes them as ''large and animated,
with dash of wildness in them" an
other speaks of them as ''such pair of
eyes as are rarely seen in a human or
any other head, intently blue, with
gentle and lambert expression, yet Won
derfully alert and cngrossing." Med
with, while writing of Shelley's appear
ance, refers to his blue eyes, every
large and prominent, They were at
times, when he was abstractcd, as he
often was in contemplation, dull, and,
as it were, insensble to external OBJ
jects; at others, they flashed with the
fire, of intelligence" Tom Moore's
eyes were ''as dark and fine as you
would wish to see under u set of vine
leaves"
OF Coleridgc it is rcported Ills
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 it
with a sprightly case, as if it were
paStlmc to them to carry
all that thought" Another friend
of his writes: The upper part
of Coleridgc's face was excessively
fine. His eyes were large, light gray,
and prominent, of liquid brilliancy,
which some eyes Of fine character may
be observed to possess, as though the
orb itself retrcated to the inner
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
ly from them, as in kind of mild as
tOniShmcnt."
The eyes Of Keats were described by
one of his contemporaries as 'mclloW
and glowing; large, dark and sensitive"
COwdcn Clarke states that they were Of
a brown color, or dark hazel, thus con-
tradicting Mrs. Proctors assertion that
they were 'bluc.'
The finest eyes, in every sense of
the word, which have seen in a mans
head 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 a
lecturer at Willis rooms, we find the
following: There he stood, rugged of
feature, brow abrupt like a low cliff,
craggy over eyes deep set,ularge, pierre
ing, between blue and dark gray, full of
rolling fire.
Leigh Hunt, in his autobiography"
speaking of WOrdsworth's appearance,
says: II never behcld eyes that looked
so inspired or supernatural. They were
like fires half burning, half shoulder
ing, with a sort of acrid fixture of re-
gard, and seated at the further end of
two caverns. One might imagine Ezc-
kiel 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. think, indicated the poetical
character and temperament. 1t was
large. and of a class that glowed Il say
literally glowed) when he spoke with
feeling or interest. | never saw such
another eye in human head, though |
have seen the most distinguished men
of NV time "-ChamherS' Journal