Page:Language of the Eye.djvu/58

40 and flickering, indicating the emotions of the mind, the pupil is dilated, the iris appears soft, and oft riding in a charmed sea of crystal drops.

Where the will predominates, there is great freedom of motion in all parts, and the ball moves firmly, and for the most part in rectilinear motion; the look is not pleasing, but repulsive, as it seems independent and acting under settled purpose. The brows appear stretched, and the lashes curved outwards. The really great man, the man of talent and creative genius, seems to evince the dignity of one, the freedom of the second, and the independence of the third; the look is pleasing, and even attractive, open, thoughtful, active, and penetrating. It is the apparition of the Deity, so grave, so pleasing, so elevated, so placid, so genial, so full of feeling and power, that it seems to defy, whilst it attracts, and companionizes with all the spirits of earth and heaven.

Such qualities are always discovered, unless tyranny or some violent occupation, such as constant warfare, eclipses this grand expression of the soul of man; notwithstanding, Queen Elizabeth, Julius Cæsar, Frederick the Great, were all renowned for the power of their glance.

The mind (if it may be so called) of the mean heart and limited capacity, bears an expression almost intolerable to witness. The pupil appears large, the iris dry; the look is vacant, as though the eye feared to announce what was acting within; the cornea is lustreless, it seems unable to acquire a definite form or fixation, so that you behold a monster; a being using that beautiful organ as a mere instrument to see with, and discover means for its sensual delights, instead of performing its holy mission for the soul.

Even the moral condition will express itself in the eye. Virtue and religion, faith and fanaticism, and even theology, have their influence in the expression of the eye.