If such is the power of the eye, when lighted up with genius, when purity and truth are mirrored there; what must it be, if that light be darkness; how profound the gloom! One pair of eyes, I shall ever remember, and I regret to say, their owner was a woman! It is long since I met their gaze, but even now, as I think of them, an indefinable feeling of uneasiness and fear steals over me; such a feeling, as some contend, warns a sleeping person, that one is standing by him, and looking intently upon his closed lids. It was not that those eyes were brilliant, or black, or piercing; but it was something, for which "coats and humors" could not account; of which the oculist, professionally, knows nothing. It always seemed to me as through a spirit-cloud, dark and fearful, and freighted-how, I dare not say, rested heavily upon those orbs and weighed them down. Now and then, I saw lightning-flashes there; not like the purifying principle, that consumes the noxious exhalations which taint the air, but scorching, withering gleams, and when I saw them, I must confess I thought those eyes their most befitting home. It is impossible for me to convey, by cold, words, laid out corpselike, upon this page, any adequate idea of the language which loomed gloomily out, at those mental casements. She smiled sometimes, but such a smile! It seemed as if her real, laughing muscles, (Zygomaticus minor,) were refractory, and her sneering, contemptuous ones, (Mastoideus and Depressor anguli oris,) remarkably obedient, and fairly pulled down the angles of her mouth, despite the utmost contractions of their antagonists. There was no mistaking the expression; a benevolent smile did not sit gracefully upon her dial-plate. To the different species of laugh, combining as they do, vocality and visibility, I will allude hereafter. Some individuals possess a greater command over their muscles than others. Garrick, an English comedian, of much celebrity, of whom it was quaintly remarked, that he made an alphabet of faces, possessed this command of his muscles in an eminent degree. It is related of him, that passing along the street one day, and observing a hackney coach standing at the corner, awaiting passengers, as is usual in large cities, he hailed the driver, inquiring, if he had made out his complement. "No, sir-get in," was the prompt reply; upon which Garrick speedily appropriated to himself, one seat in the empty coach. Presently, another man presented himself; another, and another entered the carriage, until the driver, supposing the seats were all occupied, prepared to drive off, when a man, panting for breath, (books and umbrella in hand,) hailed him with "stop, driver! another passenger," and had already seized the door, when he was coolly informed that he could not be accommodated. He reiterated loudly, that there was room enough for half a dozen; as is often the case, a great altercation about a little matter, ensued, the driver constantly affirming that there was no room, and the tenacious. would-be passenger, as often giving him the lie. At length the driver dismounting in a rage, looked into the vehicle, when lo! to his infinite chagrin and astonishment, he saw nobody but our hero snugly ensconced in one corner, quietly awaiting the result of this strange controversy, This was totally incomprehensible to the poor coachman, but we can easily solve the mystery, by our knowledge of the muscles. Garrick, loving laughter more than he did the interest of the coachman, had, through an expressive countenance, succeeded in passing for five different individuals, in the space of half an hour, oddly illustrating the motto of our national banner, "E pluribus unum," from many, one. The power of the countenance in enforcing the words ut tered, and in expressing many ideas without the existence of artificial language, has been known and acknowledged in all ages. The Greeks recognized this power in their fabled Medusa, whose head was covered with snakes instead of hair, and whose glance transformed the beholder into stone. In the light of the preceding explanations, may we not reasonably conclude, that the "mark" which the Almighty set upon Cain, the first murderer, was only the shadowing forth in his countenance, of the dark passion and conscious guilt, and ceaseless apprehension, which must ever agitate the bosom of the fratricide? Such is the inimitable mechanism of the nerves and muscles, as the instruments of natural language, exhibiting in every line, the wisdom and benevo lence of their Author. The spirit's own harp, every string is tuned by her, and thrills to each touch of immaterial thought. So simple, and yet so complicated is its structure, that it gives forth different tones of feeling, with so slight physical variation that even the painter's pencil cannot catch them. When Peter of Cortona, was engaged on a picture for the royal palace of Petti, Ferdinand II, particularly admired the representation of a weeping child. "Has your Majesty," said the painter, "a mind to see how easy it is to make this very child laugh?" The king assenting, the artist, merely depressed the corner of the lips and the inner extremity of the eyebrows, when the little urchin seemed in danger of bursting his sides with immoderate laughter, who, a moment before, seemed breaking his heart with weeping. The child of six years old, when engaged in carrying out its little plans, is, in countenance and gesture, as truly an orator as the old Athenian or the silver-tongued Roman. Wonderful indeed is the instrument of expression! the parted lip, dimpled cheek, and confiding eye of the infant, From (infant in all else I mean,) to the joy-flush and the hopegleam, that glow and play upon the countenance of the youth; from the heaving bosom, the throbbing temple and the care. written brow of the middle-aged, to the last thrillings of the instrument beneath the spirit's touch, as it quivers upon the bloodless lip, tinges the sunken cheek, and gleams with an unearthly brilliance from the fast-glazing eye of the gray. hafred, dying man, as if, just then, like some mountain's peak, it had caught the glory of the coming day, whose bound he is rapidly nearing; through all this, up to the moment when, laying down the old, worn harp, he awaits the time, when he shall strike a new and more glorious instrument of like pattern, but of imperishable material, this specimen of matchless skill, has been a companion faithful and true! Who can help exclaiming, in the well known words of the poet ? "Strange that a harp of thousand strings, Should keep in tune so long!" *Literally, not speaking. CHAPTER X. External apparatus of insects-The gnat-The cicada-The house cricket-The rattlesnake-The death-watch-Natural language of cries-Voice-The larynx. The external apparatus by which certain animals are enabled to express their feelings to one another, now claims our attention. The individuals which are thus endowed, are comparatively few in number; and but little diversity is exhibited in the mechanisin of their organs of language. This medium of communication though audible, cannot be considered, strictly speaking, as rocal, for such a language presupposes the possession of lungs and a larynx, which is not found in those insects and reptiles that are thus furnished with musical apparatus, as I have chosen to designate it in the table. 1 Among the myriad tribes that dance so gaily upon the yellow beams of the summer sun, no insect is better known than the gnat. From the days when Spenser sung, "Their murmurring small trumpets sownden wide, down to the present time, the gnat has been considered the very chief of ephemeral trumpeters. Indeed the compliment is not undeserved, though a moment's thought will convince us that the soft music which floats upon the still air of evening, from invisible hosts, is not vocal, but strictly instrumental. The various shape and texture of their wings, and their unequal rapididy of vibration, as they thus fairly beat the air into melody, are amply sufficient to account for the variety of tones from the banqueting note of the moscheto, to the |