the organ of sight. The Hebrews by a curious and bold metaphor call
fountains eyes; and they also give the same name to colours: “And the
eye,” or colour, “of the manna was as the eye,” or colour, “of
bdellium,” Num. xi, 7. By an “evil eye” is meant, envy, jealousy,
grudging, ill-judged parsimony; to turn the eyes on any one, is to
regard him and his interests; to find grace in any one’s eyes, Ruth ii,
10, is to win his friendship and good will. “The eyes of servants look
unto the hands of their masters,” Psalm cxxiii, 2, to observe the least
motion, and obey the least signal. “Their eyes were opened,” Gen. iii,
7, they began to comprehend in a new manner. “The wise man’s eyes are in
his head,” Eccles. ii, 14, he does not act by chance. The eye of the
soul, in a moral sense, is the intention, the desire. God threatens to
set his eyes on the Israelites for evil, and not for good, Amos ix, 4.
Nebuchadnezzar recommends to Nebuzaradan that he would “set his eyes” on
Jeremiah, and permit him to go where he pleased, Jer. xxxix, 12; xl, 4.
Sometimes expressions of this kind are taken in a quite opposite sense:
“Behold, the eyes of the Lord are on the sinful kingdom; and I will
destroy it,” Amos ix, 8. To be eyes to the blind, or to serve them
instead of eyes, is sufficiently intelligible, Job xxix, 15. The
Persians called those officers of the crown who had the care of the
king’s interests and the management of his finances, the king’s eyes.
Eye service is peculiar to slaves, who are governed by fear only; and is
to be carefully guarded against by Christians, who ought to serve from a
principle of duty and affection, Eph. vi, 6; Col. iii, 22. The lust of
the eyes, or the desire of the eyes, comprehends every thing that
curiosity, vanity, &c, seek after; every thing that the eyes can present
to men given up to their passions, 1 John ii, 16. “Cast ye away every
man the abomination of his eyes,” Ezek. xx, 7, 8; let not the idols of
the Egyptians seduce you. The height or elevation of the eyes is taken
for pride, Eccles. xxiii, 5. St. Paul says that the Galatians would
willingly have “plucked out their eyes” for him, Gal. iv, 15; expressing
the intensity of their zeal, affection, and devotion to him. The Hebrews
call the apple of the eye the black daughter of the eye. To keep any
thing as the apple of the eye, is to preserve it with particular care,
Deut. xxxii, 10: “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye,”
Zech. ii, 8; attempts to injure me in the tenderest part, which men
instinctively defend. The eye and its actions are occasionally
transferred to God: “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the
whole earth,” Zech. iv, 10; 2 Chron. xvi, 9; Psalm xi, 4. “The eyes of
the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good,” Proverbs
xv, 3. “The Lord looked down from heaven,” &c. We read, Matthew vi, 22,
“The light,” or lamp, “of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be
single,” simple, clear, ἁπλοῦς, “thy whole body shall be full of light;
but if thine eye be evil,” distempered, diseased, “thy whole body shall
be darkened.” The direct allusion may hold to a lantern, or lamp,
λύχνος; if the glass of it be clear, the light will shine through it
strongly; but if the glass be soiled, dirty, foul, but little light will
pass through it: for if they had not glass lanterns, such as we use,
they had others in the east made of thin linen, &c: these were very
liable to receive spots, stains, and foulnesses, which impeded the
passage of the rays of light from the luminary within. So, in the
natural eye, if the cornea be single, and the humours clear, the light
will act correctly; but if there be a film over the cornea, or a
cataract, or a skin between any of the humours, the rays of light will
never make any impression on the internal seat of sight, the retina. By
analogy, therefore, if the mental eye, the judgment, be honest,
virtuous, sincere, well-meaning, pious, it may be considered as
enlightening and directing the whole of a person’s actions; but if it be
perverse, malign, biassed by undue prejudices, or drawn aside by
improper views, it darkens the understanding, perverts the conduct, and
suffers a man to be misled by his unwise and unruly passions.
2. The orientals, in some cases, deprive the criminal of the light of
day, by sealing up his eyes. A son of the great Mogul was actually
suffering this punishment when Sir Thomas Roe visited the court of
Delhi. The hapless youth was cast into prison, and deprived of the light
by some adhesive plaster put upon his eyes, for the space of three
years; after which the seal was taken away, that he might with freedom
enjoy the light; but he was still detained in prison. Other princes have
been treated in a different manner, to prevent them from conspiring
against the reigning monarch, or meddling with affairs of state: they
have been compelled to swallow opium and other stupifying drugs, to
weaken or benumb their faculties, and render them unfit for business.
Influenced by such absurd and cruel policy, Shah Abbas, the celebrated
Persian monarch, who died in 1629, ordered a certain quantity of opium
to be given every day to his grandson, who was to be his successor, to
stupify him, and prevent him from disturbing his government. Such are
probably the circumstances alluded to by the prophet: “They have not
known nor understood; for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see;
and their hearts that they cannot understand,” Isaiah xliv, 18. The verb
טוח, rendered in our version, _to shut_, signifies “to overlay,” “to
cover over the surface;” thus, the king of Israel prepared three
thousand talents of gold, and seven thousand talents of refined silver,
to _overlay_ the walls of the temple, 1 Chron. xxix, 4. But it generally
signifies to _overspread_, or daub over, as with mortar or plaster, of
which Parkhurst quotes a number of examples; a sense which entirely
corresponds with the manner in which the eyes of a criminal are sealed
up in some parts of the east. The practice of sealing up the eyes, and
stupifying a criminal with drugs, seems to have been contemplated by the
same prophet in another passage of his book: “Make the heart of this
people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their
heart, and convert and be healed.”
3. Deprivation of sight was a very common punishment in the east. It was
at first the practice to sear the eyes with a hot iron; but a discovery
that this was not effectual, led to the cruel method of taking them out
altogether with a sharp-pointed instrument. The objects of this
barbarity were usually persons who aspired to the throne, or who were
considered likely to make such an attempt. It was also inflicted on
chieftains, whom it was desirable to deprive of power without putting
them to death. For this reason the hapless Zedekiah was punished with
the loss of sight, because he had rebelled against the king of Babylon,
and endeavoured to recover the independence of his throne: “Then he put
out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains,
and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his
death,” Jer. lii, 11.
4. Females used to paint their eyes. The substance used for this purpose
is called in Chaldee כהל, _cohol_; by the LXX, ϛίβι. Thus we read of
Jezebel, 2 Kings ix, 30, that, understanding that Jehu was to enter
Samaria, she decked herself for his reception, and (as in the original
Hebrew) “put her eyes in paint.” This was in conformity to a custom
which prevailed in the earliest ages. As large black eyes were thought
the finest, the women, to increase their lustre, and to make them appear
larger, tinged the corner of their eyelids with the impalpable powder of
antimony or of black lead. This was supposed also to give the eyes a
brilliancy and humidity, which rendered them either sparkling or
languishing, as suited the various passions. The method of performing
this among the women in the eastern countries at the present day, as
described by Russel, is by a cylindrical piece of silver or ivory, about
two inches long, made very smooth, and about the size of a common probe;
this is wet with water, and then dipped into a powder finely levigated,
made from what appears to be a rich lead ore, and applied to the eye;
the lids are closed upon it while it is drawn through between them. This
blacks the inside, and leaves a narrow black rim all round the edge.
That this was the method practised by the Hebrew women, we infer from
Isaiah iii, 22, where the prophet, in his enumeration of the articles
which composed the toilets of the delicate and luxurious daughters of
Zion, mentions “the wimples and the crisping pins,” or bodkins for
painting the eyes. The satirist Juvenal describes the same practice:--
_Ille supercilium madida fuligine tinctum
Obliqua producit acu, pingitque trementes
Attollens oculos._
SAT. ii.
“These with a tiring pin their eyebrows dye
Till the full arch give lustre to the eye.”
GIFFORD.
This custom is referred to by Jeremiah, iv, 30:--
“Though thou clothest thyself in scarlet,
Though thou adornest thyself with ornaments of gold,
Though thou distendest thine eyes with paint,
In vain shalt thou set forth thy beauty;
Thy paramours have rejected thee.”
And Ezekiel, describing the irregularities of the Jewish nation, under
the idea of a debauched woman, says, כחלת עיניך, “Thou didst dress thine
eyes with cohol;” which the Septuagint render, Ἐϛιϐίζȣ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς
σου, “Thou didst dress thine eyes with stibium,” Ezek. xxiii, 40.
5. The passage, Psalm cxxiii, 2, derives a striking illustration from
the customs of the east. The servants or slaves in eastern countries
attend their masters or mistresses with the profoundest respect.
Maundrell observes, that the servants in Turkey stand round their master
and his guests in deep silence and perfect order, watching every motion.
Pococke says, that at a visit in Egypt every thing is done with the
greatest decency and the most profound silence, the slaves or servants
standing at the bottom of the room, with their hands joined before them,
watching with the utmost attention every motion of their master, who
commands them by signs. De la Motraye says, that the eastern ladies are
waited on even at the least wink of the eye, or motion of the fingers,
and that in a manner not perceptible to strangers.
fountains eyes; and they also give the same name to colours: “And the
eye,” or colour, “of the manna was as the eye,” or colour, “of
bdellium,” Num. xi, 7. By an “evil eye” is meant, envy, jealousy,
grudging, ill-judged parsimony; to turn the eyes on any one, is to
regard him and his interests; to find grace in any one’s eyes, Ruth ii,
10, is to win his friendship and good will. “The eyes of servants look
unto the hands of their masters,” Psalm cxxiii, 2, to observe the least
motion, and obey the least signal. “Their eyes were opened,” Gen. iii,
7, they began to comprehend in a new manner. “The wise man’s eyes are in
his head,” Eccles. ii, 14, he does not act by chance. The eye of the
soul, in a moral sense, is the intention, the desire. God threatens to
set his eyes on the Israelites for evil, and not for good, Amos ix, 4.
Nebuchadnezzar recommends to Nebuzaradan that he would “set his eyes” on
Jeremiah, and permit him to go where he pleased, Jer. xxxix, 12; xl, 4.
Sometimes expressions of this kind are taken in a quite opposite sense:
“Behold, the eyes of the Lord are on the sinful kingdom; and I will
destroy it,” Amos ix, 8. To be eyes to the blind, or to serve them
instead of eyes, is sufficiently intelligible, Job xxix, 15. The
Persians called those officers of the crown who had the care of the
king’s interests and the management of his finances, the king’s eyes.
Eye service is peculiar to slaves, who are governed by fear only; and is
to be carefully guarded against by Christians, who ought to serve from a
principle of duty and affection, Eph. vi, 6; Col. iii, 22. The lust of
the eyes, or the desire of the eyes, comprehends every thing that
curiosity, vanity, &c, seek after; every thing that the eyes can present
to men given up to their passions, 1 John ii, 16. “Cast ye away every
man the abomination of his eyes,” Ezek. xx, 7, 8; let not the idols of
the Egyptians seduce you. The height or elevation of the eyes is taken
for pride, Eccles. xxiii, 5. St. Paul says that the Galatians would
willingly have “plucked out their eyes” for him, Gal. iv, 15; expressing
the intensity of their zeal, affection, and devotion to him. The Hebrews
call the apple of the eye the black daughter of the eye. To keep any
thing as the apple of the eye, is to preserve it with particular care,
Deut. xxxii, 10: “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye,”
Zech. ii, 8; attempts to injure me in the tenderest part, which men
instinctively defend. The eye and its actions are occasionally
transferred to God: “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the
whole earth,” Zech. iv, 10; 2 Chron. xvi, 9; Psalm xi, 4. “The eyes of
the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good,” Proverbs
xv, 3. “The Lord looked down from heaven,” &c. We read, Matthew vi, 22,
“The light,” or lamp, “of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be
single,” simple, clear, ἁπλοῦς, “thy whole body shall be full of light;
but if thine eye be evil,” distempered, diseased, “thy whole body shall
be darkened.” The direct allusion may hold to a lantern, or lamp,
λύχνος; if the glass of it be clear, the light will shine through it
strongly; but if the glass be soiled, dirty, foul, but little light will
pass through it: for if they had not glass lanterns, such as we use,
they had others in the east made of thin linen, &c: these were very
liable to receive spots, stains, and foulnesses, which impeded the
passage of the rays of light from the luminary within. So, in the
natural eye, if the cornea be single, and the humours clear, the light
will act correctly; but if there be a film over the cornea, or a
cataract, or a skin between any of the humours, the rays of light will
never make any impression on the internal seat of sight, the retina. By
analogy, therefore, if the mental eye, the judgment, be honest,
virtuous, sincere, well-meaning, pious, it may be considered as
enlightening and directing the whole of a person’s actions; but if it be
perverse, malign, biassed by undue prejudices, or drawn aside by
improper views, it darkens the understanding, perverts the conduct, and
suffers a man to be misled by his unwise and unruly passions.
2. The orientals, in some cases, deprive the criminal of the light of
day, by sealing up his eyes. A son of the great Mogul was actually
suffering this punishment when Sir Thomas Roe visited the court of
Delhi. The hapless youth was cast into prison, and deprived of the light
by some adhesive plaster put upon his eyes, for the space of three
years; after which the seal was taken away, that he might with freedom
enjoy the light; but he was still detained in prison. Other princes have
been treated in a different manner, to prevent them from conspiring
against the reigning monarch, or meddling with affairs of state: they
have been compelled to swallow opium and other stupifying drugs, to
weaken or benumb their faculties, and render them unfit for business.
Influenced by such absurd and cruel policy, Shah Abbas, the celebrated
Persian monarch, who died in 1629, ordered a certain quantity of opium
to be given every day to his grandson, who was to be his successor, to
stupify him, and prevent him from disturbing his government. Such are
probably the circumstances alluded to by the prophet: “They have not
known nor understood; for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see;
and their hearts that they cannot understand,” Isaiah xliv, 18. The verb
טוח, rendered in our version, _to shut_, signifies “to overlay,” “to
cover over the surface;” thus, the king of Israel prepared three
thousand talents of gold, and seven thousand talents of refined silver,
to _overlay_ the walls of the temple, 1 Chron. xxix, 4. But it generally
signifies to _overspread_, or daub over, as with mortar or plaster, of
which Parkhurst quotes a number of examples; a sense which entirely
corresponds with the manner in which the eyes of a criminal are sealed
up in some parts of the east. The practice of sealing up the eyes, and
stupifying a criminal with drugs, seems to have been contemplated by the
same prophet in another passage of his book: “Make the heart of this
people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their
heart, and convert and be healed.”
3. Deprivation of sight was a very common punishment in the east. It was
at first the practice to sear the eyes with a hot iron; but a discovery
that this was not effectual, led to the cruel method of taking them out
altogether with a sharp-pointed instrument. The objects of this
barbarity were usually persons who aspired to the throne, or who were
considered likely to make such an attempt. It was also inflicted on
chieftains, whom it was desirable to deprive of power without putting
them to death. For this reason the hapless Zedekiah was punished with
the loss of sight, because he had rebelled against the king of Babylon,
and endeavoured to recover the independence of his throne: “Then he put
out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains,
and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his
death,” Jer. lii, 11.
4. Females used to paint their eyes. The substance used for this purpose
is called in Chaldee כהל, _cohol_; by the LXX, ϛίβι. Thus we read of
Jezebel, 2 Kings ix, 30, that, understanding that Jehu was to enter
Samaria, she decked herself for his reception, and (as in the original
Hebrew) “put her eyes in paint.” This was in conformity to a custom
which prevailed in the earliest ages. As large black eyes were thought
the finest, the women, to increase their lustre, and to make them appear
larger, tinged the corner of their eyelids with the impalpable powder of
antimony or of black lead. This was supposed also to give the eyes a
brilliancy and humidity, which rendered them either sparkling or
languishing, as suited the various passions. The method of performing
this among the women in the eastern countries at the present day, as
described by Russel, is by a cylindrical piece of silver or ivory, about
two inches long, made very smooth, and about the size of a common probe;
this is wet with water, and then dipped into a powder finely levigated,
made from what appears to be a rich lead ore, and applied to the eye;
the lids are closed upon it while it is drawn through between them. This
blacks the inside, and leaves a narrow black rim all round the edge.
That this was the method practised by the Hebrew women, we infer from
Isaiah iii, 22, where the prophet, in his enumeration of the articles
which composed the toilets of the delicate and luxurious daughters of
Zion, mentions “the wimples and the crisping pins,” or bodkins for
painting the eyes. The satirist Juvenal describes the same practice:--
_Ille supercilium madida fuligine tinctum
Obliqua producit acu, pingitque trementes
Attollens oculos._
SAT. ii.
“These with a tiring pin their eyebrows dye
Till the full arch give lustre to the eye.”
GIFFORD.
This custom is referred to by Jeremiah, iv, 30:--
“Though thou clothest thyself in scarlet,
Though thou adornest thyself with ornaments of gold,
Though thou distendest thine eyes with paint,
In vain shalt thou set forth thy beauty;
Thy paramours have rejected thee.”
And Ezekiel, describing the irregularities of the Jewish nation, under
the idea of a debauched woman, says, כחלת עיניך, “Thou didst dress thine
eyes with cohol;” which the Septuagint render, Ἐϛιϐίζȣ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς
σου, “Thou didst dress thine eyes with stibium,” Ezek. xxiii, 40.
5. The passage, Psalm cxxiii, 2, derives a striking illustration from
the customs of the east. The servants or slaves in eastern countries
attend their masters or mistresses with the profoundest respect.
Maundrell observes, that the servants in Turkey stand round their master
and his guests in deep silence and perfect order, watching every motion.
Pococke says, that at a visit in Egypt every thing is done with the
greatest decency and the most profound silence, the slaves or servants
standing at the bottom of the room, with their hands joined before them,
watching with the utmost attention every motion of their master, who
commands them by signs. De la Motraye says, that the eastern ladies are
waited on even at the least wink of the eye, or motion of the fingers,
and that in a manner not perceptible to strangers.