"Ocular Demonstration" (c1840s)
Written and Composed by
Samuel Lover, Esq.

                           -----

"--I am half distracted, Captain Shandy, said Mrs. Wadman,
holding up her cambrick handkerchief to her left eye, as
she approach'd the door of my uncle Toby's sundry-box; a
mote--or sand--or something--I know not what, has got into
thie eye of mine;--do look into it;--it is not in the
white.--

                     * * * * * * * * *

  In vain! for, by all the powers which animate the organ,--
Widow Wadman's left eye shines this moment as lucid as her
right;--there is neither mote, nor sand, nor dust, nor chaff,
nor speck, nor particle of opake matter floating in it;--
There is nothing, my dear paternal uncle! but one lambent
delicious fire, furtively shooting out from every part of it,
in all directions into thine."

    "Life and Opinions of Tristman Shandy," Vol.VIII,Ch[????]

                       /\/\/\/\/\/\

1.
In the days of creation when Jove was allotting
The duty each part should supply,
To the tongue he gave words to assist us in plotting,
And vigilance gave to the eye.
But Juno Jove's mandates would ne'er be obeying,
His laws she made women defy,
Said, the tongue keep guard over what they were saying,
And the speaking be done by the eye,
Said, the tongue keep guard over what they were saying,
And the speaking be done by the eye.

2.
But the great law of Nature so strongly endued
The tongue of the woman's dear soul,
That it would not be quiet, do all that she could,
And ran quite beyond her control;
While her eye, flashing brightly, determin'd to keep,
Its gift from the Queen of the Sky,
Till between them, with many an argument deep,
The quarrel soon ran very high --
Till between them with many an argument deep --
The quarrel now ran very high.

3.
At last, 'twas agreed an appeal to the sky
Should be made, in a matter so nice,
And this compromise sly, 'twixt the tongue and the eye
Was agreed on by Jov's own advice;
"My daughters thus nicely the balance I've hung
'Twixt the rivals" the Thunderer cries,
"Let woman to woman comverse with her tongue,
But speak to a man with her eyes --
"Let woman to woman comverse with her tongue,
But speak to a man with her eyes."