James Oppenheim

“ His whole soul seemed to concentrate and pour itself through the hole of the retinoscope. "Well," he muttered, in an odd voice, "he hasn't any iris; it's all pupil. See? Instead of round, it's big and loaf-shaped, just as big as the iris ought to be. ... Let's see, let's see!"
The room was utterly still; we heard a taxicab throbbing out at the curb; we heard a Broadway trolley car going dully by; and I began to understand that this business of glassing human eyes had an element of terrific adventure in it. Dimly I began to understand Henley's mystery. ”

“ Kill out revolt?"
"Tut," he laughed, "if I could fit New York with five million spectacles I'd make it the first city of the world. And crime? Do you know that a lot of crime comes from eye strain? You put a bad-eyed boy in school: near work makes him crazy, gives him headaches, turns his stomach. He becomes a truant; a truant falls in with idlers; idlers thieve. You send him to the reformatory: there near work is inescapable. He comes out sullen and savage. I've reformed men after three terms in prison." ”

“ And with that the still and throbbing machine bolted and we flowed into the night. I felt as if Henley and the car were one; the car merely a part of his body and his ardent power, releasing him with tremendous directness through space. He turned toward me, suddenly.
"I suppose, Thad," he said in his sharp, quick way, "that you're still a tramp, geographically unplaced. And you're wondering at my get-up and my plutocratic power. It looks bad, I admit. ... Well, my boy, I'm out of general practice; I'm a specialist, an eye specialist, upper West Side, and I'm putting windows in the populace. ”

“ I was astigmatic; half an hour of near work made me jumping crazy and turned me into a revolutionist. Don't you see: evolution made the eye for rough and far work; civilization, cities, impose near work; and just as civilization demands wheels for our feet"—he gave the car extra speed to emphasize this—"so it demands glasses for our eyes." ”

“ Henley, it struck me, had become similar: all his life and power probably pouring itself into one thing—eyes. Easily we curved into the river road, and in a few moments, darting down beside the one string of lights, we had the dark Hudson beside us. and a dusk of moonlight racing us down the waters. Other cars passed us, going up; and a few pairs of lovers strolled beside the pathway's wooden fence. The joy of speed almost made thought and speech a burden ”

“ Henley now held a lens with one hand and passed the reflected light from the retinoscope through it, up and down.
"Why that?" I asked.
"The shadow test," he replied. "I watch the shadow inside the eyeball. If it goes up when the ray goes down, the eye needs a convex lens; if it follows the ray down, then a concave. So I'll keep trying lenses until the shadow stands still." ”

“ He sort of sees black-shadows—he lives really in a mist, a blackish mist, and when it grows blacker he knows something is in the way; but he can't even see that much without tilting his head and rolling his eyes all around. ”

“ Henley turned toward me with new interest—yes, with a boy's enthusiasm.
"Say, you," he cried vehemently, "I know what's the matter with you. It's eyes!"
"Of course, it's eyes," I laughed ruefully. "Everything's eyes to an eye specialist. What are you going to do? Talk me into feeling sick?"
HE did not notice me; he was quivering with his discovery.
"Thad," he said, "here's your case: You can't do indoor work, civilized work, for any length of time, You get restless, headachy, insomniac; you want to jump out of your skin ”

“ I took Henley aside after Sam left.
"I know the secret now," I said. "I know what has tamed you."
He smiled on me.
"So," he said, "I'm not so crazy after all."
It was, of course, that he had put aside lesser adventures for a greater one, a more modern one: the social adventure, the creation of the higher humanity. His conformity was merely open and external, his radicalism deeper than ever. He was still trembling when he held up the two lenses that had given the world to Sam.
"Talk about your miracles!" he cried. "Look at these—these two bits of glass. Glass man ”