"

"There was a man of Thessuly, and he was wondrous wise;
He jumped into a quick set hedge, and scratched out both his eyes;
Then, when he found his eyes were out, with all his might and main
He jumped into the quick set hedge, and scratched them in again."

Old herbals pronounced it "cephalic, ophthalmic, and good for a
weak memory." Hildamus relates that it restored the sight of many
persons at the age of seventy or eighty years. "Eyebright made into
a powder, and then into an electuary with sugar, hath," says
Culpeper, "powerful effect to help and to restore the sight decayed
through years; and if the herb were but as much used as it is
neglected, it would have spoilt the trade of the maker."

On the whole it is probable that the Eyebright will succeed best for
eyes weakened by long-continued straining, and for those which
are dim and watery from old age. Shenstone declared, "Famed
Euphrasy may not be left unsung, which grants dim eyes to
wander leagues around"; and Milton has told us in _Paradise
Lost_, Book XI:--

"To nobler sights
Michael from Adam's eyes the film removed,
Then purged with _Euphrasy_ and rue
The visual nerve, for he had much to see."

[178] The Arabians I mew the herb Eyebright under the name
_Adhil_, It now makes an ingredient in British herbal tobacco,
which is smoked most usefully for chronic bronchial colds.
Some sceptics do not hesitate to say that the Eyebright owes its
reputation solely to the fact that the tiny flower bears in its centre
a yellow spot, which is darker towards the middle, and gives a close
resemblance to the human eye; wherefore, on the doctrine of
signatures, it was pronounced curative of ocular derangements. The
present Poet Laureate speaks of the herb as:--

"The Eyebright this.
Whereof when steeped in wine I now must eat
Because it strengthens mindfulness."

Grandmother Cooper, a gipsy of note for skill in healing, practised
the cure of inflamed and scrofulous eyes, by anointing them with
clay, rubbed up with her spittle, which proved highly successful.
Outside was applied a piece of rag kept wet with water in which a
cabbage had been boiled. As confirmatory of this cure, we read
reverently in the _Gospel of St. John_ about the man "which was
blind from his birth," and for whose restoration to sight our Saviour
"spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and anointed the
eyes of the blind man