Note 236 — AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM.
Reading edition
So Lucretius, iv. 333:
Lurida præterea fiunt quæcunque tuentur Arquati. Besides, whatever jaundice-eyes do view, Looks pale as well as those, and yellow too.—Creech.
This notion of the transfusion of the colour to the object from a jaundiced eye, though current in all our authors, is, I believe, a mere vulgar error.—Wakefield.
It is still a disputed point whether jaundice ever affects the eye in a degree to permit only the passage of the yellow rays. The instances are at least very rare; but popular belief is a sufficient ground for a poetical comparison. Pope had just exemplified his simile; for everything looked yellow to him in the reign of William III.