"
Of vague fear there is a well-known and grand description in Job:--"In
thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,
fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.
Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.
It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof:
an image was before my eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice,
saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more
pure than his Maker?" (Job iv. 13)
As fear increases into an agony of terror, we behold,
as under all violent emotions, diversified results.
The heart beats wildly, or may fail to act and faintness ensue;
there is a death-like pallor; the breathing is laboured;
the wings of the nostrils are wildly dilated; "there is a gasping
and convulsive motion of the lips, a tremor on the hollow cheek,
a gulping and catching of the throat;"[17] the uncovered
and protruding eyeballs are fixed on the object of terror;
or they may roll restlessly from side to side, _huc illuc
volvens oculos totumque pererrat_.[18] The pupils are said to be
enormously dilated. All the muscles of the body may become rigid,
or may be thrown into convulsive movements.
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