hyaline and inly

If you just go through the dictionary slowly enough, you will be rewarded with words which create incredibly precise pictures for you. Since our life is enriched by images, and our learning is dependent on defining the precise nature of the images we see in our mind why not spend some time trying to create some of our own literary pictures? One of the words we study today has been taken over by science; the other has dropped out of contemporary usage. Let's reclaim them for the good of humanity.

Hyaline--the "Scientific" Term

Hyaline, pronounced HI-a-line, is a transliteration of the Greek word meaning "of glass" or "of crystal." Therefore it is something that is transparent, glassy, crystalline, vitreous. Though the word was taken over by the medical establishment in the 18th century, in such phrases as a hyaline cartilage (ordinary cartilage) or hyaline cell (a cell without chlorophyll), its most vivid literary picture for me is derived from the Book of Revelation in New Testament. Four times in that apocalyptic work appear the Greek words "hyaline" or "hyalos." In Rev. 4:6 John is caught up into heaven and led through an open door, where he sees a throne and one seated on the throne. "In front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal" (lit. "as a hyaline sea"). It was the vividness of this picture that inspired Milton--"On the clear Hyaline, the Glassy Sea.." (PL 7.619).

Then, in Rev. 15, John sees another vision in the heaven: seven angels with seven plagues, which will end the wrath of God. "And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands" (15:2). Finally, when he describes the dimensions and materials of the heavenly city, he says: "The wall is built of jasper, while the city is pure gold, clear as glass" and "each of the gates is a single pearl, and the street of the city is pure gold, transparent as glass" (21:18, 21).

So, hyaline can be an adjective or a noun, but it creates for us the picture of something transparent and/or glassy. I have always liked transparent substances, both for what is embedded in the substance and what you can see through the substance. I love the image of a sea of glass mixed with fire, as if the unpredictably licking flames are now frozen in the indurate crystal. But we can be more imaginative with the word. One author (1876) speaks of the "pearly hyaline of dew," but why can't we speak of a hyaline manner or a hyaline heart or hyaline speech? Whenever I think of the word hyaline, my mind wanders to the beauties of Crater Lake in South Central Oregon--where a 1700 foot-deep pristine lake lies at the base of a 1500-2000 foot crater rim. The blue never ends as you look into the lake; its hyaline clarity is unmatched.

Inly

Inly means "inward" or "inwardly." I think it has faded out of our current usage almost completely, though if you say it to yourself two or three times, you see how apt it is to express inner feelings or states of mind. The word originated in the 13th century, and already in the 14th century Chaucer could say: "No man may be inly glad I trowe/ That never was in sorwe or some distresse." Once Shakespeare has touched the term, you would think that all would want a piece of it. In Two Gentlemen he says:

"Didst thou but know the inly touch of Love
Thou woulds't as soon go kindle fire with snow
As seek to quench the fire of love with words."

I have a friend who recently has felt the 'inly touch of Love,' and she is a new person. I think if Hallmark discoverd this phrase, its Valentine Card sales would rise considerably. Isn't this word much superior than referring to an "inward feeling of love" or "an inner compulsion" to do something? Perhaps a question that a psychologist should raise to her/his client would be, "What is your inly disposition today?" Emerson used the term in the 1850s: "Friends year to year more inly known..."

Whenever you have a good word pointing to the inner state of a person you can rest assured that theologians and hymnologists have also found the word. John Merriott's (1780-1825) hymn "Let there be Light," runs as follows:

"Thou, Who didst come to bring
On Thy redeeming wing
Healing and sight,
Health to the sick in mind,
Sight to the inly blind...."

Conclusion

Inly and hyaline are words now lost to common speech, but both create such wonderfully beautiful pictures for me that they ought to be recovered. What touches you inly today? And, what would have been the effect of the national debate after the corporate excesses of the 1990s if, instead of talking about "transparency" in accounting standards under the Sarbanex-Oxley Act, Congressmen had spoken of the need of hyaline standards for all professionals? Our fast-moving society has no time or room for detours, but possibly if the word hyaline had been fixed in of our consciousness over the years, we would not have lacked that same kind of transparency from financial professionals as we long for in the heavenly crystal sea.

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