1G8 



to be honoured with the epithet of human, and ranks in 

 the estimation of society with the Brute. 



Those senses which we have hitherto considered, are nearly 

 perfect from the beginning; but the organ of sight requires 

 long practice before it is fitted to perforin its office with 

 effect. It is first attracted by the light, next by ghttering 

 and bright-coloured objects, then by whatever is near it, and 

 at last is competent to judge of distances and magnitudes. 



T\]e celebrated Berkeley in his " new Theory of Vision," 

 which is commended by the wisest and ablest of our natural, 

 moral and political enquirers, as " one of the finest examples 

 of philosophical analysis that is to be found either in our own 

 or in any other language, leaves no doubt in the mind that 

 " the judgment we make of the distance of an object viewed 

 with both eyes is the result of experience; and on this 

 subject the following passages are deserving of particular at- 

 tention. 



" The judgments we make of greatness, do, in like manner 

 as those of distance, depend on the disposition of the eye; 

 also on the figure, number and situation of objects, and 

 other circumstances that have been observed to attend great 

 or small tangible magnitudes.. Thus, for instance, the very 

 same quantity of visible extension, which in the figure of a 

 tower doth suggest the idea of great magnitude, shall in 

 the figure of a man suggest the idea of much smaller mag- 

 nitude. That this is owing to the experience we have bad 

 of the usual bigness of a tower or a man, no one I suppose 



