On Optic Vision. 1 1 7 



time of Moses, it is scarcely worth while to comment. It is cer- 

 tainly as probable that it should be revealed to the patriarchs in 

 the hrst ages, as to Moses who could not liave any particular in- 

 terest in it. The most important point is the proof oi this posi- 

 tion. In my paper published in February (vol. xlvii. p.l 1 1 et seq.) 

 I adduced facts which appeared to me to warrant the conclu- 

 sion I drew from them; and I am confident that any person who 

 will consider them will not find them without force. I could 

 have adduced a greater mass of evidence, but I thought it un- 

 necessary. If however any of your readers is disposed to investi- 

 gate the subject, I refer him to a work in which, since my last 

 letter appeared, 1 have seen it amply discussed, I allude to the 

 Rev. Mr. Fal)cr's work on the Origin of Pagan Idolatry ; fifth 

 chapter on Heathen Cosmogonies. 



Perhaps it is scarcely worth while to remark, that F. E s, 



who has prudently declined entering into this question, has in 

 his last letter so far forgotten himself, as to pronounce at once 

 the wliole ground of the opinion I maintain to be a vague and 

 visionary conjecture. On this proceeding I shall make no com- 

 ment. 



I am, sir. 



Your obedient servant, 

 Bristol, August 11, 1816. J. C. PRICHAftD. 



XXXI. On optic Vision', ivith a few Remarks on the Animad- 

 versions of F. E s on the Author s former Communica- 

 tions respecting the Cosmogomf of Moses, By Mr. Andrew 

 Horn. 



To Mr. Tilloch. 



Sir, — In the prosecution of my inquiries into the Mosaic 

 Cosmogony, the subject of vision, in conne.icion with an inquiry 

 into the agency of light and production of colours, greatly en- 

 gaged my attention. Almost every thing of antiquity that has 

 reached us on vision, is hypothetical. Nothing truly scientific 

 appears to have been known, relative to the manner in which 

 it is accomplished, before Alhazen, in the twelfth century, pub- 

 lished his Treatise on Optics. Porta and others afterwards con- 

 tributed to advance the science, by discovering the use of certain 

 parts of the organ ; but the mathematical genius of Kepler 

 made the capital discovery, that the retina is the canvass upoix 

 which the picture of the external objects is painted. Schiener 

 shortly after demonstrated its truth, by publicly exhibiting mi- 

 niature pictures of llie opposite objects iipou the retina of an 



M 3 'i'Vc, 



