234 



I am well afTured, that the tree, not only ts, 

 but appears to me much larger. 



If indeed my imagination could be fo far 

 deceived, as to believe the landfcape, which 

 is painted on a pane of glafs, were really the 

 landfcape tranfmitted through it ; I might 

 then fuppofe it of the dimenfions of nature. 

 On no other fuppofition I can give it credit. 

 But if a deceit of this kind could not eafily 

 be pradlifed on a pane of g/afs ; much lefs 

 could it be praftifed in a picture. We could 

 never fo far impofe upon ourfelves, as to con- 

 ceive a little object, of the dimenfions of 

 a foot by fix inches, hung againft a wall, 

 to be a juft reprefentation of a country, twenty 

 or thirty miles in extent. 



I mean not to debate the ftruclure of the 

 eye with the philofopher. All I mean to 

 aflert, is, that the piclurefque eye has nothing 

 to do with tunics, irifes, and retinas. It judges 

 of nothing by a focus, or a cone of vifual 

 rays. The imagination, guided by experience, 

 prefides folely over vifion, as far at lead as 

 the bulk of objects is concerned j and it pic- 

 tures them, not as painted on a mathematical 

 point, but as portrayed on an extended plain, 



and 



