Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



close quarters, some at great distances, some by 

 one kind of light, some by another, and so forth. 

 So that to-day it not only contains a great range 

 of inherited, yet latent, faculties, but it is actually, 

 in its complex structure, an epitome and partial 

 record of its own extraordinary history. 



As an instance of this last point, let me remind 

 you that Sight was originally a differentiation of 

 Touch. The light, the shadows, falling on the 

 sensitive general surface of a primitive organism 

 provoke a tactile irritation. In the course of evolu- 

 tion this sense specialises itself at some point of 

 the surface into what we call Sight. Now, to-day, 

 when the little picture formed by the fore-part 

 of the Human Eye falls upon the Retina at the 

 back, it falls upon a screen formed by the myriad 

 congregated finger-tips, so to speak, of the optic 

 nerve the rods and cones, so-called which cover 

 like a mosaic the whole ground of the Retina, and 

 feel with their sensitive points the images of the 

 objects in the outer world. And so Sight is still 

 Touch it is the power of feeling or touching at 

 a distance as one sometimes in fact becomes 

 aware in looking at things. 



But then again on and beyond all these things 

 beyond the focussing and photographing of 

 rays, beyond the latent adaptations to the needs 

 of innumerable creatures, *and the epitomising of 

 ages of evolution the Human Eye has faculties 

 even more far-reaching perhaps and wonderful. 

 It is the marvellous organ of human Expression. 

 By the dilatations and contractions of the iris, by 



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