104 THE ARREST OF THE BODY. 



tration, consider the power of Sight. Without paus- 

 ing to trace the steps hy which the Eye has reached 

 its marvellous perfection, or to estimate the ages spent 

 in polishing its lenses and adjusting the diaphragms 

 and screws, ask the simple question whether, under 

 the conditions of modern civilization, anything now is 

 being added to its quickening efficiency, or range. Is 

 it not rather the testimony of experience that if any- 

 thing its power has begun to wane? Europe even 

 now affords the spectacle of at least one nation so 

 short-sighted that it might almost be called a myopic 

 race. The same causes, in fact, that led to the Arrest 

 of the Hand are steadily working to stop the develop- 

 ment of the Eye. Man, when he sees with difficulty, 

 does not now improve his Eye ; he puts on a pince-nez. 

 Spectacles — external eyes — have superseded the work 

 of Evolution. When his sight is perfect up to a point, 

 and he desires to examine objects so minute as to lie 

 beyond the limit of that point, he will not wait for 

 Evolution to catch up upon his demand and supply 

 him, or his children's children, with a more perfect 

 instrument. He will invest in a microscope. Or 

 when he wishes to extend his gaze to the moon and 

 stars, he does not hope to reach to-morrow the dis- 

 tances which to-day transcend him. He invents the 

 telescope. Organic Evolution has not even a chance. 

 In every direction the external eye has replaced the 

 internal, and it is even difficult to suggest where any 

 further development of this part of the animal can 

 now come in. There are still, and in spite of all 

 instruments, regions in which the unaided organs of 

 Man may continue to find a field for the fullest exer- 

 cise, but the area is slowly narrowing, and in every 



