24 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



when I ceased to intend my face upon them, they 

 vanished again. After this I found that as often 

 as I went into the dark, and intended my mind 

 upon them, as when a man looks earnestly to see 

 anything which is difficult to be seen, I could 

 make the phantasm return without looking any 

 more upon the sun ; and the oftener I made it 

 return, the more easily I could make it return 

 again. And at length, by repeating this without 

 looking any more upon the sun, I made such an 

 impression on my eye, that, if I looked upon the 

 clouds, or a book, or any bright object, I saw 

 upon it a round bright spot of light like the sun, 

 and, which is still stranger, though I looked upon 

 the sun with my right eye only, and not with my 

 left, yet my fancy began to make an impression 

 upon my left eye as well as upon my right. For 

 if I shut my right eye, and looked upon a book 

 or the clouds with my left eye, I could see the 

 spectrum of the sun almost as plain as with my 

 right eye, if I did but intend my fancy a little 

 while upon it : for at first, if I shut iny right eye, 

 and looked with my left, the spectrum of the sun 

 did not appear till I intended my fancy upon it ; 

 but by repeating, this appeared every time more 

 easily. And now in a few hours' time I had 

 brought my eyes to such a pass, that I could look 

 upon no bright object with either eye but I saw 

 the sun before me, so that I durst neither write 

 nor read ; but to recover the use of my eyes, shut 

 myself up in my chamber, made dark, for three 

 days together, and used all means in my power 

 to direct my imagination from the sun. For if I 

 thought upon him, I presently saw his picture, 

 though I was in the dark. But by keeping in 

 the dark, and employing my mind about other 



