THE EYE. 



inhabit. It invests us with a space-penetrating power to which 

 there seems to be no practical limit. By the exercise of this 

 power, we enjoy the unspeakable pleasure of surveying the phy- 

 sical universe, consisting of countless myriads of worlds dispersed 

 through the measureless abysses of space, worlds compared with 

 most of which this of ours is of most diminutive dimensions. 

 These stupendous globes roll in silent majesty round remote suns 

 which warm and illuminate distant spheres, and collected in vast 

 groups, are often presented to our eye as mere nebulous specks, 

 but when viewed with high telescopic aid, blaze into stellar masses 

 of the most dazzling splendour. System after system of worlds 

 like our own are thus displayed before us, which, according to all 

 analogy, are similarly peopled, and destined to fulfil like destiniss 

 in the moral economy of creations, theatres of life and intelligence 

 teeming with evidence of the incessant play of boundless power, 

 wisdom, and goodness. 



Although the eye, strictly speaking, is cognisant only of light 

 and colours, yet from an habitual comparison of combinations and 

 tints of colour with the forms of bodies, as ascertained by the 

 sense of touch, we are enabled, with the greatest facility, promp- 

 titude, and precision, to recognise by the sight, the forms, mag- 

 nitudes, motions, distances, and positions, not only of the objects 

 which surround us, and which we can approach, but also of 

 those constituting the material universe, which are inaccessible. 



This vast range of observation, however, great as it is, forms 

 but a small part of the sources of pleasure and advantage supplied 

 by this organ. We have, besides, the inestimable advantages and 

 the great moral powers which arise from the ability it bestows 

 upon us to acquire knowledge through the study of books. It 

 enables us to converse with and derive instruction from the most 

 learned, the most wise, and the most virtuous of our own and all 

 former ages ; and although those who have the misfortune to be 

 deprived of this important organ, can, to some small extent, 

 replace it by the car, aided by the eye of another ; yet this, and all 

 other expedients contrived for their relief, supply results infinitely 

 small and insignificant compared with those which are obtained jy 

 the organ itself. 



2. The eye, considered in itself apart from its uses, is a most in- 

 teresting and instructive object. It affords beyond comparison the 

 most beautiful example of design, structure, and contrivance, that 

 is to be found in the animal economy. Nowhere do we find so 

 remarkable an adaptation of means to an end, of means consisting 

 of the most profound combination of scientific principles, and an 

 end manifesting the operation of a will directed by the most 

 boundless beneficence. 

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