28 HISTORY OF 



the rest of mankind, which was that of being able 

 to walk in the night with confidence and securi- 

 ty. But when he began to make use of his new 

 sense, he seemed transported beyond measure, 

 He said that every new object was a new source 

 of delight, and that his pleasure was so great as 

 to be past expression. About a year after, he 

 was brought to Epsom, where there is a very fine 

 prospect, with which he seemed greatly charmed ; 

 and he called the landscape before him a new 

 method of seeing. He was couched in the other 

 eye, a year after the former, and the operation 

 succeeded equally well : when he saw with both 

 eyes, he said that objects appeared to him twice 

 as large as when he saw with but one ; however, 

 he did not see them doubled, or at least he shew- 

 ed no marks as if he saw them so. Mr Chesel- 

 den mentions instances of many more that were 

 restored to sight in this manner : they all seemed 

 to concur in their perceptions with this youth ; 

 and they all seemed particularly embarrassed in 

 learning how to direct their eyes to the objects 

 they wished to observe. 



In this manner it is that our feeling corrects 

 the sense of seeing, and that objects which ap- 

 pear of very different sizes, at different distances, 

 are all reduced by experience to their natural 

 standard. " But not the feeling only, but also 

 the colour and brightness of the object, contri- 

 butes in some measure to assist us in forming an 

 . idea of the distance at which it appears.* Those 



* M. Buffon gives a different theory, for which I must refer the reader to 

 die original. That I have given, I take to be easy, and satisfactory enough. 



