Eyes and other Objects. 69 



effect would be that we should see on the wall several 

 dozens of pictures of whatever there was behind the 

 lenses. Now, with the solar or oxy-hydrogen micro- 

 scope, a result very similar to this can be obtained 

 with an insect's eye. With the former instrument, as 

 already described (chapter 1), the shadows of objects 

 can be shown (when the sun shines) on a white screen 

 held up to receive them. And when I place a scrap 

 of the dragon-fly's eye in the solar microscope, I see 

 in every compartment of its shadow a brilliant point 

 of light, which is a little picture of the sun. 



This proves them to be lenses ; and it can be shown 

 in another way. If we had a piece of wire-netting 

 with spectacle-glasses mounted in its holes, and we 

 held it between our eyes and a window, we should see 

 a great number of little windows, and whatever view 

 appeared through them, just as many as our machine 

 contained of spectacle-glasses. If we held our eyes 

 too close to it we could see the net-work well enough, 

 but the view through it would be hazy. By removing 

 our eyes farther off we should see the little pictures 

 quite clearly. 



We can imitate all this with a scrap of dragon-fly's 

 eye ; the piece I select contains about fourteen lenses. 



I am sitting in a room opposite a window, though 

 at some distance from it. The window is thrown 

 up nearly as high as it will go, and there is an old 

 arm-chair standing close to it at the left-hand side. 

 Through the window I can see a range of farm- offices 

 with a slated roof; there is an archway in this range 

 of buildings, and over it an old carved stone is let 



