SHARP EYES AND OTHER PAPERS. 



SHARP EYES. 



• Noting how one eye seconds and reinforces the 

 other, I have often amused myself by wondering what 

 the effect would be if one could go on opening eye 

 after eye to the number say of a dozen or more. 

 What would he see? Perhaps not the invisible — 

 not the odors of flowers nor the fever germs in the air 

 — not the infinitely small of the microscope nor tho 

 infinitely distant of the telescope. This would require, 

 not more eyes so much as an eye constructed with 

 more and different lenses ; but would he not see with 

 augmented power within the natural limits of vision ? 

 At any rate some persons seem to have opened more 

 eyes than others, they see with such force and distinct- 

 ness ; their vision penetrates the tangle ancLobscuriry 

 where that of others fails like a spent or impotent 

 bullet. How many eyes did Gilbert White open? how 

 many did Henry Thoreau? how many did Audubon 'i 

 how many does the hunter, matching his sight against 

 the keen and alert sense of a deer or a moo.se, or a fol 

 or a wolf? Not outward eyes, but inward. We opel 

 another eye whenever we see beyond the first genera! 

 features or outlines of things — whenever we grasp 

 special details and characteristic markings that this 

 mask covers. Science confers new powers of vision. 



