ANIMALS. 355 



He siiid, thiit every 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 veiy 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 opera- 

 tion succeeded equally well : when he saw with both eyes, he 

 said that objects appeared to him twice as large as when he saw 

 but with one ; however, he did not see them doubled, or, at least, 

 he showed no marks as if he saw them so. Mr Cheselden men 

 tions 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 learn- 

 ing how to direct their eyes to the objects they wished to ob- 

 serve. 



In this manner it is that our feeling corrects the sense of see- 

 ing, and that objects which appear of very different sizes at dif- 

 ferent distances, are all reduced, by experience, to their tiattnal 

 standard. " But not the feeling only, but also the colour and 

 brightness of the object, contributes, in some measure, to assist 

 us in forming an idea of the distance at which it apjjcars. ' Those 

 which we see most strongly marked with light and shade, we 

 readily know to be nearer than those on which the colours are 

 more faintly spread, and that, in some measure, take a part ot 

 their hue from tlie air between us and them. — Bright objects also 

 are seen at a greater distance than such as are obscure, and, most 

 probably, for this reason, that being less similar in colour, to the 

 air which interposes, their impressions are less effaced by it, and 

 they continue more distinctly visible. I'hus a black and dis- 

 tant object is not seen so far off as a bright and glittering one, 

 and a fire by night is seen much I'arther off than by day." 



The power of seeing objects at a distance is very rarely equal 

 in both eyes. When this inequality is in any great degree, the 

 person so circumstanced then makes use only of one eye, shut- 

 ting that which sees the least, and employing the other with all 

 Its j)0\ver. And hence proceeds that awk\\ard look wl)i<:h k 

 known by the name ot siiabism. 



1 Mr Biiffon gives a diffprent theory, for wliicli 1 iiuist rclcr the reader 

 in the original. 'Ihiit 1 have Riven, 1 talie tu lie eii.y and eatijlaclorv 

 enuugh. 



