16 THE EYE 



regulate it, but, making allowance for special peculiarities 

 in the particular senses, are applicable to sense generally. 



As we run through the history of the gradual develop- 

 ment of our knowledge of Nature, we are met by a pheno- 

 menon which has ever had the greatest possible influence, 

 almost always intermingling itself with our researches, 

 checking and perplexing us, and bedimning our vision 

 of the simple and clear conformity to law. Reflecting 

 Man, feels himself at once a citizen of two worlds. His 

 existence is not wholly comprehended in the mere corporeal 

 world ; a freer, more spiritual existence, in which he seeks 

 immortality, in which he bethinks him of God as a bene- 

 ficent ruler, claims its share of his being. Most mysterious 

 and, while we are but men, ever incomprehensible is the 

 blending of soul and body the spiritual and material in 

 our nature. Where is the limit of the one and the com- 

 mencement of the other? Mankind in general, and even 

 the most gifted seekers after knowledge, answer us : We 

 know not ; no boundary can be detected ; they pass over 

 and inter-penetrate each other in every direction. 



Here lies the path of delusion, pressing itself so closely 

 on the notice of the inquirer, that only by unceasing effort 

 can he avoid it, that often it misleads the most intelligent ; 

 and yet a path utterly delusive, since mind and body are in 

 us so strictly, so inevitably separated, that the chasm 

 between them is at no point bridged over. This is not the 

 place to unfold all the relations of this connection, or 

 fundamentally to discuss it in its whole extent, but the 

 careful examination of that which we call Sight, will give 

 us occasion to point out, at least in one instance, the great 

 gap between the corporeal and the spiritual, as the uncon- 

 sciousness of their separation in the eye has often led the 

 greatest observers into perplexities. 



