Si ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO TIT. 



*' Slow could the tangent organ wander o'er 

 The rock-'built mountain, and the winding shore; 

 No apt ideas -could the pigmy mite, 

 Or embryon emmet to the touch excite; 

 But as each mass the solar ray reflects, 

 The eye's clear glass the transient beams collects; 

 Bends to their focal point the rays that swerve, 

 And paints the living image on the nerve. 

 So in some village-barn, or festive hall 

 The spheric lens illumes the whiten'd wall; 140 



O'er the bright field successive figures fleet, 

 And motley shadows dance along the sheet. 

 Symbol of solid forms is colour'd light, 

 And the mute language of the touch is sight 



The mute language of the. touch, 1. 144. Our eyes observe a dif- 

 ference of colour, or of shade, in the prominences and depressions 

 of objects, and that those shades uniformly vary when the sense of 

 touch observes any variation. Hence when the retina becomes stimu- 

 lated by colours or shades of light in a certain form, as in a circular 

 spot, we know by experience that this is a sign that a tangible body 

 is before us; and that its figure is resembled by the miniature figure 

 of the part of the organ of vision that is thus stimulated. 



Here whilst the stimulated part of the retina resembles exactly 



