II 



SHARP EYES 



"VrOTING bow one eye seconds and reinforces the 

 -'- ' other, I have often amused myself by wonder- 

 ing what the effect would be if one could go on open- 

 ing eye after eye to the number say of a dozen or 

 more. What would he see ? Perhaps not the in- 

 visible, — not the odors of flowers or the fever germs 

 in the air, — not the infinitely small of the microscope 

 or the 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 distinctness; their vision penetrates the 

 tangle and obscurity where that of others fails like 

 a spent or impotent bullet. How many eyes did 

 Gilbert White open? how many did Henry Tho- 

 reau 1 how many did Audubon ? how many does the 

 hunter, matching his sight against the keen and 

 alert sense of a deer or a moose, or fox or a wolf ? 

 Ifot outward eyes, but inward. We open another 

 eye whenever we see beyond the first general fea- 

 tures or outlines of things, — whenever we grasp 



