Sight 111 Savages. 167 



gress in life they are not conscions of decadence in 

 it ; from infancy to old age tlie world looks, they 

 imagine, the same, the grass as green, the sky as 

 bine as ever, and the scarlet verbenas in the grass 

 jnst as scarlet. The man lives in his sight ; it is 

 his life ; he speaks of the loss of it as a calamity 

 great as loss of reason. To see spectacles amuses 

 and irritates him at the same time ; he has the 

 monkey's impulse to snatch the idle things from his 

 fellow's nose ; for not only is it useless to the 

 wearer, and a sham, but it is annoying to others, 

 who do not like to look at a man and not pro- 

 perly see his eyes, and the thought that is in 

 them. 



To the mocking speech lie had made the other 

 good-humouredly rej^lied that he had worn glasses 

 for twenty years, that not only did they enaljle him 

 to see much better than he could without them, 

 but they had preserved his sight from further 

 decadence. Not satisfied with defending himself 

 against the charge of being a fantastical person for 

 wearing glasses, he in his turn attacked the mocker. 

 " How do you know," he said, " that your own 

 eyesight has not degenerated with time ? You can 

 only ascei'tain that by trying on a number of glasses 

 suited to a variety of sights, all in some degree 

 defective. A score of men with decaying sight may 

 be together, and in no two will the sight be the 

 same. You must try on spectacles, as you try on 

 boots, until you find a pair to fit you. You may 

 try mine if you like ; our years are the same, and 



