20 TRAINING OF THE SIGHT. 



organs as well at first as afterwards ; — and as regards 

 man, his dexterity for a purpose really depends, in 

 the greatest degree, on the individual improvement, 

 by education and experience, of the logical cunning 

 of his mind in the exercise of his organs. 



In exemplification of such erroneous views as to 

 the acquirement of increased power by organs from 

 practice, I may instance the common notion that the 

 eyesight of civilised men is inferior in acuteness to 

 that of savages. Among civilised men, numbers are 

 endowed with eyesight as acute as can be for any 

 distance, — far or near. The training of the eye- 

 sight for any particular purpose is a different question, 

 and means the education of the mind to exercise the 

 sight and to interpret the particular visual percep- 

 tions. Those savages who have first-rate emme- 

 tropic sight do not see better than civilised men who 

 also possess emmetropic sight, that is, who possess 

 eyes with an optical conformation and adjusting 

 mechanism as perfect as can be for vision at any 

 distance ; but being more familiar with his hunting 

 ground and the objects there met with, the savage 

 can recognise the objects — where they are and what 

 they are, and the traces of them^ better than the un- 

 trained civilised man, at great distances. On the 

 other hand, it will be found that savages, though 

 they may see near and minute objects well enough, 

 cannot distinguish them and appreciate their various 

 details so well as civilised men who have been much 

 practised in the nicer examinations and manipulations 



