348 TRAVELS IN 
and that he learned to judge of their ft* 
motenefs only by the fenfe of feeling and ex- 
perience. 
What Chefelden*s blind patient was, the 
mod clear- fighted man may be, with a limited 
underftanding, and if the optical objeft he 
perceives be new to him. To fuppofe that 
the Nimiqua at my perfpedive glafs could con- 
jefture the mode in which the magic effefi: of 
the inftrument w'as produced, would be placing 
him on a level with us; would be giving him 
credit for our experience, our . knowledge in 
phyfics, and a multitude of ideas and reflec- 
tions that could never enter into his dull and 
untaught mind. 
Let us forget for a moment the lights of our 
education ; let us fuppofe ourfelves like him 
profoundly ignorant, and without the leaft 
conception of a perfpedive glafs ; and we 
may then conceive what his wonder muft 
have been, when he beheld fo near him a hut, 
W4th two little children playing at its entrance, 
His aftonifhment was fo great, that he trem- 
bled with joy, and all his mufcles were con- 
traded at once. Without moving his eye 
from the glafs, he llretched his hand towards 
the 
