reflection 
3. That which is produced by being reflected ; 
an image given back from a reflecting surface. 
As the sun in water we can bear, 
Yet not the sun, but his reflection, there. 
Dryden, Eleonora, 1. 137. 
Mountain peak and village spire 
Retain reflection of his nre. 
Scott, Eokeby, v. 1. 
The mind is like a double mirror, in which reflexions of 
self within self multiply themselves till they are undis- 
tinguishable. J. 11. Newman, Gram, of Assent, p. 185. 
4. The act of shining. [Bare.] 
As whence the sun 'gins his reflection 
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break. 
Shak., Macbeth, i. 2. 25. 
5. The turning of thought back upon past 
experiences or ideas; attentive or continued 
consideration; meditation; contemplation; de- 
liberation : as, a man much given to reflection. 
Education begins the gentleman ; but reading, good 
company, and reflection must finish him. 
Locke. (Allibone.) 
Where under heav'n is pleasure more pursued, 
Or where does cold reflection less intrude? 
Cowper, Expostulation, 1. 8. 
6. A mental process resulting from attentive 
or continued consideration; thought or opinion 
after deliberation. 
A gentleman whose conversation and friendship furnish 
me still with some of the most agreeable reflections that 
result from my travels. 
Bruce, Source of the Nile, Int., p. xxii. 
He made very wise reflections and observations upon all 
I said. Swift, Gulliver's Travels, ii. 3. 
"I am sorry, but I must do it; I am driven to it; every 
body has to do it; we must look at things as they are ; 
these are the reflections which lead men into violations of 
morality. J. S. Seeley, Nat. Religion, p. 57. 
7. A kind of self-consciousness resulting from 
an outward perception, whether directly or in- 
directly; the exercise of the internal sense; 
the perception of a modification of conscious- 
ness; the faculty of distinguishing between a 
datum of sense and a product of reason; the 
consideration of the limitations of knowledge, 
ignorance, and error, and of other unsatisfac- 
tory states as leading to knowledge of self; 
the discrimination between the subjective and 
objective aspects of feelings. The Latin word re- 
flexio was first used as a term of psychology by Thomas 
Aquinas, who seems to intend no optical metaphor, but 
to conceive that consciousness is turned back upon itself 
by the reaction of the object of outward perception. Ac- 
cording to Aquinas, pure thought in itself can know 
nothing of singulars, or particular things ; but in percep- 
tion there is a peculiar sense of reaction or reciprocation 
which he calls reflection, and this first makes us aware of 
the existence of actual singulars and also of thought as 
being an action ; and this, according to him, is the first 
self-consciousness. Scotus accepted reflection, not as af- 
fording the first knowledge of singulars, but as a percep- 
tion of what passes in the mind, and thus the original 
meaning of the term was modified. Walter Burleigh, who 
died in 1337, affords an illustration of this when he says that 
the thing without is apprehended before the passion which 
is in the soul, because the thing without is apprehended 
directly, and the passion of the soul only indirectly, by 
reflection. Ramus, in his dissertation on reflection, de- 
fines it as "the successive direction of the attention to 
several partial perceptions." A still further change of 
meaning had come about when Goclenius, in 1618, defined 
reflection as "the inward action of the soul, by which it 
recognizes both itself and its acts and ideas." The impor- 
tance of the word in the English school of philosophy (Ber- 
keley. Hume, etc.) may be said to be due entirely to its use 
by Locke, who explains it as follows : 
The other fountain from which experience furnish eth the 
understanding with ideas is the perception of the opera- 
tions of our own mind within us, as it is employed about 
the ideas it has got; which operations, when the soul 
comes to reflect on and consider, do furnish the under- 
standing with another set of ideas, which could not be 
had from things without ; and such are perception, 
thinking, doubting, believing, reasoning, knowing, willing, 
and all the ditf erent actings of onr own minds ; which we 
being conscious of, and observing in ourselves, do from 
these receive into our understandings as distinct ideas as 
we do from bodies affecting our senses. This source of 
ideas every man has wholly in himself ; and though it be 
not sense, as having nothing to do with external objects, 
yet it is very like it, and might properly enough be called 
internal sense. But asl call the other sensation, so I call 
this reflection, the ideas it affords being such only as the 
mind gets by reflecting on its own operations within itself. 
By reflection, then, in the following part of this discourse, 
I would be understood to mean that notice which the mind 
takes of its own operations, and the manner of them ; by 
reason whereof there come to be ideas of these operations 
in the understanding. 
Locke, Human Understanding, II. i. 4. 
Reid endeavored to revive the Ramist use of the word, 
for which he is condemned by Hamilton. Kant, in his use 
of the term, returns to something like the Thomist view, 
for he makes it a mode of consciousness by which we are 
made aware whether knowledge is sensuous or not. Kant 
makes use of the term reflection to denote a mode of con- 
sciousness in which we distinguish between the relations 
of concepts and the corresponding relations of the objects 
of the concepts. Thus, two concepts may be different, 
and yet it may be conceived that their objects are Iden- 
tical ; or two concepts may be identical, and yet it may 
be conceived that their objects (say, two drops of water) 
are different. Mr. shaclworth Hodgson, in his "Philoso- 
5035 
phy of Reflection," 1878, uses the term to denote one of 
three fundamental modes of consciousness, namely that 
in which the objective and subjective aspects of what is 
present are discriminated without being separated as per- 
son and thing. 
The faculty by which I place the comparison of repre- 
sentations in general by the side of the faculty to which 
they belong, and by which I determine whether they are 
compared with each other as belonging to the pure under- 
standing or to sensuous intuition, 1 call transcendental re- 
flection. 
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, tr. by Miiller, p. 261. 
The particular reflection that states of consciousness are 
things, or that the Subject is its Objects, constitutes . . . 
the reflective mode of consciousness. . . . Perception . . . 
is the rudimentary function in reflection as well as in pri- 
mary consciousness ; and reflective conception is a deriva- 
tive from it. S. Hodgson, Philosophy of Reflection, i. 2, 3. 
8f. That which corresponds to and reflects 
something in the mind or in the nature of any 
one. 
As if folkes complexiouns [constitutions, temperaments] 
Make hem dreme of reflexiouns. 
Chaucer, House of Fame, 1. 22. 
9. Keproach cast ; censure ; criticism. 
To suppose any Books of Scripture to be lost which con- 
tained any necessary Points of Faith is a great Reflexion 
on Divine Providence. Stillingfleet, Sermons, III. ii. 
He bore all their weakness and prejudice, and returned 
not reflection for reflection. 
Penn, Rise and Progress of Quakers, v. 
10. In anat. : (a) Duplication; the folding of 
a part, as a membrane, upon itself; a bending 
back or complete deflection, (b) That which is 
reflected ; a fold : as, a reflection of the perito- 
neum forming a mesentery. 11. In zool., a 
play of color which changes in different lights : 
as, the reflections of the iridescent plumage of 
a humming-bird. Cones Axis of reflection. See 
axisi. Logical reflection. See logical. Point of re- 
flection. Seepointl. Total reflection. See refraction!. 
= Syn. B. Rumination, cogitation. 6. See remark!, n. 
reflection! (re-flek'shon), r. *. [< reflection, n."} 
To reflect, t^are.] " 
Butj reflecKoning apart, thou seest, Jack, that her plot 
is beginning to work. 
Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe, IV. xxi. 
reflectionist (re-flek'shon-ist), . [< reflection 
+ -ist.] An adherent of Shadworth Hodgson's 
philosophy of reflection. The doctrine is that a 
power of perceiving the relations of subjective and ob- 
jective aspects and elements is the highest mode of con- 
sciousness. 
reflective (re-flek'tiv), a. [= F. reflectif; as 
reflect + -ive'. Cf. reflexive."] 1. Thro wing back 
rays or images ; giving reflections ; reflecting. 
In the reflective stream the sighing bride 
Viewing her charms impair'd. Prior. 
A mirror ... of the dimensions of a muffin, and about 
as reflective. L. M. Alcott, Hospital Sketches, p. 62. 
2. Taking cognizance of the operations of the 
mind ; exercising thought or reflection ; capa- 
ble of exercising thought or judgment. 
Forc'd by reflective Reason, I confess 
That human Science is uncertain Guess. 
Prior, Solomon, i. 
His perceptive and reflective faculties . . . thus acquired 
a precocious and extraordinary development. 
Motley. (Webster.) 
3. Having a tendency to or characterized by 
reflection. 
The Greeks are not reflective, but perfect in their senses 
and in their health, with the finest physical organization 
in the world. Emerson, Essays, 1st ser., p. 23. 
Several persons having the true dramatic feeling . . . 
were overborne by the reflective, idyllic fashion which then 
began to prevail in English verse. 
Stedman, Viet. Poets, p. 2. 
4. Devoted to reflection; containing reflections. 
[Rare.] 5. In gram., reflexive Reflective fac- 
ulties, in phren., a division of the intellectual faculties, 
comprising the two so-called organs of comparison and 
causality. Reflective judgment, in the Kantian termi- 
nology, that kind of judgment that mounts from the par- 
ticular to the general. 
reflectively (re-flek'tiv-li), adv. In a reflective 
manner; by reflection, in any sense of that 
word. 
reflectiveness (re-flek'tiv-nes), n. The state 
or quality of being reflective. 
The meditative lyric appeals to a profounder reflective- 
ness, which is feelingly alive to the full pathos of life, and 
to all the mystery of sorrow. 
J. C. Shairp, Aspects of Poetry, p. 118. 
reflectoire (ref-lek-twor'), . [< F. reflectoire; as 
reflect + -ory."\ A geometrical surface whose 
form is that of 
the appearance 
of a horizon- 
tal plane seen 
through a layer 
of water with air 
above it. Re- 
flectoire curve, 
a curve which is a 
k,-H,.-a.,irc. 
reflex 
central vertical 
section of the sur- 
face called a re- 
flectoire. It is a 
curve of thefourth 
order and sixth 
class, having a tac- 
node on the sur- 
face of the water at infinity, and a double point at the eye. 
reflector (re-flek'tor), M. [= F. reflecteur; as 
reflect + -or 1 .] 1. One who reflects or con- 
siders. 
There is scarce anything that nature has made, or that 
men do suffer, whence the devout reflector cannot take an 
occasion of an aspiring meditation. Boyle, On Colours. 
2. One who casts reflections ; a censurer. 
This answerer has been pleased to find fault with about 
a dozen passages ; ... the reflector is entirely mistaken, 
and forces interpretations which never once entered into 
the writer's head. Swi/t, Tale of a Tub, Apol. 
3. That which reflects. Specifically (a) A polished 
surface of metal or any other suitable material, used 
for the purpose of reflecting rays of light, heat, or sound 
in any required direction. Reflectors may be either 
plane or curvilinear; of the former the common mirror 
is a familiar example. Curvilinear reflectors admit of a 
great variety of forms, according to the purposes for 
which they are employed : they may be cither convex or 
concave, spherical, elliptical, parabolic, or hyperbolic, 
etc. The parabolic form is perhaps the most generally 
serviceable, being used for many purposes of illumina- 
tion as well as for various highly important philosophi- 
cal instruments. Its property is to reflect, in parallel 
lines, all rays diverging from the focus of the parabola, 
and conversely. A series of parabolic minors, by which 
the rays from one or more lamps were reflected in a par- 
allel beam, so as to render the light visible at a great dis- 
tance, was the arrangement generally employed in light- 
houses previous to the invention of the Fresnel lamp, or 
dioptric light The annexed cut is a section of a ship's 
lantern fitted with an Argand lamp and parabolic reflector. 
a a is the reflector, b the 
lamp, situated in the focus 
of the polished concave 
paraboloid, c the oil-cis- 
tern, d the outer frame 
of the lantern, and < the 
chimney for the escape of i 
the products of combus- 
tion. (6) A reflecting tele- 
scope, the speculum of 
which is an example of the 
converse application of the 
parabolic reflector, the par- 
allel rays proceeding from 
a distant body being in this 
case concentrated into the 
focus of the reflector. See 
telescope, and cut under 
catoptric. 
Reflectors have been made as large as six feet in aper- 
ture, the greatest being that of Lord Rosse. 
Newconib and Holi.cn, Astron. , p. 68. 
Double-cone reflector, a form of ventilating-reflector, 
connected with a chandelier or a similar device for sup- 
plying artificial light : used in the ceiling of a hall or other 
place of public assembly. Parabolic reflector, a re- 
flector of paraboloidal shape : used either for concentrat- 
ing rays upon an object at the focus, as in the microscope, 
or, with a light at the focus, for reflecting the rays in 
parallel lines to form a beam of light, as in lighthouse 
and some other lanterns. See def. 3, and cut above. 
reflectory (re-flek'to-ri), a. [< reflect + -ory.~\ 
Capable of being reflected. 
reflet (F. pron. re-fla'), n. [F., reflection, < L. 
reflectere, reflect : see reflect."} 1. Brilliancy of 
surface, as in metallic luster or glaze on pot- 
tery, especially when having an iridescent or 
many-colored flash. 
A full crimson tint with a brilliant metallic reflet or iri- 
descence. J. C. Robinson, S. K. Spec. Ex., p. 421. 
Parabolic Reflector. 
2. A piece of pottery having such a glaze, es- 
pecially a tile : sometimes used attributively. 
There is in this place an enormous reflet tile. . . . The 
reflet tiles in which a copper tint is prominent. 
S. G. W. Benjamin, Persia and the Persians, pp. 285, 287. 
Reflet metallique. See metallic luster, under luster, 2. 
Reflet nacre, a luster having an iridescent appearance 
like that of mother-of-pearl. 
reflex (re-fleks'), v. t. [< L. reflexus, pp. of re- 
flectere, reflect : see re/Zee*.] 1. To bend back; 
turn back. 
A dog lay, ... his head reflext upon his tail. 
J. Gregory, Posthuma, p. 118. 
2f. To reflect; cast or throw, as light; let 
shine. 
May never glorious sun reflex his beams 
Upon the country where you make abode. 
Shak., 1 Hen. VI., v. 4. 87. 
reflex (re'fleks or re-fleks'), a. [< L. reflexus, 
pp. of reflectere, reflect : see reflect."] 1. Thrown 
or turned backward ; having a backward direc- 
tion ; reflective ; reactive. 
A reflex act of the soul, or the turning of the intellec- 
tual eye inward upon its own actions. Sir M. Hale. 
The order and beauty of the inanimate parts of the world, 
the discernible ends of them, do evince by a reflex argu- 
ment that it is the workmanship, not of blind mechanism 
or blinder chance, but of an intelligent and benign agent. 
Bentley. 
