PART xni-

by reafon of the Atoms which ftand in the far H Air, which the Image drives on before, it For face of the body, ready for.niotionj ^nd have though it comes to the eye exceeding fwiftly.
nothing to retard them.
CHAP. XII.
That Seeing is performed by means ofthofe Images,
THefe things .ptefuppofed, feme coriceiye,
' that ‘ external and diftihet things are * therefore feen by us, becaufe they imprint in ‘ our.eye the Image of their colour or figure,the ' Air intervening between them and us, per- ‘forming the Office of a Seale, by means of ‘ which, this impreffion is made. Othei*^' think,
‘ that this is effeded by the rays or effluviums ‘ fent from us or our eyes to the objed ; it is
far m’ore probable, that it is performed i^g in the dark, we can fee the things ‘ th=(i [mages we fpoke of, which corouig from ,j ,,
the' things, or. their colour and n^rd, flow .u.r. .ufL — _ ^
‘ intb^us, and prefefying a congruotlS‘ magni- ‘ tude^ enter into'our eyes, andifrike our fight ‘ with a: very fwift motion.
; t|iis figiliation ( or impreffion, ) indeed is a thing extream hard, and perhaps impoffibld to be explicated ; and as for the emiffion of rays out of pur eyes, it is unimaginable what the Looking- glafles fend out of them, that they al- fo l^uld have Images painted in them •, or what thatis^which in a momerrt is fent from the eye, into the wholfe vafl: circumference of the Hea¬ vens.
and in imperceptible time ^ yet it comes thi¬ ther, and couches upon it orderly •, and by how much the longer it is in doing fo, fo much the more diftant the thing appears to be , by how much the fooner, fo much the nearer.
Hence alfo may be given a reafon, why an I- mage feems to be beyond the Looking-glafs ; for as when a man, from any place within a houfe, looks upon a thing that is without doors, the Air cometh to him imprinted, as well that without to the door, as that within from the door: So to him who looketh in a glafs,cpm- meth fucceffively as well that Air which is from the glafs to the Eye, as that which is from the objed to the glafs.
Hence alfo may be given a reafon, why, be- ML
that are ^ cannot fee
thofe that are in the dark. For the enlightned Air fucceeding the dark, the Eye informed by it is enabled to fee • but not when the dark fuc- ceedech the enlightned.
How , comes it,that the Images in a glafs Teem to walk as we do ? This happens, by reafon oiML the varied parts of the glafs, from which fe- veral parts there muft necelfarily be mad® a re- fleftion upon the Eye, and thereupon the I- mages feem to walk as we.
If you ask. Why the Image which goeth from kiL us to the glafs reprefents not the ba^-fide, but the forc-fide, and that fo, as that the right part is on the left fide, and the left on the right ; take notice, . that this happens on the very fame fafhionj as if the Image of a man made of chalk or clay, not quite dried, fliould be clapt to a ball or pillar. ~
But if the Image be refleded from one glaft
To omit, that fince iii hearing, fmelling, tail¬ ing, touching,we fend nothing out of ouf felves, but receive' fomthing from without, which cau- feth a.fehfation ofitfelf, ( for of itfelf Avoice comeslnto the Ears, odors into the noftrils, fa- porsintb the palate, and things which may be touched^re applied to the body,) it isobvions to another* and thence to the Eye, the feitua- /W,
tionof the parts is reftored, lo as the right
to beebneeived, that neither is any thing fent out from our eyes, but that fomthing thofe- Images, ) comes into our eyes from the things themfelves.
But the foul,inafrauch as it is in the eyes,' can¬ not but fee, that is, apprehend the colour and outward form of that thing which is prefehted to it : For, by reafon of, the polite and perfpicu- ous contexture of the Organ, it receiveth the Image of the thing, and is ftruck by it accord¬ ing to all thebrefented parts.
Andforafinuch as thole things are beautiful which delight the fight, thofe deformed which
k.f how (hould "we imagine this tobe, but that ‘the Images Which come from the one Qonfifl pf bpdjes, which, by ■their fmoothnefs, ■'are g^iitiy .ad.ommodated to the contexture of ' the eye j thofe which" come from the other cbnfift dfftreh, as by their ilgly figure rend the
contexture T
ant
And vyiieh^be eyeis troubled with the Jaun¬ dice, howjcbmes it, that all things feem yellow ? but ' that tw^ages, in their applicatioh'to the
parts is
parts appear on the right fide, and the left on the left, ( and by this means it may be brought to pafs, efpecially if there be many glalTes, that fuch things as are hidden behind fomthing, and out of fight, may be , brought to view,) which may alfo happen even in one glafs, if it hath little fides, whereof one reflefts the Image to the other.
Thus much concerning the Sight ; to which alfo fome things, formerly hinted in our dif- courfe of the Criteries and of Qualities, have reference.
CHAP. XIU.
1 ’ . ■ . i •
Of Hearing,
Ortcerning Hearing, we muft repeat what
_ we have touched formerly, that,ithfeihg
confefs’d, the Ear is the Organ of the Hearing,
c
‘ eye, receti/^'a tiiidluf e or they may be ftrawiM As Seeing is perform’d by the coming of fom- alfo without the eye, cohiing'amongft thWyfeL ^hing into the Eye^ fo Hearing alfo ’is perform’d
low iittltr bodies or Images, ~'which"procef^d'in “ like 'm^tVuiEV' fiPtii. the eye'; " ' • i:
‘ But"hbW;'ha;Pbens it, ‘that we fee notbSly •the 'Goldttr and form of a body,^ but WadiT- cern its diftancenlfo ? Thii proceeds from the
. t L \I • / i j • 3 ‘ • ' > '
in the Ear by an emiffion of romthing,convey’d ‘ thither from the thing that , fpeaks, founds, makes' a, noife, or is ionxe bther way di^bf^ ‘ to ftir dp tbe fenfe of hearing. This kind of effiuvium, as‘it afferfs this ftnfe,is called Sound.
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