X. .■

Spectacles re¬ fresh the fight.
flow many things binder the fight.
are dark.
V
Chap. 6.
Of the reafon of Seeing) &c.
* 4 9
light hinders them ; but if the skye be dark and dowdy, they fee the better ^ hence it is that they fee perfe&ly what is near them but things afar off darkly.a.id obfeurely ; again, fuch vvhofe eyes i
lye hidand deep within, and their balls ftick lefle without their eyedids, are contrary to the former. For thefe fee things hatdmdeesa , by not fo diitin&ly, but. they fee things afar off very well 5 where- fuch lifttcii fore when we would fee things afar off we half fhurour eyes, aiu ^onh ** con~ ‘ wink almoft, for fo the fpirits compared and heaped together trar)t0^n^ do fend forth their rayes very far. Hence we ufc to wink^ with one eye, and put a vail before it, which may darken the* Ayre, and hinder the light, whereby we can more forcibly and fixedly look upon the objedt; as men do that ihoot in Guns and Crofle- bows ; for they (hutting their left eye, the fpirits run more pfc.iv tifully to the right, and make the fight ftrongcr : therefore Archers L
ay me thus, and fo come to hit the mark they fhootat. r To which we may apply that Ironical fpeech in cPerfim
He can direct a verfeas fine,.
As winking with one eye hee’ddraw a line.
Sat, ig
But that fome men fee two things forone, is caufed by the di- flradtion of their eyes into divers parrs. For when the rayes of the eyes do not dirc& thernfelves to the fame point of the objedt, ■
but are carried divers waxes ; and the fpiric that uncertainly re¬ ceives the fpecies of things, fluduates with inordinate and wan-
drmg motion, here and there, we fee two for one.. But things things fe^m divided, cut in funder, full of chinks, and holes, when part f'wdiyideA* of the pupil is blinded with dome humour landing before ic ; al- fo thick fumes and vapours rifmg from.the homach to the brain, do prefent various fights and images to our eyes 5 fo that fomc- tirnesall things jfcetn to run round, and turn here and there. Some Xhink they fee ftraws, fleas, gnats, flyes, Beetles, fpiders, Hobgob- iins, witches, fairies : and drunkenneffe, and gluttony caufc tkefe cftc&s j as alfo a mdancholique humour, which cloud the brain with moftgrofle vapours. But that the right eye is duller than Therfyteye the left, every man may prove in himfelf. In our perfeift age a duiitrtbZtbt grofleand thick fpiric occafioneth this, and bccaufe commonly ^ by lying on our right fide, nocturnal vapours rife and flow thither: but in ©Id age the right eye grows drier, and the heat of the Liver devours ih _■ humours that ftrvc the fight:but-the left eye is moyfter, and in that tne fpirits are not fo cafily extenuated, nor do the hu¬ mours grow dry. But the heart, the fountain of life. begins firft to hem lives live, and dieth lall, and being taken forth of fome living Qita~i^anddles tures, will pant a long timeafeer : yet the eyes which are thought to be perfected lalf, firft ceafe to move and lhevv figns of death .* eJes and they dye before the reft, becaufe the fpirits being taken frorn * them when death comes, they trmft vanifh, or the fpirits are drawn back from the eyes to the brain, that is the beginning of motion and fight. But as for the caufcs of divers colours that arc
M m feen
2 s)0
Of the reafo/i of feeing, &c.