Buffon's Natural History. Volume 04 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History. Volume 04 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
to be equally diminished. Beyond the limits of what he saw he had no
conception of any thing. He knew that the apartment he occupied was
only a part of the house, and yet he could not imagine how the latter
should be larger than the former. Before the operation he formed no
great expectations of the pleasure he should receive from the new sense
he was promised, excepting that thereby he might be enabled to read
and write. He said among other things, that he could enjoy no greater
delight from walking in the garden, because there he already walked at
his ease, and was acquainted with every part of it. He also remarked
that his blindness gave him one advantage over the rest of mankind,
namely, that of being able to walk in the night with more confidence
and security. No sooner, however, had he began to enjoy his new sense
than he was transported beyond measure; he declared that every new
object was a new source of delight, and that his pleasure was so great
he had not language to express it. About a year after, he was carried
to Epsom, where there is a beautiful and extensive prospect; with this
he seemed greatly charmed; and the landscape before him he called a
new method of seeing. He was couched in the other eye a year after
the former, and the success was equally great. Every object appeared
larger when he looked at it with the second eye to what it did with the
other; and when he looked at any thing with both eyes it appeared twice
as large as when he saw but with one, though he did not see double, or
at least he shewed no marks from which any such conclusion might be
drawn.
Mr. Chesselden instances several other persons who were in the same
situation with this lad, and on whom he performed the same operation;
and he assures us, that on first obtaining the use of their eyes they
expressed their perceptions in the same manner, though less minutely;
and that he particularly observed of them all, that as they had never
had any occasion to move their eyes while deprived of sight, they were
exceedingly embarrassed in learning how to direct them to the objects
they wished to observe.
As from particular circumstances we cannot from a just idea of
distance, and as we cannot judge of the magnitude of objects but by the
largeness of the angle, or rather the image, which they form in our
eyes, we are necessarily deceived as to the size of such objects. Every
man knows how liable we are, in travelling by night, to mistake a bush
which is at hand for a tree at a distance, or a tree at a distance
for a bush which is at hand. In like manner, if we cannot distinguish
objects by their figure we cannot judge of distance or size. In this
case a fly, passing with rapidity before our eyes, will appear to be a
bird at a considerable distance; and an horse standing in the middle of
a plain will appear no bigger than a sheep till we have discovered that
it is a horse, and then we shall recognize it to be as large as life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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