Let us look at this matter a little more closely. For convenience sake
we shall remain upon the highway, I, II. (Fig. 20.) To the right and the
left lies the forest. Standing at I, we see, let us say, three trees (1,
2, 3) in a line, so that the two remote ones are covered by the nearest.
Moving further along, this changes. At II we shall not have to look
round so far to see the remotest tree 3 as to see the nearer tree 2, nor
so far to see this as to see 1. _Hence, as we move onward, objects that
are near to us seem to lag behind as compared with objects that are
remote from us, the lagging increasing with the proximity of the
objects._ Very remote objects, towards which we must always look in the
same direction as we proceed, appear to travel along with us.
If we should see, therefore, jutting above the brow of yonder hill the
tops of two trees whose distance from us we were in doubt about, we
should have in our hands a very easy means of deciding the question. We
should take a few steps forward, say to the right, and the tree-top
which receded most to the left would be the one nearer to us. In truth,
from the amount of the recession a geometer could actually determine the
distance of the trees from us without ever going near them. It is simply
the scientific development of this perception that enables us to
measure the distances of the stars.
_Hence, from change of view in forward motion the distances of objects
in our field of vision can be measured._
Rigorously, however, even forward motion is not necessary. For every
observer is composed really of _two_ observers. Man has _two_ eyes. The
right eye is a short step ahead of the left eye in the right-hand
direction. Hence, the two eyes receive _different_ pictures of the same
woods. The right eye will see the near trees displaced to the left, and
the left eye will see them displaced to the right, the displacement
being greater, the greater the proximity. This difference is sufficient
for forming ideas of distance.
We may now readily convince ourselves of the following facts:
1. With one eye, the other being shut, you have a very uncertain
judgment of distances. You will find it, for example, no easy task, with
one eye shut, to thrust a stick through a ring hung up before you; you
will miss the ring in almost every instance.
2. You see the same object differently with the right eye from what you
do with the left.
Place a lamp-shade on the table in front of you with its broad opening
turned downwards, and look at it from above. (Fig. 21.) You will see
with your right eye the image 2, with your left eye the image 1. Again,
place the shade with its wide opening turned upwards; you will receive
with your right eye the image 4, with your left eye the image 3. Euclid
mentions phenomena of this character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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