Copy 1, Volume 1

Of the origin and progress of language / [Anon].

  • James Burnett, Lord Monboddo
Date:
1774-1792
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Of the origin and progress of language / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    54/712 (page 26)
    perceive nothing but the colour, figure, magnitude, and motion of the objedf Thefe are all that are painted upon the re¬ tina of the eye ; and it is only through the medium of the pictures there that we per- ceive any thing by this fenfe f: Yet the * Colour Is the primary perception of this fenfe; the others are only consequential. Figure, e. g. and magni¬ tude, are nothing elfe hut colour of a certain extent, or terminated in a certain manner. , *j* It is worth obferving, though I think it has not been obferved, that, in this fenfe, the progrefs from the impreftion made by the external objedt upon the organ to the mind, is better marked than in any other fenfe : For, with refpect to the other fenfes, all we know of the mat¬ ter is, that the impulfe upon the organ is propagated to the brain by certain nerves, and fo perceived by the mmd. But here there is a ft age of the progreftion diftindtly mark¬ ed, and now well known to all opticians, namely, the pidfure upon the retina of the eye, which was firft difcover- ed by Kepler, and is, I think, the greateft difcovery in the matter of fenfation that ever was made. Nor is there a- V-ij fcience in which I think the moderns have excelled the ancients more than that of optics. In Euclid's trea- tife of optics, (if that work be truly his, and not the work of the author of the preface, who from his ftile appears to be of a later age), he gives an account of vifion, which feems to us altogether abfurd. He fays, it is produced by rays, which he calls fometimes and fome- times ot]/sts, iftuing from the eye to the objedt, and form¬ ing angles at the eye, under which we fee the dimen- fions of the objedt. But he tells us, that we do not fes