The sensorium: a philosophical discourse of the senses: wherein their anatomy, and their several sensations, functions, and offices, are ... describ'd ... / [Matthew Beare].

  • Beare, Matthew
Date:
1710
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sensorium: a philosophical discourse of the senses: wherein their anatomy, and their several sensations, functions, and offices, are ... describ'd ... / [Matthew Beare]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    82/216 (page 70)
    in our Judgment of its didance, as any one will quickly conceive. VII. We judge 6f the Magnitude of an Ob- jeft by the diftance of one part of it from ano¬ ther, and by the diftance of the whole from us; for the diftance of an Obje£t firft confi- der’d, we find that the Rays from all (ides of sn Object caufe an Jmpreffion on the Retina in the Extremities of more or lefs diftant Fibres; therefore the farther diftant thefe Extremities imprefs’d are from each other, the greater we judge the Object to be, and on the contrary: So that firft ’tis neceflary that we know the di¬ ftance of an Objeft, before we can attain to the knowledge of the Magnitude; and as often as we are deceiv’d jn the Diftance, we mull be deceiv’d in the Magnitude: And for this Reafon we can’t judge of the Magnitude of the Sun, and Stars becaufc their diftance is by us indeterminable; for the farther diftant sa Objett is, the lefs is the fpace between the Points of the Rays, &c. And confequently as oft as we judge an Objett nigher us than it really is, the lefs we make it feem ; and on the contrary, as often as we judge it farther than it really is, we fancy it bigger than it really is. The Stars, and Moon, by the interpofition of Smoke, and their Clouds, feem larger than Otberwife they do, bscaufe they are judg’d lefs dllUat • they appear larger bscaufe the Rays are