broader, will be perceived from a greater distance. But the parts which disappear the very first, are the lines which describe the members, and terminate the surface and shape of bodies.
Chap. CCCXV.—Why Objects are less distinguished in proportion as they are farther removed from the Eye.
This happens because the smallest parts are lost first; the second, in point of size, are also lost at a somewhat greater distance, and so on successively; the parts by degrees melting away, the perception of the object is diminished; and at last all the parts, and the whole, are entirely lost to the sight[1]. Colours also disappear on account of the density of the air interposed between the eye and the object.
Chap. CCCXVI.—Why Faces appear dark at a Distance.
It is evident that the similitude of all objects placed before us, large as well as small, is perceptible to our senses through the iris of the eye. If through so small an entrance the immensity of the sky and of the earth is admitted, the faces of men (which are scarcely any thing in comparison of such large objects), being still diminished by the distance, will occupy so little of the eye, that they become almost imperceptible. Besides, having to pass through a dark medium from the surface to the Retina in the
- ↑ See chap. cxvi. cxxi. cccv.
