Strait comes, with vig'rous Force, the SHINING RAY,
355 Cleanses the Pores, and drives the SHADES away:
For 'tis more fubtile, and more ftrong than they :
When this has cleans'd, and open'd ev'ry Pore,
Which the dark heavy AIR had ftopt before,
The FORMS of Things come in: they swiftly fly,
360 And strike, and raise a Motion in, the Eye.

But now, when we our felves are in the LIGHT,
The OBJECTS in the Dark ne'er move our SIGHT:
Because a THICKER AIR does still come on,
A darker, as the former Dark is gone,

365 And ftops the PORES; and thus no FORMS can rise,
None move, and find a Paffage to our Eyes,

Now farther: 'Tis by fure Experience found,
A SQUARE, when feen at Distance, feems a ROUND:
Because

NOTES.

the bright, the Paffages of the, are fquare, feem round, if beEye are fo clos'd and choak'd held at Distance? Square up by that dull and heavy Air, Towers, for Example, feem that it becomes incapable to re-round, if we regard them from ceive the Images of Things that offer themselves to it.

afar: the Reafon of which is, fays Lucretius, because the IThis was the Opinion of Lu- mage of a fquare Tower, as it cretius; but Ariftotle and the flies to us, is often ftruck by the Mathematicians explain this Air in its Paffage, by which Matter in a few Words: They means its Angles are worn off, fay, That Nothing can be feen at least are fo blunted, that of it felf but, and that there are when it comes to us, it strikes no other Objects of Sight than, our Eyes under a round or cirLight and Colour: Therefore, cular Figure; yet that Roundwhatever is feen, is feen by the nefs is not fo diftinct and perHelp and Means of those two fect, as if the Object it self were Things. Now the Senfe of See-round, and feen at a little Diing is made by Contact, that is ftance. to fay, by the Form or Image of the Object feen coming to the Eyes. But the Things, that are in the Dark, can not fend their Images to the Eyes, for want of Light and Colour,by which they no fooner come to be enlighten'd, than they inftantly emit their Forms: Therefore, when we our felves are in the Dark, we may well fee Objects that are in the Light, but not on the contrary.

367. Now farther: &c.] In thefe 10. v. is contained the XIth Problem: Why Things that

368. Seems a Round:] What I am here going to obferve concerning the Sight, holds good likewife as to all the other Senfes. When a Square Tower is feen from afar, and appears round, we must diftinguish be tween thefe two things: I. That it feems round; and, II. that it is reputed and believ❜d to be fo: For that it appears round is moft true; but that it is believ'd to be round, because it seems to be fo, is falfe. Now the firft belongs to the Sight, or to the Eye, which receives the Appearance,

Re

Because all ANGLES feem, when seen from far, 370 Obtufe, or rather not at all appear.

For thro' the flitting Air all FORMS that fly,
Are ftruck, and blunted in the lower Sky,
And fo grow weak, and never move the Eye:
So, all the ANGLES hid, the Things appear
375 All ROUND, tho' each may be a perfect SQUARE;
Yet not like perfect ROUNDS, and feen when near.

NOTES.

And

Reprefentation, or Image, as ( quæ, fi fe intenderit, agnofcit in Lucretius and Empiricus term turre angulos, & in remo inteit, of the Object feen: the other gritatem; & omnia illa difcerbelongs to the Mind, or Intelle- nit, quæ Academicis damnando, ctual Faculty, which forms a rum fenfuum occafionem dedeJudgment from that Appearance: runt: Cum fenfus unus inter For the Eye only reports, as I certiffimas res habendus fit, comay fay, to the Understanding, mitante ratione.

the Object it has seen; therefore

it neither deceives, nor is de- But it may be inquir'd, how ceiv'd, but reprefents the thing and by what Means the Mind as it receiv'd it: but it is the Of judges and difcerns betwixt the fice of the Mind to judge, whe-different Figures of Objects? ther the Thing be, or be not The Anfwer to this is; That fuch, as it appears to the Eye the Figures of Objects may be and Sight: fo that the Mind on- known, partly from their diffely deceives or is deceiv'd, or rent Colours, partly from their neither deceives, nor is deceiv'd different Reflections, and wholly in the Judgment it makes. But from the Knowledge of the diLucretius will argue more at vers Parts of an Object, its Dilarge of thefe Things hereafter, ftance, and Magnitude. Yet V- 394. and 490, &c. where he fome give another Reafon, and fays, that the Senfes are true and fay; That we know the Figures certain, and that their Deception of Bodies from the particular proceeds from the Judgment of Impreffions they make on the the Mind. Petronius very per-Eye: For the Rays, that protinently to this purpose, and ceed from all the Parts of an Obelegantly too, fays,

ject, paint all its Parts on the Retina, in the Fibres of which they caufe an Impreffion, in the fame Order in which they receiv'd their Reflection: Info

Fallunt nos oculi, vagique fenfus
Oppreffâ ratione mentiuntur :
Nam turris, prope quæ quadra-much that we know fuch a Body

ta furgit, Attritis procul angulis rotatur.

And Macrobius Saturnal. lib. 7. cap. 14. Hâc (ratione) ceffante vifus inefficax eft: adeo ut quod remus in aqua fractus videtur, vel quod turris eminus vifa, cum fit angulofa, rotunda exiftimatur, faciat rationis negligentia ;

to be Square, becaufe its Image, form'd by the Impreffion of the Rays on the Retina, is Square : For the Rays from all the Points of a fquare Body, are collected by the Humours, and form a quadrangular or fquare Impreffion, The fame may be conceiv'd of all other Figures of Objects,""

And SHADOWS feem to move, to turn, and stay,
As BODIES do; and servilely obey.

Now how can AIR, only depriv'd of Light,
380 (For SHADOW is no more; a fuddain Night)
On all the Members various Motions wait,
And turn, and imitate her BODIES Gate?
But thus it happens; when we walk by Day,
Our BODIES ftop the Paffage of the RAY;
385 But when we leave the Place, they farther flow,
And their warm Kiffes on the Earth bestow:
And thus the SHADOW feems to move, to bend,
As BODIES do, and all their Walk attend:
For ftill new RAYS fpring from the glorious SUN,
390 The former dying when their Race is run:

NOTES.

And

With us approach, retire, arise,
and fall;
Nothing themselves, and yet ex-
preffing all.

389. For ftill, &c.] _This and the following Verse run thus in the Original:

Semper enim nova fe radiorum
lumina fundunt,
Primaque difpereunt, quafi in
ignem lana trahatur.

377. And Shadows, &c.] In thefe 17. v. is contain'd the XIIth Problem.Why the Shadow of our Body, no lefs than the Image of it in the Glafs,feems to walk with us, and imitates our Poftures? The Thing itself is notorious, but the Reafon of it not fo plain. Lucretius fays 'tis this, Becaufe Shade is only Air depriv'd of Light, by fome Denfe Body interpofing between any Place and the Sun, and when this happens that Place is, in fome measure, darken'd, and depriv'd of Light, Our Tranflatour takes no Noand therefore,as that Denfe Body tice of the last Words, quafi in is mov'd, as it bows itfelf down, ignem lana trahatur, and indeed or raifes itfelf up, the Shadow they are varioufly explain'd. The too muft of neceffity vary its Fi-Poet illuftrates, and teaches by gure because several Figures of an Example, in what manner the Air are depriv'd of Light, new Rays are continually flowin as many feveral Manners as ing from the Sun's Orb'; and the Body moves upright, bend-how they fupply the Place of the ing forward, backward, &c. former, that vanish away: viz. Dryden feems to have borrow'd as it were like Wool drawn thro' from this Paffage of Lucretius, a Flame; for then the Wool, that excellent Defcription of Sha- that is firft drawn, would be dows, which we find in a Copy confum'd by the Fire; whilft of Verfes of his to Sir Godfrey other Wool is in the mean time Kneller. drawing through it. Thus Lambinus, on the Authority of feveral Copies reads, and then inapproves of his Interpretation. terprets this Paffage; and Fayus But Scaliger, in his Obfervations

Shadows are but Privations of the
Light;
Yet when we walk, they foot
before our Sight;

on

And therefore Earth is foon depriv'd of Light,
And Rays as foon come on, and chace the Night;
The Negro Darkness wash'd becomes a White.
And yet here's no Deception of the EYE,
395 For 'tis its Office only to descry,

Or how, or in what Place the SHADOW is; It must not pass the narrow Bounds of this: But if the SHADOWS are the fame, or no ; Whether they dy; or, as the BODY, go; 400 'Tis not the Office of the EYE to know: 'Tis REASON'S Office that: for that's defign'd Things NATURE, and PHILOSOPHY to find: Then fix not on the EYE the FAILURES of the MIND.

NOTES.

Thus

properly enough that perpetual Deftruction of the Rays of the Sun. Nardius for in ignem reads margine, and others, imagine, erroneoufly, and without Reafon.

393.The Negro Darkness, &c.] Nigras umbras, the black Shadows. A Shadow feems black, becaufe, as I faid before, it is nothing but Air depriv'd of Light, or a Privation of Light: but Light is white and clear; therefore Shadow is black and dark.

on Catullus, corrects this Lectioning of the Poet, and expreffes and reads carmine for in ignem : quafi carmine lana trahatur; taking carmen for the Inftrument us'd in the Wool-Manufacture, and which is likewife call'd pecten, in English, a Card. From whence carminare fignifies the fame as pectinare. Varro de ling. Latin. Carminari lana tum dicitur, cùm caret eo, quod in eâ hæret. And Pliny, lib. 9. cap. 38. & lib. 19. cap. 1. ufes the fame Word. In which Senfe we may interpret the Meaning of Lucretius in this manner: That new Beams flow from the Sun as faft as the first vanish, as from a Heap of Wool new Threads are drawn in the Card, fo that when the first are drawn and taken away, new ones may ftill be drawing in the fame Card: But this Interpretation feems not fo

natural as the former. Faber retains the firft Reading, and obferves it to be a Greek Proverb, Solver es aus, and that it is us'd by Plato and Lucian, when they fpeak of a useless Piece of Work, and that can never be ended. Dicitur de re inutili, avarura, & quæ abfolvi non poffit. Creech in his Latine Edition adheres to this Interpretation; and fays, it agrees very well with the Mean

finish'd his Difputation concern 394. And yet, &c.] Having ing Sight and Vision, he takes occafion, from the two laft Problems, to affert and defend the Certainty of the Senfes, which not thofe Problems only, but feveral others that he enumerates as Examples, to v. 489. feem to weaken and contradict. Now he infifts that the Senfes are infallible, because they receive the Images of Things, just as they are brought to them: They underftand not the Nature of Things, nor do they judge or determine any thing concerning it. Therefore there is no Fallacy in them, but all Errours proceed from the Judgment of the Mind

For

Example; tho' we

may

Thus SHIPS, tho' driv'n by a profperous Gale, 405 Seem fixt to Sailors; thofe feem under Sail, That lie at Anchor fafe: and all admire,

As they row by, to see the Rocks retire.

Thus STARS feem faften'd to the steady POLE,
Tho' all with daily conftant Motion roll;

410 Yet they, when they have climb'd the tedious EAST,
Pass thro' the Sky, and headlong fall to WEST:
And fo the Sun and Moon feem fixt above,
Yet fure Experience tells us that they move.

NOTES.