The vanity of dogmatizing: or confidence in opinions

The Preface.

wide as those it forms by the help
of a Tube a telescope; yet I think my Hypothe-
sis may stand unshaken. For sup-
pose two Eyes of an equal and like
figure, in the same distance from an
object; so that it forms equal angles
in both: It may come to pass by
other reasons, that one of these Eyes
shall see this object bigger than the
other: yea, if the difference of the
reasons on both sides be so much
greater, one Eye shall see it clearly,
and the other not at all: For let one
of these eyes be placed in an old bo-
dy, or in a body deprived quite, or
in a great measure of those spirits animal spirits, believed to be the subtle fluids that carried sensory data through the nerves
which are allowed the Instruments
of sight, or of the due egress and re-
gress of them, in their natural cour-
ses and channels; and let the other
have a body of a clean contrary
quality;

quality; or let the soul that actuates
one of the said eyes, be endued with
an higher faculty of Animadversi-
on (I mean with a greater degree
of the Animadversive ability) than
the soul hath, that actuates the o-
ther. In either of these cases, the
forementioned deformity of vision,
will fall out in the same uniform
case of Dioptrical advantages. For
a little angle made in the Eye,
will make as discernible an im-
pression to a Soul of a greater A-
nimadversive power, and assisted
by more and meeter instruments
of sight; as a greater angle can
make to a soul of a less power,
and destitute of those other Instru-
ments, which are as necessary to
sight as those Dioptrical conveni-
encies. So that grant that the ob-