The vanity of dogmatizing: or confidence in opinions (1661) - Page 13

The Preface.

of the plain the literal or non-allegorical interpretation: and it will be thought
somewhat hard, to verify my Hypo-
thesis of the literal Adam. Indeed,
there is difficulty in the Mechanical
Defense; and Dioptrical referring to the study of light refraction through lenses or the eye impugnati-
ons attacks or challenges are somewhat formidable. For
unless the constitution of Adam's
Organs was diverse from ours, and
from those of his fallen self, it will
to some seem impossible, that he
should command distant objects
by natural, as we do by artificial ad-
vantages. Since those removed bo-
dies of Sun and Stars (in which I
instance) could form but minute
angles in Adam's Retina the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye, and such as
were vastly different from those they
form in ours assisted by a Telescope.
So that granting Adam's eye had no
greater Diametrical wideness of the
pupil, no greater distance from the

The Preface.

Cornea the transparent front part of the eye to the Retiformis the retina, so called for its net-like appearance, and no
more filaments of the Optic nerves
of which the tunica Retina the retinal coating is wo-
ven, than we: the unmeasurable
odds of Sensitive perfections which
I assign him; will be conceived me-
chanically impossible. These difficul-
ties may seem irresistibly pressing,
and incapable of a satisfactory so-
lution.
But I propound it to the conside-
ration of the Ingenious Objectors,
whether these supposed Organical
defects might not have been sup-
plied in our unfallen Protoplast the first-created person; Adam by the
vast perfections of his Animadver-
sive the soul’s power of perception and attention, and some other advantageous
circumstances: So that though it be
granted, that an object at the di-
stance of the Stars could not form
in the eye of Adam any angles, as