The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-21
We See and Yet Do Not.
THAT IS, WE DO NOT SEE THINGS AS NATURE
INTENDED.

The eyeseGodz gives us are very de-
fective affairs. Perhaps that sounds a
trif1e sacrilegiOus and the safer way
to touch the subject will be from the
standpoint of science, by saying that
tie evolution and specialization of the
sight function has been a marvellous
one, for from the rudimentary eyes of
some of our lower forms of life to the
wonderfully developed cerebrated Wis
ion Of civilized man the chasm bridged
by nature has been as astounding as
the most miraculous miracle, says the
New York Herald
All, these miracle made eyes! There
are other phases besides the cold, hard
science. Think of the laughing, JOY
Gus. scintillating black ones; the soft
and happy brown eyes; the pathetic,
lOvelit blue ones; the firm gray eye
and heavens own gift (science be
hangedD the violet, all Of which have
from the dawn of creation robbed the
breast of its palpitating heart
But, alas! no longer content. deter
mined truth has discovered that all of
these Jewels of the mind are filed
with Physiological defects, and that for
all their beauty and winning ways
they may see crooked as a rams horn.
We are not given half a chance in
this rushing, scurrying diffusion Of
knowledge era to be satisfied with our
selves, for no sooner does the oculist,
with deviIish cOntrivances. burn and
blind and sere, and finally bolster up
the faulty vision with goggles cylin-
dr1cal, cOncave, convex and a host of
other YeXes, than the erudite physiolo-
gist steps in and assures the human
race that 1t never could see a little
bit, and explains, with that miserable
precision which leaves you with no
hole to escape, that the phenomenon of
vision and correct seeing is dependent
upon the systematic training of several
Of our other senses.
1t is hard luck, but we really do not
know thing when we see it, all from
lack of experience and proper co-ordi-
nation. The eye pictures to the mind
a lot of facts-that is, the ideal eve
does; it images an object. and you
know its shape, it's color, it's texture,
It's distance, it's size, and perhaps you
know it's feel and it's taste. These
facts are only to be obtained by di-
rect experiment and the building up in
the brain Of a wide range of correlative
sense memories.
VAGARIES OF THE SENSES.
Very few people know more than the
merest fraction Of the possible stories
which might be told them through
the eye, simply because they have not
been trained to see accurately. Not
one person in a hundred can tell close
ly small differences III a number Of
shades OF color, and when q series Of
colors are placed side by side, and then
again rearranged in other order, they
will insist on calling the same color
by another name.
A woman seldom knows distance
location or time well, yet she will go
into one of our modern gigantic, honey
combed stores and name all the coun-
tiers in the establishment for you, and
then put her out Of the entrance to d
side street and she will walk around
the block to determine in which dlrec-
ton her home lies.
Distance and time are an unopened
book (all se1f-made business women
are excepted) to her. Miles are only
words and moment depends for it's