Page:The wonders of optics (1869).djvu/46

 attention is attracted by a particular portion of a landscape, we see only that, and nothing else. If it is fixed on some subject that we are contemplating inwardly, we see nothing at all, although our eyes may not only be wide open, but absolutely fixed on some particular object. For instance, suppose a sportsman is out in the fields preceded by his dogs, Bran and Ponto. If he follows the movements of Bran with attention, he becomes the only object animate or inanimate, that depicts itself on his retina. Ponto may jump and caper in vain: he is lost to his master's eye as much as if he were not there at all; his mind is entirely fixed on the beauty of Bran's coat, on the fit of his collar, or fifty other things, and he sees nothing else. But let the sportsman begin to think of the number of birds he shot yesterday, or how he will find time to get up to the grouse in Scotland, or of that fine stag he missed when he was last amongst the heather, and dogs, cover, and landscape will fade from his sight as effectually as if he had been struck with blindness. Let him, however, strike his foot against a stump, or let the dogs suddenly begin to point, and he instantly receives back his sight, which but a few moments before he had lost to all intents and purposes.

The phenomena of ocular spectra and complementary colours experienced by every one forms a curious chapter in the history of those illusions which take their origin in the eye itself. Every one has noticed that after looking fixedly at a bright light or a striking colour for a few moments, the eye preserves an impression of the object for a certain time. A very light window looked at intently for several seconds will leave the impression of its cross-bars on the retina for several minutes, the colour of the image changing at every movement of the eye. The same effect may be observed