^ f. UBBARV - JScholarship - Johns Hopkins University

VISION 25
the air intervening between us and the object interferes with
our obtaining a correct Impression or image of this, as is
evidenced by the blurred look of distant things. Democritus
first laid down the distinction of the qualities of body ^ into
the so-called primary and secondary qualities, to which,
however, he did not himself remain always consistent. As "*"
Theophrastus {de Sens. § 80; see p. 35 infra) points out, we
cannot quite follow his doctrine of the formation of colours
unless we assume a i^va-is xpäfiaros—an objective existence
of colour. He held that vision is the result of the image of
the object mirrored in the eye. But when we ask—what
exactly is mirrored ? the answer for him is not easy ; since
between object and eye come what he called beUfXa
(generally spoken of by Aristotle and Theophrastus as
€iboo\a), things which in the case of this sense are also
referred to as airoppoiai Trjs iJ.op(j)fjs. These beUeXa, not the
object, are therefore the immediate and proper data of sense.
§ 13. Democritus regarded the pupiiiar image as the Aristotle's
essential factor of vision. ' Democritus,' says Aristotle ^, '="^