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FIRST CLASS OP OBJECTS FOR THE SUBJECT. 83
lens and cornea ; but if we increase the refraction by
substituting the convexity of the magnifying glass for
that of the lens and cornea, we then obtain a clear image
of objects even when they are as near as half an inch from
our eyes. Objects thus seen in close proximity to us and
in the size corresponding to that proximity, are transferred
by our Understanding to the distance at which we naturally
see distinctly, i.e. to about eight or ten inches from our
eyes, and we then estimate their magnitude according to
this distance and to the given visual angle.
I have entered thus fully into detail concerning all the
different processes by which seeing is accomplished, in
order to show clearly and irrefragably that the predomi
nant factor in them is the Understanding, which, by con
ceiving each change as an effect and referring that effect to
its cause, produces the cerebral phenomenon of the objec
tive world on the basis of the a priori fundamental intui
tions of Space and Time, for which it receives merely a
few data from the senses. And moreover the Understand
ing effects this exclusively by means of its own peculiar
form, the law of Causality; therefore quite directly and
intuitively, without any assistance whatever from reflec
tion that is, from abstract knowledge by means of concep
tions and of language, which are the materials of secondary
knowledge, i.e. of thought, therefore of Reason.
That this knowledge through the Understanding is in
dependent of Reason s assistance, is shown even by the
fact, that when, at any time, the Understanding attributes
a given effect to a wrong cause, actually perceiving that
cause, whereby illusion arises, our Reason, however clearly
it may recognise in abstracto the true state of the matter,
is nevertheless unable to assist the Understanding, and
the illusion persists undisturbed in spite of that better
knowledge. The above-mentioned phenomena of seeing
and feeling double, which result from an abnormal position