99. Farther, when he has by experience learned the connexion there is
between the several ideas of sight and touch, he will be able, by the
perception he has of the situation of visible things in respect of one
another, to make a sudden and true estimate of the situation of outward,
tangible things corresponding to them. And thus it is he shall perceive
by sight the situation of external objects which do not properly fall
under that sense.
100. I know we are very prone to think that, if just made to see, we
should judge of the situation of visible things as we do now: but we are
also as prone to think that, at first sight, we should in the same way
apprehend the distance and magnitude of objects as we do now: which hath
been shown to be a false and groundless persuasion. And for the like
reasons the same censure may be passed on the positive assurance that
most men, before they have thought sufficiently of the matter, might have
of their being able to determine by the eye at first view, whether
objects were erect or inverse.
101. It will, perhaps, be objected co our opinion that a man, for
instance, being thought erect when his feet are next the earth, and
inverted when his head is next the earth, it doth hence follow that by
the mere act of vision, without any experience or altering the situation
of the eye, we should have determined whether he were erect or inverted:
for both the earth itself, and the limbs of the man who stands thereon,
being equally perceived by sight, one cannot choose seeing what part of
the man is nearest the earth, and what part farthest from it, i.
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