147. Upon the whole, I think we may fairly conclude that the proper
objects of vision constitute an universal language of the Author of
Nature, whereby we are instructed how to regulate our actions in order to
attain those things that are necessary to the preservation and well-being
of our bodies, as also to avoid whatever may be hurtful and destructive
of them. It is by their information that we are principally guided in all
the transactions and concerns of life. And the manner wherein they
signify and mark unto us the objects which are at a distance is the same
with that of languages and signs of human appointment, which do not
suggest the things signified by any likeness or identity of nature, but
only by an habitual connexion that experience has made us to observe
between them.
148. Suppose one who had always continued blind be told by his guide that
after he has advanced so many steps he shall come to the brink of a
precipice, or be stopped by a wall; must not this to him seem very
admirable and surprizing? He cannot conceive how it is possible for
mortals to frame such predictions as these, which to him would seem as
strange and unaccountable as prophesy doth to others. Even they who are
blessed with the visive faculty may (though familiarity make it less
observed) find therein sufficient cause of admiration.
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