Editorial note — Chapter XI · The Special Senses.

Note. “The higher intelligence of man is intimately associated with the perfection of the eye. Crystalline in its transparency, sensitive in receptivity, delicate in its adjustments, quick in its motions, the eye is a fitting servant for the eager soul, and, at times, the truest interpreter between man and man of the spirit’s inmost workings. The rainbow’s vivid hues and the pallor of the lily, the fair creations of art and the glance of mutual affection, all are pictured in its translucent depths, and transformed and glorified by the mind within. Banish vision, and the material universe shrinks for us to that which we may touch; sight alone sets us free to pierce the limitless abyss of space.”—M’Kendrick and Snodgrass’s Physiology of the Senses.