Note 45 — CHAP. VIII. Of Light. It’s proportional quantities on the different Planets. It’s Refractions in Water and Air. The Atmosphere; it’s weight and properties. The Horizontal Moon.

The fields which are beyond the gate rise gradually till they are just seen over it; and the arms, being red, are often mistaken for a house at a considerable distance in those fields.

I once met with a curious deception in a gentleman’s garden at Hackney, occasioned by a large pane of glass in the garden-wall at some distance from his house. The glass (through which the fields and sky were distinctly seen) reflected a very faint image of the house; but the image seemed to be in the Clouds near the Horizon, and at that distance looked as if it were a huge castle in the Air. Yet, the Angle under which the image appeared, was equal to that under which the house was seen: but the image being mentally referred a much greater distance than the house, appeared much bigger to the imagination.