The perception of the object depends on the direction of the eye.
Supposing that the ball figured above is the ball of the eye and let
the small portion of the ball which is cut off by the line _s t_ be
the pupil and all the objects mirrored on the centre of the face of
the eye, by means of the pupil, pass on at once and enter the pupil,
passing through the crystalline humour, which does not interfere in
the pupil with the things seen by means of the light. And the pupil
having received the objects, by means of the light, immediately
refers them and transmits them to the intellect by the line _a b_.
And you must know that the pupil transmits nothing perfectly to the
intellect or common sense excepting when the objects presented to it
by means of light, reach it by the line _a b;_ as, for instance, by
the line _b c_. For although the lines _m n_ and _f g_ may be seen
by the pupil they are not perfectly taken in, because they do not
coincide with the line _a b_. And the proof is this: If the eye,
shown above, wants to count the letters placed in front, the eye
will be obliged to turn from letter to letter, because it cannot
discern them unless they lie in the line _a b;_ as, for instance, in
the line _a c_. All visible objects reach the eye by the lines of a
pyramid, and the point of the pyramid is the apex and centre of it,
in the centre of the pupil, as figured above.
[Footnote: 51. In this problem the eye is conceived of as fixed and
immovable; this is plain from line 11.]
Experimental proof of the existence of the pyramid of sight (52-55).
52.
Perspective is a rational demonstration, confirmed by experience,
that all objects transmit their image to the eye by a pyramid of
lines.
By a pyramid of lines I understand those lines which start from the
edges of the surface of bodies, and converging from a distance, meet
in a single point; and this point, in the present instance, I will
show to be situated in the eye which is the universal judge of all
objects. By a point I mean that which cannot be divided into parts;
therefore this point, which is situated in the eye, being
indivisible, no body is seen by the eye, that is not larger than
this point. This being the case it is inevitable that the lines
which come from the object to the point must form a pyramid. And if
any man seeks to prove that the sense of sight does not reside in
this point, but rather in the black spot which is visible in the
middle of the pupil, I might reply to him that a small object could
never diminish at any distance, as it might be a grain of millet or
of oats or of some similar thing, and that object, if it were larger
than the said [black] spot would never be seen as a whole; as may be
seen in the diagram below. Let _a_. be the seat of sight, _b e_ the
lines which reach the eye. Let _e d_ be the grains of millet within
these lines. You plainly see that these will never diminish by
distance, and that the body _m n_ could not be entirely covered by
it. Therefore you must confess that the eye contains within itself
one single indivisible point _a_, to which all the points converge
of the pyramid of lines starting from an object, as is shown below.
Let _a_. _b_. be the eye; in the centre of it is the point above
mentioned. If the line _e f_ is to enter as an image into so small
an opening in the eye, you must confess that the smaller object
cannot enter into what is smaller than itself unless it is
diminished, and by diminishing it must take the form of a pyramid.
53.