*74 0F THE DISTANCES and magnitudes

LETTER XVII.

Of the Distances and Magnitudes of the Sun*Moon, and Planets.

I T was a question, put by Mr. Molineaux toMr. Locke, whether a blind man, who hadbeen taught to distinguish a globe from a cubeby the touch, would be able, if he could bemade to fee, to tell which was the globe andwhich the cube, by the use of his sight only.This question he answered in the negative j and,in his celebrated Essay on the Human Under-standing, has Ihewn that a person, so circum-stanced, could have no dependence whateverupon his newly acquired fense, but would findhimself totally unqualified to judge either of thesituation and distance of objects, or of theirmagnitude and figure.

A young man, who had been born blind, hadthe use of his eyes given to him by Mr. Chifel-den, an eminent surgeon of that time, and allthe ideas of the youth, on whom this singularoperation was performed, were in favour ofMr. Locke’s opinions. At the age of aboutfourteen years, he saw the light for the firsttime in his life; and was so perplexed and em-barrassed with every thing about him, that he

scarcely