Page 95 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

94 THIRD BOOK OF
judgment rmed by means of a single sense is not
always to be depended upon.
JAMEs.-But that has nothing to do with the lse judgment which we are said to rm about the num­ ber of stars.
TuToR.-·Yon are right; it does not immediately concern the subject be re us, but t may be use l as a ording a lesson of modesty, by instructing us that we ought not to clos our minds against new evidence that may be o ered on any topic, notwith­ standing the opinions we may have already rmed. You say, you see millions of stars; whereas, the ablest astronomers assert, that wi the naked eye you cannot at one time see so many as a thousand.
CnARLEs.-I should, indeed, have thought with my brother, had you not asserted the contra ; and I am anxious to know how the deception happens, r I am sure there must be a great deception some­ where, if I do not at this time behold very many · thousands of stars in the heavens.
TuTOR.-You know that we see objects on]y by rays of light which proceed from them in every di­ rection. And you must, r the present, give me credit when I tell you, that the distance of the xed stars om us is immensely great, consequently the rays of light have to travel this distance, in the ' course of which, especially in t eir passage through our atmosphere, they are subject to numbe ess re-
ections* and r ractions. By means of these, other . rays of light come to the eye, every one of which, i perhaps, impresses upon the mind the idea of so 1
* To r ect, is to revert or bend back; and to r ract, is to break back, or to break the continuity of a line; as a ray, &c.