utter standing open projects far enough forward to
catch a gleam of sunshine. The weather is hot and dusty, and they have
just been watering the road, which has produced two broad bands of shade
upon it, which unite in the foreground, because, the road being partially
under repair (as is seen from the two wheelbarrows, &c. &c.), the watering
machines have been compelled to cross to the other side.

By the roadside a row of _cittadines_ and cabriolets are waiting, and a
single carriage stands in the distance a long way to the right.

A whole forest of chimneys borders the horizon: for, the instrument
chronicles whatever it sees, and certainly would delineate a chimney-pot
or a chimney-sweeper with the same impartiality as it would the Apollo of
Belvedere.

The view is taken from a considerable height, as appears easily by
observing the house on the right hand; the eye being necessarily on a
level with that part of the building on which the horizontal lines or
courses of stone appear parallel to the margin of the picture.

[PLATE III. ARTICLES OF CHINA.]

PLATE III. ARTICLES OF CHINA.

PLATE III. ARTICLES OF CHINA.

From the specimen here given it is sufficiently manifest, that the whole
cabinet of a Virtuoso and collector of old China might be depicted on
paper in little more time than it would take him to make a written
inventory describing it in the usual way. The more strange and fantastic
the forms of his old teapots, the more advantage in having their pictures
given instead of their descriptions.

And should a thief afterwards purloin the treasures--if the mute testimony
of the picture were to be produced against him in court--it would certainly
be evidence of a novel kind; but what the judge and jury might say to it,
is a matter which I leave to the speculation of those who possess legal
acumen.

The articles represented on this plate are numerous: but, however numerous
the objects--however complicated the arrangement--the Camera depicts them
all at once. It may be said to make a picture of whatever _it sees._ The
object glass is the _eye_ of the instrument--the sensitive paper may be
compared to the _retina._ And, the eye should not have too large a
_pupil:_ that is to say, the glass should be diminished by placing a
screen or diaphragm before it, having a small circular hole, through which
alone the rays of light may pass. When the eye of the in