ight cannot be carried
from the brain to the eye.

Q. Why is the eye clear and smooth like glass? A. 1. Because the things
which may be seen are better beaten back from a smooth thing than
otherwise, that thereby the sight should strengthen. 2. Because the eye
is moist above all parts of the body, and of a waterish nature; and as
the water is clear and smooth, so likewise is the eye.

Q. Why do men and beasts who have their eyes deep in their head best see
far off? A. Because the force and power by which we see is dispersed in
them, and both go directly to the thing which is seen. Thus, when a man
doth stand in a deep ditch or well, he doth see in the daytime the stars
of the firmament; because then the power of the night and of the beams
are not scattered.

Q. Wherefore do those men who have eyes far out in their head not see
far distant? A. Because the beams of the sight which pass from the eye,
are scattered on every side, and go not directly unto the thing that is
seen, and therefore the sight is weakened.

Q. Why are so many beasts born blind, as lions' whelps and dogs' whelps.
A. Because such beasts are not yet of perfect ripeness and maturity, and
the course of nutriment doth not work in them. Thus the swallow, whose
eyes, if they were taken out when they are young in their nest, would
grow in again. And this is the case in many beasts who are brought forth
before their time as it were dead, as bear's whelps.

Q. Why do the eyes of a woman that hath her flowers, stain new glass?
And why doth a basilisk kill a man with his sight? A. When the flowers
do run from a woman, then a most venomous air is distilled from them,
which doth ascend into a woman's head; and she, having pain in her head,
doth wrap it up with a cloth or handkerchief; and because the eyes are
full of insensible holes, which are called pores, there the air seeketh
a passage, and infects the eyes, which are full of blood. The eyes also
appear dropping and full of tears, by reason of the evil vapour that is
in them; and these vapours are incorporated and multiplied till they
come to the glass before them; and by reason that such a glass is round,
clear and smooth, it doth easily receive that which is unclean. 2. The
basilisk is a very venomous and infectious animal, and there pass from
his eyes vapours which are multiplied upon the thing which is seen by
him, and even unto the eye of man; the which venomous vapours or humours
entering into the b