“ So long as a man’s eyes are open in the light, the act of seeing is involuntary ”
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851). copy citation
| Author | Herman Melville |
|---|---|
| Source | Moby-Dick |
| Topic | light eyes |
| Date | 1851 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2701/2701-h/2701-h.htm |
Context
“and to be remembered by the reader in some subsequent scenes.
A curious and most puzzling question might be started concerning this visual matter as touching the Leviathan. But I must be content with a hint. So long as a man’s eyes are open in the light, the act of seeing is involuntary; that is, he cannot then help mechanically seeing whatever objects are before him. Nevertheless, any one’s experience will teach him, that though he can take in an undiscriminating sweep of things at one glance, it is quite impossible for him, attentively, and completely, to examine any two things—however large or however small—at one and the same instant of time;”
source
