Nature herself seemed to afford me corroboration of these ideas. In
the contemplation of the heavenly bodies it struck me forcibly that
I could not distinguish a star with nearly as much precision, when I
gazed on it with earnest, direct and undeviating attention, as when
I suffered my eye only to glance in its vicinity alone. I was not,
of course, at that time aware that this apparent paradox was
occasioned by the center of the visual area being less susceptible
of feeble impressions of light than the exterior portions of the
retina. This knowledge, and some of another kind, came afterwards in
the course of an eventful five years, during which I have dropped
the prejudices of my former humble situation in life, and forgotten
the bellows-mender in far different occupations. But at the epoch of
which I speak, the analogy which a casual observation of a star
offered to the conclusions I had already drawn, struck me with the
force of positive conformation, and I then finally made up my mind
to the course which I afterwards pursued.
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