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"In walking the streets, how many persons of one's acquaintance are every minute presented to the mind, as their pictures are painted on the retina; yet if we be alone, having our thoughts strongly turned upon a particular subject, or else be deeply engaged in conversation with a friend, we are often not conscious of the presence of these people when before our eyes, nor remember their having been so, when they have left us."

— Whytt, Robert (1714-1766)

Author

Whytt, Robert (1714-1766)

Work Title

An Essay on the Vital and Other Involuntary Motions of Animals

Place of Publication

Edinburgh

Publisher

Printed by Hamilton, Balfour, and Neill

Date

1751

Metaphor

"In walking the streets, how many persons of one's acquaintance are every minute presented to the mind, as their pictures are painted on the retina; yet if we be alone, having our thoughts strongly turned upon a particular subject, or else be deeply engaged in conversation with a friend, we are often not conscious of the presence of these people when before our eyes, nor remember their having been so, when they have left us."

Metaphor in Context

We all know, that such ideas as but slightly affect us, and soon give place to succeeding ones, are quickly forgot; nay, that impressions, which are very faint in themselves, or lost amidst far stronger ones, are frequently neither attended with consciousness when present, nor remembered when past. In walking the streets, how many persons of one's acquaintance are every minute presented to the mind, as their pictures are painted on the retina; yet if we be alone, having our thoughts strongly turned upon a particular subject, or else be deeply engaged in conversation with a friend, we are often not conscious of the presence of these people when before our eyes, nor remember their having been so, when they have left us.--If we turn our eyes towards the azure sky at noonday, we cannot, by the utmost attention, observe any of the stars; and yet it is certain, that, at that time, there are images of every star in the visible hemisphere formed upon the bottom of our eyes: for the stellar light must run through the fame torrent of fun-beams to reach us in the night as in the day, allowance being only made for the inconsiderable depth of the earth's atmosphere.
(Sect XI, pp. 292-4)