ast compared with himself. Just as all objects therein
are situated at separate distinct points of space, so to our vision
the objects of that scene are acting or existing in different epochs
of time. An Artist gives us on a flat surface a picture of that
landscape, and his representations of all objects in that scene
appear therefore to us as being in the same moment of Time, but to get
that effect he has to draw objects at a distance smaller than those
close at hand; a fly in the foreground has to be drawn larger than a
horse supposed to be in the distance, though both are on the same flat
surface; they have the same parallax and are therefore the same
distance from the observer, and as this produces a similar image on
our retina, we accept it though we know it is only a make-believe; it
serves its purpose by giving us an impression on our retina which we
have learnt to interpret as representing that landscape, but such a
picture would indeed be a marvel of absurdity to a being who had
perfect sight, such as we have already referred to, and who could
appreciate parallel rays; in such a vision there would be no
perspective, no vanishing point in perception.

Now let us take a wider landscape. The Moon is 240,000 miles distant.
We do not, therefore, ever see her as she is but as she was 1-1/4
seconds ago. In the same way we see the Sun as he was eight minutes
ago, and we see Jupiter as he was nearly an hour ago. Let us look
still further to one of the nearest fixed stars. We at this moment
only see that star as it was more than ten years ago; that star may
therefore have exploded or disappeared ten long years ago, and yet we
still see it shining, and shall continue to see it _there_ until the
long line of light has run itself out; all around us, in fact, we see
the appearance of blazing suns not as they are now but as they were
thousands of years ago, and, by the aid of the telescope and of our
sensitive plate, we are only now recording the light which started
from clusters and firmaments probably millions of years ago.

Now let us take the converse of this. To anybody on the moon at this
moment the earth would be seen from there not as it is, but as it was
1-1/4 seconds ago, and from the sun as it was eight minutes ago, and
if we were in Jupiter, and were looking back, we should, at this
particular moment, be viewing what was happening on this earth, and
seeing what each of us was doing an hour ago. Now let us go in