From JAMES FENTON
In his review of Arthur Zajonc’s book Catching the Light (Review, 12 June),
Ben Bova states that it was not until AD 974 that the misconception that
light emanated from the eyes was put right.
However, the Roman author Lucretius writing in 55 BC understood perfectly
that light emanates from luminescent sources, stating: ‘. . . the light and
heat of the sun; these are composed of minute atoms which, when they are
shoved off, lose no time in shooting right across the interspace of air in
the direction imparted by the shove.’
Lucretius also says: ‘When the pupil of the eye is said to perceive the
colour white, it experiences a particular kind of impact. When it perceives
black, or some other colour, the impact is different,’ and ‘Nature ordains
that every particle shall rebound from the reflecting surface (of a mirror)
at an angle corresponding to its incidence.’
These quotes are from On the Nature of the Universe, which was an attempt
to popularise the science (atomic theory) and philosophy of Epicurus (3rd
century BC) by writing it in poetry.
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James Fenton
Inchture
Perthshire
