When regarding any object continuously and attentively, people with normal vision keep their eyes and attention shifting unconsciously in a series of almost imperceptibly small movements from point to point. People with defective vision, on the contrary, greatly reduce the number of such movements and tend to stare. It is therefore necessary for them to build up consciously the habit of small-scale shifting which they acquired unconsciously during childhood and subsequently lost.
Analytical Looking
The best way to do this is to learn to “look analytically” at any object you wish to consider with close attention. Do not stare; stop trying to see all parts of the object equally clearly at the same time. Instead, deliberately tell yourself to see it piece-meal, sensing and perceiving, one at a time, all the more significant parts of which it is composed.
For example, when looking at a house, note the number of windows, chimneys and doors. Follow with your eyes the outline of its silhouette against the sky. Let your glance run horizontally along the line of the eaves, and vertically up and down the wall spaces between the windows. And so on.
This kind of analytical looking is recommended in all systems designed to improve the powers of memory and concentration. It enables the looker to form clear mental concepts of what he has seen. Instead of staring and vaguely recording an image, to which he gives the name of “house,” the person who does his looking analytically will be able to tell you a number of interesting and significant facts about that house—that it has, let us say, four windows and a front door on the ground floor and five windows above, one chimney at either end, and a tiled roof. This detailed knowledge of the house, which is the result of analytical looking, will tend to improve the vision of the same object when regarded on subsequent occasions.
For we see most clearly things which are familiar; and an increase in our conceptual knowledge of an object always tends to facilitate the sensing of that object in the future. Thus we see that analytical looking not merely improves vision there and then, by compelling the eyes and mind to shift continuously from point to point; it also helps to improve vision at all later dates, by increasing our conceptual knowledge of the object regarded, and so making it seem more familiar and therefore easier to sense and perceive.
The process of analytical looking can be profitably applied even to such extremely familiar objects as letters, numerals, advertising slogans and the faces of one’s relatives and friends. However well we may think we know such things, we shall almost certainly find, if we take to looking at them analytically, that we can get to know them a good deal better. When you look at letters or numerals, run the eyes over their outlines; observe the shapes of the pieces of background in contact with them, or included within them; count the number of corners on a block capital letter or large numeral. If you do this, the eyes and attention will be forced to do a great deal of small-scale shifting, which will improve the vision; and at the same time you will learn a great many hitherto unrecognized facts, the knowledge of which will help you to do a better and more rapid job of sensing on future occasions.
Persons with defective sight tend to do some of their intensest and most rigid staring, when conversing with their fellow humans. Faces are very important to us, since it is by observing their changes of expression that we acquire much of our most valuable information about the thoughts, feelings and dispositions of those with whom we come in contact. To obtain this information, people with defective vision make the most strenuous efforts to see the faces of those who surround them. In other words, they stare harder than usual. The result is discomfort and embarrassment for the persons stared at, and poorer vision for the starer.
The remedy is analytical looking. Do not stare at faces, in the vain hope of seeing every part of them as clearly as every other part. Instead, shift the regard rapidly over the face you are looking at—from eye to eye, from ear to ear, from mouth to forehead. You will see the details of the face and its expression more clearly; and at the same time, to the person you are looking at, you will not seem to be staring—merely looking in a relaxed and easy way, with eyes to which your rapid, small-scale shifting imparts the brilliancy and sparkle of mobility.
Habits of continuous and small-scale shifting should be deliberately cultivated on all occasions, during the day’s activities, when there is need for prolonged and concentrated seeing, either at the near or the far point. There are also certain drills, which it is well to practise during periods specially set aside for the purpose.
Teachers of the art of seeing have devised a considerable number of shifting drills, all of them effective if properly practised. In this place I shall mention only one—a particularly good example of its kind—developed by Mrs. Margaret D. Corbett, and described in her book, How to Improve Your Eyes.
The only piece of material needed for the practice of this drill is a sheet from one of those large, tear-off calendars, in which the current month is printed in large type across the upper part of the page, while the previous and succeeding months appear below in much smaller type. Inasmuch as it offers type of different sizes, such a sheet possesses most of the advantages of the graduated Snellen Chart, used by oculists for testing vision. Inasmuch as a row of consecutive numbers presents no mental hazards, it possesses none of the Snellen Chart’s disadvantages—unfamiliarity and the intent to confuse and deceive, almost always present in the minds of those who design such devices for testing vision. Since our aim is not to test, but to improve sight, we shall do well to make use of the most familiar, and therefore the most visible and confidence-creating objects upon which to exercise.
A calendar fulfils these conditions perfectly, and possesses the further merit of not having the unpleasant associations of the Snellen Chart. Most children and many adults dislike having their eyes examined and become so nervous, when tested, that they see much worse than at ordinary times. Consequently, the Snellen Chart is apt to be surrounded, for them, by a kind of aura of disagreeableness, which makes it one of the least visible of objects. That is why Snellen Charts should be used for visual self-education only by those to whom they are emotionally neutral, and only when the user is completely familiar with every line of graduated type, from the big two-hundred-foot letter at the top to the tiny ten-foot letters at the bottom of the card.
If these conditions are not fulfilled, the Snellen Chart may easily prove a source of anxiety and strain. A good teacher will note his pupil’s tendency towards strain and take steps to prevent it from coming to a head. Consequently, it is always safe for a good teacher to make use of the Snellen Chart as an instrument of visual training. The self-instructed will do better to start, at any rate, with other training material.
The Calendar Drill
In working with the calendar, we begin by loosening up the staring mind and eyes by means of a procedure very similar to that employed in one of the domino drills. Hang the calendar on a wall, at a level with your eyes when you are seated. See that the sheet is well illuminated, either by direct or reflected sunlight, or (if the sun is not shining) by ordinary daylight or a strong lamp. Draw up a chair, and sit down in front of it, at a point from which the larger print can be seen without difficulty. Palm the eyes for a little, then set to work in the following way.
Turn the head to the left, as though you were glancing over your shoulder; then swing it back, gently and not too fast, until the eyes rest on the figure “one” of the large-type calendar. Take note of the figure, then close the eyes and breathe deeply and easily, swinging your head a little as you do so, in order to keep the rhythm of your movement unbroken. After a few seconds turn to look over the right shoulder, re-open the eyes and swing them back until they rest on the figure “two.” Close again as before, turn to the left and swing back to the “three.” And so on.
When swinging down the line towards the selected figure, always let the regard travel in the white space immediately below the print. A blank surface, such as the background to printed words or numerals, presents no difficulties to the interpreting mind and cannot, therefore, be a source of strain. Consequently, when the regard is made to move along the white space immediately under the line of type, the mind reaches its objective in a state of relaxation—with the result that the attention and the eyes can do their work of rapid, small-scale shifting and central fixation under the best possible conditions.
After going through the whole month, or as much of it
