Part II: Glass, lenses and the transcendence of the natural limits of human vision

The printing press made mankind aware of farsightedness, but the glass lens led to the microscope and telescope unlocking the human cell and the secrets of the stars and planets.

“The whole conduct of our life depends on our senses, among which vision being the noblest and most universal, there can be no doubt that inventions serving to increase its power are the most useful there can possibly be...to the shame of sciences this invention [the telescope], so useful and so admirable, was found first only by experiment and chance’ [