Arranged as a series of lectures, each opening with a list of items the reader should have at hand while reading, these pieces explain an idea both by discussion and by experimentation using those items; and they range well beyond the title, touching on astronomy, longitude, mosaic art, ancient history, colour science, etc., where they butt up against optics.
Hack wrote a number of educational books in the early 19th century, many, like this one, first published by her son-in-law’s firm, Darton and Harvey. They were highly regarded and some continued in print into the 1870s; they covered everything from ancient history to grammar to the sciences. There was, as might be expected from a devout woman of her time, a decidedly moral, Eurocentric, religious tone, yet the information was clear and well presented.