the return or progressive motion of a moving body, occasioned by some obstacle which hindered it from pursuing its former direction.

REFLECTION of the Rays of Light, in optics, is their return, after approaching so near the surface of bodies as to be thereby repelled or driven backwards. For the causes of reflection, see Optics, p. 554.

REFLECTION is also used, figuratively, for an operation of the mind, whereby it turns its view backwards as it were upon itself, and makes itself and its own operation the object of its disquisition; and by contemplating the manner, order, and laws, which it observes in perceiving ideas, comparing them together, reasoning, &c., it frames new ideas of the relations discovered therein. See Metaphysics, n° 21. 22.