( ^53 ) 



" fions, of our fellow-creatures, even when they want moft to 

 *' conceal them ? tliat by this organ we can often perceive what is 

 " flrait and crooked, in the mind as well as the body : that it par- 

 " ticipates of every mental emotion, the foftell and moft tender, as 

 " well as the mofl violent and tumultuous : that it exhibits thel'e 

 " emotions with force, and infufes into the ibul of the fpeftator the 

 " fire and the agitation of that mind in which they originate ? To 

 ^' many myllerious things mull a blind man give credit, if he will 

 " believe the relations of thole that fee ! his faith muft exceed that 

 " which the poor fceptic derides as impoflible, or condemns as 

 " abfurd. 



*' It is not, therefore, without reafon, that the faculty of feeing is 

 " looked upon as more noble than the other fenfes, as having fome- 

 " thing in it fuperior to fenlation, as the fenfe of tlie underllanding, 

 ■" the language of intelligence. The evidence of reafon is called 

 ''feeing, not feeling, fmelling, tailing, ; nay, we exprefs the man- 

 " ner of the divine knowledge by feeing, as that kmd of knowledge 

 " which is moll perfc<5l in ourfelvcs." 



It is too true, that we do not, in general, know the real value of 

 any blelhng, until we are deprived of it ; therefore, let us hear, 

 how the lofs of fight is pathetically defcribed by Milton, from his 

 own feeling : In his addrefs to the Light he fays, 



" I feel thy fovran vital lamp ; but thou 

 " Revifit'ft not thefe eyes, that roll in vain 

 " To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn ; 

 " So thick a *drop ferene hath quench'd their orbs 

 " Or dim fuft'ufion veil'd. 



* This is a literal tranflation of the Latin words gutta ferena, a difeaf?, by which the pa- 

 tient is deprived of fight, though to a fpeftator, the eye does not appear to be injured ; bccaufc 

 the feat of the diforder is in the optic nerve, and not \a the bail of the eye. This was Milton's 

 xrafe. 



