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that you were about to become blind, that soon vou 
would be unable to see the things about you? 
Now, while I trust that none of you will ever become 
altogether blind, I tell you honestly, I greatly fear that 
some of you are in danger of ‘becoming partly so, — of 
becoming blind to many of the things about you that 
would please you greatly if you only saw them. And [ 
know that this sort of blindness must take from your 
lives much happiness. 
But still you may wonder how I know this about 
children whom I have never seen. How can I[ know 
whether the boys and girls who read this are in any 
danger of losing their power to see? 
Well, the only way I know about you boys and girls, 
whom I have never seen, is by watching very carefully 
the ones I do see. 
You children who live in New York, say, have never 
seen the children who live in California; yet you feel 
sure that they have eyes and ears just as you have, do 
you not? 
And you are pretty confident that most of them like ~ 
to play far better than they like to work; that some- 
times they are good-natured, and that again they are 
quarrelsome ; and that in many ways they are like the 
boys and girls who live near you. 
In just the same way I am able to guess that you 
children whom I do not know are more or less like the 
ones I do know. 
Now, among these children only a few, as I have 
said before, seem to have the full use of their eyes. 
This troubles me, because the evil Is one that grows 
