314 



BLIND. 



has free access : there are a great many shrewd and 

 intelligent men in the world who are as blind to 

 books, as he is, and who can hardly sign their 

 i Klines. 



llou did Make Brun acquire his knowledge of 

 the geography of the countries about which he 

 wrote so fully and so well, was it by visiting 

 them ' No ! it was by a process of study which he 

 ini.Ljht have followed as thoroughly, though not 

 (jiiite so easily, had he been deprived of sight. How 

 <lo we learn the geography, the history, the lan- 

 guage, the manners and customs of different coun- 

 \ Inch we never saw, is it not by means which 

 are perfectly within the reach of a blind man, pro- 

 vided the necessary pains are taken with him ? In 

 mathematics, do we not close our eyes, the more 

 completely to shut out external impressions, and 

 the more intensely to bend our faculties to the con- 

 templation of the question? And in every mathe- 

 matical calculation whatever, has not the blind 

 man an immense advantage over us, provided he be 

 furnished with the means of putting down his re- 

 sults in a manner to be read by himself? Now 

 we shall see that such means are provided for him, 

 and that he can go through arithmetical and alge- 

 braical calculations with greater ease than seeing 

 persons. All kinds of problems may also be solved 

 by the blind, since tangible diagrams can be pre- 

 pared for them. 



The languages, the classics, the long range of 

 history, the wide field of letters, are all open to 

 the blind man : we see no obstacle at all in the 

 way of his becoming an able counsellor at law, or 

 occupying the pulpit with ability and advantage. 

 As for music, and her sister poetry, it would be an 

 idle waste of words to try to prove that the blind 

 can become their successful votaries, for there 

 stand a long array of sightless bards, headed by the 

 "blind old man of Scio's rocky isle," whose verse 

 has charmed every age, and been repeated in every 

 tongue. In music, the names of Stanley, Gautier 

 and Cbauvain are already conspicuous. 



But, after all, the best argument in favour of 

 the capacity of the blind for receiving a high de- 

 gree of education is to be found in the number of 

 those who have raised themselves 'to eminence. 

 Ancient history abounds with them ; the names of 

 Didymus of Alexandria, Eusebius and Aufidius are 

 well known ; and Diodotus, the master of Cicero, 

 who lost his sight, still pursued his studies with 

 great success. Achmed Ben Soliman, one of the 

 most beautiful Arabian writers and poets, was blind 

 from his infancy. But we need not go back to dis- 

 tant ages to find examples of men who have raised 

 themselves to eminence, in spite of the obstacles 

 which nature has placed in their way. Sanderson, 

 the professor of mathematics, lost his sight in infancy. 

 He published a volume called the Elements of A'l- 

 gebra, an extraordinary work, filled with singular 

 demonstrations which a seeing person would not 

 perhaps have hit upon. But the most wonderful of 

 Sanderson's performances were his dissertations 

 upon optics, light and colours, with which he used j 

 to delight and astonish his audience. The Rev. | 

 Dr Blacklock, too, gave extraordinary proofs of the i 

 power and correctness of the imagination, for 

 though he never saw the light, he has left us some 

 most beautiful delineations of nature, in the vo- 

 lumes of poems which he published: as in his Wish, 

 On rising gr-mnd tlie proport to command, 

 t'ntiiijfed with smoke, whore venial breezes blow 

 In rural neatiu-s* 1ft iny cottage stand ; 

 Here WTP a wood, and there a river flow. 



Oft from the MigMMOnilf hills mid p.isttires near 

 I.i-I >luvp with ti-udrr lilciit -aluli' my r;ir. \o. 



And again, 



I.i't Iniii: livi-il |>nn>ii><. hen- tlicir >rmt> In-Mow, 



Tlic vic.l.'t luiiyiu-li .in I tlir riiM-v luw ; 



111 yt>ll<>w t-liiry !<! tin- rn..'ii- -i 



\:im-.-iii here hi- lovi>--irk hrad recline ; 



Here liMirinth* in purpli- sv 



And tulips, tiiiiri'd \Mtli lii-iiiit\'> i.i'n-.t <l\i'-. 



Contemporary with Blacklock was Dr Henry 

 Moyes, the eloquent professor of philosophical 

 chemistry in Manchester. Though he lost lii.s 

 sight in early infancy, he made rapid progress in 

 different sciences ; he acquired not only the funda- 

 mental principles of physics, music, and languages, 

 but he plunged deeply into the most abstract M -i- 

 ences, and displayed a minute knowledge of geo- 

 metry, of optics, of algebra, of astronomy, of che- 

 mistry, and in a word, of most of the branches of t lie 

 Newtonian philosophy. Every time he entered 

 into society, he first passed some minutes in sil- 

 ence: the sound enabled him to judge of the di- 

 mensions of the apartment, and the different voires 

 of the number of persons present. His calcu- 

 lations in this respect were very exact, arid his 

 memory was so faithful that he was seldom mis- 

 taken. He has been known to recognise a person 

 the instant he heard him speak, although more than 

 two years had elapsed since they had met. He 

 could ascertain with precision the stature of per- 

 sons by the direction of their voices ; and he made 

 tolerable hits at their character and disposition by 

 the tone of their conversation. 



The instances now quoted are but a small por- 

 tion of those which may be adduced in favour of 

 the facility of giving to the blind an education. 

 These were men who were endowed with genius ; 

 but great as were their powers, their minds would 

 have been left in darkness as total as their bodies, 

 had they not been fortunate enough to JM 

 friends of a philosophic turn of mind, whose affec- 

 tions prompted them to great efforts to overcome 

 the obstacle of blindness. The zeal of the sub- 

 jects more than requited them. 



One example may be adduced of astonishing 

 powers of another kind, in a blind man, who \\;i-, 

 entirely neglected in his youth: it is that of John 

 Metcalf, about whom ample evidence and informa- 

 tion may be obtained from the transactions of the 

 Philosophical Society of Manchester, and from the 

 Memoir of Mr Bew. Metcalf was a native of 

 Derbyshire, and be early became so well acquainted 

 with the roads, that he took up the trade of a 

 teamster, driving his cart from one place to ano- 

 ther. During very dark nights, he used to act as 

 guide to those who had eyes, but could not see : in 

 this, however, he was not entirely singular, for 

 there is a well known instance of a blind guide in 

 Switzerland. But Metcalf gradually rose in the 

 world, and having acquired a most exact knowledge 

 of the situation, size and shape of every hill, rock, 

 and tree about the peak, he undertook to correct 

 the direction of the routes ; and having, by the help 

 of a compass, laid out several plans, which were 

 adopted, he took up the business of a surveyor. 

 Mr Bew says, he is now occupied in projecting and 

 laying out roads in mountainous and almost inac- 

 cessible districts. I have often met him with a 

 long pole in his hand, crossing roads, clambering 

 precipices, descending into valleys, and feeling out 

 their different dimensions, their forms and situa- 

 tions, so as to he able to make out his designs moat 

 correctly. He makes his plans, and estimates by a 







