56 THE CAPTIVE. 



prize senses and their objects far more than we do. 

 It is a dismal thing for an innocent man to be cooped 

 up within the four walls of a dungeon for life, with 

 only a little glimmer of reflected light coming 

 through the grating, and never to behold the direct 

 light of the sun. But even in that situation the man 

 may study nature : there is that reflected glimmer 

 fading off into the darker tints : there are the dif- 

 ferent spots and the colours they reflect ; and the 

 motes are dancing even in that dim light ; and the 

 spider is busy in the corner ; and, it may be, that 

 things which a man in the free air would call loath- 

 some are crawling about the floor. But the solitary 

 man can make all these lowly things his kingdom ; 

 can claim brotherhood with the spider, the snail, and 

 the lizard ; and, if his heart has been true to nature 

 and to man, he will kneel down and thank Heaven 

 as fervently for its bounty, when the morning gives 

 him the first dawning of that streamy light, as if he 

 beheld the sun rise on the sweetest valley in Eng- 

 land, and could call all that valley his own : and, let 

 but one drop of the bitter waters of remorse for 

 wrong done, fall in the rich man's free and full cup, 

 and he would give the solitary all his wealth for an 

 exchange of feeling. 



We would consider it a piece of most wanton 

 cruelty to build up the little grating the dim light 

 to the captive ; but even that would not deprive him 

 of the pleasure of nature : even then he might 

 "touch the earth," and, by so touching, his mind 

 would rise up and wrestle with the giant, and he 

 could seize happiness in the dark. It is a common ob- 

 servation, that blind people are always cheerful; and 

 the fact is nearly as general that they are all musical. 

 Now, as these are general truths, like all general 

 truths, there is instruction in them ; and it is instruc- 

 tion that any one may obtain without the form or in- 

 tricate preparation of any thing that can be called 

 learning or science. It is delightful to look on the 



