Years of Blindness. 47 



ing a large business, for that was before the time 

 when American shipping was destroyed by idiotic 

 naviofation laws and robber tariffs. He was interested 

 in Fourierism, and as a member of the North Ameri- 

 can Phalanx was associated with Horace Greeley, 

 William H. Channing, Freeman Hunt, Edgar Hicks, 

 Richard H. Manning, and other prominent reformers 

 of the time. Mr. Flanders took Edward with him to 

 social gatherings in Brooklyn where these gentlemen 

 were present and where the subject of the reorganiza- 

 tion of society was a leading topic of conversation. At 

 these gatherings questions of reform were presented 

 in a broader light and involved more fundamental 

 changes than the antislavery and temperance discus- 

 sions to which Edward was accustomed, and we may 

 be sure that he made the most of these opportunities. 

 He was too heavily weighted by the consciousness of 

 his infirmity to make acquaintances readily in such 

 mixed gatherings, but he came to know some of Mr. 

 Flanders's more intimate associates, and we shall see 

 how lasting were the friendships commenced in those 

 enthusiastic days when the immediate and indefinite 

 educability of everybody, mentally and morally, was 

 believed in without reserve — when generous zeal be- 

 lieved that a new heaven and a new earth were at 

 hand. 



Necessity had wrought in Edward that develop- 

 ment of touch and hearing which comes to all who 

 lose sight, and his memory, naturally very retentive, 

 became still stronger. He was able to find his way 



Brooklyn for a time and cheer him in many ways, not the least of which 

 was the confident tone he always kept up about Edward's ultimate recovery 

 of vision. Mr. Flanders lived to see him a successful author, and in wide 

 repute as a popular scientific teacher. 



