60 A PEEP AT 



who awaited her with trembling hope. Nothing 



shows more than her case the importance which, 



despite their useless waste of human life and human 



capacity, men really attach to a human soul. They 



owe to her something for furnishing an opportunity of 



showing how much of goodness there is in them ; for 



surely the way in which she has been regarded is 



creditable to humanity. Perhaps there are not three 



living women whose names are more widely kiwvn 



than her's ; and there is not one who has excited so 



much sympathy and interest. There are thousands 



of women in the world who are striving to attract its 



notice and gain its admiration, — some by the natural 



magic of beauty and grace, some by the high nobility 



of talent, some by the lower nobility of rank and title, 



some by the vulgar show of wealth ; but none of them 



has done it so effectually as this poor blind, deaf, and 



dumb girl, by the silent show of her misfortunes, and 



her successful efforts to surmount them. 



" The treatment she has received shows something 

 of human progress, too ; for the time was when a child, 

 bereaved of senses, as she is, would have been regard- 

 ed as a monster, and treated as a burden and a curse, 

 even among the most civilized people of the world ; 

 she would, perhaps, have been thrown into the river, 



