60 EDUCATION OF THE HAND. 



the porter is hardly sensible to an ounce, but 

 it can move hundred weights; and while the 

 hand of the delicate workman would tremble or 

 give way under these, it feels to the minuteness of 

 a grain. Allusion has often been made to blind 

 Dr. Moyes, who could feel colours and shades of 

 colour. And the blind engineer of the midland 

 counties felt the level of very irregular surfaces 

 with his feet, as accurately as any engineer having 

 eyes, with all his telescopes, and levels, and scales 

 for determining the variations. It is impossible, 

 indeed, to set a limit either to the weight or to the 

 measure which the human hand can determine ; 

 and not the hand only, but the foot or any part 

 of the body, so that there are muscles in it. Lines 

 can be ruled much more finely by mere touch in 

 the dark, than they can be by the eye with the 

 aid of all its microscopes ; and the number of 

 curves that a healthy and well-educated hand can 

 delineate is perfectly endless, and it can delineate 

 them as well in absolute darkness as in broad 

 day. 



How varied are the tones produced by the 

 touch of the pianoforte, by pinching the holes of 

 a flute, or by fingering and bowing the strings of 

 a violin. These are all exquisite ; and the flute 

 with Nicholson, and the violin with Paganini, are 

 almost super-human, and give us a taste of what 

 we would call celestial ; and yet, they arise from 

 positively the simplest of all imaginary causes 

 the fine mensuration of distance and space the 

 pressing a little more or a little less with the fin- 

 ger ; and any man who can simply lay his palm 

 on a loaf of bread, and feel that he is so laying it, 

 might educate himself up to those exquisite touches, 



