204 PSYCHOLOGY. 



many computations to the imagination, and give the sense 

 of an enormous horizon. So it seems with the blind. They 

 multiply mentally the amount of a distinctly felt freedom 

 to move, and gain the immediate sense of a vaster freedom 

 still. Thus it is that blind men are never without the con- 

 sciousness of their horizon. They all enjoy travelling, es- 

 pecially with a companion who can describe to them the 

 objects they pass. On the prairies they feel the great open- 

 ness ; in valleys they feel closed in ; and one has told me 

 that he thought few seeing people could enjoy the view 

 from a mountain-top more than he. A blind person on 

 entering a house or room immediately receives, from the 

 reverberations of his voice and steps, an impression of its 

 dimensions, and to a certain extent of its arrangement. 

 The tympanic sense noticed on p. 140, supra, comes in to 

 help here, and possibly other forms of tactile sensibility not 

 yet understood. Mr. W. Hanks Levy, the blind author of 

 ' Blindness and the Blind ' (London), gives the following ac- 

 count of his powers of perception : 



"Whether within a house or in the open air, whether walking oi 

 standing still, I can tell, although quite blind, when I am opposite at 

 object, and can perceive whether it be tall or short, slender or bulky. 

 I can also detect whether it be a solitary object or a continuous fence ; 

 whether it be a close fence or composed of open rails ; and often whether 

 it be a wooden fence, a brick or stone wall, or a quick-set hedge. I 

 cannot usually perceive objects if much lower than my shoulder, but 

 sometimes very low objects can be detected. This may depend on the 

 nature of the objects, or on some abnormal state of the atmosphere. 

 The currents of an* can have nothing to do with this power, as the state 

 of the wind does not directly affect it; the sense of hearing has nothing 

 to do with it, as when snow lies thickly on the ground objects are more 

 distinct, although the footfall cannot be heard. I seem to' perceive 

 objects through the skin of my face, and to have the impressions im- 

 mediately transmitted to the brain. The only part of my body possess- 

 ing this power is my face ; this I have ascertained by suitable experi- 

 ments. Stopping my ears does not interfere with it, but covering my 

 face with a thick veil destroys it altogether. None of the five senses 

 have anything to do with the existence of this power, and the circum- 

 stances above named induce me to call this unrecognized sense by the 

 name of 'facial perception.' . . . When passing along a street I can 

 distinguish shops from private houses, and even point out the doors and 

 windows, etc., and this whether the doors be shut or open. When a 

 window consists of one entire sheet of glass, it is more difficult to dis 



