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Blind among enemies, O worfe than chciiiiSj 



Dungeon, or beggary, decrepid age. 



Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinft, 



And all her various objefts of delight 



AnnuU'd, which might in part my grief have eas'd, 



Inferior to the vileft nov^ become 



Of man or worm. The vileft here excel me : 



They creep, yet fee ; I dark in light expos'd 



To daily fraud, contempt, abufe, and wrong, 



Within doors, or without. Hill as a fool. 



In power of others, never in my own ; 



Scarce half I feem to live, dead more than half. 



O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, 



Irrecoverably dark, total echpfe 



Without all hope of day ! 



O firft created beam, and thou great word. 



Let there be H^kt, and light was over all ; 



Why am I thus bere<>v'd thy prime decree .' 



The fiui to me is dark. 



And filent, as the moon 



When fhe deftrts the tvight. 



Hid in her vacant interlunar cave. 



Since light fo neceflary is to life, 



And almoll life itfclf, if it be true 



That light is in the foul, 



She all in every part ; why was the fight 



To fuch a tender ball as th' eye confin'd ? 



So obvious, and fo eafy to be quench'd ? 



And not, as feeling, throiigliout all parts difFus'd, 



That {he might look at will through ev'ry pore ? 



Then had I not been thus exil'd from light, 



As- in the land of darknefs, yet in light 



To live a life half dead, a living death : 



And buried ; but yet more niiferable I 



Myftlf the fepulchre, a moving grave ; 



Bury'd, yet not exempt 



By privilege of death and burial 



From worft of other evils, pains, and wrongs, 



But made hereby obnoxious more 



To all the miferies of life." 

 The degree in which the calamity of blindnefs is felt and 

 lamented by thofe to v.-hom it occurs, may be alfo partly 

 gueffed at by the extafies into which perfons have fallen on 

 their recovery from it. 



Mr. Boyle mentions a gentleman, who, having been 

 blind, and brought to fight at eighteen, was very 

 near going diftraftcd with the joy. See a remarkable 

 cafe of this kind, Tatler, N^ ^^. vol. i. Boyle's Works abr. 

 tom. i. p. 4. 



We find various recompenfes for blindnefs, or fubftitutes 

 for the ufe of the eyes, in the wonderful fagacity of many 

 blind perfons recittd by Zahnius in his " Oculus Artifici- 

 alis," and others. In fome, the defeft has been fupplitd 

 by a mod excellent gift of remembering what they had feen ; 

 in others, by a delicate nofe, or the fenfe of fmellir.g ; in 

 others, by an exquilite touch, or a fenfe of feeling, which 

 they have had in fuch perfcftion, that, as it has been faid of 

 fome, they learned to hear with their eves ; as it may be 

 faid of thefe, that they taught themfelves to fee with their 

 hands. 



Some have been enabled to perform al! forts of curious 

 and fubtle works in the niceft and moll dexterous manner. 

 Aldrovandns fpenks of a fculptor who became blind at 

 twenty years of age, and yet ten years after made a pcrfeft 

 marble ftatue of Cofmo II. de Mcdicis ; and another of 

 clay like Urban VIII. Bartholin tells us of a bli:id fculptor 

 in Denmark, who dil\ingui!hed perfedlly well, by mere 



B L I 



touch, not only all kinds of wood, tut all the colours ; 

 and F. Grimaldi gives an inftance of the like kind ; befides 

 the blind organill living in Paris, who is faid to have done 

 the fame. 



The moft extraordinary of all is a blind guide, vi'ho, ac- 

 cording to the report of good writers, ufed to coiiduft the 

 merchants through the fands and defarts of Arabia. James 

 Bernouilli contrived a method of teaching bhnd perfons to 

 write. Leo Afr. Defc. Afr. lib. vi. p. 2.).6. Cafiub. Treat, 

 of Enthuf. chap.ii. p. 45. Fonten. Elog. des Acad. p. 1 14. 



An inflance no lefs extraordinary is mentior:ed by Dr. 

 Bcw in the " Tranfa£lion3 of the Manchefter Society." 

 It is that of a perfon, whofe name is John Metcalf, a native 

 of the neighbourhood of Mancheller, who became blind at 

 fo early an age as to be altogether unconlcious of light and 

 its various eflefts. His employment in the younger period 

 of his hfe was that of a waggoner, and occalionally as a 

 guide in intricate roads during the ni^ht, or when the com- 

 mon tracks were covered with fnow. Afterwards he became 

 a projeftor and furveyor of high-ways in difficult and moun- 

 tainous parts ; and in this capacity, with the affiftance 

 merely of a long ftaff, he travcrles the roads, afcends preci- 

 pices, explnrcs valleys, and inveiligates their feveral extents, 

 forms, and fituations, fo as to anfwer his purpofe in the bed 

 manner. His plans are defigned, and his eftiniates formed, 

 with fuch ability and accuracy, that he has been employed 

 in altering moll of the roads over the Peak in Derby (hire, 

 particularly thofe in the vicinity of Buxton, and in conllruct- 

 ing a new one between Wilmflow and Congleton, fo as to 

 form a communication between the great London road, 

 without being obhged to pafs over the mountain. 



Although blind perfons have occafion, in a variety of 

 refpeils, to deplore their infelicity, their mifery is in a con- 

 fiderable degree alleviated by advantages peculiar to them- 

 felvcF. They are capable of a more fixed and fteady attention to 

 the objeifls of their mental contemplation, than thole who are 

 diftradled by the view of a variety of external fcenes. Their 

 want of fight naturally leads them to avail themfelves of 

 their other organs of corporeal fenfation, and with this view 

 to cultivate and improve them as mueh as poffiblc. Ac- 

 cordingly they derive relief and affiflance from the quicknefs 

 of their hearing, the acutenefs of their fmel!, and the ft'ili- 

 bility of their touch, which perfons who fee are apt to dif- 

 regard ; and many inftances have occurred, that feem to ve- 

 rify the opinion of Rocheller; 



" That if one fenfe fhould be fupprefs'd. 

 It but retires into the reft." 

 To this purpofe we may obferve, that Democritus is faid. 

 to have put out his eyes, that he might think more in- 

 tenfely. 



Many contrivances have alfo been dcvifed by the inge- 

 nious for fupplying the want of fight, and for facilitating 

 thofe analytical or mechanical operations, which would 

 otherwife perplex the moft vigorous mind and tlie moft re- 

 tentive memory. By means of thefe they have become emi- 

 nent proficients in various departments of fcience. Indeed, 

 there are few fciences in wliich, with or witiiout mechanical 

 helps, the blind liave not diftirguidied themfelves. The cafe 

 of profeflor S;innderfon at Cambridge is well known. His 

 attainments and performances in the languages, and alio as 

 a learner and teacher in the ablharl mathematics, in philo- 

 fophy, and in mufic, have been truly ailonilhing ; o.nd the 

 account of them appears to be almoft incredible, if il were 

 not amply attcfted and confirmtd by many other inftances 

 of a fimilar kind, both in ancient and modern times. Cicero 

 mentions it as a fail fcarcely credible, with rcfpeft to his 

 maflter in philofophy, Diodotus, that " he exeixifcd himfclf 



is 



