1867.] Light and Darkness. 347 



basket-shop, all of which are widely apart, but first impressions 

 with the blind are all in all, and within the week the chances are 

 that out of his 80 blind fellow-pupils he has chosen one as a com- 

 panion and probably his friend, and for several years to come, who, 

 if need be, conveys him across the open yard to any special point ; 

 to the dormitory or through the more intricate navigation of stair- 

 case leading to the band-room. In a month all the plain sailing 

 is fairly mastered. He can find his way from the dining-room to 

 the basket-shop, and down that shop 150 yards long, just to the 

 very site of his own box, on which he sits to split the withies for 

 basket-work. He knows his own box, too, from Smith's and 

 Brown's on either side of him. In a year he will know probably 

 his own tools from theirs by some little flaw or feature, not patent 

 to the eye of the looker-on ; in a couple of years he will know the 

 handle of the door to music-room, No. 5 from that of No. 6 ; he 

 will run quickly with a half-finished basket in his hand from the 

 workshop, across a wide yard, exactly to the very door-step of the 

 open shed in which is a tank for soaking his willow- work."* 



Of his touch, the author says : — " By it he knows his own 

 clothes and almost all the property he possesses : his tools, box, bed, 

 hat, fiddle, cupboard, seat in chapel, school-room, and workshop ; by 

 it he reads his chapter in St. John and Bobinson Crusoe ; he plays 

 chess or dominoes, works a sum in long division, or writes a letter 

 home to his mother, which she can read with her eyes and he with 

 his fingers. By the help of touch he weaves a rug of coloured 

 wools, embracing every variety of scroll-work or of those peculiar 

 flowers and fruits which grow only on carpet-land ; or fringes with 

 delicate green and red ; a door-mat for a lady's boudoir ; by touch 

 he sees any curiosity, such as a lamp from the Pyramids, or a scrap 

 of mineral which you describe to him, and which, having once 

 handled, he always speaks of as having seen. He thinks he can read 

 a good deal of your character by touch when you shake hands with 

 him ; and when he has heard you talk for a few minutes he will make a 

 good guess at your age, temper, ability, and stature. "Saunderson" 

 (a blind mathematician whose history the author gives in another 

 chapter) "at times guessed even more than this. He had been 

 sitting one day and pleasantly chatting with some visitors for an 

 hour, when one of them wished the company good morning and left 

 the room. ' What white teeth that lady has,' said the sarcastic pro- 

 fessor. ' How can you possibly tell that ? ' said a friend. ' Because,' 

 was the ready answer, ' for the last half-hour she has done nothing 

 but laugh.' "| 



The author describes with equal vivacity and effect the various 

 employments of the blind. How they work arithmetic; emboss 

 letters; weave; play chess; write poetry; the latter he believes 

 * P. 9 and 10. f P. 11 and 12. 



2 A 2 



