232 
BLINDNESS. 
through the general course and ordinary 
forms of discipline ; and that, if any circum- 
stances were favourable to their ge nius, they 
rather proceeded from accident than design. 
This melancholy truth reflects no honour on 
human nature. When contemplated by a 
man of benevolence, it is not easy to guess 
whether, his mortification or astonishment 
will be greatest. A heart that glows with 
real philanthropy feels for the whole vital 
creation, and becomes in some measure the 
sensorium of every suffering insect or rep- 
tile. How must our sympathy increase then 
in tenderness and force, when the distressed 
individuals of our own species become its ob- 
je *ts ! Nor do the blind bear so small a 
proportion to the whole community as, even 
in a political view, to be neglected. But in 
this, as in every other political crime, the pu- 
nishment returns upon the society in which 
it is committed. Those abandoned and un- 
improved beings, who, under proper culture 
and discipline, might have successfully con- 
curred in producing and augmenting the ge- 
neral welfare, become the nuisances and bur- 
dens of those very societies who have neg- 
lected them. The most important view 
which we can entertain in the education of a 
person deprived of sight, is to redress, as ef- 
fectually as we possibly can, the natural dis- 
advantages with which he is encumbered ; 
or, in other words, to enlarge as far as possi- 
ble the sphere of his knowledge and activity. 
This can only be done by the improvement of 
hi, intellectual, imaginative, or mechanical, 
powers ; and which of these ought to be most 
assiduously cultivated, the genius of every in- 
dividual a’one c, n determ in *. Were men to 
judge of things by their intrinsic natures, le§s 
would be expected from the blind than 
others. But, by some pernicious and unac- 
countable prejudice, people generally hope 
to find them either possessed of preterna- 
tural talents, or more attentive to those which 
they have than others. Hence it unluckily 
happens, that blind men, who in common life 
arc too often regarded as raree-shows, when 
they do not gratify the extravagant expecta- 
tions of their spectators, frequently Sink in 
the general opinion, and appear much less 
considerable and meritorious than they really 
are. This general diffidence of their powers 
deprives them both of opportunity and spirit 
to exert themselves ; and they descend, at 
last, to that degree of insignificance in which 
the public estimate has fixed them. From 
the original dawning, therefore, of reason and 
spirit, the parents and tutors of the blind 
ought to inculcate this maxim upon them ; 
that it is their indispensable duty to excel, 
and that it is absolutely in their power to at- 
tain a high degree of eminence. Not that 
improvement should be rendered quite easy 
to them : for all difficulties which are not 
insuperable heighten the charms, and en- 
hance the value, of those acquisitions which 
they seem to retard. But care should be 
taken that these difficulties be not magnified 
or exaggerated ; for the blind have a painful 
sense of their own incapacity, and conse- 
quently a strong propensity to despair. For 
this reason, parents and relations ought never 
to be too ready in offering their assistance to 
the blind in any office which they can per- 
form, or in any acquisition which they can 
procure for themselves, whether they are 
prompted by amusement or necessity. Let 
a blind boy be permitted to walk through the 
neighbourhood without a guide, not only 
though he should run some hazard, but even 
though he should suffer some pain. If he has 
a mechanical turn, let him not be denied the 
use of edge tools: for it is better that he 
should lose a little blood, or even break a 
bone, than be perpetually confined to the 
same place, debilitated in his frame, and de- 
pressed in his mind. Such a being can have 
no employment but to feel his own weakness, 
and become his own tormentor ; or to trans- 
fer to others the peevishness arising from the 
natural, adventitious, or imaginary, evils 
which he feeis. Scars, fractures, and disloca- 
tions, in his body, arc trivial misfortunes com- 
pared with imbecility, timidity, or fretful- 
ness, of mind. Besides the dreadful effects 
which inactivity has in relaxing the nerves 
and depressing the spirits, nothing can be 
more productive of jealousy, envy, peevish- 
ness, and every passion that corrodes the 
soul to agony, than a painful impression of 
dependance on others, and of our insuffi- 
ciency for our own happiness. The natural 
curiosity of children renders them extremely 
inquisitive. This disposition is often pecu- 
liarly prevalent in tiie blind. Parents and 
tutors, therefore, should gratify it whenever 
their answers can be intelligible to the pupil : 
when it is otherwise, let them candidly con- 
fess the impossibility or impropriety of an- 
swering his questions. Nor will the violence 
of exercise, and the tumult of play, be pro- 
ductive of such perils as may be apprehend- 
ed. For the encouragement of parents, we 
can assurd them, that though, till the age of 
twenty, some blind persons were, on most oc- 
casions, permitted to walk, to run, to play at 
large, they have yet escaped without any 
corporeal injury from these excursions. Pa- 
rents in the middle, or higher ranks, who 
have blind children, ought, by all means, to 
keep them out of vulgar company. Such 
persons often have a wanton malignity, which 
impels them to impose upon the blind, and to 
enjoy their painful sensations. But the credu- 
lity and ignorance of the lower class arc no 
less dangerous than their false wit. The illi- 
terate have often a strong propensity to re- 
late whatever is marvellous and dreadful. 
These impressions, when early imbibed, can 
scarcely be eradicated by all the conspiring 
efforts of mature reason and confirmed ex- 
perience. Those philosophers who have at- 
tempted to break the alliance between dark- 
ness and spectres, were certainly inspired by 
laudable motives. Were we endued with 
senses to advertise us of every noxious ob- 
ject before its contiguity could render it for- 
midable, our panics would probably be less 
frequent and sensible than we really feel 
them. Darkness and silence, therefore, have 
something dreadful in them, because they su- 
persede the vigilance of those senses which 
give us the earliest notices of things. In 
talking, therefore, to a blind boy of invisible 
beings, let him hear as seldom as possible, 
even in stories which he knows to be fabu- 
lous, of vindictive ghosts, vindictive fiends, 
or avenging furies. They seize and pre-oc- 
cupy every avenue of terror which is open 
in the soul ; nor are they easily dispossessed. 
Sooner may we hope to exorcise a ghost, 
than to obliterate their images in a warm and 
susceptible imagination, where they have 
been habitually impressed, and where these 
feelings cannot be dissipated by extcrr.a! phe- 
nomena. If horrors of this kind should agi- 
tate the heart of a blind boy (which may hap- 
pen, notwithstanding -the most strenuous en- 
deavours to prevent it), the stories' which he 
has heard will be most effectually discredited 
by ridicule. This, however, must be cau- 
tiously applied, by gentle gradations. If he 
is inspired with terror by effects upon his 
senses, the causes of which he cannot investi- 
gate, pains must be taken to explain these 
phenomena ; and to confirm that explica- 
tion, whenever it can be done, by the testi- 
mony of his own senses and his own expe- 
rience. The exercise of his locomotive 
and mechanical powers will sensibly contri- 
bute to dispel these terrors. His inventive 
faculties ought likewise to be indulged with 
the same freedom. The data which they ex- 
plore may be presented in such a manner as 
to render discoveries easy : but still let in- 
vention be allowed to co-operate. The in- 
ternal triumph which the mind feels from the 
attainment of new truths, heightens their 
charms, impresses them deep on the memo- 
ry, and gives them a lasting influence in 
practice. Care should therefore be taken to 
afford the mind a theatre for its exertions, as 
extensive as possible, without diverting it 
from one great end, which, in order to excel, 
it ought for ever to have in view. 
With respect to employments for the blind, 
if the pupil be not in easy circumstances, mu- 
sic is his readiest and most probable resource. 
Civil and ecclesiastical employments have ei- 
ther something in their own nature, or in the 
invincible prejudices of mankind, which ren- 
ders them entirely inaccessible to such as 
have not the use of sight. No liberal and 
cultivated mind can entertain the least Hesi- 
tation in concluding, that there is nothing, 
either in the nature of things, or even in the 
positive institutions of genuine religion, re- 
pugnant to the idea of a blind clergyman. As 
to the law, though there could be no doubt 
that a blind man might discharge the office 
of a chamber-counsel with success, yet, as a 
barrister, his difficulties must appear formid- 
able, if not absolutely insuperable: for lie 
must remember all the sources, whether in 
natural equity or positive institutions, whether 
in common or statute law, whence his argu- 
ments ought to be drawn. Fie must be able 
to specify, and to arrange in their proper or- 
der, all the material objections of his antago- 
nists: these he must likewise answer as they 
are proposee, extempore. When, therefore, 
it is considered how difficult it is to temper 
the natural associations of memory with the 
artificial arrangements of judgment, the de- 
sultory flights of imagination with the calm 
and regular deductions of reason, the energy 
and perturbation of passion with the coolness 
and tranquillity of deliberation, some idea 
may be formed of the arduous task which 
every blind man must achieve, who under- 
takes the law as a profession. As to physic, 
the obstacles which a blind man must encoun- 
ter, both in the theory and practice of that 
art, will be easily conceived. If the Wind 
must depend upon the exercise of their own 
powers for bread, we have already pointed 
out music as their easiest and most obvious 
province ; but let it be remembered, that me- 
diocrity in this art may prove the bitterest 
and most effectual curse which a parent can 
inflict upon his offspring : as it subjects them 
