go Mr . Home's Account of two Children 
shilling piece, but placing it about 5 inches from his eye, he 
knew it to be a guinea ; and made the same mistake, as often 
as the experiment was repeated. 
From this time he was constantly improving himself by 
looking at, and examining with his hands, every thing within 
his reach, but he frequently forgot what he had learnt. On 
the 10th I saw him again, and I told him his eye was so well 
that he might go about as he pleased without leaving the 
room. He immediately went to the window, and called out, 
“ What is that moving?” I asked him what he thought it 
was ? He said, “ A dog drawing a wheelbarrow. There is 
one, two, three dogs drawing another. How very pretty !” 
These proved to be carts and horses on the road, which he 
saw from a two pair of stairs window. 
On the 19th, the different coloured pieces of card were 
separately placed before his eye, and so little had he gained 
in thirteen days, that he could not without counting their 
corners one by one tell their shape. This he did with great 
facility, running his eye quickly along the outline, so that it 
was evident he was still learning, just as a child learns to 
read. He had got so far as to know the angles, when they 
were placed before him, and to count the number belonging 
to any one object. 
The reason of his making so slow a progress was, that 
these figures had never been subjected to examination by 
touch, and were unlike any thing he was accustomed to see. 
He had got so much the habit of assisting his eyes with his 
hands, that nothing but holding them could keep them from 
the object. 
On the 26th the experiments were again repeated on the 
