11 2 B L I 
regard to plants or corn, thefe fuftain no Injury from the 
liquor, becaufe it has no power over the productions of 
the vegetable kingdom, as I have fully experienced ; or, 
if any hurt is to be fufpetted, all the danger will be re¬ 
moved by the firft (bower that falls. This liquor may be 
procured in abundance in every place where lime is burnt. 
If the lime be frelh, one part ofitinfufed in about feventy 
parts of common water will produce real lime-water. The 
want of the fixed alkali may be fupplied by boiling wood- 
aflies in water, and thickening the lye by evaporation.” 
To BLIGHT, v. a. To corrupt with mildew.—This 
vapour bears up along with it any noxious mineral (learns; 
it then blafts vegetables, blights corn and fruit, and is 
fometimes injurious even to men. Woodward. — In general, 
to blaft, to hinder from fertility : 
But left harfh care the lover’s peace deftroy 
And roughly blight the tender buds of joy. Lyttlelon. 
BLIGHT'ED CORN. See Smut, 
BLIG'NY SUR OUCHE, a town of France, in the 
department of the Cote d’Or, and chief place of a canton, 
in the diftridt of Beaune : three leagues north-weft of 
Beaune. 
BLIKOOS'KOI, a fmall ifland in the Frozen Sea. Lat. 
71. 30. N. Ion. 143. E. Ferro. 
BLIND, adj. [blind, Sax.] Deprived of fight; want¬ 
ing the fenfe of feeing ; dark.—The blind man that go¬ 
verns his fteps by feeling, in defeCt of eyes, receives ad- 
vertifement of things through a ftaff. Digby. 
Thofe other two, equall’d with me in fate, 
So were I equall’dWith them in renown! 
Blind Thamyris, and blind Maeonidas ; 
And Terefias, and Phioeas, prophets old. Milton. 
Intellectually dark ; unable to judge; ignorant: with to 
before that which is unfeen.—All authors to their own 
defeCts are blind. Dryden. —Sometimes with of: 
Blind of the future, and by rage milled, 
He pulls his crimes upon his people’s head. Dryden. 
Unfeen; out of the public view ; private: generally with 
fome tendency to contempt or cenfure.—To grievous and 
fcandalous inconveniencies they make themfelves (object, 
with whom any blind or fecret corner is judged a fit houfe 
of common prayer. Hooker. —Not eafily difcernible; hard 
to find; dark; obfeure ; unfeen.—There be alfo blind 
fires under (lone, w hich flame not out; but, oil being 
poured upon them, they flame out. Bacon. 
How have we wander’d a long di final night, 
Led thro’ blind paths by each deluding light! Rcfcommon. 
Blind Vessels,^ in chemiftry. Such as have no 
opening but’ on one fide. 
To BLIND, v.a. To make blind; to deprive of fight. 
—A blind guide is certainly^ great mifehief ; but a guide 
that blinds tliofe whom he (hould lead, is undoubtedly a 
much greater. South. —To darken ; to obfeure to the eye : 
So whirl the Teas, fuch darknefs blinds the (ky, 
That the black night receives a deeper dye. Dryden. 
To darken the underftanding : 
This my long-fullering, and my day of grace, 
They who negleCt and fcorn (hall never tafte, 
But hard be harden’d, blind be blinded more. Milton. 
■ BLIND, f. Something to hinder the fight.:—Hardly any 
thing in our converlation is pure and genuine; civility 
cafts a blind over the duty, under Come cuftomary words. 
VEJlrange .—Something to miflead the eye, or the under¬ 
ftanding.—Thefe difeourfes fet an oppofition between his 
commands and decrees ; making the one a blind for the 
execution of the other. Decay of Piety. 
“ Who fo blind as he that will not fee ?” Spoken of 
thofe w ho pretend they can’t fee what they have no mind 
to fee. 
“ Blind men can’t judge of colours.” II dec non giu- 
dicadi colon. Ital. The Greeks'fay : TirvpAw xca xfloTrlgto, 
B L I 
The Latins fay : Quidftxco cumfpcculo? (What has ablind 
man to do with a looking glafs ?) We ftiould not be for¬ 
ward in giving our opinions on things we can’t be lup- 
pofed to have any (kill in, left this proverb be hit in.our 
teeth. The Germans fay : Bin blinder kan von der farbe 
nicht urthcilcn. 
There is not, perhaps, any fenfe or faculty of the cor¬ 
poreal frame, which affords lo many refources ot utility 
and entertainment as the power of vilion ; nor is there 
any lofs or privation which can be productive of calami¬ 
ties fo multiform or bitter as the want of light. By no 
avenue of corporeal perception is knowledge in her full 
extent, and in all her forms, fo acceflible to the rational 
and inquiring mind, as by the glorious and delightful me¬ 
dium of light. For this not only reveals external things 
in all their beauties, but gives body, form, and colour, to 
intellectual ideas ; fo that the whole material and intelli¬ 
gent creation lie in open profpeCt, and the majeftic frame 
of nature, in its whole extent, is, if we may fo (peak, per¬ 
ceived at a fingle glance. To the blind, on the contrary, 
the vifible univerfe is totally annihilated ; he is confeious 
of no fpace but that in which he (lands, or to which his 
extremities can reach. Sound, indeed, gives him fome 
ideas of diftant objects; but thofe ideas are extremely 
obfeure and indiftinCt. They are obfeure, becaufe they 
confift alone of the objeCts whole ofcillations vibrate on 
his ear, and do not neceflarily luppofe any other bodies 
with which the intermediate fpace may be occupied, ex¬ 
cept that which gives the found alone : they are indiftinCt, 
becaufe founds themfelves are frequently ambiguous, and 
do not uniformly and exclufively indicate their real caufes. 
And though by them the idea of diftance in general, or 
even of fome particular diftances, may be obtained; yet 
they never fill the mind with thofe exalting ideas of ex- 
tenlion which are infpired by ocular perception. For 
though thunder, or an explofion of cannon, may be dif- 
tinclly heard, after they have traverfed a great fpace, yet, 
when the diftance is very extenfive, it ceafes to be indi¬ 
cated by found ; and therefore the ideas, acquired by au¬ 
ricular experiment, of extenfion and interval, are ex¬ 
tremely confufed and uncertain. The living and com- 
prehenlive eye darts its view over expanfive valleys, lofty 
mountains, protracted rivers, illimitable oceans. It mea- 
fures, in an inftant, the mighty fpace from earth to heaven, 
or from one ftar to another. By the afliftance of telefcopes, 
its horizon is almoft indefinitely extended, its objeCts mul¬ 
tiplied, and the fphere of its obfervation infinitely en¬ 
larged. By thefe means, the imagination, inured to vaft 
impreffions of diftance, is enabled, not only to recal them, 
in their greateft extent, with as much rapidity as they 
were at firft imbibed ; but can multiply them, and add 
one to another, till all particular boundaries and diftances 
are loft in immenfity. Thus nature, by profufely irradi¬ 
ating the face of things, and clothing objeCts in a robe of 
diverfified fplendour, not only invites the underftanding 
to expatiate on a theatre fo extenfive, but entertains the 
imagination with every poflible exhibition of the fublime 
and beautiful. The man of light beholds the objects of 
his attention and curiofity from far. Taught by experi¬ 
ence, he meafures their relative diftances ; diftinguifhes 
their qualities ; determines their fituations and attitudes ; 
prefages what thefe tokens may import; feleCts his fa¬ 
vourites; traverfes in fecurity the lpace which divides 
them from him ; (lops at the point where they are placed ; 
and either obtains them with eafe, or perceives the means 
by which the obftacles that intercept his paflage to them 
may be furmounted. The blind, on the contrary, not 
only may be, but really are, during a confiderable period, 
apprehenfive of danger in every motion towards any place, 
from whence their contracted powers of perception can 
give them no intelligence. All the various modes of de¬ 
licate proportion, all the beautiful varieties of light and 
colours, whether exhibited in the works of nature or of 
art, are to them irretrievably loft. Dependent for every 
thing, but mere fubfiftence, on the good offices of others; 
obnoxious 
