B L I 
obnoxious to .injury from every point, which they are nei¬ 
ther capacitated to perceive, nor qualified to re lift; t hey 
are, during the prefent (late of being, rather prifoners at 
large, than citizens of nature. 1 he fedentary life, to 
which, by privation of fight, they are deftined, relaxes 
their frame, and 1'ubjedts them to the whole tribe of dif- 
agreeable filiations which arife from dejedlion of fpirits. 
Hence the mod feeble exertions create lalfitude and un- 
eafinefs. Hence the native tone of the nervous fyftem, 
which alone is compatible with health and pleafure, being 
deltroyed by inactivity, exafperates and embitters every 
coiymon difficulty in life. Natural evils, however, are 
always fupportable ; they not only arife from undeligning 
caufes, but are either mild in their attacks, or (liort in 
their duration : it is the miferies which are infli<Sted by 
confcious and refledling agents alone, that can defer.ve the 
name of evils. Thefe excruciate the fou.l with ineffable 
poignancy, as expreffive of indifference or malignity in 
thofe by . whom fuch bitter portions are cruelly admini- 
ftered. The negligence or wantonnefs, therefore, with 
which the blind are too frequently treated, is an enormity 
which God alone has benevolence to feel, or jufiice to 
punifli. 
Thofe among the blind who have had fenlibility to ex- 
prefs the effedts of their misfortunes, have deferibed them 
in terms capable of penetrating the mod; unfeeling heart. 
Homer, the venerable father of epic poetry, who, in the 
perlon of Demodocus, the Phseatian bard, is faid to have 
deferibed his own fituation, proceeds thus : 
Tor 7TEpi Me?’ £7riXrj£rE, SiSu S aya.601/ te, xtxxcv rs 
[s.tv ap.6g(7e, SiSa S uSeixii uoiSw. Odys. S. 
Dear to the mufe, who gave his days to flow 
With mighty bledings, mix’d with mighty woe, 
In clouds and darknefs quench’d his vifual ray, 
Yet gave him pow’r to raife the lofty lay. Pope. 
Milton, in his addrefs to light, laments the misfortune 
of his being blind in the following paffage : 
Thus with the year 
Seafons return ; but not to me returns 
Day, or the fweet approach of ev’n or morn. 
Or light of vernal bloom, or fummer’s rofe, 
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine ; 
But cloud inflead, and ever-during dark, 
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men 
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair 
Prefented with.an univerfal blank, 
Of nature’s works to me expung’d and ras’d, 
And wifdom at one entrance quite fliut out. Par. Lqfl, b. iii. 
The fame inimitable author, in his tragedy of Sampfon 
Agoniftes, deplores the misfortune of blindnef's with a 
pathos and energy fufficient to excite compalkon in the 
mofl obdurate breaft : 
O lofs of fight, of thee [ mofi complain ! 
Blind among enemies, O vvorfe than chains, 
Dungeon, or beggary, decrepid age. 
X.ight, the prime work of God, to me’s extindt, 
And all her various objects of delight 
Annull’d, which might in part my grief have eas’d, 
Inferior to the vilel'l now become 
Of man or worm. The vilell here excel me : 
They creep, yet fee ; I dark in light expos’d 
To daily fraud,- contempt, abufe, and wrong, 
Within doors, or without, ftill as a fool, 
In power of others, never in my own ; 
Scarce half I feem to live, dead mofe than half. 
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, 
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipfe 
Without all hope of day ! 
O firll created Beam, and thou great Word, 
Let there be light, and light was over atl ; 
Why am I thus bereav’d thy prime decree ? 
VOL. 111 . No. 120. 
N D. 113 
Offian, who in his old age participated the fame cp- 
lamity, lias, in more than one paffage of his works, de- 
Icribed his fituation in a manner to delicate, yet (o pa¬ 
thetic, that it awakens the fineft feelings of the heart : 
“ O thou that rolled above, round as the iliield of my 
fathers! whence are thy beams, O fun! whence thy' 
everlafling light ? Thou Cornell forth in thy awful beauty, 
and the liars hide themfelves in the fky ; the moon, cold 
and pale, finks in the weftern wave. But thou ihyfclf 
move/l alone : who can be a companion of thy com le ? 
The oaks of the mountains fall ; the mountains themfelves 
decay with jears; the ocean (brinks and grows again; 
the moon herfelf is loft in heaven : but thou art for ever 
the fame ; rejoicing in the brightnefsot thycourfe. When 
the world is dark with tempells ; when thunder rolls and 
lightning glances through the heavens ; thou looked in 
thy beauty from the clouds, and laughed at the dorm. 
But to Offian thou looked in vain : for he beholds thy 
beams no more ; whether thy yellow hair flows on the 
eadern clouds, or thou trembled at the gates of the wed. 
But thou art, perhaps, like me for a feafon ; and thy 
yeays will have an end : thou (halt deep in thy clouds, 
carelefs of the voice of the morning. Exult then, O fun, 
in the drength of thy youth ! age is dark and unlovely ; 
it is like the glimmering light of the moon, when it (bines 
through broken clouds, and the mid is on the hills, the 
howling blad of tire north is on the plain, the traveller 
(brinks in the midlt of his journey.” 
Thus dependent on every creature, and pafiive to every 
accident on earth, can the uncharitable world be furprifed 
to oblerve moments when the blind are at variance with 
themfelves and every thing elfe around them ? With the 
fame inflindtsof felf-prefervation, the fame irafcible paf- 
fions which are common to the fpecies, and exafperated 
by a fenfe of inability either for retaliation or defence ; 
can the blind be real objedls of refentrnent or contempt, 
even w hen they feem peevifh or vindidlive ? This, how¬ 
ever, is not always their charadler. Their behaviour is 
often highly expreffive, not only of refignation, but even 
of cheerfulnefs ; and though they are often coldly, and 
even inhumanly, treated by men, yet are they rarely, if 
ever, forfaken of heaven. The common Parent of na¬ 
ture, whole benignity is permanent as his exifience, and 
boundlefs as his empire, has neither left his afflidled crea¬ 
tures without confolation or refource. Even from their 
lofs, however opprellive and irretrievable, they derive ad¬ 
vantages ; not, indeed, adequate to recompenfe, but, in 
fome degree, fufficient to alleviate, their mifery. The at¬ 
tention of the foul, confined to thefe avenues of percep¬ 
tion which (he can command, is neither diflipated nor con¬ 
founded by the immenfe multiplicity, nor the rapid fuc- 
cellion, of lurrounding objedls. Hence her contemplations 
are more uniformly fixed upon herfelf, and the revolutions 
of her own internal frame. Hence her perceptions of 
fuch external things as are contiguous and obvious to her 
obfervation, become more lively and exquifite. Hence 
even her inllruments of corporeal fenfation are more af- 
fiduoully cultivated and improved, fo that from them (hr 
derives fuch notices and prefages of approaching pleafure*- 
or impending danger, as entirely efcape the attention of 
thofe who depend for fecurityon the reports of their eyes. 
A blind man, when walking fwiftly, or running, is kindly 
and effcdlually checked by nature from rudely encounter¬ 
ing fuch hard and extended objedls as might hurt or bruife 
him. When he approaches bodies of this kind, lie feels 
the atmofphere more fenlibly refill his progrefs; and, in 
proportion as his motion is accelerated, or his diflance 
from the objedt diminilbed, the relillanceis incrcafed. He 
dillinguiffies the approach of his friend from far by the 
found of his Heps, by his manner of breathing, and almoft 
by every audible token which he can exhibit. Prepared 
for the dangers w inch he may encounter from the furface 
of tire ground upon which he walks, his ftep is habitually 
firm and cautious. Hence he not only avoids thofe falls 
G g which 
