Weekly Trinity journal., 1875-03-13
NUMBER II.

greatly in these discoveries but genius
effected for him what mere assiduity
would never have accomplished. She
taught him in few minutes to swim the
river of difficulty, while others spent hours
in searching for ford.
1t is the union of genius with diligence
that has made so many a blind man ia
nous among his brethren with eyes, not
only the head to conceive, but tho hand
to carry out and achieve in its own way,
the plan of wisdom and beauty. Thus,
Metcalf, the blind engineer, constructed
roads through the wilds of Derbyshire;
thus Davidson ventilated the deepest
coal mines and lectured on the structure
OF the eye rs did DR.. Moyes on chemis-
try and optics thus Blackjack, poet and
musician, master offour languages besides
his own, wrote both prose and poetry
with elegance and case ; thus, nearer our
own time, Holman the traveller has made
himself name far beyond the shores of
Great Britain. We do not know what
Saundersons or Hubers the present gen.
Grafton is to SEQ. One name equally
great in another path OF fame it already
has had Prescott, the historian of " Fer
dinand and Isabella" "Mexico and
Peru" who, though not blind, had de-
feet of the eyes which prevented him from
reading or writing, but whose literary
IoI 1nl;ohta1 and In 81 al
thousands both in tho Old World and in
the Now.
Coleridgo remarks that "a diseased
state of an organ of sense will perpetually
tamper with the understanding and per-
haps ut last overthrow it. But when one
organ is obliteratod, the mind applies
some other to double use. Some ten
years back, at the Sowerby met man
perfectly blind-from infancy. His chief
amusement was fishing upon the wild,
uneven banks of tho Eden and up difficult
mountain streams. His friend, who was
also blind, knew every gate and stile in
tho district. John Cough, Of Kendall,
blind, is not only mathematician, but
an inialliblo botanist and zoologist; cor
rocting mistakes of keen sportsmon, as to
birds and vormn. His face is all ono
eye. The eyes of Moyes, although ho
was totally blind, were not insonsible to
intense light. Colors were not distin-
guishable by him, but felt. Red was dis
agreeable he said it felt 81 like the graf
ing Of n saw" while green was very
pleasant and similar to a "smooth sur
face" when touched"
In some instances blindness seems to
have given the sufferer new powers. A
DR.. Guysc, we read, lost his sight while
at prayer in the pulpit before tho sermon
but nevertheless managed to preach as
usual. An old lady of the congregation.
hearing him deplore his loss, thus strove
to comfort him
"God bo Praised" said sho "that your
eyosight is gone. never heard your
reverence preach so powerful a sermon in
my lte."
Tho detection of color by the touch of
Illo pllllh IL u nlOOLcu punt. pCFclhl hH-
ecdotes Of blind persons who had tho
power OF discriminating colors by tho
touch but if tho testimony Of largo
number of blind children can bo relied on
the detection Of color is entirely beyond
their reach. Saunderson's power Of de-
tecting by his finger or tongue n counter
felt coin, which had deceived the eye OF
a connoisseur, is totally different ques-
ton. We are hardly aware how much
Of our dexterity in tho use of the eye
arises from incessant practice. Those
who have been relieved at an advanced,
or even an early age, havo often been
found to recur to the old and moro famil-
lar sense of touch, in preference to sight.
especially during the first few months af-
ter recovering their sights. Coeridge in
his Omnana," mentions most re-
markabo instance of blind man at
Hanover, who possessed touch SO keen,
as to be able to read with his fingers
books Of ordinary print, if printed rs tho
most German books are, on coarse paper.