Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-12-03
On Hearing.

! Would you rather be blind or deaf:
Most people win illogieally reply
Neither" but when pressed, nine
ont Of ten will be found to answer
Leave me the sight of my eyes-let
NE be deaf" Yet all experience show:
that they are wrong. Deafness trie;
the temper more, isolates more, unfit;
for social converse, cuts off from the
world of breathing emotional activity
tenfold more than blindness. There
is something rs vet unanalysed about
sound, which doubles and intensiiie;
ut all points the sense of living; wher
We hear. We are somehow more alive
than when we see. Apart from sound
the outward world has a dreamlikt
and unreal look-we only half believe
in tive miss at each moment what
it contains. | presents, indeed, innu.
merable pictures of still-life; but these
refuse to yield up half their secrets
If anyone is inclined to doubt this, lei
him stop his ears with cotton wool fol
five minutes, and sit in the room with
some intelligent friend who enjoys the
full use of his ears, and at the end OF
five minutes let the two compare notes.
OF course We must suppose that both
are doing nothing, except the one tax
ing stock of his loss, and the other
taking stock Of his gain. sit, then,
in my chair, stone deaf. look up at
the pictures on the wall, a man driv-
ing goat, a haystack, and some pigs,
an engraving of Millais' "Black Bruins
wicker" [ am tired of the sight OF
it. | notice the bird on his perch
his mouth is wide open, he looks to
me as if he were in a fit; point at
him in an alarmed manner; my friend
shakes his head with a smile, the bird s
only singing; | can't say | am glad to
hear it, for ! cannot hear anything
Presently my friend rises and goes to
the door, opens it-what on earth for :
why, in jumps the cat. | suppose he
heard it outside; it might have mewed
till doomsday, as far as my ears were
concerned. My strange companion
has 10 sooner sat down on the chair
than he jumps up as if stung; he
points out, in answer to my bewilder-
ed look, that the legs are loose; he
must have heard them creak, | sup
pose. Then he goes up to the clock,
and begins winding itup; he must have
noticed that it had left off ticking-I
might not have found that out for
hours. Another start. he rushes from
the room, | follow-the maid has split
the coal-scuttle all down the stairs;
he probably heard the smash. My
wife might have fallen down stairs
and broken her neck, and I should
have known nothing about it. l tear
the wool out of my ears long before
the expiration of the ten minutes, and
my friend addresses me as follows:-
81 pass over the canary, the cat, the
chair. the coal-scuttle and the kettle.
You happened to find out about them
day after the fair by using your eyes
but besides all this, of how much vivid
life were you deprived-how many de.
tails of consciousness, how many ave-
nues of thought were lost to you in
less than ten minutes! AS | sat,
could hear your favorite nocturne Of
Chopin being played in the next room
Perhaps you did not know it was rain.
ing; nor should have noticed it, only
heard it on the skylight. | there.
fore rang the bell, ordered trap-dool
open in the roof to be shut, and sent
the carrige for lady who would have