Five Lectures on Blindness | Page 5

the opportunity. This
lack of confidence upon the part of the public is one of the most
depressing features of adult blindness. Thus far, I have considered the
subject from the point of view of one who has been blind from early
infancy, but now I shall view it from the standpoint of one deprived of
eyesight in adult life, who is taking his first step in the dark.
M. Diderot says: "The help which the senses reciprocally afford to each
other hinders their improvement," and so the adult whose movements
are no longer directed by his eyes, feels utterly helpless and bewildered,
as one who finds himself on a strange road, very late at night, with no
ray of light to guide him. As the blinded soldier is uppermost in our
thought today, I am considering the mental condition of an adult
suddenly deprived of eyesight, not that of the man whose blindness has
come on gradually.
The first sensation when thus plunged into total darkness is that of
unreality, and, just as the light of day dispels the gloom of night, so the
sufferer clings to the hope that any minute he may open his eyes, and
find things as they were before the darkness settled down, with all its
weird shadows, to fill his soul with dread. The continued darkness
causes a feeling of depression and repression, very hard to combat, and
so the sufferer is in need of "first aid"--in need of a friendly hand and a
cheery voice to help him through these trying days. Of this period, M.
Brieux, Director of Re-education of the Blinded Soldiers in Paris, says:
"The blind are, for the time being, put back into the helpless condition
of children. They have to be sustained and given a new education for
life. They have to begin many things all over again. Spiritually, they
have lost their bearings, and are drifting about in restless anguish.
Physically, their whole organism has been shaken by the wound they

have received, and must have time after such a violent shock to recover
its equilibrium. Their power of judgment has often been temporarily
destroyed. They are weak in body and uncertain in mind. This double
weakness lays on those who surround them a double duty. Much will
have been done when their material welfare has been assured, but the
responsibility will not have been discharged unless they have also
attained to tranquility of soul and a sense of their own dignity. One
must have confidence, in order to give them confidence. Most of us
have no idea what powers to meet new demands are inherent in our
organs. We have within us capacities unknown even to ourselves,
inactive, so long as they are not necessary, awake and efficient, as soon
as there is need of them. They are reserves which most of the time we
never call on. They are a hoard which we do not touch. Our resources
and our power of life are greater than we imagine. The sudden loss of
sight gives, after a time, something like the lash of a whip to the whole
organism. All the other senses are roused to greater sharpness. When
the blind soldier fully realizes this, he will perhaps arrive at a state in
which I have seen some men blind from birth, the state of being proud
of being blind. Why should they not be proud, when they feel that they
are as capable of accomplishing certain things, of practicing certain
trades as other men? If, with their lessened powers, lacking the power
that we consider of supreme importance, they can do things as well as
we, are they not, therefore, cleverer than we? Instead of talking to them
of resignation, incite them to revolt at the limitations of their condition.
Inspire them to conquer circumstances. Insist that they can. Picture life
to them, its beauty and its power, and tell them that it is good."
In administering to the needs of this readjustment period, the volunteer
should be an optimist, and should exercise common sense in guiding
the adult over the first lap of the unfamiliar road. I have advised the
volunteers who are now in France, and those preparing to go there, to
take writing boards, games, bright, pithy stories, and a lot of nonsense
verse. I have told these Red Cross workers that they themselves must
know how to laugh, must be able to rise above the horrors about them,
for they are there to serve heroes, not cowards, heroes who will laugh
with a sob in their throats; heroes who, after a short respite, will reach
for a new sword with which to resume the battle of life. God grant we

may have the new swords ready for them--swords of hope, swords of