Five Lectures on Blindness | Page 7

know; My dear
ones' eyes ne'er lose their cherished glow; The hair of gold ne'er turns
to silver hair; The young are young, the fair are always fair.
With reason strengthened, feelings more intense, The senses, multiples
of former sense, Vicarious servants for dead sight become. I see the
city in the city's hum; I catch its subtle undertone of trade; I hear of
fortunes lost and fortunes made, In sounds to him a mystery profound
Who, seeing, knows not vision muffles sound. Distinct to him must
sound become, to whom Life walks in darkness--call it not in gloom.
'Tis only an exchange of good for good, A new plant growing where
the old one stood, Old blessings taken, and new blessings given; Sweet
compensation, thou wert born in heaven!
There is not silence unto him whose soul In darkness sits and listens.
Like a scroll On which the secrets of the world are traced, Blindness is
but a sea-shell kindly placed Beside the ear, and in its varying tone,
Who will, may make life's secret all his own. And thus misfortunes
bless, for blindness brings A power to pierce the depths of hidden
things, To walk where reason and fair fancy lead, To read the riddle of
men's thoughts, to read The soul's arcana in each subtler tone, And
make man's joys and sorrows all my own.
Nor can I sit repining at my lot As bitter or unjust, or curse the shot
Which tore away my sight. The world is kind And gentle to her sons.
Though I am blind, Smooth paths of enterprise have always stood Open
for me, and, doing what I could, With hand or brain, with simple
earnestness, Have gathered what was due me of success.
O you, who sit in darkness, moaning o'er Your dead and vanished
vision, mourn no more! Keep in the current. Be you brave and strong!
The busy world is singing--join the song, And you shall find, if you no
duty shirk, Who will may prosper, if he do but work.
And as a last thought, permit me to quote the concluding words of
Clarence Hawkes' wonderful book, "Hitting the Dark Trail": "If night
has overtaken me at noonday, yet have I found beauty in night. The sun

at noontide showed me the world and all its wonder but the night has
shown me the universe, the countless stars and illimitable spaces, the
vastness and the wonder of all life. The perfect day only showed me
man's world, but the night showed me God's Universe."

THE BLIND CHILD AND ITS DEVELOPMENT.
As a foreword to this lecture, I shall quote from a paper entitled "Blind
Children And How To Care For Them," written by Dr. F. Park Lewis,
an eminent oculist of New York City, and a man who has devoted
much time and thought to the blind and their needs.
Dr. Lewis says: "It is the mind and the spirit which control, and when
these are great, they dominate and rise superior to mere physical
deficiencies. The inspiration of great ideals must be held out to the
blind, even more than to the seeing, from the very beginning. It is not
enough that the blind man or woman shall have physical strength, but
his training must be so well balanced as to give him poise as well as
vigor. It does not suffice that the blind man shall be as well educated as
his fellow who sees. Handicapped by the loss of the most important of
his special senses, he must supplement this deficiency by a better
training of his mind and body. It is not enough that he should have the
good character of the average man. His word and his reputation should
be beyond question. He should be independent, and proudly unwilling,
except when absolutely necessary, to accept that for which he can not,
in some way, return an equivalent. He must be taught to reason with
clearness and logical precision, for he must succeed by the aid of his
mentality and character, rather than by his manual exertions. These
facts are emphasized here, because if such qualities are to be secured,
the training which produces them should begin in the cradle." If I could
bring it about, a copy of the foregoing lines should be framed and
placed on the desk of every teacher of blind children, and such teachers
requested to read these words at least once each day.
In considering the development of the blind child, we must recognize
the fact that, in mental attainment, at least, he is the peer of the child

who sees. But in order to bring this about, the early years of the child
must be carefully supervised, and his training calculated to fit him for
the tremendous task