one to avail himself of such service, the greater amount of intelligence possessed by the person engaged, the better will he be enabled to discharge his ordinary duties, and also to report acurately to his employer the nature of various circumstances that meet his view; but above all things, a father who is without sight should shrink from depriving his children of any advantages to make use of them as guides. He should remember that his children, although they are his offspring, have natural rights, and that by keeping his sons and daughters in a state of ignorance, and drudgery, he is reducing them to a condition far worse than blindness. It is too much to be feared that many parents have a great deal to answer for in this way, and the writer would earnestly impress upon them so to act, that in future years their children may speak of their blind father with thankfulness and pride, rather than with contempt and derision. Not the least remarkable among the guides of the blind is the faithful dog; the breed of the dog usually employed in this way is not much, and the appearance of the animal is far from striking, but his intelligence and fidelity are beyond description. To lead his master through the most crowded thoroughfares unhurt, to turn to the right or left when bidden, to cross roads only when quite safe for his feeble and helpless master to do so, to stand for hours with a cup or hat in his mouth, pitifully begging for pence, and to refuse to quit his charge for the choicest bone even when pining with hunger, are but a few of the virtues of this most instructive quadruped. And it may be noted that creatures with these qualities are common to every clime, and that persons afflicted with loss of sight, even when combined with deafness, are safe when under the protection of the faithful dog Tray; a little dog brought from the Crimea safely guided his master, who was both blind and deaf, for many months through the most intricate parts of Kent. But the dog has his rival, albeit

a very humble one, among the goose tribe, and although it seems scarcely credible yet it is stated

that:

"In a village in Germany, a blind old woman was led to church every Sunday by a gander, who used to take hold of her gown with his bill. When he had safely conducted the poor woman to her seat, he would go back to the churchyard and graze there until the service was over. When he saw the people coming out of church, he went back to his blind mistress and led her safely home. One day a gentleman called at the woman's house, and when he found her out, he expressed his surprise to the girl who opened the door. "Oh, Sir," she answered, "we are not afraid of trusting her out, for the gander is with her."

In an early part of this article allusion was made to the injury caused to health by the want of power of independent motion. This result must be so evident, that scarcely any observations upon it are required. It is, however, felt desirable to record here the fact that Dr. Blacklock, the eminent blind philosopher, divine, and poet, ascribed much of the physical weakness and timidity of nature from which he suffered to his not being allowed when young to walk abroad without a guide. And in the article "Blind," written by him in the Encyclopædia Britannica,' he makes use of the following words when speaking of the blind child : "It is better that he should lose a little blood, or even break a bone than be perpetually confined in the same place, debilitated in his frame and depressed in his mind." Let not any one, however, be alarmed by these words of the learned doctor, for loss of blood and broken bones do not necessarily follow from the blind walking alone; in fact, it is believed that fewer accidents happen to the blind than to the sighted, in proportion to their numbers; and here the writer can speak from individual experience, and also from the knowledge he has

of the cases of hundreds of persons in the same situation.

PRINTING FOR THE BLIND.

The invention of the method of printing in relief is one of the most valuable discoveries ever made; and although all the beneficial results anticipated by its early promoters have not followed its introduction, yet real and substantial advantages have accrued to the blind by its instrumentality. All writers on this subject for the last eighty years have accorded the credit of this invention to Valentine Haüy, a writingmaster of Paris, brother of the celebrated mineralogist, and son of a poor weaver, of the town of St. Just, in the present department of Oise. Indeed, Haüy himself claimed to be the discoverer; and respect for his labours, and for the character of many of those who have confirmed his theory, causes regret that justice should oblige us to state that Haüy was not the inventor. This step we certainly should not take unless we had the warrant of the most undoubted evidence, and the proof we now proceed to lay before the reader. About twenty-two years before Haüy is said to have brought out his invention, an account appeared in the Annual Register for 1762 of the life and accomplishments of Mademoiselle de Salignac, a blind lady, in which occurs the following passage: "The most wonderful circumstance is that she should have learnt to read and write, but even this is readily believed on knowing her method. In writing to her, no ink is used, but the letters are pricked down on the paper, and by the delicacy of her touch, feeling each letter, she follows them successively, and reads every word with her finger ends." M. Diderot, the celebrated French encyclopædist, says, "She could read a book printed only on one side; Priault printed some in

this manner for her use." Although obliged to refuse to Haüy the honour of having invented 'tangible print,' we, nevertheless, owe him a deep debt of gratitude for having established the first school for the instruction of the blind, and also for having succeeded in directing the attention of the various European States to the mode of educating those deprived of sight. Haüy having formed the acquaintance of the Baroness Von Paradis, of Vienna, who visited Paris in 1780, and performed publicly on the organ and pianoforte with great applause, he repeatedly visited that talented lady, and was much surprised to find in her apartments several contrivances for the use of the blind, among which a small printing apparatus particularly attracted his notice. The invention of this appliance has been severally ascribed to a blind gentleman, named Weissemborg, of Mannheim, in Bavaria, the inventor of maps, etc. for the use of the blind, and to Von Kempelen, of Vienna, the inventor of the mechanical chess player and of the speaking automaton, but of the origin and mode of working this printing apparatus we have no reliable information. We, however, know that Madame Von Paradis was enabled to correspond by its means, both with Herr Von Kempelin and with Herr Weissemborg, and we may therefore gather that it could be used by a blind lady, and that its productions could be read both by the sighted and by the blind. Haüy compared the high cultivation of Mademoiselle Von Paradis and Herr Weissemborg with the degraded state of the masses of the blind in France, a striking instance of which was afforded by the part they took at the annual fair of St. Ovid. At this fair an inn-keeper had ten blind men attired in a ridiculous manner, and decorated with asses' ears, peacocks' tails, and spectacles without glasses, in which condition they performed a burlesque concert, the profits doubtless being divided between the blind men and the inn-keeper. Haüy after much reflection, opened in 1784 an institution for

the instruction of the blind in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, music, and various mechanical employments. The institution was at first entirely supported by voluntary contributions, and by the aid afforded by the Philanthropic Society of Paris, which supplied funds for the maintenance and instruction. of twelve persons. Some say that Haüy took his idea of printing in relief from seeing a sheet of ordinary black print that had by chance been very much pressed, so that the letters were raised on the back of the paper. But, however this may be, in 1784 books were embossed by him, and on December 26th, 1786, he examined before the amiable and unfortunate Louis XVI. twentyfour pupils in reading, writing, music, geography, and arithmetic, and in the same year he published an account of his contrivances, entitled, Essai sur l'Education des Aveugles.'

As the novelty of the subject wore away, voluntary contributions almost came to an end, and the blindschool must have ceased to exist, had it not been taken, in 1791, under the protection of the State. This patronage, however, although it secured the establishment from extinction, greatly impaired its efficiency. The training of the blind and of the deaf and dumb was now under one roof, but the evils of this arrangement became so patent, that a separation took place in 1795. Six years after this occurrence, the school was united to the hospital of the Quinze-vingts, but the mixing of young blind persons with old soldiers, whose only common link with them was want of sight, was found to be so prejudicial, that Haüy, full of indignation, resigned his position as director of the institution, and went to St. Petersburg in 1804, to which city he had been invited by the Emperor Paul, to establish an institution. In the same year, he succeeded in forming a similar establishment in Berlin, but the unsettled state of affairs in the north of Europe caused him to return to Paris in