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form the various words. These he arranges along the flat piece of board, gently pressing each letter down as he puts it next the preceding one; the needle-points by this

under surface of it a raised or embossed representation, by the projection of the bars where the points have penetrated, and this embossed character may be distinguished and easily read by the touch. At the end of each word a small wooden space is inserted. It will be observed, that by putting two or more pieces of paper underneath the pointed types, copies will be multiplied.

In a long, narrow room, well heated, I found a dozen or more young men and boys busy making baskets. They seemed in all stages of proficiency, from the young beginner splitting osiers slowly, cautiously, and distrustfully, to the expert hand employed in making a handsome fire-screen, in which a variety of coloured osiers were tastefully worked up into one harmonious whole. In this case the blind workman seemed to know where to seek for an osier of any given colour, his fancy directing him in the choice of pattern, &c. Nearly all the work is fashioned round wooden blocks, or models of the baskets, which the worker holds on his knees, and round which he weaves the osiers.

and there is a space of about a quarter of an inch between each hole. There are a number of pins, of the same sort, which fit into these holes, and by them the computation is carried on. The pins are also pen-means enter the paper, and form on the tagons, with a projection at each end: at one end the projection has a flat top; at the other it is notched, like the end of an arrow. To denote 1, the pin with the flat projection uppermost is inserted in the board, with the projection parallel to the top of the board; to indicate 3, it is turned one-fifth round to the right; to signify 5, it has another turn of one-fifth further to the right; to denote 7, the pin is turned further round; and to signify 9, the projection is opposed to the remaining side of the pentagon. The even numbers are expressed in a similar way, the notched end of the pin being uppermost in this case. By the use of this board the pupils may be carried to any extent in arithmetical knowledge, and make their calculations with as much satisfaction as those who see. For teaching geography, oral instruction is much employed; but relief maps (after the manner of those maps of the country round Sebastopol which were exposed for sale in the Sydenham Palace only lately) are also used. I noticed some of a different kind, the seas being smooth and varnished-the land rough-towns represented by small pins-mountains I now proceeded to the girls' school, where ridged, and boundaries simply raised. Wri- a number of girls, clean, healthy, and appating, properly speaking, is not much prac-rently happy, were busily engaged in knittised in the York School; but the following method of printing, or perpetuating ideas on paper, is extensively used there: A cube of wood, or any other convenient material, the size of which depends on the delicacy of touch in the blind person, has raised on one side of it a letter, or figure, or stop, in the manner of a printer's type. On the opposite, or lower side of the cube, is a representation of the same character as that on the upper side, but formed of needlepoints inserted into the wood. A cushion is provided, the size of the sheet of paper intended to be printed; a sheet of paper is laid on the cushion, and the types arranged with their needle-points resting on the paper. Upon the cushion there is a flat piece of wood about an inch broad, which can be moved from one notch to another, by which the distance of the lines is rendered uniform. This piece of wood is for the letters to lie against, like the composingstick of the printer. The letters being first of all arranged in alphabetical order in a frame, the blind person selects (by feeling the raised impression of the letter, &c., on the upper surface) what letters he needs to

ting, netting, and kindred occupations. I noticed here, that while many were plainly not proficients, some few were working away at beautiful and elaborate patterns. Through the kindness of the teacher of music, I was allowed the opportunity of judging of the proficiency of some of the pupils in this branch of science. The blind are proverbially good musicians, and certainly the York school is by no means behind others in this respect. A convincing proof of the pains bestowed on the pupils, and the attention on their part, will be found in the fact that they have made themselves masters of the whole of Handel's Messiah; while their public concerts every Thursday afford a rich and varied supply of the best music, very creditably performed. It is pleasing to be able to record, too, (and the fact is mentioned in order to incite others, similarly circumstanced, to do the same.) that, at the request of the pupils themselves, a concert was given by them in aid of the Patriotic Fund; and the proceeds, amounting to 547. 123. 11d., were handed over to this excellent object. In the York school the musical instruction is conveyed

raised type. I was sorry to hear that, owing to want of sufficient support, it was feared the magazine would have to be discontinued. In some schools the pupils play at draughts in their hours of recreation. The game is played thus: the alternate squares of the board are covered with sand, and in each there is a small hole, fitted to receive a pin attached to the piece, which is thus retained.

orally, raised musical types not being used; | but it must be added that the theory of music is not neglected, the advanced musical pupils receiving constant lessons in counterpoint, &c. It is a curious sight to see the blind working their exercises in thoroughbass. A small mahogany board has a number of grooves cut in it lengthwise, to denote the musical lines and spaces; these lines, &c., are divided at right angles by slits into several portions. In these slits Whatever truth there may be in the resmall pieces of metal are intended to be in-marks that "the ear is the vestibule of the serted by the pupil, to express bars. The soul," and whole board is pierced all over by a number of holes large enough to thrust a pin. The notes, semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver, &c., together with their rests, flats, sharps, naturals, dots, &c., are all expressed by pins bent and twisted in different ways. Thus, a minim is a pin bent like a buttonhook; a minim rest is the same without the head of the pin; and so on. These are all arranged in different divisions of a small mahogany box, and the pupil, knowing where to feel for each, inserts it by turns in the proper hole of the board, putting, where necessary, the slips of metal in the slits, to denote the bars; and thus he proceeds with

his exercise.

The recreation of the blind is an important matter. As they have naturally a painful sense of their own incapacity, a strong propensity to despondency is continually working in their minds: hence it has been recommended not to be too ready to offer assistance to the blind in any office which they can perform, whether prompted by amusement or necessity, "Let a blind boy (says a competent authority) be allowed to walk through the neighbourhood without a guide. If he have a mechanical turn, let him not be denied the use of tools-it is better that he should lose a little blood than be perpetually confined to the same place, and so debilitated in body and depressed in mind." Walking exercise is especially to be recommended; as also, where practicable, that of riding. During last summer the pupils of the York school had one or more excursions by water up the River Ouse. The pleasure derived by the blind from an excursion of this sort arises from the sound of the ripple of the water, the freshness of the breeze, the enjoyment of their own music, the reading aloud of some kind friends, which to the blind is always a source of gratification. I was glad to find in the York school several numbers of the Magazine for the Blind, a work expressly designed for the instruction and amusement of the blind, and printed in

"That if one sense should be suppressed It but retires into the rest," certainly it may almost be said that some blind men have learnt to see with their hands and ears; as it has been said that certain deaf persons have learnt to hear with their eyes. The names of more than a few blind men are written in the annals of fame; and if the limits of this article permitted, many, various and interesting details could be furnished to such distinguished characters. I need not do more than mention the names of Homer and Milton; they had probably been long acquainted with the visible world before they lost their sight, and therefore their descriptions may be the result of feelings which fired their bosoms before blindness came upon them. But what shall we say of the productions of such men as Sanderson and Blacklock, both of whom became blind within a year after birth? We regard their excellent works with amazement and admiration. Dr. Sanderson was a professor at Cambridge. His attainments and performances in the languages, and also as a learner and teacher in the abstract mathematics, in philosophy and music, were truly astonishing. Numbers came to hear and admire a blind man give lectures on optics, discourse on the nature of light and colours, explain the theory of vision, the phenomena of the rainbow, and other objects of sight, He possessed the sense of feeling in such perfection that he could in a set of Roman medals distinguish the genuine from the false, though they had been counterfeited in such a manner as to deceive a connoisseur who judged of them by the eye. He could judge of the size of a room into which he was introduced, and of his distance from the wall. Dr. Blacklock, who lost his sight before he was six months old, nevertheless made himself master of various languages, Greek, Latin, Italian, and French; and also acquired a deserved reputation as an excellent poet. Huber, the celebrated Swiss

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tendency to atheism. Let us hope that constant and careful religious instruction has rendered this reproach, at least as regards the blind in the Asylums of this country, groundless.

of here. The following table gives some information as to the causes of blindness. During forty-three years the Liverpool Blind Asylum received 929 persons: the following were the causes which led to this partial or total blindness :

naturalist, who wrote so well on bees and | picious, vindictive, and implacable. Add ants, became blind at seventeen years old. to which, they are accused of having a great Leonard Euler, the mathematician, was blind during the latter part of his life. James Holman became blind when a young man: his travels round the world excited general curiosity and interest. John Metcalf, a native of Knaresborough, became The case of blind mutes-those unfortublind at six years of age. He was a pro- nate persons who are deaf, dumb, and blind jector and surveyor of high roads in difficult-though full of interest, cannot be treated and mountainous parts. In this capacity, with the assistance of a long staff, he would traverse the roads, ascend precipices, explore valleys, and investigate their several extents, forms, and situations; and this he did with consummate ability and accuracy. The following observations are curious: many of them are given on the high authority of Dr. Guillié. It frequently happens Blind from their birth... that more than one child in a family is born blind. This is probably owing to the force of imagination. The mother of two blind children stated that she owed the blindness of her second child to the fact of constantly looking on, and thinking of, the calamity of the other. Many of the blind can discover, by the voice, whether a person is tall or short; and describe his form and beauty, &c. They know the steps of their companions; and on hearing a sermon, they can tell by the sound whether the preacher uses notes. Currents of air tell them when they approach buildings, &c. A person born blind never dreams that he sees the objects of his dreams. The blind are said to be generally deficient in modesty or shame; and are often destitute of sensibility and gratitude, being frequently irritative, sus

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bridges of Zealand; but we hope the young gentlemen who escort the fair one attired in the picturesque costume of the country will not demand double toll.

THE PIERCED GROTTO. AT the extreme end of the harbour of Brest, beneath the narrow promontory of Kelern, is situated a little hamlet, embowered amid a grove of elm, beech, and ash trees. This is Roseauvel, whose pointed spire rises high above the surrounding trees, and serves from afar as a guide to the wayfaring man.

The village consists of about thirty houses, in the midst of which stands the

and shaded by two magnificent walnuttrees. A few paces distant from one of these, a grave had recently been dug, and the black wooden cross, watered with tears (which in the country churchyards of Britany often replace the monumental stone) had been newly planted at its head.

We may add, for the information of those of our readers who might otherwise imagine Zealand to have some remote connection with the Cannibal Islands, where the principal dishes at the tables of the natives are cold-boiled missionary and baked young woman, that Zealand is the most southern province of the Nether-church, surrounded by its burial-ground, lands, and that it comprises a number of islands between the mouths of the Scheldt and Maas, among which is Walcheren, where the English made so disastrous a failure in an armed expedition in 1812. The surface of Zealand-or Zeeland, as the Dutch call it-is a little above the level of the sea. The climate is very damp, and most unhealthy to strangers. The principal products are cattle, butter, madder, seeds, and potatoes. The principal town of Zealand is Middleburg. Slight as is the back-ground of the engraving, a sufficiently accurate idea can be acquired of the general characteristics of this not very pleasant country. Low, swampy, marshy lands, innumerable dykes, and a plenitude of dams, all bear out the description given by an old traveller of Belgium and Holland, "An oglie countrye, rasyshed from ye see, and which had moch better remained therein."

IMPORTANCE OF MORAL EDUCATION.Under whose care soever a child is put to be taught during the tender and flexible years of his life, this is certain; it should be one who thinks Latin and languages the least part of education; one who, knowing how much virtue and well-tempered soul is to be preferred to any sort of learning or language, makes it his chief business to form the mind of his scholars, and give that a right disposition; which, if once got, though all the rest should be neglected, would in due time produce all the rest; and which, if it be not got, and settled so as to keep out ill and vicious habits-languages, and sciences, and all the other accomplishments of education, will be to no purpose but to make the worse or more dangerous man.

A man knelt with uncovered head upon the turf, and two young children prayed by his side. This humble tomb contained the earthly remains of her who had been to them a tender mother, to him a faithful wife. Gentle and courageous woman! For ten years she had struggled against poverty, infirmities, and nights of weary watching, and had at length died in suffering, without having suffered one murmur to escape her lips. His prayer concluded, Claude Morvan rose from his knees; his children followed his example, and all pursued in silence the road which led to Kelern. The death of Catherine had left a deep wound in the peasant's heart, for he had loved her as dearly as a woman could be loved, but his grief did not diminish aught from his manly courage. He concealed it even as we hide those wounds which we cover up, lest their sight should make us faint; and he continued to love her who was no more, in the children whom she had left behind to his care. The eldest of these, the little Peter, was just nine years of age, and had that ready aptitude for turning his hand to everything, which necessity so early teaches to the children of the poor. He not only took care of his sister Rénée, two years younger than himself, but he assisted in household matters, went on errands, and assisted his father

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