his ideas of beauty: Rugged rocks, irregular points, and boisterous elements, furnished him with expreflions for terror and difguft. He excelled in the charms of converfation; was happy in his allusions to visual objects; and discoursed on the nature, compofition, and beauty of colours, with pertinence and precifion. Dr Moyes was a ftriking inftance of the power the human foul poffeffes, of finding refources of fatisfaction, even under the moft rigorous calamities. Though involved in ever during darkness,' and excluded from the charming views of filent or animated nature; though dependent on an undertaking for the means of his subsistence, the fuccefs of which was very precarious; in fhort, though deftitute of other support than his genius, and under the mercenary protection of a person whofe integrity he fufpected, ftill Dr Moyes was generally chearful, and apparently happy. Indeed it must afford much pleasure to the feeling heart, to obferve this hilarity of temper prevail almoft univerfally with the blind. Though cut off from the ways of men, and the contemplation of the human face divine,' they have this confolation; they are exempt from the difcernment, and contagious influence of thofe painful emotions of the foul, that are vifible on the countenance, and which hypocrify itself can scarcely conceal. This difpofition likewife may be confidered as an internal evidence of the native worth of the human mind, that thus fupports its dignity and chearfulness under one of the fevereft misfortunes that can poffibly befal us." There are few sciences in which the blind have not diftinguished themselves: even those whose acquifition feemed effentiaily to depend upon vifion, have at laft yielded to genius and induftry, though deprived of that advantage. Profeflor SAUNDER SON has left the moft ftriking evidences of aftonishing proficiency in those abftract branches of mathematics, which appeared least acceffible to blind perfons. Sculpture is not the moft practicable art for a blind man, yet there are inftances of perfons, who have taken the figure of a face by the touch, and moulded it in wax with the utmost exactnefs; as was the cafe of the blind fculptor mentioned by De Piles, who thus took the likeness of the Duke de Bracciano in a dark cellar, and made a marble ftatue of K. Charles I. with great elegance and juftness. (Cours de Peint. p. 329. Wolf. Psychol. Rat. § 162.) And, however unaccountable it may appear to the abftract philofopher, yet nothing is more certain in fact, than that a blind man may, by the efforts of a cultivated genius, exhibit in poetry the moft natural images and animated defcriptions, even of vifible objects, without either incurring or deferving the imputation of plagiarifm. In mufic, there are, at prefent, living inftances how far the blind may proceed. In former periods, we fhall find illuftrious examples, how amply nature has capacitated the blind to excel, both in the fcientific and practical departments of mufic. In the 16th century, when the progrefs of improvement both in melody and harmony was rapid and confpicuous, FRANCIS SALINAS was eminently diftinguifhed. He was born A. D. 1513, at Burgos in Spain; and was fon to the treaturer of that city. Though afflicted with incurable blindness, he was profoundly skilled both

or advocate in the council of Brabant, and has had the pleasure of terminating almost every fuit in which he has been engaged to the fatisfaction of his clients. The following anecdotes of Dr MOYES were not long ago prefented to the Manchefter Society by Dr G. Bew, and afterwards publifhed. "Dr Henry Moyes, who occafionally read Lectures on Philofophical Chemistry at Manchefter, like Dr Saunderfon, the celebrated profeffor of Cambridge, loft his fight by the fmallpox in his early infancy. He never recollected to have feen: but the first traces of memory I have (fays he,) are in fome confufed ideas of the folar fyftem.' He had the good fortune to be born in a country where learning of every kind is highly cultivated, and to be brought up in a family devoted to learning. Poffeffed of native genius, and ardent in his application, he made rapid advances in various departments of erudition; and not only acquired the fundamental principles of mechanics, mufic, and the languages, but likewife entered deeply into the inveftigation of the profounder fciences, and displayed an acute and general knowledge of geometry, optics, algebra, aftronomy, chemistry, and in fhort of most of the branches of the Newtonian philofophy. Mechanical exercises were the favourite employments of his infant years. At a very early age he made himfelf acquainted with the ufe of edged tools fo perfectly, that notwithstanding his entire blindnefs, he was able to make little wind-mills; and he even conftructed a loom with his own hands, which ftill fhow the cicatrices of wounds he received in the execution of thefe juvenile exploits. By a moft agreeable intimacy and frequent intercourfe which I enjoyed with this accomplished blind gentleman, whilft he refided at Manchefter, I had an opportunity of repeatedly obferving the pecuHar manner in which he arranged his ideas and acquired his informaton. Whenever he was introduced into company, I remarked that he continued fome time filent. The found directed him to judge of the dimenfions of the room, and the different voices of the number of perfons that were prefent. His diftinctions in these refpects was very accurate; and his memory fo retentive, that he feldom was mistaken. I have known him inDantly recognize a person, on first hearing him fpeak, though more than two years had elapfed fince the time of their laft meeting. He determined pretty nearly the ftature of thofe he was fpeaking with by the direction of their voices; and he made tolerable conjectures refpecting their tempers and difpofitions, by the manner in which they conducted their converfation. It must be obferved, that this gentleman's eyes were not totally infenfible to intenfe light. The rays refracted through a prifm, when fufficiently vivid, produced certain diftinguishable effects on them. The red gave him a difagreeable fenfation, which he compared to the touch of a faw. As the colours declined in violence, the harshness leffened, until the green afforded a sensation that was highly pleafing to him, and which he defcribed as conveying an idea fimilar to what he felt in running his hand over fmooth polished furfaces. Polished furfaces, meandering ftreams, and gentle declivities, were the figures by which he expreffed

in the theory and practice of mufic. As a performer, he is celebrated by his cotemporaries with the highest encomiums. As a theorift, Sir John Hawkins fays, his book is equal in value to any now extant in any language. Though he was deprived of fight in his earliest infancy, he did not content himfelf to delineate the various phenotena in mufic, but the principles from whence they refult, the relations of found, the nature of arithmetical, geometrical, and harmonical ratios, which were then efteemed effential to the theory of mufic, with a degree of intelligence which would have deferved admiration, though he had been in full poffeffion of every sense requifite for thefe difquifitions. He was taken to Rome in the retinue of Petras Sarmentus, archbishop of Compoftella; and having paffed 20 years in Italy, he returned to Salamanca, where he obtained the professorship ef mufic, an office at that time equally refpectable and lucrative. Having difcharged it with reputation and fuccefs for fome time, he died at the venerable age of 77. In the fame period flourished CASPAR CRUMBHORN, blind from the 3d year of his age: yet he compofed feveral pieces in many parts with fo much fuccefs, and performed both upon the flute and violin fo exquifitely, that he was diffinguithed by Auguftus elector of Saxony. But preferring his native country, Silefia, to every other, he returned to it, and was appointed or

of the church of St Peter and Paul in Ligz, where he had often the direction of the mufual college, and died June 11, 1621. To thefe mt be added MARTIN PESENTI of Venice, a compofer of vocal and inftrumental mufic almoft of all kinds, though blind from his nativity; with other examples equally worthy of public attention. Put if vulgar prejudice is capable of blushing at its own contemptible character, or of yielding to ceriton, thofe already quoted are more than ficient to fhow the musical jugglers of our time, that their art is no monopoly, with which thofe ase who fee are invefted, by the irreversible deCree of heaven. See farther, § 11-15.

BLIND, EDUCATION OF THE. It is fcarce patible to lay down a plan, or enter into a detail of particulars with refpect to the education of the bind. These must be determined by the genius, the capacity, and the circumftances, of thofe to whom the general rules fhould be applied. Much dre muft depend on their fortunes, much on temper and genius; for unless thefe particuwe known, every anfwer which could be Pato questions of this kind must be extremely and of confequence extremely fuperficial. Bets the talk is fo much more arduous, beCu ever attempts it can expect to derive no tre from thofe who have written on educata before him: And though the blind have exin more than one fcience; yet, except in the cafe of Dr Saunderfon, (fee § 7 & 15.) it does appear, that any of them have been conducto that degree of eminence, at which they ar, upon a premeditated plan. One should imagine, that they have been led through the general courfe and ordinary forms of difcip; and that, if any circumftances were favour * to their genius, they rather proceeded from cadent than defign. This melancholy truth re

flects no honour on human nature. When con templated by a man of benevolence, it is not eafy to guefs whether his mortification or aftonishment will be greateft. A heart that glows with real philanthropy feels for the whole vital creation, and becomes, in fome measure, the fenforium of every fuffering infect or reptile. How muft our fympathy increafe then in tenderness and force, when the diftreffed individuals of our own fpecies become its objects? Nor do the blind bear fo fmall a proportion to the whole community, as, even in a political view, to be neglected. But in this, as in every other political crime, the punish ment returns upon the fociety in which it is com mitted. Thofe abandoned and unimproved beings, who, under proper culture and discipline, might have fuccessfully concurred in producing and augmenting the general welfare, become the nuifances and burdens of thofe very focieties who have neglected them. There is perhaps no clafs of beings in the fenfible universe, who have suffered from nature or accident, more meritorious of public compaflion, or better qualified to repay its generous exertions, than the blind. They are meritorious of compaffion; for their sphere of action and enjoyment is much more limited than that of the deaf, the lame, or of those who labour under any other corporeal infirmity confiftent with health: although, on the other hand, it must be owned, that they are more capable of acquiring moft branches of fcience than thofe born deaf. They are better qualified to repay any friendly interpofition for their happiness; becaufe, free from the diftraction which attends that multiplicity of objects and pursuits, that are continually obvious to the fight, they are more attentive to their own internal economy, to the particular notices of good and evil impreffed on their hearts, and to that peculiar province in which they are circumfcribed, by the nature and cultivation of their powers. The most important view, which we can entertain in the education of a perfon deprived of fight, is to redrefs, as effectually as we poffibly can, the natural difadvantages with which he is encumbered; or, in other words, to enlarge as far as poflible the sphere of his knowledge and activity. This can only be done by the improvement of his intellectual, imaginative, or mechanical, powers; and which of thefe ought to be most affiduously cultivated, the genius of every individual alone can determine. Were men to judge of things by their intrinfic natures, lefs would be expected from the blind than others. But, by some pernicious and unaccountable prejudice, people generally hope to find them either poffeffed of preternatural talents, or more attentive to thofe which they have than others; thinking with Rochefter,

That if one fenfe fhould be fupprefs'd, It but retires into the reft. Hence it unluckily happens, that blind men, who in common life are too often regarded as rareehows, when they do not gratify the extravagant expectations of their fpectators, frequently fink in the general opinion, and appear much lefs confi derable and meritorious than they really are. This general diffidence of their powers deprives them

both

both of opportunity and spirit to exert themfelves; and they defcend, at laft, to that degree of infignificance, in which the public estimate has fixed them. From the original dawning, therefore, of reafon and spirit, the parents and tutors of the blind ought to inculcate this maxim upon them, That it is their indispensible duty to excel, and that it is abfolutely in their power to attain a high degree of eminence. To imprefs this notion on their minds, the first objects prefented to their obfervation, and the first methods of improvement applied to their understanding, ought to be comprehenfible by thofe internal powers and external fenfes which they poffefs. Not that improvement should be rendered quite eafy to them. For all difficulties, which are not infuperable, heighten the charms and enhance the value of thofe acquifitions which they feem to retard. But care should be taken that thefe difficulties be not magnified or exaggerated; for the blind have a painful fenfe of their own incapacity, and confequently a ftrong propensity to defpair. For this reafon, parents and relations ought never to be too ready in offer ing their affiftance to the blind in any office which they can perform, or in any acquifition which they can procure for themfelves, whether they are prompted by amufement or neceffity. Let a blind boy be permitted to walk through the neighbourhood without a guide, not only though he fhould run fome hazard, but even though he fhould fuffer fome pain. If he has a mechanical turn, let him not be denied the ufe of edge tools; for it is better that he should lofe a little blood, or even break a bone, than be perpetually confined to the fame place, debilitated in his frame, and depreffed in his mind. Such a being can have no employment but to feel his own weaknefs, and become his own tormentor; or to transfer to others the peevithuefs arifing from the natural, adventitious, or imaginary evils which he feels. Scars, fractures, and diflocations in his body, are trivial misfortunes compared with imbecility, timidity, or fretfulness of mind. Befides the dreadful effects, which inactivity has in relaxing the nerves and depreffing the fpirits, nothing can be more productive of jealoufy, envy, peevithnefs, and every paffion that corrodes the foul to agony, than a painful impreflion of dependence on others, and of our infufficiency for our own happinets. This impreffion, which, even in his most improved ftate, will be too deeply felt by every blind man, is redoubled by that utter incapacity of action, which must refult from the officious humanity of thofe, who would anticipate all his wants, who would prevent all his motions, who would do or procure every thing for him without his own interpofition. Blind people, as well as others, may furvive their parents, and thofe who, by the ties of blood and nature, are more immediately interested in their happiness than the reft of mankind. When, therefore, they fall into the hands of ftrangers, fuch exigencies, as they themfelves cannot redrefs, will be but coldly and languidly supplied by others. Their expectations will be high and frequent, their difappointments many and fenfible; their petitions will often be refuted, feldom fully gratified; and, even when granted, the conceffion will be fo ungrace

ful, as to render its want infinitely more tolerable, than its fruition. For all thefe reafons, in the education of a blind man, it is better to direct than fuperfede his own exertions. From the time that he can move and feel, let him be taught to fupply his own exigencies; to drefs and feed himself; to run from place to place, either for excrcife, or in purfuit of his own toys or neceffaries. In thefe excurfions, however, it will be proper for his parent or tutor to fuperintend his motions at a distance, without feeming to watch over him. A vigilance too apparent, may imprefs him with a notion that fome felfish motive may have produced it. When dangers are obvious and great, fuch as from rivers, precipices, &c. those who are entrusted with the blind need not make their vigilance a fecret. They ought to acquaint their pupil, that they are prefent, and interpofe for his prefervation, whenever his temerity renders it neceflary. But objects of a nature lefs noxious, which may give him fome pain without any permanent injury or mutilation, may even with defign be thrown in his way; provided that this defign be always induftriously concealed. For his own experience of their bad effects will be a far more eloquent and fenfible monitor, than the abftract and frigid counfels of any adviser whatever. The natural curiofity of children renders them extremely inquifitive. This difpofition is often peculiarly prevalent in the blind. Parents and tutors, therefore, fhould gratify it whenever their anfwers can be intelligible to the pupil; when it is otherwife, let them candidly confess the impo fibility or impropriety of antwering his questions. At this period, if their hearts be tender, and their powers inventive, they may render his amufcments the vehicles, and his toys the inftruments, of improvement: why, for inftance, may not the centrifugal and centripetal forces be illuftrated from the motion of a top, or the nature and power of elafticity by the rebound of a ball? Thefe hints may lead to others, which, if happily improved, may wonderfully facilitate the progrefs of knowledge. Nor will the violence of exercise, and the tumult of play, be productive of fuch perils as may be apprehended. For the encouragement of parents, we can affure them, that though, till the age of 20, fome blind perfons were on moft occafions permitted to walk, to run, to play at large, they have yet escaped without any corporeal injury from thefe excurfions. Parents in the middle, or higher ranks, who have blind children, ought, by all means, to keep them out of vulgar company. Such perfons often have a wanton malignity, which impels them tc impofe upon the blind, and to enjoy their painful fenfations. This is a ftricture upon the humanity of our fpecies, which nothing but the love of truth and the dictates of benevolence could extort. Some have fuffered fo much from this diabolical mirth in their own perfons, that it is a duty to prevent others from becoming its victims. Blind people have infinitely more to fear from the levity and ignorance, than from the felfifhnefs and illnature of mankind. In fericus and important affairs, pride and compaffion fufpend the efforts of knavery or fpleen; and that very infirmity, which fo frequently renders the blind defenceless to the

arts

fluence in practice. There are people whofe views and education have been strictly confined to one province, and whofe converfation is of confequence limited and technical. Thefe, in literary intercourfe, or fashionable life, are branded with the name of mere men of business. Nor is it any wonder, that the convertation of fuch perfons should prove exceedingly difgufting. It would be arrogance in them to expect, that indifferent perfons thould either enter into their private interefts, or the peculiarities of their craft, with a warmth equal to their own. We have known the intrusion of fuch a perfon involve a numerous company in gloom, and terminate the freedom and vivacity of agreeable difcourse, in lazy yawning and difcontented filence. Of all innocent characters, this ought to be avoided by the blind; becaufe, of all others, it is the charac ter which they run the greatest hazard of adop ting. The limitation of their powers naturally contracts their views and purfuits, and, as it were, concentres their whole intellectual faculties in one, or at beft in a few objects. Care fhould therefore be taken to afford the mind a theatre for its exertions, as extensive as poffible, without diverting it from one great end, which, in order to excel, it ought for ever to have in view.

arts of the infidious, or to the attempts of malice, is a powerful incentive to pity, which is capable of difarming fury itfelf. Villainy, which frequently piques itself more upon the arts by which it prevails, than upon the advantages which it obtains, may often with contempt reject the blind, as fubjects below its operation; but the illnatured buffoon confiders the moft malicious effects of his merriment as a mere jeft, without reflecting on the fhame or indignation which they infpire, when inflicted on a fenfible temper. But the credulity and ignorance of the lower clafs are no lefs dangerous than their falfe wit. The iEterate have often a ftrong propensity to relate whatever is marvellous and dreadful. Thefe impreffions, when early imbibed, can scarcely be eradicated by all the confpiring efforts of mature reafon and confirmed experience. Thofe philofophers who have attempted to break the alliance between darkness and spectres, were certainly infpired by laudable motives. Were we endued with fenfes to advertise us of every noxious object before its contiguity could render it formidable, our panics would probably be lefs frequent and fenfible than we really feel them. Darkness and fence, therefore, have fomething dreadful in them, because they fuperfede the vigilance of thofe fenfes Lich give us the earlieft notices of things. In taking, therefore, to a blind boy of invifible being, let benevolence be an infeparable ingredient in their character. We may tell him of departed fpirits, anxious for the welfare of their furviving friends; of miniftring angels, who defcend with pleafure from heaven to execute the purposes of their Maker's benignity; we may even regale his imagination with the fportive gambols and innotat frolics of fairies; but let him hear as feldom as poffible, even in ftories which he knows to be fabulous, of vindictive ghosts, vindictive fiends, or avenging furies. They feize and pre-occupy every avenue of terror which is open in the foul; nor are they easily difpoffeffed. Sooner may we hope to exorcite a ghoft, than to obliterate their images in a warm and fufceptible imagination, where they have been habitually impreffed, and where thele feelings cannot be diffipated by external phenomena. If horrors of this kind fhould agitate the heart of a blind boy, (which may happen notwithftanding the moft ftrenuous endeavours to prevent it, the ftories which he has heard will be mof effectually difcredited by ridicule. This, however, muft be cautiously applied, by gentle lations. If he is infpired with terror by effats upon his fenfes, the caufes of which he cannot veftigate, pains must be taken to explain thefe phenomena, and to confirm that explication, Whenever it can be done, by the teftimony of his ewa fenfes and his own experience. The exertun of his locomotive and mechanical powers will feribly contribute to difpel thefe terrors. His Eventive faculties ought likewife to be indulged with the fame freedom. The data which they explore may be prefented in fuch a manner, as to render difcoveries eafy: but fill let invention be loved to co-operate. The internal triumph which the mind feels from the attainment of new truths, heightens their charms, impreffes] them deep on the memory, and gives them a lafting in

VOL. IV. PART I,

(9.) BLIND, EMPLOYMENTS PROPER FOR THE. If the pupil be not in cafy circumstances, mufic is his readiest and most probable refource. Civil and ecclefiaftical employments have either fome thing in their own nature, of in the invincible prejudices of mankind, which renders them entirely inacceffible to fuch as have not the ufe of fight. No liberal and cultivated mind can entertain the leaft hesitation in concluding, that there is nothing, either in the nature of things, or even in the pofitive inftitutions of genuine religion, repugnant to the idea of a blind clergyman. But the novelty of the phenomenon, while it aftonishes perfons of contracted understandings, inflames their zeal to madnets. Befides, the adventitious trappings and ceremonies, affumed by fome churches as the drapery of religion, would, according to these fyftems, render the facerdotal office painful, if not impracticable, to the blind. With regard to the law, were it not for a fact so striking and fo well authenticated, as that of Dr Bacon, (See § 7.) though there could have been no doubt that a blind man might discharge the office of a chamber counfel with fuccefs; yet as a barrister, his difficulties must have appeared formidable, if not abfolutely infuperable. For he must remember all the fources, whether in natural equity or pofitive inftitutions, whether in common or statutory law, from whence his arguments ought to be drawn. He must be able to specify, and to arrange in their proper order, all the material objections of his antagonists thefe he must likewise answer as they are propofed, extempore. When, therefore, it is confidered how difficult it is, to temper the natural affociations of memory with the artificial arrangements of judgment, the defultory flights of imagination with the calm and regular deductions of reafon, the energy and perturbation of paflion with the coolnefs and tranquillity of deliberation; fome idea may be formed of the arduous task which every blind man mu

E

at

fmall, the minim, crotchet, quaver, &c. will in creafe in their intrinfic durations, though they must always preferve the fame proportions relatively one to another. He fhould never be habituated to take a piece of mufic, either from the found of a voice or an inftrument. His companion ought to read the mufic by the names and values of its characters, with the fame exactness as the words in any other language. When he becomes a confiderable adept in the art, tangible figns may be used, (See § 16.) by which he may not only be enabled to read, but even to fet mufic for himfelf. Such exercifes will render him infinitely more accurate, both in his principles and practice, than he would otherwife be.

atchieve, who undertakes the law as a profeffion. Perhaps affiftances might be drawn from Cicero's treatife on Topics and on Invention; which if improved might leffen the disparity of a blind man to others, but could fcarcely place him on an equal footing with his brethren. And it ought to be fixed as an inviolable maxim, that no blind man ought to engage in any province, in which it is not in his power to excel. For the confciouf nefs of the obvious advantages poffeffed by others, habitually predifpofesa blind man to defpondency; and if he ever gives way to defpair (which he will be too apt to do, when purfuing any acquifition, where others have a better chance of fuccefs than himself,) adieu to all proficiency. His foul finks into irretrievable depreffion; his abortive attempts inceffantly prey upon his fpirit; and he not only lofes that vigour and clafticity of mind, which are neceffary to carry him through life, but that patience and ferenity which alone can qualify him to enjoy it. As to phyfic, the obftacles which a blind man muft encounter, both in the theory and practice of that art, will be cafily conceived. If the blind must depend upon the exercife of their own powers for bread, we have already pointed out mufic as their cafieft and most obvious province; but let it be remembered, that mediocrity in this art may prove the bitterest and most effectual curfe, which a parent can inflict upon his offfpring; as it fubjects them to every vicious impreffion or habit, which may be imbibed or contracted, from the loweft and most abandoned of mankind. If your pupil, therefore, be not endowed with natural talents exquifitely proper both for the theory and practice of this art, fuffer him by no means to be initiated in it. If his natural genius favours your attempts, the fpinct, harp, or organ, are the moft proper inftruments for him to begin; becaufe, by thefe inftruments, he may be made more cafily acquainted with the extent of mufical feales, with the powers of harmony, with the relations of which it is conftituted, and of courfe with the theory of his art. It would be not only unneceffary, but impracticable, to carry him deep into the theory, before he has attained fome facility in the practice. Let, therefore, his head and his bands be taught to go pari paffuLet the one be inftructed in the fimpleft elements, and the others connected in the easieft operations firft: contemplation and exercife will produce light in the one and promptitude in the other.But as his capacity of speculation and powers of action become more and more mature, difcoveries more abstract and retired, tasks more arduous and difficult, may be affigned him. He fhould be taught the names and gradations of the diatonic fcale, the nature and ufe of time, the diverfity of modes whether fimple or mixed. De fhould be taught the quantity or value of notes, not only with refpect to their pitch, but to their duration. Yet let him be inftructed not to confider thefe durations as abfolutely fixed, but variable according to the velocity of the movements in which they are placed. Thus we reckon a femibreve equal 4 vibrations of a pendulum; a minim to 2; a tchet to 1, &c. But if the number of aliquot , into which a femibreve is divided, be great, onfequently the value of each particular part

to

(10.) BLIND, EXERCISES, DIET, &C. PROPER FOR THE. When the volatile feafon of puerile amufement is expired, and the impetuous hurry of animal fpirits fubfides, the tutor will probably obferve in his pupil a more fenfible degree of timidity and precaution, and his activity will then require to be stimulated more than restrained. In this crifis, exercife will be found requifite, rather to preferve health, and facilitate the vital functions, than merely for recreation. Of all kinds of exercife, riding on horfeback, is by far the moft eligi ble. Care, however, must be taken that the horfes employed be neither capricious nor unmanage able; for on this not only his fafety, but his confidence, will entirely depend. In all his excurfions, his attendant ought conftantly to be with him; and the horfe fhould always either be taught implicitly to follow its guide, or be conducted by a leading rein befides the bridle which he himself holds. Next to this mode of exercise is walking. If the conftitution of the blind boy be tolerably robuft, let him be taught to endure every viciflitude of weather, which the human fpecies can bear with impunity. For if he has been bred with too much delicacy, particular accidents may fuperfede all his former fcruples, and fubject him to the necefity of fuffering, what will not only be fevere in its fefation, but dangerous in its confequences. Yet, when the cold is fo intenfe, or the clements fo tempeftuous, as to render air and exercife abroad impractical le, there are methods of domeftic exercife, which may be practifed; fuch as dumb bells, or the bath chair. The first of thefe are made of lead, confifting of a cylinder, the middle of which may either be rectilineal or arcuated for the conveniency of holding, and terminates at each end in a femiglobular mafs. Their weight fhould be conformed to the ftrength of the perfon who uses them. The method of employing them is to take one in each hand, and fwing them backwards and forwards over his head, defcribing a figure fomewhat like a parabola. This not only ftrengthens the arms, and opens the cheft, but promotes the circulation of the fluids. The bath chair is a deal 12 feet in length, as free from knots and as elaftic as poffible, fupported by a fulcrum at each end, upon which may be placed two rolling cylinders to give it greater play; when feated upon this, by alternately deprefiing it with his own weight, and fuffering it to return to its natural fituation, he gives himself a motion, fomewhat refembling the trot of a horfe. The claftic chair is of ftill greater utility, efpecially to one in a va

letudinary