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remembered, that the light is sweet, that it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun.

The object of the society for which I am now to implore your protection, is to diminish the misfortune of blindness, by giving, to those afflicted with it, the means of obtaining support by their ingenuity, and labor, and of walking in the law of Christ, by attending to the religious instructions, and exercises, prescribed by this institution. They are instructed in a variety of works for which manual skill is requisite, rather than bodily labour, and which they perform with a dexterity astonishing to those who have connected with blindness the notion of absolute helplessness and incapacity.

A charitable institution, conducted upon such principles as the asylum for the blind, is superior to any common charity, as it interweaves science with compassion; and, by shewing how far the other senses are capable of improvement, takes off from the extent of human calamity, all that it adds to the limits of human knowledge. Who could have imagined, to speak of a kindred

instance of ingenious benevolence, that the deaf and dumb could be taught to reason, to speak, and to become acquainted with all the terms, and intricate laws of a language; or that men, who had never, from their earliest infancy, enjoyed the privilege of sight, could be taught to read, and to write; to print books, and the ablest of them to penetrate into all the depths of mathematical learning? Such facts afford inexhaustible encouragement to men engaged in the benevolent task of instructing those in whom the ordinary inlets of knowledge are blocked up. They seem to place within our reach the miracles of those scriptures from whence they have sprung, and to shew the fervent votary of Christ, that he, also, like his great master, can make the deaf hear, the dumb speak, and the blind see.

Consider the deplorable union of indigence and blindness, and what manner of life it is from which you are rescuing these unhappy people; the blind man comes out in the morning season, to cry aloud for his food;-when he hears no longer the feet of men, he knows that it is night, and gets him

back to the silence, and the famine of his cell.

Active poverty becomes rich; labour and prudence, are rewarded with distinction; the weak of the earth have risen up to be strong; but he is ever dismal, and ever forsaken! The man, who comes back to his native city, after years of absence, beholds again the same extended hand into which he cast his boyish alms; the selfsame spot, the old attitude of sadness, the ancient cry of sorrow, the intolerable sight of a human being that has grown old in supplicating a miserable support for a helpless, mutilated, frame,-such is the life these unfortunate children would lead, had they no friend to appeal to your compassion,

—such

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-such are the evils we will continue to remedy, if they experience from you that compassion which their magnitude so amply deserves.

The author of the book of Ecclesiastes has told us, that the light is sweet, that it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun; the sense of sight is, indeed, the highest bodily privilege, the purest physical pleasure, which man has derived from his

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Creator: To see that wandering fire, after he has finished his journey through the nations, coming back to us in the eastern Heavens ; the mountains painted with light; the floating splendour of the sea; the earth waking from deep slumber; the day flowing down the sides of the hills, till it reaches the secret vallies; the little insect recalled to life ; the bird trying her wings; man going forth to his labour; each created being moving, thinking, acting, contriving, according to the scheme and compass of its nature; by force, by cunning, by reason, by necessity, is it possible to joy in this animated scene, and feel no pity for the sons of darkness? for the eyes that will never taste the sweet light? for the poor, clouded in everlasting gloom ?-If you ask me ?—If ask me why,

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yare miserable, and dejected; I turn you to the plentiful vallies; to the fields, now bringing forth their increase; to the freshness and the flowers of the earth; to the endless variety of its colours; to the grace, the symmetry, the shape of all it cherishes, and all it bears; these you have forgotten, because y you have always enjoyed them; but these are the means by which God Almighty

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makes man what he is; cheerful, lively, erect; full of enterprise, mutable, glancing from Heaven to earth; prone to labor and to act.-Why was not the earth left without form, and void? Why was not darkness suffered to remain on the face of the deep? Why did God place lights in the firmament for days, for seasons, for signs, and for years?that he might make man the happiest of beings, that he might give to this his favorite creation a wider scope, a more permanent duration; a richer diversity of joy this is the reason why the blind are miserable, and dejected, because their soul is mutilated, and dismembered of its best sense; because they are a laughter, and a ruin, and the boys of the streets mock at their stumbling feet; therefore I implore you, by the son of David, have mercy on the blind: if there is not pity for all sorrows, turn the full and perfect man to meet the inclemency of fate; let not those who have never tasted the pleasures of existence, be assailed by any of its sorrows;-the eyes which are never gladdened by light, should never stream with tears.