m 1648 to 1715.

A more recent case was that of the Rev. William Henry Milburn, who died in
1903 after many years' service as chaplain of the United States Senate.

John Ziska, the famous Hussite general, was born near Budweis, Bohemia, in
1360. From childhood he was blind in one eye, and later he lost the other
in battle, but that did not interfere with his aggressive and determined
spirit, for after gaining several victories over the Emperor Sigismund,
that monarch early in 1424 proposed a meeting at which Ziska was granted
full religious liberty for his followers, and was appointed governor of
Bohemia and its dependencies. Unfortunately, the old warrior did not live
long enough to enjoy his well-earned peace, for he died of the plague
October 11, 1424.

Sightless Poets.

There were several blind poets, of whom Milton is, of course, the most
famous; he became totally blind in May, 1652, being then forty-one years
of age. A large number of his works, "Paradise Lost" among others, were
written after his misfortune. He lived in darkness for twenty-two years,
dying November 8, 1674.

Homer was known as "the blind bard of Chio's rocky isle," but he did not
become blind until late in life--if indeed he was a real person at all.

Another blind poet of note was Luigi Grotto, an Italian, known as "Il
Cieco d'Adria." He lived from 1541 to 1585.

Giovanni Gonelli (1610-1664) was a noted Tuscan sculptor, and much of his
work may be seen to-day. Though totally blind, he made admirable
likenesses, and his portrait bust of Pope Urban VIII is very celebrated.

In more modern times we have the late Henry Fawcett, of Salisbury,
England. Born in 1833, he was graduated from Cambridge in 1856. In 1858 he
became totally blind, through an accident while hunting. This terrible
misfortune at the outset of a promising career would have been enough to
daunt most men, but in spite of it Fawcett soon became an authority on
economic and political subjects, and in 1863 he was made a professor of
political economy at the University of Cambridge. He was elected to the
British House of Commons, and in 1880 he entered the cabinet as
postmaster-general of England, in which position he proved himself an
active and efficient minister. He died in 1884.

Another notable modern example is the great yacht designer, John B.
Herreshoff. Although he became blind at fifteen, he has built up and
managed the successful business that bears his name--the H