an.
I remember when I once told Channing of this, and said that but for the
loss of sight I thought I should have devoted myself to the pursuits of
learning, his [32] reply was, "You were made for something better." I do
not know how that may be; but I think that my deprivation, which lasted
for some years, was not altogether without benefit to myself. I was
thrown back upon my own mind, upon my own resources, as I should never
otherwise have been. I was compelled to think--in such measure as I am
able--as I should not otherwise have done. I was astonished to find how
dependent I had been upon books, not only for facts, but for the very
courses of reasoning. To sit down solitary and silent for hours, and to
pursue a subject through all the logical steps for myself,--to mould the
matter in my own mind without any foreign aid,--was a new task for me.
Ravignan, the celebrated French preacher, has written a little book on
the Jesuit discipline and course of studies, in which he says that the
one or two years of silence appointed to the pupil absolute seclusion
from society and from books too were the most delightful and profitable
years of his novitiate. I think I can understand how that might be true
in more ways than one. Madame Guyon's direction for prayer to pause upon
each petition till it is thoroughly understood and felt had great wisdom
in it. We read too much. For the last thirty years I have read as much
as I pleased, and probably more than was good for me.

The disease in my eyes was in the optic nerve; there was no external
inflammation. Under the [33] best surgical advice I tried different
methods of cure,--cupping, leeches, a thimbleful of lunar caustic on
the back of the neck, applied by Dr. Warren, of Boston; and I remember
spending that very evening at a party, while the caustic was burning.
So hopeful was I of a cure, that the very pain was a pleasure. I said,
"Bite, and welcome!" But it was all in vain. At length I met with a
person whose eyes had been cured of the same disease, and who gave me
this advice: "Every evening, immediately before going to bed, dash on
water with your hands, from your wash-bowl, upon your closed eyes; let
the water be of about the temperature of spring-water; apply it till
there is some, but not severe, pain, say for half a minute; then, with a
towel at hand, wipe the eyes dry before opening them, and rub the parts
around smartly; after that do not read, or use your eyes in any