of equal intellectual ability without any infirmity of sight.

Although, of the five senses which God has given us, sight and hearing
are the most necessary to the intellectual life, it may easily be
demonstrated that the lower ones are not without their intellectual
uses. Perfect literature and art can only he produced by men who are
perfect in all their natural faculties. The great creative intellects
have never been ascetics; they have been rightly and healthily sensitive
to every kind of pleasure. The taste of fruits and wines, the perfume of
flowers are a part of the means by which the spirit of Nature influences
our most secret thoughts, and conveys to us suggestions, or carries us
into states of feeling which have an enormous effect upon our thinking,
though the manner in which the effect is produced is one of the deepest
mysteries of our mysterious being. When the Caliph Vathek added five
wings to the palace of Alkoremmi, on the hill of Pied Horses, for the
particular gratification of each of his five senses, he only did on a
uselessly large scale what every properly-endowed human being does, when
he can afford it, on a small one.

You will not suspect me of preaching unlimited indulgence. The very
object of this letter is to recommend, for intellectual purposes, the
careful preservation of the senses in the freshness of their perfection,
and this is altogether incompatible with every species of excess. If you
are to see clearly all your life, you must not sacrifice eyesight by
over-straining it; and the same law of moderation is the condition of
preserving every other faculty. I want you to know the exquisite taste
of common dry bread; to enjoy the perfume of a larch wood at a distance;
to feel delight when a sea-wave dashes over you. I want your eye to be
so sensitive that it shall discern the faintest tones of a gray cloud,
and yet so strong that it shall bear to gaze on a white one in the
dazzling glory of sunshine. I would have your hearing sharp enough to
detect the music of the spheres, if it were but audible, and yet your
nervous system robust enough to endure the shock of the guns on an
ironclad. To have and keep these powers we need a firmness of
self-government that is rare.

Young men are careless of longevity; but how precious are added years to
the fulness of the intellectual life! There are lives, such as that of
Major Pendennis, which only diminish in value as they advance--when the
man of fas