ed and pampered, in
consequence of their affliction, that they become utterly dependent and
useless, and contract habits that should be and which under other
circumstances would be broken.

It is no more necessary for a blind child, with proper instruction and
careful training, to become awkward and ungainly, than for one in full
possession of all the senses, the drawback of blindness simply demanding a
little more patience and perseverance to attain the ease and grace, which
is as inevitable as in other children.

In all the category of first instructions for the period of childhood,
from the muscular education by which a babe is taught to take its first
tottering step or the voluntary movement necessary to grasp and hold an
object, to the lisping language of love intoned in the first sweet
prattle, the all-pervading spirit, from the first to the last lesson, is
that of self-reliance. While blind children of wealth are waited upon
until they become utterly incapable of helping themselves, and through a
mistaken kindness are so constantly ministered to, they lapse into
passive, pantomimic puppets, void of the vitality and sparkle which, by
their natural endowments, is attainable.

I have made it a guiding rule, throughout my life, never to consider there
was anything which, with the proper effort, I could not do, and my
experience proves a confirmation of the fact that there were very few
things I could not accomplish. I would fain impress this lesson upon my
blind friends, feeling as I do that it would prove of untold service to
them.

It is not at all necessary that the blind should so lose their dignity or
individuality, as to allow themselves to be addressed in word or tone at
all different from that directed to other people, and, as an illustration
of this point, I may be pardoned for relating an incident of my school
life.

A gentleman once called at our Institution in Baltimore, and, immediately
after his introduction to a group of blind girls, of which I was one, he
said: "Ladies, how would you manage to select a husband?"

Flaming with indignation, I impulsively replied: "Sir! We do not deal in
such merchandise?" and smarting with a sense of the indignity, I
immediately left his presence.

I was afterward called to account by our worthy Superintendent to whom the
person in question preferred a complaint of rude treatment. Begging
permission to explain the situation, I respectfully enquired of our
offic