ealthy action the imprisoned, stagnant, and
deteriorating mind of the blind, something long before now would
have been done more worthy of the name of philosophy.... As to
gaining information from the teachers of schools, I do not expect
you would be treated with much respect in our present degraded and
unrecognised condition. With the exception of ---- and ----, I
never met with any one who treated me with the respect due to an
educated man; the manner in which I have been treated by others
connected with such institutions has almost universally been that
off-hand supercilious disrespect, with which an imaginary superior
treats one of a lower grade, such as a beadle will show to a
workhouse child.... The reckless and unprincipled disregard of
truth to which the supposed-to-be helpless, dependent, and
incapable blind are so generally exposed, has long taught me to
keep copies of my letters.... I could fill pages with many an act
and their consequences, which have contributed to my present ruined
position, the miserable desolation of my mother's old age, and the
blasted prospects of those who must sink and degenerate into
isolated poverty, who would otherwise have formed a happy,
self-supporting, united, and self-elevating family. This would
never have happened had not those who know well where to find when
convenient those sacred texts, "Thou shalt not lead the blind out
of their way! Thou shalt not put a stumbling-block before the
blind," taken a foul advantage of my supposed incapacity to protect
my own interests, and had they not practically ignored the _equally
sacred obligation_ that "the labourer is worthy of his hire." And
when I have occasionally heard the Jesuits railed against for
advancing the doctrine that the end sanctified the means, I have
assured such, that those equally were to be dreaded who privately
practised without openly advocating it.

Bessie's nature was too healthy, and her own experience had been too
favourable to allow her to believe in the organised opposition of
society to the afflicted. But she was deeply moved by these cries out
of the dark. They made her more than ever resolute to labour on behalf
of the blind; they also showed her that she must stand aloof from plans
and schemes which assume that the blind are struggling against their
enemies