d generally.

CHAPTER XII

HER DIARY

"The older we grow, the more we understand our own lives and
histories, the more we shall see that the spirit of wisdom is the
spirit of love, that the true way to gain influence over our
fellow-men is to have charity towards them."--KINGSLEY.

In addition to the Common Place Book, which contains the result of many
years of thought and investigation, Bessie kept during 1858 a diary.
This shows not only her thoughts but her deeds. Her whole life was now
engrossed by her work for the blind. French, Italian, German, the harp,
the guitar, were all laid aside. Friends were made no longer for herself
but for the blind. She was eagerly occupied with experiments in trade,
with instruction, with visits to the workshop and the homes of her
people, with letters and appeals, and with efforts to make known not
only what was being attempted, but the need there was that more should
be done.

She studied the census of 1851, and upon it based her statements as to
the number of the blind throughout Great Britain and their condition.
She learned that a large proportion of the number lose their sight after
having reached the age at which they are admissible to the existing
institutions. She saw, therefore, that she must add to her scheme for
employment that of the instruction of adults in trades by which they
could earn a living. She did not believe in doles, pensions, and
so-called "Homes." She believed in work, in a trade, a handicraft, the
possibility of earning one's own living, as the means of restoring blind
men and women to their place in human society. There is nothing that she
records in the diary with more satisfaction than the progress made by
adult pupils. The instruction and employment of women was also
succeeding beyond her expectation, and the wages they earned
approximated more nearly to the wages of sighted women than had been
expected. But even her remarks on this proficiency of the women show her
usual fair and broad view. She says:

There are seven men and six women pupils. The best workwoman can
earn seven shillings a week, working eight hours a day. Upon this
she contrives to support herself and a little sister. A sighted
brushmaker employing a hundred workwomen states that she must be a
very good workwoman who can earn six shillings a week at eight
hours a day. The women he employs often work twelve or fourteen