ssen, writing from the Temple, 12th March 1831, replies that he
will have much pleasure in forwarding her excellent views, and that Mr.
Vynes has secured the reference of her plan to the Committee; that it
will be well considered, but for his own part he is bound to express the
greatest doubt as to the result. He suggests that instead of teaching
the blind to read there should be more reading aloud to them, "so as to
stimulate their minds to more exertion, which in many cases is the
source of the kind treatment they meet with."

A brother of the Secretary, Mr. Dodd, writes that he also will do what
he can, although he has heard that the benefit of the plan "is so
limited that quite as much good may be accomplished by teaching the
pupils to commit portions of Scripture to memory as by teaching them to
read."

Mr. Vynes informs Mrs. Wood that he has, at her request, attended the
meeting of the Committee, that only two of the other gentlemen she had
written to were present, Mr. Pigou and Mr. Gaussen. "The latter is not
favourable to the plan, neither is Mr. Dodd, the Secretary." The
gentlemen present who spoke were all "well satisfied with the amount of
religious knowledge which their blind pupils already possess, so that I
much fear they will take little trouble to increase it." He refers to a
"rumour" that the "art of reading" has been introduced into the
Edinburgh School for the Blind, but adds that the "Meeting did not seem
inclined to give any credit to it;" and suggests that, if it is true,
Mrs. Wood might let them hear more about it, as he had secured a
reference of the whole matter to the consideration of the House
Committee.

Now Mrs. Wood was nothing daunted by these successive splashes of cold
water. She wrote afresh to members of the Committee. She obtained facts
from Edinburgh, and she wisely limited her appeal to a petition that the
blind should be enabled to read the Scriptures for themselves. But
whether at that time she recognised the fact or not, there can be no
doubt that the whole question of what the blind could do _themselves_
would be opened by this step, and must be decided.

Mr. Vynes writes to her again on the 29th March, and it is interesting
to observe that a Committee in 1831 was very much the same sort of thing
that it is now.

Among the seven or eight gentlemen present I found Mr. Jackman, the
Chaplain of the Institution, being the first time I had ever the
pleasure of