n this proposition as cruel,
because it might add to the sadness of the sufferers; and that the whole
seven thousand five hundred blind in this country would rise up and
scout it, as barbarous and unnatural; for I have experienced the effects
of contradiction to the wills of individual blind persons in this
respect. But my rule is, the good of the community before that of the
individual; the good of the race before that of the community. To give
you an instance: the city of Boston, with a population of eighty
thousand, is represented in the Institution for the Blind by two blind
children only; and I know of but four in the whole population; while
Andover, with but five thousand, is fully and ably represented by
seven;[4] and it has three more growing up.

[4] This makes the ratio of representation in the institution from
Andover _fifty six times greater_ than from the city of Boston.

"Now how is this? Why, the blind of Andover are mostly from a common
stock; three of them are born of one mother, who has had four blind
children. Another of the pupils is cousin, in the first degree, to these
three; and two other pupils are cousins in a remote degree. Then, from
other places, there are two brothers, who have a third at home. There is
one blind girl, who has two blind sisters at home. Then there are two
pairs of sisters.

"In the immediate vicinity of Boston, I know of a family in which
blindness is hereditary; the last generation there were five. Of these
five one is married, and has four children, not one of whom can see well
enough to read; and if the others marry, they may increase the number to
twelve or twenty.

"Now apply this state of things to the whole country, and have you any
difficulty in conceiving how it happens that there are seven thousand
five hundred blind in the United States? And can you doubt whether or
not this great proportion of blind to the whole community might not be
considerably diminished, if men and women understood the organic laws of
their nature? understood that, very often, blindness is the punishment
following an infringement of the natural laws of God; and if they could
be made to act upon the holy Christian principles, that we should deny
ourselves any individual gratification, any selfish desire, that may
result in evil to the whole community?

"I would that every individual whom I have the honor to address would
assist in the education of the blind, so far as to give the