PROFESSOR FAWCETT ON THE BLIND.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2389, 12 November 1880, Page 4

PROFESSOR FAWCETT ON THE BLIND.

Wc extract from the London “Times” the following touching and beautiful words spoken at a meeting of the lloyal Normal College for the Blind in Loudon by the Bight Hon. Henry Fawcett, Postmaster-General, himself blind since early youth : —“ Home associations,” Mr Fawcett continued, “to us are as precious as they are to you. I know from my own experience that the happiest moments that I spend in my life arc when I am in the companionship of some friend who will forget that I have lost my eyesight, who will talk to me as if I could see, who will describe to me the persons I meet, a beautiful sunset, or scones of great beauty through which wc may bc'passing. For so wonderful is the adaptability of the human mind that after sometimes, for instance, some scene of great beauty in nature has been described to me, in after years I recall that scene, and 1 speak about it in sucli a manner that sometimes I have to check myself, and consider for a moment whether the impression that the beauty has produced was produced when I had my sight or was conveyed by the description of another. Depend upon it you have the power of rendering invaluable services to the blind. Bead to them, talk to them, walk with them, and treat them in your conversation just in the same same way as if you were in the companionship of one who was seeing.” (Cheers.)