ination can be used than in the bestowment | future to the establishment of asylums or of a largess from the state. 4. That a small institution (not exceeding twenty-five or thirty workmen) can be conducted to better advantage than a larger one; and that it would be better to have two or three small ones in a large state than one large one, especially if that one was located in a large city. 5. That, at times, aid to adult workmen, either in the way of loan or gift, to enable them to purchase the necessary raw materials for the manufacture of their wares, is more judicious than to admit them into workshops. 6. That the teachers employed in the industrial education of pupils in institutions for the blind, should be superior workmen, and should, where it is practicable, have a direct pecuniary interest in the success of those whom they instruct. 7. That the capacity of the young blind man for self-support may be greatly increased, by giving him a better business training, devoting, during his last year of apprenticeship, ten hours a day to his work, and permitting him to aid in the purchase of the raw materials, and in the sale of the manufactured goods; thus bringing him more directly in contact with the classes with whom, as an independent workman, he will have occasion to deal. 8. That we must look forward in the retreats for the infirm and aged blind, especially that portion of them who, though industrious and economical, have been unable to provide for the wants of old age. The foundation of such asylums may well engage the attention of those whom Providence has blessed with ample means, and who desire to bestow them so as to increase the sum of human happiness.* We have dwelt upon this subject at considerable length, because we regard it as one involving one of those great questions of practical ethics, in which the whole community have an interest; and while the arguments of those who oppose industrial institutions may seem cold and In this connection, the following particulars concerning the Hospice des Quinze-Vingts, which, in Paris, furnishes an asylum to the aged and infirm blind, drawn from M. Dufau's work on the Blind, will interest the reader: "The hospital accommodates three hundred blind persons with their families. Its annual income is about $80,000. The allowance to a blind man is $89; or, if he is married, about $110; or, if he has one child, $120; or, if two, $130 50; and so on, adding $10 50 for each child. "Besides these, it has about six hundred pensioners, who do not reside at the hospital, but receive $20, $30, or $40 per annum to aid in their support. In many of its arrangements, however, the Hospice des Quinze-Vingts is far from being a model establishment." unfeeling to some, it is no more than just the recitations of others, and the explanaice to them to say, that their objections arise not from any want of philanthropy, for among them may be found men who are among the most eminent philanthropists of the age, but from the desire to act with impartial justice toward all the claimants upon public sympathy and charity. There are many difficulties connected with the successful solution of this great problem; but we believe the experience of the past will prevent serious errors in the future. We have, in a previous article, described the day-school for the blind in Paris, established by Dr. Ratier, and suggested its application to some of our large cities, where a sufficient number of blind children could be found within a convenient distance, to render such a school useful; but a philanthropist in Vienna, the venerable Klein, who has devoted more than fifty years of his life to the education of the blind, and whose philanthropy the frosts of eighty winters have not been able to chill, has, in a little work, published in Vienna, 1843, suggested a plan for their more general education, which is well worthy the attention of the friends of the blind. In the first place, he lays down a series of plain, simple directions to the parents of young blind children, for the proper early training of their children. We have space for but a few of these; he advises that they should be taught to sit upright in their chairs without clinging to any part of the chair, either with their hands or feet; that if required to stoop to the floor or ground, they should be instructed to bend the knees rather than the body; that they should be encouraged to move about freely without assistance; that they should learn to dress and undress themselves, and to perform most of those little duties for their parents which are usually required from seeing children; that in their playthings, special regard should be had to their deprivation, and such articles given them as will instruct them in the form, size, or material of the object; that they should not be reminded of their infirmity, unless as an incentive to greater exertion. When practicable, he would have them taught to read the raised letters early. In the primary schools, he observes, that they can learn very much by hearing VOL. X.-23 tions of the teacher; and where there were several blind pupils in the school, the parish might be required to procure the elementary books in the raised letters, and maps and globes for their use. In the intermediate and higher schools it would be necessary that the teachers should have some acquaintance with the processes used for instruction in schools for the blind. This education, he suggests, should be acquired while their teachers are connected with the normal schools. (In Austria, all teachers of these grades must have received their education at the normal schools.) In those cases, where the normal school and the institute for the blind are in the same place, this training can be acquired by an attendance of an hour a day at the institute. Where they are in places distant from each other, one or more blind teachers should be employed. This plan was strongly recommended to the French government by M. Dufau, in 1850, in his work "Des Aveugles," to which we have already alluded; and the effert is now making to carry it into effect in some of the Departments of France. The disproportion between the educated and uneducated blind, is not so great in this country as in most of the European states, thanks to the liberality of our state governments and to the energy of the friends of the blind; and there is not, consequently, so great a demand for such a system of instruction; but even here, much might be done by the circulation of simple directions to the parents of blind children, through the clergy, and by giving attention to their elementary instruction. The present is an age, beyond all others, remarkable for vigorous, well-directed, and persistent philanthropic effort; of this effort the blind, as is natural from their mental activity and the interest which clusters around them, are receiving their fair share; we would it were more, rather than less; but while they are remembered, the idiot and the insane should not be forgotten. In our next we shall endeavor to give some account of the present condition of the prominent European schools, and as full a sketch as possible of our American institutions for the blind, including those of Indiana and Illinois, of which we give engravings in our present article. From period he have "THE Luck of Eden-Hall" was write turned his attention alm appears to hy ve Society of Friends, who came before the public as an author in 1812, in a small book of poems. This volume, which contained promise of better things, was succeeded, in 1819, by a volume entitled "Aonian Hours." This work was succeeded by a Roman story, entitled "Julia Alpinula." foreign literature, with a perseverance and success which have left the lovers of literature forever his debtor. "He was," writes a near relative, "so charmed with the sweet strains of Tasso that he resolved, with something like a feeling of poetical duty, to rescue his mind's idol from what Sir Walter Scott calls the frozen paws' of his prosaic translator, Hoole. In this his labor of love he was encouraged by most of the poetic lights of the day, among whom may be named Scott, Southey, and Rogers." In 1821 he accepted from the Duke of Bedford the office of librarian at Woburn Abbey. An office so congenial with his taste was entered upon with alacrity, and most ably filled up to the period of his death. About this period his taste having led him to explore the stores of Spanish literature, he commenced a translation of the works of Garcilasso de la Vega, surnamed "the Prince of Castilian Poets." This work, which won for him the highest literary honors of Spain, was little appreciated in England, perhaps because eclogues and pastorals, however beautiful, are only adapted for a state of society emerging into the light of letters, and not for one on whom its meridian sun has long looked down. In Spain the lays of this poet are familiar as household words; and, after a long lapse of years, la Vega is still the pride of the ancient city of Toledo. In 1824 the first volume of the "Jerusalem Delivered" made its appearance, and, after some delay, the second; the whole impression of which perished in a fire at the office of its printer. In 1826 a second edition was called for; and in 1836 another of a smaller size, to meet the wants of readers of more limited means. In the year 1626 Mr. Wiffen visited Normandy for the purpose of collecting materials for his principal prose work, "The Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell," which, after seven years of labor and research, appeared in the year 1833. In the year 1836, from a life calmly lapsing away in the happy solitudes of literature, Mr. Wiffen was suddenly called away, at the early age of forty-three, leaving a widow and three infant daughters to lament the loss of one equally good and gifted. His remains rest with the dead of his own people, a cypress alone distinguishing his grave from the commoner earth. This ballad is founded on a popular superstition, and a family tradition, in Cumberland, England. Eden Hall is a small village on the western side of the River Eden. The mansion and estates are the property of the Musgraves, heroes of in numerable ballads, who have held property there since the time of Henry VI., and were distinguished during the reign of William the Conqueror, with whom they came over from Normandy. In the mansion an old drinking glass, enameled in colors, called THE LUCK OF EDEN Hall, is preserved with the greatest care. The letters I. H. S. on the top, point out the sacred use from which it has been perverted; but tradition affirms it to have been seized from a company of fairies who were sporting near a spring in a garden called St. Cuthbert's Well; and, after an ineffectual struggle to recover it, vanished into thin air, saying: "If that glass do break or fall, In the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," we find the subject thus referred to: "The martial spirit of our ancestors led them to defy these aerial warriors; and it is still currently believed that he who has courage to rush upon a fairy festival, and snatch from them their drinking cup or horn, shall find it prove to him a cornucopia of good fortune, if he can bear it in safety across a running stream. Such a horn is said to have been presented to Henry I. by a lord of Colchester.” The goblet took a name from the prophecy, under which it is mentioned in the burlesque ballad, commonly attributed to the Duke of Wharton, but in reality composed by Lloyd, one of his jovial companions. The duke, after taking a draught, had nearly terminated "The Luck of Eden Hall," had not the butler caught the cup in a napkin as it dropped from his grace's hand. It is not now subjected to such risks, but the lees of wine are still apparent at the bottom. ON Eden's wild romantic bowers, The summer moonbeams sweetly fall, There, lonely in the deepening night, But little can her idle lute Her wistful eye and anxious brow. For, as the chord her finger sweeps, Ofttimes she checks her simple song, To chide the forward chance that keeps Lord Musgrave from her arms so long; And listens, as the wind sweeps by, His steed's familiar step to hear; Peace, beating heart! 'twas but the cry And footfall of the distant deer. In, lady, to thy bower; fast weep The chill dews on thy cheek so pale; Thy cherish'd hero lies asleep; Asleep in distant Russendale! The noon was sultry, long the chase; The purple lights of dying day. Through many a dale must Musgrave hie; His verdant bowers and halls again. But twilight deepens; o'er the wolds The wanderer in its bosky maze. No ready vassal rides in sight; He blows his bugle, but the call Roused echo mocks; farewell to-night, The homefelt joys of Eden Hall! His steed he to an alder ties, His limbs he on the greensward flings; And, tired and languid, to his eyes Woos sorceress slumber's balmy wings. A prayer, a sigh, in murmurs faint, The sigh was to his lady fair. "Twas well that in that elfin wood He breathed the supplicating charm, Which binds the guardians of the good To shield from all unearthly harm. Scarce had the night's pale lady stay'd Her chariot o'er th' accustom'd oak, Than murmurs in the mystic shade The slumberer from his trance awoke. And pursuivants with wands of gold, And trumpet-tuning dwarfs were there. On milk-white steeds, brought up their queen; Their kerchiefs of the crimson soy, Their kirtles all of Lincoln-green. Some wore, in fanciful costume, A sapphire or a topaz crown; And some a hern's or peacock's plume, Which their own tercel-gents struck down. |