Darknefs and Light. 105

of teaching him to do any thing frefh, as you would
be of teaching your dog to fit up and fhake hands,
or perform any wonderful feat. It was their con-
ftant amufement ; and by degrees Roderick could
play at all forts of games with them, ay, and run
after them, and catch them too as well as you
could do, for he foon got to remember how the
furniture in the great hall and all the rooms {tood,
and he could run about without hurting himfelf in
awonderful manner. And when it was evening
and grew dark, he got on better than they did,
for, if they couldn’t fee, they were clumfy, whereas
he was learning to do without feeing at all.

Such of my readers as have feen one of thofe
excellent inftitutions called ‘¢ blind fchools,”’ will
not wonder at any thing I have faid, but on the
contrary, will know that I have not told half or a
quarter of what may be done to teach blind chil-
dren a variety of employments. At thofe fchools
you may fee children making beautiful bafkets of
various-coloured ftrips of ofier arranged in pat-
terns; and they never forget on which fide of
them the different colours are laid, and this work
they can go on with quite faft, even while you
ftand talking to them—-and they learn to do
many many other nice things alfo befides bafket
making. |

Of late years too they have begun to read in
books made on purpofe for them, with the letters
raifed above the reft of the paper, fo that they can
feel the fhapes with their fingers. Is not this