An Ideal Blind Mail

M. D. Conway writes to the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette f rom London: "It is probable that Prof. Fawcett, the British Postmaster General, will live in bistory as the ideal blind man. The expression of blindness is all over trim, and in every smallest movement, contrasting at overy moment with his triumph over it. His habitual loud voice in conversation that of one who cannot measure the distance of those to whom lfc is speaking; his unaltered look as one approaches.until his hand is touched or he is spoken to, and the suddenness of his smilo then; his intent air, as of one concentrating all othcr means of perception to mako up for the absence oi sight; and, more than all, perhaps, the absence of all these small convenlionalities, or tricks of manner which people unconsciously copy from one another; these have more and more become the visible eharacteristics of Prof. Fawcett as his real and intellectual mastery has increased. So that he is as uniquo among the blind in actual powers as he is outwardly among tiie seeing. He has few equals in ny-fishing, is a capital skator, and knows all the ilowers and vegetables in his garden as well as his gardener, in all their stages of growth. Not long ago he was walkng with Sir Joseph Hooker in Kew Gardens. and talked about the rees, and ponds and paths with sucli appreciaüon, expressing the wish that the )blic might enjoy tlieiu oftener. that Sir Joseph forgot that he was talking to a blind man, and told hlm that he (Fawcett) was welcome to enter the gardens at any time of the night or day. His wife has been such eyes to him that lio eonstantly speaks of having "seen in the papers" this and that. He goes borne from parliainent, aeross maestreéis and turnings, and if the cabman drives a yard beyond the door he is at once checked, He rarely fails to name the person who speaks to him, however long the time since their meeting. L remember as a very iniiiressive occasion, one on which the pupils cf the Ooilege for the Blind were gathered at iiis mansion by the Duke of Devonshire, whcre tho3r and tlieir friends wero addressed by Prof. Fawcett. These alflicted youths of all ages añil both sexes sat iefore the tal], intellectual man, who comed to be their natural representaliye. His address was simple, chcerfnl, in every way felicitous. Ho said that he thought blind people received an unnecessarv amount of condolcnce on their loss. While it was right that tliey should bo speedily aided, tho sympathy with them neeil not bo sorrowful. Thoy missod the dismal and nglj sight of the world, and their powerfully stimulatod imaginations saw the world chiefly in its beauty, it they were in healtli and comfort. They eonstantly heard descriptions of things, and these, especially if thoy had once enjoyed sight, becamo to the blind so real that they were apt to take their place in memory as things actuallv seen. Ho said he himself often confused things he had heard about with things he had seen, and was soineümes astonished whenitwas provod to him that ho could never have seen certaiu persons and objects of which ho liad the vivid impressions of a witnsss. There was in the blind statesman's speech on this occasion a hopeful and happy view of the world, and an indirect testimony to the good-heartedness and sympathy of human nature, more convincing than the pessimistic essays of Schopenhauer, and more poetic than the moody moanings of Byron. One had to question whether the aneients may not have pictured lovo as blind bepause thoy thought peoplo could see the fairest world better without eyes than with them. Indeed, whenever I have conversed with Henry Fawcett I liavo been improssed with tho many beautif ui myths which preceoded tho words mystic ("closing the eyes") thous'h he is the least mystical of men ; and I have read a deeper meaning in Milton's description of'his blindness as "the overshadowiog of heavenly wings" and as illuminated with "an interior light, more precious and more pure." Uj to the hooi of his illness, had I been asked to name a happy man, I should probably havo named Henry Fawcett. The enal throngh the Isthmus of Corinth will probably be finighed in four years. It will be four miles long and of the same dimensión as that of Suez, or seventy-two feet wide and twenty-six deep at low water. Bj passing through tho canal, vessels from the Mediterraneun ports will save ninoty-five miles, besides avoiding the dangerous ooaste ai"ound Cape MatUpan. Law is like a sieve, you may see through it, but you are considerably reduced before you get though it.