A blind man's offering / by B. B. Bowen.

  • Bowen, B. B. (Benjamin B.), 1819-1905.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A blind man's offering / by B. B. Bowen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    from one who must indeed be eyes to the blind. Call these trifles if you will, but, as Goldsmith has it, —• u These little things are great to little man.” Most persons would naturally suppose that even in his home the blind man would still feel his misfortune even more keenly than in the world at large; that the gentle voice of his wife and children would create within him a more ardent desire to see them, than he could possibly have to behold other objects in creation. The poet has thus expressed my meaning: — a And who can tell his cause for woe, — To love the wife he ne’er can see, To be a sire, and not to know The silent babe who climbs his knee ! ” But so far as my own experience extends, I feel inclined to disagree with the poet, as well as with all those who would endorse the sentiment which he so feelingly ex- presses. For my part, I am consoled with the reflec- tion that I shall never see the effect which time must produce on those I love; so that I shall know that they have grown old only by counting the many happy years that have passed away. I should, indeed, esteem it one of the greatest of bless- ings to be permitted to see, if it were only for an hour; but I would not accept of sight for the rest of my life, if I thought it would make the merry, laughing tones of the voice of my own sweet child less musical to my ear, or less dear to my heart. I have thus endeavored to give the reader some ac- count of my past history. There is much, however, which I have omitted, and much that must remain for- ever unsaid. The events of my past life have not been