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The touch is capable of being equally perfected, and many remarkable instances are given of this. Saunderson, the blind Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, in England, became such a connoisseur of ancient coins, that he could detect the modern counterfeits, even when good eyes were puzzled about them. There lived a few years ago a blind man in Austria, who executed very good busts by feeling the faces of persons, and imitating them; and there is now a bust of the late Emperor, executed by this blind man, and preserved in the Museum in Vienna, which is considered a very good likeness. Persons who have witnessed exhibitions at the Institutions for the blind, have been surprised at the ease and fluency with which they can read books printed in raised letters, by passing the fingers rapidly over them: this, however, is by no means so extraordinary as many other instances which are notorious, though not well understood. A blind man, for instance, when walking in a perfect calm, can ascertain the proximity of objects by the feeling of the atmosphere upon his face; it would seem at first that the echo given back, were it only from his breathing, might be sensible to his ear; but we have ascertained by experiment, that a blind man with his ears stopped, could tell when any large object was close to his face, even when it was approached so slowly as not to cause any sensible current of air.

It is a common supposition that the blind can distinguish colors, but after much research we are convinced that this is impossible; all the blind, whom we have consulted on the subject, have replied that they had no such power, and they did not believe that any blind person ever had it. Indeed what tangible quality can there be in a substance so ethereal, that it passes unobstructed through dense glass? There was an instance of a girl in England, who was generally believed to have this power; and the trials and tests which she successfully underwent somewhat puzzled us, until an explanation of the difficulty offered itself in the chemical properties of the different colored rays of light. She could ascertain the colors of different pieces of cloth by applying them to her lips in succession; and she must have learned that some colors radiate heat more rapidly than others, so that she could tell white from black by the different degree of warmth which it imparted to her lips. This is perhaps one of the most extraordinary instances of nicety of touch which can be quoted. The same girl used to astonish incredulous visiters -sic- by reading the large letters of the maker's name, written in their hats, while they held them behind her back.

We shall not dwell upon the changes which take place in the sense of smell, great as they are, particularly in those unfortunate beings who are both deaf and blind; nor upon those of the taste, for neither of these senses are much depended upon by the blind in the acquisition of knowledge.

We have been thus particular in showing the superiority of the senses of touch and of hearing in the blind, because it is this superiority which compensates them in some measure for the want of sight, and puts them more nearly upon a par with seeing persons, in the attainment of knowledge: a subject which we shall now consider. And first, we shall endeavor to establish the position, that there is hardly a subject in the whole range of science, which may not be mastered without the aid of the sight; this fact, if it be not deducible from a consideration of the nature of the senses, may be established by numerous instances in history of blind men having raised themselves to eminence in various professions. How little do men in general learn by the sight, that they could not learn without it! How vast and varied is the knowledge of some men, who seldom go beyond the bounds of the city in which they were born, and whose knowledge is obtained from books! But cannot the same knowledge be obtained by hearing hooks read by another? Nay! does not the mind grasp it more firmly, and hold it more tenaciously? The very facility with which we can glance over a page, and the ease with which we can refer to it, causes us to be negligent and inattentive; the eye often travels listlessly over sentences, while the mind is travelling elsewhere; and sometimes, even when performing two simultaneous operations of reading and repeating aloud, we may be thinking of something else. But the blind man has the greatest inducement to attention; he knows that he cannot refer to the passages he hears, and he therefore arranges and stores them away in his mind with the greatest order, and can refer to them with ease.

The knowledge which we obtain from books, however, will not be long beyond the reach of the blind man, since ingenuity is fast bringing to perfection a system of printing for his use; but even if it were so, there is a still more vast and valuable mine of knowledge which is to he explored by conversation and intercourse with the world; and to this the blind man has free access: there are a great many shrewd and intelligent men in the world who are as blind to books, as he is, and who can hardly sign their names.