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Those of the second class, that is, those who become blind by accident or violent disease, are of course affected in their mental development only so far as want of sight is want of an advantage for study or bodily exercise. This must ever be a positive disadvantage; it is one, however, which may be, and in some cases is, overcome by great resolution and perseverance. But all intelligent persons who have had the management of blind youth, if they will only reflect upon it, must admit the lamentable preva1ence among them of a low tone of the bodily organization, and the consequent want of persevering energy and resolution.

Doubtless this is often owing, in a great measure, to the habits of life into which their infirmity causes them to fall. They are but little in the open air; they are made tender by attempts to shield them from the changes of the atmosphere; they are too warmly clad; they enjoy the monopoly of the rocking-chair, and the warmest seat by the fire. The effect of all this mistaken kindness is seen afterwards in the effeminacy of body and feebleness of purpose which make the blind so fond of a sedentary life, and so much indisposed to active mental or bodily exertion. Add to this the real and positive difficulties which their infirmity puts in the way of locomotion, to overcome which would require more than common energy, and we have other incidental causes of feebleness of health and strength. But, over and above these, there is, in a great majority of cases, an original and constitutional feebleness of organization. If you look into any school for the blind, you will see a great number of pale, puny, slender youths, and though they and those about them think they are in tolerable health, yet a moment's comparison with a school for seeing children, where ruddy, plump, active children are the rule, and not the exception, will force you to conclude that want of sight is not the only disadvantage under which the former labor.

Now, whatever may be the case with particular individuals, as a general rule it must be true that persons of feeble health and imperfectly developed bodies are, and ever will be, inferior in mental health and vigor.

Having arrived at this conclusion with regard to the causes, the question arises, Can any thing be done, either to lessen the number of blind persons born into the world, or to improve the physical condition of those who must be born? I think that much can be done in both ways. The number of persons born blind will be diminished when the hereditary transmission of tendency to bodily infirmities is well understood. Let us, therefore, consider that part of the natural law, which may be expressed thus: --

BLINDNESS, OR A STRONG CONSTITUTIONAL TENDENCY TO IT, IS VERY OFTEN HEREDITARY.

Men violate the natural laws; they "go out of the way" of nature. Nature would bring them back; she sends outward ailments as signs of inward infirmities; this not being enough, she says, I will visit these infirmities upon your children to the third and fourth generation; if ye will not mind for your own sakes, ye shall for theirs.

I believe that a general knowledge of the existence of this stern and inexorable law will do more to diminish the number of infirmities with which the human race is afflicted than any thing else can do, and I shall therefore dwell still longer upon it in reference to the blind.

The experience of many years, an acquaintance with several hundreds of blind persons, and much personal inquiry, have convinced me that when children are born blind, or when they become blind early in life, in consequence of diseases which do not usually destroy the sight, the predisposing cause can be traced to the progenitors in almost all cases. Moreover, I believe, that, where the predisposing cause cannot be so traced, it is only in consequence of our ignorance, and not because there are exceptions to the rule.

When the parents or relatives of blind children are questioned in a way which seems to imply the suspicion of the existence of some hereditary cause of the infirmity, they at first deny the possibility of such cause, and often repel the supposition indignantly, as something derogatory to the honor of the family. They usually do this, also, in all honesty and sincerity; for they are not aware of the number and extent of the causes.

A single case, which occurred recently, -- one out of a hundred similar ones, -- may illustrate my meaning. I was questioning a man as to the causes of the blindness of his son, about which he was not only in ignorance, but, much worse, in error; for he half believed that his wife having seen the eyes of a cat glittering in the dark had something to do with it. As for any hereditary cause, he never dreamed of it; and yet this man himself was exceedingly purblind; he could not see a thing without poking his nose into it and always went about with his eyes half shut, and winking and blinking, when the daylight was strong. I found, upon inquiry, that his own sister was as purblind as himself, and could never bear the strong light of day without half closing her eyes; and, moreover, that his father and mother were of feeble temperament, and full cousins.