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The ill effects of segregating the blind from their natural associations and relationships and of congregating them together during the plastic and formative period of their lives are painfully apparent in their spirit of caste and clannishness, in their morbid sensitiveness, in the awkwardness of their manners and movements, in the narrow range of their sympathies, in the extremes of undue exaggeration or unreasonable depreciation of their personal worth and capacity and in various other ways.

Now, in order that we may be able to eradicate some of the most serious of these drawbacks and to reduce to the lowest possible degree the dissemination and growth of all sorts of uncouth peculiarities and oddities, we must adhere rigidly to the cardinal principles of the minimum of association of blind persons and the maximum of their commingling with those who can see.

It is beyond question that the largest possibilities of the success of this class of our fellow-men in whatever they may undertake to do depend upon their ability to enter on the arena of the competitions of life with those whom they will naturally meet in the home, the neighborhood, the social and religious assemblies and in the world of business.

For these reasons it is of the utmost importance that, as soon as our graduates are fully prepared and thoroughly fitted for a course of higher academic and scientific instruction or of training for one of the liberal professions or for a business career, they should be scattered among the ordinary institutions of learning and not gathered again into another sort of receptacle of darkness and gloom, established for the special benefit of sightless persons, which may be known by the name of colleges and universities for them. Indeed, instead of a blessing, it would be an unmitigated misfortune for the blind to be kept by themselves for an additional period of four or five years, apart from those of their fellow-men among whom the work of their life lies. The best and most vital interests demand that they should be placed in one of the leading colleges or best professional and commercial schools, in which every state abounds, and should be thrown with seeing young men and women. They must be put in a position to compare themselves with others of their own age and to measure accurately their ability so that they may avoid the fatal error of overestimating or underrating it. They must be brought in touch with the great forces of the world, which make progress and civilization possible, and learn something of the part that each has to play in the drama of human existence. Whether they desire to devote themselves to commercial pursuits, or to become teachers, ministers, lawyers, business men or practitioners of massage, they must be educated and taught and trained side by side with those among whom they are destined to exercise their calling or vocation, and must acquire a knowledge of the practical affairs of life and of the manners, notions and usages of society. They must come in contact with the great and moving world and hear and know more of its customs and interests and shape their own mental habits and modes of thinking and motives of action more in accordance with those of the people with whom they are to live after the completion of their education.

In no institutions of learning, which may be built and maintained solely for the benefit of a class of children and youth laboring under a common physical disability, can any of these precious, practical lessons be learned. Hence the absolute necessity for funds to provide for as many scholarships as eligible candidates for higher education may require.

In order to be able to reconstruct our system of education upon a broader and more comprehensive scale and to reform the school thoroughly, giving to it feet, limbs, trunk and head, -- a completely organized body, -- we need immediately the three following buildings, in addition to those which we now have in use: --

Firstly. -- A music hall in the parent school at South Boston, to which should be attached a sufficient number of school rooms and a commodious gymnasium for the girls. The hall should be accessible from both departments of the establishment and should have a seating capacity for an audience of six or seven hundred people.

Secondly. -- A primary building for the little girls at the kindergarten at Jamaica Plain, similar to that which has been recently erected and has been occupied by the boys during the past year.

Thirdly. -- The completion of the central or school building at the kindergarten, which was planned in all its details several years ago. About one-fifth part of this was built in 1893 and has been ever since used as a hall and gymnasium for both departments.

These buildings are indispensable for the enlargement, reorganization and grading of our school, and the cost of their erection and equipment will not be far from $300,000. Besides this amount an additional fund is needed, large enough to yield no less than eight thousand dollars per annum, which sum will suffice to provide scholarships and loans for all those of our graduates who are qualified to pursue a higher course of academic, musical, scientific, professional or business education, but who have no means of their own to do so.