house, chairs were provided for the prophet and myself, while the curious and gaping crowd remained standing. I handed the book to the prophet, and begged him to explain its contents. He asked me if I had any idea of its meaning. I replied, that I believed it to be a Greek Psalter; but that I should like to hear his opinion. "No," he said, "it ain't Greek at all; except, perhaps, a few words. What ain't Greek is Egyptian; and what ain't Egyptian is Greek. This book is very valuable. It is a dictionary of Egyptian Hieroglyphics." Pointing to the capital letters at the commencement of each verse, he said: "Them figures is Egyptian hieroglyphics; and them which follows is the interpretation of the hieroglyphics, written in the reformed Egyptian. Them characters is like the letters that was engraved on the golden plates." Upon this, the Mormons around began to congratulate me on the information I was receiving. "There," they said, we told you so, we told you that our prophet would give you satisfaction. None but our prophet can explain these mysteries." The prophet now turned to me, and said, "This book ain't of no use to you; you don't understand it." "Oh, yes, I replied; "it is

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of some use; for if I were in want of money, I could sell it, and obtain, perhaps, enough to live on for a whole year." "But what will you take for it?" said the prophet and his elders. "My price," I replied, "is higher than you would be willing to give." "What price is that?" they eagerly demanded. I replied, "I will not tell you what price I would take; but if you were to offer me this moment nine hundred dollars in gold for it, you should not have it." They then repeated their request that I should lend it to them until the prophet should have time to translate it, and promised me the most ample security; but I declined all their proposals. I placed the book in several envelopes, and as I deliberately tied knot after knot, the countenances of many among them gradually sunk into an expression of great despondency. Having exhibited the book to the prophet, I requested him in return to show me his papyrus, and to give me his own explanation, which I had hitherto received only at second hand. He proceeded with me to his office, accompanied by the multitude. He produced the glass frames which I had seen on the previous day; but he did not appear

very forward to explain the figures. I pointed to a particular hieroglyphic, and requested him to expound its meaning. No answer being returned, I looked up, and behold! the prophet had disappeared. The Mormons told me that he had just stepped out, and would probably soon return. I waited some time, but in vain: and at length descended to the street in front of the store. Here I heard the noise of wheels, and presently I saw the prophet in his wagon, flourishing his whip, and driving away as fast as two fine horses could draw him. As he disappeared from view, enveloped in a cloud of dust, I felt that I had turned over another page in the great book of human nature.

It is said, in an article on blindness, in the Encyclopædia Britannica, by one who was experimentally acquainted with that state, that "to the blind the visible world is totally annihilated; he is perfectly conscious of no space but that in which he stands, or to which his extremities can reach. All the various modes of delicate proportions, all the beautiful varieties of light and colours, whether exhibited in the works of nature or art, are to the blind irretrievably lost! Dependent for every thing, but mere existence, on the good offices of others; obnoxious to injury from every point, which they are neither capacitated to perceive, nor qualified to resist ;-they are, during the present state of being, rather to be considered as prisoners at large, than citizens

of nature.'

It is, however, a proof of Divine benevolence that this privation of one sense is generally greatly alleviated by the acuteness of others, or rather by greater regard to what they indicate. The effect of minute and continued attention is very

remarkable. The shepherd of a large flock is familiar with every one of his sheep: the American hunter finds his way in the trackless forests, by particular attention to appearances in the trees, which serve to show him the points of the compass; he traces the progress of his friends or his foes by the marks of their footsteps, and judges of their numbers, haltings, and employments, by circumstances which would entirely escape ordinary persons. Similar results arise from the same cause, on the part of those who never enjoyed, or have lost the powers of vision, of which a few instances may now be given. Two blind men were much esteemed as judges of horses: one of these, in giving his opinion of a horse, declared him to be blind, though this had escaped the observation of several persons, who had the full use of their eyes, and who were with some difficulty convinced of it. When asked to tell how he knew it was so, he said it was by the sound of the horse's step in walking; which implied a peculiar and unusual precaution int he manner of putting down his feet. The other, in similar circumstances, mentioned, that a horse was blind of one eye, though this was not noticed by those concerned. He stated that he knew the fact, because he felt the one was colder than the other.

Dr. Moyse, the blind philosopher, could tell when a black dress was worn by his friends, from the smell. Among the instances of persons who could distinguish colours by the touch, one stated, that black gave that sense the greatest degree of asperity, and blue the least. A blind girl in the Hartford Asylum of the United States, could select her own articles from the baskets of linen which were weekly brought from the laundress, however they might be scattered among the rest. Two blind young men of Philadelphia knew when they approached a post in walking across a street, by a peculiar sound which the ground beneath their feet sent forth in the neighbourhood of the post; and they could tell the names of a number of tame pigeons, with which they amused themselves in a little garden, by only hearing them fly over their heads.

Of John Metcalf, a native of Knaresborough, who lost his sight when a child, many astonishing circumstances are related. At the commencement of the rebellion in 1745, he became a soldier. His adventures in these circumstances

were various, and he was in the field during the different engagements that succeeded, till after the battle of Culloden. In Scotland, he furnished himself with a variety of cotton and worsted articles, knowing what each cost him from a particular mode of marking them, and found a ready sale for them in his native county. He also dealt in horses, directing his choice by feeling the animal. In 1751, he set up a stage wagon, between York and Knaresborough, the first on that road, and drove it himself, twice a week in summer, and once in winter. This business employed him till he first contracted for the making of roads, for which he relinquished every other pur

suit.

In leisure hours, he had studied mensuration, in a way peculiar to himself; and could accurately state the contents of a piece of timber, and bring the dimensions of any building into yards or feet. The first piece of road he made was about three miles of that between Fearnsby and Minskip; the materials for the whole were to be obtained from one gravel pit; he therefore erected a temporary house, and provided for twelve horses. He often walked from Knaresborough in the morning, with four or five stones of meal on his shoulders, and joined his men by six o'clock. He completed the road much sooner than was expected, to the entire satisfaction of the surveyor and trustees. Soon after this, he contracted for building a bridge at Boroughbridge, which he completed, with credit to his abilities. The erecting and repairing of bridges, and the making of roads, was continued with great success for some years.

The writer of the quotation already given, as to the state of the blind, was totally deprived of sight before he was six months old, yet he made remarkable attainments. His name was Thomas Blacklock. In a letter from a Scottish clergyman to sir James Johnston, bart., it is said. "He is endued with the most surprizing genius, and has been the author of a great many excellent poems. I understand that there will be a bursary vacant against Candlemas; if, therefore, you would please to favour him with your interest, it will be a great charity done to a poor lad, who may do a great deal of good in his generation." In the course of his education, he obtained a knowledge of the various branches of philosophy and theology, together with a

considerable fund of learning in those departments of science and belles lettres, from which his loss of sight did not absolutely preclude him; while he acquired a proficiency in the learned languages, to which he added a familiar acquaintance with the French tongue.

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As a preacher, he obtained high reputation. A singular fact, which occurred on the day of his ordination, is mentioned by Dr. Cleghorn, and authenticated by Mr. Blacklock, and a numerous company of his friends. "Fatigued with mental exertion, he fell asleep after dinner: some hours after, he was called on by a friend, answered his salutations, arose and went with him into the dining room, where some of his companions were met. He joined with two of them in a concert, singing, as usual, with taste and elegance, without missing a note, or forgetting a word; he then went to supper, and drank a glass or two of wine. His friends, however, observed him to be a little absent and inattentive; by this time, he began | to speak to himself, but in so low and confused a manner as to be unintelligible. At last, being pretty forcibly roused, he awoke with a sudden start, unconscious of all that had happened, as, till then, he had continued fast asleep." The narrator adds, very properly, "No one will suspect either the judgment or veracity of Dr. Blacklock; all who knew him bear testimony to his judgment; his fame rests on a better foundation than fictitious narrations; no man delights in, or more strictly adheres on all points to the truth." After this period, various works issued from his pen.

Nicholas Saunderson was reduced to the most abject blindness before he was twelve months old, yet he became a Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge. Speaking of his attainments, his intimate friend Dr. Reid remarks: "One who never saw the light, may be learned and knowing in every science, even in optics, and may make discoveries in every branch of philosophy. He may understand as much as another man, not only of the order, distances, and motions of the heavenly bodies; but of the nature of light, and of the laws of the reflection and refraction of its rays. He may understand distinctly how these laws produce the phenomena of the rainbow, the prism, the camera obscura, and the magic lantern, and all the powers of the microscope and telescope.'

In mathematics Saunderson made dis

tinguished progress, and obtained great and deserved honours. Most interesting must it have been, to have observed his operations with his calculating board, his "Palpable Arithmetic," and to have listened to him when explaining and enforcing the doctrines of Newton. So exquisite was his sense of touch, that he could detect the smallest degree of roughness or defect of polish, in a surface. Thus, in a set of Roman medals, he distinguished the genuine from the false, though they had been counterfeited with such exactness as to deceive a connoisseur, who had judged from the eye.

By the same power, when observations were making on the sun, he could notice every cloud that occasioned interruption, almost as accurately as those who could see it. He could also tell when any thing was held near his face, or when he passed by a tree at no great distance, merely by the different impulses of the air. His ear was also equally correct: by the quickness of this sense he could easily distinguish the fifth part of a note, or judge of the size of a ruin, and of his distance from the wall. And if he ever walked over a pavement in courts or piazzas, which reflected sound, and was afterwards conducted thither again, he could tell in what part of the walk he stood, merely by the note it sounded.

In many respects he resembled Euler, a native of Basil, but afterwards a resident at Petersburg. During a visit to Berlin, he completed, in three days, certain astronomical calculations, which the academy called for in haste, but which several eminent mathematicians declared would occupy some months; the intense application, however, threw him into a fever, in which he lost the sight of one eye; and shortly after his return to Petersburg he became totally blind. these circumstances, he dictated to his servant, a tailor's apprentice, who knew nothing whatever of mathematics, his Elements of Algebra, which have probably excited equal applause and astonishment.

In

He was eminent in scholarship; had read with attention and taste the most distinguished writers of ancient Rome; the civil and literary history of all ages were familiar to him; and foreigners who were only acquainted with his works, were astonished to find, in the conversation of a man, whose long life seemed wholly occupied in mathematical and physical discoveries, such an extensive

acquaintance with the most interesting branches of literature. In this he was greatly aided by extraordinary powers of memory. He could repeat, without hesitation, the Eneid of Virgil from the beginning to the end, and mention the first and last line of every page of the edition he used.

Power has sometimes bowed to science, and as Alexander, amidst the general conflagration of the city of Thebes, ordered his soldiers to spare the house of Pindar, so a similar act was performed in reference to Euler. When the Russian forces penetrated into the marshes of Brandenburg, they plundered a farm belonging to the philosopher; but as soon as general Tottleben was apprized of the loss he had sustained, he ordered that he should be fully reimbursed; and on his stating to the princess Elizabeth the involuntary injury he had done, she added to what was paid a gratuity of four thousand florins.

His death was considered as a public loss, even in a country which, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, was considered as having scarcely emerged from barbarism. The academy of Petersburg went into deep mourning for him, and placed a marble bust of him in their assembly hall. During his life, they had ordered an allegorical painting, with a figure of Geometry leaning on a table, exhibiting mathematical calculations, with characters which are the formulas of his new theory of the moon.

The loss of sight so remarkably compensated in the instances thus given, is alleviated in others by the remembrance of objects on which the eyes once dwelt with peculiar interest and pleasure.

Niebuhr, the Danish traveller, when old, blind, and so infirm, that he could only be carried from his bed to a chair, was accustomed to describe to his friends, with great minuteness and vivacity, the scenes he had visited in his early days. When they expressed their astonishment, he said, that as he lay in bed, and all visible objects were shut out, the pictures of what he had seen in the East continually floated before his mind's eye; so that it was no wonder he could speak of them as if he had seen them yesterday. With like vividness, he said, the deep intense sky of Asia, with its brilliant and twinkling host of stars, which he had so often gazed at by night, or its lofty vault of blue by day, was reflected, in his hours of stillness and darkness, on his inmost soul.

The want, or the loss of sight which is thus alleviated, and which does not prevent improvement and success in the things of this world, may have a special compensation, as it has had, in many instances, in the operations of Divine grace. The eyes of the body are indeed closed; but those of "the understanding" are opened. Thus a missionary in India says: "There is in Shenkoollam, a blind man who truly adorns the doctrines of Jesus our Saviour by words and conduct. He is cheerful, and blessed with a strong memory and sound understanding; but what is more, his soul is alive, and his mind enlightened from above. All this makes him a very interesting character, and renders his company not only pleasant but useful to other pious people. He knows a number of passages of Scripture by heart; so that he supports and proves every thing he says by a passage of Scripture; but what we were most surprized at was, to see the truly sound and practical use which he makes of the word of God, not only to support him under his trial, but also to find this very trial a reason to thank and bless his Saviour. For instance, Mr. Muller asked him if he had no wish for his sight to be given him. He answered boldly, 'No; because Jesus says, "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee." God probably saw that mine eyes would offend me, so as to endanger my soul, and so he has prevented this great evil, by plucking them out himself. For this I praise him, and I do not wish to see:' and quoting Matt. v. 28, he added, God, in depriving me of sight, has surely done it with a view to sanctify my heart therefore I thank him for it.'

"Yesterday evening, after ten o'clock, he prayed in his house for about half an hour, with such a loud voice, that nearly all the people in the village could hear him.

We who were in church not only heard, but understood something of what he said. This made me suspect his piety, and led me to suppose that his prayer proceeded from a desire that we should hear and admire him. But on inquiring of the catechist, I found that every evening, at the hour above mentioned, he collects a few people in his house, and prays with them just in the This comforted me.'

same manner.

The day is hastening on when multitudes, who now eagerly enjoy all the pleasures of sense, would gladly take the place, were it possible, of that blind Hindoo.