It  is  during  these  early  years  that  the  affections  as  well  as
the  faculties,  if  rightly  directed,  are  made  to  bear  fruit.  And
what  must  be  the  life  of  those  who  have  known  nothincr  but
neglect,  who  have  been  left  to  sit  in  idleness  and  to  feel  them-
selves cut  off  from  all  the  pleasures  and  pursuits  of  child-
hood? How  difficult  the  task  to  mould  into  gentle,  happy,
useful  men  and  women,  the  children  who  have  been  thus
treated  !  Seeing  this  daily,  and  becoming  more  and  more  im-
pressed with  the  necessity  of  overcoming  this  terrible  obstacle
in  their  education,  our  wise  teacher,  with  his  warm  heart,
conceived  the  design  of  founding  the  kindergarten  for  the
blind.
The  money  thus  far  obtained  through  the  zeal  which  he  has
kindled  in  others  has  been  found  sufficient  for  the  purchase  of
■a  beautiful  lot  in  Roxbury,  and  for  the  erection  of  a  plain
but  substantial  building,  the  lot  being  large  enough  to  admit
of  others  as  they  may  be  required.
But  here  the  project  is  stopped  for  the  present  for  want  of
funds.  This  cannot,  however,  long  be  so.  Men  and  women
will  rise  up  who  will  be  fired  with  the  desire  to  do  something
to  assist  this  good  man  in  carrying  out  his  noble  scheme.
Our  interest  cannot  but  be  enlisted  for  it,  as  we  look  at  these


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little  ones,  so  earnest  and  so  intelligent  in  their  work,  and^
indeed,  by  all  that  we  see  and  hear  at  these  touching  exer-
cises.
Think  of  what  was  formerly  the  fate  of  the  blind,  and  of
the  constantly  increasing  facilities  for  their  education,  so  that
now  their  resources  and  accomplishments  are  sufficient  to
render  them  self-supporting  and  useful  members  of  society.
