Louis Sand

“ Let any one among us, who walks in the sunlight, taking his eyes as matters of course, cover them up for a moment, and think what it would be to grope about in a perpetual darkness,—not that he may give himself a gratulatory hug at his freedom from his neighbour’s affliction, but that, feeling its magnitude he may pity it,—and he too would possibly turn and relieve the sorrows of the poor blind man, as the placard bade him do. ”

“ The ordinary man, or no genius, simply sees the wreck before his eyes, while the genius immediately begins to imagine what it used to be, and how it looked before it was overturned. According to that view, let me flatter myself that I must have been a genius, since I got into a habit of making this poor old figure up afresh; calculating what he was like before he went blind; how long his legs had been when they were straight, and how far apart his nose and chin when there were any teeth between them. ”

“ There was an odd twitching about his mouth as he muttered out that it was “no place for a gentleman to come to—no, no,” following it up with more blessings. I persisted in my questions, however, and then, all at once, raising his head with the old uncertain movement, he said if I would tell him where I lived he would crawl there on his hands and knees, that he might thank me for my goodness. ”