THE BLESSING OF SIGHT.
IF a person had none of the different senses, as seeing, hearing, feeling, etc., he could never know that there existed anything besides himself. All would be the silence of the blackest night, without even the power of touch to enable him to gain knowledge of the world about him.
Perhaps of all the senses, eyesight is the most valuable. Only think how long it would take you to learn by any other means, as much of the world as you can take in at a single glance! Familiarity has taken away to a great extent the exquisite charm that light gives to everything. The little blind girl, who, after a surgical operation, opened her eyes for the first time on the landscape, clothed with all the loveliness of light and shade and color, was prepared to appreciate it. She exclaimed in rapture, "O mother, why did you not tell me it was so beautiful?" It is just as beautiful for us if we would only open our eyes to see it. Then would our hearts thrill with love and gratitude to the One who made all this beauty, and gave us the power to behold it.
Our Creator has shown great wisdom in the construction of the eye. He has made it with curious curtains, lenses, and screens, inclosing it with a membrane, which is very highly polished, to make the eye bright and expressive; he attached pulleys and cords to hang it by, and scooped a place out of the solid bone exactly fitted for it, laying it around with soft cushions so that its movements should not hurt us; and placed in the inner corner a little tear-fountain to keep the nice little machine always in running order.
Without any thought on our part, the black, blue, or hazel curtain around the opening, which admits light, opens or closes itself so as to regulate the amount of light which shall enter the internal chambers of the eye. We see this more plainly in the eye of the cat than in our own. Take this animal into a bright light, and see how small this black opening in his eye becomes, because there is too much light; carry him into the dark, and it will grow large, so as to admit more light.
This is the reason that we can see nothing when we first enter a dark room; as the opening enlarges, so that more light enters the eye, we begin to see; suddenly returning to the light again, it hurts us because too much light is received.
There is also an outside curtain with a fringe of eyelashes, which always drops to protect the eye, when one is not awake. Above this is the eyebrow, to turn away perspiration and other things which could injure the delicate organ of sight.
M. E. STEWARD.