CORRESPONDENCE.
BLIND SAMSONS.
[To TNT EDITOR or Tee " Sescraroa."l Sift,—In the Chapel of the Foundlings' Hospital is Handel's organ, mud of that organ a story is told which embodies the whole tragedy of the blind. The great composer, it is said, was accompanying the first performance of his Samson upon it. Tho words in which the story of the blind hero of Israel is told were written by the blind poet, Milton, and the music was composed by the blind Handel—three of the mightiest men the world has Been, each in his own sphere, and each was blind. All their agony is summed up in two lines :—
." 0 dark, dark, dark! Irrecoverably dark!
Total eclipse amid the blare of noon! " • As these were sung, Handel, who has brought all Heaven before our eyes, took his hands from the keyboard, and, covering his face, wept aloud.
"Samson Agonistes "—Samson the Striver. Does not the name lit the men who have gone forth, in the pride of their youth and strength, to strive for the right against the modern Philistines, the worshippers of a monstrous Dagon, and have met, for their earthly reward, " total eclipse amid the blaze of noon "? If life's prospects were fair to them, they left them all without a thought save of the right. If life's prospects offered them little, the more honour to them that they heard and obeyed the call of pure duty. In steadfast patience they waited amid the whirling storm of German " hate," or went with high courage over the top into the sleet of the German machine-gun fire. Men like the rest of es, only a thousand times better men! They saw the darling lightning of the bursting " cramp," and then—" Dark, dark, dark! Irrecoverably dark!" As the first stunning effect of the shock passed away from the, tortured nerves and the bitter consequences came home to their minds, must they not have experienced the hopelessness embodied. in Milton's words and Handel's music :—
" 0 dark, dark, dark! Irrecoverably dark!
Total eclipse amid the blare of noon! "?
God be thanked, there is no need for hopelessness. Willing hands and grateful hearts can yet prove to them that, for all the ills which man can suffer, there are compensations to be found. At St. Dunatan's they have learned to " get hold of themselves " again. As Christ not only taught, but showed the way through suffering to glory, so those similarly afflicted with themselves are showing our blind Samson the way through darkness and despair to content and usefulness. Their brothers and sisters of Britain have pledged themselves that they shall be cared for to their life's end.
But mare is required of us than that they shall he taught to earn, in some sort, their livelihood. Life must not be for them a dull, cheerless, lonely thing. They require, more than sighted people, the blessings of domestic love, the sweet peace of a happy home, the tender ministrations of wife and children. Their blind- ness has not placed them in a class apart. It has only made them more dependent than the rest on the beatitudes of home life for their happiness. Loving women are ready to share their lot. They will rear children of whom the England of the future will be proud. What hinders, or should hinder?
Only the one barrier of ways and means. If they were married men and fathers before they made their great sacrifice for duty's) sake, the State will give its aid to maintain their children. But for children born since, or the children of marriages yet to be made, the State has decided that it cannot provide, for reasons which it would take too long to set forth. That is why the Blinded Soldiers' Children's Fund has been established, and why the people of Britain are asked to discharge a further portion of their debt by contributing a quarter of a million of money in order that blinded soldiers may know the highest joy that earth affords, free from the haunting fear that they may not be able to do their duty by the children they may bring into the world. The father's prospects have been darkened in our cause. The Law of Compensation demands that the children's prospects should lie brightened by our gratitude. That is the philosophy of the appeal. bent forth on behalf of blinded soldiers' children.—I am, Sir, &c., GERARD Frseinte.
Previous page
