BOOKS FOR THE BLIND.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] am venturing to address you upon a rather out-of-the- way point in connexion with books, because in writing to you regarding it I am writing to one who directs a paper which, I believe, owes a great deal of its great find increasing popu- larity among thinking people to its admirable book reviews and literary news. The reviews which the Spectator prints are of books prepared for the use and enjoyment of folk who can see to read. The books about which I am writing are those prepared by what is known as the Braille System for those who are sightless, or whose sight is so defective that they can only read with their finger-tips. These books, though numerically unimportant, are of far greater importance to the people for whom they are made than are ordinary books. Books mean almost everything in the way of enjoyment to the blind. Few who can see realize how much unconscious enjoy- ment the mere possession of sight affords them. And it is not a mere question of enjoyment, for education is chiefly dependent upon books, and the blind, of all people, need education. Many instances leap to the mind of sighted people who have won their way to the front rank though practically unedu- cated.- But with the blind this cannot happen; their possibilities of observation are too limited.
The National Institute for the Blind is engaged in a campaign the object of which is the cheapening and ampli- fying of Braille literature. The cost of this is at present quite prohibitive—for example, a copy of Ivanhoe, which sighted folk can buy for 6d., costa us 19s. 6d. to produce. This excessive cost will be reduced when our new premises, which were recently inaugurated by the King and Queen, are completed and equipped, but it will always remain far beyond the financial possibilities of the great majority of blind people. I want those who can see to help those who cannot in this important matter, and I venture to ask your powerful aid. I want £30,000 to complete and equip our premises, and I want as much more as kindly sympathisers will provide—not less than £100,000—to form a fund for enabling the excessive cost of books for blind people to be reduced. I know your space is limited, and will not, therefore, occupy more of it, but will content myself with the earnest expression of the hope that you will assist in this great effort to help those who are, from the nature of their case, very helpless—I am, Sir, &e.,. C. ARTHUR PEARSON,
Hon. Treasurer National Institute for the Blind.
206 G;eat Portland Street, W.
[We share Mr. Pearson's generous ambition that the wide fields of literature shall be laid open to the blind, Those blessed with eyes to see should not rest till they can feel that all that is best in literature is within the reach of those who cannot read save in Braille type. Braille's invention unlocked the door; it yemains to fling it wide open. We have written on the subject at length elsewhere.—En. Spectator.]
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