TO

THOMAS C. YEARLY, Esq.,

FOR HIS DEVOTION TO THE

Maryland Institution for the Instruction of the Blind,

AND FOR HIS

MANY DISINTERESTED ACTS OF KINDNESS TO THE AUTHOR,

THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.

1

PREFACE.

These pages are the composition of a blind girl: they are committed by her with much diffidence to the world, after many days and nights of toil: they have served to beguile and render comparatively happy many hours of a life which would otherwise, perhaps, have been sad and melancholy, and to inspire her with emotions of gratitude to her Heavenly Father, that whilst it has pleased him to afflict, he hath not failed so to mingle the sweet with the bitter, as to realize to her in the midst of her affliction, much of the luxury of the life that is, and a hope that never falters for the life which is to come. She would bless his holy name that, sightless as she is, and although she may not look out upon "the heavens which declare his glory and the firmament which sheweth his handiwork," yet he hath not left her to isolation and dejection, but in his boundless love and mercy hath opened up to her mental vision the delights and en

joyments which belong to contemplation and thoughtful exercise.

These effusions are the fruit of this mental pastime. They now go forth from their privacy with such surroundings: if they may n roundings: if they may not command critical approval,

may they not invoke its forbearance, and enlist the patronage of the generous and humane.

thiy Labe

The Golden Sunset, or the Homeless Blind Girl.

Lan

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87 vitarsed

Jaja

"Thou art, O God, the life and light
Of all this wondrous world we see;
Its glow by day, its smile by night,

Are but reflections, caught from Thee;
Where'er we turn, Thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine."

1. A

Thomas Moore.

a daw of cor

'Tis sweet to
to hear the watch-dog's honest bark
Bay deep-mouth'd welcome as we draw near home;
'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark viole
Our coming, and look the brighter when we come."

MIZ 671 VAL 2017 earth Brun! Byron. Gentle reader, this is one more offering thrown out upon the rough wavering sea of public opinion. Glance not upon it with a critic's eye, for it is the production of a simple girl, whose only aim is to gather flowers of sympathy and affection from those who are willing to lend a helping hand to ene whom.

62

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