This is one reason of the pupils being taught to make things for sale, which do not really help their progress in their trade, but which please and attract visitors, and are on that account often purchased, though in themselves utterly useless. Indeed I have heard it remarked what very useless things are made in blind asylums, and in other charitable institutions. Anderson says that one prominent feature in institutions for the blind is, the desire to carry forward the pupil at any sacrifice, to accomplish such pieces of work as may call forth the mere surprise of the passing visitor. If this is bad in an asylum where it is very little practised, it is far worse in a school. The time of a pupil ought to be considered most sacred, and as much as possible appropriated to the acquirement of that which he will be able to perform and find a ready sale for, on his leaving the school. There is, however, one thing to be urged in excuse of this practice in blind schools, viz., that the funds of most of them are not equal to their expenses, without the aid of the sale of the pupils' work. I believe that every such school, in order to be efficient, ought not to derive benefit from the work of the pupils; as when this is the case, the learners are often hurried over the different steps of their trade without due care being taken that they should each be able to take such steps securely when entirely unassisted. Thus on leaving the school the blind man often finds himself at fault when left to his own resources in practising the trade of which he was believed to be the master, in the acquiring of which much time, labour, and money have been spent, and from which far greater benefit might have been derived had it not been for the root-evil which has been mentioned. The aim of every school for the blind should be to fit them to fill their station in the world, be it what it may, as Christian men and women, and therefore to earn their own living, when this is necessary, as in far the majority of cases it is. I hope and trust that one day the whole school system will be improved. I know that Liverpool, which led the way in England, started with the best possible aims and intentions; although it has now greatly degenerated. Indeed, I believe all the first institutions to have been good, though the scope of many is, I suspect, very narrow. But it strikes me that all fall more or less below their first intentions, not only in their practice but even in their theory, and this I believe partly unconsciously. I do not see why it should be so, but I am afraid this is but too true. However, I can't help thinking that the rendering of such institutions independent of any gain from the labour of the pupils would go far towards improvement.