OF all the senses, says an ardent admirer of nature, the sight is certainly that which furnishes the mind with the quickest and most widely-extended perceptions. It is the source of the richest treasures of the imagination, and of our ideas of the beauty, order, and unity of the world around us. How unhappy are those whom a hard fate has deprived of the sense of sight from their birth! Alas! the finest day and the darkest night differ in nothing as far as they are concerned; the light of heaven never brings joy into their hearts. The enamelled beauties of a bed of flowers, the varied plumage of the peacock, the glories of the rainbow are alike unknown to them. They cannot contemplate from the mountain height the beauties of the valley beneath; the fields golden with the harvest, the meadows smiling with verdure, and watered by winding rivers, and the habitations of man dotted about here and there over the surface of this magnificent picture. To them is unknown the sight of the mighty ocean; and the innumerable legions of the cloud army of Heaven are to them as if they did not exist. The impenetrable obscurity which surrounds them allows them neither the contemplation of what is grandest in man’s outward aspect, nor even the admiration of those qualities which they themselves would hold most dear. A strong sentiment of pity should, therefore, animate the breast of every right-thinking man, when he considers the unhappy condition of those who are born blind. The eye infinitely surpasses in its complexity and beauty of structure all the other organs of sense, and is most unquestionably the most marvellous object that the human mind is capable of examining and understanding. Let us first examine the external parts of this wonderful organ. With what a singular system of entrenchments and defences do we find the eye provided! It is itself placed in the head at a certain depth, and surrounded on all sides by solid bone, so that it is only with the greatest difficulty that it is hurt by accident from without. The eyebrows also play their part as protection to the eye, and prevent the perspiration from entering and irritating the organ. The eyelids too are always ready to rush to the rescue, whether to protect the eye from outward attacks, or to shade it from too strong a light during sleep. The eyelashes not only add to the beauty of the eye, but they shade it from the too brilliant light of the sun, and act as advanced guards to prevent the entrance of dust or any other foreign body with which the eyes might be injured.