The blind man's world : advice to people who have recently lost their sight / by Émile Javal ; translated by W. Ernest Thomson.

  • Javal, Émile, 1839-1907.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The blind man's world : advice to people who have recently lost their sight / by Émile Javal ; translated by W. Ernest Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the meal to read me the menu, and I tell him then what I am going to eat. Before adopting this plan, my neighbour, if inexperienced in my ways, would wait for me to ask the name of the dish, and if I happened to be in the middle of saying something, would still wait until I had finished. The result of this was delay in the service of the meal, and everybody’s attention was directed to us, much to the detriment of the conversation. If the meal hour be the blind man’s pleasantest time, the reason is that he is then in the company of people who sit in definite places, and that, consequently, he can take part in general conversation without being bothered by the comings and goings of those to whom he is speaking. It is only when at table that he can be sure of not addressing someone who has just gone away, and it is only there, if he has been told beforehand of each one’s place at table that he does not require to recognise by the voice the various people who join in the conversation. Let the fare be passable and the guests in good humour, and the blind man can enjoy for an hour his social life almost as well as his sighted companions. If, for the man to whom almost every other delight is denied, it is a real pleasure to be at table in good society, the pleasure is still greater if he can enjoy it at home. Here he always feels more at ease and can choose his own guests. Batzko said that the blind man can have but two forms of happiness : to meet his friends round his own table, and to dream of com-