of showing that
their work is thorough and complete, and that they can stand alone. It
may, at that time, have been necessary to take such a step in order to
convince the general public that blind men and women could do anything
at all, but the theory involves a limitation which is to be regretted.

Bessie's education, experience, and sympathy would naturally lead her to
try to restore the blind to their place and their work in the world, to
ameliorate their condition but not to alienate them, not to separate
them from home and companions. Her own happy youth, her work in the
schoolroom at Oxford, her enjoyment of the home at Chichester, all
tended to prevent her from being drawn into the current with enthusiasts
who looked upon the blind, less as afflicted, than as persecuted and
oppressed. She had gradually learnt that blindness is a limitation which
the most loving and tender care cannot entirely remove. To be blind, to
be a woman, both imply considerable restrictions: but Bessie was not
predisposed to consider one state any more the fault of society than the
other. She would labour to remove the disabilities of either condition,
but she always recognised that they were inherent, and did not arise
from persecution or ill-will.

It is necessary to say so much at this time, because we shall see that
in many points Bessie did yield to the judgment of one who took an
extreme view; who, himself educated in an institution, surrounded only
by blind people, often of a very feeble capacity, had learned to look
upon himself more as a member of an oppressed and persecuted race than
as an afflicted man. Levy wished to show that the blind could do their
work and manage their affairs in their own way, and that it was as good
a way as any other. No "sighted" man was to interfere in the workshop.
He invented a system of embossed writing, and he used to send to
Chichester weekly accounts of the money paid for basket and brush
material, and in wages. This money was remitted by Bessie, and when
brushes and baskets were sold she was to receive the price paid for
them. The liabilities that she undertook were rent, manager's salary,
percentages on sale, incidental expenses, and losses. These, with only
the cellar and seven blind men at work, would not be more than she could
afford, and with the approval of her family she set to work bravely to
sell her brushes.

The only point on which the Bishop gave advice was, that difference of
cr