Chapter 7: A Looking Glass Is of No Use to a Blind Man

Chapter 7.
A Looking-Glass is of No Use to a Blind Man

He who will not see is much the same as if he had no eyes; indeed, in some things, the man without eyes has the advantage, for he is in the dark and knows it. A lantern is of no use to a bat, and good teaching is lost on the man who will not learn. Reason is folly with the unreasonable. One man can lead a horse to the water, but a hundred cannot make him drink. It is easy work to tell a man the truth, but if he will not be convinced your labor is lost. We pity the poor blind; we cannot do so much as that for those who shut their eyes against the light. A man who is blind to his own faults is blind to his own interests. He who thinks that he never was a fool is a fool now. He who never owns that he is wrong will never get right. He'll mend, as the saying is, when he grows better, like sour beer in summer. How can a man take the smuts off his face, if he will not look in the glass, nor believe that they are there when he is told of them?

Prejudice shuts up many eyes in total darkness. The man knows already: he is positive and can swear to it, and it's no use your arguing. He has made up his mind, and it did not take him long, for there's very little of it, but when he has said a thing he sticks to it like a cobbler's wax. He is wiser than seven men that can render a reason. He is as positive as if he had been on the other side the curtain and looked into the back yard of the universe. He talks as if he carried all knowledge in his waistcoat pocket, like a peppermint lozenge. Those who like may try to teach him, but I don't care to hold up a mirror to a mole.

Some men are blinded by their worldly business, and could not see heaven itself if the windows were open over their heads. Look at farmer Grab, he is like Nebuchadnezzar, for his conversation is all among beasts, and if he does not eat grass it is because he never could stomach salads. His dinner is his best devotion; he is a terrible fastener on a piece of beef, and sweats at it more than at his labor. He is as stubborn as he is stupid, and to get a new thought into his head you would need to bore a hole in his skull with a centre-bit. The game would not be worth the candle. We must leave him alone, for he is too old in the tooth, and too blind to be made to see.

Other people hurt their eyes by using glasses which are not spectacles. I have tried to convince Joe Scroggs that it would be a fine thing for him to join the teetotalers, and he has nothing to say against it only, "he does not see it."

"He up and told me to my face, The chimney-corner should be his place, And there he'd sit and dye his face, And drink till all is blue."

All is blue with him now, for his furniture is nearly all sold, and his wife and children have not a shoe to their foot, and yet he laughs about "a yard of pump water," and tells me to go and drink my cocoa. Poor soul! Poor soul! Can nothing be done for such poor fools? Why not shorten the hours for dealing out the drink? Why not shut up the saloons on Sundays? If these people have not got sense enough to take care of themselves, the law should protect them. Will Shepherd says he has to fetch his sheep out of a field when they are likely to get blown through eating too much green meat, and there ought to be a power to fetch sots out of a beer-shop when they are worse than blowed through drink. How I wish I could make poor Scroggs see as I do, but there, if a fellow has no eyes he can't see the sun, though his nose is being scorched off in the glare of it. Of all dust, the worst for the eyes is gold dust. A bribe blinds the judgment, and riches darken the mind. As smoke to the eyes, so also is flattery to the soul, and prejudice turns the light of the sun into a darkness that may be felt. We are all blind by nature, and till the good Physician opens our eyes we grope, even in Gospel light. All the preaching in the world cannot make a man see the truth so long as his eyes are blinded. There is a heavenly eye-salve which is a sovereign cure, but the worst of the matter is that the blind in heart think they see already, and so they are likely to die in darkness. Let us pray for those who never pray for themselves: God's power can do for them what is far beyond our power.

A dark and blinded thing is man, Yet full of fancied light! But all his penetration can Obtain no gospel light.

Though heavenly truth may blaze abroad.

He cannot see at all;

Though gospel leaders show the road, He still gropes for the wall

Perhaps he stands to hear the sound, But blind he still remains, No meaning in the word is found To cause him joys or pains.

O Lord, Thy holy power display, For Thou the help must find:

Pour in the light of gospel day;

Illuminate the blind.

Behold, how unconcerned they dwell, Though reft of sight they be, They fancy they can see right well, And need no help from Thee.

Speak, and they'll mourn their blinded eyes, And cry to Thee for light;

O Lord, do not our prayer despise, But give these blind men sight.