ELIZABETH GILBERT
ELIZABETH GILBERT
AND
HER WORK FOR THE BLIND
BY
FRANCES MARTIN
AUTHOR OF 'ANGÉLIQUE ARNAULD,' ETC. ETC.
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1887
All rights reserved
INTRODUCTION
There is a sacred privacy in the life of a blind person. It is led apartfrom much of the ordinary work of the world, and is unaffected by manyexternal incidents which help to make up the important events of otherlives. It is passed in the shade and not in the open sunlight of eageractivity. At first we should be disposed to say that such a life, withits inevitable restrictions and compulsory isolation, could offer littleof public interest, and might well remain unchronicled. But in the rarecases where blindness, feeble health, and suffering form scarcely anybar to activity; where they are not only borne with patience, but byheroic effort are compelled to minister to great aims, we are eager tolearn the secret of such a life. No details connected with it are devoidof interest; and we are stimulated, encouraged, and strengthened byseeing obstacles overcome which appeared insurmountable, and watchingtriumph where we dreaded defeat.
Elizabeth Gilbert was born at a time when kindly and intelligent menand women could gravely implore "the Almighty" to "take away" a childmerely because it was blind; when they could argue that to teach theblind to read, or to attempt to teach them to work, was to fly in theface of Providence. And her whole life was given to the endeavour toovercome prejudice and superstition; to show that blindness, though agreat privation, is not a disqualification. Blind men and women canlearn, labour, and fulfil all the duties of life if their fellow-men aremerciful and helpful, and God is on the side of all those who workhonestly for themselves and others.
The life of Elizabeth Gilbert and her work for the blind are soinextricably interwoven, that it is impossible to tell one withoutconstant reference to the other.
A small cellar in Holborn at a rent of eighteen-pence a week was enoughfor a beginning. But before her death she could point to large andwell-appointed workshops in almost every city of England, where blindmen and women are employed, where tools have been invented by ormodified for them, where agencies have been established for the sale of their work.
Her example has encouraged, her influence has[Pg ix] promoted the work whichshe never relinquished throughout life.
Nothing was too great for her to attempt on behalf of the blind, nothingseemed impossible of achievement. One success suggested a new endeavour,one achievement opened a door for fresh effort.
Free from any taint of selfishness or self-seeking, all her thought wasfor others, for the helpless, the poor, the friendless. Her pity wasboundl