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 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

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who bad the pleasnre of knowing him, because few have been more successful in their "flashes of merriment," or have more frequently " set the table in a roar ;" and there are not many to whom the public have been more obliged for a right use of their professional powers. Mr. Evans (who served his apprenticeship with Mr. Charles Maish, a book^ller of reputation in Ronnd-coart and at Charing cross) had naturally a taste and a love for literature ; and, as far as prudence would permit, endeavoured to render his private propensity the source of public advan- tage and public ornament. Hence he favoured the world with elegant editions of complete col- lections of the works of some very eminent poets, and engaged in a great number of pub- lications that tended to rescue merit from ob- livion, and to do honour to the literary charac- ter of his country. Among them we may enu- merate editions of Sbakspeare's poems, Buck- ingham's poems, Buckingham's works, Nichol- somCa Hulorical Library, four volumes of Old Ballads, with notes, (of this his son afterwards published an improved edition) cardinal de Retz's Memoirt, Savage's works, Goldsmith's works. Prior's works, Rabelais's works, Hii- tory of Wales, and Peck's Desiderata Curiota. To all these works Mr. Evans prefixed dedica- tions written with neatness and elegance, ad- dressed to his literary patrons, Garrick, Sir Joshua RCTnolds, Mr. Sheriaan, and others. Mr. Evans had his imperfections in common with the rest of mankind : but those who knew him best felt a triumph when they beard any of his failings singled out as the subject of discussion, 1)ecause it served to bring to their recollection how much his foibles were overbalanced by his many substantial good qualities. The following characteristic lines were written, by way of epi- taph, by a friend who intimately knew and con- sequently esteemed him :

" Cro]>t by th' antlmdr hand of Death, here lies. If ' Life's a jest,* one who was truly wise ; If cares were jests, its Jests were all his care. Till life and Jest dispers'd in empty air. nien take tlds 8ig4i, tboa poor departed duule ! For all tl>e pleasantries thy life display'd : Alas ! 'tis aU that's now in friendaliip's power } The sad exchange for many a cheerfnl hooi."

1784, /u/y 14. Edmund Bdrke, esq. brought an action against Mr. Woodfall, printer of the Public Advertiser, for a libel. Mr. Burke laid the damages at £5000, but the jury gave him only £100.

' 1784. Valentin Haiiy, (brother to the cele- brated French mineralogist,) was the first person who turned his attention towards instructing the blind. The plan which he adopted was first suggested to him by his acquaintance with a German lady, the baroness Von Paradis, of Vienna, who visited Paris in the year 1780, and performed on the organ with general applause. Hany repeatedly visited this ingenious lady, and was mucn surprised to find in her apartments several contrivances for the instruction of the blind ; for instance, embroidered maps and a

pocket printing apparatus, by means of which she corresponded with Von Kempelen, in Vienna, the ingenious inventor of the chess-player and speaking automaton, and with a learned blind gentleman, named Weissenburg, at Manheim. The philanthropic Haiiy compared the high cul- tivation of these two Germans with the degraded state of the blind in France, where at the annual fair of St. Ovide, an innkeeper had collected ten poor blind persons, attired in a ridiculous manner, and decorated with asses' ears, peacocks' tails, and spectacles without glasses, to perform a burlesque concert. In 1784, Haiiy opened an asylum, in Paris, under the patronage of the lociiti philantropiqite, and since called the " institution royale des jeuues aveugles," or the royal institution for the juvenile blind, in which ne set on foot that excellent course of instruction which has since been copied in all quarters of the world. The young inmates were instructed not only in appro- priate mechanical employments, as spinnmg. Knitting, making ropes or fringes, and working in pasteboard, but also in music, reading, writ- ing, arithmetic, geography, and the sciences. For this purpose he invented particular means of instruction, resembling those with which he had become acquainted by his intercourse with the two blind Germans. For instruction in reading, he procured raised letters in metal, from which, also, impressions might be taken on paper, the impressions being so deeply sunk in the paper as to leave their marks in strong relief, and which marks were felt by the fingers of the pupils. For writing, he used particular writing- cases, in which a frame, with wires to separate the lines, could be fastened upon the paper. For ciphering, there were moveable figures of metal and ciphering boards, in which the figures could be fixed. For teaching geography, maps were prepared, upon which, mountains, rivers, cities, and the borders of counties, were embroidered in various ways. In the beginning, the philan- thropic society paid the expenses of the institution, which was aflerwards taken under the protection of the state. The benevolent ex- ample thus set by Fiance was followed by the governments of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, by the establishment of similar institutions in their respective capitals. In England the same feel- ing shewed itself by the school at Liverpool being opened in 1791. The asylum at Edinburgh and the school at Bristol followed in 1793. That of London in 1799, and Norwich in 1605. After this the blind seem to have been nearly for- gotten, as it was not till 1838 that the asylum at Glasgow commenced its operation. In 1827 the important art of printing for the blind was first practised in the Edinburgh asylum, where Mr. Gall, the inventor, printed, as the first specimen, the Gospel of St. John. In 1833, a school was opened at Belfast, Ireland. In 1835, the Wil- berforce memorial school for the blind was open- ed at York ; and at this period there were no less than four others projected, — at London, Manchester, Aberdeen, and Dundee.

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