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WILLIAM HENRY MILBURN,

THE BLIND PREACHER.

"For Thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness."

W. H. MILBURN was born in Philadelphia, on the twenty-sixth of September, 1823. His father was a merchant, but, meeting with reverses, removed to the West in 1838, and is now living with his wife and one son at Jacksonville, Illinois. They were originally from Maryland, and belong to the Methodist Church. William was an active, robust boy, possessed of perfect faculties, both bodily and mental; but at the age of five met with the accident which resulted in blindness. He was playing with another lad in an open lot, engaged in throwing at a mark, when his companion, in lifting his hand to cast a piece of iron hoop, or something of the kind, inadvertently struck the edge of it into Milburn's eye.

From this accident, however, the eye recovered without injury to vision, except that the scar consisted of a slight protuberance, which interfered with sight downward, but not direct or upward. This protuberance the physician decided to burn off with caustic; an operation which, twice repeated, was hard for the boy to bear. He begged for relief, and at last resisted, declaring that he could not endure it. Upon this the physician seized him in his arms, forced the caustic upon the wound, and in the struggles both eyes of the poor boy were dashed with it. As a remedy, they were kept bathed with a solution of sugar of lead for two years, during which time the pupils became permeated with depositions of lead, and light was shut

out, with the exception of the left upper corner of the right eye, through which narrow aperture objects were visible.

By placing a projecting shade over the eye, the hand convexly shaped beneath it, and leaning the body forward at an angle of fortyfive degrees, Milburn was able to read; seeing, however, only one letter at a time. Cut off from most sports, he became absorbed in reading; and day after day would sit in the constrained posture necessary to see, poring over books, often twelve hours out of the twenty-four. His constitution was so good that it did not suffer under this confinement and unnatural attitude, until he was nine

teen years of age, when a Senior in college; then his health suddenly gave way, and it was discovered that he had a slight curvature of the spine, and some internal organic disease. From the former he has not altogether recovered, and is in consequence obliged to lie in a horizontal position during a portion of every day; but, though of rather slender and delicate appearance, he is capable of enduring great fatigue, and long-continued, severe mental application.

His sight has been gradually diminishing, so that now he is unable to read at all; but in a favorable light and position, can dimly discern the outline of objects. The result is, that his other senses are cultivated to exquisite nicety. He recognizes acquaintances from the voice, more readily than many do from the appearance; and he judges of character from intonation, as others do from expression. His idea of locality is admirable, so that he moves about in familiar places with facility, and often travels unattended, trusting to the kindness of strangers, or rather certain of meeting some one of his many friends. His memory is prodigious, receiving like wax and retaining like iron, and in early life was probably not surpassed by that of Magliabecchi, or any of the mnemonic prodigies.

On hearing his father read a chapter of the Bible at morning prayers, he would repeat it after him without mistake, and two repetitions insured its permanent retention. A college mate has told us of his going to Milburn's room one day with a volume of Chalmers' Astronomical Discourses, and reading him a half or two-thirds of one. Milburn expressed delight, and wished it read again. He

HIS MEMORY.

125 did so, when Milburn said, "Thank you, I have it now." "What do you mean-have what?" "Why, I have that sermon ;" and to dispel skepticism, repeated it verbatim, and the next Saturday declaimed a part of it in the chapel. After entering college, however, he discouraged the cultivation of memory, and bent his mental energies in other directions, fearing to be no more than the receptacle of other men's thoughts-a mere walking encyclopedia.

The result is, that his memory is now less tenacious. His habit, at present, is, when wishing to commit a new chapter, preparatory to public worship, to have it read to him on the previous day, and he repeats after the reader, verse by verse, and then in sets of four verses, commencing each time at the commencement of the chapter. With one reading of the chapter thereafter, he is prepared to go through it before an audience, without possibility of failure. Poetry he commits with greater facility than prose. He is perfectly familiar with the Hymn-book, and can probably repeat most of the New Testament, and considerable portions of the Old. His retention of names, dates, facts, and conversations, seems to be equally good; the only difference of power being between the committing of prose and of poetry. It is an interesting fact, that his four children inherit much of this power of memory: the oldest, a daughter of eight years, having a special gift in that way; and the next, a bright little fellow, having caught a good part of Milton's Allegro, from hearing his sister repeat it, before he could understand a word of it. Since we have floated along to this point of the narrative, we will add, that Mr. Milburn's wife, a Baltimore lady of thorough education and practical sense, to whom he was married in 1846, is his principal reader; at some periods reading to him ten hours a day for weeks, four and five hours at a sitting, and sometimes fifteen hours out of the twenty-four.

In May, 1838, the Milburn family removed from Philadelphia to Jacksonville, Illinois; and being in reduced circumstances, William, in company with his father, sought for some suitable means of livelihood at St. Louis, Quincy, and other places. The son was offered a clerkship on a steamboat, but his mother would not consent to a situation so hazardous to good habits; and the result was, that the

father opened a small store in Jacksonville, with William for a clerk. His parents, while interested in his education, feared that reading would result in total blindness, and wished him to relinquish books for business, and hence the clerkship. William's regular duties consisted in being up at four o'clock, lighting the kitchen fire, drawing water, and cutting wood, opening the store, sweeping it out, and returning to breakfast by candlelight in winter, or at sunrise in summer. The day was spent at the store, and faithful attention to customers was necessary, besides the keeping of the books, which he managed to do, with some assistance, in spite of his limited vision.

But meanwhile the studies could not be relinquished, for a liberal education was the lad's ambition. At his place, by the door, in summer, and at a window in winter, sitting in a constrained posture, he received the sunlight of knowledge, as it were, through a crevice in the roof, instead of by the effulgence poured in through surrounding windows; besides the disability of sight, suffering from the incessant interruption consequent upon strict attention to the store, and the constant ear-vigilance necessary to distinguish customer from idler. But the preparation for college was accomplished without assistance, except in the use of Latin and Greek dictionaries; and the Freshman class was entered in 1839, at Illinois College, situated in Jacksonville, then under the presidency of Dr. Edward Beecher. The regular course was pursued until the latter part of the Senior year (with the exception of Greek, which was discontinued on account of eyesight, at the close of the Sophomore year), and the clerkship at the store faithfully maintained. Much interest was manifested by the excellent people of Jacksonville in his progress, for he was a favorite; and all went on prosperously till the spring of 1843, his last collegiate year, when health suddenly gave way, as we have mentioned; and separation from books and a regimen of horseback riding were prescribed as essential.

From childhood Milburn had been the subject of religious impressions. The teachings of parents, and the conversations of visiting clergy, were received into a susceptible heart. The emotions, however, excited by religious truth were evanescent, like all emotions of

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