maintenance of its possessor, is one of the
points which the Association does not lose
sight of. But as yet it cannot do much in
special musical education; but it does a
little. More time and more money will
probably render it the means of becoming a
blessing to blind musicians.

Returning, however, to the main purpose
of the undertaking, the provision of some
better means of livelihood to the poor blind
mechanic, we have yet to show how far the
business of the shop has hitherto been
beneficial to the class that looks to it for help.
At present, it is able to afford employment to
fifty-six blind men and women. Twenty of
these are supplied with regular work in their
own homes, at sums varying from twelve
shillings to eighteenpence a-week; twenty-
one are taught and employed at the Society's
repository, and fifteen are occasionally
employed in their own homes or are engaged
in selling goods for the Association. Some of
these people have been withdrawn from
beggary and destitution in the streets, and there
are upon the books of the Association names
of seventy-six persons—some of them now
beggars—who desire nothing better than help
to the means of earning their own bread by
honest labour. To delay the giving of such
help in so many cases is an unhappy necessity.
Upon the amount of custom at the shop
depends the amount of work to be distributed,
and the distribution of it is made with
the nicest regard to the relative condition of
the persons helped. With many persons,
regular work to the amount of only eighteen-
pence a-week suffices to keep energy and
hope alive, and to secure a bare subsistence
to those who are able to get some occasional
employment in the common labour-market.
Sometimes there is a blind father with
several blind sons, or a large family in deep
distress, and for a season it is necessary that
a larger amount of fixed income should be
earned. Work to the amount of ten or
twelve shillings a-week is then given by the
Association; although, in an ordinary case,
work to the amount of six shillings a-week
must needs be accepted as a liberal
allowance.

We pour out the last scraps from our small
budget of information on this subject when
we add, that at Plymouth, Canterbury,
Hereford, Reading, Bexhill (near Hastings), and
Willingdon (near Eastbourne), blind agents
are employed in selling goods; that some of
the new forms of industry first taught to the
blind in the Euston Road have been wisely
and readily adopted in some of the established
Blind Schools; and that one of the little
special hoards originated by some donors to
this Association is for the establishment of a
second shop at the West End to which more
custom may flow, and by which more
employment may be created for a class of people
suffering from sore and obvious need of a
sufficiency of work.

The last addition to the cares of the
Association was the establishment of a lodging-
house for blind workpeople, which at present
only contains six or seven inmates, each of
whom is lodged and fed for seven shillings
a-week. It is noticeable that while the necessary
slowness of their work curtails the
earnings of the blind, it is not easy for them
to live as cheaply as they might if they could
see their own way as housekeepers. There
is such a thing on earth as a blind woman
who can make and boil a famous apple
pudding: but, as a rule, blind housekeepers
are very limited in their resources, and must
find it difficult to make the best of small
means in providing for themselves their
daily food, in mending of clothes, and in the
working out of many small details of necessary
thrift.

                          A WARNING.

      PLACE your hands in mine, dear,
             With their rose-leaf touch:
      If you heed my warning,
             It will spare you much.

      Ah! with just such smiling,
            Unbelieving eyes,
       Years ago I heard it:
            You shall be more wise.

      You have one great treasure,
            Joy for all your life;
       Do not let it perish
            In one reckless strife.

       Do not venture all, child,
             In one frail, weak heart;
       So, through any shipwreck,
             You may save a part.

       Where your soul is tempted
             Most to trust your fate,
        There, with double caution
              Linger, fear, and wait.

      Measure all you give—still
             Counting what you take;
      Love for love: so placing
             Each an equal stake.

      Treasure love; though ready
            Still to live without.
       In your fondest trust, keep
            Just one thread of doubt.

      Build on no to-morrow;
            Love has but to-day:
       If the links seem slackening,
            Cut the bond away.

      Trust no prayer nor promise?
            Words are grains of sand:
       Keep your heart unbroken,
            Safely in your hand.

      That your love may finish
             Calm as it begun,
       Learn this lesson better,
             Dear, than I have done.