Excerpt from Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe: The Servant of Humanity In front of angry foes; To lift, to shield, to help, to save, He touched the eyelids of the blind, And lo! The veil withdrawn, As o'er the midnight of the mind He led the light of dawn. He asked not whence the fountains roll No traveller's foot has found, But mapped the desert of the soul Untracked by sight or sound. What prayers have reached the sapphire throne, By silent fingers Spelt, For him who first through depths unknown His doubtful pathway felt, Who sought the slumbering sense that lay Close shut with bolt and bar, And showed awakening thought the ray Of rason's morning star! Where'er he moved, his shadowy form The sightless orbs would seek, And smiles of welcome light and warm The lips that could not speak. No laboured line, no sculptor's art, Such hallowed memory needs; His tablet is the human hart, His record loving deeds. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.