The Talk.
"It happens very often that two people look at the same thing at the same time, and each of the two sees something entirely different from the other. Somebody has described the optimist as the man who sees the doughnut, while the pessimist sees nothing but the hole. So, also, you and I might see before us nothing but an unshapely block of marble, while the sculptor would see the angel in the stone!
"All of this proves to us that what we see doesn't depend upon our eyesight, but upon the mind which is back of the eyesight and which receives the impressions not only through the eyes but through the senses of hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling. In fact, our eyes and our ears may be tightly closed—we may be totally deaf and blind—and still we may be able to 'see' things more clearly than we might with our eyesight and our hearing.
"We have all heard about Helen Keller, the deaf and blind girl. I will draw an outline of her portrait. [Draw [Fig. 124], with eye closed, complete.]
"This young woman has been deprived of her eyesight and hearing ever since she was a young child, and yet her ability to learn, to comprehend, to understand, to really 'see,' is developed to such a high degree that she is advanced far beyond most well-educated people who possess all of their natural faculties.
"Helen Keller, now grown to womanhood, has written many wonderful things. Here is one of them: 'It does not matter where we are, so long as we have light in our hearts and make our dark ways ring with the music of burdens cheerfully borne and tasks bravely filled. They say life is a closed book to me. One critic doubted that I could feel the sun, and I believe he thought others felt it for me. But if, indeed, I had so little share as that in the life of others, it would still be true that
"'The least flower with brimming cup may stand
And share its dewdrops with another near.'
"Truly, the eyes of Helen Keller are widely opened to the great truths and wonderful beauties around her—[change lines of the eye slightly, completing [Fig. 125]]—whereas, the eyes of many of us which are supposed to be wide open, are indeed closed to many of God's blessings. Many of us have eyes to see with, but we use them only to look with. Helen Keller has seen more and done more without eyes than thousands who have perfect eyes, but have never learned to use them.