372 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
enthusiasm, and prosecuted it with untiring energy. Perhaps there was no one
of whom it could more truly be said, that ‘‘ he went about continually doing
good.”l
With the establishment of that benevolent institution-the Blind Asylum
of Edinburgh-the memory of Dr. Johnston is affectionately associated ; and
so deeply and actively did he interest himself in originating and promoting funds
for the undertaking, that he might with justice be designated its founder. So
much were his feelings bound up in t8he success of the institution, that he
regularly devoted a portion of his time to give it his personal superintendence,
and watched over its progress with all the fondness of a parent.’ This
surveillance he continued every day in the week, except Saturday and Sabbath,
walking to and from Edinburgh ; and, at the extreme age of ninety, gave proof of
the wonderful degree of muscular activity for which he had always been remarkable,
by performing the journey as usual. He disdained the modern effeminacy
of the stage-coach ; and, in going up Leith Walk, generally got ahead of it.
Both in person and in features Dr. Johnston was exceedingly handsome j
and in dress and manners he was a thorough gentleman of the last century. He
The only dilemma in which the good old Doctor is known to have been placed with a portion
of his parishioners, occurred when the old church of North Leith-abandoned to secular purposeswas,
in 1817, supplanted by the present building, with its handsome spire, surniounted by a cvoss.
Some of the out-and-out Presbyterians saw in this emblem an alarming approach to Popish darkness ;
and, not unfrequently, when in the course of his visitations, he found himself in the place of the
catechised. On this subject the Doctor held only one opinion; but in reference to the zealous
declamation of two old women whom he one day encountered, and who had fairly borne him down
by strength of lungs, if not by strength of argument, he at last exclaimed-“Well, well, what
would you have me to do in the matter ?” Do I” replied one of them ; “what wad ye do-but
just put up the auld cock again I ”
a The Abbe Hauy pnblished a very curious work on the Education of the Blind, written in French,
and printed and bound by the blind pupils at the Quinae-vingts in Paris-a benevolent institution
which owed its establishment to the late unfortunate Louis XVI. The types of this work, as published
at Paris ninety years ago, were made to impress the paper so strongly as to produce palpable
letters, in such high relief, that blind people, properly inutructed, might read them by means of
their fingers. The late eminent Dr. Blacklock, who was blind froin his infancy, proposed to have
translated and published this curious wor We have seen
one of the chapters of the translation. I k v e an accurate account of the part which described the
typographical labours of the blind pupils, and the ingenious contrivance for enabling themselves and
others in the aame unhappy predicament to enjoy the benefit and delight of solitary reading. About
forty works in different languages have been published in Pans ; and all the inmates of the Institution
there have been taught to read, many of them with great fluency. Within the last ten years,
the art of printing for the blind has been completely revolutionised by Mr. Gall of Edinburgh. By
modifying the alphabet SO as to make each letter differ in shape aa decidedly as possible from every
other, and more especially by the invention of fretted types, he has reduced the books for the blind
to one-tenth of their former prices. The remarkable simplicity of Mr. Gall’s alphabet may be
imagined from the circumstance, that the blind. are able to read the books throngh four, six, and
gometimes eight plies of a handkerchief laid upon them. The size of the types may be so much
reduced as to have the whole New Testament printed for 8s. 6d. per copy ; and it is expected that
an edition may yet be obtained as low as 5s.
A great number of the blind are now able to read in England, Ireland, and Scotland ; and, as the
object has been warmly taken up by the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Religious Tract
Society of London, who are publishing books for their use ; and by the Sunday School Union of
England, who are teaching them to read in the Schools; it is hoped that all the blind will very SOOR
enjoy the benefit of Mr. Gall’s valuable labours.
but he died before it was completed.
