| Show so much of the happiness and sue cess of life depends upon the seeing capacity that it Is both a wonder and a pity that more attention Is not paid by parents in the home and by in tors in the schools to the perfect ing of this gift the trouble Is that the great major ity of people regard the capacity of the eyes as something fixed at birth and not to be with it they would think a little they would recognize that it Is after all largely a matter of exercise and practice they know that the power of the muscles Is capable of almost indell antte training but they fall to apply the principle to th eyes all forms of exercise are called upon to in crease and strengthen the muscular system of growing children and the wis lorn of this abw ays granting rea moderation Is never ques tinned but ohp child with the weak undeveloped visual faculty with the untrained color sense with the carry ing capacity of the sight limited to a few feet Is called stupid and hie best hope is that he may be fitted with glasses before he Is rallied and scolded into real stupidity the sight can be educated and ex excised just as truly as the bear ing the sense of touch or even the leg and arm muscles can and the work which can be easily converted into play should be begun very early in life much so called color blind ness Is not a radical defect of vision at all but a lack ot training in at and recognition and could have been avoided by any form ot simple halt play half lesson with colored balls or skeins ot silk la early childhood matching colors Is an excellent game lesson it can be carried on with silks wools paper or any other material in which it Is possible to get many shades with very small gradations of color among them certain ot the educational supply houses furnish colored tor this very purpose an element of corn petition can be introduced and tha power of the vision can be trained at the same time with that esthetic sense which 1 its greatest reward of vision can be enor developed most persons know the story of the conjuror whose father made him while a small boy play the game of naming the objects in some shop window passed at a quick walk it one will try this he will be astounded at the way the num her of objects seen in the glimpse will grow with practice As tor other forms of exercise that of the eye should be taken only un der proper conditions A tired worn out eye should not be forced to new tasks any more than a tired worn out body this is why the process can not be started too soon that the cyp may be insensibly trained to good of perception youth s corn canlon |
