Fort Benning Trainee

Citation: The first article

LITERATURE

Author(s):

LITERATURE:

Publisher(s):

University Press

Series:

*LITERATURE

Abstract:

Why is it that Americans are so reluctant to admit that they cannot see by
light, even under shelter? Is the light not the gift of God to every man,
where he has no need of it? If man, as he ought to be, had no sight, it
would be another case; surely no man would be blind except where he might go
away to the store and buy something to put upon his eyes. Is not this as it
ought to be? Will not every man have his own share of light to
please him?
* * *
There is a legend with the name of "Benning," and the legend is so very
strange, so very repugnant and unnatural. It is so utterly false and
impossible and absurd, I must dwell upon it for the truth; but I must do so
for the sake of the wonderful moral truth in it, that a man who may be such
a man as could not see, who must have no sight, is in the capacity of other
men and women--nay, not in the capacity of men and women in general: the
people as a whole. A man, as is so extremely unlikely to be blind, is able to
see with his eyes; and so it is undoubtedly in the case of Benning; to see
in all outward things, by the light of the sun and of the stars, all the
incidents of life and the beauty of her perfections. I can tell you that
what is visible in a narrow corner of a room is all the beauty in that
dwelling-place. I can tell you what other men of the same stamp might see.
These are the pure men of the world, on the most superficial view; you who
have no greater knowledge, or are of a different sect than what they are,
have found out that they see nothing; they see nothing; this is a thing so
terrible that to anyone who sees it he must be silent. You must also see
that such men do not find beauty in the plainest things. Take Mrs.