93. It is certain that a man actually blind, and who had continued so
from his birth, would by the sense of feeling attain to have ideas of
upper and lower. By the motion of his hand he might discern the situation
of any tangible object placed within his FI reach. That part on which he
felt himself supported, or towards which he perceived his body to
gravitate, he would term lower, and the contrary to this upper; and
accordingly denominate whatsoever objects he touched.
94. But then, whatever judgments he makes concerning the situation of
objects are confined to those only that are perceivable by touch. All
those things that are intangible and of a spiritual nature, his thoughts
and desires, his passions, and in general all the modifications of the
soul, to these he would never apply the terms UPPER and LOWER, except
only in a metaphorical sense. He may, perhaps, by way of allusion, speak
of high or low thoughts: but those terms in their proper signification
would never be applied to anything that was not conceived to exist
without the mind. For a man born blind, and remaining in the same state,
could mean nothing else by the words HIGHER and LOWER than a greater or
lesser distance from the earth; which distance he would measure by the
motion or application of his hand or some other part of his body.
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