A blind man was once invited to dinner by his friends. There were various dishes prepared in his honour and he enjoyed them all thoroughly. Then he picked up a piece from the dish he liked best and asked to be told what it was. The host said it was a milk preparation. ”What is milk?” asked the blind man.
”Have you seen a sea-gull? It is as white as the wings of a sea-gull,” he explained.
”What is a sea-gull?” asked the blind man again. ”And how do I know what its wings are; and what do you mean by white?”
The host was nonplussed. How could colour be explained to a blind man? But the blind man insisted – he had to know. Then one man came forward; he curved his hand and held it in front of the blind man and said: ”Feel my hand. The sea-gull’s head is as shapely and graceful.
The blind man felt his hand and his face lit up with delight! ”Now I know what milk is like – a curved hand!” His friends were filled with despair, for now it was worse than before He who knows not from within cannot be made to understand from without. If initially the man knew what colour was like, he could be made to understand from the outside – but then there is no need to make him understand!
