An Incident with a Moral.
An English journalist says that the rationale of Blondin's performance is this: He has perfect confidence in his own sense of touch and balance, and he never looks beneath him. That being so, fifty and five hundred feet are the same to him. He looks in a fixed manner, and always above; he is guided by his feet. When he is blindfolded, therefore, he is deprived of a sense which is of no use to him—which may, indeed, prove a source of danger. When the drop of the rope at Niagara was forty feet, and he was at the bottom of the curve, he could scarcely avoid seeing the ends of the rope, and that was a source of danger to him. If he were to look down once, we know what would happen to him; but we may guess that he would find a place where he would never rise to perform any more antics. If, in life, you would succeed, you must look up. The stars are serene, and stay forever in their spheres; the torrent at your feet whirls and roars, and any look at its turbid waters may plunge you into instant destruction.—Principia.