Page "Louis Braille" Paragraph 8

The handcrafted Haüy books all came in uncomfortable sizes and weights.

They were laboriously constructed, exquisitely delicate, and greatly expensive to obtain: when Haüy's school first opened, it had a total of three books.

Despite their drawbacks, Haüy promoted their use with zeal: the books presented a new and handsome system which could be readily comprehended by those with eyesight.

Certainly no better method yet existed for the blind to read, and the books seemed – to the sighted – to offer the best achievable results.

Braille and his schoolmates, however, could detect all too well the books ' crushing limitations.

Nonetheless, Haüy's well-intentioned efforts still provided a breakthrough achievement – the recognition of the sense of touch as a workable strategy for sightless reading.

Haüy's only personal limitation was that he was " talking to the fingers the language of the eye.