I can hardly describe to the reader the effect which these
conversations with Jackson had upon me at first. If a prisoner were
removed from a dark cell, and all at once introduced into a garden
full of fruit and flowers, which he never before had an idea were in
existence, he could not have been more filled with wonder, surprise,
and pleasure. All was novelty and excitement, but, at the same time,
to a great degree, above my comprehension. I had neither language nor
ideas to meet it, and yet, I did, to a certain degree, comprehend. I
saw not clearly, but sometimes as through a mist, at others through a
dark fog, and I could discern little. Every day, however, my
increased knowledge of language and terms gave me an increased
knowledge of ideas. I gained more by context than I did by any other
means, and as I was by degrees enlightened, so my thirst for
information and knowledge became every day more insatiable.

That much that I considered I understood was erroneous, is certain,
for mine was a knowledge, as yet, of theory only. I could imagine to
myself, as far as the explanation I received, what such an object
might be, and, having made up my ideas on the matter, I was content;
further knowledge, would however incline me to think, and
occasionally to decide, that the idea I had formed was incorrect, and
I would alter it. Thus did I flounder about in a sea of uncertainty,
but still of exciting interest.

If any one who has been educated, and has used his eyes in a
civilised country, reads an account of people and things hitherto
unknown to him, he can, from the description and from his own general
knowledge, form a very correct idea of what the country contains. But
then he has used his eyes--he has seen those objects, between which
the parallel or the difference has been pointed out. Now I had not