CHAP. I.

The manner in which the instruction of the Deaf and Dumb is to commence.

Ir is not by the mere pronunciation of words, in any language, that we are taught their signification: The words door, window, &c. &c. in our own, might have been repeated to us hundreds of times, in vain: we should never have attached an idea to them, had not the objects designated by these names been shewn to us at the same time*. A sign of the hand or of the eye has been the sole mean by which we learned to unite the idea of these objects with the sounds that struck our ear. Whenever we heard these sounds, the same ideas arose in our

Is this like teaching children words without explaining the meaning of them?

minds, because we recollected the signs made to us when they were pronounced.

Exactly similar must be our measures with the deaf and dumb. Their tuition commences with teaching them a manual alphabet, such as boys at school make use of to hold conversation at one end of a form with their companions at the other. The various figures of these letters strike forcibly the eyes of the deaf and dumb persons, who no more confound them, than we confound the various sounds that strike our

ears.

We next write, (I say we, because in the operations with my deaf and dumb pupils, I frequently have assistance) in large characters with a white crayon, upon a black table, these two words, the door, and we shew them the door. They immediately apply their manual alphabet five or six times to each of the letters composing the word door (they spell it with their fingers) and impress on their memory the number of

letters and the arrangement of them; this done, they efface the word, and taking the crayon themselves, write it down in characters, no matter whether well or ill formed; afterwards they will write it, as often as you shew them the same object.

It will be the same with respect to every thing else pointed out to them, the name being previously written down; which being first on the table, in large characters, may afterwards be inscribed in characters of ordinary size, upon different cards; and these being given to them, they amuse themselves in examining one another's proficiency, and ridicule those that blunder. Experience has manifested that a deaf and dumb person possessing any mental powers, will acquire by this method upwards of eighty words in less than three days.

Take some cards having suitable inscriptions, and deliver them one by one to your pupil: he will carry his hand successively to every part of his body conformably to

the name on the card delivered to him. Mix and shuffle the cards, as you please; he will make no mistake; or if you choose to write down any of these names on the table, you will see him, in like manner, distinguish with his finger every object whose name is so offered to him; and thus clearly prove that he comprehends the meaning of every one.

By this process the pupil will obtain, in very few days, a knowledge of all the words which express the different parts of our frame, from head to foot, as well as of those that express the various objects which surround us, on their being properly pointed out to him, as you write their names down on the table, or on cards put into his hands.

We are not however, even in this early stage, to confine ourselves to this single species of instruction, amusing as it is to our pupils. The very first or second day we guide their hands to make them write down, or we write down for them ourselves, the present

tense of the indicative of the verb to

carry.

Several deaf and dumb pupils being round a table, I place my new scholar on my right hand. I put the forefinger of my left hand on the word I, and we explain it by signs in this manner: shewing myself with the forefinger of my right, I give two or three gentle taps on my breast. I then lay my left forefinger on the word carry, and taking up a large quarto volume, I carry it under my arm, in the skirts of my gown, on my shoulder, on my head, and on my back, walking all the while with the mien of a person bearing a load: None of these motions escape his observation.

I return to the table; and in order to explain the second person, I lay my left forefinger on the word thou, and carrying my right to my pupil's breast, I give him a few gentle taps, making him notice that I look at him, and that he is likewise to look at me. I next lay my finger on the word carriest, the

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