330 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



arms, gave every indication of excessive suffering. He took her by the 

 hand, led her up to his room, and desiring her to go to bed, instantly left her, 

 and, locking the door, seated himself outside it. The poor creature, terrified 

 at finding herself locked in, with no one to pity or assist her, thundered at 

 the door and screamed so violently to get out, that the four men-servants 

 and four women-servants, rushed up- stairs; but their prayers and tears, 

 that some one might be admitted or called to her relief were all in vain : 

 her father denounced instant vengeance against any one who should ap- 

 proach. Her groans were echoed by the useless sympathy of the servants 

 outside the room. At length her cries became fainter and fainter, till, at the 

 end of two hours, they ceased entirely. A pause ensued : her father then 

 rose, and admitting the servants, gave them the key and went down stairs. 

 On unlocking the door of the chamber, they found the poor young woman 

 lying on the floor, quite dead, and a fine infant boy lying beside her, dead 

 also. With one voice, they exclaimed, that had she been taught to read and 

 to understand the Scriptures, she never would have been in this state ; but 

 no one ever warned her that she ought not to be a mother and unmarried." 



Nor is this a solitary instance of the evil resulting from leaving 

 the deaf and dumb to the course of Nature. Dr. Orpen's Annals 

 and Anecdotes abounds with cases in which the worst of consequen- 

 ces ensued, as might indeed be expected. But the above extract is 

 sufficient to point out the necessity of educating these unfortunates. 

 It appears, from the Doctors evidence, that at every vacancy which 

 occurs in the institution to which he is Secretary, there are fifty or 

 more applicants for admission ; numbers of these have been candidates 

 for years and years ; and as pupils are not allowed to enter after a cer- 

 tain age, hundreds must pass the time of life when it would be pos- 

 sible to educate them, without relief: and until the funds of the 

 various schools shall be considerably augmented, this must necessa- 

 rily be the case. 



Having thus given our readers some faint idea of the state of the 

 uneducated deaf and dumb and their prospects, let us now investi- 

 gate the manner in which Dr. Charles Orpen has fulfilled his task. 

 The author is founder of the Deaf and Dumb Institution at Clare- 

 mont, Glasnevin, near Dublin ; and all the time and money which 

 he could spare, seem to have been dedicated to this truly useful and 

 benevolent purpose. His book consists of a collection of anecdotes 

 concerning the deaf and dumb, and the correspondence of the pupils 

 in various schools, intermingled with original observations of his 

 own. These latter at once prove the talent, judgment, and enthu- 

 siasm of the author in his subject. The style is pathetic, occasion- 

 ally eloquent, and in every case admirably adapted to the topic un- 

 der discussion. A decided spirit of piety pervades the whole vo- 

 lume, and this spirit is, in general, not carried too far. It appears, 

 however, to be the settled opinion of Dr. Orpen, and likewise of the 

 instructed deaf and dumb at the Claremont school, that their hapless 

 lot is to be considered a " dispensation of Providence" — a most erro- 

 neous and pernicious doctrine, and one which cannot be too much 

 deprecated. Dr. Orpen must be well aware (although he has no 

 where alluded to the circumstance), that deafness — in common with 

 all other deformities — is the result of an infringement of one or 



