
7 
The chief use of tactile language in the service of man is 
that employed for the blind. The raised letters become a ready 
means of enabling those to read who are unhappily deprived of, 
perhaps, the greatest of the senses. One of the early and most 
useful systems was that invented by a Brighton man, Dr. Moon. 
It has been asserted that by touch the blind can distinguish 
colour, but in the course of conversation with a very intelligent 
blind friend, I was informed that there is no truth in the state- 
ment; but it is true that they associate colour with sound, of 
which I shall have more to say presently. 
But the two chief channels for Thought Communication are 
—the eye and the ear. The language for the eye is exhibited in 
the Arts and in gestures. Pictures, however rudely drawn, can 
reproduce in others the thought of the draughtsman, and this 
form of writing is known to all as Hieroglyphics. The name of 
each letter of the alphabet is the name of some object, and the 
form of the object is a rude representation of it. 
Pictures developed into letters on one hand, and into works 
of art on the other. I think that in painting and sculpture the 
test of the artist’s genius is the power that he possesses of 
reproducing in the mind of the observer the thoughts he had in 
producing his work of art. A picture that requires copious 
explanation has, in my opinion, an acknowledgement of failure 
accompanying it. 
I need only refer to literature to show to what an extent we 
receive communication of thought by means of the eye. In 
poetry what thoughts are aroused in us by a few words! And 
yet when we ponder oyer the matter we need not be surprised at 
the amazement of the native chief. What real connection is there 
between the printed letters D-O-G and the animal? At first sight 
none ; but when the word is traced from its earliest form we can 
see how the letters convey the idea, and to this I shall again refer 
when saying a few words on sound as a means of conveying 
thought. 
The Language of Gesture, which accompanies emotion, is at 
all times significant, and this is par excellence the language of 
the tragedian. Whoever has seen the late great actor, Sir Henry 
Irving in The Bells, knows what an ocean of thought is com- 
municated by a few words, when accompanied by gesture. When 
Garrick first appeared, the orthodox critic complained very much 
of his not following the rules of elocution, as they knew them. 
One of ‘these critics said that the great actor actually made a 
pause between the subject and the predicate in a sentence! On 
being further questioned he admitted that Garrick at the pause 
introduced an effective gesture, 
To what an extent Gesture is employed to teach the deaf 
and dumb, and as a means of communicating thought to them, 
you all well know. The Oral System, as it is called, has now 
