491 



SICARD, ROCH AMBROSE CUCDRRON. 



SIDDONS, MRS. SARAH. 



492 



near Toulouse, on the 20th September, 1742. He completed his studies 

 at that city, and entered into holy orders ; but while thus engaged he 

 felt impelled to enter upon a new career, for which, as his success 

 afterwards proved, he was peculiarly adapted. The archbishop of 

 Bordeaux wished to establish a school for the deaf and dumb, and he 

 fixed upon the Abbe" Sicard to second his project, who went to Paris 

 to learn the method of instruction there pursued by the Abbe" de I'Epe'e. 

 He returned to Bordeaux in 1786, and the new establishment prospered 

 under his care. This success obtained for Sicard new preferment, under 

 the title of vicar-general of Condom, with that also of canon of Bordeaux. 

 Very eager for honorary distinctions, the vanity of Sicard was flattered 

 by the attentions paid to him : he became a member of numerous 

 academies and literary and scientific societies, and he felt pleasure in 

 assuming the titles thus conferred upon him. These literary honours 

 did not however cause him to relax in his zeal for the education of the 

 deaf and dumb, in which pursuit he became so distinguished that public 

 opinion pointed to him as the most worthy to be the successor of the 

 Abbd de 1'Ep^e, who died in 1789. To obtain this honourable office it was 

 necessary that the candidates should undergo an examination before a 

 commission from the three academies named by the king. Three 

 candidates entered into competition with Sicard : the Abbe" Salvan, 

 instructor at Riom in Auvergue, afterwards a joint director at the 

 institution for the deaf and dumb at Paris; Father Perrenet, an 

 Augustine ; and the Abbe" Masse, to whom the commune of Paris had 

 temporarily entrusted the management of the institution. The last- 

 named candidate did not submit to the examination, and after a minute 

 investigation into the acquirements of the other three, Sicard was 

 chosen, and the choice of the commissioners was confirmed by Louis 

 XVI., in April, 1790. 



The establishment at Paris was supported during the latter part of 

 the Abbe" de 1'EpeVs career by the government. From 1778 to 1785 

 a decree of the council had secured a revenue of 240. (6000 livres) 

 from the estate of the suppressed convent of the Celestines for the 

 institution of the deaf and dumb, which only ceased when the National 

 Assembly declared the confiscated possessions of the ancient monas- 

 teries to be national property. In July 1791, the Assembly granted 

 a donation of 12,700 francs (5081.) to the institution, which was then 

 removed to the convent of the Celestines. In 1791, though the oath 

 affirming the civil constitution of the clergy was not required from 

 Sicard, he was willing to acknowledge liberty and equality, and this 

 acknowledgment he accompanied with a gift of 200 livres. Notwith- 

 standing this concession, he was arrested on the 26th of August, and 

 confined till the 2nd of September. On this occasion, the pupils of 

 Sicard addressed to the Assembly an eloquent petition, which demon- 

 .strated the intelligence which Sicard had called forth in them. This 

 petition was presented by Sicard's most celebrated pupil Massieu at 

 the bar, and read by one of the secretaries : it was highly applauded, 

 and a decree was made, directing the minister of the interior to give 

 an account of the cause of Sicard's arrest. Other matters caused this 

 decree to be disregarded, and on the 2nd of September Sicard was 

 transferred to L'Abbaye ; at that time this was like a sentence of 

 death. During the two following days Sicard felt the danger of his 

 position, which he has narrated with great prolixity. The weapon of 

 the executioners was already raised over Sicard, when a watchmaker 

 named Monnot placed himself before the intended victim, saying " It 

 is the Abbe" Sicard, one of the most useful men in the country : you 

 shall run through my body to get at his." Sicard then said, " I am 

 the instructor of the deaf and dumb ; and as these unfortunates 

 prevail more among the poor than the rich, I am more to you than to 

 the rich." This address produced such an effect, that those who had 

 just been about to put him to death embraced him, and proposed to 

 take him home in triumph. An affected scruple of justice prevented 

 him from allowing this to be done : he said he had been imprisoned 

 by a constituted authority, and to that authority alone could he look 

 for his freedom. During two days and two nights he remained in 

 prison, in imminent danger of being massacred. He wrote to the 

 president of the Assembly stating his situation, and the devotion of 

 Monnot, and a decree was made declaring that this brave man deserved 

 well of his country. But the commune of Paris, though apprised of 

 the interest Sicard excited, passed on to the order of the day. On the 

 4th of September Sicard knew that he was to be sacrificed that 

 evening ; and it was only by the decisive steps taken by several of his 

 friends in the Assembly to whom he wrote that his life was saved. 

 Even on his release, so great was his desire of popular applause, 

 that, instead of retiring in quietness to his pupils, he went to the 

 Assembly, accompanied by his preserver Monnot, to exhibit himself, 

 and to thank those who had been instrumental in his deliverance. 



After his restoration to his pupils he did not experience further 

 persecution, but occupied himself solely with them during the reign 

 of terror. After the fall of Robespierre, when the National Conven- 

 tion took up some useful projects, a normal school was created, in 

 which Sicard was appointed a teacher of grammar. In his first 

 lecture, in 1795, he extolled philosophy so highly when applied to 

 education, as to leave religion nearly out of the question. On another 

 occasion he analysed grammatically the following phrase : " French- 

 men should rally round the Convention, which will persecute the 

 disaffected, to whatever party they belong." He contended against 

 the revolutionary freedom of thou-ing and thee-ing, and contributed 



with Laharpe to banish its use from the normal schools. His scientific 

 course had great success, which is to be less attributed to his gram- 

 matical innovations, than to the simple and ingenious manner in 

 which he submitted the forms of grammar to the operation of analysis. 

 His lectures were much frequented, and occasionally by Garat, Volney, 

 Wailly, and others. He was soon after engaged in contributing 

 to and otherwise assisting in the publication of political and religious 

 papers in various periodicals, and was brought under the notice of the 

 Directory, and banished. It was a considerable time, and then only 

 after humiliating submissions, before he was restored to his pupils. But 

 the establishment had been neglected during his proscription, the 

 resources had been cut off, and the ceremonies of religion forbidden. 

 This state of things was changed on his return. He set up a printing- 

 press in the Institution, had his own works printed by the pupils, and 

 from that time employed himself solely in perfecting the methods of 

 instruction transmitted to him by his illustrious predecessor. The 

 Abbd de I'Epe'e had translated things by si^ns, and signs by words, 

 and he had applied his system only to physical objects : in explaining 

 intellectual things and operations he adopted the reverse of this order; 

 he taught them the verbal expressions first, and then explained these 

 by signs. In the latter operation the eyes and memory only of the 

 pupils were exercised; the words conveyed no knowledge to their 

 minds, and consequently the signs for them were without meaning. 

 Sicard applied De 1'EpeVs process for material objects to metaphysical 

 ideas also, and thus succeeded in giving to his pupils that develop- 

 ment of intellect of which he found them capable. The public 

 examinations of his pupils contributed to extend his reputation ; on 

 these occasions he exhibited successively his favourite pupils, 

 Massieu, Clerc, and Berthier. Foreigners crowded to these examinations, 

 which were also attended by many persons of the highest distinction. 



The chief works of Sicard are his ' The"orie des Signes,' ' Coura 

 d'Instruction d'un Sourd muet de Naissance,' and ' Eldmens de Gratn- 

 maire Gendrale appliquee a la Langue Frangaise,' but he also wrote 

 and translated several other works. In 1815 he visited England with 

 Massieu 'and Clerc, and was very honourably received and noticed. 

 The old age of Sicard was not one of ease and plenty, though his life 

 had been passed in assiduous labour, for he was involved by his good 

 nature in becoming responsible for the pecuniary engagements of 

 others, and was consequently obliged to put bis expenses on the most 

 economical scale. His death took place in May 1822. Three funeral 

 orations were pronounced to his memory ; one of them was by his 

 unfailing friend M. Lafond de Laddbat, in the name of the Directors of 

 the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. 



SICKINGEN, FRANZ VON, was born in 1484, at the seat of his 

 ancestors, the castle of Ebernburg, in what is now the circle of the 

 Middle Rhine, in the duchy of Baden. From his youth he devoted 

 himself to military pursuits, and became one of the noblest aud most 

 distinguished soldiers of his age. He supported the cause of the 

 Emperors Maximilian and Charles V. with ability and courage, but 

 rendered himself more remarkable by his support of the poor and 

 oppressed. Whenever a humble suitor had cause of complaint 

 against the corporation of a city, or a debt was to be recovered 

 from a rich man by a poor one, he deemed it a duty to assist 

 him with all his might. He made war upon the governing powers of 

 Worms, who had infringed on the rights of the citizens ; and in spite 

 of the ban of the empire under which he fell, he assembled an army, 

 fought with the Duke of Lorraine, and afterwards with the Elector of 

 Mainz, until the Emperor adjusted the quarrel and released him from 

 the ban. With the Count of Nassau he next invaded France, and wasted 

 Picardy. He endeavoured on every occasion to repress the despotism 

 of princes and the arrogance of the clergy, and he was an earnest sup- 

 porter of the movement in favour of Lutheranism in the Rhenish pro- 

 vinces. Though not himself a scholar, he was the patron, supporter, 

 and defender of some of the eminent spirits who were then forward ing 

 that movement. He protected Reuchlin from the monks of Cologue ; 

 Bucer and OZcolampadius found refuge in his castle ; and Ulrich 

 von Hutton resided for a considerable time and composed several 

 of his works there. At length, during a feud with Treves, Hesse, and 

 the Palatinate, he was besieged in his castle of Neustall, near Laud- 

 stuhl, in the Bavarian Palatinate, was severely crushed by the falling 

 of a beam loosened by the enemy's cannon, forced to surrender, and 

 died shortly afterwards on May 7, 1523. His tomb still remains in the 

 church of Landstuhl, though injured by the French troops. A 

 descendant still exists, bearing the title of Count von Sickingen. 



SIDDONS, MRS. SARAH, was born at Brecon, in South Wales, 

 July 5, 1755. She was the eldest child of Mr. Roger Kemble and 

 Sarah his wife (whose maiden name was Ward), and, while a mere 

 infant, made her first appearance on the stage on the occasion of her 

 father's benefit. The audience expressed their disapprobation of what 

 they considered too premature an exhibition ; but Mrs. Kemble boldly 

 led the child forward, and she disarmed their anger by reciting the 

 well-known fable of 'The Boy and the Frogs.' From that period 

 Miss Kemble continued to perform regularly in her father's company 

 till she attained her fifteenth year ; and at the early age of thirteen, 

 she sustained the principal female parts in several standard English 

 operas. Having formed an attachment to a young actor named 

 Siddons, which was not agreeable to the family, Miss Kemble was 

 removed from the theatre, and placed under the direction of Mrs. 



