DUMB AND DEAF. 



189 



lie 



itot 



{ recom- 

 i(!ed to 



Teach- 



ramniar 

 lot to be 

 Iwelt on at 

 int. 



Definition 



at words, to 

 be practised. 



And r.nn- 

 paation. 



This is the ort of use 1 make of sign*, their rude lan- 

 guage, in teaching the Deaf." Page 81. 



In the illustration of all those terms which express 

 the various forms of human action it is obvious, that 

 the greatest advantage might be derived, from the aid 

 of some intelligent assistant not affected with Deafness. 

 If we may judge from the silence of those who have 

 written on the education of the Deaf and Dumb, as to 

 this important help, it does not seem to have been suf- 

 ficiently employed. 



In ail that remains we are inclined to follow Dr 

 Watson implicitly. We perfectly agree with him, that 

 it is altogether injudicious to load the memory of the 

 pupil, at the outset, with those vague and subtle dis- 

 tinctions among words, with which grammarians occu- 

 py themselves so much and so unprotitably, and about 

 which they are still so much at variance with each other. 

 It is quite enough, in the first instance, that they are 

 taught, by examples continually diversified and repeat- 

 ed, to use words accurately, and as others use them. 

 The metaphysic of grammar is a fitter study for riper 

 years. If we be correct in this opinion, it may be doubt- 

 ful whether the education of those who are not Deaf, 

 might not borrow some improvements from the mode 

 of instructing those who are ; whether the young scho- 

 lar's earlier years might not be more usefully employ- 

 ed in acquiring, by varied reading, writing, and con- 

 versation, greater copiousness, precision, and ease of 

 expression, than in parsing meagre sentences, with- 

 out the slightest regard to their spirit or meaning; 

 whether a few of those precious hours, which are 

 sometimes wasted over the unprofitable pages of some 

 modern Hermes, had not better be devoted to the no- 

 bler task of seeking out the strength of our language, and 

 the best array of thought, in the pages of Shakespeare, 

 and Milton, and Addisou, and Hume. 



After the pupil has proceeded thus far, Dr Watson 

 recommends that he should go over his vocabulary 

 again, with a view to learn the mode of defining words, 

 that is, of telling the meaning of one word by another, 

 or by others. He prescribes this employment, not be- 

 cause he thinks he will better understand the words in 

 hig vocabulary, by being taught to define them, but 

 because it affords an opportunity of enlarging it, by the 

 introduction of synonymous words, and words that are 

 deri ved in some way from those we are defining. 



The scholar is now sufficiently far advanced to en- 

 deavour to acquire both amusement and instruction by 

 rtaluig ; and having arrived at this point, Dr Watson 

 imposes on him a new and most important task. To 

 discover the progress he is making, and to assist him 

 in the composition of sentences, he is required every 

 day to furnish a certain number of lines, according to 

 his capacity, from his own ideas. He is at liberty to 

 choose his subject. He may relate what he has seen in 

 his walk, or in his. play-ground ; he may unfold the 

 stores of his memory, relative to more distant places 

 and periods ; he may ask questions, &c. His rude es- 

 says at expression are often curious, and require some 

 skill in the language of pantomime to discover their 

 meaning by his own explanations. This attained, it is 

 put into correct, but easy language ; he commits it to 

 his memory thus corrected, and goes to wofk again, at 

 his leisure hour in the evening, for next day, generally 

 profiting considerably by the alterations it was neces- 

 sary to make in his preceding essay. 



This is an exercise which has been prescribed with 



the utmost success to the pupils of the Institution for numb anil 

 the Deaf and Dumb in Edinburgh, by their teacher, Mr x_^ ta ^_, 

 Kinniburgh. He directs his scholars to address him in ""Y~" 

 the form of letter ; and in reading a considerable col- Let ^ ers of 

 lectioaof these juvenile epistles with which Mr Kinni- P u .P"-> at the 



~ J , JuUnburmi 



burgh has favoured us, we own that we have often been institution. 

 exceedingly delighted with the simplicity and minute- 

 ness of the narratrve. Mr Kinniburgh, with the same li- 

 berality with which he has permitted us to be spectators 

 of his lessons at the Institution, has enabled us to pre- 

 sent our readers with the following specimens. 



The first is a letter from Charles Mackechnie, a lad 

 of sixteen, who is in the third year of his education, and 

 can speak tolerably well. It describes a visit to the 

 college court-yard, where a live Polar bear is at present 

 kept, and to the Museum of Natural History. 



" Dear Sir, Edinburgh, March 181 4. 



Percival Clennel's father, and his brother, and gen- Letter by 

 tleman, came to your house to the parlour, and he spoke Charles 

 to you. When (upon which) you told us, ' Come to me, I \ lackech - 

 you will change your coat ;' and I went to the closet 

 and changed my coat, and I went down stairs. And 

 we went to the college ; and his father met his mother 

 in North Bridge, and we went to the college. And a 

 gentleman went to the house, and took a key out, and 

 came to us. And we went to the door, and he opened 

 the door, and I wondered at a bear. And I saw a fence 

 at the bear, and a lad took a pole, and he held it to the 

 bear, and it roared. And he gave his father a pole, and 

 he took and held it through the fence to take out flesh 

 and bone, and it caught it, and it roared. And Perci- 

 val Clennel and his brother were afraid of bear in the 

 den, when we went from it to the door, axd shut the 

 door. And we went to a house, and man opened the 

 door, and we went to the beasts and birds in the room. 

 And I saw an elephant's head by the bone, and young 

 lion, and a little ostrich with a big egg, and cassowary, 

 and serpents, and black monkey, and a deer had a long 

 horn, and unicorn has a very long horn, and ducks, and 

 shells, and marbles, and pebbles, and wild shark, and 

 humming birds, and many clothes and shoes for Indian 

 in cup-board hanging on the partition ; and his father 

 spelled to us the names of beast and birds. 



I am, Sir, your affectionate pupil." 



The next is by Joseph Turner, a lad of fifteen, who 

 is also in the third year of his education, and speaks 

 pretty well. It is entitled, a Visit to the Court of Ses- 



Edinburgh, \\th Feb. 181f 



" I, John Wilkie, and Charles Mackechnie, went to Letter by 

 the Court of Session, and we saw a number of gentle- Joseph 

 men and advocates walking in the Court of Session. 

 And a judge was sitting on a soft chair near the wall. 

 He had a red gown on him, and a powdered wig on his 

 head, and a large white band for a neckcloth on his 

 breast. The advocates were sitting on the form before 

 the judge, and they had black gowns on their bodies, 

 and powdered wigs on their heads One of the advo- 

 cates got up from the form, and spoke out to the judge, 

 and he hearkened to him speaking. When he sat down, 

 the judge wrote in a book on the desk. Two advocates 

 got up from the form, and one did not speak out ; but 

 the other advocate spoke out to the judge, and he lis- 



