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high degree of mental cultivation. The truth is that the 

 institution is only a school of industry that seven or eight 

 hours daily are devoted to manual labour, and that the 

 improvement of the mind is only attended to between 

 working hour* and at meals. The pupils are most 

 fully iiistrurted in thu principles of the Christian religion, 

 and the chaplain to the institution attends three times at 

 the least in e\ery week for thai purpose. An attempt has 

 been made to teach reading and w nting. but has been in a 

 great degree abandoned, from the unwillingness of the pupils 

 to receive instrueti.ni. In (Jail's 'Origin ami Progress of 

 Literature for the Blind,' a work replete with curious investi- 

 gation and interesting details, a report is given of the inlro- 

 duetion of the arts of reading and writing into the London 

 Asylum in June, 1831 ; from which report it appears that 

 these arts were commenced under the most promising aus- 

 pices, and it is certainly matter of regret that with ample 

 funds, and every other auxiliary, these branches of instruction 

 have not been continued. We extract from Mr. Gall's report 

 details showing the success and also the peculiar 

 dilliculties attending the experiment : ' The pupils in your 

 institution may, for the purposes of this report, be divided 

 into two classes : viz. those who could read before they lost 

 their sight, and those who have been blind from their in- 

 fancy, or who have never been acquainted with letters. 

 In teaching those who had previously some knowledge of 

 reading, the nature of the alphabet was first explained to 

 them, and its near approximation in form and principle to 

 the common Roman alphabet was pointed out. They were 

 then made to feel the letters in their order, which they 

 learned to distinguish and name in a very short time. The 

 first pupil who was tried on the boys' side of the institution 

 mastered the alphabet in fifteen minutes ; and the first 

 who was tried on the girls' side mastered it in ten. This 

 last pupil during her first lesson, which did not exceed an 

 hour and a quarter, learned both to read and to write. And 

 so perfectly was this done that, on the same afternoon, 

 she, without assistance, and while alone, wrote a letter to a 

 young lady, the daughter of one of your committee, who 

 had been present during her first lesson. This letter could 

 be easily read by the writer herself, and was also very easily 

 deciphered by the person to whom it was sent, although 

 previously unacquainted with the alphabet. 



' I n teaching those who had previously been unacquainted 

 with reading, the process was of course more tedious, and of 

 a different kind. The difficulties which congregate around 

 an adult in beginning to learn to read are more numerous 

 than is generally supposed ; and with the blind adult who 

 has never seen the manner by which the art of reading is 

 carried on by means of an alphabet, this must more Mr 

 pecially be the case. One of your pupils (No. 101) 

 thought that the word " w-i-1-1" as she i'eit it, should he 

 pronounced " all ;" that " v-e-r-y" should be " thy ;" and 

 that " a-n-y" should be "my". Another (No. 112) could 

 not comprehend how the same letters should not always 

 be the sign of the same word, in whatever order they 

 were placed. When it was explained thitt the characters in 

 the alphabet were but the signs of certain sounds, and that 

 the letters b-a-d, which indicated the word " bad, and which 

 she had just before read, would make quite another word, 

 and indicate an entirely different sound if transposed into 

 d-a-b,' she expressed some surprise, and endeavoured to 

 comprehend it. When asked what sound she thought 

 would be likest the rapid pronunciation of the letters d-a-b, 

 she considered for a little, and then said that she thought 

 it might be the word " stick.'' Being able to read all the 

 letters, her hand was put for the first time upon the word 

 " Adam," and she was asked what word she thought these 

 letters would make ? She accurately read and repented all 

 the letters in their order, and after considering a vvh,,< 

 she thought they would make the word "book." The letters 

 f-r-o-ra she thought should be " the," and in many similar, 

 instances showed how erroneous were her previous ideas of 

 the nature of the art of reading. This girl has, however, 

 already acquired a pretty good idea of the powers of tin- 

 letters, and reads her first book accurately and well.' (Gall's 

 Lilrruturr fur I/if Wind, pp. 1 25, 126.) 



It is iinjxissihlu not to regret that an experiment so full 

 of interest, which could not have been carried forward with- 

 out eliciting some new and curious results, should have 

 been discontinued. The asylum of which v<> are now speak- 

 ing is too confined in its operations, e-|>c<-i.dly when we 

 consider its wealth, its situation in the metropolis of our 

 country, and its consequent means of diffusing knowledge. 



among a solitary portion of our fellow-beings, of sending 

 forth intelligence of its successful experience to other coun- 

 trie-. and ol becoming a guide and model for our own pro- 

 vincial institutions. The committee are OMpOWered by 

 their charter, as well as by the live-laws of the chanty, to 

 form regulations for the internal management of tin 

 poratioti, and for the instruction and moral discipline of the 

 pupils,' and it is to be hoped that an enlightened and a 

 liberal policy will cause them to introduce the branches of 

 knowledge which have been successfully taught eUewbere 

 into their institution generally, or that a school for the 

 intellectual, moral, and religious improvement of the 

 young blind will soon become a part of their establishment. 

 The committee must receive credit for the good feeling 

 which pervades the 'account' they give of their trust, from 

 the tone of which it is by no means hopeless that some 

 ameliorations of the nature suggested may be brought 

 about. They say 'it is perhaps difficult to point out any 

 two situations in life more opposite to each other than the 

 condition of a blind person with his faculties benumbed by 

 sloth, and his spirits depressed by the consciousness of his 

 infirmity, and that of the same individual engaged in regu- 

 lar employment, and knowing that he contributes, by In* 

 daily occupation, to the comfort of the family of which he 

 forms a part.' This contrast might be pursued, and the 

 same person might be viewed uninstructed, devoid of intel- 

 ligence, without a ray of the brighter kinds of knowledge 

 enlightening his mind ; shrouded not only in physical dark- 

 ' ness, but also in ignorance of the ordinary laws of nature 

 the constitution of man the manifold arts and inventions 

 of civilized life: and again, he might be seen highly culti- 

 vated, in the possession of a certain amount of knowledge, 

 exercising those mental powers which he enjoys in common 

 with his fellow men, his well-stored mind visible in the. 

 animated expression of his features, and his voice ai-kni.w- 

 ledging in eloquent language his participation in the lofty 

 views of the philosopher and the Christian. 



The blind are inquisitive on all subjects, and they will 

 acquire knowledge if it be made accessible to them. In 

 company with an educated blind person.it is common to 

 forget his infirmity, so loth is he to allow conversation to 

 relax, and so apposite are his allusions to subjects upon 

 winch it would at first seem that vision only could have 

 afforded him information. In some cases affectation may 

 lead to such display, but we can testify that such an affect a- 

 ] tion is not displeasing to the hearers, who cannot but con- 

 sider by what a cost of attention and by what intricate 

 mental operations such ideas have been acquired. But 

 much must be directly communicated ; and in the absence 

 of books, lectures on scientific subjects, and constant inter- 

 course with educated persons, will perhaps assist more than 

 any other expedient in furnishing the inquiring blind man 

 with the knowledge which he desires. ' He could never of 

 himself have found out that there are such bodies as the sun, 

 the moon, and stars ; but he may be informed of all the noble 

 discoveries of astronomers, about their motions, and the laws 

 of nature by which they are regulated.' (Kcid's if/i/i/iri/.) 



The ' Hospital and School for the Indigent Blind ' ol 

 wich was originally established in the year 1805, first for that 

 city, and subsequently (as the condition of receiving a 

 donation) for the county of Norfolk also; but its doors have 

 been opened to other parts of the kingdom since the y ear 

 1819. The blind in the more elevated sphere of society 

 appear not unfrequently to have been the first benefactors of 

 their more indigent brethren. Mr. Tawell, a blind gentleman 

 leading in Norwich, first called the attention of that city and 

 its neighbourhood to the wants of the blind, and with a mu- 

 nificence commensurate with his zeal, he purchased ' a large 

 and commodious house, with an adjoining garden of three 

 acres in extent,' which he offered as the basis of the institu- 

 tion. A similar example of liberality has been manifested 

 in the outset of an establishment for the blind at Boston, 

 Massachusetts. [See BOSTON.] In May, 1833, Colonel IVi- 

 Kins gave his mansion, land, buildings, ice., valued at 30,000 

 dollars, as a permanent institution for the blind at Boston. 

 To this gift a condition was wisely annexed, that 50,000 

 dollars should be raised as a fund for the institution b 

 the 1st of June, in order that it might rest on a permanent 

 Inundation. Considerable exertions were forthwith made, 

 i'.ly by the ladies of Huston ; the money was rai-ed 

 within the appointed time, the pupils were removed from 

 l heir former domicile in the following December, and there 

 appears to be every prospect that the institution, under 

 Dr. Howe's care, will become highly useful. 



