DEAF AND DUMB. 



609 



render these so invaluable as mediums of thought, 

 and instruments of philosophical investigation ; at 

 the same time, it is capable of describing what is 

 conveyed by these forms, with an accuracy at least 

 as great as that of words, by circumlocution and ex- 

 ample. It is worthy of remark, that the order of 

 expression, in the sign language, is that which we 

 term inverted the subject before the quality, the 

 object before the action, and, generally, the thing 

 modified before the modifier. This language, in its 

 elements, is to be found among all nations, and has 

 ever been the medium of communication between 

 voyagers and the natives of newly discovered coun- 

 tries. It is employed by many savage tribes to sup- 

 ply the paucity of expression in their language, or 

 to communicate with other tribes, as in the Sandwich 

 islands, and in North America. Among the Indians 

 of the western territory of the United States, major 

 Long found it an organized language, employed be- 

 tween tribes who spoke different articulate languages. 

 The accounts received from himself, as well as his 

 work, show that it corresponds, almost precisely, 

 with that in use in the school of Paris ; and a Sand- 

 wich islander, who visited the American asylum for 

 deaf mutes, gave a narrative of his life in the sign 

 language, which was perfectly understood by the 

 pupils. If testimony be wanting that it still retains 

 its universal character, in its cultivated form, the 

 writer of this article, who acquired it in this form, 

 can state, that he has employed it, or seen it em- 

 ployed, with success, in communicating with an 

 American Indian, a Sandwich islander, a Chinese, 

 and the deaf and dumb in various parts of the United 

 States, in England, Scotland, France, Germany, 

 Switzerland, and Italy. The more lively nations of 

 Europe, belonging to the Celtic race, the French, 

 and Italians, &c., make great use of this language, 

 in connexion with words, and sometimes even with- 

 out them. The more phlegmatic people of the Teu- 

 tonic race, in England and Germany, are so little 

 disposed to it, and so much less able to acquire or 

 understand it, that they regard it as a species of af- 

 fectation or buffoonery in their southern neighbours ; 

 and to this circumstance it is probably owing, that 

 it has been so extensively rejected among these na- 

 tions, as an auxiliary in the education of the deaf 

 mute. 



Natural State of the deaf Mute. The natural con- 

 dition of the deaf mute may be inferred from the ac- 

 count we have given of his language. It is obvious 

 that the mere loss of hearing cannot, in itself, dimi- 

 nish the natural vigour of any other faculty, either of 

 body or mind. He must, however, be destitute of 

 all ideas of sounds ; but these form so small a part 

 of the circle of our ideas, in comparison with those 

 derived from sight, that they cannot seriously affect 

 him. His conceptions, derived through the medium 

 of sight, are usually more accurate than ours, his 

 recollections more vivid, and his powers of descrip- 

 tion more striking, because his attention is more un- 

 divided. His discrimination of feelings and charac- 

 ter is often intuitive, and he frequently divines the 

 subject of conversation from the appearance of the 

 speaker. The tremendous part of his misfortune is 

 the interruption of communication with his fellow 

 men, on all subjects except the primary wants and 

 impulses, which arises from the imperfect character 

 of his sign language, in an imeducated state. His 

 ideas are very much limited to the objects and 

 events he witnesses, and the exterior relations ol 

 things ; and he is shut out from all the knowledge 

 derived from history and tradition. Past ages, dis- 

 tant countries, a future world, a Deity, are all be- 

 yond his reach. In regard to the combination and 

 application of the ideas which he acquires, he is still 



n the state of nations in the infancy of society, and 

 cannot be aided or directed by others, in his efforts 

 o reason. After extensive observation and inquiry, 

 we cannot hear of or find a single instance in which 

 a person, born deaf, has conceived of a first Cause, 

 roma view of the works of nature, without education. 

 They describe themselves as looking at these objects 

 ike the brutes. Even those, to whom their friends 

 mve made great efforts to communicate religious 

 truths, seldom have an idea of the Deity, as a Creator 

 or Benefactor ; and a deaf mute at Chartres, in 

 France, who had been taught to perform all the rites 

 of the Catholic church, and was deemed very devout, 

 on receiving his hearing, stated that he had no con- 

 ceptions of anything but the external forms of reli- 

 gion. Conscience, in them, derives all its light from 

 Jie observation of the conduct of others, and the in- 

 stinctive impulses ; but recognizes no invariable law, 

 and often leaves these imfortunate persons to com- 

 mit gross crimes, without any sense of guilt. In 

 short, they are enveloped in intellectual and moral 

 darkness, in the midst of the clearest light. 



History of the Art of Instruction. Mention is made 

 of deaf mutes in the writings of Pliny ; and they 

 were declared, by the Code of Justinian, incapable 

 of civil acts. No attempts appear to have been 

 made to give them instruction, until the latter part 

 of the fifteenth century, when we are merely told by 

 Agricola, professor of philosophy at Heidelberg, in 

 Germany, of a deaf mute who had been instructed. 

 In the middle of the sixteenth century, Pascha, a 

 clergyman of Brandenburg, instructed his daughter, 

 a deaf mute, by means of pictures. But the first 

 effort for this interesting object, of which we have a 

 distinct account, was made by Pedro de Ponce, a 

 Benedictine monk, of the Spanish kingdom of Leon, 

 who instructed four deaf mutes, of noble families, to 

 write and speak, in 1570. In 1620, John Bonet, 

 another Spaniard, published the first book known on 

 this subject, containing an account of the method 

 which he adopted in a similar course of instruction, 

 and accompanied by a manual alphabet, from which 

 that now in use at Paris was derived. In 1659, the 

 instruction of deaf mutes was attempted, with appa- 

 rent success, by doctors Holder and Wallis, both of 

 whom published accounts of their methods. At about 

 the same time, Van Helmont, in Holland, published 

 an ingenious treatise on the manner of forming 

 articulate sounds, the principles of which, he says, 

 he had applied with success to the mstrvction of a 

 deaf mute. In 1691, John Conrade Amman, a Swiss 

 physician in Leyden, published a similar work ; but 

 he and his predecessors appear to have devised and 

 executed their plans without any knowledge of those 

 who had previously attempted the same thing. In 

 1704, the methods published in Spain, England, and 

 Holland, were first applied, in Germany, by Kerger, 

 apparently with much ingenuity and success, and 

 some improvements. He was soon followed by a 

 number of labourers in the same field, of whom 

 Arnold! appears to have been the most distinguished. 

 In 1743, the practicability of instructing deaf mutes 

 was first pubb'cly demonstrated in France, by Pereira, 

 a Spaniard, before the academy of sciences, who 

 gave their testimony to its success. About the same 

 time, this branch of instruction was attempted in 

 France, by several others, among whom Deschamps, 

 Ernaud, and Vanin were best known. In 1755, 

 Heinicke in Germany, De 1'Epee in France, both of 

 whom were led to feel an interest in deaf mutes 

 thrown accidentally in their way, formed each an 

 independent system of instruction, established the 

 first institutions for the education of deaf mutes, at 

 Paris and Leipsic, and may be justly regarded as the 

 founders of the two great schools, into which the 

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