168 



A HISTORY OF 



in the pronunciation, and in the ideas attached 

 to every sound. At length, having supposed 

 himself qualified to break silence, he declared, 

 that he could now speak, although as yet but 

 imperfectly. Soon after, some able divines 

 questioned him concerning his ideas of his past 

 state ; and principally with respect to God, 

 his soul, the morality or turpitude of actions. 

 The young man, however, had not driven his 

 solitary speculations into that channel. He 

 had gone to mass indeed with his parents, and 

 learned to sign himself with the cross, to kneel 

 down and assume all the grimaces of a man 

 that was praying ; but he did all this without 

 any manner of knowledge of the intention or 

 the cause ; he saw others do the like, and that 

 was enough for him ; he knew nothing even 

 of death, and it never entered into his head ; 

 he led a life of pure animal instinct ; entirely 

 taken up with sensible objects, and such as 

 were present, he did not seem even to make as 

 many reflections upon these, as might reason- 

 ably be expected from his improving situation; 

 and yet the young man was not in want of 

 understanding; but the understanding of a 

 man deprived of all commerce with others, is 

 so very confined, that the mind is in some 



measure totally under the control of its imme- 

 diate sensations. 



Notwithstanding, it is very possible to com- 

 municate ideas to deaf men, which they pre- 

 viously wanted, and even give them very pre- 

 cise notions of some abstract subjects, by means 

 of signs and of letters. A person born deaf, 

 may, by time, and sufficient pains, be taught 

 to write and read, to speak, and by the motions 

 of the lips, to understand what is said to him ; 

 however, it is probable that, as most of the 

 motions of speech are made within the mouth 

 by the tongue, the knowledge from the motion of 

 the lips is but very confined : " nevertheless, I 

 have conversed with a gentleman thus taught, 

 and in all the commonly occurring questions, 

 and the usual salutations, he was ready enough, 

 merely by attending to the motion of the lips 

 alone. When I ventured to speak for a short 

 continuance, he was totally at a loss, although 

 he understood the subject, when written, ex- 

 tremely well." Persons taught in this manner, 

 were at first considered as prodigies ; but there 

 have been so many instances of success of late, 

 and so many are skilful in the art of instruct- 

 ing in this way, that though still a matter of some 

 curiosity, it ceases to be an object of wonder. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



OF SMELLING, FEELING, AND TASTING. 



AN animal may be said to fill up that sphere 

 which he can reach by his senses ; and is ac- 

 tually large in proportion to the sphere to which 

 its organ extends. By sight, man's enjoyments 

 are diffused into a wide circle ; that of hearing, 

 though less widely diffused, nevertheless ex- 

 tends his powers ; the sense of smelling is more 

 contracted still ; and the taste and touch are 

 the most confined of all. Thus man enjoys 

 very distant objects but with one sense only ; 

 more nearly he brings two senses at once to 

 bear upon them ; his sense of smelling assists 

 the other two, at its own distance ; and of such 

 objects, as a man, he may be said to be in per- 

 fect possession. 



Each sense, however, the more it acts at a 

 distance, the more capable it is of making com- 



binations; and is, consequently, the more im- 

 ! proveable. Refined imaginations, and men of 

 strong minds, take more pleasure, therefore, in 

 improving the delights of the distant senses, 

 than in enjoying such as are scarce capable of 

 I improvement. 



By combining the objects of the extensive 

 senses, all the arts of poetry, painting, and 

 harmony, have been discovered ; but the closer 

 jj senses, if I may so call them, such as smelling, 

 tasting, and touching, are, in some measure, 

 as simple as they are limited, and admit of 

 | little variety. The man of imagination makes 

 i a great and artificial happiness by the pleasure 

 of altering and combining; the sensualist just 

 1 stops where he began, and cultivates only those 

 ! pleasures which he cannot improve. The sea 



