1 66 THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN REASON. 



" inspired expression in the Bible," which a very different 

 set of mental images helps us to conceive of. 



But we have other instances we can bring forward 

 which plainly show the essential intellectuality of such 

 unfortunates. 



The case of Laura Bridgrnan is a well-known one, 

 and referred to by our author. She was blind as well 

 ^s deaf, and h^d half lost the power of smell, and had 

 become thus afflicted so early that she had no recollec- 

 tion of seeing or hearing. Yet she learned to appre- 

 hend abstract relqitions and qualities, and to read and 

 write. A similarly afflicted child, named Meystre,* at 

 Lausanne, gained an idea of God as " thought enthroned 

 somewhere." Such instances surely demonstrate the 

 existence of wonderful innate capacities in the human 

 mind. 



A still more noteworthy case is that (before referred 

 to) of Martha Obrecht.f She was deaf, dumb, and 

 blind, and was confided to a convent at Larnay 

 (Poitiers) when she was eight years old.J There, by 



* See " On Truth," p 232. 



t See "Apologie Scientifique," by Canon F. Duilhe de Saint- 

 Projet, Ed. Private Toulouse, 1885, pp. 374-387. 



% The following are some of the details given in the work 

 referred to : — 



" C'etait comme une masse inerte, ne possedant aucun moyen 

 de communication avec ses semblables, n'ayant pour traduire ses 

 sentiments qu'un cri joint k un mouvement de corps, cri et mouve- 

 ment toujours en rapport avec ses impressions. 



" La premiere chose k faire dtait de lui donner un moyen de 

 communiquer ses pensdes et ses ddsirs. Dans ce but, nous lui 

 faisions toucher tous les objets sensibles, en faisant sur elle le 

 signe de ces objets ; presque aussitot elle a dtabli le rapport qui 

 existe entre le signe et la chose. . . ." (They thought to try steel 



