VOCAL LANGUAGE OF LAURA BRIDGEMAN. 123 



again in the same track, until she could form the letter. But, when 

 at last, the idea dawned upon her that, by this mysterious process, 

 she could make other people understand what she thought, her joy 

 was boundless." 



In relation to numbers, Laura Bridgeman is familiar with the pro- 

 cess of addition and subtraction, and has a pretty accurate idea of 

 the measurement of time. But, with her, a hundred is used as an 

 indefinitely great number. She has the same accurate judgement of 

 distances, and of relations of place, as is usually manifested by the 

 blind. She walks with unhesitating confidence through the rooms 

 and corridors of the large institution at South Boston, devoted to the 

 use of the blind ; and will rise from her seat, go straight toward the 

 dcor, put out her hand at the right time, and grasp the handle, seem- 

 ingly with as accurate precision as if she saw it. 



Laura Bridgeman is now thirty- seven years of age. She continues 

 to reside in the Perkins Institution for the Blind, in South Boston, 

 where she is surrounded hy those fan7iliar to her, and with whom she 

 can hold ready intercourse. Her mind has expanded with her years, 

 and revealed an intellect of great quickness, a keenly sensitive tem- 

 perament, and a strong desire for knowledge. The religious training 

 of her later years has accustomed her to the consideration of many 

 profound speculations and inquiries ; and her thirst for knowledge 

 has been gratified in all ways within reach of her skilful and sympa- 

 thising teachers. She has thus been placed in kindly companionship 

 and intelligent intercourse with her fellow beings. But yet, with wis- 

 dom at so many entrances quite shut out ; with four of the five gate- 

 ways of knowledge for ever closed : the imprisoned soul escaping with 

 difficulty through the solitary and straitened portal of its prison- 

 house, presents, in every glimpse we obtain of its intercourse with 

 the outer world, and every revelation of its own inner life, subjects of 

 profoundly interesting and suggestive study. Among these, not the 

 least interesting, on many accounts, are the vocal sounds in use as 

 names of objects and symbols of ideas, by one to whom the very idea 

 of sound is inconceivable ; and in whose mind it seems hardly pos- 

 sible to imagine that any intelligible conception can have been formed 

 of an auditory sense, or of the impressions produced on others by 

 such vocal utterances as she, nevertheless, has been wont from child- 

 hood freely to indulge in, with a sense of enjoyment which still sur- 

 vives. 



