4 VOCAL SOUNDS OF 



infinitely pliable organs of the human voice present a greater variety than all 

 those that can be produced by the other organs. We are, indeed, able to make 

 this discovery now, w^hen all the riches and infinite blessings of a phonetic lan- 

 guage are spread before us ; but how was man led to develope these riches, 

 when, as we have seen, he first of all resorts to ocular signs, and stands in need 

 of them even after he has been possessed of all the wealth of auricular lan- 

 guage ? Had God left it to the invention of man, before he could know to what 

 amount of utility, enjoyment, refinement, affection, elevation, thought and devo- 

 tion his phonetic communion, and its representative in writing, would lead, man 

 could never have attained to the prizes of language and literature. But Provi- 

 dence, in this as in all other elements of civihzation, has, by organic laws of our 

 nature, forced men into that path by which alone their starting in the career of 

 progress can be unfailingly secured — by laws which oblige man to set out in 

 the right direction. 



A clearer insight into the phonetic origin of human language is important 

 both to the philosopher and the physiologist. Besides, all appreciation of truth 

 conduces to a purer state of the mind, a wider spread of knowledge, and, ulti- 

 mately, to an intenser devotion to God. It is my object to give in this paper a 

 contribution to this great inquiry, for which the vocal sounds of Laura Bridge- 

 man, a female endowed with a peculiarly active mind, but deprived from earliest 

 infancy of sight and hearing, and nearly destitute of taste, seem to offer a singu- 

 larly fit opportunity. 



I have always read with attention the annual reports of Dr. Howe on the 

 education of this most interesting being, by which he has already acquired im- 

 perishable renown in both hemispheres. From year to year I have been in the 

 habit of visiting Laura and her sagacious teachers, who, as every one is aware, 

 have succeeded in giving language, the power of verbal thought, and the means 

 of intellectual and moral development, to a being who seemed to be shut up 

 within the loneliest prison-house that our minds can conceive of; apparently 

 walled up, without one means of communion with the world, and possessed only 

 of one solitary channel of distinct perception — the confined sense of touch. 



At length I passed three entire months in the immediate neighborhood of 

 Laura, saw and observed her daily, while every possible facility was extended 

 to me by Dr. Howe and his assistant teachers. Among other things, I paid 

 attention to her vocal sounds. 



In order to be better understood in the following pages, and to prevent mis- 

 understanding on some material points, I would refer to a lecture of mine on 

 the origin of the first constituents of civilization ;* especially so far as the origin 

 of language is concerned, to pages 14 to 18. To what has been said there I 

 would add the following observations : 



The origin of all utterance is emotional. This applies to man and brutes ; 

 but utterance soon acquires in man a very different character. With the animal 



* Published in 1845. 



