LAURA BRIDGEMAN. 29 



Julia Brace, the blind deaf-mute at Hartford, in Connecticut, above forty years 

 old, and to whom no idea of a word-language has ever been imparted, utters 

 many disagreeable sounds, not unlike those of some wild fowl. When she is 

 pleased, without being excited, she produces a humming sound. 



Anne Temmermanns, whom I saw in the year 1844, at Ghent — she was then 

 twenty-four years old — uttered some, not agreeable, sounds, but she has none 

 for different persons or things. Her whole education is much inferior to that of 

 Laura or Oliver Caswell. I am not aware that there is anything valuable on 

 record regarding the vocal sounds which James Mitchell, the blind deaf-mute 

 Scottish boy, may have been in the habit of uttering. All these individuals were 

 or are very different from Laura Bridegman, as well in natural endowments as in 

 cultivation of mind and the developed state of the soul. I can never forget the 

 contrast between the coarse and painful appearance of Anne Temmermanns and 

 the intelligent Laura, as I have often seen her, seated by the side of a female 

 friend, her left arm around the waist of her companion, and her right hand on 

 the knee of the other, who was imprinting with rapidity in Laura's open hand 

 what she was reading in a book before them. They thus formed the personifi- 

 cation of the great achievement which Dr. Howe has gained over appalling diffi- 

 culties, never overcome, and scarcely attempted to be overcome, by any one 

 before him — the picture of a communion of minds in spite of the enduring night 

 and deathhke silence which enwraps poor Laura — an example of the victories 

 in store for a sincere love of our neighbor, combined with sagacity, patience, 

 resolute will, and, what Locke calls, sound round-about common sense. 



When the whole of this paper had been written many months, I read in the 

 eighteenth report to the trustees of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, Bos- 

 ton, 1850, that Laura " often says, in the fulness of her heart, ' 1 am so glad I 

 have been created.'" This psalm of gratitude, poured forth by her whom we 

 pity as the loneliest of mortals — this hymnus of rejoicing in the possession of 

 life — expresses infinitely more strongly and loudly what Dr. Howe has done for 

 her than any praise of others could do. 



The character of this paper does not permit us to pass from a scientific 

 inquiry to moral reflections, which are forced upon us by this girl, grateful in 

 her state, which appears to us one of overwhelming destitution ; and thus we 

 conclude the whole, leaving it to others to enlarge upon this remarkable and 

 great text furnished by Laura : " I am so glad I have been created." 



While thefore going paper was passing through the press, the writer received 

 a letter from the untiring and able female teacher of Laura, answering a num- 

 ber of questions which I had made free to put to her regarding her pupil's mind, 

 dispositions, and developments ; and also one from Laura herself The latter 

 I mean to put here on record, as a remarkable document. Of the former I will 

 give a very few extracts, interesting in reference to the subjects which have 

 occupied us in this paper. Miss Wight writes to me : 



