134 BLIND ASYLUM. [CHAP. X. 



We learnt from Dr. Howe that the task of carrying on her 

 education has become more and more arduous, for she is naturally 

 clever, and her reflective powers have unavoidably ripened much 

 faster than the perceptive ; so that at an age when other children 

 would be satisfied to accumulate facts by the use of their eyes, 

 her chief curiosity is directed to know the causes of things. In 

 reading history, for example, where there is usually a continued 

 description of w T ars and battles, she must be told the motives for 

 which men slaughter each other, and is so distressed at their 

 wickedness, that she can scarcely be induced to pursue the 

 study. 



To be able to appreciate justly the judicious treatment of those 

 to whose training she owes her wonderful progress, it would be 

 necessary to be practically acquainted with the disappointments 

 of persons who undertake to teach pupils who are simply blind, 

 and not suffering, like Laura, under the double privation of the 

 senses of sight arid hearing. 



Great pains had been taken to make one of the boys, whom 

 we saw, have a correct idea of a horse , he had got by rote a 

 long list of characteristics, and had felt the animal, and the 

 mortification of the master may be conceived on discovering that 

 after all the child could not be sure whether the creature had 

 three, four, or five legs. After a few days intercourse with the 

 blind, we no longer marvel that precocious children, who begin 

 to read early and get by heart and recite long poems, or become 

 knowing by keeping company with grown-up people, are so often 

 overtaken or left behind by those who have been neglected, and 

 have spent their time at play. For when the truants are sup 

 posed to be most idle, they may, in reality, be storing their minds 

 with a multitude of facts, to give a detailed description of which 

 to a student, in or out of a blind asylum, would fill volumes. 



Dr. Howe told us of a blind Frenchman in the establishment, 

 who could guess the age of strangers, by hearing their voices, 

 much more accurately than he and others who could see as well 

 as talk with them. 



On looking over the annual reports of the trustees, I observed 

 that on Sunday the pupils, about a hundred in number, and 



