46 



ACCOUNT OF A HQY 



NOTE, p. 39. 



I have been led to insist at some length on the philosophi- 

 cal merits of Sicard's plan of instruction for the Dumb, not 

 only because his fundamental principles admit of an obvious 

 application {mutatis mutandis) to the case of Mitchell ; but be- 

 cause his book does not seem to have attracted so much notice 

 in this country as might have been expected, among those who 

 have devoted themselves to the same profession. Of this no 

 stronger proof can be produced, than the stress which has been 

 laid by most of our Teachers, on the power of articulation, 

 which can rarely, if ever> repay, to a person born deaf, the time 

 and pains necessary for the acquisition. This error was, no 

 doubt, owing, in the first instance, to a very natural, though 

 very gross mistake, which confounds the gift of Speech with the 

 gift of Reason ; but I believe it has been prolonged and con- 

 firmed in England, not a little, by the common union of this 

 branch of trade with the more lucrative one, of professing to 

 cure organical impediments. To teach the dumb to speak, be- 

 sides, (although, in fact, entitled to rank only a little higher 

 than the art of training starlings and parrots), will always ap- 

 pear to the multitude, a far more wonderful feat of ingenuity, 

 than to unfold silently the latent capacities of the understand- 

 ing ; — an effect which is not, like the other, palpable to sense, 

 and of which but a few are able either to ascertain the exist- 

 ence, or to appreciate the value. It is not surprising, there- 

 fore, that even those Teachers who are perfectly aware of the 

 truth of what I have now stated, should persevere in the diffi- 

 cult, but comparativejy useless attempt, of imparting to their 



pupils 



