BORN BLIND AND DEAF. 



49 



deductions, and the practical results of the French academi- 

 cian. 



" I conceive there might be successful addresses made to a 

 dumb child even in its cradle, when he begins — risu cognoscere 

 matrem ,• if the mother or nurse had but as nimble a hand, as 

 commonly they have a tongue. For instance, I doubt not but 

 the words, Jiand,foot, dog, cat, hat, &c. written fair, and as of- 

 ten presented to the deaf child's eye, pointing from the words 

 to the things, and vice versa, as the blind child hears them spo- 

 ken, would be known and remembered as soon by the one as 

 the other. And as I think the eye to be as docile as the ear ; 

 so neither see I any reason, but the hand might be made as 

 tractable an organ as the tongue ; and as soon brought to form, 

 if not iair, at least legible characters, as the tongue to imitate 



and echo back articulate sounds." 



" The difficulties of learning to read, on the common plan, are 

 so great, that one may justly wonder how young ones come to 



get over them Now, the deaf child, under his mother's 



tuition, passes securely by all these rocks and quicksands. The 

 distinction of letters, their names, their powers, their order, 

 the dividing words into syllables, and of them again making 

 words, to which may be added Tone and Accent ; none of 



these puzzling niceties hinder his progress It is true, 



after he has past the discipline of the nursery, and comes to 

 learn grammatically, then he must begin to learn to know let- 

 ters written, by their figure, number, and order, &c. &c. 



The same author elsewhere observes, that " the soul can ex- 

 ert her powers, by the ministry of any of the senses : And, there- 

 fore, when she is deprived of her principal Secretaries the Eye 

 and the Ear ; then she must be contented with the service of her 

 lackeys and scullions, the other senses ; which are no less true 

 and faithful, to their mistress, than the eye and the ear ; but not so 

 quick for dispatch" 



Vol. VII. G I 



