1807.] Account of the Deaf and Dumb Establishments, Kc. 9 
For the Monthly Magazine 
On the srate of the EDUCATION of 
the pear «nd puMB throughout Evu- 
rop&.—Concluded from p. 415, of 
vol. 23. 
WAS present at another examination 
held at the particular desire of Lucien 
Bonaparte, during the time that person- 
age was Minister of the Interior. The 
minister examimed several of the jumor 
scholars timself; and the progress they 
had made in writing and arithmetic was 
such, as not only satisfied him extremely, 
but excited the unanimous approbation 
of the rest of the company in the hall, 
Massieu was in attendance as regulator 
of the less advanced pupils, and the mi- 
nister at length wished to put a question 
to him also. The young man mounted 
the stage and made his ‘obeisance. His 
countenance, w'thout being either hand- 
some or expressive of any thiig exalted, 
is very intelligent. It bears the charac- 
ter of some deticiency, but it is only the 
deficiency of deafness; and it is evidently 
a sensible face, although it doves not be- 
speak abilities above the geueral level. 
The mimster spoke, and the Abbé 
communicated the question by signs to 
Massieu, who wrote it down instanter, 
then turning round with an anxious and 
respectful Jook, he fixed his eyes upon the 
minister, to know from him, whether he 
had been happy enough to state the ques- 
tion as it was delivered? On Lucien Bo- 
naparte nodding approbation, our deaf 
and dumb metaphysician proceeded with 
expedition to write the answer uuder- 
neath the question as follows: 
“ Qu’est ce que la paresse?” 
“ C'est le dégout du travail, le non- 
desir de rien faire, d’ou resultent le be- 
soin, la malpropreté, et la misére, la ma- 
ladie du corps et le mépris des autres.” 
What is Laziness?” (or ‘‘ Idleness.”) 
“Tt is a disgust for useful eccupation, 
and a lack of inclination to do any thing. 
From this vice spring want, filthiness, 
and misery, disease of body, and con- 
tempt of others.” 
In writing this, the gestures and looks 
of the young man were in perfect con- 
cordance with the ideas that might be 
supposed to exist within him and the 
words he wrote. When he had finished 
the last word, he turned round; and then 
his whole person, his countenance and 
his eyes exhibited one of the justest pan- 
tomimic representations of laziness that 
it is possible to. conceive; from which, 
after he had a moment dwelt upon. the 
personification his fancy had suggested to 
him, he made.an expressive tr ansition to 
Monrury Mae. No, 160, 
the looks and manners of a man filled 
with the dread that the idea of laziness 
should ever inspire. 
It is to be regretted that this young 
man, who has evinced much capacity for 
attaining to dithcult acquirements, did 
not, in the course of his instruction by 
others, meet with any person capable of 
teaching him the art of speaking. The 
Abbé de l’Epée, in the infancy of the es- 
tablishiment of the Parisian school, cor~ 
responded with Mr. Thomas Braidwood, 
then I believe of Edinburgh, with a view . 
to acquire some precise information’ on 
the method followed in Great Saari 
for teaching deat-dumb persons to speak, 
aud that practised by Mr. Braidwood 
hunself in particular. Some letters 
passed between the two professors, i In the 
course of which the Abbé received an 
apology from the other gentleman, 
couched in the terms of an assurance, 
that Mr. Braidwood did not couceive it 
possible nor could he by any device or 
ingenuity contrive to express any mates 
rial part of his method im writing, and 
that it was only to be made known prac- 
tically to persons who were in a situation 
to become his pupils. The Abbé, in re- 
ply lamented that it was impossible for 
him to undertake the voyage, otherwise 
he would willingly come to take lessons 
from Mr. Braidwood in person. Here the 
correspondence ended, and the Abbé, in 
consequence of the formidable difficulty 
pointed out, gave up every attempt to 
become master of the theory of teaching 
the dumb to speak. 
The dithculty did not consist in finding 
a way to describe the method, if Mir, 
Braidwood’s ideas were clear and defi- 
nite upon that head, and if he, as un- 
doubtedly he must have, understood it 
rightly ; forthe method is capable of such 
a simple explanation, that mothers might 
be instructed in writing how to teach their 
infant children to a°certain devree: but 
the difficulty lay in the reasonable re- 
pugnance that Mr. Braidwood, as a man 
who had his own private interest to con- 
sult, could not but have felt, upon that 
score, to parting with a secret upon which 
he had founded his prospects for a liveli- 
hood. For myself however I depre- 
cate such a principle, it would be unfair 
not to allow more toleration to others, 
whose peculiar circumstances or manner 
of thinking might have been differently 
moulded from mime, and I aim willing to 
admit of any hypothesis rather than ate 
tribute a want of ability to a person who 
has given many remarkable proofs of the 
contrary. The Abbé enjoyed a sufficient 
a income 
