$44 
by his opponent, were more advanta- 
gcous to the deaf and dumb? 
What then are we to say to the sup- 
posed correspondence between the Abbé 
aud Mr. Thomas Braidwood? aud how 
has Mr. M. been misled, (for that he 1s 
misled in this particular, scarcely admits 
a question) mto the statement in page 9 
of your Magazine for August, of the la- 
mentation of the Abbé over the i 1m possi- 
bility of his undertaking’ a voyage to 
England, to take lessons fron: Mr. Braid- 
wood in person; and his consequeutly 
giving up every é attempt to become mas- 
ter of the theory of teaching the dumb 
to speak? 
Did any correspondence on this sub- 
ject ever take place between these en- 
lightened professors? and has the purport 
been inaccurately reported to Mr. M.? 
or has the whole story originated i some 
confused misrepresentation of part of the 
correspondence between the Parisian 
and the Leipsic professor? Something 
that looks very like a foundation for this 
story does certainly, m that controversy 
appear. ‘In order to confer with you 
respecting my method of educating the 
deaf and dumb, (says S. Heinich) and 
disclose something of the invention, it is 
indispensably necessary that you learn 
the mode of tuition from myself, which 
would require you to live upon the spot 
with me, at least halfa year.” To which 
the Abbé replied, that (without the pre-~ 
liminary of accepting this mvitation) 
““ he would be bound, not to learn, but to 
~ teach,” the whole mystery of the learned 
professor, “to any rational creature en- 
dowed with the faculty of hearing.” 
Tt is clear then, at least, that in the 
year 1782, the Abbe l’Epée ‘would never 
have lamented the impossibility of his 
taking a voyage to England, to learn the 
art aud mystery of teaching the deaf to 
speak: an art which the publications of 
Wallis and Holder, in England, and, as it 
should seem, those of Bonet, Helmont, 
and Amman, in their respective countries, 
had, ina considerable degree, developed 
more than a century before; and which 
the Abbé himself has so happily com- 
pleted and explained. 
There is also another point relative to 
«the munificence of the Bourbons,” to- 
wards the Abbé de |’IZpée and his insti- 
tutions, and that requires clearing uy 
The testimony of Mr. Mann, and that of 
the translator of the Abbé’s Method of 
Educating, &c. are, in this respect, di- 
rectly opposite to each other. Mr. M. 
says that, “ the expences ¢ attending the 
Statement of Facts relative to the Abbé de VEpée. 
+ 
[Dec. 1, : 
education of the pupils adinitted into the - 
Abbé’s Tustitution, were defrayed by the 
paternal bounty of the government of his 
country, which gr anted him a liberal re- 
compence besides.” The English trans- 
lator asserts, that, “‘ not content with the 
rejection of presents and profits, which 
he nad no wants nor passions to make 
necessary,” he carried his enthusiastic 
benevolence to such anexteut, that ‘ the 
expences attending the seminary which 
he established, were wholly defrayed by 
himself. He inherited an income, as M. 
de Bouilly informs us, amounting to 
fourteen thousand livres, (nearly six 
hundred pounds sterling,) of which he 
allowed two thousand for his own person, 
and considered the residue as the patri- 
mony of the deafand dumb, to whose use 
it was faithfully applied.” And upon 
the authority of the same M.-de Bouilly, 
the translator further relates, that when 
“‘ the Russian ambassador at Paris made 
the Abbé a visit, in the year 1780, and 
offered him a present in money propor- 
tioned to the customary magnificence of 
the Empress, the Abbé declined accept- 
ing it, saying, he never received gold 
from any ene; but that, since his labours 
had obtained him the esteem of the Em- 
press, he begged she would send a deat 
aud dumb person to him to be educated.” 
Such appear, upon pretty good evi- 
dence, to have been the sentiments upon — 
which the great benefactor of the deaf 
~and dumb “uniformly acted: sentiments 
which ought not to be defrauded of that 
portion of adiniration to which they are 
entitled. In vindicating the character 
of the Abbé from what I suspect to bea 
misrepresentation, I do not, however, 
mean to be regarded as recommending 
his conduct in this respect, to imitation. 
Perhaps even in his own instance, it had 
more of the enthusiasm than the efficacy 
of virtue ; for the man, who like him out 
of an income of six hundred pounds a 
"year, appropriates upwards of four hun- 
dred to a specific charity, in which his 
own incessant labour is also employed, 
thight assuredly enlarge the sphere of his 
utilities by accepting the liberal remune- 
rations of the opulent, and the well- 
merited bounties of empresses and kings. 
At any rate, such enthusiasm can only 
be recommendable in those who are al- 
ready in possession of independent for- 
tunes ; and who, like the Abbé de ’Epée, 
either by vows of religion, or some other 
circumstance, are absolved from the 
-cares and the duties of the more imme- 
diate relationships of life, Perhaps there’ 
/ 1S 
