204 
In the stress I lay upon the education 
of the ear, in the treatment of impedi- 
ments of speech, I do not merely argue 
from the well known sympathy between 
the perceptive and the executive organs, 
or that important axiom of experimen~ 
tal science, the necessity of correcting 
-the impressions of one sense by the evi- 
dence of others. My inductions are 
drawn from facts and actual observation, 
In my own particular practice, I have de- 
rived considerable assistance from an ap- 
plication of the principles of musical in- 
Jiection and proportion, and from a sys- 
tem of demonstration that appeals at 
once to the perceptions of the three dis- 
tinct senses of touch, sight and hearing. 
As iar as relates to proportion, indeed, 
the speech of the deat might be regulated 
with sufficient accuracy, and the ca- 
dences, or alternations of Thesis and dr- 
sts, mig ht be as distinct! ly and accurately 
formed by them, as by the person who 
has hearing. Itis, Aides highly inter= 
esting to observe how far, in this respect, 
the perceptionsof the deaf can go. I was 
once exceedingly entertained by seeing 
Mr. A ~—th (the deaf and dumb mi- 
pour painter, to whom I suppose Mr. 
Mannin his communications to have al- 
Iuded) beat time to the instruments, at a 
public concert, with the greatest aecu- 
racy; and to see him afterwards dance, for 
several hours, with so lively and expres- 
sive a perceptionof time, as to surpass in 
promptitude and accuracy of movement, 
‘roice, and somewhat too much of uniformity 
in the measure of his cadences, are, perhaps, 
the only sources of es:ential blemish in his 
acting; for the former of which he is most 
assuredly not so much indebted to any irre- 
mediable unkindness of physieal nature, as to 
the misfortune of Jiving in an age when the 
science of vocal expression is so compietely 
anknown, that it has nut even been pec 
ed that any such science was among tne pos 
sibilities of analytical discovery. But wha 
the studies and erudition cf the bro: hez could 
net discover as a science, has been practically 
zevealed to the more acute perceptions of the 
sister; who, superadding to his just discri- 
mination of character and sentiment, the ap- 
parently magic powers of an exquisite modu- 
Jation, anda finely varied tune of speech, is 
‘enabled, in many of her characters, to*real- 
ise that ideal perfection of imitative art, which 
surpasses nature itself, withcut becoming un- 
natural. What pify that this fine harmon- 
ist had not been so far acquainted with the 
theory and my<tery of her own peculiar art, 
as to have communicated it (for that it might 
have been communicated is certain) at least 
to the circle of her own family! 
RES 
On the Treatment of Impediments, Kc. 
[April 1, 
almost every individual i in thegroup: nay 
such was his superiority in this respect, 
that he actually, by his attentions, as- 
sisted every individual who came near 
him in the dance, and contributed to 
keep them in the same regularity of step 
and figure with himself. But all this, and 
all that, in the perceptions of the deaf, 
could be connected with this, would not 
suliice to eorrect the accent, properly so 
called;* would not im prove the tune, or 
regulate tones of the voice; with which, 
as I have already- suggested, so large a 
class of impediments will be found to be | 
connected. 
But if there be something connected 
with the art of removing impediments, 
that lias no sort of reference to the in- 
Struction of the deaf; it is still more im- 
portant explicitly to point out, that there 
15 something also, nay much, that is con- 
nected with the necessary instruction of 
the deaf, with which, in the management 
of impediments, we must resolutely de- 
termine to have nothing whatever to do. 
Speech, however perfectly they miay at- 
tain it, raust for ever be, to the deaf, a 
very unperfect and limited source of 
comimunication and intelligence. They 
mst of necessity have another language : : 
and for their use, the benignant genius of 
successive professors has, accoydingly, 
been employed, in inventing and ma- 
turing the systems of dactylology, and of 
methodieal and expressive signs, 
Lo what admirable purposes, in the 
education of the deaf dumb, these may 
be applied, has been amply manifested in 
the labours of Abbé de I Epée, Sicard and 
others: but within the walls of a semi- 
navy for the cure of impediments, or the 
instruction of those, who, without heing 
deaf, ave speechless, no such systems, nor 
any modifications of the language of pan- 
tomime, should ever, m the least, be tole- 
rate d. 
‘Che very existence of impediment, pro- 
perls understood, is a proof, aud the ex- 
istence of speechlessness where there is no 
defect of hearing, i 15a. proof still stronger, 
that the unitative faculty stands in need 
of regulation and assistance from some 
more powerful stimelus, than the mere 
supposed invincible pi ‘opensity to imita~ 
ton. Every precaution should, -there- 
fore, be taken, that the papil of this de= 
alan: may ‘be constant ly surrounded 
y such circumstances as necessitate him 
* Aecent—a tuning of the voice by lifting 
it up pa down in the musical scale. Ber 
Fonson's Gram 
te 
