stored to its native functions, and filled with the ecstasy of thought, under the guidance of benevolence, and through its own earnest and healthful endeavors, are worthy to be traced in all their details; and we wish that some graphic hand would present us with the picture.

Through what unwearied pains this work has been accomplished, we can only learn by visiting these asylums, now established in many of our cities for the blind and for the deaf, and witnessing the knowledge and the happiness which are their unfailing results. The vacant, restless manner, which reveals that most melancholy of wants, the want of occupation; the discontented, cheerless condition of the dependent and the companionless, are banished from these abodes; activity, sympathy, and progress, meet you at every step. The needy, beside the usual branches of a good school education, are taught some art, or trade, by which their independence is secured, and instead of being a burden, become useful members of the community.

"The working department," says the Report, "has continued steadily in operation, and received additional patronage from the public.

"It has paid its own expenses, including stock, and four hundred dollars wages to blind persons, [once pupils,] and the rent of a shop in Washington street. We do not include, however, in the expenses, the board of the pupils.

"In this connexion, we may make some observations upon the prospective want of an establishment, connected with or supplementary to our own, which shall offer a home and an occupation to those who have finished their education.

"There are very serious objections to having adult blind persons introduced promiscuously into an establishment destined for the education of children. The effects upon each class are bad, for reasons which will be obvious to any thinking person.

"But it often happens that a laboring man is suddenly bereft of his sight by accident; he is deprived of all means of support, and his situation is much more unhappy than that of one born blind. If all schools for the blind are closed to him, his only refuge is the alms-house.

"Again, there are now in this country five institutions for the instruction of the blind. Every year there will be discharged from them a few individuals, some of whom cannot gain a livelihood by themselves, but might earn enough to pay for their own board, to clothe themselves, and to have a spare penny for the extra comforts of life. Take, for instance, the case of a young

man who is expert at making mattrasses, a most excellent business, but requiring capital; he can earn four or five dollars a week, at journeyman's wages; but suppose he attempts to set up for himself, he must buy his materials at retail prices, he must sell his goods as soon as manufactured, for he cannot command his price by holding on through the autumn and winter for the spring trade, and in a short time he fails. We have known more than one such case.

"Considerations of this kind have made some friends of the blind desirous of founding a central establishment for the Industrious Blind, from various parts of the country. It should be an establishment to which any could be admitted, who could earn enough to pay their board and clothe themselves; and where they could work by piece-work, and be paid at regular periods. They should be subjected to no more restrictions than were absolutely necessary for good order and correct morals; and be left to pass their leisure hours as best suited them.”

pp. 10 - 12.

The pursuit of knowledge under difficulties is a subject which, as we have already hinted, would here find abundant illustration. The difficulties cheerfully met and overcome by those, who are denied the natural facilities for learning, are not such as have usually obstructed the path of study to those gifted individuals, whose history has been preserved for our instruction. These difficulties have often whetted, rather than checked the desire of improvement, and are more than compensated by the superior natural endowments which prompt their possessor to enter on the course to usefulness and fame. It cannot frequently happen that these unfortunates possess superior powers of mind, and they labor under the disadvantage of being to a great extent destitute of that facility in the use of their faculties, which the incessant action of the senses calls out in infancy, whether the individual be subjected to any regular training, or not. Yet, so strong is the impulse to seek knowledge, and to indulge the social feelings, that incredible labor is encountered to satisfy these propensities. Those who have attended exhibitions at this Institution, or at our other asylums for the blind, or the deaf mutes, can testify to the wonder and admiration called forth on witnessing the progress made by the pupils, and the slow and difficult processes they go through in order to acquire the usual branches of education. What patience and toil it must require to attain to the use of written and oral language without the aid of speech, or to read with the fingers. We have seen a blind young gentleman perform in his head an algebraic VOL. XXVIII. 3D S. VOL. X. NO. III.

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process, and give the result accurately, which, as we were told by the instructor, would if written out cover a surface of two feet square; he was also a good Latin and Greek scholar; and children of eight and ten years old answer any question put to them in geography, astronomy, and arithmetic, by feeling alone.

Some years ago, we attended one of the regular lessons in writing given to a class of deaf mutes at the Institution in Philadelphia. The teacher expressed by signs, (not the manual alphabet,) the sentence to be written. While doing this, the eyes of each scholar were rivetted on him; then turning instantly to their slates, each wrote the sentence in a plain good character. Some completed the task a little sooner than the others. One of the number (whose countenance evinced great sensibility) wrote it wrong. As soon as this was pointed out to her she burst into tears. The teacher, with much kindness of manner, informed her that she had mistaken him, and proposed to repeat the lesson, at which her face brightened up directly, and her attention became fixed. They all wrote again; she not only executed the task with perfect correctness, but completed it the first. A young girl next her, on observing this, embraced her with evident pleasure, clapping her hands for joy at the success of her companion, and turning round, pointed it out to the teacher. This little trait of generous sympathy, so beautifully pure and spontaneous, brought tears into the eyes of the spectators. What springs of feeling and intelligence had been unlocked in these young creatures, by the art of instructing deaf mutes, and what praise is due to those who have learned, and with so much patience engaged in the practice of this art, loosing by their efforts not the body, but the soul, from thraldom.

Another point deserving attention is the method of instruction adopted in these institutions. Necessity is the parent of invention. The peculiar difficulties attending the instruction of those to whom one or more of the natural entrances to knowledge is closed, have led their teachers to seek out the best methods. There is, in children possessed of all their senses, so many avenues to the mind from without, and such consequent activity of the faculties, roused, solicited, developed as they are by the events and objects of every moment of existence, that not even the poorest method of teaching, nor the least attractive topics, nor the chilling atmosphere of harsh

ness, can entirely check their curiosity and aptitude to learn. Their activity and constant questioning, deemed so irksome by those who possess not the art to direct these propensities to their legitimate ends, secure to the young, though often through much tribulation, a competent amount of knowledge. Who that reflects on the fact, that a child, during the short period of two years, and that when its capacities are the weakest, makes the most elaborate of all our acquisitions, language, will doubt the teachableness of his nature?

But it is not so with the deaf or the blind; a death-like stillness reigns with one, eternal darkness and gloom with the other. Without some improvements on the common method of teaching, little success would be anticipated in any attempt to enlighten their minds. It needed only this conviction to lead to the discovery of a better method. By a careful study of the process of the mind in arranging and retaining its ideas, by distinguishing the circumstances which are favorable from those which are hindrances to the quickness and clearness of our perceptions, certain rules were evolved, and on application modified and perfected by experience. The peculiar difficulties of the case being clearly apprehended were met with patience and perseverance, on the part of both pupil and teacher; these sentiments being always reciprocated by the pupil, when manifest in the teacher. The admirable, it might almost be said miraculous, result of such earnest and harmonious coöperation have caused the heart of the spectator to leap for joy, as he witnessed in these bereaved ones the evidence of their clear possession and ready use of that rich treasure of thoughts and emotions, which are the birthright of Humanity. The following passage is from the annual report for 1839:

"The system of education adopted at the commencement of the Institution has been followed during the past year, and with gratifying results. That system having been explained in previous Reports, we need only allude now to its general features. The moral, intellectual, and physical nature of the pupils is developed by a division of their time, and a variety in their оссираtions, which calls each into daily exercise. Four hours are devoted to intellectual pursuits, four hours to music, four to mechanical labor, four to recreation and play, and eight to sleep.

“With regard to intellectual education, our principle has been, that the mind has an appetite for knowledge, as the body has for food; and that the exercise of any of the mental faculties in the

acquisition of knowledge, is accompanied and rewarded by vivid pleasure. This pleasure nature has made so strong as to be a sufficient inducement to the exercise of the intellect: the child seeks knowledge for the gratification it brings; and the object of teaching should be, to present to each and all the mental faculties opportunities for action, and objects upon which to act, at the appropriate time. Every child finds delight in the exercise of his perceptive faculties, and never tires of learning new facts and new things. It is only when he is called upon to study words that he cannot understand, and to exercise powers of reasoning and abstraction, which are as yet undeveloped, that he turns from books and school to observe and learn for himself the things which nature presents to his senses.

"This principle, we have found, can be surely relied upon in our school; and trusting to it, we need none of the stimuli which are by some supposed necessary. We have no corporal punishments, no prizes, no taking precedence in classes, no degradations. Emulation there is, and will be; nature provides for this in the self-esteem of each individual; but this sentiment can rarely be cultivated and used in schools as an incentive, without producing envyings and heart-burnings.

"Acting upon this principle, and taking care to avoid fatigue, by giving the pupils short lessons and frequent recesses, our teachers succeed in imparting much knowledge to them. It is gratifying to find, that in spite of their having one avenue to the mind closed, they can advance in almost every branch of study about as fast as seeing children; and it is still more gratifying to witness the pleasure they derive from learning a new fact, or developing a new thought.

"The whole number who attend the school regularly is sixty. Of these, fifty-two can read the books in raised letters; ten boys, and fifteen girls can write a legible hand; all those above eight years of age are well grounded in the elementary studies of grammar, arithmetic, and geography; while some have made very respectable acquirements in the higher branches of natural philosophy, algebra, geometry, and astronomy."-pp. 3-5.

Let such as are disposed to complain of the dulness and frowardness of their pupils visit these institutions, and ascertain if they can, by what method it is, that learning is to their inmates rendered delightful, and that their progress sometimes outstrips that of children who have the use of all their senses. The general principles of instruction, as well as their details, are most worthy to be studied. Their efficacy proves their truth. It will be seen that here moral and intellectual results are not