The mental condition of the (leaf and dumb is so peculiar—so entirely unlike that of any other branch of the human family—that it is extremely difficult, without very close thought., to obtain an accurate conception of it. While almost every one will readily admit that there is a wide difference between a deaf and a hearing child. very few, who have not had their attention painfully drawn to the subject. possess any ade quate notion of the difference, or could tell wherein it consists.. Sometimes the deaf are compared with the blind, though there exists no proper ground of comparison between them, Except that the blind are more dependent than the deaf and dumb, the relative disadvantages of the two classes do not admit of a moment's comparison. The blind man can be talked with and read to, and is thus placed in direct intercourse with the world around him: domestic converse, literary pleasures, political excitement., intel lectual research, are all within his reach. The person born deaf is utterly excluded from every one of them. The two afflictions are so essentially dissimilar; that they can only be considered and spoken of together by way of contrast. Each of them affects both the physical and the mental constitution; hut blindness, which is a grievous bodily affliction, falls but lightly on the mind; while the effect of deafness is the extreme reverse of this—it touches only one bodily organ, and that not visibly, but the calamity which befalls the mind is one of the most desperate in " the catalogue of human woes." The deprivation under which the born-deaf labor is not merely, or so much, the exclu sion of sound, as it is the complete exclusion of all that information and instruction which are conveyed to our minds, and all the ideas which are suggested to them, by means of sound. The deaf know almost nothing, because they hear nothing. We, who do hear, acquire knowledge through the medium of language—through the sounds we hear, and the words we read—ever hour. But as regards the deaf and dumb, speech tells them nothing, because they cannot hear; and books teach them nothing, because they cannot read; so that their original condition is far worse than that of persons who "can neither read nor write" (one of our most common expressions for extreme igno rance); it is that of persons who can neither read, nor write, nor hear, nor speak; who cannot ask you for information when they want it, and could not understand you, if you wished to give it to them. Your difficulty is to understand their difficulty; and the difficulty which first meets the teacher is, how to simplify and dilute his instructions down to their capacity for receiving them.
A class thus cut off from all communication through the ear, can only be addressed through the eye; and the means employed in the instruction of the deaf and dumb are —1. The risible language of pictures, and of signs and gestures; 2. The finger-alphabet (or dactylology), and writing, which make them acquainted with our own written lan guage; and in some cases, 3. Articulation, and reading on the lips, which introduce them to the use of spoken language. The education of the deaf and dumb must be two fold—you must awaken and inform their minds by giving them ideas and knowledge, and you must cultivate them by means of language. The use of signs will give them a knowledge of things; but to this must be added a knowledge of words. They are there fore taught, from the first, that words convey the same ideas to our minds which pictures and signs do to theirs; they are therefore required to change signs for words until the written or printed character is as readily understood as the picture or the sign. This, of course, is a long process, as it has to be repeated with every word. Names of visible objects (nouns), of visible qualities (adjectives), and of visible actions (verbs),are grad ually taught, and are readily acquired; but the syntax of language, abstract and meta phorical terms, a copious diction, idiomatic phraseology, the nice distinctions between words called synonymous, and those which are identical in form, but of different signification—these are far more difficult of attainment; they can only be mastered through indomitable perseverance and application on the part of the pupil, in addition to the utmost skill and ingenuity of the teacher. The wonder, therefore, surely is, see ing the point of starting, that this degree of advancement is ever reached at all.
Yet it lies been set forth by otherwise respectable authority, that the deaf and dumb are a "gifted race;" that they are remarkable for," their promptitude in 'defining abstract terms;" and those who ought to have known better, have strengthened this delusion, by putting forth, as the answers of deaf-mutes, those brilliant aphorisms and definitions of Massien and Clerc, which are so often quoted at public meetings, by elo quent speakers who know nothing of the subject. It is very well known to those who are acquainted with the subject, that the so-called definitions of Hope, Gratitude, Time, Eternitg, etc., were not Mission's at all, but those of his master, the abbe Sicard. The influence of these fallacies has been most mischievous; they raise expectation to an unreasonable height. for it is thought that what was done by " the celebrated pupil of the abbe Sicard," may be done every day: and disappointment is the inevitable consequence. The honest, laborious teacher who cannot produce these marvelous results, and will not stoop to deception, has often to labor on without that appreciation and encourage ment which are so eminently his due; the cause of deaf-mute instruction suffers, and a young institution is sometimes crippled by the failure of support, winch was first given from one impulse, and is now withdrawn from another—not a whit more unreasonable than the first, but very unfortunate in its consequences.
The course of instruction is very much the same in all the public schools of this country, but a vigorous effort is now being made, by the advocates of what is called the "German system," to teach by oral instruction only. If they can produce, on an extensire wale. the results which have been obtained in some special. and exceptional cases, they will assuredly deserve all the success they hope for, and merit the highest commendation. But it will not be sufficient merely to show that their system is superior to the one in present use, unless they can also show that it can be as extensively applied. The dispensers of the funds of our institutions are bound to uphold that system which will confer the largest practicable amount of benefit upon the largest possible number of per sons. To make a few brilliant schol ars, and to produce a number of ready and intelligible speakers, will certainly be a very creditable achieve ment; but that will not justify any claim to supersede the humbler but more useful system under which many thousands of our deaf-mute fellow-citizens have been rendered competent for the duties of life, in the workshop, in their families, and in society, and to " walk in the house of God as friends." The manual alphabet in common use in the schools of this country is the two-handed one, though the other is used in some of the Irish institu tions, and is regarded with favor by a few of the English teachers. The arguments in its favor, like those for the decimal currency, may probably be admitted; it would be better if we had it. But the rival system has got possession, and is in familiar use, and persons are apt to think that the incon veniences of making the change would outweigh the advantages to be ex pected from it. The institutions in Great Britain are supported by an nual subscriptions, donations, and legacies, and by the payments of pu pils for their board. The larger bene factions are invested, where the an nual income from ordinary sources will admit of it. Committees, chosen from the body of subscribers, direct the affairs of these institutions, the executive officers being the head master and the secretary; but in some cases the sole charge is intrusted to the principal. The gentlemen who fill this office have devoted their whole lives to the work; some of them have also done good service by their writings upon the subject. The census report, 1871, specially men tions the works of Messrs. Baker of Doncaster, Scott of Exeter, and Bux ton of Liverpool, each of whom has helped to make it better known and better understood than it could pOssi bly be• when it was treated by men with no practical knowledge, as a merely literary topic, or a subject of philosophical curiosity. Justice also requires the mention here of the valu able writings of the late Dr. H. P. Peet, of New York, and other Ameri can instructors of the deaf and dumb. The institutions in the western world are munificently supported by grants from the states, and appear to be ad mirably managed. The staff of teach ers Is numerous, able, and efficient, and a high degree of success may fairly be expected where the work is carried on under advantages which are unknown in the schools of Great Britain. At Washington, a college has been established, and is in successful operation, under the presidency of Dr. E. M. Gal laudet, the youngest son of the founder of the American asylum. In New York, an elder brother of this gentleman, the Rev. Dr, Thomas II. Galiaudet, has ever since 1832 conducted services in his church in the sign language, and in 1872, organized a commission to promote the temporal and spiritual welfare of adult deaf mutes, in which he has the co-operation of three clergymen and one layman, who, during the year ending Oct. 29, 1873, held services for deaf-mutes in 31 churches in the principal cities of the United States.
In London, a church has been built to meet the same necessity, and religious services are conducted by two chaplains and four laymen, in various parts of the metropolis; Manchester also posseses a chaplain and lay-helpers employed in the same work; in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin, also in Birmingham, and the large manufacturing towns of Yorkshire, special funds are raised, and special agents employed, to promote in like manner the social and religious benefit of the deaf and dumb. In Liverpool the same results are aimed at by voluntary agency, where, besides the Sunday services, lec tures are given during the week, when a library and mading-room are thrown open, a penny-bank has been brought into successful operation, and a benevolent society visits the sick, helps the needy, and buries the dead.
These are the means at present employed for the benefit of the deaf and dumb, and it is no small honor to the present century, which has won so many proud distinctions in other fields of enterprise and usefulness, that it should have done so much for those who for so ninny generations were utterly excluded from light and knowledge.