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Side by side with the imparting of language, must be the filling the mind with intellectual, moral, and religious truth; in importance, the first; in order, the second aim of the teacher's task.
I believe that, with those who have once possessed the power of hearing, both these objects may be attained to their utmost limits. This belief is founded on my own experience, to which I shall refer more fully presently. I myself have been the means of restoring language to one who had almost lost it; and with language power to receive, and joy in receiving all that knowledge has to bestow.
I could name one, also, who, born deaf, moved in the highest ranks of society, and added to the perfect refinement of a gentleman the higher attainments of an accomplished scholar. To whom, too, do we owe "The Pictorial Bible?" Who claimed a Chalmers to sit at his feet and learn of him? A deaf-mute,[1] deaf from twelve years of age, and deprived of speech; yet his voice has sounded to the ends of the earth, has silently spoken to many a hearing ear.
For the actually deaf and dumb, allowing sufficient time, and presupposing fit capabilities in instructor and instructed, I see no reason to fear an inferior result; looking as I do on the marvellous achievements of Ponce De l'Epée, Sicard, Mr. Braidwood, and Dr. Watson.
That the religious training of such children should be conducted with great circumspection is of the utmost importance. It has been observed, in cases where mental derangement seizing on these helpless ones adds a deeper
- ↑ John Kitto, D.D.
