tenderness; and his tenderness inflamed his philanthropy towards all in the same afflicting circumstances. His mind thus turned to the subject, was, by degrees, wholly absorbed in it; till, at last, incited by religion and humanity, he dedicated himself entirely to their tuition. He instituted a seminary in which he received as many of the Deaf and Dumb as he could superintend, and he formed preceptors to teach those in distant parts. The number of his scholars grew to upwards of sixty; and, as the fame of his operations extended, persons from Germany, from Switzerland, from Spain, and from Holland, came to Paris to be initiated in the method he practised, and transfer it to their several countries.' The philanthropic exertions of this excellert man, in behalf of his unfortunate pupils, are particularly detailed. The greatest part of his income was appropriated to their support, and he refused pecuniary assistance in every shape; of which the following anecdote is too remarkable an instance to be omitted: Mons. de Bouilly* relates that the Russian ambassador at Paris, made the Abbé a visit in the year 1780, and offered him a present in money proportioned to the customary magnificence of the empress. This the Abbé declined to accept, saying, he never received gold from any one; but that since his labours had obtained him the esteem of the empress, he begged she would send a Deaf and Dumb person to him to be educated, which he should deem a more flattering mark of her distinction.' 1 The translator, who modestly conceals his name, then informs us that he had a share in establishing an institution for this purpose, in the neighbourhood of London: An Asylum for the Support and Education of the Deaf and Dumb children of the Foor, was instituted in 1792, in the Grange Road, Bermondsey, under the patronage of the Marquis of Buckingham, a nobleman, whose encouragement of literature and the fine arts hath justly entitled him to the reputation of taste and knowledge, as this office has done to the superior character of philanthropy. Of this asylum, Mr. Thornton, Member for Southwark, is the treasurer; the Rev. Mr. Mason, of Bermondsey, the secretary; and Mr. Watson, formerly the assistant to Mr. Braidwood, the zealous and industrious teacher.' These introductory pages are followed by the author's preface; in which his labours and discoveries are mentioned with the diffidence and simplicity ever attendant on real genius. We shall now proceed to give some report of the method of instructing the deaf and dumb: but in this account we must not be diffuse, because we have already noticed the elements of See an account of M. de Bouilly's Drama on this subject, in our last Review, Catalogue. the the art, in reviewing a paper by M.Sicard, (the worthy successor of the Abbé de l'Epée) in the Memoirs of the French National Institute *.-We extract the commencement of the process of Instruction, as comprehending the leading principles of the scheme: It is not by the mere pronunciation of words, in any language, that we are taught their signification: the words door, window, &c. in our own, might have been repeated to us hundreds of times, in vain": we should never have attached an idea to them, had not the objects designated by these names been shewn to us at the same time. A sign of the hand or of the eye has been the sole mean by which we learned to unite the idea of these objects with the sounds that struck our ear. Whenever we heard these sounds, the same ideas arose in our minds, because we recollected the signs made to us when they were pronounced. Exactly similar must be our measures with the Deaf and Dumb. Their tuition commences with teaching them a manual alphabet, such as boys at school make use of to hold conversation at one end of a form with their companions at the other. The various figures of these letters strike forcibly the eyes of Deaf and Dumb persons, who no more confound them, than we confound the various sounds that strike our ears. • We next write (I say we, because in the operations with my Deaf and Dumb pupils, I frequently have assistance) in large characters with a white crayon, upon a black table, these two words, the door, and we shew them the door. They immediately apply their manual alphabet five or six times to each of the letters composing the word door (they spell it with their fingers) and impress on their me mory the number of letters and arrangement of them; this done, they efface the word, and taking the crayon themselves, write it down in characters, no matter whether well or ill formed; afterwards they will write it, as often as you shew them the same object. It will be the same with respect to every thing else pointed out to them, the name being previously written down; which being first on the table, in large characters, may afterwards be inscribed in characters of ordinary size, upon different cards; and these being given to them, they amuse themselves in examining one another's profici Experience has manifested ency, and ridicule those that blunder. that a Deaf and Dumb person possessing any mental powers will acquite by this method upwards of eighty words in less than three days. Take some cards having suitable inscriptions, and deliver them one by one to your pupil; he will carry his hand successively to every part of his body conformably to the name on the card delivered to him. Mix and shuffle the cards, as you please; he will make no mistake; or if you chuse to write down any of these names on the table, you will see him, in like manner, distinguish with his finger See App. to M. Rev. vol. xxxi. N. S. p. 456. K4 1 every every object whose name is so offered him; and thus clearly prove that he comprehends the meaning of every one. By this process the pupil will obtain, in very few days, a knowledge of all the words which express the different parts of our frame, from head to foot, as well as of those that express the various objects which surround us, on being properly pointed out to him as you write their names down on the table, or on cards put into his hands. We are not however, even in this early stage, to confine ourselves to this single species of instruction, amusing as it is to our pupils. The very first or second day we guide their hands to make them write down, or we write down for them ourselves, the present tense of the indicative of the verb to carry. Several Deaf and Dumb pupils being round a table, I place my new scholar on my right hand. I put the forefinger of my left hand on the word I, and we explain it by signs in this manner: showing myself with the forefinger of my right, I give two or three gentle taps on my breast. I then lay my left forefinger on the word carry, and taking up a large quarto volume, I carry it under my arm, in the skirts of my gown, on my shoulder, on my head, and on my back, walking all the while with the mien of a person bearing a load. None of these motions escape his observation. I return to the table; and in order to explain the second person, I lay my left forefinger on the word thou, and carrying my right to my pupil's breast, I give him a few gentle taps, making him notice that I look at him, and that he is likewise to look at me. I next lay my finger on the word carriest, the second person, and having delivered him the quarto volume, I make signs for him to perform what he has just seen me perform: he laughs, takes the volume, and executes his commission extremely well.' This method is adapted to the conception of the pupil, in his progress through the intricacies of Grammar. The following description of the means of initiating him in a knowlege of the tenses of verbs will convey a sufficient idea of the plan to general readers: The pupil, though Deaf and Dumb, had, like us, an idea of the past, the present, and the future, before he was placed under our tuition, and was at no loss for signs to manifest the difference. Did he mean to express a present action? He made a sign prompted by nature, which we all make in the same case without being conscious of it, and which consists in appealing to the eyes of the spectators to witness the presence of our operation; but if the action did not take place in his sight, he laid his two hands flat upon the table, beating upon it gently, as we are all apt to do on ɛimilar occasions and these are the signs he learns again in our lessons, by which to indicate the Present of a verb. * In Fiance, the priests used to go in clerical habits as their ordinary dress.' Did he design to signify that an action is past? He tossed his hand carelessly two or three times over his shoulder: these signs we adopt to characterize the past tenses of a verb. And lastly, when it was his intent to announce a future action, he projected his right hand: here again is a sign we give him to represent the Future of a verb. It is now time to call in art to the assistance of nature. Having previously taught him to write out the names of the seven days of the week, one directly under the other, we desire him to set them down in that order, and we then put on each side of his writing what follows before and after the same words under different heads. PRESENT. To-day-Sunday-I arrange nothing. · IMPERFECT. Yesterday-Monday-I was arranging my books. PERFECT. Day before yesterday-Tuesday-I arranged my chamber. PAST PERFECT. Three days ago-Wednesday-I had arranged my closet. 6 FUTURE. To-morrow-Thursday-I shall arrange my papers. < FUTURF. Day after to-morrow-Friday-I shall arrange my drawers. · FUTURF. Three days hence-Saturday-I shall arrange my cupboards. • Yesterday, day before yesterday, three days ago, are explained by the number of times we have slept since the day of which we speak. 'To-morrow, day after to-morrow, three days hence, are explained by the number of times we are to sleep till the day in question arrive. 'We next teach our pupil to lay a restriction upon his motions. To express a thing past, he used to throw his arm backwards and for wards towards his shoulder, without rule: we tell him, he must throw it only once for the imperfect, twice for the perfect, and three times for the past perfect; which in truth is analogous to what is signified, the past perfect announcing an action longer past than the perfect; and the latter being in the same predicament with regard to the im perfect Mr. Tooke's principles of Grammar, when his much desired work is completed, will perhaps enable teachers of the deaf and dumb to substitute signs still more simple and expressive than those which are here indicated. We cannot conclude our account of this performance, without expressing our wishes for the success of the establishments for this purpose, now existing in this country. In other charitable institutions, we are inferior to no nation, and we trust that we shall soon also rival them in this good work. ART. ART. IV. The Picture of Petersburg. From the German of Henry 1801. FEW persons are so void of curiosity as not to have felt, at some period of their lives, the desire of visiting foreign climes; and of having an opportunity of contemplating the manners of other nations, increasing their own stock of ideas, and acquiring additional means of exciting the regard and esteem of their countrymen at their return. Since, however, it can fall to the lot of comparatively but an inconsiderable number to realize such wishes, no small share of gratitude is due to those who, after having travelled, communicate the result of their observations to those who have staid at home; and make them almost equally well informed, without incur ring similar expence, fatigue, and danger. No man has performed this service more effectually than the author of the present work. After having diligently profited by the advantages which his situation at St. Petersburg afforded, M. Storch has employed that happy talent at description, for which he is much esteemed in Germany, in delineating the moral and physical state of this splendid residence of the Russian monarchs. Whether we perambulate the streets with him, fre quent the theatres, join a sledge-party on the ice, or take a turn on a summer evening on the magnificent quay of the Neva, listening to the wild notes of the rowers, we are exactly where he pleases to conduct us; the several objects. which he describes being as clearly and distinctly before us, as if we were actually on the spot and who is not delighted at being thus transported amid the amusements of a brilliant court, the bustle of a thronged eity, and the scenes of great, events? We take pleasure in following on maps the march of armies and the course of fleets; we wish to know the situation of places that have a signal share in the history of our times; we stop to consider the portraits of illustrious personages, to contemplate the spots on which such transactions have passed as history has deemed worthy of being transmitted to posterity; and, are the domestic scenes of retired and social life, among our fellow-beings of other countries, less important and less interesting? On the contrary, the want of such details is exactly that defect which we have to lament in the accounts that have come down to us respecting the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, and other celebrated nations of antiquity. We know the exploits of their Kings and Generals, their great public works, and the annals of their various states: but of their private life and domestic manners, |