The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-02-19 00:00:00

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"•IG

DFAF AND DUMB.
•
Most of our travellers to France have attempted
descriptions of the splendorof the Tlauiaeries, of the
guard,
apnerdsonoth observation
and outward spew. But thfingli we have heard of
circumstances timhemderdiaesstoefllis
the heaevolence and ingenuity of the Abbes l'Epee
oerf
and Sicard, and their school has produced an inter-
esting event for the drama, which has found its way
to the English stager--but few have accurately de-
scribed an institution which does honour to the French
nation ; and therefore the following account, by a
writer who appears studious of accuracy, must be
acceptable to every reader of taste and sentiment.
I shall not now speak to you of splendid build-
ings, of glorious monuments of human ingenuity, of
renowned heroes, or of brilliant festivals. What I saw
to-day interested me, and lam sure would have in-
terested you, much more than all such objects united;
I mean the Institution de Sourd-muets (that humane
establishment for the instruction of the deaf and
dumb), first founded under the care of the Abbe
l'Epee, and now concluded by his worthy successor,
the Abbe Sicard.
" Having tickets offered me for an extraordinary j
meeting, which took place this morning. I willingly
availed myself of the opportunity, and at ten o'clock ,
repaired to la Rue St. Jaque, where, in a former
convent, this beneficent establishment is carried on.
Here I found a large assemblage of respectable per-
sons, who all listened, with pleasure and attention,
to the simple, plain, and unaffeded manner inwhich
the Abbe Sicard explained his method of giving to '
the deaf and dumb the means of expressing their
thoughts. "As foreigners," said he, " unacquaint-
ed with the language of the country which they
visit, arc supposed stupid and ignorant by the unin-
formed, so the deaf and dumb are often considered
as ideots, because they are deprived of one sense.
No," continued he, " they ere not ideots; they have
ideas as well as you, and only want an organ to ex-
press them." He then went on to state, that in
most educations children are taught first to speak,
and then, sometime!, to think; whereas, in his plan,
he began first by teaching his pupils to think, and
then proceeded to instruEt them how to express what
they had so thopghti.
" To exemplify both his plan and his success, be
examined Massein, .his favourite and ablest pupil,
a young man, about twenty or twenty-one years
old. As soon as the Abbe expressed, by his ges-
tures, any particular passion, Massein instantly
wrote the word appropriate to the peculiar feeling,
and then explained the meaning of the word he had
written, with a vivacity of aCtion, and a variety of
countenance, which I never before witnessed in any
human being. Ile next wrote on the wall, with
great rapidity, the chain of ideas, by which the
Abbe Sicard regularly advances his scholars, from
the expression of a simple thought, to one of greater
import. Thus, beginning with the word 44 voir,"
he ended, goieg on by regular steps, with the ward
" examiner,' to examine ;beginning with " ideer,"
(a word created by Massein, but answering to
" avoir Wee," or to have an idea), he ended with
" approfondir," to search into ; and beginning with
" vouloir," to will. he ended with " bruler," to
burn with passion. Massein expressed, with won-
derful fire, the meaning of each progressive passion,
in the changes of his countenance, which, when ani-
mated, is uncommonly fine.
" In the course of this meeting, the Abbe Sicard
likewise examined, for the first time, a young wo-
man, now eighteen, who, at six years old, had be-
come entirely deaf, and who could now only speak
such words as she had learnt at that tender age,
many of which she still pronounced imperfectly,
and as children are apt to do. He began with
shewing us a memorandum, or washing bill, in
which this girl had drawn her gowns, petticoats,
&c according to the different forms of these articles.
Massein then, by direction of the Abbe, drew on
the wall different things of .common use; to some
salthese she applied their proper names, same she
did not know, and others she micpronounced. The
latter &fed M. Sicard immediately removed, by
pronotmcing the word himself, teaching her by
signs to move her lips, as lie did, by blowing on the
hand, and by touching some particular fibres of the
arm. I cannot satisfadlorily explain this operation;
but it will, perhaps, be sufficient toobrerve, that the
Abbe, more than once, said, " by such and such
motions I will produce such andd such sounds ;" and
that as soon as the girl had imitated the motions he
made, she articulated the words, as he had pre-
viously promised.
" The more I saw of this institutinn, the more
was I delighted. There were forty or fifty children
present, who, horn deaf and dumb, were, by the
wonderful skill and unceasing care of the respedable
Abbe, restored to society, to Happiness, and them-
selves. They were seated in different parts of the
room, and conversed with each other, though at
the greatest distance, by the means of their fingers,
winch were in constant motion. They hadevery
appearance of enjoying health, spirits, and vivacity.
" There are all kind of workshops, manufactures,
and schools, in the house of the Sourd-muets, and
the establishment is entirely maintained at the ex-
pence of the government. Massein, I hear, has
displayed strong symptoms, of genius, and has even
written some very .beautiful verses.
" flow admirable is this institution! How ho-
nourable to the ingenuity and the heart of man !
'fo restore to all the enjoyments of life, and to the
dignity of rational beings, hnplessereatiires, doomed
by the caprice of nature to inexpressible feeling and
irremediable ignoranoe, is perhaps the highest and
proudest effort,of human contrivance.
" Of all whic'h I have yet beheld at Paris, this is
to me the most interesting sight. Other objets
strike the imagination, but this moves the heart."
at • The Abbe Sicard,:infthe course of this leffure, took oc-
cmion to remark, that of all ilanguageit, the English was the
molt simple, the most reasonable, an i the mist natural, in its
construction. • afis a pronf of the truth of his assertion, he in-
formed us, that his pupils, as ,they began to learn tite means
of conveying their thoughts by writing, were constantly guilty
of ahgficamtr. lie added, that it was difficult to make them
lay aside ktioms purely English, and still Inure so, to touch
them those which me peculiar to the French language."

On the •24th ult. at half past one in.the morning
the parish church of Gettieres, in the South or
France, +was struck -with lightning; the steeple was
destroyed, the bells carried ofl; one of the walls
was entirely levelled, and the clock shivered in
pieces, nor was the parsonage house spared by the
devouring element: a man was killed in his bed,
but whams really astonishing, his little child, only
in his fifth ;tear, who was by his side, escaped un-
touched.