Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1837-04-07
From Tait's Edinburgh Magazine.
LETTER TO THE DEAF,
BY HARRIET MARTINEAU

| The deafness under which | have now
for some years past suffered, has become,
from being an almost intolerablc grievance,
so much less of one TO myself and my
friends than such deprivation usually is,
that | have often Of late longed to cons
municate with my fellow sufferers, in the
hope Of benef,ing by my experience, some
to whom the dcpline is newer than to
myself
have for some time done what I could
Cured to me to print what | had TO say
till it was lately not only suggested to me,
bot urged upon me as q duty. l Adolf
this method as the only means Of reaching
you all; and am writing wit the freedom
which should use in private letter 20
each Of you. 1t does not matter VIVA,
may be thought of any thing now say, or
of my saying it in this manner, BY those
who do not belong TO our fraternity.
write merely for those who are deeply con
cerned in the subject Of my letter. The
time may come when shall tell the pub.
lie some of our secrets, for other purposes
than those which are now before inc. AT
present address only you; and as there is
no need for Us 10 tell our secrets to one
another, there may be little here TO interest
any but ourselves. l am afraid have
nothing to offer to those of you who have
been deaf from early childhood. Your
case is very different from mine, as have
reason to know from my intimacy with a
friend who became deaf at five years old.
| Before was so myself, had so prodlgious
a respect for this lady, (which she well de-
serves that if she could have heard the
| lghtest whisper in which timid girl ever
spoke, should not have dared to address
her. Circumstances directed her atten-
ton towards me, and she began cores
pondence, by letter, which flattered me,
and gave me courage to converse with her
when we met, and our acquaintance grew
into an intimacy which enabled me at last
| to take very bold step; to send her son.
net in allusion TO our common infrmity /;
my deafness being then new, and the up
permost thing IN my mind day and night.
[ was surprised and mortified at her not
seeming to enter into what l had no doub,
| in the world must touch her very neary {;
but soon understood the reason. When
we came to compare our experiences, we
were amused to find how differently we
felt, and had always felt, about our priva.
vies the other. though neither Of us pre-
| tend to strike :he balance of evil She has
suffered the most privation, and the most
| pain.
Nothing can be more different than the
two cases necessarily are. Nine tenlhs .:
my mseries arose from false shame and,
instead Of that false shame, the early deaf
entertain themselves with a sort Of pride
of singulari,y, and usually con'rive TO make
their account of this, as Of other lnfrm-
ties, by OBJ aiming privileges aud induIgcn.
ces, for which they care much more than
for advantages which they have never
known and canno. appreciate. My friend
and have principles. maj and minor, on
which our methods Of managing our mfr
nifty are founded; but sone of the minor
principles, and oil the methods, are as diff.
ferent as might be expected from the di
versity Of the experience which has given
rise to them. Nothing can be better for
her than her own management, and, OF
course, think the same of my own for
myself, or should change it. Before I
dismiss this lady, must mention that | am
acquainted with several deaf ladies'; SO
that no one but herself and our two fami.
lies eau KnoW Wuoih haVe oeeu referring
10.
am afraid some Of you will be rather
surprised at the mention Of plans, and
methods, and management,-for, alas! we
are but 10 apt 10 shrink from regularly ia.
king in hand our own case. We are left
to our own weakness in this respect. We
can have but little help-and we usually
have none. but much hinderance. do not
mean by this, to find any fault with our
neighbors. ] have met with too much
sympathy, {as far as sympathy is possible, ',
with too much care, and generosity. and
tenderness. to have the least inclination to
complain Of any body connected with me.
| only mean that this very tenderness is
hurtfu to us, in as far as it encourages US
10 evade our enemy, instead Of graphing
with it; to forget our in6rmty from hou'
to hour, il we con. and to get over the
present occasion somehow, without think
; ing Of the next. This would be considered
a strange way Of meeting any other kline
of evil; and It's consequences in our case
are most deporabe. IL we see that the
partially deaf are often unscrupulous about
truth, inqulstlve. irritable, or mor0se, sus,
picious, low'spirited, or III hammered, it i,
owing to this. It is impossible for as &c
deny that if principles are ever needed, Il
methods are ever OF use as supports and
guides, it must be in a case where each OF
Us stands alone in the midst OF tempt iont
and rritalions which beset US every hour
and against which no defence of habit has
been set up, and no bond of campanionshE
can strengthen US. What these tempta
tons and irrltations are, we all know -
} the almost mpossiblll,y of not seeming to
} hear when we do not, 1.-THE persuasion that
J people are taking advantage of US in what
they say,--lhat they are discussing US, OF
} laughing at us,--that they do not care fol