The
Number Which Attends Him Is, I Think, About Twelve, Which He Brings
Together Into A Little School, And Instructs According To Their
Several Degrees Of Proficiency.
I do not mean to mention the instruction of the deaf as new.
Having been first practised upon the
Son of a constable of Spain,
it was afterwards cultivated with much emulation in England, by
Wallis and Holder, and was lately professed by Mr. Baker, who once
flattered me with hopes of seeing his method published. How far
any former teachers have succeeded, it is not easy to know; the
improvement of Mr. Braidwood's pupils is wonderful. They not only
speak, write, and understand what is written, but if he that speaks
looks towards them, and modifies his organs by distinct and full
utterance, they know so well what is spoken, that it is an
expression scarcely figurative to say, they hear with the eye.
That any have attained to the power mentioned by Burnet, of feeling
sounds, by laying a hand on the speaker's mouth, I know not; but I
have seen so much, that I can believe more; a single word, or a
short sentence, I think, may possibly be so distinguished.
It will readily be supposed by those that consider this subject,
that Mr. Braidwood's scholars spell accurately. Orthography is
vitiated among such as learn first to speak, and then to write, by
imperfect notions of the relation between letters and vocal
utterance; but to those students every character is of equal
importance; for letters are to them not symbols of names, but of
things; when they write they do not represent a sound, but
delineate a form.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 210 of 212
Words from 56138 to 56415
of 56696