The
Definitions They Give Of Substances And Qualities Are So Just And Happy;
And In Their Situation, Definition Is Everything, For They Cannot Learn By
Rote, As Other Boys Often Do, Who, In The Study Of Philology, Acquire Only
Words And Not Things Or Meanings.
The deaf and dumb persons, on the
contrary, acquire at once by this method of instruction the philosophy of
grammar; and then it is far from being the dry study that many people
suppose.
A German princess who was present exclaimed in a transport of
admiration at some of the specimens of definitions and inferences given by
the pupils; " Oh! I wish that I were born deaf and dumb, were it only to
learn grammar properly!" Sir Sidney Smith was present at this lecture and
seemed inclined to make himself a little too conspicuous. For instance,
before the examination began, he seated himself close by the Abbe S[icard]
and pulling a paper out of his pocket said that he had found it on the
ground on his way hither; and that it was part of a leaf from an edition of
Cicero which contained a sentence so applicable to the character and
talents of his friend the Abbe, that he requested permission to read it
aloud and translate it into French for the benefit of those who did not
understand Latin. He then read the sentence. The Abbe, not to be out-done
in compliments, then rose and made a most flaming speech in eulogium of his
friend "the heroic defender of St John d'Acre" and pointed him out to the
audience as the first person who had foiled the arms of the "Usurper."
Now this word "Usurper" applied to Napoleon did not at all please the
audience, and it shewed a great deal of servility on the part of the Abbe
to insult fallen greatness, and in the person too of a man who had rendered
such vast services to science.
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