Library Collections: Document: Full Text

Such being the truly deplorable condition of the uneducated deaf-mute, obviously the first work to be done for him, after his admission to an institution for his benefit, is to open his mind as soon as possible to the great objects, facts and duties of religion. The policy which would defer the communication of these truths, a knowledge of which is so essential to his present and future well-being, to the last stages of his course, deserves any name rather than that of Christian, and the system of instruction that compels its adoption should be rejected for that reason, if no other existed. If any human being specially needs the consolations of religious faith, it is the one who is the subject of this misfortune. He is peculiarly exposed to the petty vexations and trials of life, as well as to its more serious evils, while he has no resource but to brood in silent dejection over the mysterious causes of the ills that befall him. Why should he longer be left in this distressing uncertainty? Why should not the dark pall that confines his vision at least begin at once to rise? The idea of God, and the leading elements of truth, are certainly within the comprehension of a child who is eight or ten years of age. We are happy to believe that the subject is regarded in its true light in our American institutions, and that religious instruction, beginning with the foundation-truth, is commenced at an early period in the course. In the American Asylum, the first lessons are given always within the first month, and often during the first week of the pupil's connection with the school. Let us now enter with him into this new scene, and note his emotions.

When a deaf-mute finds himself, for the first time, within the walls of the institution, his mind is filled with wonder. His life up to this time, except as regards mere animal enjoyment, has been one of isolation and loneliness. Though surrounded by friends who have felt for him the strongest affection, they have been able to hold intercourse with him only respecting the most common affairs, or his daily wants. But now he is in a new world. The community around him has a language with which he feels somewhat familiar, and in which he rapidly improves. Thought flies from mind to mind, and now, for the first time in his life, he is in the enchanted circle, and feels the thrill! It is news to him that ideas and things have names. And he exhibits as much joy in learning that three small characters combined in a certain order represent a domestic animal with which he has played from childhood, as a more cultivated mind would do, in coming suddenly into the possession of the wealth of a kingdom. He is now ready to be taught, and grasps with eagerness after every truth that comes in his way.

Our readers may be interested to learn the first steps of the method pursued in imparting to the deaf and dumb a knowledge of the soul, and of God and his attributes. It is substantially the same that would be taken to bring these truths to the perception of any other mind that is ignorant of them, though in this case the medium of communication is, of course, the language of signs, while the reasoning is of the simplest kind. We have not to construct an argument to which the acute mind of an inveterate sceptic, (if there exist such an anomaly,) could bring no objection, but rather to trace the path along which a mind anxious to know the truth might reach a satisfactory conclusion. It is not so much, even to the deaf-mute, an introduction of new facts, as pointing out the relations of those he already knows, although they have never excited his attention, and leading him to draw the plain and obvious inference. With regard to some truths, it is simply stating the reality of certain facts, which immediately commend themselves to his reason as natural and necessary, and which he might have himself discovered by proper reflection.

But the class is called together to receive the first lesson of religious truth. Rarely are human beings assembled under more interesting circumstances; -- rarely is there a more responsible work committed to human hands, than falls to the lot of the teacher on such an occasion. Little time is lost in gaining the attention of the silent audience, for every eye in the it beams with the least intelligence is fixed keenly upon the teacher, waiting to read the slightest motion of the finger or expression of the countenance.

We sometimes begin with the idea of the soul, and of God; at others, we first take up the elements of moral character; -- what feelings and actions are good and to be cherished, and what are evil and to be avoided; and also the duties they owe to their fellow-men. After the moral sense is somewhat enlightened and cultivated, we ascend to the relations they sustain, and the duties they owe, to God. The latter course is perhaps the most philosophical, as we can only know God by the reflection of his being in his creatures; -- by clothing with perfection and infinitude the powers which we find in the human soul.