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The most recent exercises have been upon those words which require attention to one's own mental operations, such as remember, forget, expect, hope, &c.

Greater difficulties have been experienced in these than in her former lessons, but they have been so far surmounted that she uses many words of this kind, with a correct perception of their meaning.

The day after her first lesson on the words I remember -- and I forget, this memorandum was made of her second lesson on the same words: Question -- "What do you remember you did do last Sunday?" Answer -- "I remember not to go to meeting,'' meaning that she did not go to meeting: Question -- "What do you remember you did do on Monday?" Answer -- "To walk in streets, on snow;'' this was correct: Question -- "What do you remember you did do in vacation?" Answer -- "What is vacation?" This was a new word to her -- she had been accustomed to say "when is no school," or "when girls go home." The word being explained, she said "I remember to go to Halifax;" meaning that she did go to Halifax, which was true. What do you remember you did in vacation before? Answer -- "to play with Olive, Maria, and Lydia" -- these were the girls who had been her companions.

Wishing to make her use the word forget, I pushed the questions back to periods which she could not recall. I said, what did you do when you was a little baby? -- she replied laughing, I did cry, and made the sign of tears running down her cheeks.

What did you say -- -no answer-; did you talk with fingers? "No," -very decidedly-; "did you talk with mouth" -- -a pause- -- "what did you say with mouth?" -- "I forget." I then quickly let her know, that this was the proper word, and of the same force as, I do not remember. Thinking this to be a good opportunity of testing her recollection of her infancy, many questions were put to her, but all that could be learned satisfactorily was, that she could recollect lying on her back, and in her mother's arms, and having medicines poured down her throat -- or in her own words, "I remember mother to give me medicines" -- making the signs of lying down, and of pouring liquids down the throat.

It was not until after she had learned a few words of this kind, that it was possible to carry her mind backwards to her infancy; and to the best of my judgment, she has no recollection of any earlier period than the long and painful illness in which she lost her senses. She seems to have no recollection of any words of prattle, which she might have learned in the short respite which she enjoyed from bodily suffering.

Her idea of oral conversation, it seems to me, is that people make signs with the mouth and lips, as she does with her fingers.

Thus far, her progress in the acquisition of language has been such as one would infer, a priori from philosophical considerations; and the successive steps have been nearly such as Monboddo supposed were taken by savages in the formation of their language.

But it shows clearly how valuable language is, not only for the expression of thought, but for aiding mental development, and exercising the higher intellectual faculties.

When Laura first began to use words, she evidently had no idea of any other use, than to express the individual existence of things, as book, spoon, &c. The sense of touch had of course given her an idea of their existence, and of their individual characteristics; but one would suppose that specific differences would have been suggested to her also; that is, that in feeling of many books, spoons, &c., she would have reflected that some were large, some small, some heavy, some light, and been ready to use words expressive of the specific or generic character. But it would seem not to have been so, and her first use of the words great, small, heavy, &c., was to express merely individual peculiarities; great book was to her the double name of a particular book; heavy stone was one particular stone; she did not consider these terms as expressive of substantive specific differences, or any differences of quality; the words great and heavy were not considered abstractly, as the name of a general quality, but they were blended in her mind with the name of the objects in which they existed. At least, such seemed to me to be the case, and it was not until some time after, that the habit of abstraction enabled her to apply words of generic signification in their proper way.

This view is confirmed by the fact, that when she learned that persons had both individual and family names, she supposed that the same rule must apply to inanimate things, and asked earnestly what was the other name for chair, table, &c.

Several of the instances which have been quoted, will show her disposition to form her words by rule, and to admit of no exceptions; having learned to form the plurals by adding s, the imperfect by adding ed, &c., she would apply this to every new noun or verb; consequently the difficulty hitherto has been greater, and her progress slower, than it will be, for she has mastered the most common words, and these seem to be the ones that have been most broken up by the rough colloquial usage of unlettered people.