wrote, believing he had but a language to teach, while in fact he had two minds to cultivate! How painful, how difficult were the first essays of the inventor! Deprived of all assistance, in a career full of thorns and obstacles, he was a little embarrassed, but was not discouraged. He armed himself with patience, and succeeded, in time, to restore his pupils to Society and Religion. Many years after, and before his method could have attain ed the highest degree of per. fection, of which it was susceptible, death came and removed that excellent father from his grateful children. Affliction was in all hearts. Fortunately the Abbé Sicard who was chosen for his successor, caused their tears to cease. He was a man of profound knowledge and of a mind very enterprising. Every invention or discovery, however laudable and ingenious it may be, is never quite right in its beginning. Time only makes it perfect. The clothes, shoes, hats, watches, houses, and every thing of our ancestors, were not as elegant and refined as those of the present century. In like manner was the method of the Abbé de L'Epée. Mr. Sicard reviewed it and made perfect what had been left to be devised, and had the good fortune of going beyond all the disciples of his Predecessor. His present pupils are now worthy of him, and 1 do not believe them any longer unhappy. Many are married, and have children endowed with the faculties of all their senses, and who will be the comforters and protectors of their parents in their old age. (The United States is the first country where I have seen one or two deaf and dumb fathers, some of whose children are deaf and dumb like themselves. Will this prove that the Americans are worse than Europeans? By no means. It is the result of natural causes, which I shall explain hereafter.) Many others of the Deaf and Dumb are the instructers of their companions of misfortune. Many others are employed in the offices of government and other public administrations. Many others are good painters, sculptors, engravers, workers in Mosaic, while others exercise mechanical arts; and some others are merchants and transact their own business perfectly well; and it is education which has thus enabled them to pursue these different professions. An uneducated Deaf and Dumb would never be able to do this. Let us now speak of instruction, and say what Mr. Sicard did while teaching me. By read ing or hearing this, you may pretty well judge how we teach the American Deaf and Dumb. The sight of all the objects of nature which could be placed before the eyes of the Deaf and Dumb, the representation of those objects, either by drawing, by painting, by sculpture, or by the natural signs, which the Deaf and Dumo employ, or invent themselves, communication between one man and another. It is by this method that Mr. Sicard has brought the Deaf and Dumb to the knowledge of all the kinds of words, of which a language is composed, of all the modifications of those words, of their variations and different senses; in short, of all their reciprocal. influence. He advanced a step further, and the access to the highest conceptions of the human mind: Mr. Sicard's first steps, and was opened to them. Mr. Sieven the difficulties presented card has found it easy to make to him by his pupils, made them pass from abstract ideas, him soon feel the necessity of to the most sublime truths of proceeding according to the religion. They have felt that strictest method, and of fixing this soul, of which they have their ideas as well as the the consciousness, is not a knowledge they were progres- fictitious existence, is not an sively acquiring, permanently abstract existence created by in their memory, so that what the mind; but a real existthey already knew, might have ence, which wills and which an immediate connection with produces movement, which what they were to learn; his sees, which thinks, which repupils unable to comprehend flects, which compares, which him, if the instruction which meditates,, which remembers, he wished to give them, did which foresees, which believes, not coincide with that which which doubts, which hopes, they had received before; for which loves, which hates. thus they stopped his pro- After this, he directed their gress, and he could not ac- thoughts towards all the physcomplish his purpose but by ical existences submitted to resuming the chain of their their view through the imideas, and constantly following mensity of space, or on the the uninterrupted line from globe which we inhabit; and the known to the unknown. the regularity of the march It was thus that he succeeded of the sun and all the celestial in making them comprehend bodies; the constant succesthe language of the country sion of day and night; the rein which he instructed them. turn of the seasons; the life, This natural method is appli- the riches and the beauty of cable to all languages. It nature; made them feel that proceeds by the surest and nature also had a soul, of which shortest way, and may be ap- the power, the action, and the plied to all the channels of immensity, extend through every thing existing in the universe; a soul which creates all, inspires all, and preserves all. Filled with these great ideas, the Deaf and Dumb have prostrated themselves on the earth, along with Mr. Sicard himself, and he has told them that this soul of natare, is that God, whom all men are called upon to worship, to whom our temples are raised, and with whom our religious doctrines and ceremonies connect us from the cradle to the grave. All was now done; and Mr. Sicard found himself able to open to his pupils, all the sublime ideas of religion, and all the laws of virtue and of morals." The extracts are about one third of the Address. When it shall have been duly considered that Mr. Clerc, the writer of these paragraphs, has been deaf and dumb from his birth-that he was first educated in the French lan guage, and afterwards acquir. ed the English, without ever hearing or speaking a word, the Address will be regarded as a wonderful production,and also as affording proof, that the author possesses strong powers of mind, and that the Institution for teaching the deaf and dumb is worthy of encouragement. Fifty years ago such an address from a man who had always been deaf and dumb would probably have appeared miraculous. STATE OF SOCIETY IN VIRGINIA. In a letter to the Editor of the Vermont Intelligencer, which appeared in that paper Sept. 7th, we have an açcount of the state of Society in Virginia which is truly affecting. The letter was dated "Nottaway county, Virginia." It was occasioned by a report of a duel between two Doctors with dirks, which had been incorrectly stated in the Intelli gencer. After correcting that account and stating another of a similar nature, the letter is closed with the following remarkable paragraph:— "Thus, Sir, I have given you a specimen of the state of morals, manners and society in the "Ancient Dominion." The cases here cited are far from being uncommon. On the contrary, stabbing, shooting and cudgelling are among the monthly items of news in this part of the country. You will form some idea of the real state of society here when I assure you that nine tenths of the people go armed, when in public, either with pistols, dirks, stillettos or shillalas, and some armed cap-a-pie with all together. This is brought about in a great measure by the divisions and subdivisions of party. We have among us Jeffersonians, -Madisonians, Randolphites, Gilesites and Burrites, &c. &c all of whom are arranged into separate clans or parties, and, every returning election, form so many distinct phalanxes, all violently opposed to all parties and candidates except their own. In this county and many others, in the wrangle and scramble for offices, regular and systematic parties have been forméd.who bear to each other the most deadly hatred, and whose corruption, intrigue, personal abuse and flagrant outrage were never equalled by the most active and boisterous demagogues of either party in the Northern States." We cannot but hope that this account is in some respects exaggerated. But if it be true that in Virginia nine tenths of the people go armed with pistols or dirks," or other instruments of murder, the state of society is barbarous indeed. Such preparations for war are a proof that men have little confidence in God or in each other that they estimate human life at a low rate, and that they have a strong propensity, to acts of violence. Men of pacific principles, who love their neighbours as themselves, will not evince such a disposition to be always ready to fight These preparations for war are proofs of a ferocious disposition, and they render every man's life more insecure than it would be in the entire absence of all such preparations. Would not every humane and reflecting man be shocked to see the people of Boston, or of any other town in this state, go to their public meetings armed with pistols or dirks, ready to fight and shed each others blood! If any individuals should be known to appear at town meetings thus Vol. VI. No. 10. 40 How wretched must be the condition of slaves in Virgin ia, when such is the state of society among their masters! and to what cause can we more rationally impute the slow progress of civilization in that state, than to the unfavourable influence of slave-holding on the human character? Let the people of New-England be truly thankful that they are not slave holders; and let them also be thankful that party spirit has not yet converted them into such barbarians that they cannot appear in public without being armed with pistols or dirks Since writing the preceding remarks, a gentleman who has travelled much in the westein States, has assured us that what the above paragraph affirms of the people of Virginia is true of the people of most of the Western States that it is a general custom travel armed with both pistols and dirks. He observed however that the custom was less general in Ohio than in the other States; that when he to went into those regions he was shocked at the custom, but, being there a considerable time, it became familiar to him, and he armed according to the fashion of the country. These facts may account for our wars with the Indians; and they afford strong grounds of suspicion that the murders which have been imputed to the indians, were either committed by the white savages, or by the Indians in revenge of wrongs done to them. White people who are so savage-so fond of fighting, or so revengeful as to go armed that they may be always ready to fight one another, are not likely to possess more kind sentiments or more humane feelings towards their red brethren. Unless, therefore, something can be done to civilize our own people and abolish this savage custom of going armed, we may expect that murders will be more and more multiplied, and that our nation will be cursed with frequent wars with the Indians, till it becomes accountable for the blood of the surviving tribes. POETRY. From the New-England Galaxy. "GUD IS THERE." The following sacred Melody was written by MRS. Rowson of Boston, and originally sung at the Oratorio performed by the Handel and Haydn Society. In life's gay spring enchanting hours! When every path seems deck'd with flowers: When folly in her giddy round, Presents the cup with pleasure crowned; Wher love, and joy, and young delight, Give to the moments rapid flight ; Touch not the cup, avoid the snare- When manhood treads with steps secure, When age, approaching, warps the heart, |