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greatly question whether, even under circumstances of the strongest necessity (such as would have arisen if man, or his progenitors, had been unable to articulate), the language of gesture could have been developed into anything approaching a substitute for the language of words." So also do we. But we are certain, nevertheless, that such a dumb community of essentially rational animals would have evolved a natural and instinctive language of gesture, capable of making known the concepts they had formed, and of aiding them by the "recognitions" of their thus expressed concepts to evolve ever more and more abstract concepts, though probably never attaining to nearly the height that man has attained to by the aid of speech. We are certain they would have done this both on the à priori ground of the necessary consequence of the presence of animality and rationality in one absolute unity of existence, and also on à posteriori grounds, from the evidence afforded by such extraordinary examples of defective existence, as the blind, deaf, and dumb Laura Bridgman,* and the still more striking case of Martha Obrecht, which we will describe a little later.

* With how little reason has Professor Huxley said ("Man's Place in Nature," p 52, quoted by Mr. Romanes, p. 134), “A race of dumb men, deprived of all communication with those who could speak, would be little indeed removed from the brutes. The moral and intellectual differences between them and ourselves would be practically infinite, though the naturalist should not be able to find a single shadow even of specific structural difference." Mr. Romanes, in a note (pp. 134, 135), refers to recent discoveries in cerebral physiology as to a "material organ of speech." Such discoveries in no way effect our position, or can do so, as they relate merely to the instrument whereby the verbum mentale is able to manifest itself externally, and everybody knows that various

To such à posteriori evidence* Mr. Romanes opposes certain assertions respecting "the psychological status of wholly uneducated deaf-mutes," in spite of the fact that each such mute "inherits a human brain, the structure of which has been elaborated by the speech of his ancestors," and "is also surrounded by a society the whole structure of whose ideation is dependent upon speech." Such mutes, he tells us, † "grow up in a state of intellectual isolation, which is almost as complete as that of any of the lower animals." But, in the first place, their state is an abnormal one, and therefore they might (according to what we laid down in our introductory remarks) be expected to seem to fall even below the condition of animals in a normal state. Secondly, we cannot draw valid conclusions as to the essential nature of our intellect from human beings who are avowedly mentally deficient, and every deaf-mute must be so, either essentially or accidentally. It would be obviously as absurd to judge of the nature of the human rational faculty from an absolute idiot, as it would be to study the power of flight in a bird the wings of which had

been cut.

But let us accept Mr. Romanes's instances as valid, without further protest, and see whether they << can never rise to any ideas of higher abstraction than those which the logic of feelings supplies." He cites the Rev. S. Smith as telling him of a deaf-mute who forms of aphasia coexisting with a complete power of thinking, and sometimes even of manifesting thoughts by appropriate gestures, have been observed and recorded.

As to some of which, see above, pp. 138-146. † p. 149. ‡ p. 150.

previous to education, supposed the Bible to have been printed by a printing-press in the sky, which was worked by printers of enormous strength-this being the only interpretation the deaf-mute could assign to the gestures whereby his parents had sought to make him understand that they believed the Bible to contain a revelation from a God of power who lives in heaven." But, surely, here we have, "previous to education," a manifest intellectual faculty, and a power of abstraction of a most unequivocal kind. The deaf-mute had formed concepts of "a Bible," "printers," a "printingpress," "superterrestrial existence," "power," "beings of superhuman power," and a "descent from the sky to earth following upon their activity." Also, of course, in this concept there were implicitly contained ideas of time, space, reality, truth, and existence. This is something considerably above the "logic of feelings," and rather different from the psychical state of "any of the lower animals." Moreover, we should never forget the constant necessity under which all men labour (from the lowest to the highest) to make use of analogy, and to express by analogy in terms of sensitivity, thoughts which are altogether beyond sense. We must also recollect that all such expressions are inadequate, and that we are constantly tempted to despise expressions which we do not use, and fancy that our own terms (though really as sensuous, fundamentally) must be a great deal better. The image of a printing-press worked in the sky by beings of superhuman strength is for us grotesque. But it might, none the less, serve to image forth in some minds, that same conception of

"inspired expression in the Bible," which a very different set of mental images helps us to conceive of.

But we have other instances we can bring forward which plainly show the essential intellectuality of such unfortunates.

The case of Laura Bridgman is a well-known one, and referred to by our author. She was blind as well as deaf, and had half lost the power of smell, and had become thus afflicted so early that she had no recollection of seeing or hearing. Yet she learned to apprehend abstract relations and qualities, and to read and write. A similarly afflicted child, named Meystre,* at Lausanne, gained an idea of God as "thought enthroned somewhere." Such instances surely demonstrate the existence of wonderful innate capacities in the human mind.

A still more noteworthy case is that (before referred to) of Martha Obrecht. She was deaf, dumb, and blind, and was confided to a convent at Larnay (Poitiers) when she was eight years old. There, by

* See "On Truth," p 232.

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† See Apologie Scientifique," by Canon F. Duilhé de SaintProjet, Ed. Privat, Toulouse, 1885, pp. 374-387.

The following are some of the details given in the work referred to:

"C'etait comme une masse inerte, ne possédant aucun moyen de communication avec ses semblables, n'ayant pour traduire ses sentiments qu'un cri joint à un mouvement de corps, cri et mouvement toujours en rapport avec ses impressions.

"La première chose à faire était de lui donner un moyen de communiquer ses pensées et ses désirs. Dans ce but, nous lui faisions toucher tous les objets sensibles, en faisant sur elle le signe de ces objets; presque aussitôt elle a établi le rapport qui existe entre le signe et la chose. . . ." (They thought to try steel

intelligent and very patient instruction, the poor child. was enabled gradually to acquire the power of appre

letters, but it was too soon; imitation signs were first necessary.) "Ici, le sens du toucher (la main) à joué un rôle qui nous a jetés maintes fois dans le plus grand étonnement. . . . Dès le début, lorsque nous lui présentions un morceau de pain, nous lui faisions faire de la main droite l'action de couper la main gauche, signe naturel qui font tous les sourd-muets. La petite élève ayant remarqué que chaque fois qu'on lui présentait du pain, en lui faisait ce signe ou qu'on le lui faisait faire, a dû raisonner et se dire: Quand je voudrai du pain je ferai ce signe. En effet, c'est ce qui a en lieu. Quand à l'heure du repas, on a tardé, tout exprès, à lui donner du pain, elle a reproduit l'action de couper la main gauche avec la main droite. Il en a été de même pour les autres choses sensibles; et du moment qu'elle a eu la clef du système, il a suffi de lui indiquer une seule fois le signe de chaque objet. . . . Les objets qu'elle touche . . . sont des choses sensibles, les signes correspondants qu'on lui fait ou qu'on lui fait faire sont également choses sensibles; mais le lieu, le rapport qui unit chaque objet à son signe, l'idée générale de ce rapport, la clef du système, n'a rien de commun avec la matière.

"Nous sommes passées ensuite aux choses intellectuelles . . . afin de lui donner, sur le fait même, le signe de l'idée ou du sentiment qui se révélait en elle. La suprenait on impatiente, ou livrée à un mouvement de mauvaise humeur, vite on lui faisait faire le signe de l'impatience, et on la repoussait un peu pour lui faire comprendre que c'était mal. Elle s'était attachée a une sourde-muette déjà instruite et qui s'est dévouée avec beaucoup de zèle à son éducation. Souvent elle lui témoignait son affection en l'embrassant en lui serrant la main. Pour lui indiquer une manière plus générale de traduire ce sentiment de l'âme, nous avons posé sa petite main sur son cœur en l'appuyant bien fort. Elle a compris que ce geste rendait sa pensée, et elle s'en est servie toutes les fois qu'elle a voulu dire qu'elle aimait quelqu'un ou quelque chose; puis, par analogie, elle a repoussé de son cœur tout ce qu'elle n'aimait pas.

"C'est ainsi que peu à peu nous sommes parvenues à la mettre en possession du langage mimique en usage chez les sourds-muets. Elle s'en est facilement servie dès la première année. . . .

"La puissance de réflèchir, de généraliser, de raisonner se manifeste de plus; ce sont là des opérations essentiellement intellectu

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