Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/149

 It was now observed that her sense of smell was almost entirely destroyed; and consequently, that her taste was much blunted.

It was not until four years of age, that the poor child's bodily health seemed restored, and she was able to enter upon her apprenticeship of life and the world.

But what a situation was hers! The darkness and the silence of the tomb were around her; no mother's smile called forth her answering smile,—no father's voice taught her to imitate his sounds: to her, brothers and sisters were but forms of matter which resisted her touch, but which differed not from the furniture of the house, save in warmth and in the power of locomotion; and not even In these respects from the dog and the cat.

But the immortal spirit which had been implanted within her could not die, nor be maimed nor mutilated; and though most of its avenues of communication with the world were cut off, it began to manifest itself through the others. As soon as she could walk, she began to explore the room, and then the house. She became familiar with the form, density, weight, and heat, of every article she could lay her hands upon. She followed her mother, and felt her hands and arms, as she was occupied about the house; and her disposition to imitate led her to repeat everything herself. She even learned to sew a little, and to knit.

Her affections, too, began to expand, and seemed to be lavished upon the members of her family with peculiar force.

But the means of communication with her were very limited; she could only be told to go to a place by being pushed; or to come to one by a sign of drawing her. Patting her gently on the head signified approbation; on the back, disapprobation.

She shewed every disposition to learn, and manifestly began to use a natural language of her own. She had a sign to express her knowledge. of each member of the family; as drawing her fingers down each side of her face, to allude to the whiskers of one; twirling her hand around in imitation of the motion of a spinning-wheel, for another; and so on. But although she received all the aid that a kind mother could bestow, she soon began to give proof of the importance of language to the development of human character. Caressing and chiding will do for infants and dogs, but not for children; and by the time Laura was seven years old, the moral effects of her privation began to appear. There was nothing to control her will but the absolute power of another, and humanity revolts at this: she had already begun to disregard all but the sterner nature of her father; and it was evident, that as the propensities should increase with her physical growth, so would the difficulties of restraining them increase.

At this time. Dr. Howe fortunately heard of the child, and immediately hastened to Hanover, to see her. He found her with a well-formed figure; a strongly-marked, nervous-sanguine temperament; a large and beautifully-shaped head, and the whole system in healthy action.

Here seemed a rare opportunity of benefiting an individual, and of trying a plan for the education of a deaf and blind person, which he had formed on seeing Julia Brace, at Hartford.

The parents were easily induced to consent to her going to Boston; and on the 4th. of October, 1837, they took her to the Institution, where she has remained ever since. She has been taught