Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/86

82 realization of what she is and thinks and does than any sketch could suggest. During the first three years of her instruction she more than made up for the deficiencies to which her deprivations had sentenced her; and one can not but be impressed, upon reading the letters written before her tenth year, with the linguistic facility and the breadth of imagination of the child. Then, under more systematic guidance, she learned to speak and laid the elementary foundation for the arts and crafts of life. The desire to prepare for college was one of her early ambitions and became formulated into a definite plan of campaign at about her sixteenth year. The range of studies required for entrance she duly mastered, showing very unequal gifts for the various branches, and especial strength in her knowledge of languages, literature and history. It is no small tribute to her talents that in spite of no natural bent for mathematics and with the special difficulty that geometrical relations must present to a 'tactual' mind, she acquitted herself creditably in this study. At the moment of the publication of her book she is closing her junior year at Radcliffe College. She has evidently gained much from her academic associations; and not the least of the confidence that her friends express in her future is based upon the mental growth that has been characteristic of these collegiate days. A reading of the selections from her themes in the course in English and from her more recent letters, indicate a certainty of touch in the handling of language as well as a noteworthy power to sustain an argument, that certainly meets the customary standard that one would be willing to apply to student writings. Such unusual achievements would have been impossible without an unusual endowment; alertness and vigor of mind, a remarkable memory, a keen observation and fertility of imagination, a pronounced taste for the literary side of life, good spirits and a ready sense of humor, comprehensiveness and saneness of interests, a sympathetic and enthusiastic temperament, a love of nature as well as of books—these are the traits that impress one as most potent in shaping her life and her aspirations.

It is quite true that the same could be said for many another individual whose biography remains unwritten, and whose achievements are not entered upon the tablets of a hall of fame. The absurd exaggerations and distorted accounts of Miss Keller's career, that have gained currency, are much to be deplored. We feel so overwhelmingly our own dependence upon what we see and upon what we hear, that we naturally drop into hyperbole and exhaust our adjectives in expressing our appreciation of one who has done so much without these invaluable handmaids of the mind. Yet the truer interest lies in the training that has been imparted to the normally less skilful servants, and in the mastery that has thus been gained. It is this aspect of Helen