Page:The education of the deaf and dumb practically considered.djvu/5



, properly considered, is the training of a child, the patient developing of faculties, both of mind and body, the pruning of the evil, the fostering of the good, fanning the flame of intellect, pouring water on the thirsty soul, till the full-grown man stands forth the glorious image of his Maker.

That the deaf are as capable as those who hear of profiting by such instruction is self-evident. An able writer on this subject, Mr. James Hawkins, says: "Ingenious men, in our own and other countries, knowing the human mind to be a quality of the soul by which it understands, without being dependent upon matter or any particular function but the brain, have long since practically demonstrated, that in itself the conformation of the mind of an uneducated deaf and dumb child actually differs in no one respect from that of an uneducated hearing child; that he is endowed with the same possibility