ducted by the able and energetic Mr. Watson, whose father, in conjunction with the Rev. John Townshend, projected the same, I immediately forgot that the children before me were bereft of any one sense, they appeared so intelligent and happy, and so many of them could articulate through the perception of gesture shown them by Mr. Watson, who has clearly discovered that the sole reason why the deaf from birth are also dumb, is not from any fault in the organs of speech, but simply because of their want of hearing. The plan he now adopts is, to show them where the tongue touches in producing certain sounds, and by such means they are fast learning to speak sentences, and in doing so appear to experience much pleasure.

We must therefore reverse the passage, and say with more accuracy, "The Deaf and Dumb are sometimes cheerful, the Blind always melancholy." But this is not so much the case with the Blind in asylums, where every attention is paid them, and where they enjoy the society of each other; but it is decidedly the case with those who are deprived of all such comfort, and Milton is surely a very excellent authority, who said, after he was deprived of sight:

"All dull and comfortless!

Where are those varying objects that but now
Employed my busy eyes ?"

NOTES TO PART II.

NOTES TO PART II.

Page 71.

"But what is this? what charm intense and strange,
That makes my soul and body seem to change!”

Cheselden has given us a very curious story of a boy, who had been born blind, and continued so until thirteen or fourteen years old; he was then couched for a cataract, by which operation he received his sight. Among many remarkable particulars that attended his first perceptions and judgments on visual objects, Cheselden tells us, that the first time he saw a black object, it gave him great uneasiness; and that some time after, upon accident, by seeing a negro woman, he was struck with great horror at the sight. The horror in this case can scarcely be supposed to arise from any association. The boy appears by the account, to have been particularly observing and sensible for one of his age, and therefore it is probable, if the great uneasiness he felt at the first sight of black had arisen from its connexions with any other disagreeable ideas, he would

have observed and mentioned it. For an idea disagreeable only by association has the cause of its ill effects on the passions evident enough at the first impression; in ordinary cases, it is indeed frequently lost; but this is because the original association was made very early, and the consequent impression often repeated. In our instance there was no time for such a habit; and there is no reason to think that the ill effects of black on his imagination were more owing to its connexion with any disagreeable ideas, than that the good effects of more cheerful colours were derived from their connexion with pleasing ones. They had both probably their effects from their natural operation.

Note (a)- page 72.

"Thou'rt pressing close upon mine opening sight;
Thine orbs are rolling near me, wondrous bright!"

Casper Hauser, who was mysteriously confined in a cell till seventeen years of age, and had never seen light, when first taken to a window to look through to a beautiful and natural landscape, appeared quite dissatisfied with the scene; when better informed, and able to explain himself, he declared that everything pressed confusedly on his sight, and that the landscape appeared daubed on the window itself, destitute of perspective, distance, or order. This idea of his proves very distinctly that our knowledge of distance is acquired and not an innate quality.-Dr. Buchanan's Lectures on Rhetoric and Logic, delivered in Glasgow College.