A Deaf Mute's Ideas Before Instruction


The following extract from the correspondence of a deaf and dumb pupil

with his teacher is a fair specimen of the natural condition of the deaf

and dumb before receiving instruction:--



"Before I came to school I thought that the stars were placed in the

firmament like grates of fire, and that the moon at night was like a

great furnace of fire; I did not know how the stars and moon and heavens

were made; but I supposed that the people, like us above the firmament,

kindled the moon and stars; and I did not know whether the heavens was

made by art or not. I thought the world little and round like a table,

and was always intending to go to the end of it."



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