The National College for Mutes

The human mind is one of the most precious of all things with which man is endowed by his Maker. Its mysterious nature has through all ages been studied and explored by hosts of philosophers. It has been the grand theme of theoretical and hypothetical speculations—whether it be a pneumatic substance, either identical with or perfectly independent of the soul—whether it be, as the Materialists have professed to believe, nothing but an effect of the organic nerves—whether its conceptions be always a priori, as Plato, Kant and others asserted, or a posteriori, as Aristotle and others maintained—whether, as certain learned phrenologists have affirmed, its consciousness of anything whatever, be operated upon by the separate functions of the intellectual, sentimental and physical cerebral organs, each of them being an independent prerogative, imbedded in the inner cavities of the cranium. New theories, original and eclectic, will be forged by future philosophers from materials yet unknown to us; and, though we ourselves may not live to derive pleasure from the desired knowledge of these yet hidden ores of the mental mines, we may, with possible safety, express a belief that the question now at issue will, by theoremic truths elicited from metaphysical investigations, be settled to the perfect satisfaction of all future generations.

Without allowing ourselves to wander through the maze of that dry science, we can with pleasure and profit contemplate the brilliancy of mind of a Demosthenes, a Cicero, a Burke or a Webster; the profundity of mind of a Plato, an Aristotle, a Bacon, a Newton, a La Place or a Kant; the magnificence of imagination of a Homer, a Shakespeare, a Cervantes or a Walter Scott; or the vastness and splendor of genius of a Napoleon, which, meteor-like, flashed through the political sky, passed over the trembling potentates of Europe, and descended to a distant rock, retaining to the last its wonderful effulgence.

Taking in consideration the great variety of minds, arising from the physical formation of the brain, and the effects of climate, disease, parental negligence, etc., it would be at variance with the logical principles of physiology, to suppose that all speaking and hearing persons have minds equally capable of superior culture, or that all the minds of the deaf and dumb are incapable of higher training. Yet, though there can be found no difference between speaking persons or deaf mutes, of the higher class, in imagination, strength of mind, depth of thought and quickness of perception, it can not be denied, however repugnant it may be to our feelings, that the deaf mutes have no finished scholars of their own to boast of, while the speaking community present to our mental vision an imposing array of scholars; as the two Websters, Irving, Prescott, Anthon, Maury, Mott and other Americans known in the literary and scientific worlds, besides the host of learned men of Europe. How is this discrepancy accounted for, seeing that the minds of the most promising mutes are eminently susceptible of intellectual polish? Does it not show that there must be in existence certain latent causes of their being thrown in the shade? Is it not within the range of our researches to solve the mystery in which they are enveloped?

There are in the great deaf-mute family several graduates, whose intellectual soil, being but partially cultivated at the institutions, by reason of their limited term of pupilage, has returned to its statu quo; and the germs of knowledge, not withstanding the favorable signs which they once gave of healthy vegetation, have in some cases withered away, and in others made but little progress toward maturity, which we may with propriety attribute to the baneful effects of their incessant toil in trades detrimental to their superior minds. Respecting certain persons of this same class, they have, since their discharge from school, succeeded in making respectable scholars, and that without their having ever been under the proper and practical husbandry of experienced preceptors. Indeed their great successful efforts in obtaining the object of their longings, under such adverse circumstances, are a striking illustration of the excellent maxim:

"Perseverantia...