cept as furnishing a certain set of audible symbols and signs, has nothing more to do with it, than have the fingers of the deaf and dumb in their acquisition of language, by furnishing a certain set of visible symbols and signs. If, then, instead of waiting for the actual presence of these objects, and the recurrence of these actions, passions, emotions, occasions and circumstances, he can pourtray and describe them by the countenance, signs, and gestures, whenever he wishes to take his lesson in the language which he is anxious to learn, how much time and labour will be saved! Besides being master of all the varieties of signs and gestures, and of the various expressions of the countenance, he can do that systematically, which he must otherwise perform in a desultory, unconnected manner, and at distant intervals of time. It is important, too, in the acquisition of the meaning of words, which depend upon a variety of circumstances for their illustration, to select those circumstances only which are fairly comprised in the import of the terms, and to reject those which are irrelevant.

And here is the principal difficulty in the acquisition of a new language, by merely hearing it used among the people who speak it. The occasions on which words are used must be repeated again and again, before the exact assemblage of circumstances can be selected to which the words belong. But a person who is versed in the language of signs and gestures, forms his own occasions, introduces only the appropriate circumstances, and rejects all adventitious ones. And this doubtless is the principal reason why the intelligent deaf and dumb pupil is often so happy in the accuracy of his definitions, and the precision of his use of words. The language, too, of the deaf and dumb, admits of a kind of permutation and combination, of which scarcely any other is susceptible, unless indeed the Chinese furnish an exception. The missionary, for instance, has settled with the native the sign for a man, and the sign for a sheep. He wishes to learn the native's term for shepherd. He first describes by signs a sheep, he adds the sign for many, he pourtrays in his own person a man watching over these sheep, and he is at once put in possession of the term which he sought. Signs and gestures have a peculiar significancy from their resemblance to the object which they are intended to denote; and this is true, even of those that are employed to denote intellectual objects, from the fact that there

is scarcely any emotion of the heart, or operation of the mind, which is not accompanied with some corresponding expression of countenance, or attitude of the body, or position of the limbs. Almost all the terms which we employ in spoken language to denote these emotions and operations, are derived from the material world, or from some state, or motion, or action of the body: and philosophers have complained of this, as involving their discussions on the philosophy of the mind, in adventitious difficulty and obscurity. Be that as it may, if the fact be so, the emotions of the heart, and the operations of the mind, may as pertinently be expressed in symbolical words. And without incurring the charge of materialism, it may safely be asserted, that all the emotions of the heart are accompanied with corresponding changes in the body; and that many, if not all, the operations of the mind, produce the same effect, and that most of these changes are visible to the eye. In confirmation of this opinion, it may be remarked, that, as is well known, the deaf and dumb, previous to instruction, have many natural and universal signs, by which they denote various states of their minds and feelings. The missionary, therefore, who should be acquainted with these signs, so far as there is a real foundation for them in nature, would possess a very important aid in acquiring the language of a heathen people, and establishing a speedy medium of intercourse with them.

In the former part of this essay, the latter of the two positions premised was, that instances have occurred in the instruction of the deaf and dumb, in which, in the space of two years, five thousand words have been taught several intelligent pupils who were previously entirely ignorant of them, and of all language excepting that of their own natural signs, together with a command of language which would place them on an equality, in regard to the expression of their ideas, with the most intelligent persons among those heathen nations who have nothing but an oral language. In this, nothing is assumed as an hypothesis. An actual fact is taken, and it forcibly suggests the following inquiry. If such a command of written language can be imparted by means of signs and gestures, in so short a space of time, to a mind enveloped in complete ignorance of words and their construction into sentences, what would hinder the communication of the same command of language to a heathen who should be entirely ignorant of our language, and the obtain

ing from him also the corresponding words, and their construction into sentences, in his own language. If intelligent, he would be as capable of instruction by signs and gestures as the deaf and dumb pupil; and taking this language of signs and gestures as the medium of communication, while he would be learning the English tongue, if master of his own, he could, in his turn, teach it to his instructor. Thus a double object would be accomplished at the same time, and by the same process.

I confess, that I have it much at heart, to persuade some individual, who is expecting to go as a missionary among a heathen people who have no written or printed language, and who has a tact for learning the language of signs and gestures, to spend a short time at one of our institutions for the instruction of the deaf and dumb, that he may become acquainted with the principles of this language, and acquire also the ability of using it to some extent in familiar intercourse on common topics. He would find the instructors in such establishments most ready to afford him every facility in the attainment of his object, and by constant intercourse with them and with the pupils, the task would be less difficult than he might imagine.

Even two or three months, spent in this way, would, I conceive, be attended with very great benefit, if a longer period of time could not be spared. The language of the deaf and dumb is the language of nature, and very like that simple, and what we term broken language, which a stranger to any language uses when he first begins to speak it. It is singularly adapted to that interchange of thought and feeling which takes place between two strangers to each others language, when they commence the arduous task of making themselves mutually understood. The mode of instruction, too, pursued in teaching written or printed language to the deaf and dumb, is in such admirable accordance with a correct mental philosophy, and conducted on principles that apply with such force to the instruction of youth who can hear and speak, that an acquaintance with it, and such a knowledge of the elements of sign-language as might be acquired during a short residence at an Institution for the deaf and dumb, would prove very beneficial to the missionary in all his future labours. One experiment fairly made, would, I have no doubt, lead to very important results.

Should this interesting experiment succeed, a new era

would be opened in the history of missionary efforts, and a new proof be afforded of the admirable connexion which God often establishes between one part of his providential dispensations and another; making the most unlikely and long-neglected means, which some happy discovery brings to light, efficacious for the accomplishment of his wise and inscrutable designs.

In order to prevent misconception, I must say that I consider signs and gestures, merely as auxiliary to the acquisition of oral language, and not as a substitute for it. In this subordinate capacity, as before remarked, its employment appears to me useful and important. Should my theory prove true, what a vast field is there for its practical application among the tribes of our fellow-men who have no written or printed language, but to whom every Christian mind must be deeply anxious to convey, not only every species of useful secular information, but above all the knowledge of "the only true God, and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent!"

I will only add, that any who may feel a curiosity to examine the general principles of sign-language, and of the course of instruction of the deaf and dumb, will find an article on that subject in the Encyclopedia Americana, under the head Deaf and Dumb. These principles, if understood, and made use of, in the instruction of children and youth who can hear and speak, in their mother tongue, or in other languages, would lead to practical results of the highest importance.-Will not some of those who are concerned or interested in the education of youth, give this subject a more deliberate investigation than has, as yet, been bestowed upon it?

ART. III. REVIEW OF DANA'S POEMS AND PROSE

WRITINGS.

By Rev. NEHEMIAH ADAMS, Pastor of the Essex-street Church, Boston, Massachusetts.

Poems and Prose Writings by Richard H. Dana. Boston; Russell Odiorne & Co. 1833. pp. 450.

WHEN Julius Cæsar had marched his troops from the Alps to the mouth of the Rhine, he stood upon the coast of the Morini, and there for the first time descried the WHITE CLIFFS of Britain. The feelings of the Conqueror, as he gazed upon these post marks of his ambition, rearing their summits from an unknown world, may be better imagined than described. When we think of all that England has been, and then return to the moment when the Roman first marked it out for invasion and conquest, his fancy perching upon its WHITE CLIFFS, and looking abroad upon scenes which have been since crowded with incidents and covered with glory, and which we can hardly imagine were not even then moving in stately and beautiful life; we feel how vast is the importance which, in the history of man, is sometimes found connected with a single mind, and in what proximity to the Creator, as it regards the result of his existence, is a great Discoverer!

Now the soul of man, with its powers, its thoughts and feelings, its objects of contemplation, is itself an eternal world; and the man who discovers the CLIFFS of unexplored regions in it, and leads on to farther dominion, may be regarded as standing at least on an equality with the discoverer of continents, islands, and regions of seas. In every generation there are some whose thoughts seem to have made their dwelling place along the horizon that falls between their age, and that which is to come, where they have caught glimpses and received impressions of new forms of truth, which their successors have realized; though they have gained for their discoverers only the names of obscure dreamers and fanatics. Let the name of MILTON Suffice as an illustration.

The men who are best fitted for great discoveries in morals and mental science, are those whose reason bows with implicit reverence to the revelation of God, and are willing that the only province of reason should be to under