Tales of the deaf and dumb : with miscellaneous poems

Preface

The title under which this little volume is adventured into the world may, perhaps, make it necessary to inform the reader that nearly two thirds of its contents consist of facts and documents. If a tale be considered as a narrative, fictitious in whole or in part ; then there are only two tales in this book : the Orphan Mute, and Emma. But the word is by no means confined to fiction. Walter S,cott entitled his History of Scotland, — 'Tales of a Grandfather.' ' Tales of the Deaf and Dumb,' theft, may be a proper title for avolume, embracing' sketches of the principles, history, and present state of the art of* instructing the deaf and dumb, statistics of the deaf and dumb, and anecdotes of deaf and dumb persons ; though all these are strictly authentic.

The aim of the author has been to make the volume, both valuable and interesting to the two classes of readers for whom it is mainly designed ; namely, the educated deaf and dumb, and those who take an interest in the education of this unfortunate class. In this he trusts he has hot been wholly unsuccessful. In particular he has collected more minute and accurate information concerning the American institutions for the deaf and dumb than can be found collected in any other work; and he has inserted an original essay ' On the early Education of the Deaf and Dumb,' which it is believed, may be of much use to the parents of deaf and dumb children, who may wish to begin their education at home. The engraving of the manual

4 PREFACE.

alphabet which accompanies the work, will enable any person to accquire the art of talking with th» fingers in a few hours, and a few weeks practice will give a surprising degree of expertness in its use.

The 'Orphan Mute' was written with the view of exciting the attention and interest of that numerous class of readers, to whom a fictitious narrative, particularly if it be a love story, is the most attractive kind of reading. Though the characters are purely imaginary, the incidents are, we think by no means improbable.

The poetical pieces at the end of the volume might, perhaps, appear to more advantage if published separately, but having promised them in our prospectus, (which was published before wc had any idea that the documents which wc have since collected, would take up so much of the volume,) we accordingly present them to our readers, even at the risk of their being entirely overlooked. Should they find readers, wc hope those readers will be lenient to their imperfections, considering that they arc the productions of a young man who lost his hearing at the early age of eight; — whose education, such as it is, was accquired by his own efforts in the intervals of his daily labour for hi3 daily bread, and from such books as fell in his way, — assisted only by the kindness of a sister a few years older than himself.

If any of our readers should have a curiosity to know more of the author, they are referred to ' My Sister's Funeral.'

We beg leave, here, to return our warm and heartfelt thanks to the many kind friends who have encouraged and aided us in publishing this work.

It only remains to apologise for the unexpected delay in the publication of the work. It was the result of circumstances beyond our control.