Dumb School for six years:--"When I was at home, I knew one word,
'God,' but I did not know what it meant, nor how the world was made, and
my mind was very hard and uncultivated, resembling the ground that is
not ploughed, and I was perfectly ignorant. I thought then that my mind
would open when I was a man: but I was mistaken, it would not have
opened if I had not come to school to be taught; I would have been
ignorant and have known nothing that is proper, and no religion would
have come toward me. I must study my Bible till my life is departed, and
I hope God will please never forsake me."

DO THE DEAF & DUMB THINK THEMSELVES UNHAPPY?

Two deaf and dumb scholars of the late Abbe Siccard were asked--Do the
deaf and dumb think themselves unhappy? The following is the answer of
Massien:--"No; because we seldom lament that which we never possessed,
or know we can never be in possession of; but should the deaf and dumb
become blind, they would think themselves very unhappy, because sight is
the finest, the most useful, and the most agreeable of all the senses.
Besides, we are amply indemnified for our misfortune by the signal
favour of expressing by gestures and by writing our ideas, our thoughts,
and our feelings, and likewise by being able to read books and
manuscripts."

The following is the answer of Clerc, the other pupil, to the same
question:--"He who never had anything has never lost anything, and he
who never lost anything has nothing to regret; consequently, the deaf
and dumb who never heard or spoke, have never lost either hearing or
speech, therefore cannot lament either the one or the other. And he who
has nothing to lament cannot be unhappy; consequently the deaf and dumb
are not unhappy. Besides, it is a great consolation for them to be able
to replace hearing by writing, and speech by signs."

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 tho