ll the sentences in the volume we peruse, are
composed of individual words, that are examples of the commutation
mentioned; and although the objects are absent, and the actions have
been long since performed, often for centuries, we are interested in the
narrative, and bestow the appropriate tribute of sympathy or admiration.
Words, thus impregnated with definite meaning, become the floating
currency of the mind, are the efficient materials of Thought, and of its
perspicuous expression.

It has been frequently remarked, that the mind is more delighted by
making distant excursions, than in the examination of surrounding
objects, or of those directly obvious. Such immediate assistance for the
pursuit and development of this inquiry is presented in two remarkable
instances, where Nature digresses from her usual course, and which are
not of rare occurrence. 1st. Some persons are born with their ears
impervious to sound, and as language is acquired by imitation,[4] such
as are deaf, remain mute or dumb.[5] With the exception of the sense of
hearing, they are like animals the creatures of perception. Some have
displayed considerable curiosity in examining objects by the eye, and by
the organs of touch, taste, and smell: but they do not, with these
elements of knowledge, progressively advance in intelligence, until
they have been circuitously taught the characters that are the
constituents of words, and also to comprehend, that the word itself is
the commuted substitute for the object perceived. Notwithstanding these
deficiencies, and disqualifications for human intercourse, these deaf,
and consequently dumb persons, must be, in a very high degree, the
subjects of Ideas, or of those phantasms that are associated with visual
perception.

The second instance, is of those who are born blind, and continue
sightless through life. A person under such total privation of vision,
must be exempt from those phantasms or Ideas, that are connected with,
or are the residuary contingents on visual perception: yet the blind
acquire speech, when young, with equal facility, as the children who
enjoy sight; but visible objects must, to them, be abstract or complex
terms, as all such necessarily are, that cannot be the objects of
perception. The other sensitive organs, and especially the touch, to a
limited extent, become the substitutes for visual defect, although they
are no actual compensations for sight. By models the blind can become
acqua