ting.

It is only after the fifteenth century that we have more or less
authenticated accounts of the instruction of the deaf, and many of these
are hardly more than a passing reference here and there. It was,
moreover, well after Europe had taken its present political appearance
that the modern attitude towards the deaf and their instruction began.
Before this their education as a class was not thought of, and while no
doubt there have always been sporadic instances of the instruction of
the deaf, it is only since the middle of the eighteenth century that the
deaf have come generally into the birthright of their education.

Yet it is not so great a matter of wonder that the movements for the
instruction of the deaf took organized shape so late in the world's
civilization. Learning or schooling was in no sense popular till some
time after the passing away of the so-called dark ages. For long it was
rather the privilege of the rich and powerful. The great mass of the
people were not deemed worthy of learning, and education itself in any
general application did not have a recognized standing in society. After
the Renaissance, however, had ushered in a new age, and when the desire
for learning was the master passion among many men in Southern and
Western Europe, it is natural to suppose that efforts should have more
frequently been made to instruct the deaf child; and after this time we
are prepared to find an increasing number of instances of the
instruction of the deaf. This was all the more true when an air of
mystery was felt to surround these silent ones, and to bring the light
of the new learning to these afflicted creatures was considered well
worth the attempt.

The earliest instance recorded of instruction given to the deaf in the
English language is that of the Venerable Bede about the year 691, who
tells of a deaf person taught to speak by Bishop John of York, related
as though it were a miracle. After many years we meet accounts of other
cases. Rudolph Agricola (1443-1485) of Groeningen, Holland, and later a
professor at Heidelberg, cites in his "_De Inventione Dialecta_" a deaf
man who could write. In Italy a little later we find certain deaf
children whose instruction is mentioned by Pietro de Castro; while in
the sixteenth century Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576), the distinguished
physician of Pavia, attempted to state the principles of the education
of the deaf, demonstrating the use of a written language fo