dy
becomes like a sensitive plant--the quickened skin perceives the
very vibrations of the air, and you may even write your thoughts
upon it, and receive answers from the sentient soul within.--ANNUAL
REPORT _of the Trustees of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts
Asylum for the Blind_, 1841.

He who formed man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, has honored his material organs by
associating them with the immaterial soul. In this life _the senses_
constitute the great conveyances of knowledge to the human mind. It then
becomes not only a legitimate object of inquiry, but one which commends
itself to every human being, and especially to every parent and teacher,
Can these senses be improved by human interference? And if so, how can
that improvement be best effected?

The senses are the interpreters between the material universe without
and the spirit within. Without the celestial machinery of sensation, man
must have ever remained what Adam was before the Almighty breathed into
his form of clay the awakening breath of life. The dormant energies of
the mind can be aroused, and the soul can be put into mysterious
communion with external nature only by the magical power of sensation.

The possession of all the corporeal senses, and their systematic and
judicious culture by all proper appliances, are necessary in order to
place man in such a relation to the material universe and its great
Architect as most fully and successfully to cultivate the varied
capabilities of his nature, and best to subserve the purposes of his
creation. He who is deprived of the healthful exercise of one or more of
his senses, or, possessing them all unimpaired, has neglected their
proper culture, is, from the nature of the case, in a proportionate
degree cut off from a knowledge of God as manifested in his works, and
from that happiness which is the legitimate fruit of such knowledge.

Much light has been thrown upon this subject within a few years by the
judicious labors of that class of practical educators who have devoted
their lives to the amelioration of the condition of persons deprived of
one or more of the senses. It is difficult to conceive the real
condition of the minds of persons thus situated, and especially while
they remain uneducated. He who is deprived of the sense of sight has the
windows of his soul closed, and is effectually shut out from this world
of lig