began to expand, and seemed to be lavished upon the
members of her family with peculiar force. But the means of
communication with her were very limited. She could be told to go to a
place only by being pushed, or to come to one by a sign of drawing her.
Patting her gently on the head signified approbation, on the back
disapprobation. She showed every disposition to learn, and manifestly
began to use a natural language of her own. She had a sign to express
her idea of each member of the family, as drawing her fingers down each
side of her face to allude to the whiskers of one, twirling her hand
around in imitation of the motion of a spinning-wheel for another, and
so on. But, although Laura received all the aid a kind mother could
bestow, she soon began to give proof of the importance of language in
the development of human character. By the time she was seven years old
the moral effects of her privation began to appear, for there was no way
of controlling her will but by the absolute power of another, and at
this humanity revolts.

At this time, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, the distinguished and successful
director of the asylum, learned of her situation, and hastened to see
her. He found her with a well-formed figure, a strongly-marked
nervous-sanguine temperament, a large and beautifully shaped head, and
the whole system in healthy action. Here seemed a rare opportunity of
trying a plan for the education of a deaf and blind person, which the
doctor had formed on seeing Julia Brace at Hartford. The parents readily
consented to her going to the institution in Boston, where Laura was
received in October, 1837, just before she had completed her eighth
year. For a while she was much bewildered. After waiting about two
weeks, and until she became acquainted with her new locality, and
somewhat familiar with the inmates, the attempt was made to give her a
knowledge of arbitrary signs, by which she could interchange thoughts
with others. One of two methods was to be adopted. Either the language
of signs, on the basis of the natural language she had already commenced
herself, was to be built up, or it remained to teach her the purely
arbitrary language in common use. The former would have been easy, but
very ineffectual. The latter, although very difficult, if accomplished,
would prove vastly superior. It was therefore determined upon.

The _blind_ learn to read by means of raised letters, which they gain a
knowledge of by the sense o