uteness of this sense, acquired by careful cultivation, that the
blind, as a class, have become so generally and justly distinguished for
their pre-eminence in instrumental music. This enables them also to
cultivate vocal music with more than ordinary success.

The due cultivation of the sense of hearing will contribute vastly to
promote our intellectual and moral well-being. If it be true, as we are
told it is by those who have been engaged in teaching both the deaf and
the blind, that the absence of hearing is even a more formidable
impediment to the communication of knowledge than that of sight, we must
infer that all imperfections of the organ of hearing itself, or in the
manner of using it, must correspondingly lessen the accuracy of the
knowledge we receive through that organ. The meaning of language very
often is conveyed not so much by the words themselves as in the tones of
voice in which the words are uttered. If, therefore, the hearing be
indistinct, or there be no habit formed of careful attention to the
inflections of sound, the impressions received from what we hear must
often be inaccurate. Our speech, too, will be far less agreeable, and be
inefficient, even if it be not positively inarticulate. We owe it to
others, no less than to ourselves, then, to cultivate the powers of the
voice--the common instrument that God has given us for the interchange
of thought, sentiment, and feeling, and which, though so common, is the
most perfect of all instruments for the transmission of sound. Yet how
deplorably is it neglected! how shamefully is it misused! It can be
fully developed and made what it is capable of being only through the
influence of the ear. If this organ be neglected, the voice must needs
be imperfect. And the voices of many persons are through life imperfect
and disagreeable, because they were not carefully trained in early life
to articulate distinctly, much less to utter _musical_ sounds. The
opinion is confidently expressed by those who are best qualified to
decide the matter, that nearly all children might be taught to sing, if
proper attention were paid early enough to the use they make of their
ears and their organs of sound. The careful training of these should be
considered an indispensable part of a school-teacher's as well as of a
parent's duty.

The ear will find appropriate discipline in distinguishing, without aid
from the eye, the causes of various sounds, as the opening of a door,
t