A rough sketch of modern Paris

by J. G. Lemaistre

Having tickets offered me for an extraordinary meeting, which took place this morning, I willingly availed myself of the opportunity, and at ten o’clock repaired to la rue St. Jacques, where, in a former convent, this beneficent establishment is carried on. Here I found a large assemblage of respectable persons, who all listened, with pleasure and attention, to the simple, plain, and unaffected manner, in which the abbé Sicard explained his method of giving to the deaf and dumb the means of expressing their thoughts. “As foreigners,” said he, “unacquainted with the language of the country which they visit, are supposed stupid and ignorant by the uninformed, so the deaf and dumb are often considered as idiots, because they are deprived of one sense. No,” continued he, “they are not idiots; they have ideas as well as you, and only want an organ to express them.” He then went on to state, that in most educations children are taught first to speak, and then, sometimes, to think; whereas, in his plan, he began first by teaching his pupils to think, and then proceeded to instruct them how to express what they had so thought[29].

To exemplify both his plan and his success, he examined Massieu, his favourite and ablest pupil, a young man, about twenty or twenty five years old. As soon as the abbé expressed, by his gestures, any particular passion, Massieu instantly wrote the word appropriate to the peculiar feeling, and then explained the meaning of the word he had written, with a vivacity of action, and a variety of countenance, which I never before witnessed in any human being. He next wrote on the wall, with great rapidity, the chain of ideas, by which the abbé Sicard regularly advances his scholars, from the expression of a simple thought, to one of greater import. Thus, beginning with the word “voir,” to see, he ended, going on by regular steps, with the word “examiner,” to examine; beginning with “idéer,” (a word created by Massieu, but answering to “avoir idée,” or to have an idea), he ended with “approfondir,” to search into; and beginning with “vouloir,” to will, he ended with “brûler,” to burn with passion. Massieu expressed, with wonderful fire, the meaning of each progressive passion, in the changes of his countenance, which, when animated, is uncommonly fine.

In the course of this meeting, the abbé Sicard likewise examined, for the first time, a young woman, now eighteen, who, at six years old, had become entirely deaf, and who could now only speak such words as she had learnt at that tender age, many of which she still pronounced imperfectly, and as children are apt to do. He began with showing us a memorandum, or washing bill, in which this girl had drawn her gowns, petticoats, &c. according to the different forms of these articles. Massieu then, by direction of the abbé, drew on the wall different things of common use; to some of these she applied their proper names, some she did not know, and others she mispronounced. The latter defect M. Sicard immediately removed, by pronouncing the word himself, teaching her by signs to move her lips, as he did, by blowing on the hand, and by touching some particular fibres of the arm. I cannot satisfactorily explain this operation; but it will, perhaps, be sufficient to observe, that the abbé, more than once, said, “by such and such motions, I will produce such and such sounds;” and that, as soon as the girl had imitated the motions he made, she articulated the words, as he had previously promised.

The more I saw of this institution, the more was I delighted. There were forty or fifty children present, who, born deaf and dumb, were, by the wonderful skill and unceasing care of the respectable abbé, restored to society, to happiness, and themselves. They were seated in different parts of the room, and conversed with each other, though at the greatest distance, by the means of their fingers, which were in constant motion. They had every appearance of enjoying good health, spirits, and vivacity.

There are all kinds of workshops, manufactures, and schools, in the house of the sourd-muets, and the establishment is entirely maintained at the expense of the government. Massieu, I hear, has displayed strong symptoms of genius, and has even written some very beautiful verses.

How admirable is this institution! How honourable to the ingenuity and the heart of man! to restore to all the enjoyments of life, and to the dignity of rational beings, hapless creatures, doomed by the caprice of Nature to inexpressible feeling and irremediable ignorance, is perhaps the highest and proudest effort of human contrivance.

Of all which I have yet beheld at Paris, this is to me the most interesting sight. Other objects strike the imagination, but this moves the heart. Farewell, my dear sir, the night is far advanced; but I could not place my head on the pillow, till I had attempted to communicate to you, how much I had been pleased with this admirable and philanthropic institution.

I am, &c.