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A little well worn pocket notebook, with a calendar of Saints' days in French, for the year 1818, perhaps a gift from Mr. Clerc to Miss Fowler, contains the following meditation written very carefully and legibly in pencil by Mr. Gallaudet:

Oh! Jesus, my Saviour, I love thee. I wish to imitate thee, to be kind as thou wert kind, to be humble us thou wert humble. -- Oh! give me thy Spirit to keep me from sin. Oh! enable me to serve thee and to be kind to all and to do good every day. And oh! prepare me to eat the Lord's Supper.

That these lessons, given when the mind of Sophia Fowler was at its most impressionable period of development, took a lasting hold on her spiritual organism was proven a thousand times through her long and not uneventful life.

When heartrending sorrow came to her, she did not need to cry,
"Oh! for a faith that will not shrink
Though pressed by every foe,
That will not tremble on the brink
Of any earthly woe."
For at such times hers was indeed,
"A faith that shines more bright and clear,
When tempests rage without;
That when in danger knows no fear
In darkness feels no doubt."

Of this faith and its influence over Mrs. Gallaudet's life her friend quoted above writes as follows:

A prominent characteristic was her joyous and undoubting faith in the religion of Jesus Christ. When they came to her, she accepted the truths of revelation so readily and implicitly that it seemed as if they did but bear out and confirm the dim intuitions of her uninstructed childhood. Not only did she love and practice all the Christian virtues; not only, as one who knew her long and well has said, was she "most exactly just and perfectly truthful and sincere, exemplifying in an eminent degree all the virtues described by the apostle when he exhorted us to think on whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report" -- but Christ, the embodiment of all excellences, was to her a real and present person. When threatened with blindness, in the last year of her life, and feeling its dread approach, more than once she was seen to pray to Him, with fervor, as if He stood in her chamber, that He would spare her such a grievous affliction; she was aged and deaf, she said, and if now her sight must be taken she would lose the little joy that remained to her; then, in a moment, and in a different spirit, she would tell Him that, though she felt it hard to bear, she wished what He thought best should be done, and she would strive to be resigned.

It will not surprise the reader to be told that the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Gallaudet was pre-eminently a happy one. His physical weaknesses and natural tendencies to depression of spirits were often overcome by the vigor and cheerfulness she was able always to impart to their united life: while her mind, eager for knowledge, could easily supply the deficiencies of her early education by an appeal to her ever-present teacher.

Mr. Gallaudet has been heard to say that many trials and difficulties had come upon him in the course of his life which he could hardly have endured or overcome, but for the sympathy and encouragement his brave and loving wife was always quick to give him.

CHAPTER VI.
1823 -- 1830.

Arduous Labors as Principal and Teacher -- Invention of Methods of Pantomimic Communication -- Visit of Col. John Trumbull -- Solicitations to aid in Establishing Schools for the Deaf outside of New England -- Failing Health -- Application to the Directors for Relief from Certain Duties -- Opposition of Associates to such Relief -- The Institution Established on a Firm and Permanent Basis -- Increasing Feebleness -- Resignation of Principalship.

THE years following Mr. Gallaudet's marriage in 1821 were happy years though full of toil.

The occupancy of enlarged and permanent buildings by the institution was followed by an increase in the number of pupils, necessitating the employment and training of new teachers. This growth brought added cares and labors to the principal of the school. But he shrank from nothing, rejoicing in work that was thoroughly congenial. He was a born teacher, and a teacher of teachers, as well as of children.

His skill in adapting methods borrowed from France to the needs of American children was great. He possessed peculiar and natural endowments for the special work of instructing the deaf: prominent among which was a really marvelous grace and clearness in all kinds of pantomimic expression.

He was the first to suggest and use in schools for the deaf the language of signs in religious exercises and lectures. His eloquence in this language has never been surpassed and rarely equaled.

He had an unusual facility in communicating thought by means of facial expression and movements of the body without any resort whatever to motions of the hands or arms.

This process is described in an article published three years before his death, long after he gave up teaching.

One day our distinguished and lamented historical painter, Col. John Trumbull, was in my schoolroom during the hours of instruction, and, on alluding to the tact which a certain pupil had of reading my face, he expressed a wish to see it tried. I requested him to select any event in Greek, Roman, English or American history of a scenic character, which would make a striking picture on canvas, and said I would endeavor to communicate it to the lad. "Tell him," said he, "that Brutus (Lucius Junius) condemned his two sons to death, for resisting his authority and violating his orders."