Library Collections: Document: Full Text

Her memory is as remarkable as her grasp of language and her power of speech, and probably is the chief source of her success in both these. She grasps an idea almost before it is given, and once hers it seems ineradicably fixed in her memory. A few days ago a book of poems printed in raised letters was presented to her. She opened it and read the first poem over twice, reading it aloud as she passed her fingers over the lines. Then the book was laid away and not referred to again until the next day, when it was found that she could repeat the whole poem of seven stanzas of four lines each, without missing a word.

Laura Bridgman was a brilliant example of what may be accomplished under great difficulties. Helen Keller is a prodigy. There is no one, nor ever was any one, to compare with her.

This communication speaks for itself. It tells the story of Helen's achievements candidly, and commends them in the highest and most appreciative terms.

Study of French.

"This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold linguist."
Shakespeare.

Helen is a born linguist. She has a natural taste for foreign languages, and is as fond of them as she is of her mother tongue. She delights in studying them, and possesses a most extraordinary faculty for acquiring them. This ability became manifest three years ago.

It was on the evening of the 8th of July, 1888, that Helen was for the first time informed of the numerous forms and variations which exist in human speech, and was profoundly impressed by this revelation. She showed great eagerness to learn more about them, and began immediately to make constant inquiries and to gain as much knowledge of them as she could. These efforts continued irregularly for several months, and resulted in the acquisition of a very large number of Latin, French, Greek and German words and familiar phrases. But she had no systematic instruction in any of these languages until the following year.

Early in the month of October, 1889, she asked one of the teachers in the girls' department to teach her French. Miss Marrett, to whom the request was made, responded heartily to the child's wishes, and began at once to give her lessons in a simple and natural way. Helen entered upon this new field of learning with her usual zest and energy, and it was not very long before her industry, stimulated by a fervent zeal for knowledge, triumphed over all difficulties. The names of things and of their qualities, the declensions of nouns and adjectives, the conjugations of verbs, the intricacies of grammatical gender, and the idiomatic uses of the different parts of speech, had no terrors for her. On the contrary, they afforded to the unremitting activity of her mental faculties wide scope for exercise. In about three months she was in possession not only of the keys to the treasure-house of her new venture, but of a great quantity of materials and of the art of handling them skillfully and of putting them to proper service in the construction of sentences. On the 18th of February, 1890, I received in Athens her first composition in French, which I am assured was written without any assistance on the part of her instructress, and which is copied here verbatim et literatim: --

SOUTH BOSTON, MASS., le 1 Fevrier, 1890.

BONJOUR, MON CHER AMI: -- J'ai recu votre lettre charmante. Vous etes bon, et je vous aime beaucoup. Comment vous portez-vous? J'espere que vous vous portez mieux. Je parle Francais et Anglais à present. Les petites filles sont tres-bonnes, et ma chere petite soeur est belle. Je me promene tous les jours pendant une heure. Aimiez-vous l'etude lorsque vous etiez jeune? J'aime à lire. Ma mere a beaucoup de belles fleurs chez nous. J' aime mieux les roses et violettes. Ma mere m'a ecrit que les rosiers sont pleins de boutons. Les oiseaux chantent doucement comme dans le mois de Mai. Je ne peut pas parle Francais ou l'ecrire avec beaucoup de facilite. Quelques enfants ont ete tres-malades avec le diphtheria au gorge. Lily Edson est mourut. Je suis tres-fachee de pauvre Lily. Ma mere, mon pere et ma jolie souer viendront a Boston le Juin next. Serez-vous heureux de les voir? Je serai bien aise d'aller avec vous a l'ecole de les petits enfants. Vous serez bien aise a savoir que je peux dire correctement tous les heure de le jour maintenant. J'espere que j'aurai une belle montre bientot. J'ai neuf ans, ma soeur n'a que trois ans et demi. Voulez-vous m'apporter des livres Francais de France? Je veux que j'etais a Athens avec vous pour jouir tous les belles choses. Ma chere institutrice a ete tres-malade, mais elle est beaucoup mieux maintenant. Je pense a vous toujours, et j'aime vous. J'aime m'amie, Mademoiselle Kehayia aussi. I1 fait beau temp au jourd' hui, mais il fait bien froid. Voulez-vous aller a Paris avec moi quelquefois, je veux voir de belles choses. M'excuser les fautes, s'il vous plait.

Pensez a moi et aimiez-moi toujours. Au revoir, mon cher ami. Ecris a moi bientot.

DE HELENE A. KELLER.