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Under the first form, this language is, as we have seen, natural. Under the second, it exhibits a combination of nature and of art. Under the third, it appears to have passed entirely over to the opposite extreme, and is wholly artificial. From the first to the second form, the change on the part of the deaf-mute is spontaneous; nay, rather, he is forced into it by strong necessity. His progress exhibits the ordinary and natural march of improvement. But that from the second to the third is unnecessary, unnatural and forced. Were the deaf-mute left to himself, it would never be made, and wherever it is found, it is invariably the work of his teacher. The following is an account of its origin.

The syntax of the sign-language being one of the points in which that mode of communication differs most widely from ours, and its vocabulary being likewise comparatively slender; it occurred to the estimable Abbè De l'Epée, that if these two circumstances could be done away, -- if the number of signs could be made equal to the number of words, and if they could be reduced to an order of arrangement, correspondence to that of words in speech; the deaf and dumb might be instructed by a mere process of translation. He addressed himself to the task, therefore, of affecting this desirable improvement. His labours, greatly amplified by his successor, Sicard, gave rise to a species of signs denominated methodical. This system contained, or was intended to contain, a sign to represent every spoken word; together with auxiliaries, indicative of tense, mode, etc., and of the parts of speech. Further notice will be taken of this species of signs in another place. We will pause here only to remark, that these methodical signs were, of necessity, in good part not colloquial; and that, though they presented a language having a syntax like ours, such a syntax continued to be quite as unnatural, and quite as unintelligible to the deaf and dumb, as before.

Some instructors have endeavoured to make of signs a written, as well as a colloquial language. In order to accomplish this, they have represented the various members of the body, and the several features of the countenance, concerned in pantomime, by characters on paper. By another set of marks they have contrived to indicate all the varieties of motion; and by a third, the most striking expressions of the countenance. By the combination of these characters they are able to express in writing any sign of action, very much as spoken words are spelled by means of alphabetic characters. Mimeography is the name given to this mode of writing signs. It is not known to be at present in use in any school, excepting in that of M. Piroux at Nancy in France, if even it is still employed there. Most instructors have been disposed to regard it as rather curious than useful.

The art of designing is an important auxiliary to the instruction of the deaf and dumb. In teaching even the simple nomenclature of visible objects, a vast amount of time may often be saved by the help of pictures. For it is not of every object of which there is occasion to speak, that a sign of reduction is to be found in the dialect of the institutions. In such a case, if the object be not itself present, nor any picture representing it, it is necessary to resort to the process of description, illustrated when speaking of the sign-language under the first form. This process will be of course be less tedious, in proportion as there exist other signs of reduction to contract its parts; nevertheless it will consume time, which the presence of a picture might save. But design is not of use merely in this way. It may serve to explain phrases and sentences; or to throw light upon difficult subjects, by an allegorical use. Hardly any limit can be assigned to its utility.

There is another auxiliary in use in the schoolrooms of our institutions, employed to illustrate the laws of grammar. It consists of certain symbols, devised to represent the parts of speech, and undergoing systematic modifications, to correspond to the grammatical inflections of words. The idea of such symbols originated with Sicard. There are now in possession of the writer, certain old model lessons, once used in the Royal Institution, in which the symbols of the noun and adjective appear, in form closely resembling those now in use in the New-York Institution. The instructors on this continent have expanded the idea of the distinguished inventor, and have given to grammatical symbols a much higher degree of utility, than they could have possessed in his day. Mere description would hardly enable the public to estimate the merits of this method of illustrating grammar to the eye. There is, however, now in a process of stereotyping for publication in this city, a small volume, which will contain the whole system, as at present in use in the New-York Institution, adapted to the purposes of instruction in ordinary schools.

The language of action, design and grammatical symbols are instruments of instruction unconnected with words. As means of exhibiting or using words, we have also writing, the manual alphabet, and articulation.