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Signs, established in the manner considered above, have received the appellation methodical. It was the favorite labor of Sicard to systematize and perfect them. In spite of the disadvantage inseparable from their use, pupils, distinguished for their attainments, have been produced by the masters who have employed them; but this circumstance serves only to demonstrate the ability of the masters themselves.

In determining how far the language of action may be really useful in facilitating instruction, we must consider it in the several stages in which it is intelligible to the pupil; in which, in fact, it is his own work; guided, it may be, by the teacher; but not reduced, as the theory of methodical signs presumes, to conformity with a language, which must be understood before the conformity can be comprehended. Great imperfection must be expected in the signs which are the creation of the deaf and dumb person himself. These signs may be submitted to the correction of the master. In fact, in an institution where numbers are collected together, a more philosophical system, the joint production of teachers and pupils will be early established; and will be adopted by each pupil on his arrival. It is hardly possible, with every individual, to follow out a series of lessons, by which he may be guided, from a more accurate understanding of things, to a more correct mode of expression concerning them. He abandons his own signs for those which he finds actually in use, not because they appear to him more appropriate, but because they are universally intelligible. Still his own individual signs will be carefully observed by the instructer; since they afford a valuable means of penetrating the extent of his knowledge, of discovering how far his ideas of things are just, of determining the degree of his intellectual development, and of ascertaining the limit of his capacity.

The language of action, rectified as above by the care of the teacher, will be useful to a certain extent, as affording the means of instruction by translation. But, by the freedom of communication which it establishes, it will also render the pupil, in a measure, the architect of his own intellectual edifice; for it will enable him to profit by his own independent reflection. He possesses the means of interrogating his master, -- a means which he will not fail to employ.

Still this language has its disadvantages, which, so long as it aspires to the character of a self-interpreting instrument of thought, are inseparable from the nature of its elements. These elements are threefold; consisting, first, in the copies of those spontaneous expressions; by which the emotions of the soul manifest themselves to sight; secondly, in imitations of external nature, whether of objects or of actions; and, thirdly, in that species of figurative descriptions, by which, alone, that which is ideal can be made to assume a material form. These will evidently be intelligible, in the order in which they are here arranged. With regard to the first, there can be no mistake. The second, less self-explanatory, may still be rendered sufficiently complete to be comprehended. The third, however, are liable to greater uncertainty; and, in more cases than one, when in practice they introduce no obscurity, may be presumed to borrow something of their significancy from tacit convention.

It is in conformity with our first fundamental principle, to employ, for purposes of instruction, the entire language of the deaf and dumb; embracing all signs whatever, which have a meaning for him, and which, whether natural or not, may be denominated colloquial. Still it is the suggestion of reason, that, when these have fulfilled their purpose, and have found, by translation, their equivalents in spoken language, they should thenceforth yield their places to words. To continue their use is practically to deny another of our fundamental principles, and one of the highest importance, viz. that language should be made to the deaf and dumb what it is to other men, -- the instrument of thought; for it is to render language subordinate to pantomime, to make it the representative of a representative, and cause it to remain for the dumb what the learned languages are to us. In that case he will continue, perhaps for life, to be a mere translator, whether in conversation he occupy the place of the speaker, or of the person addressed. If we would, in any case, admit a departure from the strictness of the rule here laid down, it should be only in the application of signs to the exercises of religious worship; which, in a large institution, cannot otherwise be rendered universally intelligible.

Of the class of instruments, the office of which is merely to exhibit words under a material form, writing first demands consideration; since this is indispensable, and this, alone, is sufficient to fulfil all the purposes for which such an instrument is desired. From the latter part of the proposition here laid down, however, many respectable instructors have withheld their assent. Written language, in their estimation, must always occupy a secondary rank. It must constitute the representative of some more privileged instrument, standing between it and the ideas, with which it is presumed unsuited to be directly associated. This instrument is found in methodical signs, or artificial pronunciation and the labial alphabet, according to the peculiar notions of the instructer.