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Cursory as is the view which we have taken of our subject, it is exceedingly incomplete. To those, who would pursue inquiries respecting it with greater minuteness, we recommend a careful perusal of the work of Degerando; a work, of which we do not pretend, here, to have offered even an imperfect analysis. What we have further to say, relates to the history of the art.

This history, for the sake of convenience, is divided by Degerando into two distinct periods; of which the first extends from the earliest essays attempted in the instruction of the deaf and dumb, to the time of De l'Epée; the second, commencing from that era, reaches our own time. The first period comprehends a space of nearly two centuries, -- the second, little more than sixty years. During the first, instructors were few and scattered; in the second, comparatively numerous, contemporaneous, and frequently uniting their efforts in the same field of labor. The first is the period of invention; the second of improvement. The instructors of the first period were occupied, chiefly, upon the mechanical means of replacing speech; those of the second, upon the logical teaching of language, and the cultivation of the intellect. During the first, the oral and labial alphabets were the instruments roost generally employed; with the second, methodical signs make their appearance, to the exclusion, in some instances, of articulation. The first period is that, in which instruction is principally individual; the second is the period of institutions. During the first, the art seems to have constituted a species of masonry; its processes were a mystery, and each instructor seems to have guarded his secret knowledge with peculiar jealousy. Since the commencement of the second, the veil has been torn away, systems have been opened to the light, and the discussion of their merits invited. The early instructors generally followed their art as an instrument of gain. The later, have, in many instances, pursued it at great personal sacrifice. They have regarded the education of the deaf and dumb as a part of the great cause of humanity; and have been stimulated to put forth exertion, by a sense of duty. The former seem, in most instances, to have been ignorant that others were, or had been, laboring in the same field; they have known little or nothing of their predecessors or contemporaries. The same processes have, therefore, been a first and a second time invented; and the art has, consequently, for years, made little progress. It is the endeavor of modern times to promote improvement by a union of effort, and, for this purpose, to render the intercourse of instructers as frequent and as familiar as possible. The first period may, consequently, afford more interest to the curious inquirer; the second to the professor, who is eager for practical information.

Spain may be called the cradle of this art. The first instructer, of whom we have any authentic account, is Peter Ponce, a monk of the order of St. Benedict at Oña. He published no account of his methods, and left behind him no manuscript. Our knowledge of him is principally derived from the brief notices of Francis Vallés, and Ambrose Morales, two of his contemporaries. From these, we learn that he taught his pupils to speak; and it is added by the former (what is very improbable) that, for this purpose, he employed only indicative signs. Another writer tells us that, in the archives of the convent at Oña, is found a paper which attests, that the pupils of Ponce 'spoke, wrote, prayed aloud, attended mass, confessed, spoke Greek, Latin, Italian, (as well as Spanish) and reasoned remarkably well upon physics and astronomy.' 'They were,' said Ponce himself, 'so distinguished in the sciences, that they would have passed for men of talent, in the eyes of Aristotle.' If this extravagant use of the hyperbole excite a smile, it still affords evidence that Ponce was decidedly successful.

Second in point of time, and the earliest author of a practical treatise on the art, was a countryman of the last, John Paul Bonet. Urged, as he says, by sentiments of personal affection, he undertook to instruct the brother of an officer of state, to whom he was secretary. He seems to have been ignorant of what his predecessor had accomplished; though, with little reason, he has been accused of borrowing his processes and exhibiting them as his own. Bonet employed the language of action, writing, dactylology and the oral alphabet. His work presents the hasty outlines of a philosophic system. The labial alphabet appeared to him an unavailable instrument; one, at least, which could not be taught according to any fixed method.

We are told of another Spaniard, deaf and dumb himself from birth, but how instructed we know not, by name Ramirez de Carion, who taught one of his pupils, a person of rank, to speak and write four languages.

Beside Jerome Cardan, other writers of Italy early found their attention arrested by the art, which at present occupies us. Among these, we find the names of Affinaté, the author of a treatise not remarkable for its merit, of philosopher's stone; of writing in cypher, of the means of teaching the blind to read and write, and of telegraphic communication, fell naturally upon the inquiry which forms the subject of this article. He examined the mechanism of speech, and the art of instructing the deaf in the knowledge of language.