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It is not difficult, when his singleness of heart is remembered, and the devotedness of his self-sacrificing spirit, to imagine with what joy he must have contemplated the triumph of that day.

And yet, great as had been the burdens already borne, the difficulties overcome, labors far more severe were before him, happily unforeseen, the strain and stress of which his sensitive spirit and delicate frame were to endure ere his work for the deaf of America could be accomplished.

The devotion and self-sacrifice which he brought to the arduous duties he was now called upon to assume is well shown in the following extract from a letter addressed a fortnight earlier to the gentleman in whose hands the domestic management of the institution was to be placed:

And I do hold it to be our sacred duty, to do all in our power in our respective provinces to make the school flourish, although we should just get through the first year and save nothing, and have to complain of the want of generosity in the public or even in our directors.

It will be time and money and labor lent to the Lord and He will take care of us. Start then in your department upon a liberal, not an extravagant plan.

Go a little beyond what would be considered even a fair fulfillment of your engagements. To speak like a man of the world, I know if we make the institution respectable and flourishing during the first year, we shall have a power over the public and over the directors which is always the result of a man's proving himself to be worth something: and, my Christian brother, I want to prove, what you so forcibly suggested in one of your letters, and what men of business are not wont to believe, that a sense of responsibility to God and of devotion to the cause of Jesus Christ can lead men to nobler plans of conduct than all that is falsely called honor by this world.

Former biographers of Mr. Gallaudet have had little or nothing to say of the difficulties and annoyances that beset him from the outset of his career as the recognized head of the first public benevolent educational institution in America. They have pointed to the rapid development, ample endowment and firm establishment of the school, giving him due praise for his masterful management, and have stated the bare fact that after fourteen years of faithful service he was compelled on account of failing health to resign his office as principal.

In undertaking to give, more fully, the story of his labors while at the head of the school of which he was the founder, the writer begs to disclaim all desire to criticize -sic- or condemn the actions, and far less the motives of others who had to do with the management of the institution. He is willing to believe they acted always from convictions of duty -- that they had the interests of the institution at heart, that they meant no injustice to any one. They were novices in their work -- they were men of varying degrees of ability -- and for their errors of judgment the writer bespeaks the charity of the reader as he begins a narrative which in the light of to-day will seem astounding and even, perhaps, incredible.

In Mr. Gallaudet's diary the following entry appears under date of Sunday, January 25, 1818.

During the time which has elapsed since the opening of the school -ten months- I have had to encounter great trials. Now I am quite exhausted in health and strength. Oh! that God would appear for me, and make haste to help me. If I know my own heart I long for but one kind of happiness, that of zealous and cheerful activity in doing good. I have of late begun to ponder a good deal on the difficulty of my continuing to be the principal of such an establishment as this with which I am now connected will probably be. Most gladly would I hail as my superior here and as the head of the institution some one of acknowledged piety and talents and of more force of character than myself. Alas, how is my energy gone! How I shrink from difficulties! Oh! Almighty God, in thy wise providence thou hast placed me in my present situation. -- Thou seest my heart -- Thou knowest my desire is to be devoted to thy service and to be made the instrument of training up the deaf and dumb for heaven. Oh! turn not a deaf ear to my request. Oh! raise me from this bodily and intellectual and religious lethargy which has now so long prostrated all the energies and deadened the affections of my soul! Oh! show me clearly the path of duty, and teach me submission to thy holy will -- more self-denial and humility -- more patience and perseverance.

Thus did an over-burdened, fainting man, cry out in self-condemnation and self-distrust, laying on himself blame that belonged, if there was blame, elsewhere. With more of daily labor, hourly care, ever present sense of responsibility, oft recurring worry, frequent annoyance and opposition where cordial cooperation was to have been expected, all of which combined to form a burden too heavy for the strongest man to carry, this invalid with a heart of gold and a soul of steel, patient and persevering in the extreme, self-denying and humble to a fault, wrote himself down incapable, proud, impatient and negligent of duty, allowing his conscience to castigate his upright spirit when he was merely suffering from an entirely natural and inevitable attack of nervous prostration.