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Eleventh Annual Report Of The Trustees Of The Perkins Institution And Massachusetts Asylum For The Blind

Creator: Samuel Gridley Howe (author)
Date: 1843
Source: Perkins School for the Blind

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Soon she said, "can God see, has He eyes? " I replied by asking her, can you see your mother in Hanover? "No! " but, said I, you can see her with your mind, you can think about her, and love her. "Yes'' said she; so, replied I, God can see you and all people and know all they do; and He thinks about them, and loves them, and He will love you and all people if they are gentle and kind and good, and love one another. "Can He be angry?" said she; No! He can he sorry, because he loves all folks, and grieves when they do wrong;" "Can He cry?" said she. No! the body cries because the soul is sad, but God has no body; I then tried to make her think of her spiritual existence as separate from her bodily one; hut she seemed to dislike to do so, and said eagerly, "I shall not die;" some would have said she referred to her soul, but she did not, she was shrinking at the thought of physical death, and I turned the conversation. I could not have the heart to give the poor child the baneful knowledge before I had prepared the antidote. It seems to me that she needs not the fear of death to keep her in the path of goodness."

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It would have been exceedingly gratifying to be able to announce a more perfect development of those moral qualities on which true religion is founded; but it was hardly to have been expected; those qualities are among the last to develop themselves, and are of tardy growth; we could have forced them out perhaps by artificial culture, but that would have been to have obtained a hot house plant instead of the simple and natural one that is every day putting forth new beauties to our sight. It is but thirteen years since Laura was born; she has hardly lived half that number, yet in that time what an important mission has she fulfilled! how much has she done for herself, how much has she taught others deprived of most of the varied stimuli furnished by the senses, and fed by the scantiest crumbs of knowledge, her soul has nevertheless put forth the buds of the brightest virtues, and give indication of its pure origin, and its high destination.

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Respectfully Submitted,

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S. G. HOWE.

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APPENDIX B.

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OLIVER CASWELL.

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This blind and deaf-mute boy is now 13 years old, and his progress during the past year in the acquisition of language and of other knowledge has been very gratifying. He has been perfectly docile and obedient; and is one of the most sweet-tempered affectionate boys I have ever known. Since the first desperate resistance which he made to authority, he has never shown the slightest hesitation or even disinclination to do whatever I have required him to do, and he has also been obedient and respectful to those who have any authority over him. It may seem difficult to conceive how he should know those persons but he does know them, and cannot be imposed upon by his fellow pupils.

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He is rather lymphatic n temperament, and has by no means that rapidity of thought and action which characterises Laura in so remarkable a degree. But though very quiet in his deportment and slow in all his movements, his smiling and intelligent countenance gives him an interesting appearance, and his thickset frame indicates strength and endurance. The most remarkable trait in his character is his affectionate and cheerful disposition. He is a favorite throughout the house; every one loves him; every one gives him a kiss or caress on meeting him; and he greets all with smiles in return. He is uniformly cheerful, and seems to have that enjoyment of existence which characterises Laura, though unaccompanied by the keen zest that makes her buoyant, while he is only calm.

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He does not manifest his affection for others by those active demonstrations which she is constantly making. It does not seem a necessity of his nature to unburden himself by kisses and caresses to others; but he is evidently pleased at receiving them. And though he seldom returns them, still he is evidently deeply attached to many of the persons about him, and manifests his love and sympathy by natural language which cannot be mistaken.

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A great deal of time has been spent during the last year in communicating to him a knowledge of that indispensable site for the development of mind, arbitrary language; and he has profited much thereby. He acquires words slowly, and uses them slowly, but takes great pleasure in both processes, and has already made a considerable acquisition of words. For instance, here are some of his sentences as he made them early in the year. Wishing to inform his teacher that he had been out fishing with two persons, he said, "Oliver, fish, boat, Thomas, Bradford." Pointing out to his teacher a rat hole in the wainscot he said eat rat. Having made a little boat and rigged it with sails, he put it into a trough of water, and, blowing too hard, overset it, which he related to his teacher thus -- Water, boat, Oliver, blow, fall. Wishing to express the fact of witnessing a person sawing and cutting wood, he said, "Wood, saw, Thomas;" and "wood, axe, cut, Thomas." The slaughtering of the pig which he had been made to comprehend before he came here, and which was referred to in the last report, seems to have made a strong impression on his mind. One day he wrote down of his own accord "Pig, fall, knife, cut, leg, Oliver," which I interpret; the Pig fell down cut by a knife, and he, Oliver, used his legs, and ran away.

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