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Helen Keller's studies under my direction began early in February, 1898, and ended in June, 1899, occupying in all about thirteen months. During the first five of these months instruction and recitation came only once a week, in a period of three and a half hours. During about eight months, beginning with the middle of October, 1898, we had lessons five times a week, in periods of somewhat more than one hour each. In June, 1899, we worked together only twice, she being in Wrentham, Mass., with Miss Sullivan, in a lakeside cottage, pursuing her studies under my directions, partly by mail; and also enjoying the pleasures of outdoor life, such as boating and bathing and bicycle riding. Considering the limitations of time and other conditions to be described governing our work, one may readily judge, as this narrative proceeds, whether the results were commensurate with the efforts.

A few weeks before this campaign of study began, Miss Keller had been taken from the Cambridge School, in which, the year before, she had studied in preparation for the preliminary examinations for admission to Radcliffe College, under circumstances which had seriously unnerved so gentle and sensitive, and withal so ambitious, a scholar. It is not for me here to dilate upon those circumstances, or pass judgment upon those responsible for them. I allude to them because I was warned by one of Helen's best friends, the one who engaged me to tutor her, to be on the watch for any signs of overwork, or undue nervous strain. I was told that it was a common impression that she was often under too high pressure of work, and in danger of breaking down. It was implied that there existed considerable difference of opinion about this, and that the Director of the Cambridge Fitting School, above mentioned, entertained the belief of her being overworked. I was very solemnly cautioned against incurring the risk of the realization of such woful forebodings. Especially just at the juncture where we then were, with Helen hardly recovered from the shock of recent events, the question of health was of prime importance.

It was allowed by all that my one session a week ought to be two or three sessions of shorter periods. I could not, in the three and one-half hours Saturdays, do justice to all the work which Helen could prepare for me during the preceding week. I always had to leave much unfinished, or even untouched. And yet the Saturday period was in one sense too long; the strain of continuous drill or instruction, mostly in Mathematics, for three and a half hours was often very great, even for me. Miss Sullivan was sometimes well nigh exhausted, and now and then I gave Helen a respite by changing from Mathematics to Greek. For it was the Algebra and the Plane Geometry that we spent the most time on. The Latin we at first omitted, and soon, in order to gain time Saturdays for Mathematics, I corrected at home written work in Greek consisting of translations from Greek into English and from English into Greek, my corrections being supplemented by liberal remarks on constructions and principles suggested by her work.

But these difficulties attending our work at Wrentham were considered unavoidable. It was hardly possible for me to go twice a week to Wrentham, a place about twenty-six miles from Boston with inconvenient railway accommodations. The journey thither and back and the lessons took nearly seven hours. The railway timetable fixed for us the period. The expense of more frequent lessons would have been great. It was intended that Helen should for awhile at least pursue her studies rather leisurely. Her residence in Cambridge, or in Boston, would have been better educationally, and for me personally; but Wrentham was, all things considered, thought to be the best place for Helen. The home-life there, -- the outdoor recreations, were indeed ideal. A country farmhouse, children driving, bicycle riding, boating, bathing, wood and field rambling, a free and joyous life in close communion with nature, -- may not these things be reckoned among the means of wholesome education?

Director Gilman, of the Cambridge School, had laid out for Helen a three years' course of study in preparation for the final examinations at Radcliffe; it was hoped that I might be able to encourage the belief that entrance to Radcliffe could be attained in 1899. Could Miss Keller endure the strain? Every one, including the persistent, energetic, indomitable Miss Sullivan, seemed utterly discouraged over the Algebra and Geometry. I was pathetically asked again and again, during the first five or six weeks, whether we were torturing poor Helen on the rack of Mathematics; whether there was a grain of profit to her in such studies, or any hope of success in the examinations in them. Of course, Helen neither liked them nor saw any good in them. One rarely likes, or sees the use of, failure. Delight comes from success, and appreciation from ample knowledge. Appeal had been made to Miss Irwin, Dean of Radcliffe, who had suggested that Helen might be allowed to substitute at the examinations subjects more congenial to her.

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Such, then, were some of the difficulties encountered at the beginning; hard, perhaps insurmountable heights to be climbed by one who (it was surmised) had not the strength to climb and who, if the summit should be reached, could not see all the glories there. Worse than this, it was hinted that with Helen a break-down might be fraught with more terrible consequences than in ordinary cases, that total collapse would ensue.

My duties, then, at first were those of the kind physician, as well as those of the ambitious tutor. And here let me gratefully make known the debt we owe -- Miss Keller, Miss Sullivan, and I -- to Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Chamberlin, at whose house in Wrentham were found the comforts and delights of home. It was upon them that I chiefly relied for information of Helen's physical condition, and I was partly guided by them in arrangements for work; while in innumerable ways and in frequent emergencies they have been a comfort and help to Helen and Miss Sullivan.

But fears of collapse were groundless. At least I soon came to that conclusion. Miss Sullivan, to whom I communicated these fears -- not at first, but after three or four weeks -- declared that Helen had not had, or needed, a physician for years; that, to be sure, she had been in a terribly nervous state after the trouble in Cambridge, but that then there seemed no especial danger. Success, too, lightened work. The Algebra snarls we soon began to unravel, and in their place to weave some fabrics of fair texture. The Geometry was more perplexing, but gave us some new hopes. So that I was bold enough to argue at some length in favor of the Mathematics in a letter to Mrs. Laurence Hutton, who had written to me her doubts on that subject and had consulted Miss Irwin. It seemed to me that Helen needed the drill in accuracy and in logic afforded by Mathematics. History, literature, and languages she masters with wonderful facility. There seems no limit to the possibility of her achievement there. Her joy in life and her power of service to the world (as far as these result from mental attainments through education) will find their chief sources there. The poetic and imaginative qualities of her mind will find ample field for their natural and due development without great need of teachers; but certain correctives, or balances, are necessary to perfect and sane development. The state of mind implied by such statements as Helen made about Mathematics 1 showed not only her need of information, but a lack of appreciation of the limitations and conditions of civilized life.

It must not be inferred from what has been written that Helen objected to the study of Mathematics. Far from it. It would have been a deep mortification to her to acknowledge defeat. Her ambition and her confidence in her own power to master whatever she has once undertaken are two of her most marked traits of mind. Her desire to know Algebra was doubtless of a far different kind and intensity from that to learn how to speak when she began with Miss Fuller. But she was all eagerness to learn, and seemed, as far as I could judge, during the first few weeks all the more determined to succeed and all the more plucky in the fight, because others had been in despair. This had furnished me with another argument for persisting in the mathematical studies. Disappointment and chagrin at failure would, I believe, have had a worse effect on her health than the mere mental labor necessary to success. Successful toil is the fountain of health and sanity.

With these drawbacks and hardships, then, we worked from early February, 1898, till July, 1898. In May, Helen and I wrote for The Silent Worker, a periodical published at Trenton, N. J., devoted to the interests of the deaf, the following account of her studies:

MY DEAR MR. JENKINS:

I cannot write an article for the Silent Worker, but I will tell you as briefly as I can in a letter what I have been doing since I left the Cambridge School last December.

But, before I begin, let me assure you that I am perfectly well. I was not ill when my mother removed me from Mr. Gilman's school. Indeed, I have not been ill enough to have a physician for several years -- not since I was quite a little girl.

My studies at present consist of Greek, Algebra, and Geometry. I pursue these studies under the guidance of an excellent tutor, Mr. Keith, assisted by Miss Sullivan. Mr. Keith comes out here once a week and teaches me for three hours. He explains what I did not understand in the previous lesson, assigns new work and takes the Greek exercises, which I have written during the week on my Greek typewriter, home with him, corrects them fully and clearly, and returns them to me. In this way my preparation for college has gone on uninterruptedly. I find it much easier and pleasanter to be taught by myself than to receive instruction in classes. There is no hurry, no confusion. My teacher has plenty of time to explain what I do not understand, so I get on faster and do better work than I ever did in school. I still find more difficulty in mastering problems in mathematics than I do in any other of my studies. But I am not discouraged. I am going to conquer them, and right soon, too!

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In Greek I have practically finished the grammar, and am now reading the "Anabasis," and shall soon begin the "Iliad." I admire Greek very much indeed. It is easier to read than Latin, I think, and much more spontaneous and beautiful. I wish algebra and geometry were only half as easy for me as languages and literature! But somehow I cannot make myself care very much whether two and two make four or five, or whether two lines drawn from the extremities of the base of an isosceles triangle are equal or not. I cannot see that the knowledge of these facts makes life any sweeter or nobler!

On the other hand, each language I learn reveals a new world to me. If I sit down to study my "Aeneid," new thoughts, new ideas, new aspirations flash out from the Latin words with almost the same vividness and freshness they did when the meaning of my own beautiful language, first dawned upon my imprisoned soul.

Perhaps it may interest your readers to know that I spend as much time as possible in the open air. I take a little walk every morning before I begin work. It is my morning hymn, the key-note of my day. And most every pleasant day when my lessons are learned, I go wandering into the woods with a dear little friend in search of sheltered nooks, where wild flowers love to grow. Sometimes we follow a little brook through field and meadow, finding new treasures at every step, not only of flower and grass, but of thought and sweet experience also.

As to plans, I have but one, and that is to take my final examinations for college a year from now. Of course it is my fervent wish and earnest determination to pass them with credit for my teacher's sake as well as my own. Further than this I have not tried to look into the future; the present is so rich in all that makes life sweet and happy, I have no time for dreaming dreams or building air-castles.

Sincerely yours,

HELEN KELLER.

WRENTHAM, MASS., May 25.

Mr. WESTON JENKINS:

DEAR SIR: The foregoing letter from Miss Helen Keller must so far surpass in interest to your readers anything that I can write that I have hesitated about adding anything to it. Some details, however, may enhance the value of her general statement about her studies.

Miss Keller began work with me about four months ago. In Greek she already knew well the first and second declensions of nouns and adjectives and the indicative mood of verbs in w; and had translated very simple short sentences from Greek into English and from English into Greek. During the four months of Greek under my direction, she has mastered with absolute precision all the varied forms of Attic Greek Inflection, including about 150 verbs, classified according to seeming irregularities, and all the intricacies of Greek Syntax needed for ease and rapidity of power of translation. She has perfect control of fifteen hundred common Greek words, which she knows not merely as isolated facts, but as organisms growing from root or stem with significant suffixes and prefixes. In other words, she has systematically studied the principles of derivation and formation and affinity of words.

In doing this she has translated and written out for me with her type-writer about one thousand sentences, Greek into English, and six hundred sentences, English into Greek, many being long and intricate. She has translated about ten pages of simplified "Anabasis" and begun the "First Book of Xenophon's Anabasis." Her progress here will be very rapid, because her equipment is strong in accurate knowledge of forms, in clear appreciation of constructions and idioms, in ample and workable vocabulary, and in correct methods of study.

She takes delight in analyzing words, in tracing the development of their meanings, and in detecting their affinities. In translating she places the minimum dependence on the dictionary; for very often, by derivation or by inference from the context, she judges, within the limitations of the grammatical structure, the meaning of new words. Notes and helps in advance of her own strenuous efforts at interpretation, she spurns.

In a very short time she will be reading Homer with delight.

When I first inquired into Miss Keller's condition in Algebra, I found her preparation for doing that part of the subject with which she was then dealing altogether superficial. Accordingly I copied Socrates, and proceeded on the assumption that she knew nothing, to the end that she might know something. I aimed at giving her such mathematical conceptions, such accuracy in methods and such mental grasp as would improve her mind and bring some pleasure in the work. Especially I experimented to learn how far I could rely on her doing without raised type, how far she could carry in her mind algebraic language, and perform in her mind varied changes in algebraic processes. She has succeeded marvellously. Long and involved changes and combinations she handles with accuracy and ease.

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The following example she did yesterday mentally, without external help, after it was communicated to her by manual alphabet:

- - +

In this example the mind had to retain its grasp of the terms, as it was performing, in proper succession, seven or eight steps; then, taking up eight new-found terms, had to combine them in pairs, factor the result, and then cancel between numerator and denominator.

In four months more, I am confident, she could, with lessons only once a week, master the whole of those parts of Algebra required for admission to Harvard College. Already the foundations have been laid and enough of the superstructure raised to assure the harmonious and perfect completion of the work.

In Geometry it seemed to me necessary not only to begin anew, but even to undo. Starting with very elementary concepts about space, points, lines, angles, etc., we have traversed carefully the matter usually contained in the first book of Plane Geometry, together with many "originals." I have forbidden the doing of any proposition by memorizing what has been told her. She has been taught to work out originally everything possible. For instance, all the theorems about quadrilaterals were reasoned out carefully by her in my presence, her previous reading having been only the necessary definitions.

Although her Geometry has given us more trouble than any other subject, she has shown herself able to do the work in the proper methods and spirit. And I have no doubt that before long she will revise her estimate of the value of mathematical studies.

Truly yours,

MERTON S. KEITH.

46 Irving street, Cambridge, Mass.

Now compare these statements about Helen's proficiency in Algebra and her estimate of Mathematics written at the same time. She evidently had not yet seen much beauty, or good of any kind, in Arithmetic, which she had studied in the Cambridge School, or in the Algebra. Much lower was her estimate of Geometry. Yet she could then do mentally, without hint from me, after I had twice read them to her, examples such as these:

1) a2 - -b-2a2 -{3c2 + 4b - (3a2 - 2b +c2)}- }-

2) x / (x3 + y3) - y / (x3 - y3) + x3y + xy3 / x6 - y6

3) I / a - -a2 -I- /a + (I / a - 1)

Indeed, the first example is like those she did in the way described at the third lesson we had. The others she did in like manner within three months after we began.

I had found her mental condition in Algebra very much confused. She was then working on simultaneous equations, and yet I found her unable accurately or understandingly to work simple equations of one unknown quantity; even transposition of terms was for her a stumbling-block. She had hardly any knowledge of factoring, or of fractions. Least Common Multiple and Greatest Common Factor were practically impossibilities for her. She had had no drill by means of the Braille type-writer in doing even rather simple examples in long division, or in multiplication. She was very inaccurate in addition and subtraction. This condition of things was discovered at the first talk I had with her. The text-book was changed, and I began the subject as if she knew nothing of it. Of course, she had some ideas about the meaning of the negative sign, although even here I found it necessary to discuss the subject thoroughly, that her knowledge might be more than merely mechanical. Indeed, we discussed together carefully and with many practical illustrations the nature and use and value of Algebra in general compared with Arithmetic. In our second lesson we took up simple examples like No. 1. I set out to discover how far I could rely on her eager attention, tenacity of mental grasp, and memory to save her the time and weariness of paper work. I was delighted to find her able, after some practice, not only to carry in her mind the example with its complications of letters and coefficients and exponents and various signs, but to perform mentally the operations through to the solution. And from that day on she has ever been taught to rely on the Braille, the raised points punctured in paper, only in cases of very great complexity, or when she is anxious to avoid every chance of error in examination. Not only in removing brackets, but in factoring, in multiplying binominals, and raising binominals to powers, and in much of division she has used no Braille. In this way much time was saved, and very thorough, permanent impressions were made upon her mind. We had a long tussle over long division and Greatest Common Divisor by long division, chiefly because of the difficulty of producing the work in Braille, and arranging the work within the limits of the sheets of paper. But we succeeded in devising short cuts even there, and after four or five lessons devoted to these topics she became quite expert. Now she is so sharp at factoring that she often surprises me with the little written work used in arriving at the answer.

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By July, 1898, she was ready for examination in Algebra except-in the following parts: Quadratic Equations, Surds, Ratio and Proportion, and part of the Theory of Indices. Resuming work in October she mastered the theory and method of solving Quadratic Equations by applying the factoring method first, as in the example (x -- a) (x -- b = 0, and never resorting to the methods of completing the square, unless the task of factoring was very difficult or impossible. Being taught how we obtain, from the equation ax2 + bx + c = 0, x = -b + or - square root of b2 - 4ac / 2a it was remarkable how soon she became expert in solving all numerical quadratics, and how quickly she could tell whether the values of were exact or surd. But in literal quadratics we had something of a tussle. For here again she had to resort much to the Braille in the more complex examples, and errors crept in very often. But, after a time, here again she became accurate and rapid in her work.

In the Theory of Exponents and in Surds and Ratio and Proportion she had no great difficulties. In examples containing fractional and odd exponents she was rather subject to error, apparently on account of the mechanical troubles in recording her work.

And of what use to her has the Algebra been? Is it simply that her ambition has been gratified? or that she has experienced the exhilarating joy springing from successful effort? This fruition of work she has indeed had during the last three quarters of the time devoted to Algebra; and, more, she has taken delight in the work for itself. She has done it not as a mere task. Clearness and definiteness have been added to many a mental picture once obscurely outlined, or dimly colored. Her mental vision has been sharpened to discern relations unseen before. She has seen order and simplicity and neatness and rigid exactitude issue from confusion and complexity. She has acquired new qualities of mind, or at least developed or strengthened latent ones. She has seen new beauty and heard new harmony.

In Geometry I found that about one-half of Book I had been studied and repeatedly reviewed since the previous October. But Miss Sullivan's laments over Helen's frequent failures with propositions reviewed many, many times showed that either our task was impossible, or the methods must be changed. Here too, as in the case of the Algebra, the subject was taken up anew, as if she had never studied it. I talked with her about the simplest elements of Geometry; such as points, lines, angles, surfaces. By means of the cushion and the wires with bent and pointed ends, I gave her much tactical practice in judging position, distance, direction, parellelism, angular quantities, etc. I found her defective here, and constantly in need of patient and persistent practice. Her judgment of position, size, and form in Geometry seemed poor. Her imagination in geometric fundamentals needed stimulation. I found, too, that many misconceptions stood in the way of her getting right ones, and had to be detected and removed.

Accordingly, I was so careful about methods of statement and of proof, that for the first two or three months I did not allow her to take any new steps except under my immediate direction. She studied between recitations only in review of what I had done with her. Propositions which she had studied with others, but which I had not yet done with her, I tried to have her forget, and go over with me afresh, while I led her along by question and hint, to the end that she might get some insight into the meaning of the subject, and especially into the method and logic of it. Every proposition wholly new to her was done originally. The first statement of it she had ever heard was from me. She repeated the proposition until she stated it correctly, and then she drew the figure on the cushion. If this was correct, she lettered it and stated algebraically the hypothesis and conclusion. She was then asked to analyze the requirements of the conclusion and the facts given in the hypothesis, to find relations between them suggesting the proof, or suggesting facts already proved leading to the proof. If this analysis suggested new construction, she drew it and lettered it, and renewed her analysis. Of course, there is no originality in this method. All good teachers of Geometry follow this method except where synthesis may lead more directly to proof. I simply had to be more careful and patient with Helen at first than would be necessary in teaching her other subjects; and this, either because her intuitive powers were weak here, or her mind had been confused and misdirected in her previous study of the subject. I am very sure that both reasons are necessary to an explanation of her early difficulties. The second reason I am positive holds. For she certainly had somehow got the notion that memorizing the proofs of others was the chief secret in Geometry. She seemed bewildered in a mass of words and disconnected ideas of no value or interest, and not even of much meaning. To tell her the method of work, to show her how to help herself to the use of facts or ideas already familiar and admitted to be true, in order to come at new truths not before acknowledged, was the real task. To get one proposition proved by herself in the proper way, even if it required days of teaching and study, was worth more than her ability to rehearse another's proofs of a hundred propositions.

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One very important pedagogic principle, familiar to all teachers, but very often disregarded, has been deeply impressed upon my mind in my experience in teaching Miss Keller. Apparent stupidity (not habitual) on the part of a pupil is much more often due to wrong preconceptions than is commonly realized. Reiteration of the proper view in all possible variation of language is of no avail as long as the wrong impression is present in the pupil's mind. During the first few months of our work together, there were occasions when Helen's mind seemed impervious to statements which seemed to me absolutely clear and simple, about facts or ideas equally simple. Work came to a standstill, or got into a tangle. She seemed obstinately stupid. When the trouble was over, it was always discovered that a misconception had thwarted our efforts. By questionings, by asking her freely to give her ideas on the subject in hand, or by going back to the primal elements underlying it, I always succeeded in finding the false notion. Sometimes I had been at fault in some ambiguous or inaccurate form of statement, sometimes her own imagination had distorted the facts by some strange association of ideas; sometimes it was hard to see the cause. But with the wrong idea removed, the right one usually came to her like a flash of light. By care and deliberation in the method of presenting a subject, and above all, in the choice or order of words, cases of misunderstanding became very few. During the last part of our work together the rapidity and smoothness of the progress of instruction were remarkable.

Doubtless with Miss Keller, more than with the seeing and hearing pupil, it is incumbent on the teacher to convey the correct impression first. With her avidity for knowledge, vividness of imagination, rapid and complex association of ideas, and her tenacity of mental grasp, the first impression is very strong and persistent. To correct or remove it and replace it by another is difficult, chiefly for these reasons. One of the most remarkable facts about her seems to me to be that she so rarely gets first impressions wrong, and arrives at conceptions which are on the whole so sane and perfect.

By July 1, 1898, we had finished Book I in Geometry, with about fifty "originals," and made a beginning on Book II. From October 15, 1898, to February 1, 1899, we finished the Geometry, with frequent reviews and many originals. In doing the latter Books she had the use of a book of raised letters and figures, which rendered her progress more rapid. But it would have been unwise to use it from the beginning, or to use it in all the propositions of the later Books.

It must be noted that Miss Keller labored under much greater disadvantages in Geometry than in Algebra, or in any other subject. For she used no Braille to record her own work, having only a figure, constructed often with much trouble, to refer to. She had to carry in her mind the lettering of the figures, the hypothesis and conclusion, the construction, and the process of proof. To keep the mind clear under such conditions is very hard. After seeing through the proof, perhaps by many trials, she had to record the results by her typewriter for the examiner. This in itself is a great task to do accurately, as was often shown by misprints, or mistakes about the naming of lines, or by the omissions of steps in proof which had been really in her mind. All these things required patient practice, and consumed much time. To give her practice with economy of time, we sometimes did theorems wholly in the mind, even the figures with the lettering being only mentally pictured. We were very successful here. I give one instance of a problem thus solved by her correctly in about five minutes.

Problem: The diameter of a circle is 20 inches. Through a point in the diameter four inches from one end a chord is drawn perpendicular to the diameter. What is the length of the chord? and what are the lengths of the chords drawn from the ends of this chord to the ends of the diameter?

CE = square root of (AE x EB) = square root of 16 x 4 = 8

triangle CD = 16Ans. (I)

AC = square root of AB x AE = square root of 20 x 16 = 8 x square root of 5 Ans.

CB = square root of AB x EB = square root of 20 x 4 = 4 x square root of 5 Ans.

From February 1, 1899, till June 1 Miss Keller did about fifty examination papers in Geometry, consisting of review book-work and originals; and also, about twenty Harvard Admission Examination Papers. These were almost wholly written out for me to examine, and were carefully reviewed and discussed. During June I did very little work with her in Algebra and Geometry, but kept her occupied with originals. Most of this she did so well that I needed but little time with her.

Miss Keller had had something more than two months' Greek when I began my work with her in February, 1898. My article of May, 1898, quoted already, describes the early stages of the work. In five months we had practically completed a very full course in etymology and syntax in a very thorough manner, and applied it all in the translation of Greek into English, and English into Greek. She had by July, 1898, translated nearly two Books of the Anabasis, mostly by herself, as I had had but very little time to hear her recite much connected narrative, perhaps not more than twenty pages. During the summer vacation of 1898 she finished two more Books of the Anabasis by herself. She had the first Four Books in Braille.

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From October 15, 1898, till July, 1899, she read many selections from Xenophon's works (the later books of the Anabasis, the Hellenica, the Cyropedia, Agesilaus, and the Symposium) and from Arrian and Thucydides. These passages were often made the basis of written examinations, in which she was not allowed the use of dictionary or grammar. At other times I translated to her passages which she had had trouble with. These were used as a means of teaching her new facts or principles of the language, or facts and principles of especial difficulty, or not at the time familiar enough to her, or to illustrate methods of study, or to give practice in translating the same passage closely into many forms of idiomatic English.

The amount of Greek Prose, however, which Helen has read is not great; not as much as my pupils usually read; but it has been very varied in style, and representing many phases of life and manners. It was difficult to find time to read more, with the Homer and Cicero and Virgil and Geometry demanding so much time. Geometry, even in the later months, kept absorbing more time than any other one subject. Homer and Cicero were only begun late in October, 1898, and there were at that time still eight Books of Virgil which I wished her to read.

Homer has from the first been a paradise to Miss Keller. After two or three preliminary talks on some of the most common peculiarities of Homeric Greek as distinguished from Attic, and some study of the history of the poems, with a little of the theories in the so-called Homeric Question, we plunged boldly into the Iliad itself. Her mind and fancy were allowed to range at will along that Trojan strand, where Chryses' prayers mingled with the sighs of ocean, and Achilles' petitioning cry reached the ears of his Nereid mother; the master hand of the greatest poet depicted upon her brain scenes of passion and strife and pity and love among gods and men -- scenes never before or since painted so simply and faithfully and vividly. Mentally she saw the sights and heard the sounds of those ancient days, as the blind bard had seen and heard them in the sky above and on the earth and sea.

In all her language study, I have allowed her to read thus by herself -- much as she would read English, and without minute analysis, or attention to details of construction and grammar. Of course, we lingered here and there on some passage of surpassing beauty, or power, or truth, but the pity of it seemed to be that the teacher's instinct and duty made me devote some time to the drudgery of etymology and syntax. For instance, 100 lines in Book I were ransacked for illustrations of Homeric forms and constructions, and for drill in derivation and scanning. And now and then, at later stages in the study of Homer, minute consideration was given to the mere mechanism of the language. All this was of course necessary for Helen as well as for any other pupil, as she is much in the habit of getting at the meaning of passages of foreign languages by intuitive insight, or by impulsive grasp, needing often the correction of grammatical literalness. This need has, however, not been seen so much in Greek as in Latin. For in her thirteen months' study of Greek with me she had, from the first, been trained to great precision and care in her examination of words and sentences. She became very skilful in her power of analysis of the word or phrase, and expert in inferring the meaning from derivation and construction in connection with the context. Her power of minute analysis had been carefully trained, and she seemed less inclined in Greek than in Latin toward premature inference of meaning without due attention to form of word and to grammar. In Latin I have found her much more likely to get a translation utterly wrong without her suspecting it, simply because she had neglected word-formation and syntax, and trusted only to the meanings of the words, all of which she knew. I think, too, it has been much more usual for her to get good idiomatic English in the translation of Greek than in the translation of Latin. This is probably partly due to the natures of the languages, to the comparative simplicity and clearness of thought and expression in the Greek prose and in the Homer, while in Cicero and in Virgil there are greater complexity and subtlety. But I believe her comparative difficulties at first in learning Cicero were also due to a weaker power and habit of analysis of word and sentence. This power and habit she strengthened to a high degree finally, but only by considerable patience and prodding.

To return to the Homer. Helen read in all about six Books of the Iliad and Book I of the Odyssey. The Iliad Books were I -- III, IX, XVI, and parts of the later Books. Books I -- III and IX were in Braille, facilitating the work. I had, early in 1898, made out a list of the Books of the Iliad and Odyssey which I wished her to have in Braille, but there seemed to be some misunderstanding and much delay, so that we never received one-half of what we wanted. Book XVI and the later books were therefore read under difficulties and slowly.

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Helen did no work with me in Latin until late in October, 1898. We then began Cicero. She had in Braille the four Catiline Orations, the Manilian Law and Archias. These she read entire, as so much literature, and as rapidly and freely as she wished. She read thus two Catiline Orations before I cross-questioned her much on the text and tested her translations, to learn her defects and needs. Then we went over the Third Catiline Oration together carefully, with minute attention to grammar, analysis of word and sentence, rhetorical order of words, style, logic, etc.

Helen also read by the manual alphabet selections from many of Cicero's works, -- chiefly political speeches, but some philosophical passages. We read during the last three months the best parts of Pro P. Sestio, De Provinciis Consularibus, and In L. Calpurnium Pisonem. These selections and parts of Orations were carefully reviewed in recitations, with a view to giving her the kind of drill I had found she needed. The passages selected were usually hard, of varied styles and subject-matter; and she often had considerable trouble with them at first. Indeed, I was often rather surprised at the perversity of meaning, or the poor English resulting from her work. For every one knows Helen's skill in English. The nature of the difficulties and the reasons for them I have somewat discussed already. I had especial trouble in teaching her analysis of words. In Latin she seemed to look upon a compound or derived word as an entity, or at least to lack the habit of picking the word to pieces and seeing the probable meaning by derivation. She eventually acquired the habit, but it took longer than I thought it ought to take with one possessed of her remarkable memory.

Her translations in Latin were rarely bad from being too literal, but generally from being too free without giving the sense, or giving it imperfectly. She had to learn to translate literally, or rather see the meaning without translation in the Latin order, as a Roman would have seen it. After several perusals of a passage in that manner, she was taught to turn it into good English. Thus she learned the Latin idiom, and drop-ping it from consciousness but holding to the idea, sought an English idiom for the expression of that idea. Of course these processes are not easy. The learning of Latin idioms is difficult enough; to see the real meaning of the Latin idiom when its literal translation seems nonsense is hard enough; but to drop the mould in which the thought has once been cast and find a new and appropriate English mould is often harder still. In short, the art of good translation is far more difficult than even many good and experienced teachers of language realize.

Again, the subject-matter of Cicero's harder passages, the political, constitutional, legal, and social questions involved in them, the rhetoric and logic, and the consequent peculiarities of phraseology, order and style, present to most pupils hard problems, compared with the usually simple narrative of Caesar or Nepos. Miss Keller in particular must have found much in Cicero foreign to her experience, and hard to comprehend.

But she overcame all difficulties. She has attained the facility of understanding Cicero and translating him into idiomatic English that brings to its possessor delight. She appreciates and admires the brilliancy of Cicero's eloquence, the copiousness of his diction, the vehemence of his invective and satire, the subtlety of his irony, the lofty grandeur of his moral sentiments, and the nobility and wisdom of much of his political philosophy. She has, too, noted his defects -- his vanity, his habit of loquacious self-praise, the foulness of his scurrility, and the specious or disingenuous quality of many of his arguments.

In Virgil, Miss Keller has been her own teacher more than in any other subject. I have read with her only 500 or 600 lines (these, however, very carefully and slowly), while she has read about 10,000 lines -- the whole of the Aeneid and a little from the Eclogues. It seems easy and natural for her to see the meaning and appreciate the inner feeling of the great Roman poet. She had read about three Books before October, 1898, and she read in the following six or seven months six Books more, leaving for very rapid reading, during May and June, 1899, Books X, XI, and XII. Her translations to me were at first too free, and often inaccurate, but later they became close and exact, idiomatic and rhythmical. The diction became highly poetic, both in choice and order of words and phrases, and in structure of sentences. I believe Miss Keller is capable of giving the world, at some future time, in rhythmical prose, a new version of Virgil, which would possess high and peculiar merit.

To sum up, Miss Keller was fitted to pass the Radcliffe Examinations in Elementary Algebra and Plane Geometry in thirteen months; in Elementary Greek Prose, omitting the two months spent in it before she began work with me, in thirteen months; in the last nine Books of Virgil in about eight months; in Cicero in eight months; in Homer in eight months. Doubtless in all of these subjects she could have passed good examinations even had they been taken considerably earlier -- the Algebra and Greek Prose three months, and the others one or two months earlier.

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The requirements for admission to Radcliffe College are identical with those for admission to Harvard College; the examinations are identical, and take place at the same hours. The examinations in the Languages mostly consist in translation at sight; that is, care is taken to present to the candidate passages unlikely to have been seen before. Much stress is laid on the use of good, idiomatic English in the translations, which, however, must be close. Questions based on the passages set for translation and relating to grammar and the subject-matter form the rest of the examination. In Plane Geometry usually rather more than half the paper is intended to be sight, or original, work, the rest being the book-work of the common textbooks. In Algebra, also, the intent of the examiners seems to be to test the originality and the ingenuity, as well as the knowledge and accuracy and readiness, of the candidate.

The examinations were to come on the last two days of June. During the months of preparation we had never provided for any other method of examination than that to which she had always been accustomed -- communication of the contents of examination papers by the manual alphabet, as used by her "Teacher," Miss Sullivan. Mr. Gilman had performed that service in the preliminary examinations two years before, in the manner described by him. But it was thought best to render it impossible that any doubt as to the genuineness and fairness of the examinations should ever arise in the mind of the most sceptical critic. And although it seemed to me that no one ought ever to cavil at an examination which had been conducted with Miss Sullivan as interpreter, or reader, of the papers, it was agreed on both sides that some one should be found who could reproduce the papers in the raised characters used by the blind and known as Braille -- some one who had had no educational, or even personal, relations with Helen and whom she had never known. Such a person was found in Mr. Eugene C. Vining, of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, South Boston.

Mr. Vining met Helen for the first time a few minutes before the hour for the first examination -- that in Elementary Greek. It had been arranged that he should send to Helen a few days previously for her inspection sample Radcliffe Examination Papers, transcribed by him in Braille, to make sure that there should be no hitch. It was fortunate that this provision had been made, as will be seen on reading the following account which Helen herself has given of the examinations:

HOW I PASSED MY ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS FOR RADCLIFFE COLLEGE.

On the 29th and 30th of June, 1899, I took my examinations for Radcliffe College. The first day I had Elementary Greek and Advanced Latin, and the second day Geometry, Algebra, and Advanced Greek.

The college authorities objected to Miss Sullivan's reading the examination papers to me; so Mr. Eugene C. Vining, one of the instructors at the Perkins Institution for the Blind, was employed to copy the papers for me in American Braille. Mr. Vining was a perfect stranger to me, and could not communicate with me, except by writing Braille. The Proctor also was a stranger, and did not attempt to communicate with me in any way.

However, the Braille worked well enough in the languages, but when it came to Geometry and Algebra it was different. I was sorely perplexed, and felt quite discouraged, and wasted much precious time, especially in Algebra. It is true that I am perfectly familiar with all literary Braille -- English, American, and New York Point; but the method of writing the various signs or symbols (used in Geometry and Algebra) in the three systems is very different, and I had used only the English method in my Algebra work.

Two days before the examinations Mr. Vining sent me a Braille copy of one of the previous examination papers in Algebra; but, to my dismay, I found that it was in the American notation. I sat down immediately, and wrote to Mr. Vining, asking him to explain some of the signs. I received another paper and a table of signs by return mail, and I went to work to learn the notation. However, on the night before the Algebra examination, when I was struggling over some very complicated examples, I could not tell the combinations of bracket, brace, and radicals. Both Mr. Keith and I were distressed and full of forebodings for the morrow; but we went over to the College, a little before the examinations began, and had Mr. Vining explain more fully the method of writing such examples.

In Geometry my chief difficulty was that I had always been accustomed to reading the propositions in Line Print or having them spelled into my hand; and somehow, although the propositions were right before me, yet the Braille confused me, and I could not fix in my mind clearly what I was reading. But when I took up Algebra I had a harder time still. I was terribly handicapped by my imperfect knowledge of the notation. The signs, which I had so lately learned, and which I thought I knew perfectly, confused me. Consequently my work was painfully slow, and I was obliged to read the examples over and over before I could form a clear idea what I was required to do. Indeed, I am not sure now that I read all the signs correctly, especially as I was much distressed, and found it very hard to keep my wits about me.

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But I do not blame any one. They did not realize how difficult they were making the examinations for me, nor did they understand the peculiar difficulties which I had to surmount. But if they unintentionally placed obstacles in my way, I have the consolation of knowing that I overcame them all.

HELEN KELLER.

To this story of struggle and victory I wish to add here only a few words by way of explanation. In regard to the time allowance, Helen exceeded the limits only in the Mathematics. Here it had been agreed that because of the mechanical difficulties in recording the results of her work for the examiner, she should be allowed extensions of time. In doing and writing out Algebra papers for me, she had, at first, taken sometimes three hours, or more; but she had by practice usually completed them well within the time limit of one and one-half hours. So it had been also with Geometry. Still in these subjects it was not surprising that so much time was consumed in the Radcliffe examinations. As I have explained already, it is very easy to make mistakes in this recording of work; and Helen explains the slowness partly by the fact of her being very careful to make no slips.

The examinations were over. The evening following was spent in some little discussion of the events of the day, but also with jovial diversion. Helen seemed bright and fresh. The next morning, at the breakfast table, on my jokingly asking her if she would like to try the examination that forenoon in Greek Prose Composition, she was all eagerness to try. A shadow of disappointment came over her face when I told her I had no intention of having her try.

On her return to Wrentham that day her mother remarked her freedom from nervousness and fatigue. Indeed, Mrs. Keller has since assured me that she had never seen Helen in as good health as just before and just after the examinations. Certain signs of nervousness which had for years been almost habitual with her had disappeared.

It was at first with some degree of disappointment to Helen that the results of the examinations were received. For she was only told that she had passed in every subject and with credit in Advanced Latin. The ambitious soul had aspired to approximate perfection in most of the subjects. In a letter to me on July announcing the results, she expressed her feelings in these words:

"I was bitterly disappointed not to have done better, and my disappointment often throws a shadow upon the pleasure which this summer is bringing me; but, dear Mr. Keith, I did my best, and I hope that in the future I may find a far better medium through which to show you my gratitude, and appreciation of what you have done for me."

It was a pity that the examinations happened to afford no better test of Miss Keller's real proficiency in Greek and Mathematics. It is a wonder that the Latin examination did give something like such a test. With the novelties of the American Braille and the strange isolation in which she worked and the various incitements to nervousness to which she was exposed, the results seem wonderful. Could she have done her work under the conditions habitual with her, higher marks would have been won, but the achievement would have been really no greater.

Soon after each examination in Latin and Greek she gave me orally from memory her version of the text. This she did wholly without reference to the paper which I held in my hand to follow her. Only once or twice in each case did she hesitate, as if in doubt as to what came next; and never did she fail in her remembrance of the text, or of her translation.

As to any helps to the theory or practice of teaching to be gained from the education of Miss Keller, the observant reader may have noted a few in the detailed account already made. Perhaps no absolutely new truths can be seen there; but certainly many a good old principle has been proved correct and a few doubtful ones made clearer. Her case is a new illustration of the fact that a good memory is at least a concomitant of high intelligence; but her education is also a proof that memory may be too much relied upon. While memory must be the ever ready and alert servant of the other powers of mind, it should be kept their servant. The stronger the memory the greater the danger of relying upon it too much. The powers of analysis, of comparison, judgment, and reasoning, and even of imagination, must be aroused and employed, or the materials furnished by experience and memory remain or become a meaningless mass or chaos. I do not mean to imply that Miss Keller's mind ever was in this condition, or in danger of being so; but I do mean that in the teaching of many subjects, especially of a high order, one must make constant appeals to first principles, constant appeals to all the faculties of mind, rather than rely on the mere memory of processes and results. The inner meaning of things, their logical relations, even imaginative views of them, must be gained.

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But exact and careful training of memory, through eager interest and attention, is indispensable. Every device possible in aid of memory should be used. And the cultivation of the other faculties of mind should aid the memory, as well as the memory aid them. Effort has a reflex action. For instance, it is certain that Miss Keller's pronouncing Greek words accurately helps her remember or recognize them. She often talks to herself while studying. The physical effort of the vocal organs reacts on the brain. For instance, while translating for me at sight a passage of Greek prose, she came across some Doric Greek: ? Two words, ? and ?, are also common Attic words; the first in Attic would be ? and the last would be ?. The last, also, at that time, she probably had but very rarely seen in her reading. She could not at first translate. The context did not help much. I waited quite a while. Then I asked her to pronounce the sentence carefully. She had hardly finished the pronouncing when the translation came.

Helen's memory has thus far in her education seemed her most remarkable gift. But her power of inference is also remarkable. Her memory can be so fully trusted, while the habit and power of inference are so often freakish, that the teacher naturally relies more on the former. I think I have partially shown where and when the latter power is dangerous, and why it needs training to secure accuracy. Association of ideas and liveliness of fancy are necessary, but need curbs and guidance. A broadened basis of related facts, a power of comparison and analysis, a habit of logical thinking are requisite.

It is in these higher powers of mind that Miss Keller has developed greatly during the last year. It is no longer her prodigious memory only that astounds me. Calmness and patience in collecting, examining, and comparing all the obtainable facts before making impulsive inference, repeated reconsideration of facts, and revision of judgment, sustained and logical thought combined with free flights of fancy -- these are the powers and qualities of mind that most command my admiration.

But with all her innate and acquired powers of mind she could not have attained her present eminence, had it not been for the moral, or quasi-moral, qualities of her soul. Ambition, undaunted courage, defiance of or glorying over obstacles, obstinate refusal to admit defeat, hope rising from incipient despair, self-respect and self-trust, patience and faith in planning or working or waiting for the consummation of effort -- these constitute her armor of victory.

It is idle to inquire whether Miss Keller's achievements are due to innate abilities or qualities, or to expert teaching. There has been some discussion on this point, but it seems to me fruitless. Of course both good teaching and good natural abilities are essential. In the cases of some remarkable men and women nature seems to have been the dominant factor, so much so that greatness seemed to come in spite of environment, or with lack of what we technically call education. But if all education is merely an unfolding, or evolution, it may take superhuman discernment to detect all the factors acting and reacting on each other. Much that seems unfavorable may be stimulative; much that seems favorable may be stupefactive. In cases like Miss Keller's it seems to me that good teaching and proper environment are even more necessary than in the case of the common student. More pitfalls have been in her way, and careful guidance has often been absolutely necessary.

Great as have been her achievements, equal results are, I believe, within the reach of many others. The merely intellectual qualities needed are not rare; it is their combination with moral powers that produces the seemingly magic results. Ambition stimulated by obstacles, persistent will and patience explain many of the wonders of Helen Keller's achievements.

M.S. Keith