reading. The innovation, consequently, is an
addition to, and not an alteration in, the modes
of learning to read actually in use, with which,
moreover, the phonomimic plan can be combined
with the greatest ease.

What most discourages a child who is learning
to read, is, that letters and syllables are
presented to him as abstractions—as things
without any definite meaning. The proof is the
delight which beams in his countenance when,
able to read currently, he finds in a word the
expression of some familiar idea. By attaching,
therefore, an idea to every sound and every
articulation of the voice; by representing the
same idea by a gesture, and then by making the
syllable (that is, the union of the articulating
consonant with the vocalic sound) a sort of
gymnastic exercise, the phonomimic system
satisfies the imperious craving felt by children
both for physical and intellectual exercise.

It is only after these preliminary exercises—
which are, in fact, a game of play—that the
children are shown the letters or the
combinations of letters necessary to represent the
different sounds and articulations ot a language.
Delighted at finding in the letters the same
ideas which he had previously expressed by
voice or gesture, the child retains the letters
with the same facility as he retained the objects
presented to his sight. For the details of M.
Grosselin's eight tableaux (to be had in France
for fifteen–pence, or in London for two shillings),
and the exercises based upon them, the reader
must consult that gentleman's Method; or,
better still, should behold it in action in a mixed
school of deaf–dumbs and hearing–speakers,
where alone its full interest can be appreciated.

The deaf–dumb, like the hearing–speaker,
possesses the two senses by means of which
mankind acquires almost the sum total of
its ideas; namely, sight and touch. Hearing
(of which speech is the correlative function) is
undoubtedly the most precious instrument for
communication; but with respect to the acquisition
of ideas themselves, the sense of hearing
may be placed pretty nearly on a level with
those of smell and taste.

There are only two ways of placing the deaf–
dumb in a social position as nearly analogous
as possible to that of the hearing–speaker. One
is, to teach him to speak, and to train him to
read speech on the lips; the other is, to
induce hearing–speakers to accept—besides the
oral language which addresses itself to the ear
—a manual language addressing itself to the
eye. In the system we are considering, the
language gesticulated being the exact
representation of the language spoken, the deaf–
dumb who has learned to pronounce sounds and
articulations, will translate gestures into words
with the same facility as the hearing–speaker
translates words into gestures. The simple
knowledge of the phonomimic alphabet
immediately puts both the one, and the other in a
condition to make this double translation.

Up to the present time, four methods have
been employed to enable deaf–dumbs to
communicate either amongst themselves or with hearers.
The first and oldest of these methods—
invented by the dumb themselves—is mimicry or
pantomime, which consists in representing every
idea by a gesture, sometimes natural, sometimes
conventional. Pantomime, the deaf–dumb's
language of predilection, constitutes a veritable
dialect, having its own peculiar vocabulary and
a syntax completely different from that of spoken
languages. Consequently, deaf–dumb families
are able to employ this language among
themselves without taking any trouble to learn it.
The second method is artificial articulation,
with its correlative, the reading of speech upon
the lips.

The two last methods (which, by their close
connexion, in reality form only one) are writing
and "dactylologie," or talking with the fingers.
But as both those methods are subjected to, and
dependent on, the rules of orthography, it is clear
that neither writing nor dactylologie can render
any service in putting deaf–dumbs in communication
with illiterate persons or little children.
Assuredly, deaf–dumbs ought to be taught to
write at the earliest possible opportunity; but
as writing is, for the hearing–speaker, only the
translation of oral language, so for the deaf–
dumb it ought to be only the translation of
manual language.

The phonomimic system, being based on the
representation of pronunciation itself, is
certainly the easiest instrument of communication.
The hearing–speaker who wishes to make use of
it is not even obliged to be able to read. When
once he knows the thirty–three gestures of the
phonomimic alphabet and their value, he has
only one thing to do in order to form gesticulated
words: namely, to accompany every sound
or articulation pronounced by his mouth, by the
gesture corresponding to it.

What does a mother do when any object,
action, or quality obtrudes itself on her infant's
notice and excites his attention? She pronounces
the word or the phrase which signifies
the object, the action, or the quality. What
ought the mother of a deaf–dumb child to do
under the circumstances? She will accompany
the sounds of her voice with the gestures which
are equivalent to them. The simple knowledge
of the phonomimic alphabet, therefore, enables a
mother and all who are about a deaf–dumb
child to be his first instructors, and to supply
him with the indispensable preliminary of all
education: a vocabulary.

A word about manual numeration. With one
single hand it is possible to represent all
numbers, however great or small they may be, by
combining the advantages of roman and decimal
numeration.

Four different positions of the hand represent:
first, what are called, in arithmetic, the orders,
that is to say, the units, the tens, and the
hundreds of each class of numbers; secondly, the
different classes of numbers, that is, the units,
properly so called, the thousands, the millions,
the billions, the trillions, and so on.

Held vertically, with the tips of the fingers