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Deaf and Dumb! It is hoped the title of the following book will excite attention: how much more, then, should the unhappy situation of those who are in that state demand compassion! and it is gratefully acknowledged, that in some benevolent minds the tide of pity has flowed even to them. An Asylum, on a plan more and more extensive, as the means of making it so has increased, has been formed for these once melancholy appellants to their commiseration, but who are now, through their means, enabled[Pg iv] cheerfully to pass through life; and scarcely to feel the deprivation of those powers, which, were it not for this institution, would have sunk them into listless apathy, or moody ideotism. Perhaps the reader is little aware how many of his fellow-creatures are labouring under this misfortune, and how much the number of those who cannot, from want of room, or means for their support, be admitted into the Asylum, exceeds those who have received the benefit of it. Let the following extract acquaint them with it:—"The unhappy malady which affects[Pg v] these children is found to exist to a dreadful extent; scarcely a week passes without some application for admission, and though the number of pupils has been gradually augmented from six to sixty, it must be stated (and it is stated with deep concern) that at every election, the number of candidates exceeds, in a tenfold proportion, the number of vacancies! Such a painful fact makes a most interesting and powerful appeal to every benevolent mind." Another powerful plea may also be added: that, after twelve, the age appointed by the committee, they cannot[Pg vi] be admitted. Arrived at these years, any one possessing all his faculties, (and who has till then been brought up in comparative ignorance,) finds it difficult to learn. But to these unhappy children, the difficulty must of necessity be increased; besides the danger there is that, if till that time, they are taught nothing, it will be beyond the reach of human means to rescue them from the state above described. The writer of the following pages earnestly appeals to the lively feelings of youth, (the season of compassion,) to consider these things. Let them[Pg vii] remember, it is for those of their own age that their assistance is demanded; and who, instead of having to look forward to a life of activity and usefulness—or that they shall fill up their place in society beneficially, either to themselves or others, must, without the improvement afforded them by these means, drag on a miserable existence—a burden to themselves and all around them. The necessitous in more advanced life, have, at least, the consolation of thinking every year that passes brings them nearer to the end of their sorrows; and blessed are they, if they have a well-grounded[Pg viii] hope of happiness in eternity. Their troubles then are nothing; but these poor children are not only suffering want at the present, (for it is for the children of the poor I plead,) but continuing as they are, they have no prospect of ever raising themselves, by useful industry, above it. And what is still worse, they are in this state excluded from those means which are appointed by Divine Wisdom for the instruction of his people, and which lifts their minds to higher views, and enables them to support affliction, by acquainting them with another and a better world.