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[Mcbain <tra...@oo...>]

 be presented to the mind of the mute without words; and in their
gestures and signs he found his problem solved. Henceforth, the way,
though long and tedious, was plain before him. To extend, amplify, and
systematize this language of signs was his task. How well he
accomplished his work, the records of Deaf and Dumb Institutions, in
Europe and America, testify. Others have entered into his labors and
greatly enlarged the range of sign-expression,--modified and improved,
perhaps, many of its forms; but, because Lord Rosse's telescope exceeds
in power and range the little three-foot tube of Galileo Galilei, shall
we therefore despise the Italian astronomer? To say that his work, or
that of the Abbe De l'Epee, was not perfect, is only to say that they
were mortals like ourselves. But it is not only, or mainly, as a
philosopher, that we would present the Abbe De l'Epee to our readers, he
was far more than this; he was, in the highest sense of the word, a
philanthropist. While Pereira, in the liberal compensation he received
from French nobles for the instruction of their mute children, laid the
foundation of that fortune by means of which his grandsons are now
enabled to rank with the most eminent of French financiers, De l'Epee
devoted his time and his entire patrimony to the education of indigent
deaf-mutes. His school, which was soon quite large, was conducted solely
at his own expense, and, as his fortune was but moderate, he was
compelled to practise the most c