- r ( C d m,a n.. 
DUMB 
and Blind Girl Heliotype Printing Co., 
Boston. 
LAURA DEWEY BRIDGMAN, 1878 LIFE AND EDUCATION 
OF 
LAURA DEWEY BRIDGMAN, 
THE DEAF, DUMB, AND BLIND GIRL. 
By MARY SWIFT LAMSON. 
BOSTON: 
NEW ENGLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
1878. Copyright, 
By NEW ENGLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
A. I). 1878. 
Stereotyped and Printed by 
Alfred Mudge & Son, Boston. INTRODUCTION. 
The author and editor of the present volume was a 
teacher for five years in the " Perkins Institution and 
Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind." She was for three 
years the special instructor of Laura Bridgman, and had 
the honor of giving the first lesson to Oliver Caswell, 
another blind and deaf mute at the Asylum. She differed 
from Dr. Samuel G. Howe, the director of the Asylum, 
in regard to the time of commencing the religious educa- 
tion of Laura ; but she held him in high esteem as an 
enterprising, skilful, and persevering instuctor. Ho 
characterized her in words like the following : She is "a 
lady of great intelligence who is devotedly attached to " 
[Laura] ; "an able and excellent teacher," who "ful- 
filled her duty with ability and conscientiousness ; has 
been faithful and industrious ; and in the intellectual in- 
struction she has shown great tact and ability"; "indeed 
to Miss Swift [now Mrs. Lamson] and Miss Wight [now 
Mrs. Bond] belong, far more than to any other persons, 
the pure satisfaction of having been instrumental in the 
beautiful development of Laura's character." * 
One noteworthy advantage has been enjoyed by the 
editor of this volume. She has retained an intimate 
acquaintance with Laura Bridgman for thirty seven years. 
* Annual Reports of the Trustees of the Perkins Institution and 
Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, XI, p. 37 ; XIII, pp. 23, 24 ; 
XIV, p. 30, etc., etc. These documents will be hereafter alluded 
to simply as Annual Reports. IV 
INTRODUCTION. 
The blind deaf-mute was only in the thirteenth year of 
her age, and in the third year of her residence at the 
Asylum, when she was put under the particular and 
a.most exclusive charge of Mrs. Lamson, and from that 
day to this has been accustomed to communicate her 
thoughts freely to the teacher who instructed her in 
1840. The editor of the volume has thus been able to 
compare the later with the earlier development of Laura. 
Laura herself is liable to forget those earlier develop- 
ments, to mistake her more recently acquired knowledge 
for that which she had acquired at a remoter period. 
The ideas, however, which she expressed in the initial 
stages of her education were recorded day by day, and the 
testimony of a written journal is far more trustworthy 
than that of the memory. 
This volume has a special value in the fact that it pre- 
serves the style of the original diary ; it records the prog- 
ress of Laura in detail, just as the progress was, without 
any attempt to embellish the history; without any attempt 
to magnify the excellences or to conceal the foibles of the 
blind deaf-mute; without any other generalizations than 
those which were forced upon the notice of an instructor 
writing for her own private use; without any theory to 
defend or to impugn; without any foresight of any use 
which might afterward be made of her honest record. It 
would have been easy to write a sensational narrative of 
so unique a person as Laura Bridgman, and to cluster 
splendid panegyrics around a few salient points of her 
character. To many readers such a rhapsodical style 
would have been more interesting than the record of the 
daily routine of her childish questions and tardy acquisi- 
tions. This homely record, however, of blunders and slow 
progress is more readily credited, is more valuable to the 
philosopher, and more practically useful to the common 
mind, than would have been the most brilliant descrip- 
tions of isolated facts in Laura's life. The wheat including INTRODUCTION. 
V 
the alcohol is more wholesome than the alcohol distilled 
from the wheat. 
The narratives of Jean Massieu leave us in an incredu- 
lous state of mind, in consequence of the fact that his 
marvellous exploits are recorded without a sufficiently 
copious detail of the processes which fitted him to perform 
them. Six children of his parents, three boys and three 
girls, were, like himself, congenital deaf-mutes. He was 
born in 1772 and died in 1846. At the age of thirteen 
years and nine months, without having exhibited any sign 
of eminent talents, he became a pupil of the Abb6 Sicard. 
He doubtless acquired a great power of mind; but we are 
apt to overrate his genius and to receive on the whole a 
false impression, when we read of his bright sayings, and 
do not read of the dull performances intermingled with 
them. It seems improbable that any deaf-mute could 
habitually, and without distinctive preparation, give such 
answers as Massieu is reported to have given in some of 
his school exercises. We suspect that some of his answers 
were (like the brilliant remarks of many a modern deaf- 
mute) the remembered utterances of his instructors. If 
original, they were exceptional. 
The following is one specimen of them: "What is a 
revolution? " [a question asked in the time of the French 
Reign of Terror.] "It is a tree whose roots have taken 
the place of its trunk." - " What is gratitude ? " " Grati- 
tude is the memory of the heart." - "What is hope?" 
" Hope is the blossom of happiness." - What is the dif- 
ference between hope and desire ? " " Desire is a tree in 
leaf ; hope is a tree in flower ; and enjoyment is a tree in 
fruit." - " What is eternity ? " " A day without yester- 
day or to-morrow; a line that has no ends." - " What 
is time ? " " A line that has two ends ; a path which be- 
gins in the cradle and ends in the tomb." - " What is 
God ? " " The necessary being, the sun of eternity, the 
mechanist of nature, the eye of justice, the watchmaker VI 
INTRODUCTION. 
of the universe, the soul of the world." - "Does God 
reason ? " [a question proposed to Massieu by Sir James 
Mackintosh.] "Man reasons because he doubts; he de- 
liberates, he decides. God is omniscient; he knows all 
things ; he never doubts ; he therefore never reasons." 
We do not claim that Laura Bridgman has a genius equal 
to that of Massieu ; but we do not deem it impossible to cull 
out from her conversation, as recorded in the present vol- 
ume, such remarks as would keep the reader in a state of 
constant surprise at her sagacity. These isolated remarks 
would attract more admiration but would yield less in- 
struction than they do now. A few specimens of fruits, 
at a horticultural fair, may make an entirely erroneous 
impression in regard to the substantial produce of the 
garden. 
The earliest notice which I have seen of Laura Bridg- 
man is from the pen of that excellent and eminent man, 
Dr. Reuben Dimond Mussey, Professor of Anatomy and 
Surgery at Dartmouth College. His letter is important 
because it was written six months before the blind deaf- 
mute entered the asylum at Boston, and because it gives 
suggestive information in regard to her natural capabilities 
and her early moral developments. As the first home of 
Laura was at Hanover, N. H., the seat of Dartmouth 
College, the character of herself and family could be 
easily learned by Prof. Mussey, and so careful an ob- 
server as he would not have placed undue reliance on 
their testimony. The letter* was written in reply to one 
received from a distinguished instructor of the deaf and 
dumb, and is as follows: - 
Hanover, N. H., April 14, 1837. 
Dear Sir: The blind and deaf child, referred to in your 
letter received this morning, is, I presume, the same who 
* It was published in the Twenty-first Report of the American 
Asylum, at Hartford, etc., pp. 41, 42. INTRODUCTION. 
VII 
lives within this township, seven miles from our village. 
I have ridden out to-day and passed an hour at her father's, 
and have obtained from her parents the following particu- 
lars : - 
Iler name is Laura D. Bridgman; seven years old; a 
girl of middling stature for her age, and of a pretty uni- 
form health. When about two years old she lost her 
hearing altogether, and all distinctness of vision, by scarlet 
fever. She has never [since] given evidence of hearing any 
sort of sound, but she can perceive light enough to enable 
her to tell where the windows are during the day, and is 
attracted by a lighted taper at evening. A white cloth or 
a sheet of white paper, placed near to her right eye so as 
to reflect a strong light, engages her attention; so does 
the hand, waved from side to side between her eye and 
the window. The left eye is wholly destroyed. A scarlet 
colored cloth put into her hand seemed to make a slight 
impression, as if she received the feeblest notion of color 
from it. After she was somewhat fatigued, however, I 
placed a sheet of white paper before her eye and moved 
it from side to side several times, evidently without her 
being conscious of it. She has, probably, no reminiscence 
of sounds or of visual objects from impressions received 
before the attack of scarlet fever. She was considered by 
her parents as unusually intelligent before her sickness, 
and is still so regarded by them. Specimens of her knit- 
ting and sewing were shown me which looked very well. 
Much of her time is employed in knitting; indeed, she is 
uneasy when out of employment, and if allowed would 
attempt to do most kinds of work in the house which she 
finds others doing. She sets the dinner-table, laying the 
plates and knives and forks in their places and in number 
corresponding with the number of the -family. The par- 
ticular plate and knife and fork used by her little brother 
she is sure to put in the right place. 
Iler fondness for dress is as remarkable as that of any VIII 
INTRODUCTION. 
child that can see. New clothes give her great pleasure. 
She knows every article of dress belonging to her mother, 
and is gratified when her mother puts on her best dresses. 
She is as fond of society as of dress, and is most untiring 
in her exercises with her playmates. 
A silver pencil-case, for the first time, was handed her 
to-day, while I was present. She very soon learned to 
unscrew and replace the head-piece, and the part contain- 
ing the lead. This was a new thing, which clearly gave 
her great pleasure, as she occasionally smiled, and had her 
whole attention absorbed with it for some time. 
She is kind and affectionate in her disposition ; with her 
two brothers younger than she, the only children of the 
family besides herself, she is always ready to divide fruit 
or any other pleasant eatable which is presented to her. 
Iler resentments are keen, but transitory, and her parents 
can easily persuade her by patting her head to submit to 
their direction. Iler mother says that in this way the 
child can be induced to take the most disgusting medi- 
cines, as rhubarb, tincture of aloes, etc. 
Iler sense of smell is thought by her mother to be less 
acute than that of other children, as she very seldom 
applies an odorous substance to her nose ; it is not im- 
probable that this sense «may have been impaired by the 
fever. The senses of taste and of touch, which last is 
very acute, appear to be the only inlets of knowledge, 
with the exception of the extremely dim vision before 
mentioned, which is too imperfect to enable her to avoid 
objects even in a strong light. 
Very sincerely yours, 
R. D. Mussey. 
This letter of Professor Mussey is more significant than 
it may appear to be at first sight. When he speaks of the 
sense of touch (which was, in fact, Laura's main organ 
for communication with the mateiial world), he doubtless INTRODUCTION. 
IX 
includes not merely the " touch proper," but also the 
capacity for the " acute " sensations, pleasant or painful ; 
also for the sensations of pressure and weight, of tempera- 
ture ; also for the " muscular sensations," those of the 
rough, smooth, slippery, adhesive, elastic, non-elastic, 
etc. ; all those sensations which are commonly assigned 
to the touch in its general and loose meaning. From the 
Professor's suggestive letter it appears that Laura Bridg- 
man retained her power of vision, hearing, taste, and smell 
until she was " about [in actual fact she was a little 
more than] two years old"; that she retained a power of 
indistinct vision until she was over seven years old; that 
her parents had noticed her deficiency in the sense of 
smell, but had not noticed her deficiency in the sense of 
taste, after she had become a deaf-mute. She was easily 
persuaded to take " the most disgusting medicines." Dr. 
Mussey. does not appear to have suspected the cause. 
When she came to the Boston Asylum she was unable, at 
least occasionally, to distinguish rhubarb from tea by the 
taste. Still, the power of this sense, as that of smell, 
seems, to have been somewhat variable, in her fifteenth 
year she could, at certain times, distinguish certain 
articles of food by smelling them. At particular periods 
she detected the fragrance of a flower. When we read, 
as we sometimes do, that " from her tenderest infancy she 
could neither smell, taste, hear, nor see," we must qualify 
the remark ; i't is convenient but not strictly accurate ; it 
must be explained to mean that soon after she entered on 
her third year she lost entirely her sense of hearing 
(therefore her power of speaking^ and in large measure 
her sense of taste and that of smell ; that after the be- 
ginning of her eighth year she lost entirely her sense 
of sight, and this had been so indistinct as to be compara- 
tively useless after the beginning of her third year. 
In several particulars, then, her case is unique. It is 
not very uncommon for deaf-mutes to have an impaired X 
INTRODUCTION. 
sense of taste and also of smell. Both of these senses are 
so connected with the sense of hearing that the same 
cause which disorders the latter may disorder also the two 
former. Often the Swiss cretin is not only unable to 
speak and to hear, but is also unable to taste and to smell 
as accurately or as keenly as other persons. The cretin, 
however, is deficient in intellect, as Laura Bridgman is 
not. 
The loss of vision alone is not generally attended with 
an impaired sense of taste, and is often attended with an 
unusual keenness in the sense of smell. Perhaps there 
has never been another instance than this of Laura Bridg- 
man in which the loss of sight has been combined with 
the entire loss of hearing and also with a loss of two other 
senses. Probably there have been more instances than 
are recorded in vhich the loss of sight has been combined 
with deafness and dumbness. Perhaps the great majority 
of blind deaf-mutes have been destroyed by the neglect 
or the violence of their relatives. In ancient legal treat- 
ises they are recognized as idiots. Dr. Howe quotes * 
from Blackstone's Commentaries the following passage : 
" A rgan is not an idiot, if he hath any glimmerings of 
reason so that he can tell his parents, his age, or the like 
matters. But a man who is born deaf, dumb, and blind* is 
looked upon by the law as in the same state with an idiot; 
he being supposed incapable of any understanding, as 
wanting all those senses which furnish the human mind 
with ideas." 
Modern history has given us a more or less particular 
account of at least fifteen persons who have lived deaf, 
dumb, and blind. It is rather remarkable that the cele. 
brated Abbe de l'Ep6e had never heard of one such per- 
son. Still, supposing it possible that individuals should 
be born unable either to see or to hear, he contrived a 
* In Annual Report, IX, pp. 34, 35. INTRODUCTION. 
XI 
process of educating them. The process, although de- 
scribed more than a hundred years ago reminds us of the 
method in which Laura Bridgman was instructed. The 
blind deaf-mute was to have an alphabet of polished steel; 
the letters composing the name of some sensible object 
were to be felt by the fingers of one hand, while the object 
itself was to be felt by the fingers of the other. The il- 
lustrious M. Sicard, who was the successor of the Abbe de 
1'Epee in the office of instructing the deaf and dumb, pro- 
posed that if the blind deaf-mute were desirous of obtain- 
ing any particular article, it should be withheld from him 
until he had spelled the name of it. lie should not taste 
the peach or the plum until he had arranged the letters 
composing those words. The blind deaf-mutes in the 
Boston Asylum were occasionally stimulated by the same 
appeals to their appetite. In this way Laura Bridgman 
would sometimes attempt to instruct some other pupil 
who could neither see nor hear the name of the desired 
edible. She demanded the letters of the word c a k e be- 
fore she would give the cake to the blind and deaf learner. 
It is substantially an old custom, pursued by parents with 
their children and by children with each other. Indeed, 
there have been " select schools," where the scholars were 
taught their letters by the use of a gingerbread alphabet, 
which was to be devoured as soon as its literary signifi- 
cance had been thoroughly digested. We strangely forget 
that the deaf-mutes and the blind deaf-mutes arc human 
beings and are to be treated as other human beings; they 
are influenced by the same motives which affect the race 
in general, and are to be educated on the same principles 
which regulate the education of ordinary scholars. The 
special difficulty is in opening an avenue to their minds. 
When we have once penetrated the wall which has sepa- 
rated them from us, there is no more real mystery in teach- 
ing them than in teaching other persons. There is a mys- 
tery in the mental progress of every child : in the mental XII 
INTRODUCTION. 
progress of the blind deaf-mute the mystery is greater in 
degree and is longer continued ; but in kind it is the same 
mystery. To succeed in the first step is the peculiar diffi- 
culty. " Principium dimidium facti." 
The narrative of Laura Bridgman reminds us that all 
art, as well as all science, has been progressive. Aristotle 
borrowed much from his now forgotten predecessors. 
Kepler opened the door for Newton. No art springs com- 
plete from the brain of any man. The present methods, 
of instructing the blind were not first suggested by tlie 
Abbe Haiiy in the last century, but the principle which 
regulates them had long before his day been familiar to 
the mind of educators. Narratives almost fabulous had 
been given of blind men feeling and thus reading the' 
words of a book or manuscript. So the present methods 
of instructing the deaf and dumb were not invented be- 
tween 1712 and 1789, by the Abbe de 1'Epde, without any 
hint from a previous writer. They were suggested to him 
by a Spanish treatise which was written in 1590, and was 
thrown in his way by accident. Indeed, as early as 1485, 
Rodolphus Agricola, describing '' the immense and almost 
incredible power of the human mind," instances as little 
less than miraculous what he himself had witnessed, - a 
person deaf from infancy, and consequently dumb, who 
had learned to understand writing, and, as if possessed of 
speech, was able to write down his whole thoughts. The 
first art of instructing the blind in letters, and the second 
art of instructing the deaf-mute, are compounded with 
each other in the art of instructing those who are both 
blind and also deaf and dumb. The principle regulating 
this combination was ingeniously stated by George Dal- 
garno (sometimes written Dalgarus), a Scotchman, who 
wrote in 1680 on the education of deaf-mutes, and from 
whom more than one renowned scholar has borrowed 
more than he has acknowledged. His suggestive words 
are, '' The soul can exert her powers by the ministry of XIII 
INTRODUCTION. 
any of the senses; and, therefore, when she is deprived 
of her principal secretaries, the eye and the ear, then she 
must be contented with the service of her lackeys and 
scullions, the other senses, which are no less true and 
faithful to their mistress than the eye and the ear, but 
not so quick for despatch. . . . And as I think the eye 
to be as docile as the ear, so neither see I any reason 
but the hand might be made as tractable an organ as 
the tongue, and as soon brought to form, if not fair, at 
least legible characters, as the tongue to imitate and echo 
back articulate sounds."* Notwithstanding his expressed 
confidence, it would have surprised this learned Scotchman 
to be told that two centuries after he penned the sentences 
above quoted, there would be living in the New World a 
woman who had lost four " secretaries " of the mind, and 
yet, mainly by means of the tips of her fingers, her only 
remaining " lackeys " and " scullions," she could express 
ideas as rapidly as an • ordinary penman could record 
them. 
Prof. Mussey, in his letter respecting Laura Bridgman, 
speaks of the practical skill which she had acquired before 
she was educated at the Asylum. Other instances of like 
skill are readily suggested to us. In Dugald Stewart's 
account of the so-called blind deaf-mute, James Mitchell, 
we read, " lie had received a severe wound in his foot, 
and during its cure he usually sat by the fireside with his 
foot resting on a small footstool. More than a year after- 
wards, a servant boy, with whom he used to play, was 
obliged to confine himself to a chair from a similar cause. 
Young Mitchell, perceiving that his companion remained 
longer in one situation than he used to do, examined him 
attentively, and seemed quickly to discover, by the band- 
* Works of Dugald Stewart, Vol. Ill, p. 325, Ed. 1829; Edin- 
burgh Review, Vol LX I, pp. 407, 417. XIV 
INTRODUCTION. 
ages on his foot, the reason of his confinement. He im- 
mediately walked up stairs to a garret, sought out, amidst 
several other pieces of furniture, the little footstool which 
had formerly supported his own wounded limb, and gently 
placed the servant-boy's foot upon it." * James Mitchell 
had been educated by the use of natural signs to perform 
such exploits. 
Thomas Whipple, M.D., a physician in Wentworth, New 
Hampshire, in a letter dated Feb. 28, 1834, has given the 
following account of Samuel Elbridge Eames, who became 
deaf, dumb, and blind when he was about two years old, 
and died when he was sixteen years six months and 
twenty-three days old : " His father missed an axe, and 
had [missed it] for some time; not being able to find it, he 
suspected the boy had hidden it. His mother made him 
feel another axe, and patted him, and made some motions 
with him ; he went into an unfinished part of the house, 
took up a loose floor-board, and brought forward the axe. 
He went into his father's gig-wagon on a certain time and 
took all the ruffs from the screws which held the parts of 
the wagon together ; on being discovered he began and 
replaced them, not misplacing a single one. He has taken 
a bunch of keys consisting of six, and opened his father's 
desk, and would do it as readily as any one of the family. . . 
I visited his father, who was sick. He detected my manner 
of opening and shutting the door by the jar which he felt; 
he met me, felt me over from head to foot, smelt my clothes 
and saddle-bags, followed me into the sick-room, took my 
saddle-bags on my putting them down, opened them, raised 
the vial-case, opened it, took out one of the vials, uncorked 
it, smelt of its contents, shook his head, and would not 
taste ; then replaced the vial and returned everything to 
its first state. After this trial, though nothing was done 
to deter him, he would not on my visiting at the house 
* Works Of Dugald Stewart, Vol. Ill, p. 30!), Amer. Ed. 1829. INTRODUCTION. 
XV 
open the saddle-bags, but would, on smelling them, leave 
them." * 
It would have been impossible for a blind deaf-mute to 
perform works like these had he not been previously edu- 
cated by means of natural signs. We are thus reminded 
of the fact that all processes of instruction depend ulti- 
mately on natural language. This is the basis on which 
arbitrary language is founded. Men must have some 
means of communication before they learn the use of 
spoken or written words. They have an instinctive ten- 
dency to perform outward actions, and to express their 
thoughts and feelings by smiles, frowns, or other move- 
ments of the body. They detect the resemblance between 
their own expressions and the expressions of other per- 
sons. So they learn the thoughts and feelings of other 
persons. Some of these expressions are probably under- 
stood by intuition and without a reasoning process. Mr. 
Coleridge says, " There is in the heart of all men a work- 
ing principle, call it ambition, or vanity, or desire of 
distinction, the inseparable adjunct of our individuality 
and personal nature, and flowing'from the same source as 
language, the instinct and necessity in each man of de- 
claring his particular existence, and thus of singularizing 
himself." If he cannot do this by conventional words he 
will do it by instinctive signs. We must not suppose, how- 
ever, that the use of conventional words is less really the 
ordinance of God than is the use of instinctive signs. 
He has made us not only with the power, but also with 
the decisive tendencies to use articulate speech. We are 
inclined by a law of nature (and this in the last resort is 
God) to express thought by words as its symbols. What 
we call natural language is his direct gift ; what we call 
artificial language is his indirect gift. As a man is im- 
* Twenty-first Report of the Directors of the American Asylum 
at Hartford, pp. 35, 36. XVI 
INTRODUCTION. 
pelled to put forth a choice of this or that, but he has a 
power of putting forth a choice of either rather than the 
other, in a similar way man is impelled to use this or that 
artificial sign of his ideas, but he may use one or a differ- 
ent one as it pleases him. The Book of Genesis was not 
designed to teach philology, but the nineteenth verse of 
the second chapter intimates that Adam had an impulse 
to name the animals around him, and the particular des- 
ignation of each animal was left to his free choice. 
Although a person be unable to speak, or to hear a word 
if he should speak it, or to see a movement of the vocal 
organs of other men, yet he has an impulse, whenever he 
is excited, to use his own vocal organs; not only to use 
them for the sake of relieving a pressure on the lungs, or 
giving to the larynx such an exercise as its health or com- 
fort requires, but for the sake of marking the distinction 
between one object and another. lie has an impulse to 
emit vocal sounds distinct from the unintelligible screams, 
groans, yells, of many deaf-mutes. Natural language 
is the servant of the heart; [arbitrary] speech is the 
handmaid of the intellect?' The history of Laura Bridg- 
man illustrates these principles. " So strong seems the 
tendency to utter vocal sounds that Laura uses them for 
different persons of her acquaintance whom she meets, 
having a distinct sound for each one. When after a 
short absence she goes into the sitting-room where there 
are a dozen blind girls, she embraces them by turn, 
uttering rapidly and in a high key the peculiar sound 
which designates each one ; and so different are they (the 
sounds uttered by her) that any of the blind girls can tell 
whom she is with." * Dr. Lieber says, " Laura has 
near sixty sounds for persons. When her teacher asked 
her, at my suggestion, how many sounds she recollected, 
she produced at once twenty-seven. Three of her 
* Tenth Annual Report, p. 32. INTRODUCTION. 
XVII 
teachers, Dr. Howe included, stated to me that she had 
certainly from fifty to sixty." * The impulse to utter a 
sound as the distinctive name of her friend seemed to 
come first; the translation of it into her finger language 
came second. After having employed one sound 
(" noise ") for the lady when unmarried, she saw the 
propriety of employing a different sound (" noise ") for 
the same lady when married. She was not encouraged 
at the Asylum to use what is called the natural nor 
the analogical language ; her thoughts, which might 
have flowed out in some kind of pantomime, were di- 
rected by her teachers into the channel of the arbitrary 
language of the fingers ; and through this channel they 
flowed easily and rapidly. " She often talks with herself, 
sometimes holding long conversations, speaking with one 
hand and replying with the other" f After all, the im- 
pulse to utter audible words could not be repressed. Not 
only the comfort of the mind, but the health of the body 
is promoted by yielding to this impulse. The instincts of 
man correspond with his power of thought and with his 
animal structure; and all are the contrivance of the Mind 
which intended that man should be an articulately speak- 
ing, as well as an articulately thinking, animal. 
The history of Laura Bridgman casts some light on the 
doctrine of intuitions. We must here confine ourselves 
to the inquiry whether, before her instruction at the Asy- 
lum, she had an idea of and a belief in the infinite God 
and her own immortality. Throughout his Reports, Dr. 
Howe has expressed the confident opinion that she had 
no idea of the Infinite Being, of course no belief in him. 
This opinion seems to be correct. Fifteen years ago I 
* A Paper on the Vocal Sounds of Laura Bridgman, p. 26. By 
Francis Lieber. Smithsonian Contributions, etc. 
t A Paper on the Vocal Sounds of Laura Bridgman, p. 30 
By Francis Lieber. Smithsonian Contributions, etc. XVIII 
INTRODUCTION. 
had two interviews (one of them much prolonged) with 
her in regard to her notions of the Supreme Being. It ap- 
peared evident, first, that before she entered the Asylum 
she had no belief in the existence of an infinite and per- 
fect Deity, and no idea of him ; secondly, that her habit 
(an uncommonly obvious one) of reasoning from effect to 
cause, and from the phenomena of her own moral nature, 
led her to believe, occasionally, in some mysterious being 
or beings by whom her interests were affected ; thirdly, 
that her idea of this being or these beings was far inferior 
to an idea of the infinite God, and was just as lofty or just 
as low, as her observation of phenomena had been exact 
and extensive or loose and limited ; fourthly, that as her 
belief depended upon and resulted from her observation 
of phenomena, it would have risen to a belief in the infi- 
nite One if she had taken a comprehensive and an accurate 
view of these phenomena. Whatever faith she had was 
not intuitive in the ordinary sense of that word, but came 
from reasoning ; this faith fell below a belief in the true 
God because the data for reasoning had been imperfectly 
examined. Still, in the above-mentioned interviews, it 
was apparent that her sensibilities had been unsatisfied 
in consequence of her want of religious knowledge, and 
that as soon as this want was supplied at the Asylum the 
demands of her constitution were happily met. In this 
particular there was an instructive difference between 
Laura Bridgman and Julia Brace, the blind deaf-mute of 
the Hartford Asylum. " The following experiment has 
lately been tried [on Julia Brace, when she was about 
twenty years of age] : Her attention was called to a great 
variety of artificial objects, and she was told that Miss C. 
made this, Mr. S. that; a man one, a woman another, 
and so on. The idea of making is familiar, for she makes 
some things herself. Then, a number of natural objects 
were presented her, such as minerals, fruits, flowers, plants, 
vegetables, and she was told that neither this friend nor INTRODUCTION. 
XIX 
that acquaintance made any of them ; that neither men 
nor women made them. The hope was entertained that 
her curiosity would be excited and that a way might be 
discovered to convey to her mind the great idea of the 
Almighty Creator. The attempt was not successful, and 
though several times repeated, has not as yet resulted in 
exciting her mind, fixing her attention, or giving us any 
encouraging indications." * Even at this late day, when 
Julia Brace is more than seventy years old, it is difficult to 
determine how far her mind has advanced in apprehend- 
ing the true character of God. If she had been as ready 
as Laura to infer an ordinary cause from an ordinary 
event, she gmight have been as ready as Laura to appre- 
ciate what was told her in regard to the infinite and ulti- 
mate Cause of all events. 
As Miss Bridgman had no intuitive idea of the Supreme 
Being, so she had none of the soul's immortality. In the 
interviews referred to above, I could not find that, before 
her instruction at the Asylum, she had any proper idea of 
death. She described, with almost frantic gestures, the 
horror which she felt when, before she was seven years 
old, she touched a corpse ; but the horror arose not from 
a just notion of the corpse, but from her new sensations of 
the coldness and unbending stiffness of the body. As 
she did not think of death, so she did not think of exist- 
ence after death. Without an idea of mortality, she was 
without any proper idea of immortality. As she had never 
thought of an infinite mind, so she had never thought of 
an eternal duration. Of course she expected to exist 
from day to day, as she expected that the earth would 
continue from day to day. If we regard her expectation 
of living in the future as an expectation of immortal life, 
then we must regard her expectation of the earth's contin- 
* Twenty-first Report of the Directors of the Hartford Asylum. 
1837, p. 28. XX 
INTRODUCTION. 
uance in the future as an expectation of its continuance 
forever. We have, moreover, as much right to say that 
she had an intuitive belief in the continued existence of 
her parents' farm-house as to say that she had an intuitive 
belief in the continued existence of her own soul. Indeed, 
I could not learn that, before she was instructed at the 
Asylum, she had formed any idea of the soul as distinct 
from the body. Even at the Asylum her first apprehen- 
sion of the spirit, as different from bone and muscle, ap- 
peared to be an apprehension of the breath which, at the 
mortal hour, was taken by the great Spirit from the body. 
The history of Laura Bridgman illustrates the impor- 
tance of a symmetrical development of the human powers 
and sensibilities. It is not uncommon to hear men say 
that John Milton was indebted to his blindness for his 
fame ; that Sanderson, Moyes, and Huber would have 
accomplished less than they have, if they had not been 
deprived of vision. It is said of the noted Puritan, Dr. 
John Guyse, that he " lost his eyesight in the pulpit while 
he was at prayer before the sermon, but nevertheless 
managed to preach as usual." He was told by one of 
his hearers, God be praised that your sight is gone ! I 
never heard [you] preach so powerful a [sermon] in my 
life. I wish for my own part that the Lord had taken 
away your sight twenty years ago ; for your ministry 
would have been more useful by twenty degrees." " Male- 
branche, when he wished to think intensely, used to close 
his windows-shutters in the daytime, excluding every ray 
of light; and for a like reason Democritus is said to have 
put out his eyes, in order that he might philosophize the 
better, - which latter story, however, it should be observed, 
though told by several ancient writers, is doubted by Cicero 
and discredited by Plutarch." * 
* Edinburgh Review, Vol. XCIX, p. 62. INTRODUCTION. 
XXI 
It is doubtless true that the deprivation of sight and hear- 
ing will occasionally stimulate the mind to augmented 
exertion in order to overcome the disadvantage. This fact 
proves that the deprivation is a disadvantage. It is also true 
that blindness and deafness free the soul from many dis- 
tractions; but the evil of these distractions is incomparably 
less than the evil of exclusion from the exhilarating in- 
fluence of sight and sound. Destitute of the'spiritualizing, 
refining influences exerted by the eye and ear, the blind 
deaf-mute is tempted to an excessive indulgence of his 
lower animal nature. He is apt to be embittered by a 
sense of his privations, for his endowments are as far in- 
ferior to those ef the mere deaf-mute as the endowments 
of the deaf-mute are inferior to those of the hearer and 
speaker. He is also prone to be irritated by the toil which 
he must undergo in learning what others learn with ease. 
If we try the experiment of attempting to find our way 
around the walls of a room completely dark, when we did 
not know exactly from what part of the room we started, 
we are surprised at our inability to learn our bearings, to 
judge of the relations between the wails, chairs, and doors, 
with which one glance of the eye would make us perfectly 
familiar. The blind deaf-mute is subjected to the same 
kind, but a greater degree of irritation in attempting to 
orienteer himself in any department of knowledge. Then 
the monotony of his labors is annoying If Laura Bridg- 
man had been able to see and hear, to smell and taste, as 
others do, she might have been often diverted from her 
studies by processions of soldiers, by the music of birds, by 
the fragrance of flowers, and the flavor of fruits. Free 
from these distractions, her mind could be almost as intent 
on her arithmetic by night as by day, in her walks as at 
her fireside, in a conservatory of roses and at a luxurious 
dinner-table as in her school. The whole world was to her 
a continuous school. But this monotony of mental action 
brought multiplied annoyances. Equal annoyances came XXII 
INTRODUCTION. 
from the necessity of her dependence upon herself. Many 
of her shades of doubt could not be indicated by her, and 
many shades of the wisdom, gathered in the books, could not 
be expressed to her. Her mind was like a child led without a 
lantern by a tenuous thread through the catacombs, the 
thread often broken, the leader often lost. We are apt to fail 
of appreciating the emphasis of such words as were often 
impressed by her fingers on the lingers of her teacher. 
These words were a real wail for clearer thoughts; they were 
loud cries for the removal of her mental perplexities. Sir 
James Mackintosh speaks of the pain which James 
Mitchell was liable to suffer 11 from the occasional violences 
of a temper irritated by a fruitless struggle to give utter- 
ance to his thoughts and wishes, disturbed s< ill further by 
the vehemence of those gestures which he employs to 
supply the deficiency of his signs, and released from that 
restraint on anger which we experience when we see and 
hear its excesses disapproved by our fellow-creatures."* 
Similar remarks are applicable to Laura Bridgman, who 
has been doomed to ever-recurring disappointments. 
Some may suppose that her deficiency in the senses of 
smell and taste was no disadvantage to her intellect; but 
the want of any physical sense is such a disadvantage, 
other things being equal. The mind is delicately poised 
among a variety of physical powers, and any disarrange- 
ment of any one of these powers disturbs the mental ac- 
tivity. Many afresh train of thought has been started by 
the odors of a garden, by the taste of its fruit. The mind 
and heart have been quickened by the incense at a Catholic 
altar, and by the flavor of the viands at a religious festival. 
"I am mortified," said an eminent scholar, " when I re- 
flect on the influence of one peach in refreshing my mind 
for study. Some of the most significant words relating to 
the human mind (the word sagacity, for instance) are 
* Works of Dugald Stewart, Vol. Ill, Ed. 1829, p. 345. XXIII 
INTRODUCTION. 
borrowed from this very sense [of smell], and the conspic- 
uous place which its sensations occupy in the poetical 
language of all nations shows how easily and naturally 
they ally themselves with the refined operations of the 
fancy and the moral emotions of the heart. The infinite 
variety of modifications, besides, of which they are suscep- 
tible, might furnish useful resources, in the way of asso- 
ciation for prompting the memory, where it stood in need 
of assistance. One of the best schools for the education 
of such a pupil (a blind deaf-mute) would probably be a 
well-arranged botanic garden." * 
It is obvious that in certain particulars Isaura Bridg- 
man suffered many disadvantages in comparison with 
those which have fallen to the lot of other blind deaf- 
mutes. Thus James Mitchell was not entirely blind nor 
entirely deaf, and his two kindred senses of smell and taste 
were remarkably acute. Once, when his sister's shoes were 
wet, he first perceived the fact by his sense of smell, then 
felt them, and insisted on her changing them. When any 
new object was put into his hands he first examined it 
with the tips of his fingers, and then insinuated " his 
tongue into all its inequalities, thus using it [the tongue] 
an an organ of touch as well as taste." f 
It is common to compare Laura Bridgman with Julia 
Brace. This woman was born June 13, 1807; was ad- 
mitted to the Hartford Asylum when she was eighteen 
years of age. She became entirely deaf and blind at the 
age of four years and about five mouths. At that time 
she could read and spell words of two syllables. Iler 
sense of smell, like that of many other blind persons, is 
wonderfully acute. She has been frequently known to 
select hei' own clothes from a mass of dresses belong- 
ing to a hundred and thirty or forty persons. " Her 
* Dugald Stewart's Works, Vol. Ill, p. 315, Ed. 1829. 
t Dugald Stewart's Works, Vol. Ill, p. 337, Ed. 1829. XXIV 
INTRODUCTION. 
manner is to examine each article by feeling; but to de- 
cide upon it by the sense of smell, and in regard to her 
own things she never errs." * She has been frequently 
known to discriminate, merely by smelling them, the 
recently washed stockings of the boys from those of the 
girls at the Asylum. Among a hundred and twenty or 
thirty teaspoons used at the Asylum she could distin- 
guish those of the steward from those of the pupils, 
" though a casual observer would hardly notice the differ- 
ence.! It has been stated that by putting the eye of a 
cambric needle upon the tip of her tongue, she could feel 
the thread as it entered the eye and pressed upon her 
tongue, and she would thus thread the needle. These in- 
stances prove that her sense of touch was at least equal, 
while that of smell was far superior, to those of Laura 
Bridgman. It must not be forgotten, however, that in 
certain particulars Laura Bridgman enjoyed advantages 
superior to these of some other blind deaf -mutes. During 
the first two years of her life her physical senses and powers 
were equal to those of other children; in her eighth year 
she would detect a very bright color. Although James 
Mitchell had through life a faint sensation of sight and 
also of hearing, yet he was born almost blind and deaf; 
others have been born entirely so. A person who has once 
had the sensations of flavor and fragrance, light and sound, 
is not exactly the same person .he would have been without 
these sensations. They must have given some impulse to 
his mind; they must have started him in his progress of 
thought. Laura Bridgman was born in lowly life, but 
was early surrounded with better influences than those 
which w'ere exerted on some whose avenues of knowledge 
were blocked up like hers. More than seven years of her 
* Twenty-first Report of the Directors of the Hartford Asylum, 
p. 24. 
t Twenty-first Report of the Hartford Asylum, p. 23. INTRODUCTION. 
XXV 
early childhood were spent in the vicinity of Dartmouth 
College. She probably received no direct influence from 
the college, still the atmosphere of a New England town, 
in which a literary institution like Dartmouth has existed 
for a century, is more healthful to the soul than the 
atmosphere of the almshouses in which several of the 
blind deaf-mutes have been condemned to live. Before 
she was eight years old she was placed under the 
general superintendence of Dr. Samuel G. Howe, and 
during twelve subsequent years she was under the care of 
some accomplished instructor, specially and almost ex- 
clusively devoted to this one pupil. She had a particular 
trait distinguishing her above the great majoiity of all 
those with whom it can be of any use to compare her. 
This trait was an uncommon love of knowledge. Inquisi- 
tiveness makes the scholar. A difference in the degree of 
curiosity causes an incalculable difference in the degree 
of mental improvement, between one pupil and another. 
If her curiosity had been earlier gratified in receiving a 
knowledge of God, her mind would have been more 
rapidly as well as more symmetrically developed. If the 
sense of smell or taste has an intellectual use, much more 
has the principle of religiosity. 
The history of Laura Bridgman suggests a lesson on 
the importance of early education. We have read of a 
student who inquired, ''Is it of any use to know Latin? " 
The answer was, " It is of great use to have forgotten 
Latin," It is very evident that Laura Bridgman forgot a 
large part of the education which she received before she 
went to the Asylum. What lasting benefit could she have 
derived from her first two years, when she saw, heard, 
smelled, tasted, as well as other children; from her first 
seven years, when she had some faint sensation of color, as 
well as of flavor and fragrance? Much advantage. An 
education, even if afterward forgotten, is a singular boon. XXVI 
INTRODUCTION. 
At first the infant sees everything double, everything 
upside down, everything in close contact with his eye. It 
is by a process of comparing the sensations of touch with 
those of sight that he learns the real position and distance 
and number of the objects which he sees. He listens to 
the song of a bird, and at length judges of its direction and 
remoteness from him by comparing his first sensations of 
touch and sight with those of hearing. lie becomes 
familiar with these various processes of judgment and 
reasoning long before he is capable of analyzing them, or 
of retaining them for any Length of time in definite re- 
membrance. During the first two or three years of his 
life, he acquires a larger number of ideas, in regard to space, 
time, form, substance, quality, matter, mind, language, 
than he will acquire during any two or three years subse- 
quent. If the child could make known his mental pro- 
cesses as they are performed day by day during the first 
five years of his life, he would be the instructor cf the 
wisest psychologist; he would settle the questions of the 
schools in regard to our original ideas, intuitions, processes 
of abstracting, generalizing, etc. We have read of persons 
solving intricate mathematical problems or explaining 
obscure metaphysical theories at the age of four years. 
We are astonished at their precocity: we should be more 
astonished if we should know all the moral reflections of 
children who are not precocious, and who are not old 
enough to express their thoughts in worthy language. 
The profoundest meditations of a man, much more of a 
small boy, are often concealed because they do not suggest 
adequate words. As the scientific discoveries of little 
children, so have their moral reflections a life-long influ- 
ence. In regard to moral truths, What is learned in the 
cradle lasts to the grave." Hence, Virgil says, '-Adeo 
inteneris consuescerc multum est." In one of his papers 
contributed to the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 
Knowledge, Lord Brougham pronounces his opinion that XXVII 
INTRODUCTION. 
a child before his fifth year has already formed that 
character which it is difficult, if not morally impossible, 
to change. If a child's character be confirmed thus 
early, his education must begin earlier still. It must 
begin before he can understand the influences which 
are exerted upon him. As he cannot remember the 
hour when he began to distinguish a superficies from a 
solid, so he cannot remember the hour when he began to 
approve the right and to disapprove the wrong. But at 
that early hour he was beginning to form a habit which, 
like every other habit, has a tendency to be permanent. 
Hence the great multitude of the proverbs in various lan- 
guages: " Bend the willow while it is young"; " As the 
twig, so the tree," etc., etc. " Education," says a writer 
in " Fraser's Magazine," " does not commence with the 
alphabet; it begins with a mother's look, with a father's 
smile of approbation or sign of reproof, with a sister's 
gentle pressure of the hand or a brother's noble act of 
forbearance, with birds' nests admired and not touched, 
with creeping ants and almost impossible emmets, with 
humming bees and great bee-hives, with pleasant walks 
and shady lanes, and with thoughts directed in sweet and 
kindly tones and words to mature acts of benevolence, to 
deeds of virtue, and to the source of all good, - to God 
himself." 
The history of Laura Bridgman gives us new suggestions 
on the worth of human nature. The more clearly we see 
the power of the soul, so much the more keenly do we feel 
the need of educating it. The results which have come 
from the training of this disabled woman foreshadow the 
results which might ensue if equal labor were expended 
in the training of persons who are free from her disabili- 
ties. The success of her teachers is a stimulus and en- 
couragement to all who find obstacles in imparting knowl- 
edge to others. Dr. Howe defined obstacles as " tilings to 
be overcome." XXVIII 
INTRODUCTION. 
In order to estimate properly the greatness of Nature's 
work, it is advisable now and then to reduce the scale of 
them iu our imagination. We cannot easily appreciate 
the magnitude of our earth, with its diameter of seven 
thousand nine hundred and twenty-five miles; of Uranus, 
with its diameter of thirty-live thousand miles ; of Saturn, 
with its diameter of seventy-six thousand and sixty-eight 
miles; of Jupiter, with its diameter of eighty-seven thou- 
sand miles. We must humble our views in order to exalt 
them. We can form a more vivid idea of the solar sys- 
tem, if we ever and anon imagine the earth to be but one 
mile in diameter, and the other planets to be proportion- 
ally small, than if we always attempt to form such images 
of the globes as shall accord with their actual size. When 
we reduce the earth to a half-inch in diameter, and reduce 
the other planets, the satellites, and the sun to a propor- 
tionate littleness, we prepare ourselves to form a still more 
exact idea of the greatness of those orbs. Hence, the 
use of the planetarium. Sir John Herschell says, "As 
to getting correct notions on [the magnitudes and dis- 
tances of the planets] by drawing circles on paper, or, 
still worse, from those very childish toys called orreries, it 
is out of the question." As to getting perfect notions on 
any great subject in this world, it is out of the question ; 
but right ideas are often suggested where they are not ex- 
pressed. If we bend low, we may afterward rise high. It 
is said of Pope Sixtus V that while a cardinal, he walked 
like an old man, with his head inclined toward the ground, 
but as soon as he had obtained the papal tiara, which had 
been the object of his ambition, he assumed an erect 
stature and walked with a firm step. To the question. 
" Why this change ?" his reported answer wras, *• While I 
was looking for the keys of St. Peter, I needed to stoop; 
but now that I have found them, I may stand upright." 
We need to stoop low in order to detect the sublimity of 
Xie human soul. INTRODUCTION. 
XXIX 
When we sec a girl in lowly life, " a silent, helpless, 
hopeless unit of mortality," whose faculties lay slumber- 
ing in a prison barred by four thick walls, not a ray of the 
sun's light entering her dungeon after she was eight or 
nine years old, not a sound of a human voice penetrating 
it, with but few odors wafted into it from the flowers of 
the field, with only a faint and feeble sense of the most 
luscious fruits; a lonely girl, doomed to form her notions 
of the outer world by what is commonly called the sense 
of touch, wisdom at all other entrances being almost, 
although not "quite shut out," who yet learns to per- 
form operations far surpassing those of such men as can 
see and hear and smell and taste, we are surprised at the 
reserved forces belonging to human nature and exceed- 
ing some of the capabilities which are developed in com- 
mon life. 
In the narrative of this remarkable person, we are told 
of her physical exploits, which are certainly equal to those 
performed by James Mitchell or Samuel Eames or Julia 
Brace; and of her mental and moral advancement, which, 
in a soul so firmly imprisoned, is altogether unprecedented. 
She can read words which we cannot. She can detect the 
emphasis of a bodily motion which gives no idea to us. 
In the darkness of midnight she can peruse her Bible. If 
she were amid the roar of a battle-field, she could pursue 
her studies undisturbed. She feels a command in one 
movement of the arm, a permission in another move- 
ment, a reproof in a different one; an expression of im- 
patience in one muscle, of anger in another, of esteem in 
a different one. She can touch the smiles of a congrega- 
tion. She can feel the beaming of the eyes of her visit- 
ors. She can distinguish the various tones of various 
movements of the fingers. If her quick discernment of 
muscular expression were combined with the common 
powers of vision, hearing, and speech, she would be dis- 
tinguished above her race as an observer of its mental XXX 
INTRODUCTION. 
phenomena. We read of men who having eyes see not, 
and having ears hear not; but we now behold a woman 
who has no eyes, and yet sees the finger of nature point- 
ing to its God; has no ears, and yet listens to the tones 
of nature expressing the majesty of God; lives in the 
land of silence and the land of darkness, is unable to 
utter the name of Him who dwelleth only in the light, 
and yet she holds and enjoys communion with that Infi- 
nite Intelligence. The most disabled of men is made but 
little lower than the angels. 
Edwards A. Park, 
Andover Theological Seminary. 
August 5, 1878 PREFACE; 
In a paper on the vocal sounds of Laura Bridgman, 
published thirty years ago, Dr. Francis Lieber expressed 
the hope that a general account of her education would 
not much longer be withheld from the public. Dr. Howe 
has often intimated in conversation, as well as in his an- 
nual reports, his intention to prepare such an account, 
but his life closed before it was accomplished. Soon after 
his death applications were made to the writer from vari- 
ous parts of the country to take up the work at once, lest 
that which was considered to be of much importance to 
the scholar be lost irretrievably. 
Most reluctantly have I yielded to these requests, appre- 
ciating fully my own inability to fill the place which right- 
fully belonged to him who first devised a way to pour light 
into a mind thus darkened. My aim will be simply to 
state facts, and in making selections from the daily reports 
of her teachers to omit nothing which can be of service 
in any department of science. Believing that the Value 
of the work is to be measured by its accuracy, I have care- 
fully ascertained all dates, and have secured from most 
reliable sources a full account of her early teaching. 
I have quoted largely from the reports of Dr. Howe 
(now nearly out of print), which contain a summary of 
her progress from year to year, and thus have preserved 
them from utter loss, while adding greatly to the interest 
of these notes. XXXII 
PREFACE. 
To others is left the work of gleaning from these fruit- 
ful fields.' There are rich sheaves for the teacher who 
makes the subject of language a study, and for the men- 
tal and moral philosopher, who will find much that is val- 
uable each in his own department; while all who read may 
learn to prize more highly the inestimable gifts of sight 
and hearing. 
Mary Swift Lamson. CONTENTS. 
Page 
Parentage. - Infancy. -Early Childhood.- Brought to the 
Institution for the Blind in Boston. - First Lessons.- 
Learning to attach Labels to Proper Objects.-Learns 
Finger Alphabet. - Learns to write. - First Temptation. 
- Visit to Hanover 1 
CHAPTER I. 
CHAPTER II. 
Dr. Howe's Report of the First Year's Instruction, 1838.- 
Occupation when alone. - Dexterity in use of Finger 
Language. - Her Mother's First Visit to her. - Report of 
Second Year's Instruction, 1839. - Intellectual Improve- 
ment.- Learning Adjectives.-Prepositions "in" and 
"on." - Auxiliaries expressing Pa<t, Present, and Fu- 
ture Tenses.- First Letter. - First Lessons in Arith- 
metic. - Days of Week. - Perception of Time in Music.- 
Judgment of Distances and Direction. - Learning Words 
"right" and "left." - Word-making. - Attempt at 
Classification. - Love of Teasing. - Fondness of Dress. - 
Effect of Deprivation of Three Senses on the Remaining, 11 
CHAPTER III. 
Second Visit to Hanover. - First Lesson on Arithmetic 
Board.-Description of it. - Journal of Miss Drew.- 
Death of Adeline. - Honesty. - Dr. Howe's Report of 
1840. - Size of Head. - Evidences of Lack of Smell. - 
Recognition of Persons. - Progress in Intellectual Ac- 
quirements. - Use of Pronouns. - Inflection of Verbs. - 
Eagerness in Study.- Words signifying Mental Oper- 
ations, " remember," " forget." - Words expressing XXXIV 
CONTENTS. 
Page 
Generic Character. - Development of Moral Qualities.- 
Deportment towards Different Sexes. - Conscientious- 
ness. - Choice of Companions. - Tendency to Imitation. 
- Social Feelings. - First Falsehood. - Prejudices . 28 
1841. Miss Swift's Journal. - Arrival of Lucy Reid. -Lau- 
ra's Lesson to Lucy. - Difficulty in teaching Comparison. 
- Refusal to eat Meat. -Dr. Howe's Views. - Her Re- 
ligious Feeling.-Innate Dispositions. - Can she be 
taught the Existence of God? - She discovers that she has 
Four Senses. - Quarrel with Lucy. - Her Idea of the Seat 
of Sensation. - Lessons on Color. - Power of Blind to dis- 
tinguish Color.-Teaching her Doll to talk.-Noises to 
designate Persons. - Interest in Lucy. -Box of Types. 
- Lucy's Departure.-First hears of Oliver Caswell.- 
Sentences on Type Board. -Questions about Animals.- 
Dislike of Types. - Sense of the Ludicrous. - Letter to 
her Mother. - Test of Conscientiousness. - Killing a 
Mouse. - Idea of Noise. -Distinction between " to pun- 
ish" and "to blame."-Arrival of Oliver Caswell.- 
His First Lesson (see appendix). - Lesson on Trades . 48 
CHAPTER IV. 
CHAPTER V. 
1841. Visit to Hanover, Concord, Hartford. - Meets Julia 
Brace and Mrs. L. H. Sigourney. - Poem by Mrs. Sigour- 
ney. - Parting with Miss Drew. - Invitation to visit her. 
- Dr. Howe's Statement of her Physical and Mental Con- 
dition. - Assistance she derives from the Sense of Mus- 
cular Resistance. - Relations of " Outness." - Measures 
Distance accurately. - Effect of Electricity and Galvan- 
ism. - Dreams. - Progress in Language. - Native Mod- 
esty.- Idea of Sex. - Story of the Doll.-Dr. Howe's 
Plans for her Religious Instruction .... 82 
CHAPTER VI. 
1842. Teachers in this Year. - Manner of reporting Conver- 
sations. - Why she spells correctly. - Difficulties in read- CONTENTS. 
XXXV 
Page 
ing '' Child's First Book.' ' - Asks a Definition of Vowels , 
and Consonants. - Boats and Oars. - Notice of a Trus- 
tees' Meeting - Explanation of an Almanac. - Dr. 
Howe wishes to give her Ideas of Death. - Recollections 
of feeling of a Corpse. - Remarks upon it. - Can we 
think without Words?- Call from Charles Dickens.- 
Words of Flattery not repeated to her. - Letter to her 
Mother. - Report of a Lesson upon God. - Mistakes in 
using Verbs. - Desire to see God. - New Words from 
" Child's Second Book." - Learns the Meaning of " de- 
ceive " and ' ' fault." - Colors Dark and Light. - Recov- 
ers from Measles. - Wrong Impressions in Reading.- 
Smells an Orange. - Seeing through the Windows in 
Boston. - Extent of the Dog's Knowledge. - Hearing 
Cannon. - Sick Horse.-Little Deception.-Jane Da- 
mon. - Lesson at Sea-shore. - Spider's Web like Plate 
of Planetary System. - Difficulty in remembering cer- 
tain Words 94 
CHAPTER VII. 
1842. Death of Orrin. -Dr. Howe's Conversation with her. 
- Questions she asked others. - Gymnasium. - Visit to 
Museum. - Dr. Howe's Summary of her Condition at 
Close of this Year. - Necessity of Language.-Process 
of acquiring Language. - Use of Adjectives. - Use of 
Verbs.-Further Views of Religious Training . . 116 
CHAPTER VIII. 
1843. New Year's Day. - Feeling Persons talk. - Rudeness 
explained.-Playing the Coquette. - Her own Idea of 
the Noises she makes. - Visit of George Combe. - Re- 
sults in the Appointment of the Author as sole Teacher. - 
New Plan of Studies, Work, and Exercise. - Delight at the 
Arrangement. - First Lesson in Geography. - Points of 
Compass. - Bounding Rooms. - Story of Old Man and 
Plum-Tree. - Her Version of it. - Conversation on 
Trades. -Numeration. - Public Exhibition. - Questions 
on House-building. - Teaching her to speak. - Lesson 
on Map of Boston. - Conversations recall Events of her XXXVI 
CONTENTS. 
Page 
Childhood. - Story of Little Girl and Lamb. - Failure in 
writing a Story which had been read containing Dialogue. 
- Lesson on Dry Measure. - Story of Rollo. - Bounds 
Towns in Vicinity of Boston. - Lesson on Wine Measure. 
- Letter. - Case of Deception. - Its Treatment. - Story 
of her Childhood.-Troubled by the Word " crazy."- 
Letter to her Mother. - Hears of Dr. Howe's intended 
Marriage. - Cloth Measure. - Outline Map. - Lesson 
on Towns on Cape Cod. - Excitement in an Interesting 
Lesson.-Discussion of Etiquette.-Imagination devel- 
ops slowly. - Good Resolutions. - Use of "Ma'am " and 
" Sir." - Exhibition at State House 132 
1843. Commences Colburn's Mental Arithmetic.-Gymna- 
sium Exercises. - Enjoys her Arithmetic. - Again mis- 
understands her Reading. - Impatience in a Shop. - 
Finds a Latin Book and puzzles over it.-Takes First 
Lesson on the Large Map of New England States.- 
Questions how to address a Gentleman in a Note.- 
Judges correctly of Quality of Embroidery. - Completes 
Third Section in Colburn's Mental Arithmetic. -Lesson 
on Trees. -Frightened by a Dream.-Visit to Steam- 
ship.- Sadness at parting with Dr. Howe. - Letter to 
Miss Everett. -Vacation. -Forgetting her Arithmetic. 
- Passion. - First Lesson on Large Map of United 
States. - Excitement on hearing of Niagara. - Sewing. 
- Learning various Kinds of Woods.- Examines a Mon- 
key.- Visit to a Menagerie. - Cause of Trouble in Arith- 
metic. - Death of one of the Blind Girls .... 160 
CHAPTER IX. 
CHAPTER X. 
1843. Journey to Halifax. - Pleasure in teaching Laura. - 
Lessons in the Woods ; in Barn ; at Saw-Mill. -About 
the Fall River Fire. - Completes Seventh Section in 
Arithmetic. - How she knows when to rise in the Morn- 
ing. - Punctuation. - Eighth Section completed. - 
Lesson on Multiplication of Fractions. - Playing with 
Doll in the Night. - Lesson on Indians. -Reading to her 
"The Spider and the Fly."-Tenth Section in Arith- CONTENTS. 
XXXVII 
Page 
metic. - Niagara Falls.- Distance lessening Size.-Causes 
of Day and Night. - Calculates the Difference in Time 
between Places. - Tired of Living. - Prudery corrected. 
- Tellurian 184 
CHAPTER XI. 
1843. How we read Books to Laura; the Rapidity with 
which it can be done. - Visitors from North Carolina. - 
Doll in Welsh Costume. -Vacation. - Breaking a Glass. 
- Map of North America. - Difficulty of learning the 
Names in Mexico.-Animals required to make the Things 
in the Room. - Metals required.-Woods required.- 
Manufacture of Glass.-Completes Thirteenth Section 
in Arithmetic. -Commences Abbott's Story, " Caleb in 
Town." - Tells to which Kingdom Things in the Room 
belong. - Letter to a Little Girl. - Book of Diagrams. - 
Rain, Snow, Hail. - Difficulties in commencing a New 
Subject. - Slow to receive a Joke. - Feeling on Account 
of Dr. Howe's Marriage. - Conscience. - Improvement 
in Smell. - Learning the Names of Cooking Utensils. - 
Complete Map of South America - Commences Section 
Fifteen in Arithmetic. - Finds it a difficult one. - Feels 
that she has been slighted. - Learning Shapes of Various 
Objects. - Field of Inquiry enlarged. - Fourteenth 
Birthday. - Examines a Dead Canary Bird. - Too old 
to go to Bed early. - Sensitiveness because Parrots speak. 
- Lesson on the Large Globe. - Commences Map of 
Europe 199 
CHAPTER XII. 
1844. Wishes Dr. Howe a Happy New Year. - New Year's 
Present. - Call from a Graceful Y oung Lady. - Talks 
about Spain and its People. - Dreams.- Finds Fault with 
those around her. - Lesson on the Lever. - Dreamed she 
talked with her Mouth. - Sorrow that Oliver knows 
nothing about God. -Visit of Representatives. -Letter 
to Dr Howe. -Recalls the Old Case of Deception about 
the Gloves. - Case of Anger, continued Ill Feeling, and 
Final Penitence - Picture of Laura and Oliver painted XXXVIII 
CONTENTS. 
Page 
by Fisher. - Drunkards. - Capering. - Compares Blocks 
of Ice to Glaciers. -Last Miscellaneous Examples in 
Colburn. -Visit of Governor and Council, and Mr Weld 
and his Deaf-Mute Pupils from Hartford. - He promises 
to pray God to bless her. - Letter to Gov. Briggs. -Read- 
ing in Book of Psalms.-Visit to a German Brig. - Indus- 
try. - Long List of New Words for Explanation. - Let- 
ter to Dr. Howe. - Completed Colburn's Mental Arith- 
metic in One Year. -Method of Study. - Letter to Mrs. 
Howe. - Talk on the New Russian Railroad. -President 
of the United States. - Discovery of America. - Begins 
the Map of Africa 222 
CHAPTER XIII. 
Letter from Dr. Howe to Laura. -Mistake in reckoning 
Time. - Visits Boston at the Time of Temperance 
Procession. - Musical Instruments. - Doll's Marriage. - 
Smells Roses for First Time.- Letter to Mrs. Howe.- 
zEolian Harp. - Commenced a Story about two African 
Tribes. - Shocked at their killing each other.-Return 
of Dr. Howe. -Writes a Story on Jane Damon. - Arri- 
val of Mrs. Howe 250 
CHAPTER XIV. 
1844. Learned much in Vacation. -Dr. Howe's Lesson on 
" ful " and " less."-Fifty New Words learned in a Week. 
- Meaning of Profane. - Imaginary Shopping, pay- 
ing in Dollars and Cents, then in Shillings and Pence. - 
1845. Diploma from the Mechanics' Fair.- Commences 
Grammar. - Learns the Parts of Speech rapidly. - U ses 
Ciphering Board again. - Dislikes to lose part of my 
Time. - Style of Conversation with Oliver. - Language 
not as good as Six Months ago.- Dr. Howe's Remarks 
on Language. -He tells her the Story of Christ's Birth. 
- Advanced to Reduction on her Board. -Finished the 
Story of Marco Paul. - Dr. Howe's Method of convers- 
sing with her on Religious Subjects. -Answers to Ques- 
tions concerning Laura's Ability to understand Biblical 
Doctrines 264 CONTENTS. 
XXXIX 
Page 
1845. No Teacher for Four Months. - Miss Wight becomes 
her Teacher in August. - She has forgotten much both 
in Geography and Arithmetic. - Few Records of Details 
of Lessons. - Interest in Magnet. - Question on Mar- 
riage. - Lesson on Motives. - Rudeness. - Talk on being 
benevolent. - "Why do I have two Thoughts? "-Con- 
cealment from her Teacher -Asks God's Forgiveness. 
-Unkindness to her Teacher, Impatience, and Anger. - 
Succeeds in overcoming Difficulties without Impatience. 
- Strange Dreams. - Questions about Heaven. - " Why 
did Jesus come?" An Original Story .... 278 
CHAPTER. XV. 
CHAPTER XVI. 
1847. Further Extracts from Miss Wight's Journal. - 
Desire to read the Bible. - Becomes more Pa- 
tient - Anxiety to know if God has forgiven her 
Past Sins. - Reading of Matthew's Gospel. -Interest 
in Chapter Five. - Hears of the Death of her Friend 
Tenny. - Explains the Lord's Prayer. - Christ's Temp- 
tation. - Inhales Ether. - Letter to Brother. - Im- 
provement in Character. - Miracles of Christ. - 
" Why is Pain sent us ? " - Impatience. - Christ's 
Death. - Forgiveness. - Dr. Howe resumes her Religious 
Instruction. - Visit to Hanover. - Questions about Mr. 
Tenny after Death. - U nhappiness at the Reserve of her 
Teacher in talking on Religious Topics. - Self-Satisfac- 
tion. - Another Fall. - Extracts from Laura's own 
Journal. - She reports her Success in teaching a Deaf 
and partially Blind little Girl. - She talks to her about 
her Heavenly Father. -Insubordination and Punishment 
of her Pupil. - Miss Wight's Absence. - Laura's Tribute 
to her. - Inquiries about Christ. - Confession of Wrong- 
Doing. - Feelings towards God. - Story of a Poor 
Woman. - Pleasant Anticipations. - Less Bright 
Thoughts 300 
CHAPTER XVII. 
1848. Miss Wight's Journal, continued. -Good Health. - 
Desire to earn her own Living. - Effects of 
Prayer.-Interest in Free-Soil Principles. - Allu- XL 
CONTENTS. 
Page 
sion to her Privations. - Delight in a Sermon. - 
1849. Advice to a Friend.-Attends a Wedding.- 
Letter to her Brother Addison. - Studying Algebra. - 
Finished reading Jarvis's Physiology. - Christmas 
Party. -Miss Wight, failing in Health, leaves her in 
1850. -Dr. Howe's Eighteenth Report. - Laura's Pro- 
gress.- Position before the World. - Her Treatment 
shows Human Progress 321 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
Additional Items of Interest. - Return to Boston. - Visit 
and Examination of my House. - Interest in the Baby. - 
Description of its V isit to her. - Letter of Consolation 
on its Death.-Her Occupation after Miss Wight left 
her. -Letters of Sympathy to Miss Rogers. -Incidents 
of Visits to Mrs. L.-Return to her Father's House.- 
Illness from Home-Sickness. - Strong Likes and Dis- 
likes.- Ability to read Character. - Illustrations.- 
Choice of Dress. -Enjoyment of a Watch. -Receives a 
Present of one. -Sympathy with the Poor and Suffer- 
ing. - Her own Sketch of her Early Life .... 334 
Acquaintance of Katie Hill. - New Views received from 
her.-Hears of the Death of her Sister. - Rebellious 
Spirit. - Letter to Miss Rogers, indicating her Submission 
to God's Will. - Baptism. - Sketch of her Feelings at the 
Loss of her Sister, and Description of her Baptism. - 
Anxiety about her Future Support. -Letter to Mrs. L , 
expressing Gratitude at an Arrangement for it.-Visit 
to Dr. Howe before his Decease. - Letter after it. - Loss 
of her Friend, Miss Rogers. - Letter written to her 
before her Death. - Letter to her Sister.- Sympathy 
with a Little Boy 349 
CHAPTER XIX. 
Her Present Life. -Occupations. -Books. -Appearance. - 
Change in Character. - Poem on " Light and Dark- 
ness " - Closing Remarks. - Poem, " Holy Home " . 363 
CHAPTER XX. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER I. 
Laura Dewey Bridgman was born Dec. 21, 
1829, in Hanover, N. II. She was the child of 
Daniel and Harmony Bridgman. Her parents are 
described* as of- 
"the average height, and though slenderly built, of 
sound health and good habits. The father's tempera- 
ment inclined to the nervous, but he had a small brain ; 
while the mother had a very marked development of 
the nervous system, and an active brain, though not a 
large one. 
"They were persons of good moral character, and 
had received about as much culture as is common in the 
rural districts of New Hampshire. 
' ' The child inherited most of the physical peculiar- 
ities of the mother, with a dash of what, from want of 
a better name, is called the ' scrofulous temperament.' 
This temperament makes one very liable to certain dis- 
eases, but it gives great delicacy of fibre, and conse- 
quent sensibility. Laura had a physical organization 
like that of a delicate plant, - very liable to derange- 
* Barnard's Am. Journal of Education, December, 1867 (article 
by Dr. S. G. Howe). 2 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
ment because very sensitive, also very difficult as an 
organization to bring to maturity, but promising great 
capacity and beauty." 
During her infancy she was subject to severe 
convulsions, but at the age of eighteen months 
her health improved, and when two years old, she 
is described as being more active and intelligent 
than ordinary children. She had learned to speak 
a few words, and knew some of the letters of the 
alphabet. But her release from suffering was of 
short duration ; for a month after, scarlet fever en- 
tered the family, which then consisted of three 
little girls. Her two older sisters died of the 
disease, and Laura's life long hung by a very 
slender thread. For seven weeks she was unable 
to swallow any solid food; both eyes and ears 
suppurated and discharged their contents, and 
sight and hearing were destroyed. Iler eyes were 
very painful, and for five months she was kept in 
a darkened room. 
The sense of smell was so nearly destroyed that 
it was useless, and she could scarcely distin- 
guish between different articles of food by the 
taste ; her only means of communication with the 
outer world was the touch. A year passed before 
she could walk without support, and two years 
before she was sufficiently strong to sit up all day. 
At five years of age she had regained her 
strength, and her mind, which had been unim- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
3 
paired by all this bodily suffering, now hungered 
for food. The long siekness had effaced the rec- 
ollection of babyhood; the words once spoken 
were long since forgotten; she had become dumb, 
because she was deaf. She must begin life anew, 
and her thirst for knowledge must be satisfied by 
obtaining such information as one sense could 
bring. Of everything she must feel, and all the 
properties perceivable by that sense must be as- 
certained. As the mother moved about her vari- 
ous avocations, the child was always beside her, 
the little hands felt every motion, and soon the 
desire of imitation was developed. She was 
taught to sew, to knit, and to braid. The only 
way of communicating with her was by the sim- 
plest signs : extending the hand in a certain way 
meant bread; raised to the lips as if tipping a 
cup, drink ; pushing - go ; pulling - come ; a pat 
on the head expressed approval; on the back, 
disapproval, etc. She was affectionate in disposi- 
tion, but as she grew in strength and age, her 
will developed, and restraint became more diffi- 
cult. On her father devolved the unpleasant 
task of compelling obedience. She had a friend 
in an old man who loved her dearly, and of whom 
she always in after life spoke with the greatest 
affection. In his strong arms she delighted to be 
carried, and with him, when able to walk, she 
rambled through the fields and by the river-side, 4 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
taking pleasure in throwing stones into the water, 
though her eye could not watch them nor her 
car hear their plashing. 
Only one case similar to Laura's had ever been 
known in this country, and that was Julia Brace, 
who lost her senses of sight and hearing at four 
years of age, and who was living at this time at 
the Asylum for Deaf-Mutes, in Hartford, Conn. 
She had been taught to communicate to some 
extent, by signs only. Dr. S. G. Howe, direc- 
tor of the Institution for the Blind in Boston, had 
visited Julia, and had formed a theory for reach- 
ing a mind so enclosed. Hearing, soon after, of 
this little girl in New Hampshire, he went to see 
her, and persuaded the parents to place her under 
his charge. 
She was brought to the Institution in Boston, 
Oct. 12, 1837, about two months before her 
eighth birthday. 
Of the development of this theory and its appli- 
cation to her instruction, Dr. Howe has given 
brief accounts in his annual reports, but as the 
question most frequently asked is, " What was 
done first?" I have thought it desirable to obtain 
all possible information on that point 
For the interesting account which follows I am 
indebted to Mrs. L. II. Morton (Miss Drew), of 
Halifax, Mass., who assisted Dr. Howe in all 
these early lessons, and who continued to be LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
5 
Laura's teacher for several years. She writes as 
follows : - 
" Laura was a healthy little girl, with very fair com- 
plexion and light-brown hair : and there was nothing in 
her appearance to distinguish her from the other little 
blind girls, except that she was more quiet and unde- 
monstrative. This was, perhaps, because all were 
strangers to her. She first made the acquaintance of 
the matron, Mrs. Smith, to whom she seemed to be 
especially attracted, whose greetings would light up her 
face with smiles, while she returned her caresses with 
interest. She spent her time in knitting, and would 
take her work to Mrs. Smith if she dropped a stitch, 
and smile quietly as it was returned with a sign of 
approbation. At this time she uttered only a little 
pleasant noise ; but as she became better acquainted, 
this grew louder and very disagreeable. 
When I had been with her a few days, and she had 
become accustomed to being led about by me, 1 took 
her one morning to the nursery ; and having seated 
her by a table, Dr. Howe and myself commenced her 
first lesson. He had had printed, in the raised letters 
used by the blind, the names of many common objects, 
such as knife, fork, spoon, key, bed, chair, stove, 
door, etc., and had pasted some of the labels on the 
corresponding articles. First we gave her the word, 
' knife,' on the slip of paper, and moved her fingers over 
it, as the blind do in reading. Then we showed her 
the knife, and let her feel the label upon it, and made 
to her the sign which she was accustomed to use to 
signify likeness, viz., placing side by side the fore- 6 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
fingers of each hand. She readily perceived the simi- 
larity of the two words. 
" The same process was repeated with other articles. 
This exercise lasted three quarters of an hour. She 
received from it only the idea that some of the labels 
were alike, and others unlike. The lesson was repeated 
in the afternoon, and on the next day, and about the 
third day she began to comprehend that the words on 
the slips of paper represented the object on which they 
were pasted. This was shown by her taking the word 
' chair' and-placing it first upon one chair, and then upon 
another, while a smile of intelligence lighted her hitherto 
puzzled countenance, and her evident satisfaction 
assured us that she had mastered her first lesson. In 
succeeding lessons, the label having been given her, she 
would search for the article, and having found it, place 
it upon it. Then the operation was reversed, and hav- 
ing the article given, she found the proper label. 
" Thus far she had studied the words as a whole, and 
it was now desirable to have her form them herself from 
their component letters. Mr. S. P. Ruggles, who had 
charge of the printing department, was called upon to 
construct a case of metal types. This contained four 
sets of the alphabet, and afforded her much amusement 
as well as profit. She seemed never to tire of setting 
up the types to correspond with the printed words with 
which she was already familiar. All the letters of one 
alphabet were kept arranged in their proper order, while 
she used the others. In less than three days she had 
learned this order, as was found by taking all the types 
from the case, and making a sign to her to rearrange 
them, which she did without assistance. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
7 
"During the time of her earliest instruction.it was 
necessary to use many signs. These were laid aside, 
however, as soon as we had something better to supply 
their place. As a mark of approval, I stroked her hair 
or patted her upon the head; of disapproval, knocked 
her elbow lightly. ' 
" Whenever she overcame a difficulty, a peculiarly 
sweet expression lighted up her face, and we perceived 
that it grew daily more intelligent. 
"It was nearly two months before any use was made 
of the manual alphabet. At this time Dr. Howe gave 
me a letter of introduction to Mr. George Loring, who 
was a deaf-mute, and a graduate from the Institution at 
Hartford. In one afternoon he taught me the alphabet, 
and the next day I began to teach it to Laura, showing 
her the position of the fingers to represent each of the 
types which she had been using. 
" The method of teaching hei' new words afterwards 
was as follows: To let her examine an object, and 
then teach her its name by spelling it with my fingers. 
She placed her right hand over mine, so she could feel 
every change of position, and with the greatest anxiety, 
watched for each letter; then she attempted to spell it 
herself; and as she mastered the word, her anxiety 
changed to delight. Next she took her board, and 
arranged the types to spell the same word, and placed 
them near the object, to show that she understood it. 
" She very soon perceived that spelling the words 
in this way was much more rapid, and attended with 
much less difficulty, than the old method with types, 
and immediately applied it practically. I shall never 
forget the first meal taken after she appreciated the 8 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
use of the finger alphabet. Every article that she 
touched must have a name ; and I was obliged to call 
some one to help me wait upon the other children, while 
she kept me busy in spelling the new words. Dr. Howe 
had been absent for some time, and on his return was 
much delighted with the progress she had made, and at 
once learned the manual alphabet himself. 
" After she had learned a hundred or more common 
nouns, we began to teach her the usq of verbs. The 
first were shut, open ; shut door, open door, accom- 
panying the spelling of the word by the act. In this 
way she learned those in constant use, and then we 
taught her adjectives, and the names of individuals. 
In a very short time she had learned the names of all 
our large family. 
" After a year she began to learn to write. A paste- 
board with grooved lines such as the blind use, was placed 
between the folds of the paper; a letter was pricked 
in stiff paper so that she might feel its shape, and then 
her right hand, holding the pencil, was guided to form 
it, the forefinger of the left hand following the point of 
the pencil, guiding the writing, and keeping the spaces 
between the letters. She did not learn to write well as 
quickly as many of the blind children. 
" She was very social, and always wished to have 
some one sit beside her or walk with her, and she 
taught her little blind friends the finger alphabet. 
" One day I was passing the door of the linen-room, 
and saw her standing upon a chair, examining the con- 
tents of an upper drawer. It contained pieces of rib- 
bon and laces belonging to the matron. She took them 
out, felt of the smooth satin and the delicate lace, solil- LAUB A BRIDGMAN. 
9 
oquized with her fingers, and made a motion as if to 
appropriate them, then knocked her elbow (the sign of 
wrong), and after some hesitation replaced them. This 
was repeated several times, and then I went to her, and 
took her hand as if wishing to speak to her, when an 
expression of conscious guilt overspread her face. I 
made her understand by signs that she must not meddle 
with what did not belong to her. She said, ' Laura, 
wrong, no; Laura, right,' patting her own head, and 
showing me that she had not taken anything, but I 
knew that she had been under great temptation and had 
triumphed over it. 
" I accompanied her on her first visit to her home in 
Hanover, in 1839. Iler father met us in Lebanon, and 
as he took her hand she recognized him, and I taught 
her the word ' father ' She had seen her mother a year 
before, and had learned the word ' mother ' at the time 
of her visit to the Institution. Before Laura could be 
persuaded to take off her cloak and bonnet after arriv- 
ing at home, she took me over the whole house, show- 
ing me everything, and inquiring the names of things 
which she had not learned about in Boston In an 
unfinished room were a loom and spinning-wheel. 
These she had seen (felt) her mother use, and was 
very anxious for their name. Then she led me to the 
bee-hive to know what that was 
" At this time she was very shy of gentlemen, and 
would hardly approach any one but Dr. Howe, and I 
thought she might repel her father and her old friend 
Mr. Tenny, but, on the contrary, she was much pleased 
to walk with him, as she had been in the habit of doing 
before she left home. 10 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
"•She was anxious to have her mother talk with her, 
and began at once to teach her the alphabet. 
" She seemed so happy to be at home that I feared 
she might object to return with me, but at the end of a 
fortnight she was quite willing to go, and left her mother 
very calmly." LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
11 
CHAPTER II. 
No regular journal of Laura's lessons was kept 
until June, 1840, but we find in the annual 
reports of Dr. Howe a summary of her progress 
from year to year, as well as a statement of her 
physical, mental, and moral condition. 
At the close of the year 1838, when she had 
been sixteen months under instruction, he writes as 
follows: -* 
" It has been ascertained beyond the possibility of 
doubt that she cannot see a ray of light, cannot hear 
the least sound, and never exercises her sense of smell, 
if she has any. Thus her mind dwells in darkness 
and stillness, as profound as that of a closed tomb at 
midnight. Of beautiful sights and sweet sounds and 
pleasant odors she has no conception; nevertheless, 
she seems as happy and playful as a bird or a lamb; 
and the employment of her intellectual faculties, or 
acquirement of a new idea, gives her a vivid pleasure, 
which is plainly marked in her expressive features. She 
never seems to repine, but has all the buoyancy and 
gaiety of childhood. She is fond of fun and frolic, 
♦ Seventh Report of the Trustees of the New England 
Institution for the Blind. 12 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
and when playing with the rest of the children, her shrill 
laugh sounds loudest of the group. 
When left alone, she seems very happy if she has her 
knitting or sewing, and will busy herself for hours: if 
she has no occupation, she evidently amuses herself by 
imaginary dialogues, or by recalling past impressions ; 
she counts with her fingers or spells out names of 
things which she has recently learned, in the manual 
alphabet of the deaf-mutes. In this lonely self-com- 
munion she seems to reason, reflect, and argue ; if she 
spells a word wrong with the fingers of her right hand, 
she instantly strikes it with her left, as her teacher does, 
in sign of disapprobation ; if right, then she pats her- 
self upon the head, and looks pleased. She sometimes 
purposely spells a word wrong with the left hand, looks 
roguish fOr a moment and laughs, and then with the 
right hand strikes the left, as if to correct it. 
'•During the year she has attained great dexterity in 
the use of the manual alphabet of the deaf-mutes ; and 
she spells out the words and sentences which she knows, 
so fast and so deftly, that only those accustomed to 
this language can follow with the eye the rapid motion 
of her fingers. 
" But wonderful as is the rapidity with which she 
writes her thoughts upon the air, still more so is the 
ease and accuracy with which she reads the words 
thus written by another, grasping their hand in hers, 
and following every movement of their fingers, as letter 
after letter conveys their meaning to her mind. It is in 
this way that she converses with her blind playmates ; 
and nothing can more forcibly show the power of mind in 
forcing matter to its purpose, than a meeting between LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
13 
them. For if great talent and skill are necessary for 
two pantomimes to paint their thoughts and feelings by 
the movements of the body and the expression of the 
countenance, how much greater the difficulty when 
darkness shrouds them both, and the one can hear no 
sound! 
"When Laura is walking through a passageway, 
with her hands spread before her, she knows instantly 
every one she meets, and passes them with a sign of 
recognition; but if it be a girl of her own age, and 
especially if one of her favorites, there is instantly a 
bright smile of recognition and a twining of arms, 
a grasping of hands, and a swift telegraphing upon 
the tiny fingers, whose rapid evolutions convey the 
thoughts and feelings from the outposts of one mind to 
those of the other. There are questions and answers, 
exchanges of joy or sorrows, there are kissings and 
partings, just as between little children with all their 
senses. 
" One such interview is a better refutation of the doc- 
trine that mind is the result of sensation than folios of 
learned argument. If those philosophers who consider 
man as only the most perfect animal, and attribute his 
superiority to his senses, be correct, then a dog or a 
monkey should have mental power quadruple that of 
poor Laura Bridgman, who has but one sense. 
" During this year, and six months after she had left 
home, her mother came to visit her, and the scene of 
their meeting was an interesting one. 
" The mother stood some time, gazing with overflow- 
ing eyes upon her unfortunate child, who, all uncon- 
scious of her presence, was playing about the room. 14 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
Presently Laura ran against her, and at once began 
feeling of her hands, examining her dress, and trying 
to find out if she knew her ; but not succeeding in this, 
she turned away as from a stranger, and the poor 
woman could not conceal the pang she felt at finding 
that her beloved child did not know her. 
" She then gave Laura a string of beads which she 
used to wear at home, which were recognized by the 
child at once, who with much joy put them around her 
neck, and sought me eagerly, to say she understood the 
string was from her home. 
" The mother now tried to caress her, but poor Laura 
repelled her, preferring to be with her acquaintances. 
" Another article from home was now given her, and 
she began to look much interested ; she examined the 
stranger much closer, and gave me to understand that 
she knew she came from Hanover. She even endured 
her caresses, but would leave her with indifference at 
the slightest signal. The distress of the mother was 
now painful to behold; for although she had feared 
that she should not be recognized, the painful reality of 
being treated with cold indifference by a darling child 
was too much for woman's nature to bear. 
"After a while, on the mother's taking hold of her 
again, a vague idea seemed to flit across Laura's mind 
that this could not be a stranger ; she therefore felt of 
her hands very eagerly, while her countenance assumed 
an expression of intense interest; she became very 
pale, and then suddenly red; hope seemed struggling 
with doubt and anxiety, and never were contending 
emotions more strongly painted upon the human face. 
At this moment of painful uncertainty, the mother LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
15 
drew her close to her side, and kissed her fondly, when 
at once the truth flashed upon the child, apd all mis- 
trust and anxiety disappeared from her face, as with an 
expression of exceeding joy she eagerly nestled to the 
bosom of her parent, and yielded herself to her fond 
embraces. 
"After this, the beads were all unheeded; the play- 
things which were offered to her were utterly disre- 
garded ; her playmates, for whom but a moment before 
she gladly left the stranger, now vainly strove to pull 
her from her mother; and though she yielded her 
usual instantaneous obedience to my signal to follow 
me, it was evidently with painful reluctance. She 
clung close to me, as if bewildered and fearful; and 
when, after a moment, I took her to her mother, she 
sprang to her arms, and clung to her with eager joy. 
" I had watched the whole scene with intense interest, 
being desirous of learning from it all I could of the 
workings of her mind ; but I now left them to indulge, 
unobserved, those delicious feelings which those who 
have known a mother's love may conceive, but which 
cannot be expressed. 
"The subsequent parting between Laura and her 
mother showed alike the affection, the intelligence, and 
the resolution of the child, and was thus noticed at the 
time: ' Laura accompanied her mother to the door, 
clinging close to her all the way, until they arrived at 
the threshold, where she paused, and felt around to 
ascertain who was near her. Perceiving the matron, 
of whom she is very fond, she grasped her with one 
hand, holding on, convulsively, to her mother with the 
other; and thus she stood for a moment, then she 16 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
dropped her mother's hand, put her handkerchief to her 
eyes, and turning round, clung, sobbing, to the matron, 
while her mother departed, with emotions as deep as 
those of her child." 
At the end of the year 1839, after she had been 
twenty-eight months under instruction, the follow- 
ing report was made of her case : -* 
"The intellectual improvement of this interesting 
being, and the progress she has made in expressing her 
ideas, are truly gratifying. 
' ' Having mastered the manual alphabet of the deaf- 
mutes, and learned to spell readily the names of every- 
thing within her reach, she was then taught words 
expressive of positive qualities, as ' hardness,' ' soft- 
ness'; and she learned to express quality by con- 
necting the adjectives, ' hard ' or ' soft,' with the sub- 
stantive ; though she generally followed what one would 
suppose to be the natural order in the succession of 
ideas, by placing the substantive first. 
"It was found too difficult, however, then, to make 
her understand any general expression of quality, as 
' hardness,' ' softness,' in the abstract. Indeed, this is 
a process of mind most difficult of performance to any, 
especially to deaf-mutes. 
"Next she was taught those expressions of relation 
to place which she could understand. For instance, a 
ring was taken and placed on a box, then the words 
were spelt to her, and she repeated them from imita- 
tion. Then the ring was placed on a hat, and a sign 
* Eighth Annual Report of the Trustees of Perkins Institu- 
tion and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind. 17 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
given her to spell. She spelt, ' ring on box'; but being 
checked, and the right words given, she immediately 
began to exercise her judgment, and, as usual, seemed 
intently thinking. Then the same was repeated with a 
bag, a desk, and a great many other things; until at last 
she learned that she must name the thing on which the 
article was. 
" Then the same article was put into the box, and 
the words ' ring in box ' given to her. This puzzled her 
for many minutes, and she made many mistakes : for 
instance, after she had learned to say correctly whether 
the ring was on or in a box, a drawer, a hat, a bucket, 
etc., if she were asked, where is house, or matron, she 
would say, in box. Cross-questioning, however, is 
seldom necessary to ascertain whether she really under- 
stands the force of the words she is learning, for when 
the true meaning dawns upon her mind, the light spreads 
to her countenance. 
" In this case, the perception seemed instantaneous, 
and the natural sign by which she expressed it was 
peculiar and striking: she spelt o-n, then laid one hand 
on the other; then she spelt i-n, and enclosed one hand 
within the other. 
" She easily acquired a knowledge and use of active 
verbs, especially those expressive of tangible action, as 
to walk, to run, to sew, to shake. 
"At first, of course, no distinction could be made of 
mood and tense ; she used the words in a general sense, 
and according to the order of her sense of ideas. Thus, 
in asking some one to give her bread, she would first 
use the word expressive of the leading idea, and say, 18 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
' Bread, give Laura.' If she wanted water, she would 
say, ' Water, drink, Laura.' 
" Soon, however, she learned the use of the auxiliary 
verbs, of the difference of past, present, and future 
tense. For instance, here is an early sentence, ' Keller 
is sick ; when will Keller well ' ? The use of be she had 
not acquired. 
" Having acquired the use of substantives, adjec- 
tives, verbs, prepositions, and conjunctions, it was 
thought time to make the experiment of trying to teach 
her to write, and to show her that she might communi- 
cate her ideas to persons not in contact with her. 
" It was amusing to witness the mute amazement 
with which she submitted to the process, the docility 
with which she imitated every motion, and the per- 
severance with which she moved her pencil over and 
over again in the same track, until she could form the 
letter. But when, at last, the idea dawned upon her 
that by this mysterious process she could make other 
people understand what she thought, her joy was 
boundless. 
" Never did a child apply more eagerly and joyfully to 
any task than she did to this ; and in a few months she 
could make every letter distinctly, and separate words 
from each other; and she actually wrote, unaided, a 
legible letter to her mother, in which she expressed 
the idea of her being well, and of her expectation of 
her going home in a few weeks. It was, indeed, a 
very rude and imperfect letter, couched in the language 
which a prattling infant would use. Still it shadowed 
forth, and expressed to her mother, the ideas that were 
passing in her own mind. - Laura's First Letter,- 
Autograph Fac- 5i milel Copy, 
t tj -J2_ /-T~ \j O A kj £3 (v, 
I Ov- La_ n O_ \-ls~ u u cJ 4P Vir b 
ur vj t ^oc_ Aj u\j -e. n~ ( L Q_ ll rr O_ 
w L I \j -vr\j ou iC^ _o ) ^n jo e3 
/ > L !" 
d rr Cm d L hj r-v b Cl u_ 
IL L o^b . ^Ct k 
"vw, <' t Vu -e w ~t\3 \~v^ «^r 
v-wu t Vl -C nr LIT b\u \j V O LT 
<3 "4^3 I '~I_J u -H3 Lo- \_x_ o_ . m o ult 
Lcl LU n- ca_ LAT u L L C cu r-r n- n_^ . 
j t jo. (W Lo nr '~vw^o nj e. n~. 
Lou. l_l_ nrcu ul~l L L q lxttu I e >o 
titwx-u n- ca_ Vur Li \j\» C^o Ld rrru . LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
19 
" She is familiar with the processes of addition and 
subtraction in small numbers. Subtraction of one 
number from another puzzled her for a time ; but by 
help of objects she accomplished it. She can count and 
conceive objects to about one hundred in number; to 
express an indefinitely great number, or more than she 
can count, she says, hundred. If she thought a friend 
was to be absent many years, she would say, Will come 
hundred Sundays, meaning weeks. She is pretty accu- 
rate in measuring time, and seems to have an intuitive 
tendency to do it. Unaided by the changes of night 
and day, by the light, or the sound of any timepiece, 
she nevertheless divides time pretty accurately. 
" With the days of the week, and the week itself as 
a whole, she is perfectly familiar. For instance, if 
asked, What day will it be in fifteen days more? she 
readily names the day of the week. The day she 
divides by the commencement and end of school, by 
the recesses, and by the arrival of meal-times. 
" Those persons who hold that the capacity of per- 
ceiving and measuring the lapse of time is an innate 
and distinct faculty of the mind, may deem it an impor- 
tant fact that Laura evidently can measure time so 
accurately as to distinguish between a half and whole 
note of music. Seated at the piano-forte, she will strike 
the notes in a measure like the following, quite cor- 
rectly : - 20 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
"Now it will be perceived that she must have clear 
perception of lapse of time, in order to strike the two 
eighths at the right instant; for in the first measure 
they occur at the second beat, in the second measure 
at the third beat. She often asks questions which 
unfortunately cannot be satisfactorily answered to her, 
for it is painful to excite such a vivid curiosity as now 
exists in her mind, and then balk it. For instance, she 
once asked with much eagerness why one arrange- 
ment of letters was not as good as another to express 
the name of a thing; as why lac should not express 
the idea of the animal, as well as c a t. This she 
expressed partly by signs and partly by words, but her 
meaning was perfectly clear; she was puzzled and 
wished an explanation. 
"An extract from the diary kept by her instructor 
will give an idea of her manner of questioning: - 
" Dec. 3, 1839. Spent one hour in giving Laura an 
idea of the meaning of the words ' left' and ' right.' She 
readily conceived that left hand, meant her left hand, but 
with difficulty generalized the term. At last, however, 
she caught the idea, and eagerly spelt the name of her 
arms, hands, fingers, feet, ears, etc., as they were 
touched, and named them, right or left, as might be; 
suddenly pausing, however, and looking puzzled, she 
put her finger on her nose, and asked if that were right 
or left; thus she continually puzzles one ; but such is her 
eagerness to find out one's meaning, such a zealous co- 
operation is there on her part, that it is a delightful 
task to teach her. 
" Uses to-day freely the prepositions in and on; she 
says, ' teacher sit in sofa.' Do not dare to correct her LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
21 
in such cases of anomalous usage of the preposition, 
but prefer to let her be in error than to shake her faith 
in a rule given: the corrections must be made by and 
by. The sofa having sides, she naturally says in. 
u In her eagerness to advance her knowledge of words 
and to communicate her ideas she coins words, and is 
always guided by analogy. Sometimes her process of 
word-making is very interesting; for instance, after 
some time spent in giving her an idea of the abstract 
meaning of alone, she seemed to obtain it, and under- 
stood that being by one's self was to be alone or al-one. 
She was told to go to her chamber, or school, or else- 
wdiere, and return alone; she did so, but soon after, 
wishing to go with one of the little girls, she- strove to 
express her meaning thus : ' Laura go al-two.' 
" The same eagerness is manifested in her attempts 
to define for the purpose of classification ; for instance, 
some one giving her the word ' bachelor' she came to her 
teacher for a definition ; she was taught that men who 
had wives were husbands, those who had none, bache- 
lors; when asked if she understood she said, ' man no 
have wife - bachelor ; Tenny - bachelor,' referring to 
an old friend of hers. Being told to define bachelor, 
she said, ' bachelor, no have wife, and smoke pipe.' 
Thus she considered the individual peculiarity of smok- 
ing, in one person, as a specific mark of the species 
bachelor. 
"Then in order to test her knowledge of the word, 
it was said by her teacher, ' Tenny has got no wife, 
what is Tenny?' She paused, and then said, ' Tenny 
is wrong.' The word ' widow ' being explained to her, a 
woman whose husband is dead, and being called upon 22 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
to define, she said, ' Widow is woman, man dead and 
cold,' and eked out her meaning by sinking down, and 
dropping her hand, to signify in the ground. 
" The last two words she added herself, they not 
having been in the definition ; but she instantly asso- 
ciates the idea of coldness and burial with death. 
" She had touched a dead body before she came to 
the Institution. 
"The following anecdote will give an idea of her 
fondness for teasing, or innocent fun or mischief. Iler 
teacher, looking one day, unobserved, into the girls' 
play-room, saw three blind girls playing with the rock- 
ing horse. Laura wras on the crupper, another in the 
saddle, and a third clinging on the neck, and they were 
all in high glee, swinging backward and forward as far 
as the rockers would roll. There was a peculiarly arch 
look in Laura's countenance, the natural language of 
sly fun. She seemed prepared to give a spring, and 
suddenly, when her end was lowest, and the others were 
perched high in the air, she sidled quickly off on to the 
floor, and down went the other end so swiftly as to 
throw the girls off the horse. 
"This Laura evidently expected, for she stood a 
moment, convulsed with laughter, then ran eagerly 
forward with outstretched hands to find the girls, and 
almost screamed with joy. As soon, however, as 
she got hold of one of them, she perceived that she 
was hurt, and instantly her countenance changed, she 
seemed shocked and grieved, and after caressing and 
comforting her playmate, she found the other, and 
seemed to apologize by spelling the word ' wrong,' and 
caressing her. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
23 
" When she can puzzle her teacher, she is pleased, 
and often purposely spells a word wrong, with a playful 
look; and if she catch her teacher in a mistake, she 
bursts into an ecstasy of laughter. 
" With little girls of her own age, she is full of frolic 
and fun, and no one enjoys a game at romps more than 
Laura. 
" She has the same fondness for dress, for ribbons, 
and for finery as other girls of her age, and as a proof 
that it arises from the same amiable desire of pleasing 
others, it may be remarked that whenever she has a 
new bonnet, or any article of dress, she is particularly 
desirous to go to meeting, or to go out with it. If 
people do not notice it, she directs their attention by 
placing their hands upon it. 
" Generally she indicates her preference for such 
visitors as are the best dressed. 
'' It is interesting, in a physiological point of view, to 
know the effect of the deprivation of three senses on 
the remaining two. 
" The sense of smell being destroyed, it seems 
a curious question whether the effect upon the organ of 
taste is general or particular, that is, whether the taste 
is blunted generally, and for all things alike, or whether 
one kind of sapidity is more affected than another. 
To ascertain this, some experiments have been tried, 
but as yet, not enough to enable one to state con- 
fidently the results in minute distinction. The general 
conclusions are these : - 
" Acids seem to make vivid and distinct impressions 
upon the taste ; and she apparently distinguishes the 
different degrees of acidity better than of sweetness or 24 
LAURA BRIDGMAN., 
bitterness. She can distinguish between wine, cider, 
and vinegar, better than substances like manna, liquor- 
ice, and sugar. Of bitters she seems to have less per- 
ception, or, indeed, hardly any; for on putting pow- 
dered rhubarb into her mouth, she called it tea, and on 
saying no, and telling her to taste close, she evidently 
did try to taste it, but still called it tea, and spit it out, 
but without any contortion or any indication of its being 
particularly disagreeable. 
"Of course she has a repugnance to this kind of 
experiments, and it seems almost imposing upon her 
good-nature to push them very far. 
" Those who are curious in the physiology of the 
taste know that the highest degree of gusto, or the 
acme of pleasure, is not obtained until just as the 
morsel has slipped over the glottis, and is on its way, 
beyond power of recall, down the oesophagus. This 
seems to be a wise precaution of nature to prevent the 
stomach being cheated of its due ; for if the highest 
degree in pleasure of eating could be obtained without 
absolutely swallowing the morsel, the epicure could 
have an exhaustless source of pleasure, and need never 
degenerate into the gourmand. 
" Some physiologists who have speculated upon this 
subject consider that this final climax of the pleasure of 
taste is produced by a fine aroma which, rising from the 
morsel and mounting up the fauces, pleasantly titillates 
the ramifications of the olfactory nerve. The fact that 
v'hen we have a cold in the head, and the fauces are 
obstructed, the taste is blunted, seems to bear out this 
supposition; but from some observations on Laura, LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
25 
one would be inclined to think that some other cause 
must .contribute to the effect. 
' ' She appears to care less for the process of mastica- 
tion than deglutition ; and probably it is only the neces- 
sity of mechanical trituration of foods which induces 
her to go through with it, before hastening to the pleas- 
ant part of swallowing. Now, as the imperfection of 
smell impairs the taste in the tongue and palate during 
mastication, it should have the same effect in degluti- 
tion, supposing this theory to be correct; but it seems 
not to be so, else Laura would have little inducement 
to swallow, save to fill a vacuity of stomach. Now it 
seems doubtful whether the feeling of vacuity of stom- 
ach, strictly speaking, would show a child the road for 
the food, or whether it would not be as likely to stuff 
bread into its ear as into its mouth if it had no pleas- 
urable sensation in tasting ; and further, if the pleasur- 
able sensation did not increase, and tempt to deglutition, 
it is doubtful whethei* hunger or vacuity of stomach 
alune, would teach a child to swallow the chewed 
morsel. 
" On the whole, she seems to care less for eating 
than most children of her age. 
" With regard to the sense of touch it is very acute, 
even for a blind person. It is shown remarkably in the 
readiness with which she distinguishes persons. There 
are forty inmates in the female wing, with all of whom 
of course Laura is acquainted ; whenever she is walking 
through the passage-ways, she perceives by the jar of 
the floor or the agitation of the air that some one is 
near her, and it is exceedingly ditlicult to pass her with- 
out being recognized. Iler little arms are stretched 26 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
out, and the instant she grasps a hand, a sleeve, or 
even part of the dress, she knows the person and lets 
them pass on with some sign of recognition. 
" The innate desire for knowledge, and the instinc- 
tive efforts which the human faculties make to exercise 
their functions, is shown most remarkably in Laura. 
Hei' tiny lingers are to her as eyes and ears and nose, 
and most deftly and incessantly does she keep them in 
motion. Like the feelers of some insects which are 
continually agitated, and which touch every grain of 
sand in the path, so Laura's arms and hands are con 
tinually in play ; and when she is walking with a person 
she not only recognizes everything she passes within 
touching distance; but by continually touching her 
companion's hands she ascertains what he is doing. A 
person walking across a room while she had hold on his 
left arm, would find it hard to take a pencil out of his 
waistcoat pocket with his right hand, without her per- 
ceiving it. 
" Iler judgment of distances and of relations of place 
is very accurate ; she will rise from her seat, go straight 
towards a door, put out her hand just at the right time, 
and grasp the handle with precision. 
"When she runs against a door which is shut, but 
which she expects to find open, she does not fret, but 
rubs her head and laughs, as though she perceived the 
ludicrous position of a person flat against a door trying 
to walk through it. 
" The constant and tireless exercise of her feelers 
gives her a very accurate knowledge of everything 
about the house ; so that if a new article, a bundle, 
bandbox, or even a new book is laid anywhere in the LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
27 
apartments which she frequents, it would be but a short 
time before in her ceaseless rounds she would find it, 
and from something about it, she would generally dis- 
cover to whom it belonged. 
"She perceives the approach of persons by the 
undulations of the air striking her face, and she can 
distinguish the step of those who tread hard and jar 
the floor. 
" At table, if told to be still, she sits and conducts 
herself with propriety; handles her cup, spoon, and 
fork like other children ; so that a stranger looking at 
her would take her for a very pretty child with a green 
ribbon over her eyes. 
"But when at liberty to do as she chooses, she is 
continually feeling of things, and ascertaining their 
size, shape, density, and use, asking their names and 
their purposes, going on with insatiable curiosity, step 
by step, towards knowledge. 
" Thus doth her active mind, though all silent and 
darkling within, commune by means of her one sense 
with things external, and gratify its innate craving for 
knowledge by close and ceaseless attention. 
"Qualities and appearances, unappreciable or un- 
heeded by others, are to her of great significance and 
value ; and by means of these her knowledge of exter- 
nal nature and physical relations will in time become 
extensive." 28 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER III. 
In June, 1840, her teacher, Miss Drew, re- 
turned, after an absence of six months. From 
her journal of the remainder of the year we quote 
items of interest. Before commencing the sum- 
mer term she accompanied Laura on a visit to 
her parents. Her health was very delicate, and 
she suffered much from pain in her side, which 
she attributed entirely to the long journey. This 
she expressed in the following words, which give 
the reader a very good idea of her use of language 
at this date : " When Laura did go to see mother, 
ride did make Laura side ache ; horse was wrong, - 
did not run softly." While at breakfast one day, 
she asked, "Who did make egg?" Hen. " With 
foot?" No. "Laura do love egg. Hen must 
make more egg." June 20 she received her first 
lesson in arithmetic on the metallic case used by 
the blin(K\ This is perforated with square holes, 
and two square types arc used to represent the 
digits. The corner of one end is raised, and 
represents 1, 3, 7, and 9, according to position in 
the board or case. On the other end of the same LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
29 
type is a diagonal line and a raised corner repre- 
senting 2, 4, 6, 8. The second type has, on one 
end, simply a diagonal line, representing 5 ; the 
other end, which is flat, 0. She was delighted with 
her lesson, as she always is with anything new; 
but it took several days to make her understand 
the connection between the position of the type 
in the aperture and its significance." 
" July 9. She had learned to add a column of 
figures amounting to thirty. 
" For a month she was not well, and so excessively 
nervous that her lessons were omitted. 
"Aug. 20. A gentleman called to see Laura who 
was going to Hartford. She had been told that there 
was a person in the asylum there who was deaf, dumb, 
and blind, and asked if she might send her a letter. 
She wrote, ' Julia Brace cannot see and hear, -sorry, 
- Laura is blind and deaf.' 
" Aug 22. She was asked by her teacher to go to 
the school-room to find a lead pencil, and told that she 
did not know on which desk it was. She returned 
bringing the pencil, and said, ' Laura cannot find 
which.' She had had several lessons upon the pro- 
nouns, I and you, and had used them properly, but 
never had learned any others. 
" Aug. 24. Gave her sentences introducing if, or, 
which, and the past tense of the verbs come and go. 
" Aug. 26. She was very impatient while writing 
for company, and at last said, ' I do not want to write 
for twenty ladies.' 
" Aug. 31. Taught her the words Mr., Mrs., Miss. 30 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
She asked if she was Miss Laura. She uses the words 
'me' and 'my' correctly to-day. If, by chance, she 
converses with any one who uses proper names where 
pronouns should be used, she looks very wise, and 
knocks the person's elbow, and threatens to complain 
of her to her teacher. 
" Sept. 2. Iler lesson was upon the formation of the 
plural. She wishes to form them all by adding ' s,' but 
quite dislikes the idea that some nouns ending in ' ey ' 
must have an ' s ' while others change to ' ies.' 
" Sept. 7. Laura came to me saying, ' Dog did come 
in school-room. Susan did strike dog, - dog was 
wrong to come in school-room,' and then she laughed 
aloud at the idea of a dog coming to school. That I 
might see what reply she would make, I told her she 
must teach the dog. She asked, ' Can dog learn? Can 
dog talk with fingers ? ' and added, laughing heartily, 
' Dog has no fingers.' 
" Sept. 8. Dr. R. visited the school to-day and was 
much interested in Laura, but it was impossible to make 
her converse about anything. She wrote badly, and 
seemed anxious to go away to play. In the afternoon, 
I told her I was sorry she was not good when Dr. R. 
was here ; she very adroitly changed the subject, ask- 
ing, ' Has Dr. R. got little cow in home ? ' 
" Sept. 11. A visitor at the school said he had a 
deaf and dumb boy at home. I repeated it to Laura 
thus, ' Man has little boy who cannot see and hear.' 
She wrote as a specimen of her writing, ' I am sorry 
who cannot see and hear. I am blind and deaf.' She 
probably thought that ' who ' was the name of the boy. 
" Nov. 5. Find it difficult to make her comprehend LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
31 
the use of it, they, them. Speaking of a lady who has 
died, and whom she saw in Hanover two years ago, she 
said, 'Will Mrs. M. come back when sun is warm? 
where is Mrs. M. ? are you sorry not to see Mrs. M. ?' 
" Nov. 6. She asked, 'Where are flies gone?' I 
told her the cold made the flies die. ' Will flies come 
when warm?' Yes ' I am sorry lady will not come 
when warm.' 
" Nov. 11. In Laura's lesson in arithmetic I told 
her she was ' adding.' She thought a moment, and 
said, ' I added yesterday and counted.' I said, ' I will 
tell doctor you can add very good.' ' When will you tell 
him?' ' After dinner, if I see him.' She immediately 
said, ' If he will not go to Boston,' showing that she 
applies if correctly at last. In one of her sums the 
answer consisted of four figures, and she did not know 
the name of thousands. I explained that one thousand 
was the same as ten hundred, and she read the number 
1875, ' ten hundred, and eight hundred, and seventy- 
five.' 
" Nov. IS. Laura has lately reported many misdeeds 
of her playmates. To-day she came to say, ' Olive 
pinched very hard. You must knock Olive very much 
hard, she pinched and was wrong.' 
" Nov. 29. Our little blind pupil, Adeline, breathed 
her last this afternoon. Iler death, although every 
hour expected, came like a chill upon all our hearts, for 
she was beloved by us all. The little girls of her own 
age were much affected. Laura was puzzled ; she could 
not understand the mystery of death, but she seemed 
grieved, and asked, ' Will Adeline's mother cry and be 
very sorry? Is she cold and stiff? What is die?' 32 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
" Dec. 2. Laura was much grieved that she could 
not go to Cambridge ' to see Adeline,' and asked many 
questions, which it was impossible to answer. ' Where 
is Adeline? can she breathe? when will she be well?' 
" Dec. 12. Laura has been confined to her bed for 
several days, but was able to sit up to-day. She highly 
enjoys being comfortably sick, and it delights her to sit 
in a rocking-chair writh a shawl wrapped around her, 
and then to be served with such delicacies as she thinks 
proper for an invalid, as roasted apple, cracker toast, 
etc. 
" Dec. 30. She was in the dining-room closet, where 
there were some apples, and told the little girl who was 
with her she wanted an apple. Elizabeth gave her one, 
but she refused it, and said, ' No, Elizabeth must ask 
Mrs. Smith if she can give me apple.' I have observed 
frequently that she will not take anything that she 
knows docs not belong to her. At one time a piece of 
candy lay upon my table; she touched it accidentally, 
took it up, and made a sign that she would eat it, then 
laid it down again, and knocked her elbow as if she 
had done wrong to take it up, and shook her head to 
signify it was not hers." 
In the Ninth Annual Report to the Trustees at 
the close of the year 1840, Dr. Howe writes: - 
" I shall now notice such of the phenomena that I 
have remarked in her case during the last year, as seem 
most striking and important. 
" Her health has been very good. She has not 
grown much in height, but her frame has filled out. 
" A perceptible change has taken place in the size LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
33 
and shape of her head ; and although unfortunately the 
measurement taken two years ago has been mislaid, 
every one who has been well acquainted with her 
notices a marked increase in the size of the forehead. 
She is now just eleven years old; her height is four 
feet four inches and seven tenths. Her head measures 
twenty inches and eight tenths in circumference, in a 
line drawn around it, and passing over the prominences 
of the parietal and those of the frontal bones; above 
this line the head rises one inch and one tenth, and is 
broad and full. The measurement is four inches from 
one orifice of the ear to the other; and from the occip- 
ital spine to the root of the nose, it is seven inches. 
" Nothing has occurred to indicate the slightest per- 
ception of light or sound, or any hope of it; and al- 
though some of those who are much with her suppose 
that her smell is more acute than it was, even this 
seems very doubtful. 
" It is true that she sometimes applies things to her 
nose, but often it is merely in imitation of the blind 
children about her; and it is unaccompanied by that 
peculiar lighting up of the countenance which is ob- 
servable whenever she discovers any new quality in an 
object. 
" It was stated in the first report that she could per- 
ceive very pungent odors, such as that of cologne ; but 
it seemed to be as much by the irritation it produced 
upon the mucous membrane of the nares as by any im- 
pression upon the olfactory nerve. 
" It is clear that the sensation cannot be pleasurable, 
nqr even a source of information to her respecting 
physical qualities; for such is her eagerness to gain 34 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
this information, that could smell serve her, she would 
exercise it incessantly. 
" Those who have seen Julia Brace, or any other 
deaf-blind person, would hardly fail to observe how 
quickly they apply everything which they feel to the 
nose, and how, by this incessant exercise, the smell 
becomes almost incredibly acute. Now with Laura 
this is not the case; she seldom puts a new thing to 
her nose, and when she does, it is mechanically, as it. 
were, and without any interest. 
" Iler sense of touch has evidently improved in 
acuteness; for she now distinguishes more accurately 
the different undulations of the air, or the vibrations of 
the floor, than she did last year. She perceives very 
readily when a door is opened or shut, though she may 
be sitting at the opposite side of the room. She per- 
ceives also the tread of persons upon the floor. 
" Her mental perceptions, resulting from sensation, 
are much more rapid than they were, for she now per- 
ceives, by the slightest touch, qualities and conditions 
of things, similar to those she had formerly to feel long 
and carefully for. So with persons; she recognizes 
her acquaintances in an instant, by touching their 
hands or their dress ; and there are probably fifty indi- 
viduals who, if they should stand in a row, and hold 
out each a hand to her, would be recognized by that 
alone 
'' The memory of these sensations is very vivid, and 
she will readily recognize a person whom she has thus 
once touched. Many cases of this kind have been 
noticed; such as a person shaking hands with her, and 
making a peculiar pressure with one finger, and repeat- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
35 
ing this on his second visit after a lapse of many 
months, being instantly known by her. She has been 
known to recognize persons wrhom she had thus simply 
shaken hands with but once, after a lapse of six 
months. 
"This is not more wonderful, indeed, than that one 
should be able to recall impressions made upon the 
mind through the organ of sight, as when we recognize 
a person of whom we had but one glimpse a year be- 
fore ; but it shows the exhaustless capacity of those 
organs of sense -which the Creator has bestowed, as it 
were in reserve against accidents, and which we usu- 
ally allow to live unused and unvalued. 
" The progress which she has made in intellectual ac- 
quirements can be fully appreciated by those only who 
have seen her frequently. The improvement, however, 
is made evident by her greater command of language, 
and by the conception which she now has of the force 
of parts of speech which last year she did not use 
in her simple sentences ; for instance, of pronouns, 
which she has begun to use within six months. This 
will be seen by an extract from the diary of one of her 
teachers written last month, Dec. 18 : ' To-day Laura 
asked me, " What is voice?" I told her as well as I 
could that it was the noise people make when they 
talk with their mouths. She then said, "I do not 
voice." I said, "Can you talk with your mouth?" 
Answer: "No." "Why?" " Because I am very deaf 
and dumb." "Can you see?" " No, because I am 
blind, I did not talk with fingers when I came with my 
mother, doctor did teach me on fork." "What was 
on fork?" I told her paper was fixed on forks. She 36 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
then said, " I did learn to read much with types, doc- 
tor did teach me in nursery. Drusilla was very sick all 
over." ' 
" The words here given (and indeed in all cases) are 
precisely as she used them; for great care is taken to 
note them at the time of utterance. It will be observed 
that she uses the pronoun, personal and possessive ; 
and so ready is she to conceive the propriety of it, and 
the impropriety of her former method, that upon my 
recently saying, ' Doctor will teach Laura,' she eagerly 
shook my arm to correct me, and told me to say, ' I 
will teach you.' She is delighted when she can catch 
any one in an error like this; and she shows her sense 
of the ludicrous by laughter, and gratifies her innocent 
self-esteem by displaying her knowledge 
" She easily learned the difference between the sin- 
gular and plural form, but was inclined for some time 
to apply the rule of adding s, universally. For in- 
stance, at her first lesson she had the words, arm, arms, 
hand, hands, etc.; then being asked to form the plural 
of box, she said boxs, and for a long time she would 
form the plural by the general rule, as lady, ladys, etc. 
"One of the girls had the mumps; Laura learned 
the name of the disease; and soon after she had it her- 
self, but she had the swelling only on one side ; and 
some one saying, 'You have got the. mumps,' she replied 
quickly, ' No, I have mump ' 
" With pronouns she had very little difficulty. It 
was thought best at first to talk with her as one does 
with an infant; and she learned to reply in the same 
way. ' Laura want water, give Laura water '; but she 
readily learned to substitute the pronoun, and now says, LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
37 
* Give me water. I want water,' etc. Indeed, she will 
not allow persons to address her in the third person, 
but instantly corrects them, being proud to show her 
knowledge. 
" She learned the difference between present and 
past tense the last year, but made use of the auxilia- 
ries ; during this year she has learned the method of 
inflecting the verb. In this process too her perfect 
simplicity rebukes the clumsy irregularities of our lan- 
guage. She learned, jump, jumped, walk, walked, etc., 
until she had an idea of the mode of forming the im- 
perfect tense, but when she came to the word *ee, she 
insisted that it should be seed in the imperfect, and 
after this, upon going down to dinner, she asked if it 
was eat, eated, but being told it was ate, she seemed to 
try to express the idea that this transposition of letters 
was not only wrong but ludicrous, for she laughed 
heartily. 
"The eagerness with which she followed up these 
exercises was very delightful; and the pupil, teasing 
the teacher for more words, is in pleasing contrast with 
the old method, where all the work was on one side, 
and where the coaxing and scolding and birchen appli- 
ances to boot, often failed to force an idea into the 
mind in the proper shape. But Laura is always ready 
for a lesson, and generally has prepared, beforehand, 
a number of questions to put to her teacher; for 
instance, when she was learning past tenses, she came 
one morning with fourteen verbs, of which she knew 
the present form, to ask for the imperfect. 
"The most recent exercises have been upon those 
words which would require attention to one's own 38 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
mental operations, such as remember, forget, expect, 
hope, etc. 
" Greater difficulties have been experienced in these 
than in her former lessons; but they have been so far 
surmounted that she uses many words of this kind with 
a correct perception of their meaning. 
"The day after her first lesson on the words, 'I re- 
member ' and ' I forget,' this memorandum was made of 
her second lesson on the same words. Question: ' What 
do you remember you did do last Sunday ? ' Answer: 
' I remember not to go to meeting ' (meaning that she 
did not go to meeting). Question: ' What do you re- 
member you did on Monday?' Answer: ' To walk in 
streets, on snow' (this was correct). Question: ' What 
do you remember you did in vacation?' Answer: 
'What is vacation?' This was a new word to her. 
She had been accustomed to say, ' When is no school,' 
or, ' When girls go home.' The word being explained, 
she said, ' I remember to go to Halifax ' (meaning that 
she did go to Halifax, which was true). ' What do 
you remember you did in vacation before ? ' Answer: 
'To play with Olive, Maria, and Lydia' (these were 
the girls who had been her companions). 
" Wishing to make her use the word ' forget,' I 
pushed the questions back to periods which she 
could not recall. I said, ' What did you do when you 
were a little baby?' She replied, laughing, 'I did 
cry,' and made the sign of tears running down her 
cheeks. 
" ' What did you say?' No answer. ' Did you talk 
with fingers? ' ' No' (very decidedly) . ' Did you talk 
with mouth?' A pause. ' What did you say with mouth?' LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
39 
' r forget.' I then quickly let her know that this was 
the proper word, and of the same force as ' I do not 
remember.' Thinking this to be a good opportunity of 
testing her recollection of her infancy, many questions 
were put to her ; but all that could be learned satisfac- 
torily was that she could recollect lying on her back, 
and in her mother's arms, and having medicines poured 
down her throat, or, in her own words, ' I remember 
mother to give me medicines' (making the signs of 
lying down and of pouring liquids down the throat). 
" It was not until after she had learned a few words 
of this kind that it was possible to carry her mind 
backwards to her infancy ; and to the best of my judg- 
ment, she has no recollection of any earlier period than 
the long and painful illness in which she lost her senses. 
She seems to have no recollection of any words of 
prattle which she might have learned in the short 
respite which she enjoyed from bodily suffering. 
" Thus far, her progress in the acquisition of lan- 
guage has been such as one would infer, a priori, from 
philosophical considerations ; and the successive steps 
have been nearly such as Monboddo supposed were 
taken by savages in the formation of their language. 
" But it shows clearly how valuable language is, not 
only for the exp ession of thought, but for aiding men- 
tal development and exercising the higher intellectual 
faculties. 
" When Laura first began to use words, she evidently 
had no idea of any other use than to express the indi- 
vidual existence of things, as book, spoon, etc. The 
sense of touch had, of course, given her an idea of 
their existence, and of their individual characteristics ; 40 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
but one would suppose that specific differences would 
have been suggested to her also ; that is, that in feeling 
of many books, spoons, etc., she would have reflected 
that some were large, some small, some heavy, some 
light, and been ready to use words expressive of the 
specific and generic character. But it would seem not 
to have been so, and her first use of the words great, 
small, heavy, etc., was to express merely individual 
peculiarities ; great boon was to her the double name 
of a particular book; heavy stone was one particular 
stone ; she did not consider those terms as expressive 
of substantive specific differences, or any differences of 
quality ; the words great and heavy were not considered 
abstractly, as the name of a general quality, but they 
were blended in her mind with the name of the objects 
in which they existed. At least such seemed to me to 
be the case, and it was not until some time after, that 
the habit of abstraction enabled her to apply words of 
generic signification in their proper way. 
" This view is confirmed by the fact that when she 
learned that persons had both individual and family 
names, she supposed that the same rule must apply to 
inanimate things, and asked earnestly what was the 
other name for chair, table, etc. 
" Several of the instances which have been quoted 
will show her disposition to form her words by rule, and 
to admit of no exceptions ; having learned to form the 
plurals by adding s, the imperfect by adding ed, etc., 
she would apply this to every new noun or verb, conse- 
quently the difficulty hitherto has been greater, and her 
progress slower, than it will be, for she has mastered 
the most common words, and these seem to be the ones LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
41 
that have been the most broken up by the rough collo- 
quial usage of unlettered people. 
The notice of her intellectual progress has thus far 
related to the acquisition of language, and this, to her, 
was the principal occupation ; other children learn lan- 
guage by mere imitation and without effort; she has to 
ask by a slow method the name of every new thing; 
other children use words which they do not understand, 
but she wishes to know the force of every expression. 
Iler knowledge of language, however, is no criterion of 
her knowledge of things, nor has she been taught mere 
words. She is like a child placed in a foreign country, 
where one or two persons only know her language, and 
she is constantly asking of them the names of the 
objects around her. 
The moral qualities of her nature have also developed 
themselves more clearly. She is remarkably correct in 
her deportment, and few children of her age evince so 
much sense of propriety in regard to appearance. 
Never, by any possibility, is she seen out of her room 
with her dress disordered ; and if, by chance, any spot 
of dirt is pointed out to her on her person, or any little 
rent in her dress, she discovers a sense of shame, and 
hastens to remove it. 
" She is never discovered in an attitude or an action 
at which the most fastidious would revolt, but is remark- 
able for neatness, order, and propriety. 
" There is one fact which is hard to explain in any 
way : it is the difference of her deportment to persons of 
different sex. This was observable when she was only 
seven years old. She is very affectionate, and when 
with her friends of her own sex she is constantly cling- 42 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
ing to them, and often kissing and caressing them ; and 
when she meets with strange ladies, she very soon be- 
comes familiar, examines very freely their dress, and 
readily allows them to caress her. But with those of 
the other sex it is entirely different, and she repels every 
approach to familiarity. She is attached, indeed, to 
some, and is fond of being with them ; but she will not 
sit upon their knees, for instance, or allow them to take 
her around the waist, or submit to those innocent famil- 
iarities which it is common to take with children of her 
age. 
" She seems to have, also, a remarkable degree of 
conscientiousness for one of her age; she respects the 
rights of others, and will insist upon her own. 
" She is fond of acquiring property, and seems to 
have an idea of ownership of things which she has long 
since laid aside, and no longer uses. She has never 
been known to take anything belonging to another ; and 
never but in one or two instances to tell a falsehood, 
and then only under strong temptation. Great care, 
indeed, has been taken not to terrify her by punish- 
ment, or to make it so severe as to tempt her to avoid 
it by duplicity, as children so often do. 
" When she has done wrong, her teacher lets her 
know that she is grieved, and the tender nature of the 
child is shown by the ready tears of contrition and 
the earnest assurances of amendment with which she 
strives to comfort those whom she has pained. 
" When she has done anything wrong, ar-d grieved her 
teacher, she does not strive to conceal it from her little 
companions, but communicates it to them, tells them 
' it is wrong,' and says, * cannot love wrong girl.' 43 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
" When she has anything nice given to her, she is 
particularly desirous that those who happen to be ill, or 
afflicted in any way, should share with her, although 
they may not be those whom she particularly loves in 
other circumstances; nay, even if it be one whom she 
dislikes. She loves to be employed in attending the 
sick, and is most assiduous in her simple attentions and 
tender and endearing in her demeanor. 
' ' It has been remarked in former reports that she 
can distinguish different degrees of intellect in others, 
and that she soon regarded, almost with contempt, a new- 
comer, when, after a few days, she discovered her weak- 
ness of mind. This unamiable part of her character has 
been more strongly developed during the past year. 
' ' She chooses for her friends and companions those 
children who are intelligent, and can talk best with her ; 
and she evidently dislikes to be with those who are 
deficient in intellect, unless, indeed, she can make them 
serve her purposes, which she is evidently inclined to 
do. She takes advantage of them, and makes them 
wait upon her, in a manner that she knows she could 
not exact of others, and in various ways she shows her 
Saxon blood. 
" She is fond of having other children noticed and 
caressed by the teachers, and those whom she respects ; 
but this must not be carried too far, or she becomes 
jealous. She wants to have her share, which, if not the 
lion's, is the greater part; and if she does not get it, 
she says, ' My mother will love me.' 
"Her tendency to imitation is so strong that it leads 
her to actions which must be entirely incomprehensible 
to her, and which can give her no other pleasure than 44 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
the gratification of an internal faculty. She has been 
known to sit for a half an hour, holding a book before 
her sightless eyes, and moving her lips, as she has ob- 
served ' seeing people ' do when reading. 
" She one day pretended that her doll was sick, and 
went through all the motions of tending it and giving 
it medicine ; she then carefully put it to bed, and placed 
a bottle of hot water to its feet, laughing all the time 
most heartily. When I came home she insisted upon 
my going to see it, and feel its pulse ; and when I told 
her to put a blister to its back, she seemed to enjoy it 
amazingly, and almost screamed with delight. 
"Her social feelings and her affections are very 
strong; and when she is sitting at work, or at her 
studies, by the side of one of her little friends, she will 
break off from her task, every few moments, to hug and 
kiss her with an earnestness and warmth that is touching 
to behold. 
"When left alone, she occupies and apparently 
amuses herself, and seems quite contented ; and so strong 
seems to be the natural tendency of thought to put on 
the garb of language that she often soliloquizes in the 
finger language, slow and tedious as it is. But it is only 
when alone that she is quiet; for if she becomes sensible 
of the presence of any bne near her, she is restless 
until she can sit close beside them, hold their hand, and 
converse with them by signs. 
" She does not cry from vexation and disappointment, 
like other children, but only from grief. If she receives 
a blow by accident, or hurts herself, she laughs and 
jumps about, as if trying to drown the pain by muscular 
action. If the pain is severe, she does not go to her LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
45 
teachers or companions for sympathy, but on the con- 
trary, tries to get away by herself, and then seems to 
give vent to a feeling of spite by throwing herself about 
violently, and roughly handling whatever she gets 
hold of. 
" Twice only have tears been drawn from her by the 
severity of pain ; and then she ran away, as if ashamed 
of crying for an accidental injury. But the fountain of 
her tears is by no means dried up, as is seen when her 
companions are in pain or her teacher is grieved. 
" In her intellectual character, it is pleasing to 
observe an insatiable thirst for knowledge and a quick 
perception of the relation of things. 
' ' In her moral character it is beautiful to behold her 
continual gladness, her keen enjoyment of existence, 
her expansive love, her unhesitating confidence, her 
sympathy with suffering, her conscientiousness, truth- 
fulness, and hopefulness." 
We return to the journal of Miss Drew. 
"Jan. 13,1841. While Laura was playing with 
Lydia and Sophia, I told her to go to her room and 
brush her hair ' very quick,' and come to me. She 
refused at first. I insisted, and she went up stairs in a 
pet. In a little while she came into the school-room 
with Sarah, and looked very anxious. Sarah said she 
had told the little girls in the parlor that she could not 
go to school because Miss Drew was gone to Boston, 
and she came down with her to inquire if I were gone. 
When Laura took my hand she looked very pale, then 
red. I asked her what she did. She said, ' I did tell 
Louisa you were gone to Boston.' ' Why did you tell 46 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
her so?' ' Because I was very wrong and did say lie.' 
She then attempted to justify herself, and asked, ' Why 
did you tell ine to go from Sophia?' I told her I 
wished her to braid her hair. ' I did not want to go.' 
Here the Doctor came in and she colored immediately. 
He asked her what she had done. She said, ' I did 
tell lie.' After he had left her I talked with her some 
time and she seemed much grieved, and said, ' I am 
sorry. I will be good and will not tell lie any more ' 
" Jan. 25. Laura struck one of the little girls 
against whom she has always an aversion, and after 
repentance and forgiveness, she said, 'I will go home 
and come no more.' 1 asked why. ' Because I cannot 
be good in Boston.' I said, 'Your mother will be sorry 
if you are naughty.' ' My mother will love me.* 'Yes, 
but she will be sorry.' I asked her if she was sorry she 
came to Boston. ' No, because I can (could) not talk 
with fingers when I came with my father and mother.' 
' If you go home and come no more, you can talk with 
no one with fingers.' ' My mother will talk little slow.' 
"P. M. I endeavored to overcome Laura's prejudices 
against Olive, and tried to make her understand that 
Olive was as good as she was. I said to her, ' You must 
love Olive, and walk with her, and teach her to talk 
with fingers.' She burst into a loud laugh, and said, 
' Olive cannot learn to talk with fingers ; her fingers 
are very stiff. She cannot make good letters.' And 
then she made a letter with her own fingers in a very 
awkward manner to show me what might be expected 
from her. 
" Feb. 6. The crowd has become so great at the 
monthly exhibitions, and presses so closely about LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
47 
Laura, that we are obliged to surround her desk by 
settees, thus making a little enclosure and protecting 
her. Our first trial of the arrangement was to-day, and 
Laura was quite displeased with it. She asked, ' Are 
ladies afraid of me ? ' thinking that it was made for the 
people rather than for her own good." 48 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER IV. 
On Feb. 16, 1841, a deaf, dumb, and blind 
girl named Lucy Reed was brought to the Insti- 
tution from Derby, Vt. She was at once an 
object of great interest to Laura, who was very 
anxious that she should be taught to talk with her. 
She was fourteen years of age, had never been 
controlled, and for a long time violently resisted 
all efforts to approach her, but she seemed to 
understand that Laura was like herself, and was 
attracted to her. Under date of April 14, Miss 
Drew records her first success after two months 
of daily effort. 
' ' I tried to teach Lucy to spell the word ' fig ' with her 
fingers, and succeeded in doing so after much trouble ; 
she would not do it, however, a second time, although 
she seemed very desirous of having the fig." 
A week later she relates the following incident. 
" I took a fork and gave her the letters, f-o-r-k. She 
was very indifferent, and manifested unwillingness to 
do what I wished her to, but she made the letters once. 
Presently Laura came in with some figs. I told her 
she must give Lucy one. She said, ' Lucy must spell 49 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
fig before I give it to her.' She went to her and 
showed her the fig, and then spelled it very slowly on 
her own hand, then made signs to her make the letters 
herself. This Lucy would not do at first, but Laura 
persevered, and by signs made her understand that she 
might have the fig if she would spell it, and made the 
letters again on her own hand, and again made signs to 
her to make them herself. At last Lucy found that Laura 
was in earnest, and she spelled the word f-i-g. Laura 
then patted heron head and cheek, and seemed to be 
perfectly delighted that she had accomplished so much." 
After this we often taught Lucy at the same 
time with Laura, when giving the latter a lesson 
which did not require undivided attention. This 
was a trial of her patience, and it was necessary 
to remind her how much she ought to pity Lucy, 
in order to reconcile her to the arrangement. It 
was merely the development of the same feeling 
we so often perceive in the family, when the little 
child finds itself supplanted by the new-born baby. 
Lucy remained with us only a few months, and 
the occasional references in the notes which follow 
will show Laura's interest in her. 
At this point in Laura's history, June, 1841, 
my own notes commence. I had entered the Insti- 
tution a year previous, as special teacher for Joseph 
Smith, a young blind man who was preparing for 
Harvard College. 
Laura always made the acquaintance of every 
member of the family, and soon discovered me, 50 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
and taught me to use the manual alphabet. In 
August, Dr. Howe requested me to devote an 
hour daily to conversation with her. My remem- 
brance of those early lessons is very limited, and 
no notes of them have been preserved. The diffi- 
culties encountered in teaching her comparison 
are, however, indelibly impressed upon my mind. 
At the close of the third week's work on this sub- 
ject alone, I felt that I had exhausted all my own 
resources, and went to Dr. Howe for assistance. 
He dismissed me with the suggestion that I perse- 
vere, and in a day or two after, we triumphed. 
Perhaps this may be accounted for, in part, by my 
inexperience, as I was only eighteen, and just out 
of school, but the subsequent study of the devel- 
opment of other children convinces mo that most 
of them meet the same difficulties, and that they 
are only overcome by much practice. 
After a child has acquired a good use of lan- 
guage, the question, "Which do you like better, 
an apple or an orange ? " will be answered by nam- 
ing the object which happens to be mentioned 
last; reverse the order of the question, and the 
answer will be reversed. 
When in the kitchen one day, Laura put her hand 
upon a turkey and asked what it was. She was 
told it was a dead bird. Some time afterward she 
asked of what the meat she was eating was made, 
and was told it was cow. This was a new rcvcla- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
51 
tion to her, and she refused to eat any meat for a 
number of weeks. We regretted it and said all 
we could to persuade her, for she was not strong, 
and it was thought a very necessary article of diet 
for her. Whether she perceived she was not as 
well in consequence we do not know, but she at 
length returned to it of her own accord, and we 
thought it unwise to make further conversation 
about it. 
My journal entries from this time to May, 1845, 
were made daily, and begin as follows : - 
June 8, 1841. Laura is not quite satisfied with her 
arithmetic lesson because I was teaching Lucy Reed 
at the same time. She finds much difficulty in doing 
her examples in subtraction ; but was made happy at 
last, because she detected me in a mistake. 
June 9. Allowed her to converse instead of the 
arithmetic lesson, which always pleases her. Asked 
her questions that would lead to answers introducing 
the past tenses of verbs, and found them very correct. 
Several times she recalled a wrong word, correcting it 
herself before I alluded to it. When talking about 
bathing, she said, " Did you walk very weak in water? 
Water is very strong. Who made water ? " 
Referred her to Dr. Howe for a reply. In 
explanation of this, and in justice to myself, it is 
necessary for me to state that when Dr. Howe 
requested me to teach Laura, he expressed the 
wish that I should not converse with her on any- 52 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
thing which should lead to religious subjects, but 
that I would refer her to him for answers to all 
questions tending in that direction, as he reserved 
to himself that part of her education. 
In Appendix A to the Ninth Annual Report to 
the Trustees, which was written six months pre- 
vious to this date, Dr. Howe gives his views on 
the subject of her religious teaching : - 
"No religious feeling, properly so called, has de- 
veloped itself; nor is it yet time, perhaps, to look for 
it; but she has shown a disposition to respect those who 
have power and knowledge, and to love those who have 
goodness ; and when her perceptive faculties shall have 
taken cognizance of the operations of nature, and she 
shall be accustomed to trace effects to their causes, then 
may her veneration be turned to Him who is almighty, 
her respect to him who is omniscient, and her love to 
him who is all goodness and love ! 
" Until then, I shall not deem it wise, by premature 
effort, to incur the risk of giving her ideas of God 
which would be alike unworthy of his character and 
fatal to her peace. 
" I should fear that she might personify Him in a way 
too common with children, who clothe him with un- 
worthy, and sometimes grotesque, attributes, which 
their subsequently developed reason condemns, but 
strives in vain to correct. 
" I am almost invariably questioned by intelligent 
visitors of the Institution about my opinion of her 
moral nature, and by what theory I can account for 
such and such phenomena; and as many pious people LAUB A BRIDGMAN. 
53 
have questioned me respecting her religious nature, I 
will here state my views. 
" There seem to have been in this child no innate 
ideas or innate moral principles; that is, in the sense 
in which Locke, Condillac, and others consider those 
terms. But there are innate intellectual dispositions ; 
and moreover, innate moral dispositions, not derived, 
as many metaphysicians suppose, from the exercise of 
intellectual faculties, but as independent in their exist- 
ence as the intellectual dispositions themselves. 
' ' I shall be easily understood when I speak of innate 
dispositions, in contradistinction to innate ideas, by 
those who are at all conversant with metaphysics ; but 
as this case excites peculiar interest, even among chil- 
dren, I may be excused for explaining. 
" We have no innate ideas of color, of distance, etc.; 
were we blind, we never could conceive the idea of 
color, nor understand how light and shade could give 
knowledge of distance; but we might have the innate 
disposition, or internal adaptation, which enables us to 
perceive color, and to judge of distance ; and were the 
organ of sight suddenly to be restored to healthy action, 
we should gradually understand the natural language, 
so to call it, of light; and soon be able to judge 
of distance, by reason of our innate disposition or 
capacity. 
" So much for an intellectual perception. As an 
example of a moral perception, it may be supposed, for 
instance, that we have no innate idea of God, but that 
we have an innate disposition, or adaptation, not only 
to recognize, but to adore him; and when the idea of 
a God is presented, we embrace it, because we have 
that internal adaptation which enables us to do so. 54 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
" If the idea of a God were innate, it would be uni- 
versal and identical, and not the consequential effect of 
the exercise of causality; it would be impossible to 
present him under different aspects. lie would not be 
regarded as Jupiter, Jehovah, Brahma; we could not 
make different people clothe him with different attri- 
butes, any more than we could make them consider two 
and two to make three, or five, or anything but four. 
" But on the other hand, if we had no innate dispo- 
sition to receive the idea of a God, then could we never 
have conceived one, any more than we can conceive of 
time without a beginning ; then would the most incon- 
trovertible evidence to man of God's existence have 
been wanting, viz., the internal evidence of his own 
nature. 
" Now, it does appear to me very evident, from the 
phenomena manifested in Laura's case, that she has 
innate moral dispositions and tendencies, which, though 
developed subsequently (in the order of time) to her 
intellectual faculties, are not dependent upon them, nor 
are they manifested with a force proportionate to that 
of her intellect. 
" According to Locke's theory, the moral qualites 
and faculties of this child should be limited in propor- 
tion to the limitation of her senses, for he derives moral 
principles from intellectual dispositions, which alone he 
considers to be innate. He thinks moral principles 
must be proved, and can only be so by an exercised 
intellect. 
"Now, the sensations of Laura are very limited; 
acute as is her touch, and constant as is her exercise of 
it, how vastly does she fall behind others of her age in LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
55 
the amount of sensations which she experiences, how 
limited is the range of her thought, how infantile is 
she in the exercise of her intellect! But her moral 
qualities, her moral sense, are remarkably acute; few 
children are so affectionate, or so scrupulously con- 
scientious, few are so sensible of their own rights or 
regardful of the rights of others. 
" Can any one suppose, then, that without innate 
moral dispositions, such effects could have been pro- 
duced solely by moral lessons? for even if they could 
have been given to her, would they not have been seed 
sown upon barren ground? Her moral sense and her 
conscientiousness seem not at all dependent upon any 
intellectual perception ; they are not perceived, indeed, 
or understood, - they are felt, and she may feel them 
even more strongly than most adults. 
" These observations will furnish an answer to another 
question, which is frequently put concerning Laura: 
can she be taught the existence of God, her dependence 
upon, and her obligations to him ? 
" The answer may be inferred from what has gone 
before, - that, if there exists in her mind (and who can 
doubt that it does?) the innate capacity for the percep- 
tion of this great truth, it can probably be developed, 
and become an object of intellectual perception and 
firm belief. 
" I trust, too, that she can be made to conceive of 
future existence, and to lean upon the hope of it, as an 
anchor to her soul in those hours when sickness and 
approaching death shall arouse to fearful activity the 
instinctive love of life which is possessed by her in 
common with all. 56 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
" But to effect this, to furnish her with a guide 
through life and a support in death, much is to be done, 
and much is to be avoided. 
" None but those who have seen her engaged in the 
task, and have witnessed the difficulty of teaching her 
the meaning of such words as remember, hope, forget, 
expect, will conceive the difficulties in her way; but 
they, too, have seen her unconquerable resolution, and 
her unquenchable thirst for knowledge; and they will 
not condemn as visionary such pleasing anticipations." 
Wc continue the exracts from the journal: - 
June 15. Laura succeeded in doing several exam- 
ples in subtraction very well. For the last one under 
this rule gave her one with fifteen figures in the minu- 
end. She said, " Sum is very long, like Halifax." 
She thought her journey to that place took a long 
time, hence the comparison. Some time ago she read 
in " The Child's Book ' (printed in raised letters for the 
blind) about the senses, and in conversation afterward, 
I told her she had three. She was much displeased 
because she had not as many as one of the blind girls 
whom she considers, not without reason, as decidedly 
her inferior.* After sitting still a moment this morn- 
ing, apparently thinking earnestly, she said, " I have 
four." "Four what?" "Four senses; think, and 
* When this child entered school Laura took her under her special 
care, showed her about the house and assisted her in various ways, 
but in trying to teach her the finger alphabet she discovered her 
mental incapacity, and afterwards manifested a decided aversion to 
her. If anything were broken or lost, she always attributed it to 
Olive. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
57 
nose, and mouth, and fingers. I hare four senses." 
And she seemed much delighted at the discovery. 
June 16. Laura began to learn the multiplication- 
table. Found she knew the two table perfectly, though 
after reciting it she said, " My think is very tired." 
She corrected me for not saying ' ' please " in every 
sentence. She had some cake given her, and said she 
must give Lucy some, but first wished me to teach her 
to spell it with the types. Told Laura it was " pound " 
cake, and laughing she pounded upon her desk. This 
is the only meaning she has yet been taught of that 
word. 
June 18. As an exercise upon the two and three 
tables, gave her to-day an example on the board. This 
pleased her much, and she worked with great spirit. 
While walking on the piazza, she said, "Why do sun 
not come?" Because clouds are over it. " Who shut 
clouds ? " 
June 19. One of the gentlemen who visited the 
school to-day saw Laura when she first came to the 
Institution, and desired to know if she would recognize 
him by touching again his finger-nail, which was of a 
peculiar shape. She touched his hand, perceived the 
nail, and turning to one of the blind girls who stood 
near, said, " I remember to see man when it was very 
cold. I could not talk with fingers. I did not know 
(then) man had got any name." 
Heard a sound from both Lucy and Laura this morn- 
ing that led me to think all was not right. Found that 
Laura had accidentally broken the string of Lucy's fan 
while playing with her, and that Lucy was taking re- 
venge by pinching and striking, while Laura, not under- 58 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
standing about it, still kept her arm round Lucy. This 
made matters worse ; and she had worked herself into 
quite a passion before I got to her. Separated them, 
and Lucy grew calm, but Laura was much troubled. 
On coming for her lesson Monday morning, she said, 
"I want to talk much with you." Her first topic 
was the trouble with Lucy. She had been thinking 
about it, and could not understand it. " Why did Lucy 
pinch and scratch me? Was she very wrong? " Tried 
to excuse it, saying she did not know better. " Did she 
know I was very sorry to break her fan? Why will 
Lucy pinch and strike ? " Told her I hoped she would 
soon learn it was wrong, and we must be patient with 
her. This being settled to her satisfaction, she said. 
' ' Why do not heart stop ? " Being puzzled for a reply 
that should not involve me in questions I was not allowed 
to answer, I said, " Because it cannot stop." Told her 
she always breathed. She held her breath for a while, 
and said, " I do not breathe now." But you will breathe 
soon, and cannot stop long, or it will hurt you. ''And 
die," she added. " Is not heart very tired?" 
She seems to have a theory of her own regarding 
the scat of sensation. During a lesson one day she 
stopped, and holding her forehead, said, " I think very 
hard. Was I baby, did I think?" (meaning, when 1 
was a baby). Another day she said, "Doctor will come 
in fourteen days, I think in my head." Asked her if 
she did not think in her side and heart. " No; I cannot 
think in heart; I think in head." Why? "I cannot 
know ; all little girls cannot know about heart." When 
disappointed or troubled, she often says, " My heart 
aches." One day she asked, " When heart aches, docs LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
59 
blood run ? " We had told her about the circulation of 
the blood. "Docs blood run in my eyes ? I cannot feel 
eyes blood run. Why cannot I stop to think? I can- 
not help to think all days. Do you stop to think? 
(meaning, cease thinking). Does Harrison stop to 
think, now he is dead?" President Harrison had lately 
died, and the blind girls had talked much about it and 
by them Laura had been told of it. 
June 24. Within the past week Laura has begun to 
ask the color of everything. We cannot find where she 
got the first idea of it. This morning she would have 
liked to devote hei' whole lesson to it, she was so much 
interested. She has attached an idea of inferiority to 
red, and was displeased when told a dress, which she 
wore in the afternoon, had red in it, and said, " I will 
wear it in the morning." 
June 25. Continued the subject of color, and her 
first question was, "What did man make red for?" 
Told her because he thought red pretty, and that 
reconciled her to it. I tried unsuccessfully to find, 
by questioning, the origin of her dislike, but can only 
venture a surmise that the article she had in her hand 
when first told of the color red, may have been harsh 
and disagreeable to her touch. 
This leads me to speak of my observations with 
regard to the ^power of the blind to distinguish 
color. Fabulous stories have been told, but cer- 
tainly among the pupils at our Institution, there 
were none of whom we could make similar state- 
ments. It is true of many totally blind that, if a 
number of balls of worsted of various colors are 60 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
given them, and they are obliged to notice them 
carefully, that they may use them in their proper 
places in work, they will rarely make a mistake. 
So we may give them pieces of silk, with the 
same result, but this does not prove, that having 
been told the colors in one material or fabric, they 
will recognize them in any other. 
We have no evidence that there is any inherent 
property in the color red, or blue, or yellow, 
which will enable the most sensitive touch to 
detect each in all materials offered. 
It has often been stated by letter-writers that 
"Laura Bridgman can tell the color of everything 
by feeling." This we know is a mistake, and as 
we suppose her sense of feeling to be more acute 
than that of any other person, we infer that it 
cannot be literally true in any case. 
June 26. Sent Laura to bring Lucy down to the 
school-room. She came, looking quite sad, and said, 
" Lucy talked with her mouth." " What did she say?" 
" 1 cannot know. Lucy did talk." She was comforted 
by my assuring her she only made noises, it was not 
talking She must have had her hand near Lucy's 
mouth, and perceived some motion similar to talking. 
June 28. In the midst of an arithmetic lesson she 
stopped to ask the name and color of her eyelashes 
and brows When talking of hair, she asked the color 
of mine, and said, "Mine will be dark brown too when 
1 am tall." She walked to the window, where the lower 
shutter was closed, and said, " I will talk about this," LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
61 
and asked the name and color of the hasp and hinge, 
then swinging it backward and forward said, " It is like 
a clock " (pendulum). 
June 29. She brought her doll into school, and said, 
"It is not pretty to bring doll into all schools,'" and 
then extended its hand towards me, and said, "See doll 
talk," and moved its fingers to spell " Swift." She was 
delighted that I could understand it, and said, " Doll 
can talk with fingers ; I taught doll to talk with fingers." 
She has lately made a strange noise which she calls 
"calling," and if I leave her a moment she makes it, 
and says, " I wanted you to come and I called you." 
This is quite a new idea, as all the noises she 
has previously made were evidently not intended to 
attract attention. Of these Dr. Howe speaks in 
one of his reports as follows : - 
" It may be well to explain wrhat was said in a 
former report about Laura making a peculiar sound 
whenever she meets any person, which she calls that 
person's noise, and about which many inquiries have 
been made, especially as an important physiological 
inference may be drawn from it. When she meets me, 
one of the pupils, or any intimate friend, she instantly 
makes a noise with the vocal organs ; for one a chuckle, 
for another a cluck, for a third a nasal sound, for a fourth 
a guttural, etc. These are to her evidently signs, or 
names affixed to each person. These are known by 
those very intimate with her; when they speak to her 
of such and such an one, she makes her ' noise " ; and 
these noises or names have become so intimately asso- 
ciated with the persons that sometimes, when she is 62 
BRIDGMAN. 
sitting by herself, and the thought of a friend comes up 
in her mind, she utters his ' noise,' as she calls it, that 
is, what is to her his name. Now, as she cannot hear a 
sound, as she never attempts, like deaf and dumb per- 
sons, to attract the attention of others by making a 
noise, it follows that, impelled by the natural tendency 
of the human mind to attach signs to every thought, she 
selects the natural vehicle for the expression of it, and 
exercises the vocal organs, but without any definite 
view of producing an effect. This would seem toprove, 
if indeed any proof be wanting, that men did not select 
vocal sounds for a colloquial medium, from among other 
possible media, but that it is the natural one." 
July 1. Laura did not succeed as well as usual in 
her arithmetic, and was a little fretful and impatient. 
When her examples were corrected, she was quite dis- 
pleased, and said, " Ladies do not say wrong. I think 
you are very wrong to say wrong to me. Think cannot 
do good, because I am very deaf. Think is very long," 
meaning slow in working 
Ju y.2. A complaint was entered against Laura that 
she pinched Lucy and made her cry. I talked with hei' 
about it, and said to her, " Lurena told doctor you 
pinched Lucy's nose and made her cry." Before I had 
finished the sentence she smiled, and seemed, by the 
expression of her face, to think that it was very ridicu- 
lous to pinch her nose ; but when she was told that Lucy 
cried, she changed countenance, and was immediately 
sad. She said, " When did I pinch Lucy's nose ? " I 
replied, "Lurena said yesterday." "After how many 
schools?" I told her I did not know. She thought a 
moment, and then said eagerly, " I pinched Lucy's nose LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
63 
after one * school, to play. I did not mean to make her 
cry, because I played. Did Lucy know I was wrong?" 
I told her Lucy did not know when she played, and she 
must play softly. I asked her if she loved Lucy ; she 
replied, "Yes, but Lucy does not hug me." " Why does 
she not?" "Because she is very deaf and blind and 
does not know how to love me ; she is very weak to hug." 
July 3. Gave Lucy the word " cake " and called Laura 
to spell it to her; the interest seemed to be all on 
Laura's side, as she cares much more than Lucy about 
the lessons. She asked with great earnestness, " Docs 
Lucy know what I say?" and added, " I want her to 
learn to talk very, very" (and to make it emphatic, she 
repeated it ten times) " much." 
July 8. Laura went to ride, and as usual asked the 
color and name of the horse. Told her "Post-boy." 
She said, " What boy? Ilas he four legs?" She was 
puzzled by the name, and could not decide whether it 
was man or horse. 
July 9. Laura was ready for hei' lesson before 
prayers, and when I went down, led me to the table to 
show me a box and asked " What?" It was fastened 
with hasps, and looked as if it had not been opened, but 
to satisfy myself of her self-denial I asked her if she had 
opened it. She said " No" with great emphasis, show- 
ing thereby her nice sense of propriety. Allowed her 
to open it, and she was surprised when told it was for 
her to use. It contained types with raised letters on the 
end, and had grooved lines in which they could be set up. 
The next morning she brought the box with the 
*■ lie was accustomed to reckon time by schools, ''a school," 
with a recess of a quarter of an hour, occupying an hour. The 
first " school " was before breakfast, closing at seven o'clock. 64 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
alphabet arranged in order seven times, and the remain- 
der of the types in such a way that she knew where to 
find them. This had taken her several hours to accom- 
plish, but mnch gratified her strong love of order. 
Jul>i 13. This was a sad day to us all. Lucy's 
parents had sent for her to return to them, and all the 
care and anxiety she had been to her teachers for the 
five months was forgotten in the sorrow of seeing her 
leave us. Had she remained we had no doubt of our 
future success in teaching her, for the greatest difficul- 
ties were overcome, but now she must go back from 
dawn into night again. Laura could think of nothing 
but Lucy, when she came for her lesson, as she had 
just bidden her good by. She was much troubled that 
Lucy did not return her embraces. She said, " I am 
very sorry; I cannot work much because I am very 
sorry that Lucy is going away. Why will not Lucy 
hug me ? Will Doctor cry ? " Then she reviewed Lucy's 
history, and not one circumstance connected with her 
seemed to have escaped her mind. She said, '-Doll 
will cry ; she is very sorry Lucy is gone, and will cry." 
A week after Lucy left, Laura was told by Dr. 
Howe of a blind deaf and dumb boy who would 
come to the school before long. She had many 
questions to ask : " Can I talk with him when he has 
learned much?" This question occurred to her 
mind, I presume, because in the school the boys 
occupied one part of the house and the girls 
another, and so she doubted whether she would 
be allowed to talk with him. " Will you kiss the 65 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
little blind and deaf and dumb boy? Why not?" 
" Because it is very wrong to kiss boys " (with a 
very imperative air). 
July 23. She brought me her new board with a very 
good sentence set up in types : " Doctor and Drew and 
Swift taught Lucy to learn to talk with her fingers, and 
Laurena taught her to read on board, good; when 
Laura came with my mother, doctor and Drew taught 
me on knife and fork and spoon and mug very good." 
She said of her own accord, " Laura is wrong" and sub- 
stituted "I" for it. She shows much ingenuity in arrang- 
ing the spaces between the words ; she has not enough 
blanks foi* long sentences, and so takes the smaller let- 
ters and turns the blank end up. While Miss Drew 
was talking with her she asked, " What is by and by? " 
and was told it meant soon. She went to her work, but 
came back five minutes after, saying, " To and to is 
now." Being asked why she thought so she said, 
" Because by and by is soon." 
July 27. Laura said this morning, " I do not want 
to study to cipher, I want to talk about things. What 
is hour? Doctor said after two hours." After talking 
some time she said, "Sunday is two hours ; eight weeks 
Sunday, peaches will grow." Neither remark was intel- 
ligible to me. She attended very quietly to my expla- 
nation for some time, and said, " I cannot have some 
one to say weeks and hours to me, because I cannot 
know" (understand). Told her she could know hour, 
and tried to explain it as one school and one recess. 
Feared she might think them synonymous in meaning 
rather than in time, but after sitting still a long time 66 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
thinking, she said, "After one school, after recess, is 
an hour, and a week is after Sunday." 
When a subject that is very difficult occupies 
part of the hour, I turn her attention to something 
which will be easier, but will teach her some 
new words, so to-day showed her a ball of wicking, 
taught her the name and color, and throwing it 
upon the desk she noticed its elasticity, and said, 
"Ball jumps " ; taught her the word "bound." 
Aug. 2. Exercised Laura in examples with five for 
a multiplier. She did them very rapidly and without 
much effort. In review gave her one with two for a 
multiplier, and found she had almost entirely forgotten 
that table while learning the higher numbers. This 
surprised me, as she never seems to forget in any other 
study. When she had finished her lesson she found on 
her board a row of figures without a multiplier, and play- 
fully put down a cipher and commenced multiplying by it. 
Aug. 4. Laura's sentence on her board this morn 
was, "Osborne went on water, he was very tired to 
work & he came to see his mother. Cyrus came to see 
Miss Drew. Miss Davis sent berries to girls to eat 
them for dinner, good. Olive was very wrong to tell 
lie when it was very cold." She seemed quite impatient 
when I wished her to correct it, but was reconciled when 
told that the reason I wished her to put it on the board 
was that, by correcting it, I might teach her to talk as 
other girls do. The letter s was exhausted before she 
finished the sentence, and I suggested leaving a blank 
for it, but instead of doing so, she put z in its place. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
67 
It was singular that she should have hit on the letter 
which sounded most nearly like s, so I asked why she 
did not take o or t. " Because o and t are not good," 
was all the reason I could get. 
Aug. 16. The sentence this morning was "I, & J, 
& Doctor went in the boat to see Betsy Tuesday, & all 
the girls went to ride in the cars to See-konk & they 
picked many whortle & blueberries. Mr. Greene gave 
me some cake & Mrs. Greene gave me raspberries. I, 
& Drew, & Martha, went to see baby." Tried to 
explain to her that "I"should come after "Doctor," 
but she was much dissatisfied and said, " Why must I " 
(pointing to herself) " come last? 1 rode between Dr. & 
Jennette." Iler manner of writing See-konk with a 
dash, showed the idea she attached to the name. When 
we came to the last clause I thought she would correct 
it herself and put the "I" last, but she objected and said, 
" I sat first, why must I be last? " 
Aug. 19. Taking up a pincushion which was in the 
form of a fish, she said, " What is it"? When told, 
she threw it clown quickly as if afraid to handle it, then 
taking it up again said, "You must teach me about fish. 
Why has it not legs ? " Described the fins and their use, 
then showed her another pincushion in the form of a 
fly. She asked the different colors of the silk, and the 
use of the various parts. " Why do flies fly with wings ? 
Why do they not walk on the floor ? Because girls would 
walk on them, and hurt them very much ? Why do flics 
get in water ? Can you catch fly to show me legs and 
wings? Why does not the silk fly move?" I was 
about to answer when she showed me one wing was 
partly off, and said, " Fly is dead." Asked her if she 68 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
thought it flew before it was off, and she seemed to 
think it did. 
Aug. 20. Laura asked to talk about animals, so 
excused her from the much less interesting lesson in 
arithmetic. Her mind is full of the subject now. " Why 
do not flies and horses go to bed ? Why do they eat 
fast? Are horses cross all days? What does horse 
do ? Is he hurry to go ? Do horse know it is wrong to 
go slow? Would they know that carryall would fall if 
they went slow and the ground was rough? Why 
does Abner hold the horse's head when we get in ? 
Why did horse fret?" (Shaking her head up and 
down.) She had probably perceived the jar of the car- 
riage from this motion of the horse, and some one had 
shown her what the horse did to cause it. Just then a 
horse came into the yard ; she felt the jar and asked, 
"Why do horse walk hard on barn floor? I will see 
horse." Told her I would show her one, meaning a 
model. " Will horse come into school? Do ladies bring 
horse into school? I think I am very sorry I said I 
would see horse." 
Aug. 23. I found Laura waiting for me with two 
pieces of paper, one folded very small, which she said 
was " hopper," meaning it was about the size of a grass- 
hopper ; the other, much larger, was " elephant." She 
was not satisfied with the name hopper, and changed it 
to " grass-hopper," then to " hopper-ground." I think 
she had an idea that if she used grass, it would mean 
that it was made of grass, and so was puzzled what to 
call it. Next she asked, "What are flies' names?" 
Being sure she knew better than to ask such a question, 
I replied, " Ellen and Laura and Susan." She laughed 69 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
heartily, and said, "Flies have no name but bug. 
Why do not flies have names like girls and boys? Why 
do horses have iron shoes? Do they tie them on with 
strings? Why do men hold horse's foot to put on 
shoes? I hear horse walk when he kicks off flies, 
because they are hard." She often perceives the jar 
made by the stamping of the horse in the stable. 
" Why do cows not draw? " " Cow's feet are cut in two 
parts." Told her she might go out to the stable with me 
to see the cow's foot, but she shrunk from it, saying, 
" No, she would run and kick me. When horses and 
cows are sick, do they go to bed like girls and get well? 
Do they go down stairs ? Why do cows have horns ? " 
"To keep bad cows off when they trouble them," was 
my answer. "Do bad cows know to go away when 
good cow pushes them ? " After sitting some time in 
thought, she said, " Why do cows have two horns, - to 
push two cows?" moving her hands in two directions. 
Extended reports of conversations are copied 
from journals, that the reader may be enabled the 
more fully to realize how many things a child thus 
isolated has to learn in this way, which we never 
know how other children acquire. Dr. Howe 
remarks, - 
" her curiosity is insatiable, and by the cheerful toil 
and patient labor with which she gleans her scanty har- 
vest of knowledge, she reproves those who, having eyes 
see not, and having ears hear not." 
Aug. 24. Lesson upon weeks and months. She 
learned to reckon the number of weeks in three, four, 
and five months. Asked her if she had done tea. 70 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
"You are wrong to say tea; it is milk and water." 
Walked with her to South Boston Point, and showed 
her a boat and oars, but could not persuade her to sit 
in it, "Because," as she said, " I am afraid it will move." 
When asked the next day why she did not make a 
sentence on her board about the oars, she replied, 
" Thought was very sleepy not to study much." This 
is the first time she has made use of the noun " thought," 
her usual expression being '1 Think is tired." She asked 
what bit her, and was told mosquito. " You were wrong 
Monday to say flies had no name ; it is mosquito fly." 
She shook hands with me and laughing said, " I have 
been to see your mother ; I went yesterday after dinner, 
and I came this morning. She said she was very glad to 
see me, and I said, ' How do you do?'" She enjoyed 
this little play of imagination as a very good joke. 
After tea she asked, " Isit very time? " and explained it 
by saying, "Is it late?" evidently thinking her first 
form more emphatic. 
Aug 30. She is becoming more and more dissatis- 
fied with her type-setting. It is a very slow process for 
her, and with all the pains she can take she does not 
succeed in setting up as good sentences as she uses in 
talking with her fingers. The corrections displease her, 
but we are not ready yet to give up the experiment. 
She shows great ingenuity often in making excuses, and 
so begging off from it. This morning she was full of 
them : " I must make many pitchers" (a kind of purse 
made in the shape of a pitcher which she had been 
taught to knit of worsted, her orders for them being 
often in advance of the supply) " for ladies, and they 
will not be done." When this excuse did not avail she LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
71 
said, "I shall not have you teach me after it is cold 
because I have learned all." Asked if she thought I 
knew no more to teach her, but she had no answer, only 
asked, "Why did doctor have Munger make types?" 
" To teach you to talk like all thegirls." " I can talk good 
now." I could not blame her much for this little pet- 
tishness, for I think girls who could see would find their 
patience taxed. 
Laura has a very keen sense of the ludicrous, 
and while she is sympathetic when she sees any 
one is hurt, yet her expressions of sympathy will 
often be supplemented by a good, hearty laugh. 
An illustration occurred just at this date. Dr. 
Howe met with an accident. She said, laughing 
heartily, " 1 am very sad because doctor hurt 
him. I want him to be well very much ; he hurt 
his leg, and walked like a dog." Then she laughed 
again, and said, " I am very much afraid I shall 
not see doctor walk on crutches for legs ; I want 
you to ask him if he will walk, and let me see 
him " Another day she had a great play over the 
letters of the finger alphabet. The letter which 
amused her most was t, which is made by putting 
the thumb between the next two fingers. She 
put her fingers over her nose, so it would project 
between them, and said " like t." When 1 took 
my paper to make notes of the lesson she put her 
hand on the pencil, and said, " Do not write about 
nose and thumb ; I do not want doctor to know." 
She probably thought he would call it silly. 72 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
Talking about moths one day, she decided very 
positively that moths ate all old dresses, and that 
was what made them wear out. 
Sept. 6, 1841. Laura wrote the following letter to 
her mother without assistance : - 
Dear My Mother: 
May I come with Miss Drew to Hanover if I will be 
very good and not trouble mother? Do she want me 
(to) come to see her? I will try to be good at Han- 
over. She must write to Drew. I send love to mother. 
May I make a pitcher (purse) and chain for her and 
father in Hanover? I send love to father and my 
brothers. Will mother be very glad to see me and 
Drew? Swift sends her love to my mother. Swift and 
Drew taught me good. I will come in vacation. I 
am well. I ate with Jennette & Doctor. Man pricked 
paper; he took my face for mother. I was sick. I 
can sew and study and write and knit. Drew was sick. 
Lurena cannot walk because she is lame. I sleep 
with Drew. I shall bring doll. 
Laura Bridgman. 
Sept. 9. Laura said, " I will go home after six Sun- 
days " ; and added, after stopping some time to calcu- 
late, " that would be forty-two days." I replied, " Yes, 
six times seven are forty-two." I perceived she had 
arrived at it by addition, and wished her to take the 
hint of the better way. After a moment's thought I 
saw it was not lost upon her, for she said, " Yes, like 
seven." Explained it further, and then asked if she 
knew now why it was " like seven." " Yes," hesitat- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
73 
ingly. " Get beans." After counting them off she was 
entirely satisfied, and much pleased with her new 
knowledge. 
Sept. 12. Dr. Howe told her a story, which was 
designed as a test of her conscientiousness. We copy 
his account of it: "A little boy went to see a lady, 
and the lady gave him two birds, one for himself and 
one for his sister; she put them in a basket for him to 
carry home, and told him not to open the basket until 
he got home; the boy went into the street and met 
another little boy, who said, ' Open the basket, and let 
me feel the birds '; and the boy said, ' No, no '; but 
the other boy said, ' Yes, yes '; and then the boy opened 
the basket and they felt of the birds. Did he do right? 
She paused, and said, 'Yes.' I said, 'Why?' She 
replied, ' He did not remember.' I said, ' If he did 
remember, did he do right?' She replied, 'Little 
wrong to forget.' I then went on to say, ' When the 
boys did feel of the birds one bird was killed.' Here 
she became very much excited, and manifested the 
greatest anxiety and distress, saying, ' Why did boy 
feel hard ? Why did bird not fly ? ' I went on. ' He 
carried the basket and birds home, and gave the dead 
bird to his sister. Did he do right or wrong?' She 
said, ' Wrong.' ' Why?' ' To kill bird.' I said, ' But 
who must have the live bird, the boy or the girl?' 
She said, ' Girl.' ' Why ? ' ' Because boy was careless, 
and girl was not careless.' She was at first a little 
confused about the persons, but decided promptly the 
question of right or wrong, both in respect to opening 
the basket and about who ought to possess the bird. 
" She supposed it was all reality, and I could not well 74 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
make her conceive the object of the fable. Her mind 
was for some time entirely occupied with this story, and 
she afterwards asked, ' Did man knock (strike) boy 
because he killed bird?' I said, 'No, the boy's 
heart did knock him. Does your heart knock you when 
you do wrong?' She inquired about the beating of 
the heart, and said, ' My heart did knock little when I 
did do wrong.' 
"She asked, 'Why blood came in face?' I said, 
' When wrong is done.' She paused and said, ' Blood 
did come in Olive's face when she did tell lie. Do 
blood come in your face when you do wrong ? ' " 
^ept. 13. Laura was full of questions about the story 
which was told her last evening, and which has inter- 
ested her very much. " How tall were the little boys? 
Why did he tell lie, and why did he not mind lady? 
Why did not boy tell true and he was wrong?" Gave 
her the word " story." " Why did boys and ladies write 
in book ? " Told her boys did not write; they told 
man the story, and he wrote it. " All leaves?" " Did 
blood come into his face when he did wrong ? " Told 
her it came into hers when she was wrong. ' ' I am 
sorry," she added. "It makes your face look red " 
" And pretty?" That her face should not look pretty 
when she had done wrong troubled her much. She 
said, " I feel very bad because boy told lie to make the 
blood come in his face." 
bept. 16. She gave me an account of killing a mouse 
last night, and by the aid of a few questions, made out 
quite a graphic description. " I slept in blind Sarah's 
room last night, and I was very afraid because mouse 
came ; I walked on it, and stamped very hard." " How LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
75 
did you know it was a mouse ? " " Because I felt hair and 
tail. I held mouse up, and I was very afraid because 
he moved and jumped much. He opened mouth and 
made much noise. I stamped on him and he was very 
dead and could not move." This seemed a very improb- 
able story, and at first I thought her imagination had 
been at work, but on going to the room, found the 
mouse was there, and " very dead," as she said. 
In the above account she says, " He made much 
noise." In talking of the circulation of the blood 
she insisted that it made a noise, and put my hand 
on her neck to feel the pulsations, saying, " Sit 
very still and see if you do not hear it." At 
another time she was having a lesson about an 
india-rubber cord and said, "It makes noise when 
I pull it." Told her I could not hear it, but she 
was so sure of it that she held it close to my ear, 
when, to my surprise, I could hear distinctly the 
motion of the rubber. The only inference which 
I can draw from all these cases is, that in conse- 
quence of the extreme sensitiveness of her touch, 
she distinguishes the vibrations which we hear, 
and which she has observed me speak of as sound, 
or in her vocabulary as " noise," and so whenever 
she perceives vibrations, she supposes we can hear 
them. In the last instance her sense of touch was 
capable of detecting " noise " more quickly than 
my ear. 
Sept. 17. "Do horses draw good when they are 76 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
small like me?" " No." "When they are large like 
doctor? Why do horses love to have men pat them? 
Do horses think ? When I went to get water, dog came 
to the door." "Was he glad to see you?" "I did 
not ask him because he is very dull, because he cannot 
talk with his fingers." " Can he talk with his mouth ? " 
"No." "What does the dog do with mouth?" She 
made a noise, as she supposed, like barking. "Do 
horses bark ? Do dogs bark to ask men for meat for 
them to eat, and when they are cross, and when they 
are afraid ? Do men talk to dogs when they are cross ? " 
"Yes, they say, 'Be still!'" "With mouth?" She 
was quite indignant that dogs should hear when men 
spoke with their mouths, and she could not. " Do men 
bark ? Do mouse bark ? " 
As an illustration of the difficulties we met in 
making her understand accurately words signify- 
ing mental operations, we copy the following:- 
Sep'. 21. Found she had the idea that to punish and 
to blame were synonymous, and tried in various ways 
to correct it. I said, " Miss Drew blames you when she 
thinks you are wrong and tells you so; blame is to 
think you do wrong." She would not wait for me to 
explain it further but said, " I was cross when Anna 
was here and Miss Drew blamed me " She blamed 
you because you did what you knew was wrong." 
' ' Why did you not say blame to me before ? " " Because 
we thought you could not know it before." Had we 
stopped here, we should have thought she fully under- 
stood the word, but she wished to use it more, and said, 
" Do Abner blame horses to ride very quick? " "No." 77 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
But she insisted that he did, and to illustrate it made 
the motion of whipping the horse and saying, " Whip." 
" Horse blames flies." My answer was, " Blame is not 
to scold, or to whip, or to strike, or to make you sit 
still and stay in your room ; it is to think you are wrong. 
I blame you when I think you are wrong. When you 
are impatient and push me in school, I think you are 
wrong and I blame you." She listened unwillingly to 
this explanation, for it was a little too personal to 
suit. On such occasions, she shows much adroitness in 
changing the conversation. Now she said, "Do Abner 
blame to strike pigs ? " " Why do hail break grapes ? " 
She was evidently thinking whether the hail was to 
blame. I replied, " Pigs and horses cannot know when 
they do wrong, but you and I know, and if we do wrong 
men will blame us because we know." She said, " Boy 
came to take grapes, he was very wrong," showing 
great indignation; "bird came to eat them, and he 
could not know, because he was very dull," and here 
she laughed heartily. "Do you blame the bird?" I asked. 
" No." " Do you blame the boy? " " Yes. I blamed 
the boy 1 saw in Laurena's room, because he played 
very hard," and she made the sign of striking. I said, 
" I think you punished him if you struck him." Told her 
a story of a little girl who was sent to carry some apples, 
and then told the lady she did not know about them, 
and of a dog who came to take meat because he was 
hungry. The first excited her indignation so much 
that to a stranger she would have appeared as if in a 
passion. Asked her, " Do you blame the girl? " "Yes," 
very emphatically. "Was the dog wrong? " "Yes - 
no," alternately. I said, "I do not blame the dog, 78 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
because he cannot know. I do not blame babies." 
She answered this by saying, " Thomas strikes." Told 
her, " He is a little boy and knows, so I blamed him, 
but Joseph is a baby, he cannot know, because he is not 
old enough to think." 
Sept. 23. Laura told me this morning doctor said, 
" Chair is thing," and laughed as if she thought it quite 
absurd. Took the word for her lesson, and she soon 
answered correctly when I gave her objects. Then she 
asked if well and white were things. Once when she 
mentioned an adjective, I inadvertently said, "Yes," 
and she immediately said, "Very wrong." She asked, 
" Why do not doctor whip me with stick when I am very 
wrong? Men whip horses with sticks." Told her 
because we could tell little girls that we blame them 
and that it makes us sorry if they do wrong. 
A lady visiting the school asked her to write the 
words, " Do good and be good," but nothing could 
induce her to do it until she had the promise of an 
explanation, as she seemed to think it not a proper 
sentence to write. 
S< pt. 23. In speaking of some one who she thought 
had not done rightly, she said, " I think she is to blame 
very much," proving that the long lesson was under- 
stood. 
She was told that a little girl had chicken-pox, and 
asked, " Why did she eat so much chicken to make her 
sick ? " 
During this month she had frequent sittings for Miss 
Peabody, who was modelling a bust. She rather enjoyed 
them as times when she could frolic as much as she 
liked. Heliotype Printing Co., 
Boston. 
OLIVER CASWELL AND LAURA D. BRIDGMAN, 1844. 79 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
Sept 30. This was a day of great interest both to 
Laura and myself. Oliver Caswell, the deaf, dumb, and 
blind boy arrived, and at noon I had the privilege of 
giving him his first idea of the finger alphabet.* He 
appeared much delighted with Laura's mode of talking, 
and imitated her by putting his hand in ours, and mak- 
ing movements with his fingers. He evidently discov- 
ered at once that she was like himself, for when he 
wished to show her anything, he put it in her hand, 
while he held it up for us to see. 
Oct. 1. Dr. Howe gave Oliver a lesson, and he 
learned to spell many words, and to distinguish between 
doctor and Swift, when spelled to him. He showed his 
delight in being taught by laughing heartily after 
each word in which he was successful. Laura was a 
most interested spectator, or rather participant, in this 
lesson, for on the day before, I had not thought best to 
allow her to be in the room, fearing she would distract 
his attention. She became so much excited that she 
forgot herself, and kissed him, and when she came 
to me for her lesson in the afternoon she was much 
troubled, and could not speak of it without blushing 
very much. Yet she seemed to have a conflict in her 
own mind about it, for she said she thought it was as 
well as for little Maria to kiss Doctor before she went 
to bed. After a long talk, she concluded it would be 
very wrong, " Doctor would say I was very wrong and 
would point at me." Evidently her love of appproba- 
tion helped her natural modesty in settling the question, 
and it was a linal decision, for I think she never kissed 
him again. 
* See Appendix. 80 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
Oct. 4. She was surprised this morn to learn that 
the air was everywhere. She happened to ask me where 
the wind was to make the fire in the furnace, and ex- 
plained what she meant by saying, " Match must have 
air to make it burn, and how could air be in the furnace ? " 
A lesson on trades followed ; she said, " Gown-maker is 
carpenter, because cloth is made in loom, and man 
makes cloth." She could not see why a carpenter might 
not as well do a great many other things, make walls 
as well as floors. 
Oct. 5. She enjoyed her lesson so much yester- 
day that she came with many questions this morning. 
Laura gains in one way upon children who have all their 
senses. If interested in anything specially, she does 
not forgetit, but while dressing, or working, or however 
occupied, her mind is upon it, while other children go 
from their lessons into a world which presents so much 
to take their attention that the lesson is hardly thought 
of before another school-day comes. To-day she had 
a long list of things, and wished to know the names of 
the makers. Was much interested in sailors. The 
idea that they were sailing day after day, " all days," as 
she expressed it, was new to her. "Do they go because 
ladies and men buy things, and men want more to put 
in store?" Feeling a stone in a ring she asked, " Did 
mason make rings with stones? " For some time after 
this lesson she inquired, when introduced to gentlemen, 
if they were sailors, carpenters, or masons, etc. 
One of the greatest trials Laura has is the restraint 
we are obliged to put upon her in making loud noises. 
If she is interested in her lessons or excited, pleasantly 
or unpleasantly, she is inclined to utter sounds which LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
81 
are very disagreeable. She has a pleasant ringing 
laugh, and we never object to her laughing as much as 
she likes. She has for a few weeks been trying to be 
quiet, as Dr. Howe has been away, and she is ambitious 
to surprise him when he returns. 82 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER V. 
Miss Drew accompanied her on a visit to her 
mother in October. They met Dr. Iio we in Con- 
cord and gave an exhibition of Laura in the State 
House before many of the citizens. 
From this place they went to Hartford, and vis- 
ited Julia Brace at the Asylum for Deaf-Mutes. 
When Laura was told she was deaf and blind like 
herself, she became much excited, and asked, "Can 
she talk with her fingers?" On being told sho 
had never been taught, she tried to place her fin- 
gers in position for the letter a, but Julia's chief 
interest was in the examination of Laura's dross. 
The teacher thought that by signs she made her 
understand they were alike. 4 She also visited Mrs. 
L. H. Sigourney, who wrote on the occasion the 
following poem: - 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
THE DEAF, DUMB, AND BLIND GIRL AT THE INSTITUTION FOR 
THE BLIND IN BOSTON. 
Where is the light that to the eye 
Heaven's holy message gave, 
Tinging the retina with rays 
From sky and earth and wave? 7>.4C7M BRIDGMAN. 
83 
Where is the sound that to the soul 
Mysterious passage wrought, 
And strangely made the moving lip 
A harp-string for the thought? 
All fled! All lost! Not even the rose 
An odor leaves behind, 
That, like a broken reed, might trace 
The tablet of the mind. 
That mind! It struggles with its fate, 
The anxious conflict, see. 
As if through Bastile bars it sought 
Communion with the free. 
Yet still its prison robe it wears 
Without a prisoner's pain, 
For happy childhood's beaming sun 
Glows in each bounding vein. 
And bless'd Philosophy is near, 
In Christian armor bright, 
To scan the subtlest clew that leads 
To intellectual light. 
Say, lurks there not some ray of heaven 
Amid thy bosom's night, 
Some echo from a better land, 
To make thy smile so bright? 
The lonely lamp in Greenland cell, 
Deep 'neath a world of snow, 
Doth cheer the loving household group 
Though none beside may know; 
And, sweet one, doth our Father's hand 
Place in thy casket dim 
A radiant and peculiar lamp, 
To guide thy steps to Him? 84 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
At the close of this visit Laura had the grief of 
parting with her old and much-loved teacher, who 
left her to go to a home of her own. She had 
been with her nearly all the time since she came 
to the Institution, and to her untiring patience and 
perseverance she was indebted for the most of 
her early instruction. 
Dec. 8. She received an invitation from her old 
teacher, Miss Drew, to visit her. This gave her great 
pleasure, but she found much fault with her because she 
signed her old name Drew, " when her name is Morton 
now." Allusion has been made to her habit of making 
a different noise for each person : she had one for Miss 
Drew, but now she said she must find another, as the 
one for Drew must not be the same as for Morton. 
Dec. 31. Lesson on Christmas presents, and tried 
to interest her in New Year's Day, the number of days 
in a year, etc., but she is just now anxious to talk only 
on subjects that will furnish new words. " I want you 
to tell me new many words. What does language, 
syllable, divided, evil, mean ? " She wished me to know 
what she had learned, and said, " O ! is when you are 
glad, and Oh ! is when we are afraid. Lydia is oh ! of 
doctor. Was Lydia naughty and bad to be afraid of 
doctor?" It was evident she had been talking with 
some of the blind girls and only half understood what 
they had tried to teach her. 
Having completed the extracts from the journal 
for the year 1841, we quote from Dr. Howe's re- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
85 
port* a statement of her physical and mental con- 
dition at this period : - 
" I shall first give an account of what may be called 
her physical condition, and its attendant phenomena. 
She has had almost uninterrupted health, and has grown 
in stature and strength. She is now tall of her age 
(twelve years), well proportioned, and very strong and 
active. The acuteness of her touch, and of the sense 
of feeling generally, has increased sensibly during the 
last year. She can perceive when any one touches a 
piano in the same room with her; she says, ' Sound 
comes through the floor to my feet, and up to ray head.' 
She recognizes her friends by the slightest touch of their 
hands, or of their dress. For instance, she never fails 
to notice when I have changed my coat, though it be 
for one of the same cut, color, and cloth ; if it is only a 
little more or less worn than the usual one, she perceives 
it, and asks, 'Why?' It would appear that in these 
perceptions she employs not only the sense of touch, 
but derives great assistance from what Brown would call 
a sixth sense, viz., the sense of muscular resistance. 
Aided by both of these, she has acquired surprising 
facility in ascertaining the situation and relation of 
things around her. Especially is it curious to see how 
accurate is her perception of the direction or bearing of 
objects from her ; for by much practice and observation, 
she has attained, to some extent, what the bee and some 
other insects have in such perfection by instinct, - the 
power of going straight towards a given point, without 
* Tenth Annual Report of the Trustees of Perkins Institution 
and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind. 86 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
any guide or landmark. For instance, when she is 
told to go from any part of the room to a particular 
door or window, she goes directly and confidently on, 
not groping, or feeling the walls ; she stops at the right 
instant, raises her hand in the right direction, and places 
it upon the door-knob, or whatever point she may have 
aimed at. Of course it is not supposed that she can 
exercise this power when she is in a new place, but that 
she has attained great facility in ascertaining her actual 
position in regard to external things. 
" I am inclined to think that this power is much 
more common than is usually supposed, and that man 
has the desire and the capacity of knowing all the rela- 
tions of outness (to use a word of Berkeley), so strongly 
marked as almost to deserve the name of a primitive 
faculty. The first impulse on waking in the morning 
is to ascertain where we are, and although the effort to 
ascertain it may not be apparent in common cases, yet, 
let a person be turned round when he is asleep, and see 
how instantaneously on waking he looks about to ascer- 
tain his position; or, if he is lying awake in the dark 
and his bed should be turned round, see how difficult it 
would be for him to go to sleep without stretching out 
his hand to feel the wall, or something by which the 
desire in question maybe gratified. Swing a boy round 
till he is dizzy, look at a girl stopping giddy from the 
waltz, or a person who has been playing blind man's 
buff, and has just raised the handkerchief, and mark 
how, by holding the head as if to steady it, and eagerly 
looking around, the first and involuntary effort of each 
one is to ascertain the relations of outness. . 
Who could be easy a moment if he had no notion of LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
87 
what he was sitting or standing upon, or any percep- 
tion or idea of being supported and surrounded by 
material objects ? 
" Laura, or any blind child, if taken up in a person's 
arms, carried into a strange room and placed in a chair, 
could not resist the inclination to stretch out her hands 
and ascertain by feeling the relations of space and 
objects about her. In walking in the street she en- 
deavors to learn all she can of the nature of the 
ground she is treading on ; but she gives herself up 
generally to her leader, clinging very closely to her. 
I have sometimes, in play, or to note the effect, sud- 
denly dropped her hand when she was in a strange place 
and started out of her reach, at which she manifested 
not fear, but bewilderment and perplexity. 
" I have said she measures distances very accurately, 
and this she seems to do principally by the aid of what 
Brown calls the sixth sense, or muscular contraction, 
and perhaps by that faculty to which I have alluded 
above, by which we attend to the relations of outness. 
When we ascend a flight of steps, for instance, we 
measure several steps with the eye ; but once having 
got the gauge of them we go up without looking, meas- 
ure the distance which we are to raise the foot, even 
to the sixteenth of an inch, by the sense of con- 
traction of the muscles ; and that we measure accu- 
rately, is proved when we come to a step that is but 
a trifle higher or lower than the rest, in which case we 
stumble. 
"I have tried to ascertain her mode of estimating 
distance, length, etc., by drawing smooth, hard sub- 
stances through her hand. When a cane, for instance, 88 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
is thus drawn through her hand, she says it is long 
or short, somewhat according as it is moved with more 
or less rapidity, that is, according to the duration 
of the impression; but I am inclined to think she 
gets some idea of the rapidity of the motion even of 
the smoothest substances, and modifies her judgment 
thereby. 
"I have tried to excite the dormant senses, or to 
create impressions upon the brain, which resemble 
sensations, by electricity and galvanism, but with only 
partial success. When a galvanic circuit is made by 
pressing one piece of metal against the mucous mem- 
brane of the nose, and another against the tongue, the 
nerves of taste are affected, and she says it is like 
medicine. 
" The subject of dreaming has been attended to, with 
a view of ascertaining whether there is any sponta- 
neous activity of the brain, or any part of it, 'which 
would give her sensations resembling those arising 
from the action of light, sound, etc., upon other per- 
sons, but as yet without obtaining positive evidence 
that there is any. Further inquiry, when she is more 
capable of talking on intellectual subjects, may change 
this opinion, but now it seems to me that hei' dreams 
are only the spontaneous production of sensations, 
similar in kind to those which she experiences while 
awake (whether preceded or accompanied by any cere- 
bral action cannot be known). She often relates her 
dreams, and says, ' I dreamed to talk with a person,' 
' to walk with one,' etc. If asked whether she talked 
with her mouth, she says, ' No,' very emphatically, 
' I do not dream to talk with mouth ; I dream to talk LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
89 
with fingers.' Neither does she ever dream of seeing 
persons, but only of meeting them in her usual way. 
She came to me the other morning with a disturbed 
look, and said, ' I cried much in the night, because I 
did dream you said good by, to go away over the 
water.' In a word, her dreams seem, as ours do, to 
be the result of the spontaneous activity of the different 
mental faculties, producing sensations similar in kind 
to our waking ones, but without order or congruity, 
because uncontrolled by the will. 
" In the development of her intellectual powers, and 
in the acquisition of knowledge, not only of language, 
but of external things and their relations, I think she 
has made great progress. The principal labor has, of 
course, been upon the mere vehicle for thought, - 
language; and if, as has been remarked, it is well for 
children that they do not know what a task is before 
them when they begin to learn language (for their 
hearts would sink within them at the thought of forty 
thousand unknown signs of unknown things which they 
are to learn), how much more strongly does the remark 
apply to Laura ! They hear these w'ords on every side, 
at every moment, and learn them without effort; they 
see them in books, and every day scores of them are 
recorded in their minds. The mountain of their diffi- 
culty vanishes fast, and they finish their labor, think- 
ing, in the innocence of their hearts, that it is only 
play ; but she, poor thing, in darkness and silence must 
attack her mountain, and weigh and measure every 
grain of which it is composed ; and it is a rebuke to 
those who find so many lions in the path of knowledge, 
to see how incessantly and devotedly she labors on 90 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
from morn till night of every clay, and laughs as if her 
task were the pleasantest thing in the world. 
" I mentioned some circumstances in my last report, 
which made me infer her native modesty, and although 
such a supposition seems to some unphilosophical, I can 
only say that careful observation during the past year 
corroborates the opinion then advanced. Nor have I 
any difficulty in supposing that there is this innate ten- 
dency to purity ; but on the contrary, I think it forms 
an important and beautiful element of humanity, the 
natural course of which is towards that state of refine- 
ment, in which, while the animal appetites shall work 
out their own ends, they shall all of them be stripped of 
their grossness, and clad in garments of purity, contrib- 
ute to the perfection of a race made in God's own 
image. 
"Laura is still so young, and her physical develop- 
ment is yet so imperfect, she is so childlike in appear- 
ance and action, that it is impossible to suppose she has 
as yet any idea of sex ; nevertheless, no young lady can 
be more modest and proper in dress and demeanor than 
she is. It has been suggested that, as her father was 
obliged, when she was young, to coerce her to many 
things which she was disinclined to do, she may have 
conceived a fear of every one in man's dress. But on 
the other hand, she was much accustomed, from child- 
hood, to the society of a simple, kind-hearted man, who 
loved her tenderly, and with whom she was perfectly 
familiar; it was not, therefore, the dress which affected 
her. 
" I may add, moreover, that from the time she came 
here, she has never been accustomed to be in company LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
91 
with any man but myself; and that I have, in view of 
the future, very carefully refrained from even those 
endearing caresses which are naturally bestowed upon a 
child of eight years old, to whom one is tenderly 
attached. But this will not account for such facts as 
the following. During the last year, she received from 
a lady a present of a beautifully dressed doll, with a bed 
and bedclothes, and chamber furniture of all kinds. 
Never was a child happier than she was ; and a long 
time passed in examining and admiring the wardrobe 
and furniture. The wash-stand was arranged, towels 
were folded, the bureau was put in place, the linen was 
deposited in the tiny drawers; at last the bed was 
nicely made, the pillows smoothed, the top sheet turned 
trimly over, and the bed half opened, as if coquettishly 
inviting Miss Dolly to come in ; but here Laura began 
to hesitate, and kept coming to my chair to see if I 
was still in the room, and going away again, laughing, 
when she found me. At last I went out, and as soon 
as she perceived the jar of the shutting door, she com- 
menced undressing the doll, and putting it to bed, 
eagerly desiring her teacher (a lady) to admire the oper- 
ation. 
She, as I said, is not familiarly acquainted with any 
man but myself. When she meets with one, she shrinks 
back coyly ; though if it be a lady, she is familiar, and 
will receive and return caresses ; nevertheless, she has 
no manner of fear or awe of me. She plays with me as 
she would with a girl. Hardly a day passes without a 
game at romps between us; yet never, even by inad- 
vertence, does she transgress the most scrupulous pro- 
priety, and would as instinctively and promptly correct 92 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
any derangement of her dress, as a girl of fourteen, 
trained to the strictest decorum. Perceiving, one day, 
that I kissed a little girl much younger than herself, she 
noticed it, and stood thinking a moment, and then asked 
me gravely, ' Why did you kiss Rebecca ? ' and some 
hours after, she asked the same question again." 
Dr. Howe closes this report with the following 
remarks upon her ideas of God, and his plans for 
her future instruction : - 
" During the past year she has shown very great 
inquisitiveness in relation to the origin of things. She 
knows that men made houses, furniture, etc., but of her 
own accord seemed to infer that they did not make 
themselves or natural objects. She therefore asks, 
'Who made dogs, horses, and sheep?' She has got 
from books, and perhaps from other children, the word 
God, but has formed no definite idea on the subject. 
Not long since, when her teacher was explaining the 
structure of a house, she was puzzled to know ' How 
the masons piled up bricks before floor was made to 
stand on? ' When this was explained she asked, ' When 
did masons make Jeannette's parlor, - before all Gods 
made all folks ? ' 
" I am now occupied in devising various ways of giv- 
ing her an idea of immaterial power by means of the 
attraction of magnets, the pushing of vegetation, etc., 
and intend attempting to convey to her some adequate 
idea of the great Creator and Ruler of all things. I am 
fully aware of the immeasurable importance of the sub- 
ject, and of my own inadequacy ; I am aware, too, that, 93 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
pursue what course I may, I shall incur more of human 
censure than of approbation ; but, incited by the warm- 
est affection for the child, and guided by the best exer- 
cise of the humble abilities which God has given me, I 
shall go on in the attempt to give her a faint idea of 
the power and love of that Being, whose praise she is 
every day so clearly proclaiming by her glad enjoyment 
of the existence which he has given to her." 94 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER VI. 
During the year 1842 Laura was taught one 
hour daily by Miss Rogers (Miss Drew's succes- 
sor) and two hours by myself. 
As in the year preceding, there was little system 
in the course of instruction. Our aim was to 
improve her language and add to her general 
information. A review of the work done leads 
me to say that she advanced despite all disadvan- 
tages. 
In the extracts from journals which follow, it 
should be understood that all remarks which are 
quoted as her own expressions are unchanged, 
even in orthography. 
It was my custom to have lying before me paper 
and pencil, and the exact words of all sentences 
which were of interest were noted at once. It 
may be a surprise that her spelling was so uni- 
formly correct, but when it is remembered that 
she never makes use of a word without giving its 
component letters, this is easily accounted for. 
She has only two ways of using language ; the one 
requires her to make each letter with the fingers, LAVRA BRIDGMAN. 
95 
the other to write it with her pencil. She is not 
led into error by the sound of the word, as chil- 
dren who can hear constantly are, nor by the rec- 
ollection of its appearance when written ; but it is 
a matter of simple memory, and if that fail, there 
can be no possibility of spelling by analogy, or in 
any way making good the deficiency. It becomes 
a lost word, until such time as it shall be used by 
some one in conversation with her, and so recov- 
ered. 
At this time she had only one book which she 
attempted to read, there being no elementary 
books printed in the raised type. This was called 
"The Child's First Book," and while it was all that 
was required for the blind children, who did not 
enter the school until they understood ordinary 
language, it proved a labyrinth of difficulties to 
Laura, and even at this date a few lines furnished 
work for a day's explanation. 
Jun. 8,1842. Laura has had a present of a toy range 
which has a lamp to serve instead of fire She spent 
the most of her lesson time in asking "the why" of 
every part, even to the little air-holes in the top of the 
lamp ; nothing escaped her observation. Having satis- 
fied herself on this, she said she had new words which 
she had found in her book, and wanted me to tell her 
about, "articulate sounds, vowels, consonants, etc." 
One would suppose that it would have taken her hours 
to remember how to spell such words, and the work of 96 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
explaining them looked equally laborious. The first 
she soon understood, but I told her no little girls learned 
about vowels ; she must wait till she was older. She 
replied, " You told me when Miss Drew was here," and 
then she repeated them, and asked, ' What is w and y ? " 
I supposed she would not be satisfied without an answer 
to the question why they were called vowels, but as the 
lesson was continued while taking a walk, she changed 
the subject. We found four boats drawn up on the 
shore, which she was very happy in examining; her 
questions were so numerous it took long to answer them. 
She had been shown a fish-hook, and supposed that men 
had to get out of the boats to get the fish in; wanted 
to know why boats should not have wheels instead of 
keels. Asked if fire made these boats go. On being 
told no, she said I was very wrong, that fire was in a large 
boat. Explained the difference in boats and the use of 
oars. "Do water roll much and come over men in 
boat? Who put fishes in water?" 
Jan. 13. Laura had found a notice of a Trustees' 
meeting, which was printed in raised letters, and brought 
it for explanation. "What are Trustees?" When 
told they were men who took care of this house, "And 
the girls and boys ? " she added, " and horses ? " After 
a long explanation of " Sir," " Yours respectfully, etc.," 
I asked her if she knew about it now. "Little,- 
because you said long words." It always makes her 
unhappy to be left with a subject half understood, so I 
went over it all again and explained it to her satisfaction. 
Jan. 15. Some one had given her an almanac, and 
she brought it to me with a sad face, saying, " Jenny 
sent me book and I cannot know, there are many 97 
LAUB A BRIDGMAN. 
hard words on all leaves that I cannot know." Told 
her we would talk about it, and I could tell her a great 
deal that was in it. So we turned leaf after leaf, and 
she wished to be told ' ' everything " there was on a 
page, and to have the pictures at +he head of each month 
explained. The blank leaves for memoranda pleased 
her. At the end of the lesson she was as " triumphant 
as one who has taken a city," and her comment upon 
the one who had told her she could not understand 
about it was, " She is very blind, she did not see to 
tell me about many things." 
It was the wish of Dr. Howe to give her all 
ideas concerning death himself, but she often sur- 
prised her teachers by use of expressions which had 
never been taught her by them. It must be remem- 
bered that she was constantly meeting the blind 
girls, while passing to and from the school-room, 
and she never missed an opportunity for conver- 
sation, often holding them unwilling listeners. She 
rarely told us of new words or ideas acquired in 
this way, at once, but only as they were suggested 
to her mind in some lesson. For example, speak- 
ing of Cambridge to-day suggested an occurrence 
of over a year ago, when she had been at the 
Institution only about two years. There were two 
little sisters from that place, who were in our 
blind family, Adeline and Elizabeth. Adeline 
died at her home. She asked, "Did you see 
Adeline in box?" "Yes." "She was very cold 
and not smooth; ground made her rough." I 
7 o o 98 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
tried to change the subject here, but it was in 
vain ; she wished to know how long the box was, 
etc , and said, " Drew told me about Adeline : did 
she feel? Did Elizabeth cry and feel sick? I did 
not cry, because I did not think much about it." 
She drew her hands in with a shudder, and I asked 
if she was cold. She said, "I thought about I 
was afraid to feel of dead man before I came here, 
when I was very little girl with my mother; I 
felt of dead head's eyes and nose; I thought it 
was man's; I did not know." 
I desire to call particular attention to this conver- 
sation, and to have the reader distinctly under- 
stand the circumstances. A blind, deaf, and dumb 
child, not over six years old, was led beside a coffin, 
and her hand placed on the features of a corpse. 
No one could communicate with her in any way 
to tell her the meaning of it, and all she could 
know was the coldness and rigidity, which to her 
sensitive touch must have been so terrible. Are 
we surprised that now, when language has been 
given her, in which she can describe the feelings 
o 7 O 
and tell of the thoughts which must have been 
indelibly impressed upon her mind, she says she 
"was afraid," and shudders at the recollection? 
She added, "I thought it was man's" (she was 
correct), "I did not know." Does not this little 
sentence settle beyond dispute the question, "Can 
we think without words?" LAVRA BRIDGMAN. 
99 
Jan. 24. She has been thinking much of the lesson 
on boats and ships, and came to me to ask, if ships were 
so large and high, how men could get into them. To 
test her powers of receiving ideas through illustrations 
that would require her imagination to work quite 
actively, I built up objects in the room to represent a 
ship, told her she must think of the floor as being water, 
and the rug as the ground, and laid a plank to let her 
see how she could get up to it. She was delighted with 
it all, and the lesson was a success. / 
Jan. 29. To-day Laura had the honor of a call from 
Charles Dickens. His great interest in her caused him 
to remain for several hours. She was animated in con- 
versation, and I think he received a very correct impres- 
sion of her. 
His "Notes on America " contain several pages 
of description of this visit. 
Jn this connection I wish to explain, what was 
perhaps often misunderstood by visitors to Laura, 
during this period of her life Out of the fulness 
of the heart many words of kindness, and many of 
flattery, were dictated to us to interpret to her. 
The former we always repeated literally, but we 
evaded the latter. Persons did not realize that 
a child placed in her position would naturally 
become proud, selfish, and disagreeable in many 
ways, and that more than ordinary care must be 
taken to guard her from all influences which would 
produce these effects. When taken to the school- 
room for exhibition, she was told that the blind 100 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
girls were sitting in their desks all around the 
room, and that ladies and gentlemen came to sec 
how the blind could be taught. She never had an 
idea that her share of attention was greater than 
theirs, but if the hundredth part of the comments 
which were intended to reach her had been re- 
peated, all our efforts to preserve her a mod- 
est, simple-hearted child would have been of no 
avail. 4 
Feb. 4. Talking of her plans for vacation, Laura 
made an unusually long sentence. " I must go to 
Hanover to see my mother, but I shall be very weak to 
go far; I will go to Halifax, if I can go with you. If 
Dr. is gone away, I think I will go with Jeannette ; * if 
Dr. is at home, I cannot go, because he does not like to 
be left alone, and if J. is gone he cannot mend his 
clothes and fix all things alone." ' 
Feb. 8. She had written the following letter entirely 
without assistance and brought it for me to read.f It 
was directed on the outside to " My Mother, Hanover." 
My Dear my Mother : 
I want to see you very much. I want you to send 
me some mince pie, and I want you to write to me. You 
will write letter to me. I send much love to you, and 
Addison, and John (brothers) : they must send me many 
nuts, because I love them very much; you must write 
to me. I am very well now, much, my doll is well. 
* Dr. Howe's sister. 
t The punctuation marks aud capitals are ours. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
101 
Lurena is well but she is weak. Miss J. and Dr. are 
well. Miss Swift and Miss Rogers teaches me many 
days. Doll is better. I can write with chalk on 
board. Laura Bridgman. 
Her thoughts were still on her home, and she said, 
" My mother cried before I came to Boston, because 
she was very sad to have me come from home. Was 
she silly? She cannot teach me at home, I should be 
very dull, and forget all." She then gave me a long 
description of their rooms, laughed when she told of 
the low ceilings, little windows, etc., which she com- 
pared with those of the Institution. 
Feb. 9. Asked if she had any "new words" for 
me. In reply she said, " Doctor told me about God ; 
it was very little say, and he told me when I was very 
tall he would teach me about God much. Is it man? 
Did it make you and me?" Told her she must ask 
Doctor again about it. 
Feb. 16. Having noticed that Laura was growing 
careless upon the use of the verbs, devoted the time to 
a conversation on " do" and " does," which she uses in- 
discriminately. As an example of the use of " do," she 
said, " I do go to bed " ; and when corrected, asked why 
it was not as well to omit " go " as " do." She is always 
ready with illustrations, and after much thinking, was 
able to correct the sentences herself. She made such 
mistakes as " I have not been to walk yesterday," " I 
did not know if she could hear," etc. Asked her if she 
would try to remember the lesson. " Yes, when I am 
not in much hurry." 
Feb. 17. She brought me a letter she had received, 102 
LAVRA BRIDGMAN. 
saying, with great indignation, "Doctor opened and 
read it to me. Doctor was wrong to open little girl's 
letters ; little girls open theirself." 
Feb. 19. Talked about monkeys After answering 
the usual questions which she asks about every new 
animal, told her a story of one who liked to kiss little 
girls. Found that she supposed a monkey could talk, 
and when told he could not, she looked as if much 
relieved, though she asked immediately if he could see. 
Feb. 23. Talking about the veins, told her they 
were blue; she asked, "Are they pretty?" This is 
her favorite color. I drew my finger over them in her 
neck and face, and it seemed to her very ridiculous 
that there should be so many colors in her face. 
Feb. 25. Tn the midst of a conversation upon every- 
day occurrences she said abruptly, " I want to see 
God. I want Doctor to make me see " Speaking of 
being tall, asked her if she wished to be tall. " Yes, 
because I want to learn about many Gods, and to wear 
collar." It will be perceived that thus far she had only 
a vague idea of God, but that her desire to be taught 
about him was very great. 
Feb. 28. Laura found a copy of " The Child's Second 
Book" while left alone on Sunday, and was much pleased 
that she could understand a sentence here and there. 
Many words which were new to her she had carefully 
remembered, and so brought work enough for three or 
four hours. " Wave, prevent, hollow," she understood 
readily, and applied the latter to a defective tooth. 
" Cape, point, valleys, plains, and deluge" next occu- 
pied attention. " Drown " was explained " to go under 
the water, and not come up." "Would they die?" 103 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
was her question at once. " Floating, preserved," and 
lastly " Mediterranean Sea, Bhering's, Narragansett." 
Told her she would know all about these last when we 
taught her geography. "Will that be very soon?" 
Should we not think that a bright child with all her 
senses had learned a hard lesson if she had committed 
to memory such a list of words, and then had learned 
to spell them all correctly? This was just what Laura 
had done in that hour, when left by herself. 
March 5. She wished me to tell her about yarn. 
Began with the sheep, shearing it, etc. When I got as 
far as the carding she made the motion for it, and said, 
"I have seen my mother." Found she was familiar 
also with the process of spinning. Talked of all the 
things in the room made of wool. She said, " Silk- 
worms make something, what is it?" Taught her co- 
coon, but reserved the story of silk for another lesson. 
She had been shown a pod with cotton and remembered 
that the cotton was made from that. 
March 7. Yesterday, when reading, she found the 
word " harmony," and ran to Miss J. and said, " My 
mother is in book ; it must be Harmony Bridgman, man 
did not know." 
March 9. To show me that she remembered and 
could apply one of the "new words" of yesterday's 
lesson she said, on first seeing me this morning, " J.'s 
hand is instrument to pat with." During the past week 
she has said several times when checked for making 
noises, "I thought you could not hear," and instances 
of this kind have led us to think that she imagined she 
did nothing wrong, provided she concealed it. To-day 
taught her the word " deceive," and told her it is to do 104 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
things when J. is not here that you would not do when 
she is here. Then gave her several instances of decep- 
tion which she had used during the last week, all very 
slight in themselves, but which would fairly come under 
that head, and thought she began to understand it. 
She said, "I would not like to have J. know, and I would 
not like to have Doctor know ; he must make me know ; 
I would be very sad to have any one tell Doctor because 
he would blame, or scold me." Told her if she did not 
do wrong no one would have to tell him, and she showed 
that she fully understood that wrong intent was neces- 
sary to make the action wrong by remarking, " I would 
tell Doctor ; if I did not mean, he would not blame me " 
She has not yet corrected the impression that the error 
lies in failing to conceal the crime, rather than in its com- 
mission. The next day, when sent for her lunch, she 
found the servant absent, and feeling irritated, took 
the key from the door to prevent Miss J. from pass- 
ing through. After talking about it, she said, " I knew 
it was wrong ; was it deceive ? " Told her no, and was 
about to explain further when she said, "If I do not 
want J. to know that I took key, it is deceive." Told 
her that to deceive was a little lie ; that she did not tell 
large lies, but in this way she could tell many little 
lies, and it was very, very wrong. She then gave a 
minute description of the first time she attempted to 
disobey me, when I was giving her a lesson. Told her 
I had nearly forgotten all about it, and she said, " You 
are very forgetful," - the first time I had known her to 
use this expression. 
March 15. Laura was in excellent spirits this morn- 
ing, for she was expecting Dr. Howe to return after a 105 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
long absence in the South. She asked, " Do Doctor 
know I can smile 2 " This is a word she has learned 
since he went away, and she seemed to think he could 
not understand it. Among the words she talked of was 
"fault"; she wanted to know its meaning. Told her 
it was doing wrong ; she said, " Fault is like diameter 
- no, crime." Accounted for the mistake as I remem- 
bered that I taught her both words at the same time 
and she had crossed their meaning. Explained that 
fault was a little crime. When walking, she asked, " If 
the bark of a tree," which I laid her hand upon, " was 
black, because if it was white it would get dirty ? " 
March 17. "New words" which she brought to the 
lesson were, " Mentioned, suit of clothes, approached, 
arrived." Had her bring me the book in which she had 
found them, and read a page to me, to see if she got 
any correct idea of it as a whole. As I supposed, she 
gave only a confused mixture of words. After reading it, 
she said, " My head aches to think of many words ; do 
sheep's head ache?" Thoughts of animals, and their 
points of resemblance to man, seem to be always in her 
mind. She asked, "Are peaches yellow because they 
would be dirty if white ? and are shoes dark colored ? " 
(for the same reason.) She has lately learned the divi- 
sion of colors into dark and light. 
March 26. Laura just recovering from measles. 
She wanted to know the meaning of " selfish." After a 
long talk about it, she thought she would like to be a 
little selfish, and I did not succeed in changing her 
opinion, even by the argument which generally avails 
much, that ladies do not love selfish girls, and she would 
not be loved when she grew old if she were selfish. 106 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
March 28. Although she was still weak, we had a 
pleasant talk to-day. Perhaps, as in the case of most 
people, her sickness has made her think of home and 
her mother, and she wanted to talk to me of old times. 
Asked me the names of spindle and reel by describing 
their motions She said, "My mother had a swift 
made of sticks to wind yarn on " She laughed heartily 
at the name being like mine. She told me about her 
mother's last visit to her, of the things she brought, and 
ended by saying, " I think I am little afraid of my 
father." As he had been the one to correct her before 
she was taught anything, it is not strange she should 
say this. She speaks of him with affection at other 
times. 
March 30. For several weeks she has had a habit of 
pushing the blind girls away when she meets them, if 
she does not wish to speak to them. As it seemed to be 
growing into a serious matter, both for herself and the 
blind girls, their esteem for her being somewhat lowered 
of late, decided to devote an hour to talking about it. 
When she understood it fully, she was very sad and 
cried, and felt it very much wdien I told her the girls 
would not love her, and why they all loved the gentle 
Oliver. When it was proposed that she go and tell 
Abby she was sorry that she pushed her, she went at 
once, and said, " I shall tell her 1 am very sad." 
April 4. Found Laura much excited over something 
she had found in a book ; she met me saying, "Doctor 
wrote in book, ' you must not think because you are 
blind.' " On referring to it I found she had omitted the 
conclusion of the sentence, which was, " that you can- 
not learn as much as other children." I failed to remove LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
107 
the wrong impression entirely, and presume it will still 
trouble her. 
This is one of her greatest difficulties in reading, and 
it seems almost impossible to teach her how to read 
properly, i. e., to receive the ideas as a whole instead of 
detaching sentences, clauses, or even words, and think- 
ing only of their meaning when taken separately, and 
so failing to get the true sense. 
A[>ril 6. The experience of the last lesson leads me 
to think that I cannot better spend an hour with her 
than in having her read to me from the book with which 
she has been amusing herself. " I will tell you about 
the world," was the first sentence, and she stopped to 
ask, " Who is I?" Next she read, " It is round," and 
before reading " like an orange," she told me, " round 
like a peppermint." The whole of the hour was occu- 
pied in making her understand the difference between 
the shape of the peppermint and the orange. 
Dr. Howe came into the room while she was having 
a lesson, peeling an orange. She stopped in the midst 
of a sentence to say, " I smell orange." We can see a 
decided improvement in her sense of smell since last 
year, but she has never noticed any perfume so quickly 
or at so great a distance before. 
April 19. "Why does it rain?" "To make all 
things grow." " What are all things?" Described 
the planting of the seed, potatoes, peas, etc., and told 
her it rained to make them grow, just as she put 
water on her plant in the pot to make it grow. She 
led me to it to show me its growth, and found hang- 
ing upon it a bunch of raisins, which Miss J. had 
put there as a surprise. At first she thought the 108 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
plant had borne fruit, but soon discovered the joke and 
enjoyed it. 
April 21. Lesson on the yardstick; learned to 
measure three quarters, half, one quarter, and was very 
happy in applying her new knowledge. 
April 25. Another example of her difficulty in read- 
ing. The sentence was, " The deer knows this." The 
previous sentence was, " The grass grows under the 
snow." She could not put the two together as any 
other child would readily do, but asked, with a look 
of great surprise, '' Can the deer know what is in this 
book?" 
April 27. When returning from a walk with her, I 
told her I could see the windows in our house. She 
asked at once, " Can you see my Hanover's windows?" 
meaning the windows in her father's house in Hanover, 
N. II. One day when walking on our piazza, I said, 
" I can see the windows in the houses in Boston, and 
the sun shining on them very brightly " Another day 
when sitting in the room I told her I could look through 
o o 
our window and see the windows in Boston. She said, 
' ' Look through their windows and tell me what all folks 
are doing." 
M iy 2. The dog Marco accompanied us in our walk 
to-day, and she was much interested in asking the 
extent of his knowledge. " Can Marco hear when you 
say Marco?" Told her yes, and that he came to me. 
" Does he know Doctor?" "Yes." "Will you say 
Doctor to him, and see if he knows?" Told her he did 
not know when I talked about Doctor, but when he saw 
him he knew him. This was a great puzzle to her, that 
he should know his own name and not Doctor's, and 109 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
after thinking of it for some time she sai(^ quite impa- 
tiently, " I will ask Doctor, you do not know." 
May 3. While walking to the Point two or three 
cannon were fired from a vessel near the Farm School. 
At each report she said, "I hear; it is cannon." 
Thinking she might describe her hearing as she did in 
case of the piano, I asked, " Do you hear through your 
feet? " "No, when it is very loud I hear in my ear." 
May 8. Laura's mind has been entirely occupied 
with the sick horse. She wants to know if he has 
medicine. "Does he know sick or better? " Told her 
he did not know the words, sick or better, but he knew 
when he felt better. She asks every hour what they 
are doing for him, and if they give him gruel. When 
told no, she said I was wrong, that horses ate meal and 
water and that was gruel, which I did not dispute. To- 
day she had been told he was dead. " Why did not I 
die when I was very sick? " This is the first time she 
has alluded to her own death in conversation with me, 
and now she looked anxious and much troubled. " Did 
horse know about dead, before he was dead?" Suc- 
ceeded in diverting her attention, and she was very 
happy for a while. One extreme of feeling is often fol- 
lowed, in her case, by the other. Asked her why she 
laughed so much? " Because I am very O " " What 
is O? " " When 1 am very happy ; you said ladies say 
O. I am very 0 1 " She soon returned to the old sub- 
ject and said, " I cried much Friday morning because 
the horse was worse, and I love him very much, he is 
soft and gentle." 
May 12. Gave her a lesson in the stable ; examined 
the harness, saddle, bit, blinders, and reins, sleigh-bells, 110 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
collar, stirrups. Then took her to the carriage, and 
taught her the name of many of its parts, and the use 
of the springs. 
May 13. Laura had a lesson in multiplication, and 
I told her to-morrow I would teach her to divide. She 
thought I said " dive" and was quite troubled about it, 
but when she found it was divide and something new in 
arithmetic, she said, " To-day, not to-morrow." 
May 15. Laura asked for "poor pork" at dinner 
to-day. Found she wanted lean pork. She often falls 
into mistakes in words by false analogies, and it is easy 
to see how she should make the above mistake. One 
day when feeling ill she said, " I am very strongless." 
When corrected she said, " You say restless, when I do 
not sit still," and then changed her sentence to, " I am 
very weakful." 
May 17. Laura succeeded in dividing 252 by G. 
Have commenced teaching her by long division,- think- 
ing it less puzzling for her than short. Last night, in my 
sleep, I told Laura to go into Miss Jeannette's room. 
She obeyed, but this morning severely reprimanded me, 
and concluded by saying, " You do not think good in 
your sleep." 
May 23. I fear that Laura attempted to deceive me 
to-day in her work. At ten o'clock I sent her to knit. 
She was to commence a pitcher (purse), and I told her 
I wanted she should knit much. At twelve I went to 
give her a lesson and asked her how much she had 
done. She said, " I have done handle and neck," chang- 
ing it to " and almost neck." Iler manner was pecul- 
iar, so I asked her to let me see it; she hesitated, but 
brought it, when I found instead of the neck being LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
111 
almost done, it was not yet entirely begun. Told her 
I would not give her a lesson again to-day, but she 
must think about deceiving. She worked steadily, but 
did not seem to be moved by this. 
May 24 Her mind was entirely occupied with the 
wrong of yesterday. She asked, " Am I wrong many 
times ? " She then repeated the history of the decep- 
tion and said, "I felt very bad yesterday,-bad is 
sad. I want to learn to be good." Asked if she 
thought she would be sad if she learned to be good. 
" I do not think so " After thinking awhile, she said, 
" I want you to love me many times, much," and burst 
into tears. It was some time before she became com- 
posed, but after that she was very gentle. 
P. M. Walked to the Point, and while sitting by 
the water she said, " I was very silly not to think to 
wear shawl." After being quiet awhile, she said, " Be 
very still, something in my right foot hears." Asked 
her to try her left foot. She did so, but said, " I can- 
not hear good with my left " " What is in right foot 
that hears?" Told her the water jarred the ground, 
and she felt it shake. ' ' Who put jar under the ground ? " 
She had seen a jar in the kitchen, so a long explanation 
of what I intended for a simple sentence was necessary. 
May 27. Laura has been told often that she must 
not displace things in the parlor, and yet the figure of a 
monk and a little dog belonging to her are always found 
turned round and facing the wall. To-day I asked an 
explanation, and the reply was, " To have them see the 
pictures on the wall." 
May 30. Took Laura to see Jane Damon. This 
little blind girl had been very singularly afflicted. She 112 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
had passed through typhoid fever, but was left by it 
with hip-joint disease, and while in the hospital for 
treatment, took the small-pox. Of course she had 
drawn largely on our sympathies, and Laura had been 
greatly interested in her, but had not seen her for 
months. She seemed very happy and kissed her, but 
in an instant her countenance changed, and she looked 
very sad. She had perceived the marks of small-pox 
on her face and hands and asked, " What made them?" 
Told her Jane had been sick with small-pox. "Not 
small-pox," she said earnestly, " it is much pox." Next 
she asked her to walk, saying she would help her. She 
was very much affected when she found she could not 
use her limb at all. A little while after, looking much 
distressed, she said, " I am afraid she will die," and 
showed me how thin her hair was, and all the marks on 
her face. She was comforted somewhat when told 
she was nearly well now. Going home, she said, " I 
feel very sad, blood does not run, my heart beats very 
slow." She then began to devise ways in which we 
could all make Jane happy. 1 never saw Laura so 
much affected as when she discovered Jane's condition. 
June 11. Told her to-day she must go and exercise 
in the hall, supposing it would be a new word to her. 
As she took no notice of it. I asked her, " What is exer- 
cise? " " To run." " Who to Id you about exercise? " 
"No one." "How did you know it was to run?" 
" Because you said it would make me well." And then 
she tried to spell it, but did not succeed until after sev- 
eral trials. It is the first time I have ever known her 
to arrive at the meaning of a word in this way. Having 
lost my paper on which I was taking notes, I asked LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
113 
her to find it. She said, laughing, "I felt it walk 
away," at the same time taking it from her shoe, and 
enjoying the joke. 
June 14. Gave her another lesson at the sea-shore. 
The tide had brought in the sea-weed, and it was all 
new to her. That it should grow on a stone, puzzled 
her. Next, showed her some with little bags of air, 
and she applied her new word "elastic" to them, and 
could feel how hard the sacks were when full of air; 
then a species with three lobes, which she called fingers. 
We picked up some that had a little shell attached, and 
when told there was a fish in it, her questions were 
numberless. Some of them were, " Why does fish shut 
in the shell?" meaning, draw himself into it. "Who 
gave fish shell? Will he live in my hand? Why not 
from (out of) the water? Is it baby fish?" An hour 
passed quickly, and then she said, " I think Rogers and 
Oliver have not seen." So giving me a small stone 
with sea weed attached, and taking her baby fish, and 
what she called fingers in her own hand, she went home 
to teach Oliver. 
June 17. She went to get a chair this morning, and 
finding a large basket with clothes in it, stepped into 
it. Talked to her some time, to explain the harm she 
might do to both basket and clean clothes, but she was 
disposed to excuse herself, saying, " I was blind, and 
I did not know the basket was there," and changed the 
subject, saying, " I saw my father's Jambs in basket, 
and a blanket over them, because they would be cold 
from (out of) basket. Were they wrong to be in 
basket ? " She showed me how her mother placed a 
chair over the basket, and I told her it was to keep the 114 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
lambs from jumping out. " Because babies would be 
very cold ? " Asked her if her mother told her why she 
put the chair there. "No; I could not talk to my 
mother, and I could not think why she put the chair." 
Here was another case of her thinking before she had 
any language. 
June 21. Laura ran out of the parlor last eve, just 
as a gentleman, who was a phrenologist, was examining 
her head; when asked why she was so rude, she said 
indignantly, " Man was not kind to me, and troubled 
me, and I did not like to have him put his hand on my 
head." She discovered that the fingers of her left hand 
were not so pliable as those of the right, and at once 
gave the reason, " Left hand never talks." 
July 27. Told Laura as I was going with her to the 
school-room that a spider was running over my hand, 
and had made a web to the floor. This furnished a 
subject for the lesson. After describing the process of 
spinning the web, told her about its shape, and she 
turned to her desk to find " The Child's Book," which 
has a plate of the Planetary System in raised lines, 
thinking from my description of the web that this must 
be a picture of one. As usual, she had many questions 
about spiders. When told they ate flies, she asked, 
' ' Do large spiders eat ten flies ? Do they eat them to 
keep them from getting into molasses ? " 
July 28. Laura met me to-day with, " I am very 
neat " ; and as she had on a clean dress, it was a good 
application of a new word. Then she put out her foot, 
and asked, " What do ladies wear on their feet?" which 
was a delicate way of attracting my attention to some 
new shoes. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
115 
Aug. 1. Laura was disobedient to Miss J. this 
morning, in leaving her room to go to the school-room, 
after having been told not to go out. She thought it a 
sufficient excuse that she wanted to go to ask Miss W. 
to tell her about clams. As there had been several 
cases of slight errors in this way, I made it a subject 
for conversation, and afterwards asked her if she had 
done right. She said, " No, I did not obey J." It 
usually takes a very short time for her to see the 
error. 
Aug. 19. She asked where I would go in vacation, 
and when told to Nantucket, she tried several times to 
spell it, and said, " It is very hard." I cannot under- 
stand why she always finds so much difficulty with this 
name, for she learns those which appear to me much more 
difficult, such as Philadelphia, with very slight effort, 
while every time Nantucket occurs, she has to learn to 
spell it anew. 116 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER VII. 
One of the blind boys died, and we give Dr. 
Howe's account * of his conversation with Laura: 
" One of our pupils died, after a severe illness, which 
caused much anxiety in our household. Laura, of 
course, knew of it, and her inquiries after him were 
as frequent and as correct as those of any one. After 
his death I proceeded to break it to her. I asked 
her if she knew that little Orrin was very sick. She 
said, 'Yes.' 'lie was very ill yesterday forenoon,' 
said I, ' and I knew he could not live long.' At this 
she looked much distressed, and seemed to ponder 
upon it deeply. I paused awhile, and then told her 
that ' Orrin died last night.' At the word died she 
seemed to shrink within herself, there was a contrac- 
tion of the hands, a half-spasm, and her counte- 
nance indicated not exactly grief, but rather pain and 
amazement, her lips quivered, and then she seemed 
about to cry, but restrained her tears. She had 
known something of death before, she had lost friends, 
and she knew about dead animals, but this was the 
only case which had occurred in the house. She asked 
about death, and I said, ' When you are asleep 
does your body feel?' 'No, if I am very asleep.' 
* Eleventh Report to the Trustees. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
117 
'Why?' 'I do not know.' I tried to explain, and 
used the word soul. She said, 'What is soul?' 
' That which thinks, and feels, and hopes, and loves,' 
said I, to which she added interrogatively, ' And 
aches?' Here I was perplexed at the threshold by 
her inquiring spirit, seizing upon and confounding 
material and immaterial processes. I tried to explain 
to her that any injury of the body was perceived by 
the soul; but I was clearly beyond her depth, although 
she was all eagerness to go on. I think I made her com- 
prehend the difference between material and spiritual 
operations. After a while, she asked, ' Where is 
Orrin's think?' ' It has left his body and gone away.' 
'Where?' 'To God in heaven.' 'Where, up?' 
(pointing up.) 'Yes.' ' Will it come back?' 'No.' 
'Why?' said she. 'Because his body was very sick 
and died, and soul cannot stay in a dead body. After 
a minute she said, 'Is breath dead? Is blood dead? 
Your horse died, where is his soul?' I was obliged to 
give the very unsatisfactory answer, that animals have 
no souls. She said, ' Cat does kill a mouse, why? 
has she got soul?' Answer: 'Animals do not know 
about souls, they do not think like us.' At this 
moment a fly alighted upon her hand, and she said, 
'Have flies souls?' I said, 'No.' 'Why did not 
God give them souls?' Alas for the poverty of her 
language I I could hardly make her understand how 
much of life and happiness God bestows even upon a 
little fly. 
"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 118 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
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 be sorry, because he loves all 
folks, and grieves when they do wrong.' 'Can lie 
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; but 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 " 
After reporting this conversation Dr. Howe 
adds:- 
'•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 arti- 
ficial 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 LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
119 
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 knowl- 
edge, her soul has nevertheless put forth the buds of 
the brightest virtues, and gives indication of its pure 
origin and its high destination." 
Having given Dr. Howe's account, and his 
o O 7 
views of her present mental condition, I quote 
from my journal a report of conversations with 
different members of the family : - 
When I returned from church found Laura in a very 
excited state, and as no notes had been taken of her 
conversation with Miss J. and Miss Rogers, I collected 
it from them, and also noted that with myself. She 
came up from the Doctor's room saying, "Orrin has 
gone to God. Soul has gone. God gives all folks, and 
men. and boys, and babies, souls. God is very kind." 
She spoke of the body, and Miss Rogers asked her why 
she did not say Orrin. "Because Orrin has gone to 
God." When she met me in the afternoon, she said, 
"Did you know Orrin was dead? Are you glad?" 
Turning to Miss J. " Do God love Orrin? Can Orrin 
move with God?" Then drawing back a little, "I 
want to be with God. God is very good to give us all 
souls. God would be sad Orrin's body is dead. Does 
God know all names and things?" "Yes, and Doc- 
tor knows all things. God would think that Orrin's 
soul came from body, - soul came very quick from body 120 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
last night. Why did he die ? Why did soul go very 
quick? Was he any well with God last night? " Iler 
idea in this question evidently was, whether the soul, 
having just left the sick body, began to be well with 
God. " Can he talk? Doctor knows about heaven ; I 
shall know all things when I die." She then made a sign 
of drawing out something from herself which was very 
thin, and would pass through her fingers, and said, 
" Souls are white. Can baby know God? I think I 
was with God in Hanover, and God made new Laura." 
This was an allusion to her birth. " My doll can see 
body, but not soul. Flies and hoppers have not souls. 
Shall I go up when I die? Where is God? Are clouds 
in heaven ? " During the week she often recurred to the 
conversation with Doctor, and was much impressed with 
the thought, " God knows my thoughts, and wrong, and 
does not love bad." One day she said, " Do you want 
to see Orrin? Why does not God take us ? Does he not 
want you and me ? Why did God kill Orrin ? " 
Nov. 15. Laura met a very old lady, and asked, 
when she took her hand, " Why did God make her skin 
ugly ? " 
Nov. 16. Walked with Laura. She wore a bonnet 
which Miss J. had given her, and said, " I think she is 
very kind. What could I do if I had no friends to give 
me things?" To deepen this impression, told her a 
story of a poor little girl who had no father or mother, 
and no home to live in, and who slept in barns. She 
was much interested and deeply moved bv it. 
Dec. 19. For several months I have been unable, 
from pressure of other duties, to devote much time to 
Laura, but to-day have returned to the pleasant work, LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
121 
Asked her why she did not read now in her book. " I 
never read now, I do not know what the words mean." 
Proposed her reading to me, but she asked that she 
might tell me about an elephant. Told her a story of 
little boy who troubled one, and how he retaliated. I 
chanced to say he thought She did not interrupt the 
story, but at its close said, " Can elephants think?" 
Dec. 21, 1842. Laura announced her birthday. 
' ' I am thirteen now : am I taller ? " 
A very good gymnasium had been fitted up for 
the use of the blind pupils, and it was thought 
best for Laura to join the girls at their hour. 
She was not much pleased with it. As she could 
not hear the orders and make the movements in 
concert as those only blind could, it was not 
strange that some of the charm of it was lost on 
her. 
She visited a museum yesterday, and I asked her to 
tell me what she saw. " I saw crocodile and elephant's 
bone of head; why was his eye very large? I saw ele- 
phant's trunk and camel's legs; they were very high. 
I could not reach his head, and I stood on stool, and 
could not reach. Why cannot he put his head to the 
ground ? I saw bear ; what does he do ? " After think- 
ing awhile she said, " Why did God make proboscis, 
and why does the elephant not have teeth and lips like 
us?" 
She wanted to have me tell her about the cages in 
which bears were kept. After paying close attention, 
she said, " I will get something to show you if it is 122 
LAURA BRIDGMAN 
like." She went to the apparatus case, and took the 
little carriage from the inclined plane, to illustrate her 
idea of a cage on wheels. To give her a more correct 
one I took the wire frame used with the air pump, and 
put that on wheels. She understood it at once, but 
asked, " Why do not bears have cages made of wood ? " 
" They could not have air enough to breathe." She 
then tried to see if she^could feel the air passing through 
the wire. "I sit in my closet many days, and I can 
breathe, and that is wood." " But you could not 
breathe if shut up in your desk " ; and this she accepted. 
As her mind develops she is more inclined to argue, 
and will not accept an assertion as readily. She told 
me that bears had glass eyes, and insisted upon it. " I 
saw dead bear's glass eyes yesterday." 
Before closing the account of the progress made 
for the year 1842, we quote again from the report 
of Dr. Howe : -* 
" Her health has been excellent during the year, un- 
interrupted, indeed, by a single day's illness. Several 
medical gentlemen have expressed their fears that the 
continual mental excitement which she manifests, and 
the restless activity of her mind, must affect her health, 
and perhaps endanger the soundness of her mental 
faculties; but any such tendency has been effectually 
counteracted by causing her to practise calisthenic 
exercises, and to take long walks daily in the open 
air, which on some days extend to six miles. Besides, 
she has a safeguard in the nature of her emotions, 
* Eleventh Annual Report to Trustees. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
123 
which are always joyful, always pleasant and hopeful; 
and there is no doubt that the glad flow of spirits which 
she constantly enjoys contributes not only to her physi- 
cal health, but to the development of her mind. 
"Laura generally appears, by the quickness of her 
motives and the eagerness of her gestures, to be in a 
state of mind which in another would be called unnatu- 
ral excitement. Iler spirit, apparently impatient of its 
narrow bounds, is, as it were, continually pressing 
against the bars of its cage, and struggling, if not to 
escape, at least to obtain more of the sights and sounds 
of the outer world. The signs by which she expresses 
her ideas are slow and tedious; her thoughts outstrip 
their tardy vehicle, and fly forward to the goal; she 
evidently feels desirous of talking faster than she can, 
and she loves best to converse with those who can 
interpret the motion of her fingers when they are so 
rapid as to be unintelligible to a common eye. But 
with all this activity of the mental machinery, there is 
none of the wear and tear produced by the grit of dis- 
content ; everything is made smooth by the oil of glad- 
ness. She rises uncalled at an early hour ; she begins 
the day as merrily as the lark; she is laughing as she 
attires herself and braids her hair, and comes dancing 
out of her chamber as though every morn were that of 
a gala day; a smile and a sign of recognition greet 
every one she meets ; kisses and caresses are bestowed 
upon her friends and her teachers ; she goes to her 
lesson, but knows not the word task; she gayly assists 
others in what they call housework, but which she 
deems play; she is delighted with society, and clings 
to others as though she would grow to them; yet she is 124 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
happy when sitting alone, and smiles and laughs as the 
varying current of pleasant thoughts passes through 
her mind; and when she walks out into the field she 
greets her mother Nature, whose smiles she cannot see, 
whose music she cannot hear, with a joyful heart and a 
glad countenance; in a word, her whole life is like a 
hymn of gratitude and thanksgiving. 
" I know that this may be deemed extravagant, and 
by some considered as the partial description of a fond 
friend, but it is not so; and fortunately for others, 
particularly because this lesson of contentment should 
not be lost upon the repining and ungrateful, she is a 
lamp set upon a hill whose light cannot be hid. She is 
seen and known of many, and those who know her best 
will testify most warmly in her favor. 
"The general course of instruction pursued during 
the past year, corresponding as it does with that detailed 
in former reports, needs not to be here repeated for the 
information of those to whom this report is immediately 
addressed; but as great public interest is excited in 
this case, and as inquiries are continually made respect- 
ing the processes by which instruction is conveyed to 
her mind, it may be well to explain some of them, even 
at the risk of repetition, and of saying what may seem 
to those familiar with the theory of teaching the deaf 
and dumb not only trite but worthless. 
" Some kind of language seems necessary for every 
human being; the cravings of the social nature are 
loud and constant, and cannot be gratified except by 
some medium of communication for the feelings. The 
intellect cannot be developed unless all the modifications 
of thought have some sign even by which they can be LA UR A B RID GM A N. 
125 
recalled. Hence men are compelled by a kind of inward 
force to form languages; and they do form them under 
all and every circumstance. The social organ presents 
the natural and most perfect medium through which, by 
attaching a meaning to every modulation of voice, a 
perfect system of communication is kept up. The ques- 
tion whether a people could exist without language, 
would be about as reasonable as it would be to ask 
whether they could exist without hands ; it is as natural 
for men to converse as it is for them to eat; if they can- 
not speak, they will converse by signs, as, if they had 
no hands, they would feed themselves with their toes. 
Children then, prompted by nature, associate their 
thoughts with audible words, and learn language with- 
out any special instructions If you make the sound, 
represented by the letters a-p-p-l-e. when you hold up 
the fruit to a child, he naturally associates that sound 
with it, and will imitate the sound, even without your 
trying to make him do so ; if the child be deaf so that 
he cannot hear the word which you speak, of course he 
cannot imitate it, and as such, of course, he must be 
forever dumb But the desire to associate the thing 
with a sign still remains, and he has the same power of 
imitation as others, except in regard to words; if, 
therefore, you make a visible sign when you show him 
the apple, as by doubling the fist, the fist afterwards 
becomes to him the name or sign for the apple. But 
suppose the child cannot see the apple, suppose he be 
blind as well as deaf. What then? He has the same 
intellectual nature. Put the apple in his hand, let him 
feel it, smell it, taste it; put your clinched hand in his 
at the same time, and several times, until he associates 126 
L A UR A B RID GM AN. 
this sign with the thing, and when he wishes for the 
fruit he will hold up his little fist and delight your heart 
by this sign, which is just as much a word as though he 
had said ' apple ' out aloud. 
"Reasoning in this way, I undertook the task of 
instructing Laura Bridgman, and the result has been 
what it will ever be where nature is followed as our 
guide. 
" This simple process is readily understood ; but sim- 
ple signs and names of objects being easy enough, it is 
often asked, How can a knowledge of qualities which 
have no positive existence be communicated? Just as 
easily, and just as they are taught to common children ; 
when a child bites a sweet apple or a sour one, he per- 
ceives the difference of taste ; he hears you use one 
sound, sweet, when you taste the one ; another sound, 
sour, when you taste the other. These sounds are asso- 
ciated in his mind with those qualities. The deaf child 
sees the pucker of your lips or some grimace when you 
taste the sour one, and that grimace perhaps, is seized 
upon by him for a sign or a name for sour; and so with 
other physical qualities. The deaf, dumb, and blind 
child cannot hear your sound, cannot see your grimace ; 
yet he perceives the quality of sweetness, and if you 
take pains to make some peculiar sign two or three 
times, when the quality is perceived, he will asso- 
ciate that sign with the quality and have a name for it. 
" It will be said that the qualities have no existence, 
being mere abstractions, and that when we say ' sweet 
apple ' the child will think it is a compound name for 
the individual apple, or if he does not do this, that he 
cannot know whether by the word ' sweet ' we mean LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
127 
the quality of 'sweetness' or the quality of 'sound- 
ness.' This is true ; at first the child does not know to 
what the sound ' sweet ' refers ; he may misuse it often, 
but by Imitation, by observation, he at last gets it 
right, and applies the word ' sweet ' to everything whose 
qualities revive the same sensation as the sweet apple 
did ; he then uses the word ' sweet' in the abstract, not 
as a parrot, but understandingly, simply because the 
parrot has not the mental organization which fits it to 
understand qualities, and the child has. Now the 
transition from physical to mental qualities is very easy ; 
the child has dormant within his bosom every mental 
quality that the man has ; every emotion and every pas- 
sion has its natural language, and it is a law of nature 
that the exhibition of this natural language calls into 
activity the like mental quality in the beholder. The 
difference between joy and sorrow, between a smile and 
a frown, is just as cognizable by a child as the difference 
between a sweet apple and a sour one ; and through the 
same mental process by which a mute attaches signs to 
the physical quality, he may (with a little more pains) 
be made to attach them to the moral qualities. 
" Much surprise has been expressed by some who are 
conversant with the difficulties of the teaching, etc., of 
mutes, that Laura should have attained the use of verbs 
without more special instruction. It may be said in 
reply that no minute and perfect account of the various 
steps in the process of her instruction has ever yet been 
published ; and that moreover the difficulties in the use 
of the verbs are in reality much less than is usually 
supposed. 
"As soon as a child has learned the use of a noun, as 128 
LAURA BRIDGMAN 
' apple,' and of one or two signs of qualities, as ' sour' 
and ' sweet,' he begins to use them, he holds up the 
fruit and lisps out, ' apple sour,' or ' apple sweet'; he 
has not been taught a verb, and yet he uses one ; he 
asserts the one apple to be sweet the other to be sour; 
he in reality says mentally, ' apple is sweet apple,' or 
' apple is sour apple '; and in a little while he catches by 
the ear an audible sign,-the word is,- and puts it in 
where he before used only a sign, or meant to use one. 
Just so with the deaf-mute ; when he has learned a noun 
and an adjective he uses them by the help of a verb, or 
some mark of assertion, and you have only to give him 
some sign, which he will adopt just as readily as the 
speaking child, by mere imitation and without any pro- 
cess of ratiocination. We give too narrow a definition 
when we say a verb is a word, etc. 
" But it would swell the report to a volume should I 
pursue the same train of remarks with regard to the 
different parts of speech. Indeed I should hardly have 
hazarded it here, had it not been for assertions, emanat- 
ing from respectable sources, that this child must have 
some vision or hearing, or some remembrance of oral 
language, since she has easily attained the use of the 
most difficult parts of speech, which cost so much labor 
to those merely deaf and dumb. It is needless to repeat 
what is so well known to hundreds, that she is totally 
deaf and blind, and has been so from her tender 
infancy. 
" It will be observed by those who have had the 
patience to read the above remarks that to the child 
with all his senses, the acquisition of a language, which 
has already been perfected by the labor of many succes- 129 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
sive generations, is an easy and pleasant task, and 
accomplished without any teacher; that for the deaf- 
mute the difficulty is increased a thousand-fold ; that 
for the deaf, dumb, and blind, it is immeasurably 
greater still; and that for poor Laura Bridgman it is 
even more increased by the fact that she has not that 
acuteness of smell and taste which usually aid those 
in her situation, and that she relies upon touch alone. 
Nevertheless, she goes on, joyously using her single 
small talent, patiently piling up her little heap of 
knowledge, and rejoicing as much over it as if it were a 
pyramid." 
Dr. Howe's views with regard to her religious 
o o 
training, as given in the same report, are as fol- 
lows : - 
"The various attempts which I have made during the 
year to lead her thoughts to God and spiritual affairs 
have been, for the most part, forced upon me by her 
questions, which I am sure were prompted by expres- 
sions dropped carelessly by others, as God, heaven, 
soul, etc., and about which she would afterwards ask 
me. Whenever I have deliberately entered upon them, 
I have done so with caution, and always felt obliged by 
a sense of duty to the child to make the conversation 
as short as possible. The most painful part of one's 
duty is often where an honest conviction forces one to 
pursue a line of conduct diametrically opposite to that 
recommended by those for whose superior talents and 
wisdom one has the greatest respect. It is said con- 
tinually that this child should be instructed in the 
doctrines of revealed religion ; and some even seem to 130 
LAVRA BRIDGMAN. 
imagine her eternal welfare will be perilled by her 
remaining in ignorance of religious truths. I am aware 
of the high responsibility of the charge of a soul, and 
the mother who bore her can hardly feel a deeper inter- 
est in Laura's welfare than I do ; but that very sense of 
responsibility to God, and that love I bear to the child, 
forces me, after seeking for all light from others, finally 
to rely upon my own judgment. It is not to be doubted 
that she could be taught any dogma or creed, and be 
made to give as edifying answers as arc recorded of 
many other wonderful children to questions on spiritual 
subjects. But as I can see no necessary connection 
between a moral and religious life and the intellectual 
perception of a particular truth, or belief in a particular 
creed, I see not why I should anticipate what seems to me 
the course of nature in developing the mental powers. 
Unaided by any precedent for this case, one can look 
only to the book of nature ; and that seems to teach 
that we should prepare the soul for loving and worship- 
ping God by developing its powers and making it 
acquainted with his wonderful and benevolent works, 
before we lay down rules of blind obedience. 
" Should Laura's life be spared, it is certain she can 
be made to understand every religious truth that it may 
be desirable to teach her. Should she die young, there 
can be no doubt that she will be taken to the bosom of 
that Father in heaven to whom she is every day paying 
acceptable tribute of thanksgiving and praise by her 
glad enjoyment of the gift of existence. With these 
views, while I am ready to improve every opportunity 
of giving what she seems to need, I cannot consent to 
attempt to impart a knowledge of any truth for which LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
131 
her mind is not prepared; and I would take this oppor- 
tunity to beseech those friends of hers who differ from 
me, and who may occasionally converse with her, to 
reflect that, while the whole responsibility of the case 
rests upon me, it is unjust in them to do what they 
may easily do, - instil into her mind notions which 
might derange the whole plan of her instruction. " 132 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
Laura has just passed her thirteenth biithday, 
Dec. 21, 1842, and we turn to the journal to 
continue our story. 
Jan. 2. She was troubled about some little acts of 
rudeness yesterday, and asked the question, which she 
so often does now when told she has not done right, 
" Can God see it and know it, and does he like it? " 
In her lesson she asked of what cheese is made, and 
how it differs from butter. "What is name of (here 
she made a sign of moving her arms up and down) to 
make butter called ? I churned when I lived with my 
mother, and blistered my hands, and made them very 
hard. What is chalk? What is ink? What would it 
do if I drink it, and what would chalk do if I ate it?" 
Told her it was sometimes taken for medicine. She 
asked, " Why did not Catherine take chalk ? She was 
sick eight weeks, fifty-six days." She had been told it 
was New Year's Day yesterday, so to-day she asked, 
" Is it Happy New Year to-day? Who told all folks it 
was Happy New Year? " 
Jan. 5. Last evening when I returned from Boston 
I went to the parlor and found Miss J. alone; soon 
Laura came in and seated herself, without speaking to 
any one, at some little distance from either of us. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
133 
Aft r sitting quietly knitting for a quarter of an hour 
she said, " Who talks with you? I think it is Swift." 
She had been told that I was away, and had no possi- 
ble way of knowing any one was in the room, except 
by the motion of the air made in talking, for I had not 
moved from my chair since she came into the room. 
Miss J. asked her how she knew any one was in the 
room. She replied, " I felt them talk." 
Jan. 6. Laura had a nervous day, and lost part of 
her lesson. Talking about some things which she had 
done in the morning, she said, " What made me very 
rude ? I think I did not feel good in heart, because I 
broke knob this morning." Asked her if she felt good 
now. " I cannot feel good until I learn to be good." 
It is necessary to explain here our use of the 
word rude, which, perhaps, had acquired a mean- 
ing somewhat peculiar. As has been said, Laura 
has a highly nervous temperament, and while the 
ceaseless activity which results from it, giving 
her mind unusual power, is a very valuable assist- 
ance in her intellectual training, the effects of it 
in other directions are to be counteracted con- 
stantly. Some days she seems to be in a quiver 
of nervous excitement, and if we did not resort to 
systematic exercise and so work off the superfluous 
nervous fluid, she would have many more such 
times of trial as that alluded to above. We call 
all these developments rudeness, though, strictly 
speaking, many of them would not be so consid- 
ered in the ordinary acceptation of the word. 134 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
Laura sometimes showed a little of the coquette 
which was very amusing. Charles Sumner was, 
at this time, a frequent visitor, and she felt very 
well acquainted with him, and was fond of having 
a play with him occasionally. 
Jan. 9. She wished to talk of the gentlemen she 
had seen lately, and was disposed to criticise them 
quite severely. " Sumner is not gentle like Doctor. 
Why does Doctor want Sumner to come here if he is 
not gentle? " In reply I used the word ' like " instead 
of " love." She corrected me at once, and said, " Like 
is not love." " It is not different." Explained the use 
of "like" in this sense, and she said, " I do not like or 
love Sumner ; I do not care for him. I did not like Dr. 
Jarvis when he was here, because I did not know him." 
Jin. 10. In the midst of a conversation on bread- 
making, she suddenly changed the subject by asking, 
"Why does not God want you in heaven now? Does 
he know what you teach me ? Does he know what I 
think? Doyon? Try." And then she held her fore- 
head towards me, that I might read her thoughts. In 
speaking of her mother, she said, " She came to see me 
two times." I gave her the word " twice." She asked 
how many weeks I stayed in Castine, and when told 
three, said, " Why did you stay thrice?" 
Jan. 13. Commenced her conversation by asking, "Is 
salt made? " She was much interested in an account of 
it. Iler next query was, " How is gravy made? What 
is sauce made of? What is lead in my pencil? What 
is oil made of, and hair-oil, and rum, and camphor, and 
cologne ? What would I do if I drank them ? " When LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
135 
told that rum would make her sleepy, and she could 
not walk straight, she said, " I was very sick in head 
last summer, and very sleepy, and walked crooked." 
Jan 19. She had found something about Indians in 
her book, and asked, " Why do they not have houses 
like us, and why not clothes like us? I think Indians 
are very poor. Why did not God give poor Indians 
clothes like us?" Dr. Jarvis came into the room, and 
she wished me to ask him if he had ever seen Indians. 
He told her a story of one which pleased her tnuch. 
" Why were Indians not white like us? Why do they 
w'car blankets? Are they not sorry not to have 
clothes ? " etc., etc. 
Jan. 23. A conversation on " noises," made neces- 
sary by her making so many of late. She attempted to 
justify herself by saying, " Some of my noises are not 
bad, some are pretty noises. 1 must make noises to 
call some one." Then to divert attention as well as to 
get information, " Why does wolf make bad noises?" 
After half an hour's talk she promised to try to remem- 
ber to be quiet, and during the rest of the day she did 
remember very well. In the latter part of the day she 
made a noise in a whisper, and said, " That was with 
my tongue, I made your smooth noise." 
Jan. 27. After coming into the school-room she sat 
still a moment. Some one was playing very softly on 
the organ in the hall above. She asked, " Why does 
the house shake? What makes organ shake? Does it 
make a bad loud noise ? 
During the last year many persons of distinc- 
tion in the world of science and letters had visited 136 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
Laura, and among the number George Combe, 
Esq., of Scotland. Much had been said of the 
importance of carefully recording everything with 
regard to this peculiar child, as there might other- 
wise be many things lost, which would be of the 
greatest value to science. Dr. Howe had long 
wished that he could employ a teacher who should 
devote her whole attention to her, but there 
were no funds that could be so appropriated. 
Mr. Combe urged that this ought to be done 
at once, and a gentleman accompanying him of- 
fered to assist in defraying the expense. Others 
joined him, and the work was assigned to the 
writer. 
At once we arranged an order for study, exer- 
cise, and work, as follows: From 6.15 to 7 a. m., 
arithmetic ; breakfast, domestic duties, putting her 
room in order, etc., until 9, when we had an hour 
for conversation. At 10 geography; at 11 writ- 
ing; at 12 reading from books to her, with conver- 
sation on the subject. The last fifteen minutes of 
each hour was a recess. At 1 knitting or sewing ; 
at 2 she joined the blind girls in calisthenic exer- 
cises until her dinner. After dinner a long walk, 
and then knitting until 6. During her walks not 
a moment was wasted, as leaning on my right arm, 
giving herself no care of her footing, which sho 
trusted entirely to my guidance, she conversed 
steadily, unless the condition of the roads made it LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
137 
impossible for my eye to read her fingers and 
choose the way at the same time. A walk of five 
miles under such circumstances was no sinecure as 
may be readily perceived; indeed, it often proved 
the most difficult part of the day's work. 
Of her general knowledge of language at this 
time, and her ability to use it, the reader of the 
previous pages can form an idea. Iler lessons in 
arithmetic had been very irregular, and she had 
had time between them to forget what she had 
previously learned. Geography was a new study. 
We had hitherto read very little to her from 
books, because the time allowed us was so brief. 
She had reached a point now when the desul- 
tory manner of teaching, that we had of necessity 
adopted, ought to be exchanged for one of more 
system. The much-loved hour in which she had 
been allowed to bring her own subjects for con- 
versation was continued at nine, and she was 
pleased when told she was to be taught geogra- 
phy. Writing had always given her much trouble. 
She was very patient when first learning to form the 
letters, and wrote well, but soon became careless. 
Inlier present stage of advance, she is inclined to 
think all time spent in attention to the details is 
wasted, and therefore it becomes irksome to her. 
She is much more willing to give thought to 
the matter than to the manner of writing, and per- 
haps she will have the sympathy of many, who 138 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
quote the saying, " Bad chirography is evidence 
of a great mind." 
When the new arrangement was announced to 
her she was delighted, and entered upon it with 
enthusiasm, approving of it all, save that she 
would have preferred to spend the hour for her 
work in the afternoon in play or roaming about, 
and talking1 with the blind girls. 
Jan. 30. We commenced to-day working by the 
new schedule. Her first lesson in geography was upon 
the points of the compass. She had some idea of the 
four cardinal ones, and she learned in addition those 
between them. She practised writing some of the 
letters of the alphabet very slowly, for a quarter of an 
hour, and was allowed to spend the rest of the time in 
writing her journal. 
She has been in the habit of writing daily a 
short account of the lessons which have specially 
interested her, or of any particular incident. 
Jan. 31. Wishing to find just what she knew in 
arithmetic, I gave her an example in addition which 
she did very well, then in subtraction, when she failed 
in writing the numbers correctly and in performing the 
operation. In multiplication she did well. The rest of 
the lesson was devoted to numeration, writing numbers, 
and teaching her the hard words of the table. Finding 
she understood the points of the compass, and could 
point in any direction I required, after having been 
placed with her face to the north, I gave her an 
exercise in bounding the room we were in, and others LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
139 
round it. I asked her what I meant by " bound." She 
took up a piece of india-rubber and throwing it on the 
desk said, "It is little elastic and bounds." Had to 
explain to her the other signification of the word. 
Feb. 1. Found that she could not bound the rooms 
I gave her yesterday, unless she went into them. Exer- 
cised her in it for some time, and then she bounded the 
dining-room and kitchen without going to them ; the 
entries were more difficult, but she succeeded in bound- 
ing two of them. 
I read to her the following story yesterday : - 
"1. An old man had a plum-tree, and when the 
plums were ripe he said to his boy, John, 
"2. I want you to pick the plums off my tree, for I 
am an old man, and I cannot get up into my tree to 
pick them. 
"3. Then John said, ' Yes, sir, I will get up into 
the tree and pick them for you.' 
"4. So the boy got up, and the old man gave him a 
pail to put the plums in, and he hung it up in the tree 
near him. 
"5. And then he put the plums into the pail, one by 
one, till the pail was full. 
" 6. When the boy saw that the pail was full he said 
to the old man, ' Let me give you the pail, for it is full.' 
" 7. Then the man held up his hand and took the 
pail of plums and put them in his cart. 
'•8. ' For,' said he, ' I am to take them to town in 
my cart to sell them,' and he gave the boy back the 
pail to fill with more plums. 
"9. At last the boy said, ' I am tired and hot; will 
you give me a plum to eat ? ' 140 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
"10. ' Yes,' said the old man, ' for you are a good 
boy, and have worked well; so I will give you ten 
plums, for you have earned them.' 
"11. The boy was glad to hear him say so, and 
said, ' I do not want to eat them all now ; I will eat 
five, and take five home to my sister.' 
"12. 'You may get down now,' said the old man, 
' for it will soon be dark, and then you will lose your 
way home.' 
" 13. So the boy got down and ran home, and felt 
glad that he had been kind to the old man. 
"14. And when he got home he wras glad he had 
been kind to his sister, and kept half his plums for 
her." 
To-day she asked me if she might write this story 
in her journal. The following is a copy of what she 
wrote without assistance, the punctuation marks alone 
being added : - 
" An old man had a large plum-tree ; he had a little 
boy John; the man asked John to please to go up on 
the tree to pick many plums because he w as very old 
and lame. The man gave John a pail for plums. 
John put them in till it w as very full; he said to the 
man, it is very full of plums, lie took the pail up in 
his cart to sell them. John was tired & hot; he asked 
the man if he might take one plum. The man said he 
might take ten plums, because he was a very good boy 
to earn them hard. The man told him to hurry home. 
He ate five plums; he gave his sister five plums ; he 
felt very happy because he helped the old man much, 
and made his sister happy. John was kind to help the 
old man ; he was very generous to give his sister part LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
141 
of his plums. The old man loved John very much. 
If John did not hurry home he would have lost the 
way. John liked to help the old man well." 
The last two or three lines were her own reflections 
upon the story. 
Feb. 2. She asked me if she was good yesterday. 
Told her yes, she had been good all the week. She 
said, "Didi do any little thing wrong?" Continued 
the conversation on trades, and taught her the word 
" furniture " ; when I was telling her what work milli- 
ners did, she asked, "Do milliners make stockings? 
Milliners make stockings that have flowers on them." 
In the geography lesson she asked me to teach her 
" above," meaning the chambers. She bounded all 
the rooms on the second floor, and remembered all of 
yesterday's lessons without going to the rooms. In 
writing, gave her a lesson in using chalk on the black- 
board, but she does not succeed so well as Oliver. At 
twelve told her about seeds, and said I would tell her 
what her father did (he was a farmer). " IIow do you 
know what my father does ? Does your father do so ? " 
" No ; my father is a doctor." " Why is not my father 
a doctor? He gave me medicine once, was he a 
doctor ?" 
Feb. 3. Gave her examples in numeration, in hun- 
dreds and thousands, which she performed very well, 
numerating correctly until she had the number 8,500, 
which she wrote 8,050. She hesitated, and then said, 
" I think it is wrong" ; but it took her a long time to 
find how to alter it; when she at length succeeded, she 
said, " I was very sad not to know." She asked what 
cups and plates and saucers were, and learned the new 142 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
word " crockery." " What are rings and knives and 
forks?" " Jewelry" and " cutlery" were then learned, 
and she brought her work-box for me to tell her of what 
it was made. Told her about the pearl with which it is 
inlaid, and the rosew'ood. Then she asked of what 
wood the doors were made, and why pineapples were 
pine. " Who makes brass hinges for doors? " Talked 
about her locket, asked what color it was under the 
glass. Being told black, she asked, " How can folks 
see through black?" In geography, she bounds any of 
the rooms after a moment's thought, and seems to under- 
stand it perfectly. She bounded the house, with a little 
help. Talked with her about the Point, to try to give 
her an idea of it, but failed. 
While practising on her letters in writing she does 
very well, but as soon as she begins to write in her 
journal she is careless again. In the afternoon, she 
was asked to go to the school-room to sec a committee 
of gentlemen, and amused herself while there by asking 
the denominations after millions. Setting up a row 
of types the whole length of her board, on numerat- 
ing she found it was eighty quintillions. She asked, 
" What people lived eighty quintillions of miles off? I 
think it would take ladies a year to go so very far." 
Feb. 4. A crowded exhibition. Laura did well, 
though at times much excited. 
The first Saturday afternoon of each month was 
at this time devoted to a public exhibition. For 
the first hour Laura was expected to be in the 
school-room. As her fame was widespread, there 
were usually several hundreds of people present LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
143 
who wished to see her, and enjoy also the con- 
cert by the blind. This was a very trying ordeal, 
and she often became so much excited (probably 
in part sympathizing with her teacher) that it 
was necessary to take a longer walk than usual in 
preparation for it. 
Feb. 6. She writes numbers as high as millions cor- 
rectly. Took her to the piazza to see the ice and snow ; 
she felt the zinc plates in the lower panes of the windows, 
and this suggested a lesson on the metals. When talk- 
ing of iron, she said, " God made some nails, and men 
made some of iron." She talked about a point, and 
asked me if I had ever seen a pond. She gave me a 
description of one and of a river which she said " Tenny 
taught me about river before I came here, and 1 threw 
stones into it." Taught her what an ocean is. When 
talking of birds, I found she supposed they had four 
legs, and when I corrected her she asked, " Why did 
God not give them four?" 
Feb. 8. Continued the description of house building 
from yesterday. She had many questions to ask. 
" How can men reach to put up the very high posts? 
How can they fix beams? Where can men sleep when 
they are building the house ? How do carpenters and 
masons know when to come ? How did they learn to 
build houses? Why do they put fence round the piaz- 
zas, and why marble floors?" In geography, when 
explaining islands to her, she said laughing, " Eyes are 
very full of tears : are they islands? " 
Dr. Howe wished mo to try some experiments 
in teaching her to speak words with her mouth. 144 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
Some time ago she happened to make a noise that 
sounded like ship. I told her sho said "ship," and 
she remembered it always after, and liked to have 
me ask her to say it. At another time she said 
"pie," and at another still "doctor." These she 
constantly used, and has continued to do so all her 
life. After much labor she said " pa " and " ma " 
very well, and sometimes succeeded in saying 
"Abby" and "baby." After trying some time 
one day she said, " My mother was wrong to make 
me deaf." Told her sickness made her so, and 
she seemed satisfied, but some time after said, 
" I am very sad that I cannot hear and speak and 
see," though the next moment she was laughing 
7 o o o 
heartily. 
Feb. 9. When checked in making noises she replied, 
" I only made your noise with my lips, and I tried to 
talk with my mouth and say Swift, as you and many folks 
do." In geography she had hex- first lesson on one of 
the maps prepared in raised lines for the use of the 
blind, "Boston and Vicinity." She found South and 
East Boston and the bridges, and then studied the city 
itself. She had not known before that streets had 
names, and was much interested in tracing Washington 
Street, etc. Had a long talk on the subject of house- 
building, and how fires sometimes burned them ; what 
people ought to do to save their clothes, etc. She was 
much excited. 
Feb. 10. She told me that she had seen her father 
" burn short trees" in the ground, meaning stumps I LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
145 
presume, and asked why he wanted to do it. From time 
to time some conversation seems to suggest things 
which she knew about when living at home, and we 
see by her questions how much she observed and 
thought wonderingly about. She seems to have grasped 
numeration now, so advanced her to addition, which she 
does perfectly well, but I wished her to understand the 
reason of carrying to the next column. She learned it 
very readily. On her map to-day she found all the 
places she was told yesterday, and learned the names of 
some of the islands in the harbor, but preferred to move 
her fingers over the whole map rather than attend to 
one place. 
Feb. 13. Iler examples in arithmetic pleased her 
much, and she found how far from Portland, Me., to 
Savannah, Ga., by adding the distances between the 
cities on the route ; how many times the clock strikes in 
twenty-four hours, etc. In her journal she wrote the 
following account of a story I read to her yesterday: 
'' A poor little girl was sitting on the step. A man was 
passing in the cart and little girl did not know what was 
in the cart. A man stopped by her and took out a 
lamb that was almost dead ; he told her she might have 
it if she wanted it. She held it and kept it warm with 
her dress, and tried to have it drink some of her milk. 
It lay down stiff and could not move to drink some 
milk. It got well after a few days. In one day the 
little girl lost a lamb and she went to look for it in the 
barn, but it was not there ; then she went to look for it 
in the wood-yard. She called it to come to her, but it 
cried because it was very much hurt with a stick of 
wood. She took the stick from her poor leg. She took 146 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
it m her arms to get it well. She put it in some soft 
hay under the sun to go to sleep, and then it could play 
and frisk." 
It was my rule to read a story to ner only once, 
explaining any words that were new, and on the 
following day she wrote what she could remember 
in such words as she pleased, and often they were 
quite unlike the book. 
Feb. 14. Laura was left alone with the map, and 
when I returned said, " I have read all the names and 
studied Quincy Bay." With very little assistance she 
bounded Roxbury, Brookline, and Brighton. She 
now keeps the run of the day of the month, and writes 
it at the head of each journal entry. Read a story to 
her which was told as a dialogue ; her account of it was 
strangely mixed and without sense. 
Feb. 16. Gave Laura, among other examples, one 
requiring her to find the weight of a cow ; when I gave 
her the weight of the hide, I asked her if she knew what 
I meant. " Yes, to put away things." Taught her 
"dry measure." Took half a peck of beans and a 
half-pint measure, told her the number of gills in it, 
and then had her measure by the cupful, telling me each 
one how many gills and pints it made, and then at 
another time the quarts, pints, and gills, until she had 
measured the half-peck. Such lessons are her delight, 
and she was very soon entirely familiar with it, and 
could quickly answer questions on the number of gills or 
pints in a peck, bushel, etc. I copy the story alluded 
to above, as she wrote it after the second reading: 147 
LAVRA BRIDGMAN. 
"One day little Rollo was sitting by the fire on his 
green cricket; his mother was sitting at her work-table ; 
he asked her, 'When father would come home?' She 
said,'He will come pretty soon.' Rollo told her he 
thought he had better go and take hold of the great 
rocking-chair to pull it to the fire for father. So he 
began to cry because chair would not come to the fire 
to please him. Mother looked up, - 'Rollo, what is 
the matter?' and he said, 'The chair will not come.' 
Mother said, 'Why Rollo wanted it?' He said he 
' Wanted to save father the trouble.'" (This was a 
phrase she had lately learned, so she used it here, 
although not in the story.) "She told Rollo that he 
troubled her by crying ; then he stood by the chair and 
swang back and forth. By and by, he said he was 
going to get his father's slippers from the little closet by 
the side of the fire and put them in the corner by the 
fire. When his father came home, then Rollo ran to the 
door, and said to him he could not move the chair, but 
father's slippers are all ready for him." 
Feb. 17. One example in arithmetic this morn was, 
to find the age of a man, having the time he had lived 
in several places given. She said, " He lived in many 
places, I am not sure why, - why? " She asked many 
questions about a party I attended last evening, " How 
the ladies knew when to come?" Taught her "invi- 
tation." "Why was not I invited?" Told her she 
was a little girl. " Doctor says I am tall." But she was 
satisfied when told that the blind girls did not go. 
She was much amused in her walk yesterday over snow 
that was incrusted, but not sufficiently to bear her 
weight. When she broke through, she would scream 148 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
with delight, and pull me after her. Promised to 
explain the reason in the lesson this morning, so we 
talked on ice, etc. 
Found to my surprise that she could bound all the 
towns I had taught her without the aid of the map, and 
to-day she completed the circuit of Boston from Rox- 
bury round to Malden. She takes much pleasure in 
this study. 
At noon took her to the stable to let her measure 
oats with the half-peck measure, and then to the store- 
room to teach her wine measure. Found a gallon, and 
also hogshead, tierce, and barrel. She readily learned 
their names and number of gallons they would hold, and 
then wanted to examine other things, -coffee in a bag, 
sugar and salt in barrels, ginger, pepper, etc., in boxes 
of twenty-five pounds, starch in papers, tea-chest box 
and lead within. It was my intention to make two les- 
sons of this, but there was no place to stop answering 
her questions. 
Feb. 18. When she bounded Chelsea, and found it 
was north by Reading, she said, "Who lives in Read- 
ing?" making the sign of reading in a book, and laugh- 
ing heartily. 
The following is a copy of a letter written in place of 
her journal exercise : - 
Twentyth Day of February. 
My dear Miss Susan : 
Miss Swift sends much love to you, & she wants 
to see you. Miss Swift teaches me five hours, - to 
cypher, & to talk about many things, and to study 
geography, & to write & to read about stories in the 
books to me. She teaches me calisthenics every day in LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
149 
the afternoon. Will you please to write a letter to me 
some time ? I was very sore from exercising ; I am well 
now. I send my love to Mrs. Swift; I want to see her 
very much. I like calisthenics much; it makes me 
strong and well, like the walking. I go to meeting 
with Miss Rogers every Sunday. I like to go to meet- 
ing very much. Good by, my friend. 
Feb. 22. Found that she was studying her geography 
with a thorough understanding of it. Some days since 
she had learned to bound West Cambridge ; and to-day, 
when asked to bound Lexington, she traced it on the 
map until she got to the south, and then took off her 
hands and said, "I must think the south," and in an 
instant told me, " By West Cambridge." 
Dr. Howe thus relates the story of deception 
which occurred this day, prefacing it with the 
remark that it was perhaps attributable to indis- 
cretion on his part: - 
" She came to me one day dressed for a walk, and had 
on a new pair of gloves which were stout and rather 
coarse. I began to banter and tease her (in that spirit 
of fun of which she is very fond, and which she usually 
returns with interest) upon the clumsy appearance of 
the hands, at which she first laughed, but soon began 
to look so serious and even grieved that I tried to direct 
her attention to something else, and soon forgot the 
subject. But not so poor Laura; here her personal 
vanity or her love of approbation had been wounded; 
she thought the gloves were the cause of it, and she 
resolved to be rid of them. Accordingly, they disap- 150 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
peared and were supposed to be lost; but her guileless 
nature betrayed itself, for without being questioned she 
frequently talked about the gloves, not saying directly 
that they were lost, but asking if they might not be in 
such or such a place. She was uneasy under the new 
garb of deceit, and soon excited suspicion. When it 
reached my ears, I was exceedingly pained, and, more- 
over, doubtful what course to pursue. At last, taking 
her in the most affectionate way, I began to tell her a story 
of a little girl who was much beloved by her parents 
and brothers and sisters, and for whose happiness every- 
thing was done ; and asked her whether the little girl 
should not love them in return and try to make them 
happy, to which she eagerly assented. But, said I, 
she did not; she was careless and caused them much 
pain. At this, Laura was excited, and said the girl 
was in the wrong, and asked what she did to displease 
her relations. I replied, she deceived them. They 
never told her anything but truth ; but she, one day, 
acted so as to make them think she had not done a 
thing, when she had done it. Laura then eagerly asked 
if the girl told a fib, and I explained to her how one 
might tell a falsehood without saying a word, which she 
readily understood, becoming all the time more inter- 
ested and evidently touched. I then tried to explain 
to her the different degrees of culpability, resulting 
from carelessness, from disobedience, and from inten- 
tional deceit. She soon grew pale, and evidently 
began to apply the remarks to her own case, but still 
was very eager to know about " the wrong little girl" 
and how her parents treated her. I told her her parents 
were grieved and cried, at which she could hardly LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
151 
restrain her own tears. After a while, she confessed 
to me that she had deceived about the gloves, that they 
were not lost, but hidden away. I then tried to show 
her that I cared nothing about the gloves, that the loss 
of a hundred pairs would be nothing if unaccompanied 
by any deceit. She perceived that I was grieved, and 
going to leave her to her own thoughts, clung to me as 
if in terror of being alone. I was forced, however, to 
inflict the pain upon her. 
" Her teachers and the persons most immediately 
about her were requested to manifest no other feeling 
than that of sorrow on her account; and the poor crea- 
ture, going about from one to another for comfort and 
for joy, but finding only sadness, soon became agonized 
with grief. When left alone, she sat pale and motion- 
less, with a countenance the very image of sorrow ; and 
so severe seemed the discipline that I feared lest the 
memory of it should be terrible enough to tempt her to 
have recourse to the common artifice of concealing one 
prevarication by another, and thus insensibly get her 
into the habit of falsehood. I therefore comforted her 
by assurances of the continued affection of her friends, 
tried to make her understand that their grief and her 
suffering were the simple and necessary consequences 
of her careless or wilful misstatement, and made her 
reflect upon the nature of the emotion she experienced 
after having uttered the untruth; how unpleasant it 
was, how it made her feel afraid, and how widely dif- 
ferent it was from the fearless and placid emotion which 
followed truth." 
Feb. 23. The morning lesson was very good, but at 
the hour for conversation she could only talk about the 152 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
gloves, and at request of Dr. H. I left her to sit by 
herself. 
Feb. 24. She finished the map of Boston and vicin- 
ity. When asked to name the towns north, west, and 
south of Boston, she did it correctly at once, without 
reference to the map. She has taken less time on this 
map than any of the blind children. 
Later in the day she asked, " Are you tired to live ? " 
Corrected the form of question, and answered, " No." 
" Are you tired of moving?" Asked her if she was 
tired of living. " No, but you have lived many years." 
u Do you think you would be tired if you had lived 
twenty years? " She hesitated, and thought some time 
about it, but decided she should not. 
Feb. 25. " When I am a lady I shall go and never 
come ; Doctor says ladies do not go to school." Asked 
where she should go. " To Hanover, but I want you 
to come and live with me to take care of baby sister, 
because my mother and the girl are very busy, and 
cannot take care of her and me." " When you are a 
lady, you ought to take care of yourself." She said, 
" Can I tell myself when to put on other dress? " She 
talked a long time about what things she could do to 
help her mother, and then changed the subject to talk 
about " giving away things." She said, " Doctor says 
I must not give things away that ladies give me." 
Fearing that she had not quite understood his meaning, 
and that she might think this would be an excuse for 
selfishness, I proposed that she should give to her little 
sister the playthings which she did not use now; she 
made several excuses for not doing so, but at last con- 
cluded she would like to. She said, " Pigs are very LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
153 
stingy, they eat all the food, and do not give baby pigs 
any." Told her the birds gave each other food. This 
was a puzzle to her, and she talked long, trying to settle 
the question if the pigs were wrong. Children usually 
prefer to skip the moral of a story, but Laura always 
wishes to discuss it; she never seems quite satisfied 
with the results of her own reasoning, or with my ver- 
dicts on such questions. 
Feb. 27. Laura told me a story of her early child- 
hood to-day: " When I was a little girl in Hanover I 
threw the cat into the fire, and she ran fast, and my 
mother ran fast to take her out, and she burned her 
foot very much. She went away into the wroods, and 
never came out." It is singular that, after being with 
us and able to talk for so many years, she should just 
now remember an incident of this kind and relate it. 
After recess she said, " I was very much frightened. 
I thought I felt some one make a great noise, and I 
trembled, and my heart ached very quick." Probably 
the children had made some unusual sound in romping, 
but I had not perceived it. She asked, " Do you 
know any crazzy persons ? " Then altered the word to 
" craxy," and finally " crazy." Asked who told her 
that word. She said, " Lurena told about crazy per- 
sons, and said she was once crazy herself. What is 
crazy ? " Told her crazy persons could not think what 
they were doing, and attempted to change the subject, 
but she immediately returned to it, and repeated the 
question, " Have you seen crazy people? " And would 
not be satisfied without an answer. I replied, "I saw a 
woman once who walked about." " Why did she walk? 
How could she think to walk? " Here she showed the 154 
BRIDGMAN. 
error of my definition. Explained to her that some- 
times people were sick, and that made them crazy. 
" Who will take care of me if I am crazy? " Laughed 
at her, and told her she would not be. "I said if" 
I promised to take care of her if she would be gentle 
and kind tome. "Can I talk with my fingers? Did 
you ever see a dizzy lady? How do you dizzy? " She 
said she dreamed last night about her mother and the 
baby, and talked with her fingers as in the daytime. 
I questioned her particularly as to what she dreamed, 
but got no satisfactory answer. 
Laura writes a great many letters to her friends now. 
The following is a copy of one just written to her 
mother. She has in this for the first time asked ques- 
tions about family affairs. I asked why she said, " My 
dear my mother." " She is my mother, and she would 
not know if I did not write it go?' 
My Dear my Mother . 
I want to see you very much. I send very much 
love to you. I send ten kisses to sister Mary. My one 
pair of stockings are done.* Can Mary walk with her 
feet? Do stockings fit her? I want you to write a 
letter to me some time. Miss Swift teaches me to say 
father, & mother, & baby. I want you to come to 
South Boston with my sister, to stay few days and to 
see me exercising the calisthenics. Oliver can talk 
with his fingers very faster about words. I will write a 
letter to you again. Miss J. & Doctor send love to 
you. Miss Davis is married, - Mrs. Davis; she has 
gone to live with her husband in Dudley. Is Mary well ? 
* She had knit a pair to send with the letter. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
155 
Is my aunt well? I send love to her. I will write a 
letter to you soon some time. Why did you not write a 
letter to me ? I go to meeting every Sunday. I am 
gentle in church with Miss Rogers. I am happy 
there. Good-bye. 
Feb. 28. Laura was quite forgetful in her lesson, 
and said as an excuse, " I was thinking about wife and 
Doctor." She had just been told of Doctor's intended 
marriage, and evidently did not know whether to be 
glad or sorry about it. She said, " To-morrow will be 
March ; will it be the once day of March? " 
March 1. Taught her cloth measure, and let her 
measure everything about her. She was quite dis- 
turbed to find her fingers were all of different length, 
and said, " Why did not God make them all alike?" 
In geography found she had forgotten some of her defi- 
nitions, so gave her a review, and at its close she 
answered in her own words all such questions as, 
What is an island? Cape? Bay? etc. She asked if 
I would give her the map to-morrow, where the birds 
canary live. Told her that was very far off, that other 
little girls did not know that map, but that if she 
remembered well what I taught her, she would learn it 
soon. 
March 3. She explains the process of multiplication 
by one figure very well, and seems to understand it 
perfectly. Found difficulty in deciding on the best map 
for her to study, as there is none of the State of Massa- 
chusetts prepared for the blind, on a sufficiently large 
scale, and the step from that she has been studying to 
one on which a pin-head denotes a town, and but few 156 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
towns even marked in this way, is a very long one. 
Decided upon an outline map. Commenced by telling 
her where Boston and Charles River were, and then 
attempted to give her the idea that the map was so 
small and it had so many miles on it, we could not have 
room to put down all that was on the other map. Told 
her the number of miles from Boston to the mouth of 
the Hudson River. She said, "I think Miss W lives 
there," and was much pleased that she should have 
learned anything so far from home. 
March 4. The monthly exhibition day. Laura was 
puzzled to know why there are sometimes three Satur- 
days, and sometimes four between them. It took some 
time to explain this. 
March 6. Gave her for a writing lesson the story I 
had read to her three days before She thought she 
should not be able to remember it, but she did well. 
After writing she said, " Is this truth? I think not. 
Is it lie ? " Tried to make her understand it was not 
wrong to write it, but doubt if I succeeded entirely. 
In writing she spelled the word " bureau " incorrectly, 
and when told of it, said, " I was very unremembered." 
She uses " forgetful" often, but this was an effort to 
coin a word, and she turned to me for approbation of it. 
March 8. The geography lesson was the towns on 
the Eastern Railroad, and also on the Lowell and 
Providence roads. She enjoyed tracing the routes 
which the blind scholars take to go to their homes. 
The next lesson was the towns on the coast in Plym- 
outh and Barnstable Counties to the extremity of Cape 
Cod. When told this name she asked, "To eat?" 
The bays and islands, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
157 
interested her, and she was much amused at such names 
as " Ply-mouth, Barn-stable," etc. She always seems 
to think of words in their component parts. 
March 10. Not quite as good a lesson as usual in 
arithmetic. She found an algebra type, and was anx- 
ious to be able to use it. Told her I would teach her 
all about it when she was sixteen. " And can you 
kiss me then? Can you kiss sixteen young ladies?" 
She expressed much fear that she should have to give 
up kissing and being kissed when she was so old. 
When Laura was having a lesson on a subject 
in which she was specially interested, she appeared 
to be in a state of great excitement; each new 
thought was received with a hearty laugh, or a 
kiss or a hug for her teacher. The desire to 
express her delight was irresistible. The question 
was often asked by visitors, " What is it pleases 
her so much ? " when perhaps it was only a new 
word which she had learned from a sentence 
dictated by a stranger, which I had interpreted to 
her and afterwards explained. 
March 11. On some points of etiquette she needs 
special instruction, and to day the subject of visiting 
came up. Sometimes, of late, when asked to call on a 
person, she has added, "And to take tea?" When 
told of the impropriety of this, she carried it to the 
opposite extreme, and thought Miss J. must be to 
blame when she went to her sister's without an invita- 
tion, and questioned whether it was proper for me to 
pay any calls unless a special invitation to do so was 158 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
extended; but she at last understood the propriety of 
thanking people for the invitation, and that she was not 
to ask for anything more. 
She had a story read to her to-day in which was the 
sentence, " One day John was a little cross." As a 
comment she said, " I think the man" (who wrote the 
story) "guessed that." One of the questions in arith- 
metic was, " If a man travel seven miles an hour, how 
far will he travel in eight days, when the days are nine 
hours long? " She did not know the word " travel," so 
an explanation of that and the word "journey" occu- 
pied some time. She performed it correctly, but when 
asked to explain it, did not succeed. Thought she 
might do better if I put myself in the place of the man. 
After thinking a moment she said, " You will have to 
go more ; you will have to go over the bridges." When 
she found the answer was several hundred miles, she 
said, " When will you come back? " 
Her imagination seemed to develop more slowly 
than any other power of her mind, and this caused 
her to meet with difficulties where I have never 
known any child who could hear to encounter 
them. 
March 13. Laura said on coming down early this 
morning, " I hope I shall not be cross, or make noises, 
or fret, or deceive, or tell any wrrong stories this week." 
Taught her the words "resolution" and "resolved," 
and she understood them both very quickly. She asked 
a question, which I answered playfully, "Yes, ma'am." 
Explained the use of " ma'am," and also of " sir." She LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
159 
asked what the punctuation marks meant in her Child's 
Book. Gave her the names, and attempted to explain 
them, but it will take much practice before she succeeds 
in using them correctly. She learned the words " sur- 
prise " and "strange." Asked her for illustrations, 
and she gave the sentence, " I am surprised to know I 
shall go to the State House." 
The exhibition of the pupils of the Institution 
before the Legislature was always an exciting 
episode, and although we used the greatest care 
to keep Laura calm, she sympathized with the 
family. 
March 15. Her mind being entirely occupied with 
the experience of yesterday, I took the State House and 
its uses as a subject of conversation. She learned the 
word " representative" with much difficulty. 
March 16. The requests for Laura's autograph were 
always numerous, and it was often very irksome to her 
to write. When I asked her to prepare some this morn- 
ing which Doctor H. wished to use, she objected, and at 
last with reluctance took her pencil and wrote hurriedly 
with one hand. I took her hand in mine and told her it 
made me feel sad to have her do so, and she soon said, 
" I feel bad in my heart, and that makes me wrong." 
After a moment's thought she wrote very well. 160 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER IX. 
March 17, Having devoted six weeks to lessons on 
written arithmetic, and taught her all the tables of 
weights and measures which would be of use to her, I 
decided that she would be better prepared to advance 
further by studying Colburn's Mental Arithmetic first. 
I supposed she would be much amused at the simple 
questions in the first section ; when asked how many 
hands she had, she said, " Two, but I saw Mr. Rogers, 
who has only one " Her comments on nearly every ques- 
tion were such as, "That boy was very kind and gener- 
ous. Why did this boy buy much cake?" etc., etc. She, 
as usual, took every statement as a fact, and the amuse- 
ment was all on my side. She was much pleased at her 
success in the gymnasium yesterday, when she swung 
herself up seven rounds of the ladder. Here she 
stopped, and I lifted her down. She thought she 
might go to the top to-day, and wanted to know if she 
could jump to the floor. Showed her the pole near by 
for her to cling to and slide down, but she was afraid 
to attempt it I can talk to the blind girls and encour- 
age them while they are attempting new feats, but poor 
Laura has both hands in use, and it is not a cause of 
wonder that she is timid, but rather that she accom- 
plishes so much. 
March 18. She enjoys her mental arithmetic, as she LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
161 
can answer the questions so easily. She said, "Ithink 
I am very bright this morning, I have done many 
sums." On the map she has learned all the principal 
towns in the east of New .England, and to-day learned 
those between Worcester and the Connecticut River. Iler 
memory is wonderful, as she rarely forgets one of the 
names given her. 
March 20. She performed thirty examples, and gave 
the reasons for her work. This she dislikes, and. says, 
" I never did tell why before, and why do you have me 
now?"^At nine she brought " The Child's Second Book" 
and asked that she might read to me. I found her yes- 
terday puzzling over it, and when I spoke to her, she 
said, " I cannot read books and know them as you do." 
Again she had found that unfortunate sentence which 
had so grieved her a year ago, and to-day it is a dis- 
couragement to me, for I supposed she would now read 
it, as she should, connectedly, but find I am mistaken,. 
"You must not think because you are blind, you cannot 
learn as much as other children " Again she stops at 
the comma and says, " Cannot I think? Why did Dr. 
Howe say I could not ? " 
March 22. She was puzzled by a question in arithme- 
tic this morning, " What will a gallon of molasses cost 
at two cents a gill?" but succeeded at last in doingdt 
without assistance. She enjoyed a review in geography, 
as I made a play of going from town to town in Massa- 
chusetts, and having her tell what places we would pass 
through, having her tell me also the direction in which 
she was travelling. It seems to me that few children 
make a geography lesson so completely their own as she 
does. She did not appear well after her walk, and 162 
L A UR A BRID GM AN. 
said, " I must ask doctor why my blood is cold, and 
does not run about and be warm as J.'s." She found in 
her book the word " syllable." I do not like to tell her 
she cannot understand a word, it makes her so sad, so 
told her what I could of this way of dividing words, but 
it is so dependent upon the ear that I do not think she 
can ever be taught it, so she can use it. 
March 27. A lesson on halves which took an hour ; 
but I hope the way is prepared for thirds, etc. When I 
called her to come for a lesson, she said, " I have been 
reading about God." Asked if she understood all the 
words ; she said, " No, I thought I would wait patient 
until you were not busy." 
March 30. Read the following to her, " If you 
can buy a barrel of cider for four dollars, how much 
can you buy for one dollar?" Iler comments were, 
" How did the man who wrote the book know I 
was here? " and " I cannot give much for cider, because 
it is very sour." Fractions prove very puzzlipg to her. 
Our walk to-day was from the Institution to the lower 
part of Mt. Vernon Street, round the Common and 
home, which took nearly three hours, but she did not 
seem tired. She asked how candy was made. Found 
she did not know what raisins are made from, so we 
had a lesson on vineyards, etc., and she learned the new 
word " shrivelled." 
March 31. When in a shop in Boston she showed 
some impatience on being checked in making a noise, 
and perceiving that I had in my hand a bundle of mus- 
lin which I wished to keep smooth, she pinched it very 
hard. On leaving the shop I told her I could not talk 
with her because she had done wrong, and asked if she LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
163 
knew in what. " Yes, I pinched your cloth." And we 
walked on silently. As we were crossing the bridge, 
there was a sail-boat so near, that by extending her 
arm I could put her hand upon the sail. 1 stopped to 
let her examine it, but she did not talk about it. When 
we got home, she said, -'Do you feel sad? Why did 
you let naughty girl feel of the boat ? " Told her I did 
not like to punish her, and I thought she would want to 
feel it very much. This touched her feelings, and she 
was very sad and thoughtful all the forenoon. 
These little bursts of anger were very slight, 
and perhaps many would say it is not just to men- 
tion them at all. Were I writing of any ordinary 
child, I should not do so, but in giving these notes 
to the world, it seems to be my duty to tell of 
things just as they happened whether they were 
large or small. 
April 3. Last evening when walking with Laura, 
we met Oliver. She said to him, " Laura is sick." I 
asked where, as I had not noticed it. " In my head, I 
studied much in books, and thought very hard." (Sun- 
day afternoon when she was left alone.) Found she 
had been studying in "Viri Romae," and she remem- 
bered several words, " non, sed, est," etc., and was anx- 
ious to know what they meant. When told, she asked, 
" Does Doctor know Latin, and Jeannette and Rogers 
and Sophia ? " And when she found some did not, she 
was very happy. "Does God know Latin? Do you 
know all things like God?" The occasional glimpses 
which she gets of the world of letters beyond discour- 164 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
age her at first, and she seeks companions in her igno- 
rance, bnt they Serve in the end only to whet her curi- 
osity. She had also found many other new English 
words to ask about "What is England? Is Doctor 
going there? What does 'altered her mind' mean? 
Are snatch and scratch the same ? What is education? " 
She had an idea, from some reason unknown to me, 
that this was a French word. " Do French people say 
they will education children?" Taught her the verb 
" educate." 
April 10. Gave her a lesson on a large map of the 
New England States, and she found the towns upon it 
with ease. At noon told her she might think of a sub- 
ject for our lesson, and when I returned she said, "Talk 
about Jupiter." She was satisfied when told it wras the 
name of a star, and asked, " What does orbit mean? " 
Then she talked of the wind; when told that it blew 
northeast and was very cold, and yesterday it was south 
and very warm, she asked, " Is the wind always south 
in summer? Will you teach me next summer and win- 
ter, and after two summers?" "Perhaps the Doctor 
will think you had better go home, and help your mother 
make cheese and butter." She showed much adroitness 
in settling the moral questions which I knew would be 
raised at once by the suggestion, and answered, " Doc- 
tor says he wants me to live with him, and I think my 
sister will help my mother." 
April 12. She wished to write a note of thanks to a 
gentleman who had sent her some candy, and came to 
me in trouble because she did not know how to address 
it. " I cannot say Aly dear Air. Howard." When 
told she could say simply, " Air. Howard," she was LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
165 
much relieved. No one had ever made a suggestion of 
this kind to her, but her delicate sense of propriety 
never fails her. She had tried to speak my name 
with her mouth. I found the combination of conso- 
nants too difficult, and suggested that she try to speak 
" Mary." She succeeded very well, but to-day said, " I 
am little afraid to say ' Mary.' I think other folks would 
think it was their name." She asked if she had been 
very gentle this week. " Yes, I think so." But she was 
not satisfied. " I think I was a little cross yesterday 
in arithmetic: my forehead was wrinkled." She went 
with me to a shop to select a collar. Before going in I 
told her they did not like to have them touched much, 
but that she could feel of the one I bought. She kept 
her hands very still for some time, and then I showed 
her one I liked. She said, " I think I could find you a 
very pretty one," and in a moment selected a very fine 
one. The salesman, wishing to know if she would man- 
ifest any more pleasure at the finest work, showed her 
one of the most costly he had. She felt of it carefully, 
and said, " That is very, very beautiful, and I think it is 
velvet." She had many questions to ask about embroi- 
dery of all kinds to-day. 
April 17. A question in her arithmetic lesson to-day 
was, " There is a vessel containing eighty-seven gal- 
lons, and by a cock, ten gallons run into it in an hour, 
in how many hours will it be filled?" She said, " How 
can gallons run?" She associated the word "run" 
with the measure I had shown her when she first 
learned it, but when I added, " of wine or water," she 
understood it At noon, I told her she might sweep 
ie stairs to help Ellen. This was quite a trial for her, 166 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
as she is not very fond of domestic work, and she 
wanted a story read to her at this hour, but she came 
out of it nobly. At first she looked displeased, then 
her countenance brightened, and she said, " Yes, I can 
sweep for money, because I am very poor without 
money." Told her she must sweep them to try to pay 
Ellen and J. for doing work for her, and that she did 
not do anything for them, but they worked much for 
her. After a moment's thought, she kissed me, and 
said, " Yes, I will go and try to do them well, that I 
may pay J. and Ellen for many nice things." And she 
did them faithfully, though it occupied her two hours. 
April 18. Completed the third section of Colburn's 
Mental Arithmetic. Iler lesson in geography was on 
New Hampshire. She is familiar with its large towns, 
rivers, lakes, and mountains. Showed her where her 
mother lived, and talked about the college, why called 
Dartmouth, etc. Continued reading a story which was 
commenced a fortnight since, but she could tell me 
just where we left it. 
April 20. Laura said to me last eve, "I do not 
think now, I dream." I supposed she was joking, and 
took little notice of it, but this morning she asked, 
" Why could I not think last night? " "I think you 
did." " No, I oulj' dreamed, I did not know anything 
well." She expressed much sorrow about Doctor's 
going away, and perhaps this was the cause of her 
peculiar state. 
April 21. A beautiful spring day, so took Laura 
out to the play-ground for a lesson on trees ; taught 
her about the evergreens, and showed her the buds just 
swelling on the other trees. Then she visited the pig- L AU It A BRIDGMAN. 
167 
pen, tried to get the cat to come to her, and when she 
succeeded, I held her so she could feel her head, ears, 
nose, and mouth. She has always before shrunk from 
touching her, but she has known of Julia Brace's* affec- 
tion for cats, and I think this made her less timid. She 
felt of its whiskers, and at once said that was what Julia 
meant by her sign for a cat. When told its eyes were 
green, she said, " I think they are very beautiful." 
She was so happy that she laid her plans for taking all 
her lessons next summer in the arbor. In geography 
she surprised me more than ever, by learning the names 
and situation of Lake Champlain and four rivers run- 
ning into it, and of about ten towns in Vermont, after 
I had spelled them only once to her. 
April 24. She asked for a lesson in the china closet, 
that she might learn the names of different pieces of 
china and glass. In the fourth section of the arithmetic 
she has done, in two mornings, over fifty such sums as, 
" Three times seven are how many times four? " 
April 25. Found her too much engaged with her cares 
as housekeeper, which she has assumed in Miss J.'s 
absence, to attend to a lesson. She had cleared two 
closets of their contents and wished to be allowed to 
complete her cleaning. She could tell me in her geog- 
raphy lesson the names of the cities through which 
Miss J. passed in going to New York. 
April26. Laura said this morning, " My heart ached, 
I was very much frightened last night. I do not know 
what made my blood make a noise." Told her I 
* This deaf, dumb, and blind woman, whose home was in Hart- 
ford Ayslum for Deaf-Mutes, had been at South Boston for some 
weeks. 168 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
thought she dreamed. " I did not know that dream 
could make my heart afraid. I put sheet over my head 
very quick ; I trembled very much." " I dream some- 
times and am frightened." " When your dream fright- 
ens you, do you think you feel some one walking? " At 
breakfast she asked each person she met, if her dreams 
ever frightened her. " What shall I do if I am fright- 
ened?" "Laugh, to think that you dreamed." At 
nine she could think of nothing else. " When I was 
at Halifax with you and Miss J., I came from my bed 
because I was frightened." Told her 1 sometimes 
dreamed of falling. "I do sometimes, and then I make 
a noise and jump. I think dream was very hard and 
heavy and thick ; it made me grow quick, my blood ran 
very hard." " I think you dreamed that some one was 
walking and that frightened you." " Did some one 
walk?" " No." " Did you think you heard some one" 
(here she corrected me and said felt) " walk after you 
woke, or did you remember feeling them before you 
woke?" "I felt them and woke very quick, my eyes 
opened very quickly. What made my blood run very 
noise?" (Here she made a low noise.) "I thought 
something had four legs, and it ran almost over me." 
She was so much excited about it that I tried to laugh it 
off, but she seemed to think it was nothing to joke 
about. " I can come to you when I am frightened?" 
"Yes, and I can wake you and tell you it is all a 
dream, and you can laugh and go to sleep again." Then it 
seemed as if she had just remembered what her dream 
was, for I had asked her several times before, and 
said, "1 dreamed last night that Wight came to my 
room with a pig, and that the pig ran down hill on a LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
169 
board to my bed." " Was this what frightened you? " 
" Yes." 
April 28. She performed thirty examples in an 
hour, such as the following: " Eight times seven and 
two sevenths of seven are how many times nine ? " She 
had her first lesson on Maine ; when told the name of 
the capital, she said, laughing, " Is it a little girl?" 
She talked much of Doctor's wedding, and said, "I 
wanted to go to see Doctor wedding. Do ladies wear 
very nice dresses ? Did Doctor wear very nice ? When 
you are married I shall come to your wedding, and 
wear very nice silk," then changed her sentence, say- 
ing, " I meant if." She sat still an unusually long 
time, and 1 asked what she was thinking about. " I 
love Doctor, like Mrs. Howe. I love him very, very 
much ; is he my daughter? He said he was." " I think 
he said you were his daughter, did he not? " " Is Mrs. 
Howe my sister? " "If Doctor is your father, then she 
will be your mother." " No ; J. is mother. I cannot 
love Mrs. Howe as I do J., because I do not see her 
often ; she is a stranger." 
April 29. She wrent yesterday to visit the steamship 
in which the Doctor was to sail for Europe. She exam- 
ined the saloon, the tables, felt of the glasses in the 
racks, and then visited the state-rooms and cabins. 
After seeing the crockery she said, " I have seen cups 
and saucers and plates ; where are spoons and knives 
and forks? Will you show me where men keep the 
flour and molasses ? " Bread and molasses is her favor- 
ite dish. Next she asked to see where they cooked, 
and wanted to know if men could make things good. 
The coak happened to be near, and, to prove his abil- 170 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
ity, gave her a cake ; and then she asked where cakes 
stay (were kept). " Where do men get milk to make 
cakes ? " She was taken to see the cow. Lastly she 
walked the whole length of the ship, to get an idea of 
its size. 
May 9. She was very much excited, so tried to 
interest her in a talk about the weather, and why she 
could feel the storm from some of the windows, and 
not from the others, but she was unable to fix her atten- 
tion. She was inclined to conceal her own sadness at 
parting with Dr. Howe, who sailed to-day, and said to 
me when she had been to say good by, " Do not be 
very sad, 1 will make you happy." I brought Oliver 
into our rooms, thinking that talking with him might 
amuse her, and make him feel more happy. She said, 
" I will try very hard to make him happy. He must 
not be sad." She led him to Doctor's chamber to show 
him that all the things were taken away, and talked 
with him till dinner. After this she became more quiet. 
May 2. She completed an unusually long letter to 
her friend, Miss Everett. She said, " I must write a 
very long letter to her, because she has not been here 
for very long time, and she will want to know about all 
things, and it will make her happy." It is much the 
most gossiping letter she ever wrote, so I copy it 
entire: - 
First of May. 
My Dear Elizabeth Everett : 
I want to sec you very much. I have not seen you 
for very many months. You did not write a letter to 
me for very long time. Why did you not write to me? 
I send very much love to you. I am sad that you did 171 
LAURA B RID U MAN 
never come to see us last summer, to stay a few days. 
Are you very well? I am well. Were you sad not to 
come to S. Boston? Mrs. Morton has got baby named 
Lucy. I & Miss J are going to see Mrs. M. & little 
baby next summer & to pick berries. Dr. went to 
New York to see Miss Ward many times because he 
loved her very much. Last Saturday morning he went 
to New York to be married Wednesday evening. Miss 
Ward is married, - Mrs. Howe. Miss J. went to see 
Dr. married Wednesday evening. Mrs. IL came with 
her husband to stay till Monday. Before dinner they 
are going in ship to stay two weeks. I went to see 
ship Friday, where (in which) Dr. is going away. I 
went with Miss S & Miss R. & Miss W. & Oliver & 
Mr. II. & Mrs. S. to sec ship, & cups, and saucers, and 
plates, & many glass tumblers, & berths, & other- 
things. I am very sad to have Dr. & Mrs. Howe go & 
stay many months, one year. They will go three thou- 
sand miles, far off. My very dear lame friend sends 
much love to you. Mrs. Howe can talk with her fin- 
gers, she goes away in May. Will you please to -write 
a letter to me some time? Miss S. sends her love to 
you. Dr. & Mrs. Howe went away in the ship Monday. 
They will come next spring, very long. I went to 
(visit) Mrs. B. before dinner till night. I had a very 
pleasant time. I was happy there last Thursday. Miss 
S. teaches me live hours,-to cypher, & to talk, & 
to study geography well, & to write, & to read to me 
in books about very pretty stories. It is vacation now. 
I want to come to see you. Miss Davis is married, 
Mrs. Davis has gone to live with her husband. All 
the girls are very well & good. Goodbye. 172 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
It is quite touching to see how the thought of 
Dr. Howe as just going, and then as gone, and 
then not to return for so long a time, runs like a 
sad refrain all through the letter. Few children 
would have borne such trials as bravely as she 
did. 
May 4. She asked why I hurried in sewing, and 
when told because I had much to do and very little 
time to do it in, said, " I can hem handkerchiefs for 
you," and this afternoon has worked very diligently all 
the time, though she had work of her own which she 
wished to do. 
May 5. She completed the fourth section in arith- 
metic, and after that could talk of nothing but the 
vacation. As I was to be absent three weeks from her, 
she wished to be told what she could do every day, and 
almost every hour. She seems to prefer to lean on me, 
rather than to be independent as so many girls of her 
age wish to be. 
May 81. Laura was very happy to welcome the 
blind girls on their return. She busied herself in assist- 
ing nie in arranging my room, and as she knows the 
place for everything in my bureau drawers, she can be 
very useful. She was anxious to tell me of all that had 
happened in the vacation, and to hear what I had been 
doing. Being " anniversary week," we had a large 
number of visitors, so had only time to ask questions 
on the map of New England. She had just completed 
it and was very ready in answering questions a month 
ago, and I was anxious to test her memory. Found 
she remembered much of it, and probably a few days of LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
173 
review will bring it all back. On returning from our 
walk we met in the hall a little blind girl who was a 
new scholar. Thinking it would please her, I stopped 
for her to feel of her, but she treated her rather roughly. 
This afternoon the little girl sent her an orange. I said 
that I thought she was very kind and had forgiven her 
rudeness in the morning. She made no reply, but I 
could see that she appreciated the reproof intended. 
Jun" 1. She brought some candy and said, " I want 
you to give them to little Jane, and tell her I thank her 
for the orange very much." Found, in a review of four 
States, she had forgotten only three places. Some one 
had been talking to her about monkeys, and she wished 
to repeat to me the stories. The way in which they were 
.made to throw down cocoa-nuts from the trees amused 
her, but the question whether it was right (morally) for 
the men to throw stones at the monkeys was raised at 
once. 
She has forgotten more in her arithmetic than in any- 
thing else, which I regret, as she is always more easily 
troubled by failures and enjoys the study less than any 
other. When discouraged she often says, " It is very 
hard, I think I cannot know it." 
It generally happened that her times of greatest 
trouble came very unexpectedly, and when her previous 
conversation would have led me to anticipate an unusual 
amount of self-restraint. An example of this occurred 
June 7. She asked. "Was I good all day yesterday?" 
" Nearly all day ; you were rude two or three times." 
" It makes me sad in eyes, and something troubles me 
when I am not good." She had commenced a new sec- 
tion in arithmetic and was puzzled but in very good 174 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
spirits. She tried unsuccessfully to tell me how much a 
quarter of eight was, and said, " I do not know." I 
replied, as I always do when she does not take time, " If 
you think, you can tell me." Instead of receiving it as 
usual, she caught my hand and twisted it very hard. 
At first I thought it was play and was surprised to see 
her face was scarlet, and that she was in a passion. I 
left my seat beside her without speaking, and she sat 
alone a quarter of an hour. Then I went to her to tell 
her it was time for her to put her room in order. When I 
went to take her to breakfast she said, " I think you do 
not want very angry girls to eat with you ; you can bring 
my breakfast, and I can eat alone." Told her I liked 
to have her go with me When she came for her next 
lesson, I asked her if she felt happy. " No, I was very 
angry. I twisted your hand and almost broke your 
wrist. Does it ache now ? " Told her I was very sad that 
she felt so, and asked her if I was unkind to her. " You 
told me to think." Explained why I said so, and that 
I could not teach her well unless she took time to think. 
She said, " You were kind, but 1 was angry. What 
will you do to punish me?" " Nothing, I do not want 
to punish you." " You did punish me very much when 
I sat alone." " If you had been good you would not 
care if I left you alone ; it is your thoughts that punish 
you and make you sad and unhappy." " What will you 
do to punish me if I am angry again? " " Nothing. I 
shall be kind to you, and try to teach you, but I am 
afraid if you are angry I cannot love you so much as 
I do when you are mild and gentle, and it makes me 
very sad to have you so." She wiped her tears, and 
thinking of some work she could do to help Miss J., I LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
175 
sent her to do it, hoping to change the current of her 
thoughts. All the rest of the day she was very affec- 
tionate, and frequently said, " You are very kind to 
me," as if trying to make me forget the morning. 
June 8. She asked if ''think, guess, suppose, and 
understand" are the same. An hour was too short 
to make her fully understand the difference ; indeed, I 
doubt whether any explanations, illustrations, etc., will 
avail, but she must learn their exact meaning as other 
children do, by having them used constantly in conver- 
sation with her. 
Her geography lesson was on the large map of the 
United States. She was already so familiar with New 
England that she soon adjusted herself to the new scale 
of distances, etc., and one lesson sufficed. Passing her 
hand over all thq great map, she said, '' I cannot learn 
so very much, I cannot remember." A few weeks since 
she had a lesson in the play-ground, and to-day she felt 
of what were then little buds, and was delighted to find 
not only leaves but flowers on the trees and plants. 
She learned many new .names. •' 
June 9. This morning she did not feel very friendly 
towards Mr. Warren Colburn; she asked. " Why does 
man put sums in book for girls to guess?" After 
studying some time on one she said, " I am not very 
widsom. What does widsom mean? To know much 
like Doctor?" Taught her the noun ''wisdom" and 
the adjective " wise," and encouraged her by telling her 
that Doctor had to study such sums when he was a little 
boy, to make him very wise./ While talking about 
Eastern New York with the map before her, she stopped 
to ask, " Do you want to see God? Do you want Him 176 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
to want you now? Does He see us, does He know what 
I say to you? Do you think of Him? Do all people 
love God? How many bodies has God made? Ten 
thousand billion?" Her lesson led to the subject of 
canals, and we had a long talk about the Erie Canal 
and Niagara Falls. It might be supposed that they 
would be mere commonplace topics to her, and that the 
most vivid description could not convey to one, who had 
never even seen water, the faintest idea of their beauty 
and grandeur. Just what ideas she did receive, it is 
impossible for us to know, and also the cause of the 
excitement she manifested when told about them. At 
noon there was to be a launch from a ship-yard near by, 
and we seated ourselves near a window, that I might 
tell her all I could see. She listened eagerly to the 
description of the ship, its position, etc., what the men 
were doing, and was much disappointed when told that 
it would not move, and now they must wait till the water 
was higher to launch it. She had learned this word 
to-day, and it was a very good occasion on which to use 
it. She asked, " Why does God not launch it? " 
june 13 She told me she wished to talk about her 
teachers, and occupied the hour with reminiscences of all 
who had ever taught her anything, what they did, and 
even expressed her opinion of how they did it. In talk- 
ing of her experiences with me, she asked, "Were not 
Doctor and J. wrong not to let me come and see you, 
and stay with you all the time, when you were sick last 
summer? If you are sick again I must come, and I can 
stay with you and take care of you, because you teach 
me, and I can be still." This occasional assertion of 
her rights, and the development of the feeling of respon- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
177 
sibility, show us how fast the time is approaching when 
she will put off the little child. 
Another topic of conversation was suggested by the 
question, ""Where do men get water to drink? " She 
asked, in jest, if I would teach her 300 trillions of 
years. I held up my hands to express surprise, and 
said, "Yes." She often begins with a joke, but as 
soon as I answer in the same way, she seems to forget, 
and takes it all as in earnest. She said now, " Do you 
play ? Will you live so many years ? " On the map 
she completed New Jersey and crossed the Delaware 
to find Philadelphia, which she has desired to do for a 
long time, because she has heard so much about it 
as my home. It seems to be best to have points of 
interest just ahead of her studies in geography, instead 
of showing her all such as soon as she takes the 
map. 
^une 15. She has learned to do plain sewing very 
neatly, and always assists in making her own clothes. 
She threads the needle by feeling the eye with her 
tongue, and by a rolling motion conducting the thread 
into it, as most of the blind do. It is some time since 
she had any sewing, and fearing she might forget to 
work well, I told her she might do some for me, when 
she had finished her knitting. " For money?" she asked. 
" My sister works for me because she wants to oblige me 
and to help me." "I am very, very poor, and want 
money." " What can you buy with money ? " She could 
not think of anything she wanted, but said, " All people 
have money, Lizzie B." (a little girl) "has money." 
Told her that her father gave Dr. Howe money to buy 
her clothes, and it was better for him to take care of it 178 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
for her. She was more willing to work, but not quite 
as cheerful about it as I should like to see her. 
June 20. She complained of her eyes, which often 
give her trouble saying, " My eyes are unstrong." 
When doing her sums she looked troubled, and I said, 
"I must get a flat-iron to smooth your face." She 
laughed and asked, "Is it twisted or wrinkled? Are 
wrinkled and tumbled the same, and jammed and tum- 
bled ? " 
While talking of the various kinds of wood, she went 
from room to room feeling of different articles, and 
seldom made a mistake between pine, oak, and mahog- 
any. She was puzzled when feeling of a secretary which 
was veneered, noticed the difference at once, and asked 
an explanation. She remembered a lesson more than a 
year ago on the various kinds of trees, and said that 
men cut down the trees to make the boards. When 
asked how they knew which tree to cut to make pine 
or mahogany, she answered, " I think they guess." 
Described to her the difference in the leaves, bark, 
etc. 
June 21. A question in the arithmetic lesson puzzled 
her to-day, and we spent an hour upon it, but did not 
succeed in answering it. " If two men do a piece of 
work in six days, how long would it take four men to 
do the same?" This was not a surprise to me. for the 
child who performs examples of this kind without diffi- 
culty at first is a rare exception. 
June 22. For some time it has been very irksome to 
her to write specimens enough to satisfy the demands 
of visitors, and of late this unwillingness has extended 
to recitations in geography. This was so manifest LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
179 
when company was present yesterday, that it seemed 
best to discuss the matter, and put it before her as a 
duty. The argument that had the most effect was 
that the blind girls always did as they were asked to by 
strangers, and that if she did not, they would think she 
could not learn as well as they. In her writing lesson 
she was asked to prepare a very nice specimen ; and to 
give more interest in it, I suggested that she write a 
composition on the camel. This was new, as her writ- 
ing previously has been either in the form of journal 
entries or letters She had been much interested in a 
talk about camels, deserts, etc., and so wrote as fol- 
lows, in a very distinct hand: " The camel can go a 
very long time without drinking; he can carry very 
heavy loads ; he is very gentle like a dove; he goes on 
very sandy ground; he carries people on his back to 
ride long." 
She suffers much from the heat, and is so listless and 
dull that only conversations upon animals seem to 
interest her in such weather as this. Our subject was 
lions, and she closed a long discussion by saying, " I 
think men could teach them to be very gentle like 
sheep." 
June 30. A man with a very tame monkey came to 
the house, and Laura was persuaded to put her hand 
upon it. and having overcome her first dread she was 
quite brave and enjoyed feeling of him as he performed 
his tricks. She had many questions to ask after he had 
gone, especially as to the manner of teaching monkeys. 
" Do ourang-outangs learn to do such things? Why do 
monkeys wear chains? His toes were very long, why? 
When I gave him a fig he took off his hat to thank me ; 180 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
he did not know that I could not see." She has, after 
three lessons, mastered the difficulty in the question on 
work in arithmetic. 
July 3. She performed thirty examples this morning, 
but is much troubled by the mosquitoes. " I think 
mosquitoes were very hungry," she said. " Why did 
God make mosquitoes to bite us? Was He wrong?" 
A cold wind was blowing, and she asked if the camels 
in the menagerie in Boston would not have very cold 
feet, because when they were at home they were always 
in hot sand. 
She knew that the children were planning for a holi- 
day to-morrow, and asked, ' ' Do they call it Fast ? " Told 
her the programme for the celebration of the Fourth of 
July, and that she might go with me to the grove. This 
was a new word. 
July 5. She seemed to enjoy the day yesterday as 
much as any one. I told her, as she sat beside me, what 
was being done, and while we were listening to the ora- 
tion and poem, both of which were by blind young men, 
she was very quiet. While going to church she has 
learned to be perfectly still. I found her in a great frolic 
with her doll this morning, and helped her to carry it out 
for a while, but the promised visit to the menagerie soon 
put everything else out of her mind, and she asked 
questions about the animals continually. 
July 6. We spent four hours in the menagerie. 
The keeper of the animals was very kind, and, to my 
surprise, Laura was very calm. She felt of the foot, 
tusks, and trunk of the elephant and fed him, and 
examined the saddle. The keeper showed her a young 
leopard which is yet tame, also a cockatoo. Then 1 led LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
181 
her from cage to cage, telling what animals were in 
each, describing their nature, size, and appearance. 
After this she asked for the monkeys, and we stood 
beside their cages a long time, while I told her all the 
tricks they were doing. She frequently laughed aloud. 
We were disappointed in not having a ride on the ele- 
phant, but the crowd began to gather, and as Laura 
was as much an object of interest to them as the ani- 
mals, we made good a retreat. 
July 7. A rehearsal of the menagerie visit. She 
wished to talk of the various sizes of the animals, and 
seemed to be classifying them in her own mind accord- 
ingly. In her geography lesson she learned the rivers 
of Georgia, but thought they were very hard, and that 
she should not remember them. 
July 8. She did such sums as "Thirty is three tenths 
of what number?" very well, but is unwilling to give the 
explanation, her excuse being, "It is very long, and I 
am too weak, and it is very hard for me." Most chil- 
dren, I find, object in like manner. She has been for 
some weeks unusually quiet, rarely making bad noises, 
and in their stead we hear her happy, ringing laugh. 
She has been very patient in the difficulties of arith- 
metic, and these generally are the greatest trials she has 
in her studies. She is unwilling to be helped over 
them, but is determined to conquer them herself, and 
thus a mental conflict arises, which is very likely to 
show itself in irritability, extending sometimes to other 
things, especially if she has to leave her work unfin- 
ished at the expiration of the lesson hour. 
July 11. While talking she stopped suddenly and 
said, " Something moves in my side; it is like quick- 182 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
silver." She had been shown some yesterday, and 
played with it on a plate. When in her geography, I 
spelled " Mississippi" to her, she said, " I think it is a 
very silly name so many doubles and i 8 in it." She 
did not approve of the word " Alabama" either. 
July 12. Laura wanted me to walk to Boston with 
her, and as I had been ill I told her I must ask Doctor 
F. if I might go out. That I should be under the 
direction of any one seemed to be a new thought to 
her, and she followed it out by questions to see if dis- 
obedience in my case would lead to similar results as 
in her own. "What would you do if he said no, but 
you did not mind him and went? Would you be wrong 
and silly and deceive him? Would you cry? Could you 
talk with me when you were very wrong, and where 
would you stay alone?" In geography she was much 
amused at finding Providence Island on the coast of 
Florida, remembering that Providence city is in Rhode 
Island. 
July 14. For a week Laura had had a visit to her 
former teacher, Mrs. Morton, in prospect, and this morn- 
ing she surprised me by showing me how she had been 
spending her spare moments. I found that she had 
looked over all her clothes very carefully to see that 
everything was in order, and had exercised much in- 
genuity in repairing the old ones. This being done, she 
wished to do the same for me. 
July 15. She had a sum about a pole which was 
partly under water, etc., and her old difficulty came up 
again. I supposed she understood it long ago. " Did 
the man see the pole? Did he think of it? " (with her 
usual gesture of rapping her forehead.) "Is this a LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
183 
story ? " The explanation of the difference between a 
sum and a story occupied a long time. 
July 17. One of the blind girls died last week, and 
we thought it best to say nothing to Laura about it, but 
some of the family spoke of it to her, and she met me 
this morning saying, " Betsy is dead. Why did she die?" 
"She was very sick." "Where?" "In throat and 
lungs." ' ' And God was ready for her ? " Did Betsy try 
to breathe again ? Why did you not tell me last Wednes- 
day ?" " I thought it would make you sad to know she 
was so sick." " Why did Doctor want to tell me about 
Orrin, because he wanted to teach me and make me 
know better?" She remembers that Doctor wished to 
teach her himself, and so has asked me few questions. 
She has not been as much excited as she was at the time 
of Orrin's death. 
In geography we have had an entirely new experience. 
I never knew her to require to be told any names more 
than twice since she began the study, but this morning 
I had to tell the rivers and towns in Tennessee and Ken- 
tucky for the third time. What there is peculiar in them 
I cannot see. Reviewed her on the Eastern, Middle, 
and Southern States, and she did remarkably well, 
showing that it was caused by no fatigue of mind. 184 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER X. 
July 18. Our journey to Halifax, Mass., took nearly 
all the day, as we were obliged to wait a long time 
for a stage at Stoughton. Laura was very quiet, and 
worked industriously while we waited. She was much 
amused at our tete-d-tete dinner at the hotel. She asked 
what the waitress said to me. Told her she asked if 
we wanted anything. This happened to be a new 
form of expression, and must be explained. " Did you 
tell her yes or no?" " No." After this she perceived 
that I had some pudding brought me, and a question 
of my veracity was raised, which took most of the after- 
noon to settle. When we stopped to water the horses 
she asked, "Do both horses put their heads in one 
pail? How does he know when they want water? If 
he hold water and make horses put their heads down, 
do they not have to drink when they do not want 
water? " 
It may seem to those accustomed to teach 
children with all their senses, who acquire knowl- 
edge of such things intuitively, that these questions 
would be tedious to answer, but in justice to my 
pupil I must say that I doubt if any teacher ever 
had a work of such interest, and although its very 
intensity drew heavily upon the nervous energy, LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
185 
yet there could never arise a feeling of impatience 
at questions so earnestly asked. 
The pleasure of teaching was equal to that of 
oeing taught, and the reply could always be given, 
with truth, to the remark so frequently made by 
visitors, "How much patience it must take to 
teach her," " Not more than to teach others." 
July 19, Halifax. Laura's happiness is so great this 
morning that she does not know what to do to express 
it. She remembers the places of things she has seen 
here before, and leads me to closets where they are, to 
ask about them. She knows that now she can under- 
stand better than when here a year or more ago. A 
collection of shells interests her much. She enjoys the 
smoothness of some artifically polished, and the strange 
shapes of others, and when shown one very thin, she 
said, " I think the fish liked to keep cool." Iler only 
trouble seems to be to know, Why did God make 
troublesome mosquitoes?" Gave her a lesson in the 
woods, and showed her how men could distinguish 
between oak and pine. Some time ago she said she 
thought they guessed, but she soon learned now, so she 
could tell each tree. Showed her the different kinds of 
pine, and the cone containing seeds. She wished to 
feel every tree, and expressed great surprise when told 
that I could see everywhere around nothing but trees. 
July 20 Another lesson on shells ; among them 
found a snake-skin, and this opened an entirely new 
subject to her. In the woods gave a lesson on the 
different parts of a tree. Showed her a beech-tree ; she 
admired the leaf very much, and asked, " Why did 186 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
you not show it to me yesterday?" It pleased her 
when I had to confess it was because I did not know it 
myself yesterday. When told a dog was sick, she 
asked Mrs. M., " IIow can you know when a dog is 
sick?" "Just as I know when you are sick." "Do 
dogs look pale ? " When she had forgotten something 
she said, " I am very forgetful; my thoughts waste." 
July 21. She had some more examples in arithmetic 
about work, and found very little difficulty in them. 
July 22. Finished the sixth section, and commenced 
on miscellaneous examples, which, she says, " I think 
are very hard for me." 
In this opinion she entirely agrees with a little pupil 
whom I taught some years later, who said that all were 
very easy " except the questions that lady asks, Mis- 
Cellaneous." 
A lesson in the barn taught her many new words, 
" rake, hoe, axe, saw," etc. She asked me to show 
her "the horses'things, bits and shaders" (meaning 
blinders). She had learned about these in the stable 
at home. She enjoys gathering cherries. 
July 24. She was much pleased to examine the 
horse with the side-saddle, and to feel the process of 
mounting for a ride, my position on the horse, manner 
of holding the reins and whip. On my return she asked 
questions about the ride, etc., for an hour. She has all 
her lessons as when at home, and the good effects of 
change of air and scene are visible in her great buoy- 
ancy of spirit. 
July 26. To a question in arithmetic she answered. 
" Fourteen sheeps," and when corrected, said, " No, it 
is one sheep, two sheeps." I think she is unwillingly LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
187 
convinced of her error, and will probably contest the 
point again. Took her to a place where materials for 
building a house were collected. She learned about 
boards, shingles, laths, etc. A little farther on found 
some trees which had been sawn into planks and piled 
as they were cut, which gave her a very correct idea of 
how we get planks and boards. A favorite amusement 
when we are walking is to ask me, " What do you 
see ? " stopping and holding my hand to give me time 
to look, and if she thinks I do not give her objects 
enough she says, " Look more." We spent two hours 
in this way this morning, stopping to show her every- 
thing new, and had a very profitable lesson, and a walk 
of six miles. She wanted to ask if C. and L., two little 
boys in the family, were alike, and said, "Arc they 
alike, I mean in body?" and then moved her hand over 
her face. I asked if she wanted to know if they looked 
alike. " Yes." Told her they were very unlike. 
" How do you know they are unlike ? " "Are their hands 
alike ? " " No ; L.'s are soft and fat, but C.'s are tough 
and rough." Talking of mosquitoes she said, fretfully, 
"I do not want them to touch me again " I replied, 
" You can ask them to please to let you alone." " And 
what shall we do if they do not mind?" She then 
raised a question about our right to kill them, which I 
settled by telling her that we could not talk to them 
and tell them it was wrong to trouble us, and so killed 
them. 
July 28. An order foi' specimens of writing obliged 
us to take time from other lessons to attend to it. One, 
which 1 thought very good, read as follows: " I went 
to Boston with Oliver & very many folks, to see the 188 
LAVRA BRIDGMANS 
caravan. In the tent I saw the elephant's tusks, & 
legs, & trunk, & foot; his skin was very rough. 1 gave 
him a very great many pieces of apple. I put them in 
his trunk, he moved it to take them, and put in his 
mouth. We went into the saddle; then I saw a very 
pretty parrot, & a very gentle leopard - he was very 
little and pretty." 
July 29. Reviewed the lessons of the week, and 
when talking of the trees she brought a pine cone to 
ask why it had opened so much since she brought it 
into the house. When told it was dying, she said, '• It is 
dead. Can God make it grow again?" Explained to 
her how the seeds fell into the ground and then the 
trees grew up from them, and other cones grew with 
more seeds, but this old cone was good for nothing and 
thrown away. At dinner she moved her hand through 
the air, and asked, " When we do so, do we cut the 
air? " Talked about ribbon, and asked if she knew of 
what it was made. More than a year ago she had 
learned something about it. She replied, " Silk." "On 
what does silk grow?" "The silk-worm makes it." 
"Do you think the silk-worm makes the ribbon?" 
"No." She told me about " the ball''the silk-worm 
made to wind his silk upon, and asked, " Why do they 
have very, very nice cotton-wool?" She looked much 
troubled when she found her feeling had deceived her, 
and that it was silk, not cotton, and said sadly, "I 
think I could not know by feeling." 
Aug. 3. Lesson to-day was multiplication of num- 
bers from twelve to twenty, mentally, which she per- 
formed readily. In her hour for conversation she asked 
why there was so much work about the room. It LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
189 
belonged to a company of ladies who were assisting 
the Fall River sufferers, and I thought it a good 
opportunity to give her a lesson on it. Told her how 
much the fire burned, and then of the poor people who 
had no home or clothes. She seemed unable to under- 
stand its full extent, for she said, " The fire did not burn 
the chambers ? " When told what the ladies were sew- 
ing, and how kind they were to assist the poor people, 
she said, " I think the men must go out in the woods 
where I was with you, that are very thick, and cut 
much -wood, and send to the poor people, because they 
will be very cold when it is cold weather. What will 
they do before they have more houses ? " In geography 
she has completed the States, the boundaries, capitals, 
rivers, and towns; now I shall go over them again, 
teaching her the productions, climate, objects of interest, 
etc. The last lesson of the day was given in the stage- 
coach, on the subject of horses. She always asks 
their color, name, disposition, and many other partic- 
ulars. In reply to some trivial question, I replied, 
" I do not know." She said, " God knows, we can ask 
him when we go to him." She was feeling very sad in 
leaving Halifax and her dear friend Mrs. Morton. 
Aug. 5. Completed the seventh section of Colburn's 
Mental Arithmetic. 
Aug. 8. The blind children were all going on a 
berrying excursion, and no one was to be left at home. 
So I offered my services as housekeeper, thinking I could 
make it quite as profitable to Laura as a regular lesson 
would be. After breakfast told her we must wash the 
dishes, and she went to assist me very willingly. 
During the day she had many opportunities for use- 190 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
fulness, and the day with its unusual lessons was not a 
lost one 
Aug. 9. Forty sums in reducing mixed numbers to 
improper fractions. Told her a story about the way 
the elephants crossed Bristol Ferry; one went in a 
boat, but the other, refusing to obey orders, swam 
across. She talked an hour about it; asked if the ele- 
phants touched the groun 1 under the water, and when 
told they swam on top of it, she asked, " How can 
elephants go so, when they are very large and heavy? 
Do not steamboats touch the ground when they are 
heavy?" Next came questions like these: "If the 
elephants would not mind, were they wrong? " She had 
noticed the children had bad coughs, and was told the 
name "whooping-cough," but did not believe it could 
come if they had not taken cold. Sitting beside me 
one day she perceived I held my breath for a long time, 
and was very much frightened, and said, "Did you 
almost die? Your breath stopped." She is very fond of 
playing the nurse, and has many suggestions of remedies 
to make. One day, after exercising in the gymnasuim, 
she found that my hands were hot and swollen. Her 
sympathies were much excited. She brought a silver 
pencil-case, bottle, key, and everything cold that she 
could think of for me to hold. Then a bright thought 
struck her, and she led me to an iron-bound trunk, say- 
ing, "If you put your hands on this, I think you will 
be better." A lesson on commerce, which was a new 
subject. 
Aug. 11. Reducing improper fractions to mixed 
numbers gave her some trouble. 
When she has been called in the morning lately, we LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
191 
have found her dressing. Asked her how she knew 
when to get up. " I put my hand on the door to feel 
it shake." "Do you get up to go to the door?" 
" No, the door that is by my bed. I put my finger in 
the key-hole, and if the girls are up it shakes Who 
jumps and slams the door in the morning? Why do 
girls open and shut doors in the night?" 
Iler own room was in a remote corner of the house, 
quite removed from the other sleeping-rooms, and we 
should hardly perceive with our ears the noises which 
she speaks of feeling. 
Aug. 12. She overcame the difficulties in her arith- 
metic and said, " I think I was very dull not to know 
before." She has had a lesson on the use of the period. 
To show how many lessons will be required before she 
can be taught to punctuate properly, we give below 
her account of a story which was read to her yesterday, 
with her punctuation : - 
" Little George's mother is very poor, instead of 
having bright coalfires. she has dry sticks to burn. So 
she sent George two miles, to try to get as much woods 
as he could. After he had done work very hard, the 
sun was high over his head. he was hot and tired and 
hungry, he wanted some dinner, so he had bread and 
butter, he went to find cool place, and found a stone 
with green moss by the brook, then he went to look for 
very large leaf to dip off the water. Uis stone was his 
caole. he sat on bank, brook was his wine-cellar. 
Then he heard birds sing very loudly in the trees. He 
went to pick some wild red strawberries, and put leaf 
in his cap to keep them nice, he thought that they 
were very ripe and good, he wanted half but he 192 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
thought that he would save many berries. When it was 
dark then he went home, then his mother called him 
to come, he ran and put the woods in her washhouse. 
Then he gave her some berries and she said ' did he 
save them for his sick mother ? to make her better ? ' she 
was very glad, he felt very happy to have her eat them." 
Aug. 14. Laura completed to-day the eighth section 
in arithmetic, in five months from the time she com- 
menced the book. The word " merrily" was the first 
topic of conversation, and then she wished to know if 
we said "more, morest," and "much, muchest," and why 
not? Used the word "complain," supposing she 
understood it, but found it was a new word. 
Aug. 15 Iler lesson was multiplying fractions and 
reducing the result to a mixed number. She surprised me 
by doing the examples without any trouble. While at 
work with her types, she wiped her eyes several times, 
at last she said, " My eyes are very vexatious this 
morning." This is a word she has lately learned ; it 
pleases her much, so she usesit on many occasions. A 
lady visited the school who wore unusually thickly lined 
sleeves ; this she noticed at once and said, " The lady 
must live in Africa, and then she will not have to wear 
such thick clothes." At three o'clock this morning 
Laura was found playing^with her cups and saucers. 
When I asked her why she got up in the night to play, 
she said, " Jennie is sick, and I was giving her medi- 
cines." She carries out a play with a doll further than 
I ever knew any other child. Everything she has ever 
known done for a sick person is tried upon the doll. 
She is moved from one bed to another and as carefully 
bolstered up as if she were a child. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
193 
Awj. IS. We talked about Indians, their manner of 
living, wigwams, color. She asked about the people of 
Africa, and when told they were black asked, Why 
did God make some people black?" Told her they 
lived in Boston before the white people came from Eng- 
land, and their name for it. She enjoys a lesson on such 
a subject, it gives her so many new ideas. A question 
in geography, which I asked without a thought of puz- 
zling her, occupied most of the hour in the explanation : 
" Which of the New England States has no sea-coast? " 
Tried the experiment of reading " The Spider and 
the Ely" to her. Transposed some of it into prose and 
read very slowly, explaining such words as she might 
not understand, and told her it was a story in which the 
man who wrote it played that the spider and the fly 
could speak. She wras amused at the idea and retained 
it some time, but at last, with a look of surprise, said, 
' ' Did fly say so ? " It seemed to me that she under- 
stood it, but the proof will be to-morrow. 
Aug. 19. She failed entirely in telling the story 
of yesterday. 
Aug. 21. Read it to her very carefully again, and 
asked her to tell it to me. She makes a strange mix- 
ture of conversational and narrative style, but gets a 
pretty good idea of it. She has found a toy horse, and 
taken her doll from bed to have her take a ride, saying, 
very seriously, " I think she will be much better, for 
riding horseback will make her strong." She had a 
very important question to ask, " Do the negroes wash 
their hands? Because black does not get dirty very 
quick, and I thought they need not wash their hands 
veiy often." 194 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
Aug. 23. Tenth section. She was a little puzzled 
at first, but T gave her some cards to cut to illustrate 
the principle, and she did twenty-live examples. 
Talked with her about Niagara Falls. When I told 
her about them some months ago, she understood that 
the stones fell constantly with the water. When told 
of the roaring noise they made, she said, " Can you 
hear it? Try and see." Mrs. W., her friend, is in 
Saratoga, and she asked, "Can she hearthem? Can 
my mother in Hanover hearthem? Why did not Dr. 
Howe go to hear them? Why did not he tell me about 
them?" "Because when he went away you did not 
know about many places, and could not have under- 
stood what he said if he had tried to tell you, but when 
he comes home you can ask him." She looked much 
surprised and said, " He will be very busy writing very 
much and he cannot talk, and he will not be in this 
school-room so I cannot ask him." Told her she 
could ask him as well in the study as in the school- 
room ; but she seemed to think it would be necessary 
for him to have the map before him in order to talk 
about the Falls. 
Aug. 24. In a section in arithmetic which generally 
puzzles children, she did forty sums such as " One 
third of two is how many thirds of one ? " She was 
doubtful about the difference between "better" and 
" best." As she had used them a long time, I sup- 
posed she understood them perfectly. She told me, 
" J. says if I am gentle and good,- Mrs. Howe will 
send me a doll with a strange kind of a dress; you 
will not know about it." When talking about its name, 
she thought she should call it Miss Dewey, but after LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
195 
a moment's thought said, "No, doll must be Julia 
Ward." 
27. She brought " The Child's Second Book" 
and asked me to explain " possess," " general descrip- 
tion," and lastly the plate of the Solar System, at the 
end of the book. Here was a work indeed for me to 
begin upon, but after reflection I decided that she could 
be told much that would be both interesting and profit- 
able to her. Commenced by telling her the great distance 
of the sun from us, of its size. " Can we go there? " 
was her first question. Asked her how she thought 
we could go. "In boats." "Do you think there is 
water all the way to the sun?" " No, go in cars." "Is 
there land?" " No," and pointing to the sun she said, 
"Itis air," and was puzzled to know what we could do. 
I hoped she would suggest a balloon, as I had given 
her a lesson upon them, but she evidently did not under- 
stand much about them, and so they did not occur to her. 
" Can flies go up to the sun ? Can God be at the sun ? " 
She was anxious for me to begin the explanation of the 
plate, but I told her, before she was ready for that, I 
must tell her of many things. Talked of the size of the 
stars, how large they appeared to us. The idea that dis- 
tance made objects look smaller was new to her, and she 
was filled with wonder when, to exemplify it, I told 
her if I were to sit in my room and see her, walking to 
the Point, she would grow smaller, and would, when 
there, look like a very little girl. From this, she could 
understand why the moon should look so much larger 
than the sun because so much nearer; told her of the 
planets, their names, and on which we lived ; she asked 
what the lines were for on the plate. Forgetting that 196 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
she was just receiving her first idea, I made too long a 
step and said they were to show where the planets 
moved round the sun, and that it took the earth three 
hundred and sixty-five days, so we called it a year. She 
said, "I think then Louisa's father" (a sea captain) 
" went to the sun, he is gone three years." This showed 
how little she appreciated what had been said. When 
she found I had been teaching her astronomy she said, 
" Will you please write and tell Doctor what I study ?" 
Aug. 29. She was impatient to resume the subject 
of yesterday. " Are there people in the sun ? " When 
told we could not know, she said, "We can ask God 
when we go to heaven." " Can I see when I go to 
heaven, to see the sun?" Talked about the motions of 
the earth. When she learned that it was turning round 
all the time, she said, " When I am dizzy then 1 feel the 
floor go round." To explain the cause of day and 
night, I put a pin into a ball of yarn to represent 
Boston, supposed the fire in the grate to represent the 
sun, and by revolving the ball let her see that one side 
must be in the dark. She seemed to understand this. 
Aug. 31. The lesson was upon the difference in lime 
between places, illustrated by a second pin to represent 
London. She soon learned to tell what the time was 
in the one, having it given in the other. In her geog- 
raphy lesson, and when apparently very happy, she 
took both hands from the map, and with a look of 
despair said, " Are you not very tired of living so many 
years? " " No, are you? " " Yes, I want to go to God 
in heaven." Some time ago the same thought came to 
her under similar circumstances. It seems to me that 
she gets a momentary glimpse of the field of knowl- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
197 
edge to be explored, and its immensity overwhelms 
her. 
Sept 1. She was in much trouble in her arithmetic, 
because of another sum about work. The old diffi- 
culty, which I thought overcome long ago, arose, and 
she could not tell how long it would take one man to do 
a piece of work if it took three men twenty-one days. 
Sept. 4. For some time we have noticed some little 
developments in Laura which looked like prudery. On 
Saturday evening, at the children's party held in the 
Doctor's parlors, Dr. Lieber attempted to shake hands 
with her. She pulled her hand away, and refused to 
speak to him at all, or to any one standing near her. 
There w as a little excuse for her; there had been a 
great crowd at the exhibition in the afternoon, she had 
become much excited, and the heat had made her head 
ache, but the time had come to treat the matter seri- 
ously, and this morning we discussed it. She talked of 
the different times when she had acted rudely, showing 
she was perfectly conscious to what I alluded. When 
told how ladies and other blind girls behaved, she con- 
fessed that she had been silly, and promised she would 
never do so again. She asked the meaning of " pre- 
vent " and " explanation " Some time since she had had 
the word " description," and now asked, " Did you give 
me a description of the new word prevent, or an xpla- 
nation of it?" She shows much ingenuity in introdu- 
cing these long words into her conversation, but not 
unfrcquently I find she has not taken their exact mean- 
ing. Ater a long talk about the caves of Virginia, she 
gave me a kiss and hug, and said, " You are very kind 
to give me many descriptions." 198 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
Sept. 8. She reminded me of a promise to show her 
a tellurian. She very readily told me from it about 
day and night, and the time at the different quarters of 
the globe, but-found it hard to realize that some people 
were then sleeping. She noticed at once the revolution 
of the earth on its own axis, and also about the sun, 
and in good language told the effects produced by each 
motion. 
Sept. 9. From week to week I can see an improve- 
ment in her way of repeating the stories which are read 
to her, and to day she did better than ever before. 
When she writes one out fully, there are many mistakes 
in the use of language, which never occur when she is 
spelling it out with the fingers; but this is readily 
accounted for when we remember that writing is of 
necessity a slow process, and that she cannot look back 
to read her last sentence, or to note the omission of a 
word by inadvertence. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
199 
CHAPTER XL 
Perhaps some reader would like to ask, " How 
do you read books to Laura?" Seated at her left 
side, ou a sofa rather than in a chair, with the book 
in my left hand I spell with my right hand (using 
the manual alphabet of the deaf-mutes) every 
word with the exception of " and," which has its 
own sign. This is all I have to attend to. She 
takes care of the rest herself. With her right 
hand moving lightly over my fingers, never with 
pressure enough to impede their motion, she 
spells or rather reads the words She docs not 
seem to take cognizance of each letter any more 
than we do when we read with our eyes, but the 
most rapid talker by the finger alphabet could 
never be too quick for her comprehension, and I 
always talk to her with such rapidity that no eye 
could possibly read the words. Constant prac- 
tice (and for a year I had talked more with my 
fingers than with my mouth) had made them very 
flexible, and the question was so often asked me, 
"How fast do you talk?" that I carefully tried 
some experiments, which resulted as follows: If a 200 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
person seated near me read aloud, I could not 
interpret as rapidly as she read, but if she was 
reading to a number of people in a large room, I 
could follow her, givingLaura every word spelled 
upon my fingers. Of course the mere spelling was 
no more an act of consciousness than it is when 
we arc writing; no one thinks how he spells his 
words, unless in doubt of the orthography, so that 
no time was lost in this way. 
Sept. 12. The constant rubbing had caused Laura's 
hands to be very rough. Dr. Fisher noticed them, and 
told her she must put some ointment upon them and 
wear gloves. This was a great trial, for it not only 
retarded her own talking, but made it difficult for her to 
understand me. She tried to be patient, and after a 
day or two succeeded in using them despite the gloves. 
In her lesson on the tellurian she learned about the 
length of the year on the different planets, and of her 
own accord, entered upon a calculation of how old she 
would be if she had lived in the others. Herschel 
amused her, and she had a hearty laugh when she found 
how few years old Dr. II. would be had he lived there 
■Sept. 13. The questions which she solved readily 
this morning were of this kind : "If five eighths of a 
cask of wine cost forty-two dollars, what will the whole 
cost?" She answered nine such in her lesson of three 
quarters of an hour and explained them. 
Among our visitors to-day were two gentlemen who 
had walked from North Carolina. Laura's knowledge 
of the States they had passed through furnished many 
topics for conversation. When she asked about Wier's LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
201 
Cave, one of them presented her with a piece of a stalac- 
tite which he had brought from it. This morning when 
she came for her lesson, she asked if I could see the 
sun ; told her I could, but it was not high enough yet for 
her to feel it. A while after she said, "I think the earth 
moves round very slowly, I cannot feel the sun much." 
She enjoyed examining the planetarium, and spent an 
hour over it. 
Sept. 15. Her doll in Welsh costume arrived last 
evening, and furnished a topic for conversation. She 
wished to know about the people and their country. 
She told me that her old doll and Julia (the new one) 
loved each other very much. 
Sept. 21. Our lesson was on merchant ships, sug- 
gested by her inquiry, " What does Mr. W. do in Bos- 
ton all day?" Described the preparations for the voy- 
age, loading the ship, and then of the return cargo. 
Iler last question was, " Where does he get money to 
buy so many things ? " 
Sept. 25. A little circumstance occurred at the tea- 
table last eve which troubled me. She had eaten one 
piece of pie and asking for another, was told it was not 
best for her to eat more. She was displeased, and sat 
still until she thought I had left the room, when she 
asked Mrs. S. for it. As this savored of both deception 
and disobedience, I talked seriously about it this morn- 
ing. She confessed at once the error, but justified her- 
self saying, " I wanted more pie." Found Mrs. Smith 
had promised her the pie for lunch to-day and decided it 
was best to let her have it, that she must give part of it 
to Frank and Susan (two little deaf-mute children) who 
wanted it as much as she did, and did not ask for it after 202 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
their teacher had told them no. She did not object to 
this, but said " I will give you some too." Told her I 
only wished to teach her to do right, not to take her pie. 
She said, " It is to remember me that I must not do so 
again, and next time when you tell me that I must not 
have any more, I shall not ask Smith for it." She is 
reviewing the boundaries of the States; she does not 
enjoy it, and when I proposed it, said, " I have told you 
many times, I know." 
Sept. 29. The day was spent in reviews, and arrange- 
ments for the vacation. She objected to my proposal 
that she write an hour every day in her journal during 
my absence, but consented to it at last, that I might 
have the pleasure of seeing it on ray return. Of course 
she must miss her lessons, but she bade me good by 
saying, " I am glad for you to go and see your, friends, 
because it will make you very happy. " One day in the 
vacation she had the promise of going to meet her 
mother in Halifax, but a violent rain prevented. She 
said, "God was very unkind to make it rain, he knew 
we wanted to go." She was reconciled by being told 
that the earth needed rain to make the things grow, and 
she must try to be happy when disappointed. 
Oct. 27. She asked why Mercury and Venus had no 
moons. When told we did not know, she said, "We 
can ask God about it when wc go to heaven. Does 
Orrin* know about it now? " Thought she might have 
forgotten some of her geography lessons in the month, 
and gave her a review. She answered questions as fast 
as her fingers could fly, and made only four mistakes in 
* The little blind boy who died two years ago. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
203 
all the States. She mentioned all the capitals and on 
what rivers situated. 
Nov. 1. Before breakfast I went to get seed for the 
birds, but could not find the glass with which I measured 
it, which always stood on a waiter. At the table 1 
asked Laura if she knew where it was. She answered 
without hesitation, " I have not seen it." On searching 
for it further, I was surprised to find it on the floor in a 
corner, broken in pieces, as if it had been thrown with 
considerable force. A suspicion that all was not right 
with Laura, led me to watch her countenance while she 
was doing her morning work. After school I asked 
again, " Do you know where the glass is? " The blood 
rushed to her face, and she said hesitatingly, " I thought 
you let something fall yesterday, when I was in the 
kitchen knitting." From this reply I knew she was 
guilty, and said, " Think, - be sure to tell the truth." 
Then she said, " When I went down yesterday, I saw 
the flies eating crumbs in the waiter, and I brushed them 
away, flies were eating glass, and I did not want them 
to, and I thought I felt glass fall." " But you said before 
you thought that I let something fall. Did I break the 
glass?" "No." " Where did the glass fall?" "On the 
floor." " Did you feel it there ? " "Yes." " Why did 
you not tell me when I asked this morning? I looked 
for it, but it was so dark I could not see the pieces on 
the floor." She repeated what she had said before, but 
in a very indilferent and careless manner, and it seemed 
to me with a disposition to " brave it out," which was 
an entirely new development and gave me great anxiety. 
Penitence has followed always so quickly after trans- 
gression, that it almost made us feel that her faults were 204 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
so little we ought to let them pass unnoticed. I told 
her now, I could not talk any more about it. but that 
she must sit alone, without work, and think about it. 
Without her knowledge, I stayed in the room, where I 
could carefully watch her. In a little while her coun- 
tenance changed, and she became troubled, and soon 
the tears fell. At the close of the forenoon I went to 
her, and asked, " Why do you think you are sitting 
alone?" " To think about being wrong, and deceiving 
you. At table I said I had not seen, and at nine, I 
said I frightened flies away ; it was not true." She 
asked why I did not cry as she did. Told her I felt 
very sad, and it would be long before I could be happy, 
and that Doctor would be very sad when he read in my 
journal about it. " Did I act a lie or tell a lie? " she 
asked. I talked with her some time, to try to convince 
her how much better it would have been had she come 
and told me at once after she had done it. She said, "I 
talked to myself about its being a lie, and that it was 
wrong to deceive." After sitting still awhile, with the 
tears rolling down her cheeks, she said, " My mother 
told me 1 would (should) be a good girl. I hope I 
shall learn to tell the truth, and always to tell you and 
Miss J., when I do anything. Are you tired of teach- 
ing me not to tell a lie?" Told her I hoped she would 
learn soon that it was much pleasanter and easier to 
tell the truth, and that she might remember this very 
long, she had better sit alone to work. "Will you 
shut the door that no one can come in, and see a very 
sad and wrong little girl? " After an hour I went for 
her to walk. She seemed glad to go, but talked little. 
On returning, she went to the school-room to see com- 205 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
pany, it being trustees' meeting. After this she said, 
" I had better sit alone till tea-time." At the tea-table 
she said, " I want to tell you something. Miss M 
is here to see Lurena to-day: may I go to see her?" 
Asked her if she thought it would be right for me to let 
her go. In a moment she said, "No, I must sit alone 
to-night, and think about being wrong." When going to 
bed she said,. " Will you forgive me?" and with a very 
sad look, " Do you think I will ever tell lies again? " 
I have noted this case so carefully because it is the 
first untruth since the affair of the gloves that we have 
known of. There is no reason why she should not have 
told me of the accident at once, for she had seemed to 
take pleasure previously in doing so, and has never 
been reproved for any such thing. 
Nou. 2. She recited an excellent lesson in arith- 
metic, and never seemed to love me so well as to-day. 
Gave her a lesson on the large map of North America. 
She has been studying on a map of the United States, 
and the scale of the new one was of course very differ- 
ent. To give her an idea of this, I passed her hand 
over the space occupied by the United States. It rested 
on Missouri, which she spelled. I asked her to find 
Ohio, not thinking it possible for her to do it without 
help, but she had no difficulty, and told me some of the 
rivers and capitals. I supposed we should have two 
lessons, at least, on the United States, before beginning 
the other countries of North America, but it was all 
done in this one. When I showed her the little space 
occupied by the Gulf of Mexico, she immediately 
showed me Florida. At each school to-day she asked, 
"Do you feel more happy? I must try to be very 206 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
good, to make you more happy. If I say my lesson 
well, will it make you happy? " 
Nov. 3. In learning about Mexico and Guatemala, 
she said, " I think there are many new hard names." 
Why one name should be any harder than another to 
her, has been a question that I have tried in vain to 
answer satisfactorily to myself. If we see or hear an 
unusual combination of letters, we call it "a hard 
word," but neither of these causes operate with her, 
nor does she always classify words as we should, for 
sometimes a word which seems simple to me, gives her 
difficulty. Some one had told her that bears sometimes 
ate little boys. I explained it, and she said, " Bears 
are not to blame." "Why?" "Because they are 
hungry and have a good appetite." She asked if all 
animals were ferocious (a new word to-day). She 
saw at the menagerie a little leopard three months old, 
and very gentle, but I told her it would become wild as 
it grew older. " Who takes care of the young leopard, 
that other animals might not eat him ? Why does God 
make some animals wild? " 
Nov. 6. At noon she came to me saying, " I found 
some words in a book I do not know." She attempted 
to spell one, and I guessed from the rest of the sentence 
what it was, "Alphabet are twenty-six in number." I 
supposed she knew the word long ago, for a year or 
more since, when she was daily using her type box, she 
used to arrange the letters in proper order, but proba ■ 
bly then I always spoke of them to her as the letters. 
For our talk to-day, told her she might think of all the 
animals we required to make the different things in the 
room, and to illustrate my meaning I asked, " What LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
207 
one to make the carpet?" This was sufficient clew, 
and her thoughts and fingers seemed to fly " Wool 
from the sheep, horse to make hair-cloth for chairs and 
sofa, goat to make the cushion for the other rocking- 
chair, and baby." "What do you mean by baby?" 
" Goat's baby to make my shoes, ami silk-worm for 
my shades, and your handkerchief." Here she paused, 
and I led her to the table. She put her hand on the 
thermometer, and said elephant for that and paper- 
folder, bees for the wax flowers and fruit, birds for the 
lamp, and whales for oil, and whale's head for my 
rabbit. This was a little model made of spermaceti. 
Nov. 7. Continued yesterday's talk, taking up 
metals. She thought at once of gold for thimbles, rings, 
and pins, silver for wire and cologne stand, iron for 
grate and register and brass. Then she walked about 
the room to see what she could find. There were few 
things that she did not know. Next she led me to 
the basement, and opened the ice chest to ask what it 
was lined with, and then to the kitchen range to know 
what the plate on which the maker's name was printed 
was made of, and to a water pipe that was in the cor- 
ner of an entry, where no one would suppose she would 
ever have found it, and lastly to the stairs to ask why 
part of the supports of the railing were of iron and part of 
wood. I wondered how many children with their eyes 
had noticed this. Although I have been with her so 
long she is a constant surprise to me. 
Yesterday I obtained some of Abbott's stories to read, 
for I find no others arc so well adapted to her, and now 
she can learn so much from stories of the right kind. 
Nov. 9. She said, " I want to ask you about many 208 
LAURA BRIDGMAN 
things that I have seen some time, and where they 
grow." One of these wras a pumpkin. She had seen 
a very large one, and imagined that it grew upon 
a tree, and was puzzled to know why it did not fall off. 
We had a talk upon the manner of growth of various 
vegetables and fruits, their order of ripening, etc. 
Nov. 10. Continued the talk about things in the 
room, what woods w'e should need to make them. She 
knew these all except rosewood. Found she knew 
nothing about glass. Told her about its manufacture, 
and the manner of its discovery. She could hardly 
believe me when I told her that a long time ago men did 
not know anything about it, and had no glass, and this 
developed an idea which I never knew before that she 
had, viz., that God taught the first man everything, 
and he taught everybody else. The idea of invention 
or discovery was a new one. The making of soap and 
paint, white lead, more than filled up her hour, and I 
felt that she had too much that was new to remember 
it all. 
Nov. 13. Found she could tell me all the story about 
glass, its discovery, and even the name of the city 
where it was first used ; though only told her once. 
She wras very happy in the hour for company to be 
introduced to some ladies from Santa Cruz, and that 
she could show them upon the map where their island 
was. A talk to-day upon colors, what made from, 
where the plants grow, etc. 
Nov. 14. Commenced Section 13, Colburn's Men- 
tal Arithmetic. I anticipated difficulty, but after giv- 
ing her the first example, left hex' to think about it. 
She soon solved it, and did fourteen sums. A talk LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
209 
upon cochineal. Iler delight is great when her recently 
acquired knowledge comes into use, as when told that 
the insects came from Mexico. Commenced Abbott's 
story called " Caleb in Town." 
Nov. 17. Finished the large map of North America, 
and merely for the experiment took her to a little map 
of the same, which is in the corner of the large map of 
the United States. She found every place I asked her 
except Newfoundland. For a talk, took a summary of 
things in the room, saying to what kingdom their com- 
ponent parts belonged. She omitted bees, and I 
asked her of what the fruit in the vase was made. 
"I do not know, God made it." When naming the 
metals she said, " Is zinc good for windows?" Some 
of the long windows opening upon a piazza had zinc 
set in the lower part of the sash to prevent breakage, 
and she had supposed we could see through it as well, 
but that it was stronger than glass'. 
Nov. 18. She asked, "What do you do when you 
are frightened and feel warm?" ''Look to see what 
made me frightened." "Why did something make a 
noise under my closet floor, so that I could feel it?" 
Here she scratched upon the table to show me, and I told 
her it was mice running about, and I had heard them. 
" Were you much frightened? " " No. I only thought 
they were having a play." " Why did I not think so? " 
She seems not to overcome this timidity, and it causes 
her real suffering. She writes a great many letters for 
her own amusement, and entirely without oversight or 
any dictation. It often amuses us to observe how 
carefully she adapts herself to her correspondents. The 
following is a copy of one she brought me to-day to 210 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
send to a little sister of mine, who she knows is not 
acquainted with any of the people about her here, so she 
has only one or two subjects to make up a lettes. 
My Dear Little Lizzie : 
Miss Swift was sick in her head this morning. 
Before dinner I brushed her head very much, & put 
much cologne on, & it made her very much better. 
She said that I was very kind to her, & she thanked 
me very much for me to cure her, so she went to church 
once in the afternoon. I love her very much. I am 
very happy because I was so very kind to her. I send 
very much love to you & a kiss. I want to see 
you very much. My mother & father came to see me 
& staid seven days. I was very glad to see them last 
October. I like my little sugar bird very much that you 
sent it to me by Swift. 
My friend, good-bye. 
Miss Laura Bridgman. 
This signature was a new thought and originated 
probably in a sense of her superiority to her little cor- 
respondent, and the wish to express it 
Nov. 20. She brought -to-day a book of diagrams 
belonging to a w*ork on natural philosophy, and as I 
make it a point never to discourage her by saying she 
cannot understand about anything,! promised to tell her 
to-morrow, that I might get time to select enough for a 
lesson to satisfy her cravings for knowledge. I hap- 
pened to ask the question, "In what direction does the 
Mississippi run?" This was a new expression to her. 
Probably I have always used the word " flow " before. 
She said, " The river has no feet, why do you say LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
211 
run?" Continued our talks, asking her the places to 
which we would have to go to get all the things we 
needed for the parlor. 
Nov. 21. She came, saying, " Get the philosophy 
Told her I needed no book, and she waited impatiently 
for me to begin. It was raining violently, and I con- 
cluded to take rain, snow, and hail for my topic. I asked 
her about the steam from a kettle over the fire. At first 
she seemed to know nothing about it, but suddenly the 
memory of a burn she got from it when a little girl 
came to her, and after that she understood it. Next 
told her of the effect of the sun's heat upon the water on 
the earth. The first time she got no idea of it, but on 
repetition she understood it entirely, and gave me a 
good explanation in her own words. In teaching her 
any new thing I always pause at intervals, and ask 
her to tell me what I have been talking about, that I 
may be sure she has taken my exact idea. If I omit 
this, by accident, we are sure to have to begin again 
at the commencement. Having understood about the 
way the sun produces vapor, it was an easy step to rain 
and hail. None but those who have attempted it can 
fully understand the difficulty of commencing a new sub- 
ject with Laura. I must be very careful that no word 
is used in the explanation I give which is new to her. 
For instance : this morning after explaining the word 
'•vapor," I said, "The sun turns water into vapor." 
Now no one would think there was anything objection- 
able in this, but she asked, ' Do you mean turns 
I ou><d?" She had never chanced to have the word used 
in the sense of change^ and all her attention centred on 
that one word, and the truth I wished to teach her was 212 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
lost. If this were the case in only one sentence, it 
would be of no importance, but occurring frequently, 
despite all my care, it increases the difficulty much. 
In one of her lessons to-day she seeemed lazy and 
sleepy. I rapped on her forehead (a sign which she had 
adopted herself). She said, '"Why?" "Tosee if you 
have anything in it, have you?" "No, have you?" 
"Yes, brains." "Mybrains are asleep. Are brains 
and thoughts the same? How do people know about 
brains ? " 
Nov. 27. Sitnday. She said, " I am thinking about 
God. I want to go to heaven very much. I want to be 
very good." While taking a walk she returned to the 
subject, and said, " I was thinking much about God." 
On returning from church I found she had taken 
from the bookcase a copy of the Book of Proverbs in 
raised type. She said, " It is Proverbs' Book," and 
asked the meaning of a number of words. " Seek 
first." "Do you think much of heaven? I do." 
"What is thine?" Being told that it was the same as 
"yours," she said, " I think thine and possession are 
the same." She had learned this word when she was 
taught "British Possessions" on the map of North 
America. 
Nov. 28. Told her Thursday would be a holiday. 
" Is it Fast? " Gave her the word " Thanksgiving," and 
said that I was going to spend the day with an aunt. 
She asked to be allowed to go to the city to meet me on 
my return, and I agreed to it, if she could find any one 
to go with her. She said, " Does God know who will 
take me ? Is God ever surprised ? " It seems that, 
without a teacher, she is working out truths regarding 
God. LAUB A B BID GM AN. 
213 
Dec. 5. She was asking many questions about J.'s 
going to Boston, and how she was to come back. 
She told her, "In my own carriage." This puzzled her 
much ; she asked, " Why cannot I ride too ? " " Because 
there is not room." She talked a long time, completely 
mystified, and then I asked her what horses took her to 
Boston yesterday ? " My cloak, bonnet, etc." "Did your 
head take you ? " " No," but still she did not understand 
it until I told her the horses' names were Feet, and then 
she laughed heartily and asked, " Who is the driver?" 
" The head." She held her hands up to her forehead as 
if holding reins, and said, " My soul drives," and then 
changed it to, " Think drives." 
Dec. 6. Her lesson was forty sums in Section 14. 
Asked the meaning of "den, lack, cling, instance." 
"How do we know that God lives in heaven?" 
When told we read it, " How could God talk to 
men and tell them what to write in a book?" And 
then she made a noise which she calls talking, and 
asked if it was in that way. She said, " Dr. Howe 
said, he wanted to tell me all about God." At the time 
of Dr. Howe's marriage, it was evident that the ques- 
tion often arose in her mind, though never expressed in 
words, whether the new relations might not leave less 
space for herself in his affections, but this morning, 
December 7, it found utterance. " Does Doctor love me 
like Julia?" She was answered, "No." " Does he love 
Godlike Julia?" "Yes." When she came for her lesson, 
she repeated the question to me, adding, " God was 
kind to give him his wife." Noticing, as 1 had often 
done before, that thoughts of this kind, even though 
her better nature asserted itself in the end, were apt to 214 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
leave her in a state of mind that would readily develop 
into impatience, I alluded playfully to the manner the 
cat was washing her face, and this happening to be 
a new thought, diverted her attention. She could not 
understand how it was possible for pussy to use her 
paw without scratching herself, and we had a lesson an 
hour long on a kitten. At another time she asked if 
mules were so very sure-footed because they had more 
toes than other animals, which held in the ground. 
Dec. 12. On being shown where she had done wrong 
in not observing the wishes of Miss J , she said, " 1 
will not do it again. My thoughts tell me when 1 am 
good and when I am wrong." Gave her the new word 
" conscience." She repeated the story that I had read 
to her yesterday very well, remembering all the new 
words. Iler written abstracts do not compare favor- 
ably with the oral ones, for she cannot be made to feel 
that it is necessary to take time and paper to write fully 
as she talks, and in attempting abbreviations she makes 
mistakes. 
It is for this reason that her written productions can- 
not, with justice, be compared with these of the deaf- 
mutes who can see ; for if she could look over her own 
papers after writing, she would herself be surprised at 
the mistakes, and be able to correct most of them with- 
out having them pointed out. 
Dec. 14. Not in the right mood for arithmetic, there- 
fore it took an hour to do one example, although very 
easy. A lesson upon various shapes and the names of 
each had interested her much yesterday, and to-day she 
had collected in her mind all things in the house which 
were irregular in shape, to be told new names. In this LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
215 
way found she did not know the names of the most 
common cooking utensils, so the kitchen was our school- 
room. This led to a talk on meats. She said, " I 
thought turkey and chicken and ducks were all the 
same, they taste alike to me. I can tell beef from 
mutton, why can I not know turkey and chicken ? " 
On a previous page allusion is made to the fact that 
we thought that an improvement was perceptible in her 
sense of smell, and this has continued, though very 
gradual. She has always been a sufferer from a severe 
catarrhal affection, and as this shows signs of improve- 
ment, we hope for a corresponding one in both smell 
and taste. 
Dec. 15. She asked if the weather was pleasant, and 
being told it looked like snow she said, " Is God get- 
ting the snow ready to fall now ? " As she had recently 
had lessons on vapor, rain, hail, and snow, I recalled 
them to her by saying that the vapor had come into the 
cold air, and it was freezing the clouds now, so they 
would fall in snow, which she understood. Iler geog- 
raphy lesson was upon Chili, the Argentine Republic, 
and Patagonia with adjacent islands, and completed 
the map of South America. 
Dec. 18. She commenced Section 15, which puz- 
zled her. Yesterday, when out of school, she read 
in a history prepared for the blind, ana asked me an 
explanation of the sentence, Their arms were success- 
ful." I explained the last word and changed the sub- 
ject. This morning, after she had done one sum, she 
said, " My arms were very successful." Told her I 
thought it was her head that was successful in thinking 
about the sums, endeavoring to correct the false impres- 
sion she had received. 216 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
At some time she must know all the terrible things 
of history, wars and fightings, their causes and conse- 
quences, but my heart sank within me when this ques- 
tion opened the subject, and as I had not the privilege 
of telling her of the antidote to the sorrows and suffer- 
ings of this life, I felt justified in leaving the story of 
its woes. 
Dec. 18. While she was sitting at work this after- 
noon, I noticed that she made a fretting noise continu- 
ally, and a~ked, " Why do you fret to day?" " Some- 
thing troubles me." " What is it? " " I want to go to 
heaven ; people are not kind to me, and do not love me 
here as God does." " What people ? " " Many people." 
" What names? " " Rogers and Wight and Coolidge" 
(all teachers). "Am not I kind to you?" "Yes." 
"Why do you think they are not?" "Because they 
never come and sit by me, and talk to me much." Told 
her they all had much work to do for the other scholars, 
and could not have time to talk long with her, but they 
talked when they met her. 
She is always anxious to talk with every one, and 
knows that often persons who pass her in the house 
avoid her, as they must do when hurrying to some duty. 
At such times it is not strange that the feeling of being 
slighted should show itself; indeed, it is a cause of sur- 
prise to me that this does not lead to expressions which 
show a painful appreciation of her privations ; but in 
all the years I have been with her I have never known 
of such, and I do not think she suffers from this cause. 
Dec. 19. She led me to the china closet, saying, " I 
want to ask you about a shape," and handed me a glass 
with seven sides. She had learned previously " octa- LAVRA BRIDGMAN. 
217 
gon" and " hexagon." Next she found a twelve-sided 
glass, and then one with five sides, and another with ten. 
When she had learned all these hard names, and had 
seated herself to talk, she asked, "How do we know 
there is air? Why did God give us air? What is wind 
made of? Orrin's breath went away when he died. Why 
do we have blood? If we tie up our wrist very tight, 
so that blood cannot run, what will our hand do?" In 
geography she learned for the first time about a volcano. 
Iler questions were numerous: " When did the fire 
begin to come out? Who made the fire? Is it like the 
fire in our stoves? Can people go up on a volcano, will 
it burn them?" Then she thought of Niagara, and 
asked, 41 How steep does the water fall? Why does it 
not stop ? Will it never stop ? Why does it make a 
loud noise? Is it like a cannon? " 
The gradual development of her mind is shown very 
clearly in this way ; when first told about a new thing, 
Niagara for instance, she asks all the questions which 
occur to her at that time, but after a few months more of 
study, her field of inquiry is enlarged, and then she re- 
turns voluntarily to the subject for more information. 
Finding one of the canary birds dead, thought it a 
good time to let her examine it, as she has often tried to 
do when held in my hand alive. She asked, " Why did it 
die? " " Are the other birds lonely and sad?" " Why 
cannot you know about them?" (how they feel.) She 
wanted Oliver to see it, and Miss Rogers led him down to 
the parlor, where they sat and talked some time about it. 
She said afterwards, " If I stopped my breath ten min- 
utes I should die. What should you do if you should 
come to this room after I had been alone, and I had 218 
L.4P/M BRIDGMAN. 
stopped my breath and died? Would you be sad? 
Would you like to have God stop your breath, and die 
to-day? When God wants you, how can he stop vour 
breath?" 
Dec. 21. Laura's fourteenth birthday ; she asked me, 
"Do you like fourteen?" In writing an account of 
the story of yesterday, she had much difficulty, as she 
always does when she has to report a conversation 
between two or three persons ; she becomes confused on 
the person and number of both pronouns and verbs. 
Dec. 22. She find < more trouble with Section 15 than 
any she has had this term in arithmetic. She told me 
she dreamed that she went to Philadelphia with me to 
make a visit, and that she had a very good time. Iler 
hdad was so full of it that she wanted to talk of my 
home, and to have me tell her " about all the furniture 
in it" and the rooms in each story, which word, thus 
applied, was new to-day. Next she wished to talk about 
going early to bed. She has been growing increasingly 
sensitive upon this point, and the birthday of yesterday 
has made her feel very much older. " I am large enough 
to sit up till eight." " Doctor thinks it is bettor for you 
to sleep much, and he knows best." " If Doctor knows 
best, why does not your (little) sister Lizzie go to bed 
at half past seven ; your father (is a doctor) knows 
best? I think when I go to live with Doctor and Mrs. 
Howe in his house, I shall sit up till half past eight." 
She argued the point nearly an hour, and then was not 
convinced by my reasoning that she was not too old to go 
to bed at half past s.even. 
Dec. 23. She surprised me by doing eighteen sums. 
When I told her how well she had done she made a L A URA BRID GMA N. 
219 
very sad noise. I asked why. " I feel very sad that I 
did not do sums well yesterday and Thursday." She 
said this not because I had reproved her on either of 
these days, but because she is so ambitious that the 
distress at being obliged to delay on account of any 
new difficulty is great. She brought a feather of a pea- 
cock, and wanted me to tell her what a bird could 
do with such long feathers, the habits of the bird, and 
then we talked of parrots, and their speaking, which 
is a subject on which she is somewhat sensitive ; for it is 
a singular fact that while she expresses no feeling that 
men, women, and children can talk and she cannot, she 
always feels it when she learns of any of the lower 
animals speaking or hearing. Questioned her on the 
map that has North and South America upon it for 
the first time, asking miscellaneous questions, such as, 
"Which way is Cape Horn from Cape Farewell ? " all 
which she answered without hesitation. 
Visitors to the Institution will remember a 
very large globe, thirteen feet in circumference, 
which stands in the circular hall of entrance. Iler 
success on the map made me desirous of testing 
her upon this. 
I supposed that the convex surface would trouble her, 
and the raised lines were also different from those to 
which she was accustomed on the maps, but she was 
pleased when told she should have the rest of her lesson 
upon it. Her first remark was, " It is too eery large." 
This expression was not a usual one, but neither quali- 
fying word adequately expressed her idea of its size, 
so she used both. I placed her hand on the Russian 220 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
Possessions in North America, and moved it to Mexico, 
to give her an idea of the scale of distance. I then 
asked her to find the Gulf of Mexico, Hudson's Bay, etc., 
which she did at once, and indeed she found every 
place I called for. even to Boston. The blind children 
have never been able to do much on this globe in 
the first day's lesson, and I looked on with astonishment 
to see her fingers move so rapidly, scarce touching any- 
thing apparently but the spot called for. 
When passing the globe recently the recollec- 
tion of this lesson came freshly to my mind, and 
the wonderful feat, performed by touch alone, im- 
pressed me more than ever before. 
Dec. 26. Another lesson on the globe; she found 
nearly all the capitals of the United States, and the 
chief cities of South America, and then of her own ac- 
cord compared the Atlantic and Pacific to find their 
size, and asked to be taught the countries on the other 
side of the globe. This certainly shows very intelligent 
study of geography, but she had to be told it was best 
to learn first on the maps about the other, continents, and 
then she could study again upon the globe. 
Dec. 27. On Miss R.'s return after Christmas, Laura 
happened to be much interested in conversation with 
someone, and pushed her away when she attempted to 
speak to her. We thought it best to give her no oppor- 
tunity to speak to her again for some time. To-day 
she asked, " Why does not Rogers come to see me?" I 
replied, "You can tell me why," and she at once con- 
fessed what she had done. After talking some time she 
said, " Why do you not send me to the House of Correc- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
221 
tion ? " Last week I had read her a story about an idle boy 
who was sent there. She answered the question herself 
by saying, "You can send me to my chamber ; that is my 
House of Correction." She said this very seriously, and 
was much troubled that she could not talk to Miss R. 
Dec. 29. She has reached the tables of weights and 
measures in Colburn's Arithmetic, and learned Federal 
and English money. She commenced the map of Eu- 
rope, taking Great Britain for a lesson. 
Dec. 30. She talked about catamounts, panthers, and 
leopards, of which she had seen models yesterday. I 
asked her if she would like to live in the woods with 
them. " No, I should be sore because they would bite 
me so much. W ould they eat me ? " "If they were very 
hungry they would eat you for dinner." " Should I not 
go to heaven ? I shall not see you in heaven. " '' Why ? " 
" I shall talk with my mouth." " Will you not talk with 
me? " " I shall be busy seeing strangers." It is not 
surprising that with the idea of her pleasure in heaven, 
should mingle that of being able to communicate with 
others than the little circle which surrounds her here. 222 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER XII. 
January, 1844. Dr. Howe has been absent in Europe 
eight months to-day. Laura met me saying, " It is new 
happy year day." I wished her a Happy New Year, and 
she extended her hand to the east, spelling with her 
fingers the words, " Happy New Year," but added, with 
a laugh, " Doctor cannot know I say so." 
Reviewed the tables which she learned last week, and 
added to them dry, ale, and wine measures Found it 
a very difficult matter to explain the difference between 
" want " and " wish " to her. 
Jan. 2. Completed the tables this morning; when 
studying that of time, she asked, " How did men know 
that sixty seconds make one minute?" She had a call 
from a young lady who was deaf and dumb, but very 
graceful and pleasing in her manners. One would hardly 
suppose that Laura would perceive this with her one 
sense, but as soon as she had left she began to draw a 
comparison between Miss L. and herself, in which she 
acknowledged herself inferior. She perceived that some 
of the children were making New Year's presents 
yesterday, and desiring to imitate them she spent all 
her spare time in making " an apron for little Susan's 
doll, very nice and pretty, for a New Year's present." 
Jan. 4. In her journal she wrote, " I thought 
about heaven and God, that he would invite me some 223 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
time when he is ready for us to go to him. He made 
it storm very much." Advanced as far as Spain on the 
map of Europe, but she became so much interested in 
that country and its people that it occupied all the 
hour. She asked many questions about their dress. I 
told her of a Spanish girl I had' seen at a concert, of 
her pretty dress and beautiful hair. Did she talk 
English?" Told her I heard her say, " Mui bien" to 
see if she remembered the words. I had told them to 
her long ago, as an example of Spanish, at the time she 
tried to read a Latin book. She said at once, " Very 
well," and then told me other words which I had said 
to her then " Do they have the same animals in Spain 
that God made, that they do in England? Why do 
Spanish people come to America? " 
Jan. 7. Laura's school bad to be much interrupted 
to-day, on account of Miss J.'s illness. She bore this 
much better than she did when it occurred last week 
from my own illness, and was very sympathetic, 
anxious about her medicines, when they were to be 
taken, etc. To make me forget her unkindness at that 
time she has been very affectionate, telling me how 
much she loves me, and kissing and hugging me very 
often. 
Jan. 12. She talked about dreams, and said, " Some- 
times I dream about God." What do you dream ? " "I 
dreamed that I was in the entry, the round entry where 
Lurena was rolling in her chair (an invalid chair), and 
I went into a good place, that God knew I could not 
fall off the edge of the floor." This entry had an open- 
ing in the floor for the passage of light to the lower hall, 
around which was a railing, and I understood that in 224 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
her dream she was within the rail, having tried to avoid 
the chair. Again she said, " T dreamed God took away 
my breath to heaven," accompanying the words with 
the sign of drawing something from her mouth. 
In writing out a story which I had read to her, she 
remembered a sentence in it, which was, "You must 
thank the rabbit for your hat," meaning that it was made 
from the skin of a rabbit; but she took its literal sense, 
and stopped writing to say, " I cannot thank him; he 
cannot talk or know signs." 
Jan. 13. She did but few sums, as she had forgotten 
about reducing fractions to their lowest terms. She 
wrote an account of the seal, and I found she under- 
stood it well, though read to her only once, and in 
almost the exact language of the encyclopaedia. She is 
in a great hurry to get to Russia, probably because it 
is so extensive ; she found the White Sea and rivers 
running into it without any help to-day. 
Jan. 15. Laura did the sums which had puzzled her 
so much on Saturday as fast as I could myself. Her 
ability to overcome difficulties between two days is 
very peculiar, and she must think about them when she 
is sitting alone, for I never allude to arithmetic after 
the lesson isover, and she never asks me any questions, 
but it often happens that I leave her in a puzzle, and at 
the next lesson all goes smoothly. 
Jan. 16. Yesterday Laura went to call on Miss 
Jeannette, who was visiting in Boston, and while I was. 
absent spent her time in fault-finding. Eunice was 
wrong because she had girls come into her kitchen ; 
Frank was wrong because he came over J.'s stairs to 
find Rogers. To each of these charges, which were evi- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
225 
dently made that J. might censure these persons, the 
answer was, she was very glad they came. " Swift is 
not nice, she put her dress on the bed," etc. About 
three months ago she did the same thing, and I talked 
with her a long time about it, until I thought she saw 
the wrong and felt sorry for it. When I called for her 
to take her home, she wanted to talk with me, but I told 
her I could not talk ; that J. said she had been unkind, 
and I wanted her to think about it. She said no more, 
and soon after we got home it was time for her to go to 
bed. This morning at nine I told her I wanted to talk 
about it She looked very sad when I asked her to tell 
me what she told J. In all the charges against Eunice 
and Frank, I showed her where they were both right in 
doing what they did; in reply to those she brought 
against myself, I told her of some careless things 
which she did yesterday when preparing to walk, such 
as pulling a dress down and leaving it on the floor, a 
closet door open, etc , and asked her if she would like 
to have me go to J. and tell of them that she might blame 
her ; and when I said that I shut the door, and hung up 
the dress, she answered, "You were kind, I was very 
unkind." I talked with her some time to convince her 
how often she might tell wrong stories, by blaming peo- 
ple for things she did not know about. She said, 
" Whose people did I blame?" I did not understand 
what she meant, and answered, "You blamed many peo- 
ple." " I blamed the Lord's people," said she. I was 
surprised at this, and asked, " What does Lord's mean ? " 
" God's, I saw it in a book," and she showed it to me 
in " The Child's Second Book," the Commandments, " I 
am the Lord thy God," etc. She said, " How can I ask 226 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
God to forgive me for blaming his people?" "You 
can ask him in your thoughts." " Can I know when he 
forgives me, how can I know ? " " He will give you good 
thoughts." The next hour was for writing; she came 
to me and said, " I have asked God to forgive me, and 
I hope I shall not be unkind." She seated herself to 
write, but it was long before she could do so. I took a 
seat at a short distance from her and tried to read her 
conversation with herself, her soliloquy. She said to 
herself, " I am very sorry." " Doctor said he preferred 
to teach me himself." " Why cannot I know?" " It 
makes me very nervous." There was much more, but 
too rapid for me to read. 
Jan. 17. Gave her a lesson in philosophy on the 
lever. She seemed to understand the three kinds, so 
that she could tell me what kind I used when taking 
coals with the tongs, ashes with the shovel, shutting a 
door, etc., and in one more lesson will do very well. 
After the lesson she said, " I think God has sent me 
good thoughts. I am very happy to-day; I do not feel 
cross any " I asked why she kissed me so much ; she 
said, " Because I love you so much; you are very kind 
to teach me many new things." 
Jan. 19. In the hour for conversation she intro- 
duced the subject of dreaming again. " Why does 
God give us dreams? Last night I dreamed I talked 
with my mouth. Did you hear me talk?" " No ; I was 
asleep." " I talked as any people do in dreams." To 
the question, " What words did you dream?" I could 
get no answer. 44 Do Spanish people dream like us? 
Do they dream words like us?" 
Jan. 20. We took a walk to Boston, and though 227 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
the thermometer was at 3°, and a high wind was blow- 
ing, Laura did not seem to mind it much. Reversed 
the usual order in geography by pointing her finger to 
the place, and asking for its name. A missionary 
from the West visited us, and said he had seen an 
Indian girl eighteen years of age, -who was born deaf, 
dumb, and blind. She resides with her tribe in the 
northern part of Michigan State Laura was much 
interested in her, and thought it would be a good 
arrangement for the girl to come here so that I could 
teach her. I suggested that she might teach her her- 
self, and she was quite willing to do so. At the tea- 
table to-night she amused herself by an imaginary 
conversation with Dr. Howe after his return. Holding 
out her hand to the chair at the table where he usually 
sat. she asked such questions as, " Are you tired of 
going very far? Did you want to come back?" At 
noon she asked Miss Rogers if Oliver knew about God. 
She looked very sad when *Miss Rogers said no, and 
asked her why she did not teach him 
Jan. 24. When talking with J. she asked, " When 
you ask God to give you good thoughts do you say, 
Lord, God, Father, My Heavenly, give me good 
thoughts?" She probably got these words from some 
book. She asked also, " When you look up do you see 
heaven ? " 
Jan. 26. She was complaining much of the cold, and 
I took occasion to turn her thoughts to the poor, tell- 
ing her of the sufferings of a family I had visited yester- 
day. Her first question was, " Is God kind to the 
poor woman ? " 
She completed the circuit of Europe, and now, to her 228 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
great delight, we have conversations on the objects of 
interest in the various countries, the people, their hab- 
its, articles of commerce, etc. 
P. M. A large number of the representatives vis- 
ited us. Laura had a very interesting conversation on 
their duties, asked them (through myself as interpreter) 
many very appropriate questions, and having fully under- 
stood the importance of laws, she asked if they sent them 
to Dr Howe, that he might know what they were, and 
why they wanted the blind girls to go to the State 
House every winter. 
Jan. 31. A very cold walk to-day. Laura com- 
plained but little, though she remarked, " It is like the 
northern parts of North America ; I think beavers could 
live here." 
Twenty-Eight of January. 
My very Dear Dr. Howe : 
What can I first say to God when I am wrong? 
Would he send me good thoughts & forgive me when I 
am very sad for doing wrong ? Why does he not love 
wrong people, if they love Him? Would he be very 
happy to have me think of Him & Heaven very often? 
Do you remember that you said I must think of God & 
Heaven ? I want you to please to answer me to please 
me. I have learned about great many things to please 
you very much. Mrs. Harrington has got new little 
baby eight days last Saturday. God was very gener- 
ous & kind to give babies to many people. Miss Rog- 
ers' mother has got baby two months ago. I want to 
see you very much. I send much love to you. Is God 
ever ashamed? I think of God very often to love Him. 
Why did you say that I must think of God? You must LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
229 
answer me all about it, if you do not I shall be sad. 
Shall we know what to ask God to do? When will lie 
let us go to see him in Heaven? How did God tell 
people that he lived in Heaven? How could He take 
care of folks in Heaven? Why is He our Father? 
When can He let us go in Heaven? Why cannot lie 
let wrong people to go to live with Him & be happy? 
Why should He not like to have us ask Him to send us 
good thoughts if we are not very sad for doing wrong ? 
Feb. 2. At nine, Laura asked, " Do you remember 
about the woollen gloves that I had two years ago, and 
that I hid them and told a lie about them, because I did 
not like them?" She talked of nothing but this the 
whole hour; said she was sorry she did so, and that the 
reason was, because she preferred to wear kid gloves. 
She spoke of her work yesterday, and I told her she 
was very industrious to knit so much. She appeared 
happy, and told me she would try to be very gentle all 
day, and not tire me, because I was weak and sick. 
At eleven we had an interesting lesson on the climates 
of Europe. At noon I was requested to take Laura to 
the school-room, as special company would be present. 
While waiting their arrival I was talking with her about 
the different kinds of coal, and the manner of making 
charcoal; we had just commenced the latter subject, 
when I noticed that she had left her handkerchief upon 
the desk. (At this time our dresses were not made 
with pockets, but as her handkerchief was in frequent 
use, she always carried it about with her.) She had 
been told repeatedly why it was not proper to leave it 
on the outside of the desk, and as she was so scrupulous 230 
LAC77L4 BRIDGMAN. 
in other matters of propriety, T supposed when she con- 
tinued to do it. that it was from inadvertence, though I 
had noticed, within a few days, increasing impatience 
when reminded of it. I paused in our conversation for 
an instant to say, " Put your handkerchief in your desk " 
She hesitated and put it in her lap, saying, " T prefer 
to put it in my lap," and held up her hand for me to go 
on with my story. She knew that I objected to this 
because it was in the way when she had to leave her 
desk to go to the map. I said, " I told you to put it 
in the desk, and now I want you to do it." She sat 
still for about two minutes, and then lifted the lid very 
high, threw the handkerchief into the desk, and let it 
fall with such a noise as to startle all in the school- 
room. Her face was growing pale, and she was evi- 
dently getting into a passion. Whenever I have seen 
anything of this kind in the past year, the question, 
"Are you angry?" has always recalled her to her 
senses; but now she answered, "I am very cross " I 
said to her, " I am very sorry, and I am very sorry you 
shut the desk so hard. I want you to open it again, 
and take your handkerchief, and put it in gently." 
Putting on a very firm look, she said, " I will take it 
out to wipe my eyes, and put it back," meaning, " not 
to mind you." I told her I wanted her first to put it in 
gently. After a moment's hesitation, she took it out, 
let the cover slam as before, and then raised it to wipe 
her eyes. I said, "No," decidedly, and gently took 
her hand down. She sat still awhile, and then uttered 
the most frightful yell I ever heard. Her face was 
pale, and she trembled from head to foot. At this 
moment 1 heard the sound of visitors approaching, and LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
231 
only waited to say, " Yow must go and sit alone " A 
second she clung to my dress and then went quietly 
with me to her room. 
At dinner-time I led her to the table, without speak- 
ing, and after that, gave her a chair to sit by herself, 
without work. Instead of looking troubled, as she 
generally does after having done anything wrong, she 
assumed an expression of indifference, talked to herself 
a little, and then feigned sleep. When she had taken 
tea, I asked her if she thought she could do what I told 
her to do this morning, if I let her go to the school- 
room. She said she would. I led her in and she did it 
very quietly. After this I talked an hour with her, 
trying to get her to feeling as she ought. She acknowl- 
edged the wrong at once, and said she was sorry, but 
her countenance indicated anything but sorrow. I left 
her during the hour for reading, and when I returned, 
she looked more troubled, and I told her she might go 
to bed, hoping that her own thoughts would bring her 
to a right state of feeling. 
Saturday, Feb. 3. This morning have talked with 
Laura again, and am completely discouraged. I have 
tried every argument and appealed to every motive, 
with only partial success. The only thing which 
seemed to move her at all was, that I did not want to 
punish her, but that I could not let her do many things 
to-day to make her happy ; when she went to exhibi- 
tion I could not let Sophia talk with her, and could not 
let her go to the scholars' party in the evening, because 
only good girls went. But these were direct appeals to 
selfishness, find they were all that touched her. I did not 
know what to do, and never felt the need of counsel 232 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
more. As I had exhausted every argument, I thought I 
would try the effeet of a lesson in geography; so 
taught her something about the produce of different 
countries of Europe and of their manufactures. She 
was very quiet during this, and also a writing lesson 
which followed. The regular lesson for the last hour's 
school would have been the reading of a story, and I 
thought best to omit it. At dinner, she seemed to be 
v< ry well satisfied with herself. When it was time to 
go into the school-room for the exhibition, she said, " I 
think I had better not go." I merely said, " It is time," 
and took her hand to lead her. During the exhbition 
she said, " Is Sophia here?" I told her she was in her 
desk in the school-room. " I am very happy," was the 
only reply. There was a spirit of defiance in Laura that 
I had never seen before. A few moments after, she 
attempted to kiss me, thinking she could take advan- 
tage of the presence of company. She answered ques- 
tions readily and was willing to do what I wished her 
to do. At seven, I told her she could go to bed, and 
she went without any objection, but still with the same 
expression of countenance. 
Sunday, Feb. 4. As Laura proposed that she should 
sit alone to-day, I left her this forenoon in the base- 
ment, where she had seated herself. When I returned 
from church, she did not appear to be troubled at all. 
I led her to dinner and then of her own accord she 
returned to the same place. At the tea-table she 
seemed much more sad, and after tea I sat down by 
her to try what effect I could produce then. I could 
now perceive a great difference, and after I told her how 
wrong it was that she did not feel more sad for doing LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
233 
wrong, she said, " I do feel very sad now. I was sad 
and cried this afternoon, and thought I was very wrong, 
and I asked God to forgive me and send me good 
thoughts and to love me." She then asked the old 
question, " What shall I ask God first, when I ask him 
to give me good thoughts? Must I say, ' Lord, Father, 
my Heavenly ? ' " I answered her that she could say 
just what she thought first. 1 told her that I was glad 
that she felt better now and that I would forgive her, 
and I hoped she would never be angry again. She 
said, " I think 1 never shall do so again. Why do I 
feel so very sad after I ask God to forgive me, and 
when you forgive me ? " Told her because she felt so 
sorry she had done wrong at all. 
If, in a faithful chronicle, the record of these 
last few days could have been omitted, it would be 
desirable both for Laura and myself. The remem- 
brance of my anxiety to act wisely will never fade 
from my mind, but the experience of added years 
shows me that in those first few moments of 
excitement, it would have been wiser to have 
avoided the issue, and obtained submission in some 
other way The fact that visitors were momen- 
tarily expected in the room, and the desire that no 
one should see Laura under such circumstances, 
added to the complications on my part. 
I had felt for some time that a crisis was ap- 
proaching, for, while there had been no act of pos- 
itive disobedience, yet there was manifest to all 
who came in contact with her an inclination to 234 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
submit to proper authority only after much argu- 
ment. 
That a development like this should come as a 
parenthesis in a lesson in which she was much 
interested, and to which she was anxious to return, 
was a surprise, and the intensity of her feeling 
was not suspected by me, for I supposed I had 
only to say, " Are you angry ? " and that she would 
recover herself, as she had often done in previous 
times of excitement. Here was my error, and 
could I have seen the end from the beginning, I 
should not have asked the question, but have led 
her quietly to her own room, and left her to her 
meditations. The next step, unfortunately, devel- 
oped the worst features of the case, - a declara- 
tion of persistent disobedience, and the violent 
expression of passion, which was more like an ani- 
mal than a human being, followed by the assump- 
tion of an air of wilful indifference. 
It will be seen that she rendered literal obedi- 
ence on the evening of the first day, but if I had 
accepted that, her own conscience would not have 
been satisfied, and although many may differ 
from me in opinion, I believe that all good effects 
of this trial on her future life would have been 
lost. 
It was not a desire to obtain a passive obedience 
to my stronger will which led me to take the 
course I did at this time, but a thoughtful, unim- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
235 
passioned study of the case, and the conviction 
that this was a crisis in which she was to conquer 
herself, or ever after to be subject to her passions. 
Painfully realizing my own inexperience and lack 
of wisdom, with no one to share the responsibility, 
the hours of waiting seemed days, and the days, 
weeks. It would have been far easier to throw 
my arms about her, and tell her how much sorrow 
she was givingme, and then her sympathies would 
have been touched, and, as had often happened 
before, she would have yielded, only, however, 
as before, to be overcome again very soon. 
That she won the victory at last, and that hers 
was a true repentance no one will doubt, and 
when, with an expression which she could so well 
give with her fingers, she said, "I think I shall 
never do so again," our tears flowed together, and 
o' O 7 
she did not doubt my love for her. 
Monday, Feb. 5. Laura's arithmetic lesson was in 
simple fellowship, and she performed the examples with- 
out difficulty. At nine gave her a lesson on the ther- 
mometer ; explained the scale, mixed snow and salt to 
show her how far the mercury would go down in the 
tube She was delighted with the lesson, and led me 
from room to room waiting in each to see its tempera- 
ture. When she came for her writing lesson she asked, 
" Why do I love you so very much to-day?" 
Feb. 7. At this time Mr. Fisher was painting the 
picture of Laura and Oliver, and while sitting with her 
in his studio, I gave her a lesson on France. When 236 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
she found he had been there, she had many questions 
to ask. 
Feb. 8. She was quite indignant when told in a les- 
son on bees that there were drones among them. 
Feb. 12. In reading "The Harvey Boys," she found 
the word "drunkards," and asked what it meant. A 
long conversation followed on the effects of different 
drinks, how men behaved who drank too much cider or 
wine or rum or brandy. She said, " I want to talk a 
long time about drunkards." Told her I did not like 
to think or talk about them. " Will you talk about 
crazy people? Will you talk about dizzy people?" 
She has always confounded these two words, though 
they have often been explained to her. 
Feb. 13. Last evening Laura was in a very happy 
mood, and before she went to bed she informed Miss J. 
that she was going to caper. This word she had just 
learned Hearing a great noise, we went up quietly to 
see what she was doing. We found her ready for bed, 
but jumping from the bedstead and running to the next 
room, then returning to do the same. This she con- 
tinued half a dozen times and then threw herself down 
exhausted. After resting, she commenced it again and 
continued it for a quarter of an hour, occasionally stop- 
ping to see the effect on the sacking which held the bed, 
and when she discovered that it was dropping down, 
she laughed most heartily. Tired of this, she swung 
her closet door violently on its hinges for five minutes, 
until I feared she would suffer from cold, and spoke to 
her to tell her it was time to go to sleep. It was a very 
ludicrous scene, and I presume it was all suggested to 
her by something which I had said when explaining the LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
237 
word " caper." She had thought it over, and then 
decided she would try it herself. This morning I 
laughed with her about it and told her she must have a 
bed of iron if she wished to use it to jump upon, and 
that she must go up to bed at seven o'clock, so as not 
to disturb the girls who went to bed early. " I do not 
want to caper any more," she said. " 1 did it last night 
because 1 thought Doctor was coming so soon." I had 
told her that the young lambs capered to express their 
joy. 
Feb. 23. She asked about jails,-if they had win- 
dows, etc., and then imagined herself there, and said, 
" What would you dojf I had to go to jail? What 
would Doctor say?''etc. In her walk to the Point to- 
day. she was much interested in examining the blocks of 
ice which had been thrown one upon another by the 
tide. As it was low water, we could walk around among 
them. She showed that she had some appreciation 
of the descriptions of Swiss scenery that had been 
given her, by saying, " I think they are like mountains 
and glaciers." 
Feb. 24. She is advancing very slowly now in 
arithmetic, her lessons being in the last miscellaneous 
examples in Colburn's Mental Arithmetic. Yesterday 
she succeeded in performing several and then found one 
which puzzled her, so it was left for this morning's les- 
son. '.t his morning she had the answer ready for me, 
having thought it out by herself. She w'as much 
pleased with some of the visitors to-day, when told they 
were from Scotland, England, and the Azore Islands 
F<b. 26. For sometime I have been desirous of 
knowing how much she remembered about words which 238 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
were taught her long ago, many of which she had prob- 
ably never had occasion to use, and for a review decided 
it would be a good exercise for her to take my old jour- 
nal of two years ago. She liked the plan. We found 
many wordp which she had forgotten, and some of which 
she had very incorrect ideas, while there were many that 
she explained perfectly, although she has never used 
them. 
Talking of families, she asked, " Are there families 
in heaven ? " I notice a marked difference in her man- 
ner of talking about the same words now ; she asks so 
many questions showing a great increase in intelligence. 
Feb. 29. After working a long time she finished an 
example in arithmetic, and when it was accomplished it 
seemed so easy to her that she said, " I am very dull." 
Having completed our " talks" upon the countries of 
Europe, I gave her a review lesson on the boundaries 
of all the countries, and was surprised to find what a 
correct idea she had of their situation. She asked me to 
define pauper; "the book says, there are nineteen hun- 
dred and sixty-nine paupers." The question k< Where ?" 
showed that she had only read so much of the sentence, 
but when referred to the book she replied, " Tn the 
United States." It will be long, I fear, before she will 
be able to read correctly, owing to this habit of taking 
part of the author's meaning; but she enjoys reading 
very much. She brought many words for explanation 
from " The Harvey Boys." Vice was explained to her 
as something wrong, and she said, " I viced last week." 
As I was explaining the word " limbs" in its various 
uses, she stopped me to ask, "How can God help hear- 
ing when I ask him to forgive me ? " I had to tell her LA Uli A BRIDGMAN. 
239 
that I did not want to talk about it until Dr. Howe 
answered her letters, and returned to the other subject, 
saying that the snow was falling fast, and the limbs 
of the trees were loaded with it. Another day, she 
as suddenly changed the conversation by asking, " IIow 
large is heaven? Is there a door to heaven? and how 
does the sky look ? What is it made of? " 
March 6 The deaf-mute pupils from the Hartford 
Asylum were to give an exhibition at the State House. 
Laura was told of it and that I was going to attend, and 
was very particular in her directions to me to see what 
signs they made and to tell her. She has had a num- 
ber of visitors who have been educated at Hartford, 
and is always much amused by the signs they made. 
As she has never been taught anything but the finger 
alphabet, of course their signs are without meaning to 
her. 
March 7. We received notice that the Governor 
and Council, and Mr. Weld with his deaf-mute pupils, 
would visit us this afternoon, and as is always my cus- 
tom, when there is to be any such unusual excitement 
for Laura, I prepared for this visit by taking a walk of 
five miles with her. I reported to her the exhibition 
yesterday, and told her how very well all the little girls 
behaved, and she said she should try to do as well to-day 
as the girls did yesterday. When they arrived, Laura 
had many questions to ask about Julia Brace, the deaf, 
dumb, and blind woman, who was here for a time, and 
in whom she was much interested. One of the girls 
asked her where she was brought up. As she did not 
understand that expression, she changed it to, " Where 
were you born?" Laura did not reply to her, but 240 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
turned to me, and said quite indignantly, "I cannot 
remember when I was born." Mr. Weld, the teacher, 
talked to her some time, and as he was leaving her, 
said, " I love you and I will pray God to bless you." 
She immediately turned to me and said, "What is 
pray?" "To ask God." "What is bless?" "To 
give you good thoughts." Nothing more was said to 
me. 
March 8. Laura appeared very thoughtful this morn- 
ing, and said, when she came for her lesson, "Will it 
do any good for Mr. Weld to pray God to bless me?" 
She sat thinking for a w'hile. and then said, " Will we be 
afraid to die ? " I asked why we should be afraid to 
die. She replied, " Because we do not know any one," 
meaning in heaven. T saw she had not given me all 
her reasons, so repeated the question, and she said hes- 
itatingly, " Because we cannot be very sure that God 
will want us. We cannot knoiv that we have been very 
good when we live here, and we should be afraid he 
would not want us in heaven." I was surprised at this 
conversation, for she must have been thinking much 
upon the subject, and to be working out by herself many 
truths. 
Governor Briggs asked her to write a letter to him. 
She was anxious that the writing should be very nice. 
Eighth of March. 
My Dear Governor: 
I am very glad that you take care of people, & that 
you are very kind. Yesterday I sent Julia Brace a 
present to please her very much, & I hope that she 
■will remember me for many years. She was here one 
year, & we all loved her very much. I was sad she LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
241 
went away & could never learn here anymore. I should 
like to have you come to see me & the blind girls again 
when you can. Dear friend, good-bye. 
March 11. She inquired into the cause of choking 
when drinking, and this opened the way for her first 
lesson in physiology. She had many questions to ask, 
as, " How can men know we have wind-pipes ? Are 
they made of iron?" Asked her if she thought hers 
was iron, and she said, "No, flesh." Yesterday Miss 
Rogers came from church a few moments before I did, 
and found Laura reading " The Book of Psalms," and 
looking very pale and much excited. She said, " God 
is angry with the wicked every day. I was angry this 
year and last year, and I deceived Swift many times." 
Miss R. changed the subject, and got her interested in 
something else but when I came home she began on 
the same subject; she said, " God will judge all people. 
What is judge?" I told her she could not understand 
all that book now, but that when Dr Howe came home 
she would learn more. Her countenance brightened, 
and she said, " When are you going to teach me about 
God and heaven ? " 
March 12. Having walked to the city with Laura, 
found I could take her on board a brig just arrived from 
Lubec, Germany. While we were there the vessel 
moved from one part of the wharf to another. She 
expressed much fear that we should go too far, and 
asked me to " tell the men to throw the anchor." Had 
a very good opportunity to teach her many new words. 
The various parts of the ship, masts, ropes, cables, 
cabin, etc., as we were allowed to go about as we chose. 242 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
After getting home we talked it all over, so she might 
write an account of her visit to-morrow. Reviewed 
North America, which she remembers well. 
March 13. Find she has forgotten more on South 
America than on any other map ; but the wonder is 
she remembers as much as she does. In her lesson 
yesterday I told her we spoke of the sun as he, and to- 
day she asked, "Does he shine?" thinking that the 
improved way of asking the question. When telling 
me about some punishments that she received long ago, 
she said she was put in a closet, and asked, " Why do 
you not punish me so now? Why do my thoughts 
punish me now?" She is very industrious, and has 
knit four purses this week. 
This is not a forced industry ; indeed, it is hard to 
induce her to rest when we think she is weary. She 
takes up her work immediately on returning from a 
long walk, when most girls would think they had a 
good excuse for being idle, and even in the recesses, 
between the hours of school, she occupies every mo- 
ment. At the beginning of the week she delights in 
making her plans, and wishes me to select the various 
colors of silk she is to use, so that she may lose no 
time in waiting for them. Once having told her how 
they are to be arranged I leave it entirely to her, and 
she 'rarely forgets, or has to ask me anything about 
them. If there is any new pattern or the style of work 
is to be changed, she learns it quickly, far more so than 
many do who can see, and she enjoys a variety. 
March IS. At nine this morning she brought me a 
letter which she had written to Mrs. Morton, her old 
teacher. She has so much to say to her, and feels so LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
243 
sure that she will have no difficulty in understanding 
it, that she is very careless about the writing, and it 
took some time to correct all the mistakes. This I do, 
not upon the letters, but merely as a good exercise for 
her. When this was done, she produced a paper with 
the following words upon it: " perish, example, prop- 
erty, repeated, prince, lest, proverbs, afflicted, advice, 
recommend, poverty, wretched, chapters, pervert, an 
allusion, Jews, insensible, Romans, Saviour, offered, 
mingled, crucified, disgraceful, writer. Will you tell 
me what they mean ? " she said. I told her I thought 
it would be best for her to ask me those that she could 
remember, rather than for me to read them from the 
paper to her, as she would remember them longer. 
Iler custom is, after I give the definition, to frame a 
sentence and introduce the word. She began with 
" perish " ; was told it meant to die, and said, " Betsy 
Smith perished last summer." Of " poverty" she said 
nothing in reply to the meaning given. " Romans " and 
"Jews" she understood easily about, but "advice" 
seemed to be harder for her. She asked, " Are ' ad- 
vice ' and ' description' the same? " Left it for another 
time. " Offered, writer, disgraceful, and afflicted" she 
applied correctly at once. When told that I did not 
think she could understand Proverbs now, she said, 
"The Harvey boys said it"; and that she thought a 
reason that she should know it too. 
I gave her the words " setting a good example and a 
bad example." She was much pleased with them, and 
said, " Frank set Susan* a very bad example yester- 
* Two little deaf-mute children. 244 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
(lay; he opened the drawers and Susan rubbed his hand 
(a sign of wrong) and said he was wrong. That was a 
very bad example." This was one of the lessons that 
has no stopping-place, and she presses her questions 
upon me so rapidly that I am obliged to overstep the 
bounds of prudence, though I think it does her more 
injury to be held back than to gratify her desire for 
knowledge. When writing in her journal she told me 
she had used three new words, " neither, nor, and 
violently." 
March 19. Reviewed yesterday's lesson, and found 
that many of the words she understood correctly, while 
of others, as "proverbs" and " advice," she got no 
correct idea. She asked the meaning of " prince," and 
wrote in her journal of the day, " God is a prince, 
because Ue takes care of his people." Commenced the 
maps of Asia, and she learned the boundaries of Sibe- 
ria, the large rivers, rise and course, bays, seas, moun- 
tains, and islands in the Arctic Ocean. 
March 20. The whole hour was occupied in doing 
one sum, but as so often happens, she did all the diffi- 
cult part very easily, and then got puzzled on a simple 
thing. 
March 21. She did two examples, frequently com- 
plimenting herself on her uncommon acuteness. One 
question was about the trees in an orchard : " One half 
the trees bear apples," etc ; she stopped to ask, " Did 
you ever eat any bear apples ? " She had never hap- 
pened to know any other use of that word but as the 
name of an animal, and probably supposed that the 
apples were a kind which bears liked to eat. Before 
the arithmetic lesson could go on it was necessary to LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
245 
explain, and give all the parts of the verb. Later in 
the day she talked of a lady whom she much admired, 
and thought she should like to be as graceful herself as 
Miss L., and tried experiments to see how well she 
could imitate her in bowing, courtesying, etc., but not 
very successfully. 
March 22. Occasionally still there comes a feeling 
akin to jealousy, when she thinks of Dr. Howe's new 
relations ; this morning she said, " Doctor loves his 
wife best of any." There was a cloud on her brow 
when she asked, " Does he love you like her?" which 
lifted considerably at my answer, though she said, 
" Why no, how do you know? I love him best of any, 
why does he not love me?" This feeling does not 
extend to Mrs. H. at all, for she always speaks of 
loving her very much, and is delighted with the letters 
she writes to her. The following is a copy of a letter 
written while she was anxiously waiting an answer to 
hers of January 28th. 
24th March, 1844. 
My Dear Dr. Howe: 
I want to see you very much, I hope that you will 
come to South Boston in May. I have got a bad cough, 
for I got cold when I came home, in much snow with 
Miss Swift, but my cough is a little better When you 
come home I shall be very happy to have you teach me 
in the Psalms Book,* about God and many new things 
1 read in the Harvey Boys book, every Sunday. I am 
learning Asia now, I will tell you all about new things 
to please you very much. Why do you not write a 
* The Book of Psalms was printed for the blind and bound in one 
volume. 246 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
letter to me often? Do you always pray to God to 
bless me? I think of you often. I send a great deal 
of love to you & Mrs. Howe. I shall be very happy 
to see you & her when you come home. I always 
miss you much. All the girls & I & Lurena had a 
very pleasant sleighing to a hotel. We had a nice 
drink of lemon & sugar & mince pie & sponge 
cake. Governor Briggs came twice to see us & the 
blind scholars. We are all well & happy & strong. 
1 have not seen you for ten months, that is very long. 
I wrote a letter to Governor & he wrote a letter to 
me, long ago. Mr. Clifford is a doctor now to cure his 
wife. I wrote a letter to her. I want you to write a 
letter to me. Miss Swift sends her love to you. Are 
you in a hurry to see me & J. again? I would like to 
live with you & your wife in a new house, because I 
love you the best. All folks are very well and happy. 
I want you to answer my last letter to you about God 
& heaven, & souls & many questions. 
My dear friend, good bye. 
Laura Bridgman. 
March 27. Completed Colburn's Mental Arithme- 
tic. 
At this time I did not realize what a remarkable 
work she had accomplished in a few days over a 
year, having commenced the book March 17, 1843. 
With the exception of two vacations of three weeks, 
and some few days of illness, she had had a daily 
lesson of three quarters of an hour. Having for 
many years since watched carefully the progress LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
247 
of other girls and boys of all grades of intellect, 
in the study of this same book, I should be in- 
clined to-day to doubt iny own journal, did I not 
find each day's work registered, so that with the 
book before me I can follow it step by step. 
She was never allowed to leave any subject 
until she thoroughly understood it, and this was 
not accomplished by doing the work for her, but 
by putting questions to her which she could 
answer, and so gradually letting light in upon dif- 
ficulties ; she always went from her lesson feel- 
ing that she had performed the examples herself. 
The effect of the mental discipline obtained from 
this study has been perceptible through all her 
life. Her feelings towards Mrs. Howe are shown 
in the following letter, dated - 
April 2, 1844. 
My Dear Mrs. Howe : 
I want to see you very much. I hope you are very 
well. I think of you very, very often. I was very 
much pleased to receive a letter from you and I liked it 
very much. When you come home, I shall shake your 
hands & hug & kiss you very hard, because I love 
you & am your dear friend. Are you very glad to 
receive letters from me ? One night I dreamed that I 
was very glad to see you again. I hope you do not 
forget to talk with your lingers. 
I am sad that people are very idle & dirt}' & poor 
(in Rome). My mother wrote a letter to Miss J. that 
she was very sick & my little sister was quite sick, 
but they are getting well. I am very well. I am your 248 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
very dear friend. I try very hard about America & 
Europe & Asia & many other things. I learned 
philosophy long ago. I can say ship, paper, doctor, 
baby, tea, mother, father (mamma, papa), with my 
mouth. My teacher always reads a story to me ; she 
is kind to me ; she sets me a good example. 
My dear friend, good bye. 
Ap/il 3. When Laura came for her lesson she said, 
" My heart beats very quick, it is sick." " Long ago, 
when Aliss Drew was my teacher, my heart beat quick 
and ached because I felt very sad that Adeline died, 
& I did not know about going to heaven." " Does that 
make your heart ache now ? " " Monday I thought much 
about my dear best friend and why I should die ; it 
made my heart beat quick, and I thought if I should 
know when He took my breath, & I tried to draw 
breath & could not. Do y >n lose your breath?" 
To change the conversation I replied, " Yes, when I run 
up stairs quickly " " I have lost part of the heart, it 
is not so large as it was when I was small." " Where 
did you lose it? " "I think it went to lungs. My blood 
ran quickly and made my heart beat very quickly." 
April 8. Conversed witli Laura about the railroad 
that is to be built from St. Petersburg to Moscow, tell- 
ing her the Russians were going to have Americans to 
build it, the distance, expense, etc. She asked how 
the people could get four millions of dollars to pay for 
it. This introduced the Emperor Nicholas, his rank, 
oflice, and'then she asked, "What is the man called 
who takes care of Americans ? " Told her about the 
President, his name and residence, and asked her if LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
249 
sho remembered Harrison At the time of his death, 
seeing others with crape on their wrists, she made a 
band for herself. She remembered this, and asked why 
people wore it. This introduced the subject of wear- 
ing black in mourning, which she had never known any- 
thing about before. When speaking of Harrison I told 
her that people were sad because they could not have 
him to take care of them ; she said quickly, " Were they 
sad that he went to heaven and was very happy 
there?" In geography her lesson was on China, and 
she was delighted to hear of the strange customs of the 
people, expressing much surprise, especially at their 
manner of reading from right to left, the great wall, etc. 
April 11. Gave her a lesson on the discovery of 
America by Columbus, the part of the continent which 
he found, and commenced the account of the colonies; 
but history has so many dark pages that I find it diffi- 
cult to tell her a connected story without alluding to 
wars, and this would be so terrible to her that I can- 
not think of beginning it at present. 
April 18. She reviewed three sections in arithmetic 
very successfully. She has been reviewing the last 
miscellaneous examples, and had to study on some of 
them some time before getting them right, having for- 
gotten her former work, but this was not more notice- 
able than with all the other girls. For a review of 
Europe and Asia took her to the great globe, and as 
before, she found all the localities readily. 
April 19. She was in an ecstasy of delight, hugging 
me almost to suffocation because she was to begin the 
map of Africa. What the special attraction of this map 
is, I cannot find, but she has been looking forward to 
it with great anticipations. 250 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER XIII. 
Laura received to-day Dr. Howe's reply to her 
letter of January 28. 
My Dear Little Laura: 
Mrs. Howe has a sweet little baby; - it is a little 
girl; we shall call her Julia; she is very smooth and 
soft and nice ; she does not cry much, and we love her 
very, very much. You love her too, I think, do you 
not? But you never felt of her, and she never kissed 
you, and how can you love her? It is not your hands, 
nor your body, nor your head, which loves her and 
loves me, but your soul. If your hand were to be cut 
off, you would love me the same; so it is not the body 
which loves. Nobody knows what the soul is, but we 
know it is not the body, and cannot be hurt like the 
body ; and when the body dies the soul cannot die. 
Yrou ask me in your letter a great many things about 
the soul and about God; but, my dear little girl, it 
would take very much time and very many sheets of 
paper to tell you all I think about it, and I am very 
bus}' with taking care of my dear wife ; but I shall try 
to tell you a little, and you must wait until I come 
home, in June, we will talk very much about all these 
things. You have been angry a few times, and you 
have known others to be angry, and you know what I LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
251 
mean by anger; you love me and many friends, and 
you know what I mean by love. When I say there is a 
spirit of love in the world, I mean that good people love 
each other; but you cannot feel the spirit of love with 
your fingers ; it has no shape, no body ; it is not in one 
place more than in another, yet wherever there are good 
people there is a spirit of love. God is a spirit, the 
spirit of love. If you go into a house, and the children 
tell you that their father whips them, and will not feed 
them; if the house is cold and dirty, and everybody 
is sad and frightened, because the father is bad and 
angry and cruel, you will know that the father has no 
spirit of love. You never felt of him, you never had 
him strike you, you do not know what man he is, and 
yet you know he has not the spirit of love ; that is, he 
is not a good, kind father. If you go into another 
house, and the children arc all warm, and well fed, and 
well taught, and are very happy, and everybody tells 
you that the father did all this, and made them happy, 
then you know he has the spirit of love ; you never saw 
him, and yet you know certainly that he is good, and 
you may say that the spirit of love reigns in that house. 
Now, my dear child, I go all about in this great world, 
and I see it filled with beautiful things, and there are a 
great many millions of people, and there is food for 
them, and fire for them, and clothes for them, and they 
can be happy if they have the mind to be, and if they 
will love each other. All this world, and all these peo- 
ple, and all the animals, and all things,.were made by 
God. He is not a man, nor like a man ; I cannot see 
him, nor feel him, any more than you saw and felt the 
good father of that family ; but I know that he has the 252 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
spirit of love, because he too provided everything to 
make all the people hap, y. God wants everybody to 
be happy all the time, every day, Sundays and ah and 
to love one another; and if they love one another they 
will be happy; and when their bodies die, their souls 
will live on, and be happy, and then they will know 
more about God. 
The good father of the family I spoke to you about 
let his children do as they wished to do, because he 
loved to have them free ; but he let them know that he 
wished them to love each other and to do good ; and if 
they obeyed his will they were happy ; but if they did 
not love each other, or if they did any wrong, they 
were unhappy ; and if one child did wrong it made the 
others unhappy too. So in the great world. God left 
men and women and children to do as they wished, 
and let them know if they love one another and do good 
they will be happy ; but if they do wrong, they will be 
unhappy, and make others unhappy likewise 
I will try to tell you why people have pain sometimes, 
and are sick, and die ; but I cannot take so much time 
and paper now. But you must be sure that God loves 
you, and loves everybody, and wants you and every- 
body to be happy ; and if you love everybody, and do 
them all the good you can, and try to make them happy, 
you will be very happy yourself, and will be much hap- 
pier after your body dies than you are now. 
Dear little Laura, I love you very much. I want you 
to be happy and good. 1 want you to know many 
things, but you must be patient and learn easy things 
first and hard ones afterwards. When you were a 
little baby, you could not walk, ami you learned first 253 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
to creep on your hands and knees, and then to walk a 
little, and by and by you grew strong, and walked 
much. It would be wrong for a little child to want to 
walk very far before it was strong. Your mind is 
young and weak, and cannot understand hard things, 
but by and by it will be stronger, and you will be able 
to understand hard things, and I and my wife will help 
Miss Swift to show you all about things that now you 
do not know. Be patient, then, dear Laura; be obe- 
dient to your teacher, and to those older than you ; love 
everybody and do not be afraid. 
Good by! I shall come soon, and we will talk and 
be happy. Your true friend, 
Doctor. 
This letter was read twice to her, but she made 
no conversation upon it, nor did she ever allude 
to it afterwards. Although she understood each 
separate word, I think the argument was beyond 
her capacity. She was much excited on hearing 
of the baby, and pleased with her name. 
In four lessons she completed the tour of Africa. 
For some time she has yielded to her inclination to 
utter disagreeable sounds more frequently than before, 
and I tried to have her understand the bad effects of 
such noises on others. She argued in their favor, say- 
ing, " I have very much voice, God gave me much 
voice." We compromised the matter in this way : she 
is to make no noises until half past one, and then, for 
an hour, she is to shut herself in her room, and make 
as many as she wishes to. 254 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
April 29. Yesterday, Laura occupied herself in 
writing letters, and I noticed that she had dated them 
all wrong. She insisted upon its being the thirtieth to- 
day, " because April has thirty days, and Doctor went 
a year ago the first day of May and that was Monday, 
so Sunday was the last day of April." Iler process of 
reasoning was very amusing, and would have been all 
right if this year had not been Leap Year, which she had 
never heard of before. One of our visitors wished me 
to tell Laura that he was from Wales. She was very 
ready in answering his questions, and telling him what 
she knew about his country. 
May 30. Many of the scholars were to go to Boston 
to enjoy the sounds of the great temperance procession, 
and I thought it a good time to give Laura a lesson on that 
subject. She has been much interested in it since she 
read " The Harvey Boys," and found there was such a 
thing as a drunkard. When I told her how many men 
would walk, she remembered the celebration of the 17th 
of June, and said, " I can go and feel the drums." 
She asked if they had anything beside drums, and made 
a sign of drawing the bow, not knowing the word violin, 
and told me she thought the bow was made of the tail 
of some animal. " Why do the people walk?" Told 
her it was to show that they did not drink rum or 
brandy. " That is right,, we cannot have any men that 
love to drink such liquors " It was a mystery to her 
how so many men happened to come to Boston at once. 
Explained to her that the friends of temperance in Bos- 
ton invited those from other towns to come, and have a 
great meeting, and that Gov. Briggs would ride in a 
carriage with four white horses. She was sure she LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
255 
never knew there were white horses, and asked if they 
would not get soiled quickly, lying on the ground. One 
of her questions was, " Do poor people walk in the 
procession? How can they walk without any shoes?" 
Some time ago I had told her about a poor family, and 
that the children had no shoes, therefore she thinks that 
all poor people have no shoes. When talking about 
the Pyramids, I said they were made 2800 years ago. 
" They are in heaven now," she said. Supposing she 
referred to the Pyramids, I asked, ' What are pyra- 
mids?" ''Houses made of stone. I mean the men 
who made them are in heaven." 
June 3. According to a promise made last week, I 
took Laura into the music-room to let her examine 
the various instruments. When shown the orphy- 
clyde, she said she thought the mouth of it would 
be a good bath-tub for baby Julia. Whenever she 
struck the drums or triangles, she varied the time in 
her beats, and her perception of this, through the effect 
of the vibrations upon her sense of feeling, is evidently 
what gives her pleasure. She showed much enjoyment 
when the procession was passing, and talked as if she 
could hear the music. She was talking with Miss 
Jeannette about impatience, and said, " I am impatient 
with you and with my teacher, but I am never impatient 
with Doctor." "Why not?" she asked. "Because I 
never like to let men see me impatient." 
June 7. She asked me, " Why does it not rain in 
Egypt?" I told her I thought she could not under- 
stand about that now, and she said with a great deal of 
feeling, "I am too old for you to tell me I cannot under- 
stand. I can understand hard things now." 256 
LAURA BRIDGMAN-. 
June 10. At nine she was full of a project for her 
doll, and in a great frolic over it. Little Frank has a 
doll dressed as a boy, and Laura named him Mr. Deter ; 
she says he is going to marry her doll. She told of the 
plan this morning, and was in a great hurry to wash 
her closet, which she calls " Jenner's house," so as to 
have everything in order before Wednesday. "It is 
so very nice to get all things ready. Do you not 
think the doll will be much happier, because Dr. Howe 
said he was much happier to be married? " I laughed, 
but she did not like it She gave me an invitation to 
be present at the wedding. I asked who would marry 
them, and this gave her a new idea, as she did not 
know it was customary to have a minister. Finding 
she did not know all about it, she said, " I wish you 
would be married, and then I would see you, and know 
What the minister said." I told her she must ask Jen- 
ner if she would love and obey Mr. Deter, if she wanted 
to say what the minister did. She laughed heartily at 
this and said, " I think she will, for she is always kind 
and obedient." She could hardly wait for recess to come 
to commence her preparations, and all day has talked 
to every one she met about it. For a long time she 
had not cared at all for her doll, but now thinks of 
nothing else. 
June 11. Her writing is a source of much trouble, 
for all her practising on separate letters seems to avail 
so little; as soon as she begins to write sentences, she 
returns to the same bad style. Not so her geography. 
As she had completed all the maps, I led her to the 
globe, put her hand on Lake Superior, and asked her to 
find Cairo. She thought an instant, and said, " Africa is ZzlLVM BRIDGMAN. 
257 
southeast from North America," and her finger was on 
the little pin denoting it. She answered every question 
all over the world with perfect ease, while I looked on 
with wonder. She was imagining herself in my position 
to-day, and said, " If I was teacher and you were a 
little girl and you got angry, I should put you in the 
closet, and I should be sad and have you sit alone." 
June. 17. Finding my head bandaged when she 
came for her lesson, she said, looking much troubled, 
"Your head is so very hot 1 know you will have a 
fever " ; and she wanted me to promise her that I would 
ask Dr. Fisher to let her come into the room if I was 
sick. " I will be your nurse and take care of you, and 
in the night sometimes I will sit up with you. Are 
you willing?" This plan was so novel that she was 
delighted with the prospect. In the recess, when she 
was alone by herself, a company of soldiers passed, and 
when she came for her lesson she asked what it was, 
for she had felt them. We talked about military 
uniforms, colors, etc. 
June 19. We walked to the green-house at the 
Point. This is the first season she has ever perceived 
the smell of a rose or pink, and now she puts all flowers 
to her nose, and is disappointed if they have no perfume. 
The gardener gave her many flowers, and among them 
some lemon verbena; she smelled it and pushed it 
from her, saying, " It smells like varnish." Explained 
the word " guilty " to her and she asked, " Did you not 
see many little boys that looked guilty when you went to 
the Correction House that you told me about long ago? " 
June 25. She completed to day a letter to Mrs. 
Howe in reply to one she had just received, describing 258 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
her visit to Vesuvius. It is quite in advance of any 
she has previously written, so I give it entire. 
My Dear Mrs. Howe : 
I was very much delighted to receive a very long 
letter from you. I understood about lava & crater. 
I was much surprised to hear about new things. I do 
not know how to knit a pair of shoes for your dear little 
Julia. I love your baby very much, & am your pre- 
cious. (She is my precious.) I shall make a present for 
you to remember me many years. I should like to live 
with you and your husband & dear baby. While you 
were away one year I was in great misery, & had to 
miss you many times. I did not like to have you go 
away with Dr. Howe. As soon as you come home, I 
shall run to you & kiss & hug you very hard, & 
shall take my very dear baby & kiss it very softly 
& take off her things. I shall always set her a good 
example. I want to see her very much. I should like 
to make a very nice clothes to help you. I know Vesu- 
vius very well, for Miss Swift taught me about it a long 
time ago. I can smell roses much better than I did two 
years ago, & it gives me much pleasure in smelling 
roses. I like them very much. I am very happy that 
you are coming very soon to see me. I shall waik with 
you & talk about many things. Miss Jenner was 
married to Mr. Deter (two dolls) two weeks ago, on 
Thursday evening. I was a minister to marry them. 
My friends went to a wedding. Mrs. Deter had wed- 
ding cake for them after she was married. Mrs. Deter 
loves her husband very much & best, & is very 
happy with him. Did you like to ride on mule's back 259 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
up the mountains? Were you afraid of them? You 
will please to write a letter to me some time if you can 
Miss J. is very well & happy. I am happy that Julia 
is so happy to see the bright light. I want you to come 
back now; if you do not come quick, then I must send 
a long string to pull you over the sea to South Boston. 
I thought of you & Julia & Doctor many times, that 
they would love me very much, because I love them 
& you so much. I always go to Boston with my 
teacher for exercise. It makes my health more better 
& strong Did mule have saddle on his back? Tell 
Doctor that I cannot write another letter to him because 
I have much to write to you. so I have not time to write 
to him, but he can see what your letter says. Give my 
love to him. I send a great deal of love to you & a kiss 
for baby. On the fourth day of July we are going to 
have dinner in the school-room. I am very sad not to 
have you come & have a very nice dinner with me & 
have some many pretty flowers. I wish you could come 
very much. Please to kiss the baby for me many times 
a day, every day. My best friend, good-bye 
June 28. Laura said this morning, "How many 
countries must send us things to make all the things in 
this house ? " She talked an hour, answering such ques- 
tions as, What do the Southern States send us? What 
the Western, South America, Russia, France, England, 
China? etc. She is very quick in her replies 
July 1. Laura examined an reolian harp which I 
had had given me, and asked me to play upon it. 
When told that the wind played upon it she was impa- 
tient to have it play that she might feel it. I put it in 260 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
the window and placed her hand on the wooden side, 
but told her I thought there was nothing which she 
could feel. She sat very still for several minutes ; when 
a puff of wind gave the first note, she started, and said, 
" It is like the organ." It happened to be a low note, 
and was so much like the organ that I thought some 
one must be playing in the room below. Next, the 
wind struck a high note, and she said, "That is like 
singing." I tried to feel it, but told her I could only 
feel a wry, very little. She said, " Is it like very small 
animals that you can only see with a spy-glass ? " 
July 8. Commenced a story called " Life in the 
Desert." It is much longer than those I have read to 
her, and will take six readings to complete it. The 
style is very different also, but I selected it on ac- 
count of her great interest in Africa. When I read 
to her about the tribe of Tuaricks killing the Tibboos, 
she was horror-struck, and did not seem to know what 
to say about it. It was the first time she had ever 
heard of one man killing another 
A cotton-pod half opened, showing the cotton on the 
seeds just ready to be gathered, led me to tell her some- 
thing about the slaves in the Southern States. She 
asked if they were Tibboo people that were brought 
from Africa, but said nothing about the wrong of keep- 
ing them as slaves, which I thought might occur to her. 
A><g. 6. Laura was puzzled to find the interest for a 
certain number of days, and assured me the only reason 
she could not get it right was because there were Latin 
words in the question, " per cent." She has understood 
this a long time. She is getting almost work-crazy, 
she is so anxious to complete a certain number of purses LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
261 
each week. She tells me each day how much she can 
do, and is displeased if interrupted. 
Aug. 19. In our hour for conversation, she asked 
if she ever told me about her friends at home, and 
gave me an account of the time she lived at home. It 
consisted chiefly of a description of all the animals on 
the farm. One was three feet high and covered with 
hair, curled like a sheep. She was sure it could not be 
a sheep. She said she was very much frightened when 
her mother opened the cover of a hair trunk as she 
thought it was an animal. I asked her what she used 
to think about when she lived at home. She said, " I 
could not think or talk good then I did not know any 
of my friends in Pearl Street,* Boston then." I asked 
her if she thought how kind her mother was. She 
said, "No, I did not think she was kind, for she 
whipped me and shook me." Explained to her why she 
had to do it, and the trouble she caused her mother, 
and in reply she told me how she used to pinch her 
mother when she wanted anything. 
A g. 24. I told her she might write a story herself, 
just as gentlemen and ladies wrote in the books which 
I had read to her. She was delighted and said she 
would try, but I must not look at it until it was 
finished. At the close of the hour she brought me the 
following,, being her first attempt: - 
"There was a little girl named Jane Damon, who 
lived in the country with Mrs. Damon. She was 
very good & amiable, & was never cross any. Jane 
Damon always obeyed her mother. One day she went 
* At the time she came to the Institution it was in Pearl Street. 262 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
with her mother to sec her friends, and they went to see 
beautiful flowers in the garden. When Mrs. Damon 
told Jane, you must go to school she got ready as fast 
as she could. She had the books & writing in her 
own desk. Her teacher was very kind to her scholars. 
Her name was Miss Charlotte. Mrs. Damon gave Jane 
a beautiful present. Iler sister asked what it was, & 
her mother said it was a ring called diamond stone. 
After a few days her mother took Jane to see her grand- 
mother, and staid for one week. She had a very pleas- 
ant visit. Mrs. Damon had a little girl named Clara 
Damon, & Jane took good care of Clara while her 
mother was away a little while. She did not cry any 
for some milk, but Jane fed Clara with a spoon ; she 
loved her so very much." 
Avg. 26. Speaking of her health, she said, -'I was 
sick last year, and my mind was dizzy, and I was much 
frightened in my head." She asked the meaning of in- 
sensible " and " ciucified " The latter 1 defined as mean- 
ing to make a cross. Her application was, " Jane Damon 
crucifies the wires of her basket and winds the worsted 
on them." I was obliged to tell her that she did not 
quite understand it, and had better not use it. The next 
word was " mingle," which I defined " mix," but found 
she did not know that word either. When explained, 
she said, " The drunkard mixes sugar and rum to drink." 
The next was " mock." From these words I knew she had 
been reading about the crucifixion, but had failed to get 
any idea of it on account of so many of the words used 
being unintelligible to her. She wished to prove to me 
she did not forget words, and said, " Perish is to die, you 
told me last winter, and machine - my writing-board LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
263 
is a machine to write with ; require, is when I tell you, 
you must mend my stockings ; I require you to do them. 
I require you to read my story to Jane Damon." 
In geography she is studying the zones on the globe. 
Sept. 3. Completed the review of the last half of 
Colburn's Arithmetic, and now>.is to take up written 
arithmetic. She was very happy in welcoming Dr. 
Howe on his return from Europe, but was not so much 
excited as she would have been if Mrs. Howe and the 
baby had accompanied him from New York. 
Sept. 5. Lesson on latitude, calculating it in miles 
as well as degrees. She said, " My mother lives one 
hundred and twenty miles north of us, that is two 
degrees," and added, " Hanover is by the Connecti- 
cut River : why do I not go in a boat?" Asked her to 
tell me how she could go. Her first thought was, that 
she could get to the Merrimac, and in some way across 
to the Connecticut. When told there was a way to go 
by water, but she must get into the boat in Boston 
Harbor, after much thinking, she said, " I must go by 
Cape Cod and then sail through Long Island Sound to 
the Connecticut River." 
Sept. 12. The baby, which had just arrived with its 
mother, Mrs. Howe, was her only thought. She took no 
interest in her lessons, but could talk of nothing but 
what she planned to do for little Julia, the first thing 
being to give her all her playthings. 264 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER XIV. 
Nov. 1, 1844. A vacation of three weeks has just 
passed, and Laura has much to tell of what she has seen, 
" so many new things." Among these were a woollen 
factory and a grist-mill, and of both she gave me very 
good descriptions. I was surprised to find how much 
she had understood and remembered. When she did 
not know the name of any part of the work, she made 
signs imitating the people at work, so that I could guess 
what it was. She asked why the meal was so hot after 
it was ground, and we had a talk about friction, which I 
illustrated, much to her satisfaction, by rubbing two 
pieces of wood together. Her greatest exploit, however, 
was that she had ridden on a donkey, and this she told 
of with great glee. 
Nov. 15. Dr. Howe gave her a lesson last evening 
on the use of " ful" and " less." He thought she un- 
derstood it perfectly, but her report of it to day is a 
good illustration of the difficulties we meet with. She 
said, " Doctor talked to me about ful and less. lam 
motherful and sisterful; you are brotherless. Rained is 
a derivative word ; rain is a primitive. Is it derivative 
to-day?" Told her I did not know what she meant. 
She explained it, " Is it rainy to-day?" 
I taught her the force of the prefixes " un " and " in " 
and the new words " need " and " harm." LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
265 
Nov. 18. She came this morning for a lesson, bring- 
ing a list of words written on a paper which she had 
found in a book yesterday. Explained " security, crime, 
commit, thus, propriety, constantly, character." She 
wished to have " profane " explained ; I told her pro- 
fane talking wms when any one used bad words. She 
thought a moment, and said, " Mr. T." (an old man) 
" talks profane words, because his head is bad, and he 
cannot know." Told her he talked silly words, but 
that ''profane" was not a good word for her to use, 
because she did not understand it; it did not seem 
best that she should be told at present of any more of 
the sins of man. Later in the day explained " fully, 
satisfied, chance, opportunity, and immediately," and 
then talked with her about my plan of going home to 
live in the spring. She said, " I shall get a string and 
tie your hands to prevent you from packing your trunk." 
She expressed her sorrow' that I must ever go away, 
and said, "I must be with you all the time now; I 
hope when you arc in heaven you will be very glad to 
see me. If we are very sick we must be patient, and 
ask God to invite us. Dr. Howe told me that Orrin 
was so very gentle God wanted him earlier, and Adeline 
too." 
Nov. 20. Spent an hour in reviewing the fifty new 
words she has learned in a week, and found she remem- 
bered nearly all, and introduced them into sentences 
very correctly. In defining "sunbeam" she said, 
" When I stand by the window and feel the end of the 
sun it is a sunbeam." 
Nov. 25. Another long list of words, "pretend, 
confess, conceal, conduct, diligent." Of these " pre- 266 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
tend " was the most difficult. They occupied an hour, 
and for another lesson, " appear, confidence, offending, 
and encourage." 
Dec. 2. Laura said, " • The Child's Book' says we 
must turn our knowledge to some profit: what does 
that mean ? " There was so much in this idea that it 
took a long conversation to explain it. "Possess" 
was defined as "to have." Example, that she pos- 
sessed some knowledge now, and I hoped she would 
possess much more at the end of a year. She said, 
" Yes, I hope I shall of English Reader and Psalms, 
and the Bible." 
Dec. 9. She asked, " Do crazy people talk profanely 
when they dream, but not think?" Three weeks since 
I had told her she would never have to use this word, 
but she is determined to find what it means if possible, 
and so whenever she meets with a word she thinks is 
not good, she asks if it is profane. New words to-day 
were " suspicious, suspect, anticipate, hateful." She 
counted the months that I should teach her, and 
talked of her new teacher. " I hope you will teach her 
how to talk with her fingers, and what things to teach 
me, and I hope Doctor will tell her what she must teach 
me. She must not talk about heaven to me, because 
he says I must wait for him to tell me about that." 
In the geography lesson we had a long talk on the 
subject of the Chinese ports being shut to foreigners. 
She could not see why the Chinese should be suspicious 
of Americans, though she thought they might be of the 
Tartars or Siberians, but not of us. She was much 
surprised to hear of the size of their cities, and asked, 
" How very long will it take to count them? " LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
267 
Dec. 12. Laura is enjoying imaginary shopping, with 
a purse full of silver to pay for it, as an exercise in 
arithmetic. She says, " It is much nicer than the book 
was." 
She asked, "What do bescond and Matthew chap, 
mean ? " Taught her " abscond," and about " chapters " 
and " verses," also " possibly, prophets, text, occasion, 
stumbling." She said, " The drunkard's brains are 
dizzy so that he stumbles." This subject, though 
repulsive to her, seems to fascinate her so she is con- 
stantly drawing her examples from it. 
Dec. 19. As she is very prompt in settling her bills 
in dollars and cents, I had her try to reckon in shil- 
lings and pence. She is familiar with fractions, and so 
will probably find little difficulty. She read the word 
"abound" in her lesson, and I asked if she knew it. 
" Yes, my head abounded when it struck the wall in my 
mother's house." 
We had a long discussion on the word " always " 
which she was so sure she understood correctly that 
she was at first unwilling to accept my criticism on her 
use of it She insisted that she was "always in the 
parlor" and " always in her closet," meaning at some 
time every day she was there. Probably when I first 
gave her the word I defined it every day. 
Jan. 21, 1845. Laura knit a very pretty purse and 
sent to the Mechanics' Fair. The committee awarded 
her a diploma and medal. I read it through to her and 
she seemed frightened at the number of unknown 
words, but was much pleased when she had learned 
them all. 
Jan. 22. Dr Howe had been giving Laura some 268 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
lessons in grammar on nouns and adjectives, and I took 
up the subject for regular lessons to-day. She had 
already learned nouns and adjectives so she rarely made 
a mistake on them. I took up pronouns, and told her 
"you" and "me" were pronouns, and I wanted she 
should think of other words we used to mean herself and 
myself, and she gave me very quickly all the cases of 
the pronouns "I" and "you." I then gave her an exam- 
ple in which it occurred, and she named it as a pronoun. 
In the sentence, " The plants look very pretty, and 
•they must have much water to make them grow," she 
told correctly the part of speech of all the words but 
three, -the, very, and to. Gave her the sentence, " The 
sun is not shining," to teach her articles and participles. 
In the sentence, " It is not good weather," she said, 
"I do not know it, I think it does not stand for a 
noun." Another sentence was, "I hope you will be 
able to go to the city to-day." She gave all the words 
correctly until she came to to-day, and first called it an 
adjective and then a noun, but was not satisfied with 
either. 
Feb. 3. She finds quickly every place that is put 
down on the raised map of Europe, cities, towns, rivers, 
mountains, etc. In grammar she learned the kinds of 
nouns and gender, having learned number in a previous 
lesson. 
Feb. 10. In parsing a sentence she gives the kind of 
noun, its person, number, and gender, also of pronouns. 
The new words to-day were " elegant, apparel, exhibit, 
plan, conveyance, cheerful, elevating, avoid, frivolous, 
gloomy, desirable, style." After I had explained the 
last two she said, " It is desirable for us to live in style." 269 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
I asked her what style she thought most desirable. Her 
answer was that " It makes us happier than to be killed," 
showing she appreciated the first words of the sentence, 
but did not connect the last two understandingly. 
Feb. 13. After a recess she came to me with her 
apron unfastened, and said, turning to me to hook it, 
" Do something to deserve to be thanked." I had lately 
taught her the word " deserve." Gave her a review lesson 
upon nouns She was very quick in her answers, and 
wished me to be faster in telling her new things, 
" Because if you do not, you will not have time to teach 
me all about grammar before you go away, and a new 
teacher will not know how to teach grammar." 
Feb. 18. Gave Laura a ciphering-board, and had her 
commence with numeration. It is two years since she 
has done anything with the board, and she has forgotten 
a good deal. She was troubled on account of a new 
arrangement, by which part of my time is to be devoted 
to teaching Oliver. It is not strange that she should 
dislike it, she has so long had undivided attention, and 
she finds her plans for accomplishing a certain amount in 
her studies will be interfered with. This was made 
necessary by the resignation of Miss Rogers, who has 
been his teacher. 
March 5. Oliver wished to remain with me while I 
gave Laura a lesson. As soon as she perceived he was 
in the room, she wanted to talk with him. She has 
adopted lately a peculiar style of conversation. She 
tells him a number of stories, all imaginary, but upon 
subjects that she knows interest him, and when he ap- 
pears to be sufficiently troubled, she tells him, " I am 
in fun, I say it for fun." Although she has done it 270 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
repeatedly he is deceived each time, but takes it in good 
part, and is still willing to talk with her. 
Ma ch 12. One of our visitors was going to the 
Cape of Good Hope soon, and Laura sustained her part 
in a conversation with him very creditably, asking the 
length of voyage, about the climate, productions etc. 
Ma ch 24. The new words for to-day were " ingrat- 
itude, feeble, control, controllable, accomplish, instruct, 
instructor, instructress. " The effect of learning so many 
new words is quite noticeable in her language. She is 
very ambitious to use as many of them as possible, and 
throws aside those which we are in the habit of using 
in ordinary conversation to substitute others which she 
finds in books. The consequence is that her language 
to-day is more faulty than it was six months ago, and is 
best described as language on stilts. Greater familiarity 
with books and careful attention to her conversation 
will do much to correct it, but I fear it will always have 
many peculiarities. 
Dr. Howe remarks on this subject in his Thir- 
teenth Report: - 
" In truth, people seldom stop to reflect upon the 
nature of arbitrary language, upon its essential impor- 
tance to the development of the intellect, or upon the 
wonderful process by which we gradually advance 
from the power of naming single objects to that of con- 
densing many of them into one complex term, - from 
the alpha of language, mamma, up to its omega, uni- 
verse ! 
" How much is asserted in the simplest sentence, as 
this, for instance: ' We might have been more truly 271 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
happy had our widowed father remained contentedlj" 
with us.' Ilere is the assertion of the plurality of 
persons; of their condition in past time; of the fact 
of their having been moderately happy in the society of 
their father; there is the negation of their entire happi- 
ness ; the implied doubt whether after all they would 
have been happier ; their relation as children ; their regret 
at their father's departure. Of the other person it is 
directly affirmed that he had been with his children ; it 
is implied that he had been married ; that he had lost his 
wife, not by separation, but by death; that he was not 
contented to remain with his children ; thh,t he had gone 
away from them ; that he might have remained with 
them, etc., etc. 
"When we reflect upon that principle of the mind 
which requires that all possible objects, qualities, and 
conditions must be linked so closely with signs that the 
perception of the signs shall recall them necessarily and 
instantly ; and when we consider how much is attained 
by young persons, who a few years ago could hardly 
master baby's prattle, but who now have all the vast 
sweep of thought, the great amount of knowledge, the 
degree of reflection, of separation, and of generalization 
necessary to comprehend such a phrase as, 
' Count all the advantage prosperous vice attains, 
'T is but what virtue flies from, and disdains,' 
we may sajT with the ancient, ' There is but one object 
greater than the human soul, and that one is its 
Creator.' 
" The space between the starting-point of the infant 
and that obtained by the mature man is immense ; but 272 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
our minds, aided by language which gives to them wings, 
skim swiftly and delightedly over the whole, as the wild 
fowl flies from zone to zone ; while Laura is like one of 
those birds shorn of its wings, and doomed to attempt 
the vast distance on its weary feet. If persons will 
only make these reflections they will be inclined rather 
to wonder that she has gone so far than to feel surprised 
at her not having gone farther." 
March 30. She repeated to me this morning the story 
of the birth of Christ, and of his being carried away 
because of a bad governor, which Dr. I lowe had told 
her yesterday. 
April 22. In arithmetic she has advanced to reduc- 
tion. One question was about duties in a custom-house, 
a subject which was all new to her, and we spent an 
hour in the explanation of freight, imports, exports, etc. 
When shown a calla lily, she compared it to a horse's 
ear, and said the stamens had a very fine nap on them. 
Counting the days before I was to leave her, she said, 
"Your time runs so very fast, like a balloon." 
Ap il 30. Completed Abbott's story of " Marco 
Paul in Boston," which we have been reading at inter- 
vals for several months, much to her enjoyment, also 
finished the seventh section of Colburn's Sequel. 
Dr. Howe gives in his Thirteenth Annual Report 
some extracts from his own journal, showing his 
method of conversing with her on religious sub- 
O o 
jects. 
" In talking with Laura to-day on the subject of the 
Deity, I said, ' How do men make bread ? ' ' From J. A UR A BRIDGMAN. 
273 
wheat.' 'How do they make wheat?' 'They can- 
not make wheat,' said she. ' Then how do they get 
it?' said I. 'God makes it grow.' 'Why?' 'For 
man to eat,' said she. I then explained to her that 
some birds and animals eat grain, and asked, ' Why 
does God give it to them?' She said, 'To make 
them happy.' ' But does he love them?' said I. ' No,' 
said she, ' they have no souls.' 
" I then told her there are some beautiful islands on the 
globe, where the sun shines clearly and warmly ; where 
there are rich meadows and sweet flowers and tall 
trees and shady groves; where the brooks run merrily 
down the hills, and where there is plenty of delicious 
fruit and nutritive plants ; that these islands are never 
visited by man, yet nevertheless that thousands of birds 
are singing in the branches, and rejoicing over their 
little ones ; that the young animals are frolicking on the 
soft grass, and the old ones looking on them with 
silent joy ; that the fishes are swimming briskly about 
in the clear streams, and leaping out sportively into the 
air, and that all this has been going on thousands of 
years. 
" After thus trying to give her as vivid a picture as I 
could of the happy inhabitants of these peaceful isles, 
I asked her who made such beautiful places. She 
said, ' God ' ' But for what did he make them? ' ' To 
make the animals all happy,' said she, and added of 
her own accord, ' God is very good to make them hap- 
py.' She then meditated a little, and said, ' Can they 
thank him?' 'Not in words,' said I. I then went 
on to show her that he had no need of thanks in words ; 
that he did not do these good things in order to be 274 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
thanked, when she stopped me by asking, ' Why he did 
not give them souls?' I tried to explain how much of 
reason and sense they really possess, and how grateful 
all of God's children should be for what they have with- 
out asking why it was not more, when she said suddenly, 
'Why is God never unkind or wrong?' I tried, as 
well as I could, to explain the perfection of God's char- 
acter. and its freedom from human frailties ; but alas! 
how vain is the effort, when neither teacher nor pupil have 
any other standard than human littleness by which to 
measure God's greatness. 
" There is this constant difficulty with her (and is it 
not one too much overlooked in the religious instruction 
of other children?), that being unable to form an}" idea 
of virtue and goodness in the abstract, she must seek it 
in the concrete ; and her teachers and friends, frail and 
imperfect beings like herself, furnish the poor imperson- 
ations of the peerless attributes of God. 
" This difficulty might have been avoided, I think, by 
the plan which I had marked out for the orderly devel- 
opment of her intellectual faculties and moral senti- 
ments, and which was simply to follow the natural 
order; but since that plan has been marred by the well- 
meant officiousness of others, there remains only to 
remedy, as far as we can, what wTe cannot cure entirely, 
- the bad effects of ill-timed direction of her thoughts 
to subjects too far above her comprehension. 
" After the conversation related above, I went on to 
illustrate, as well as I could, the difference between 
human and divine care of animals. I said, ' Why does 
man take care of a cow, and get hay into his barn 
to feed her in winter?' 'Oh!' said she, 'to get her LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
275 
milk.' ' Why does he take care of his horse, and 
keep him covered with a warm blanket, and feed him ? ' 
' That is to ride him well,' said she. ' Why do peo- 
ple keep cats, and feed them?' 'To catch mice.' 
' Why do farmers take such good care of sheep ? ' 
' To get wool.' ' But when the cow and the sheep are 
old, and cannot work, what does man do?' ' He kills 
to get meat.' ' Well,' said I, ' why does God make 
the grass to grow in the meadow, and let the cow eat 
it? Does he want her milk?' ' No,' said she. ' Does 
he need the wool of the sheep?' 'No!' replied 
she vehemently, • he does not want anything.' Pres- 
ently she said, ' How do men know whether cows 
are willing to give them their milk?' I said, 'They 
do not know and do not care.' She mused awhile, as 
is her wont when talking on a new subject, and said, 
' The little lambs and young animals play : why do not 
sheep love to have their pleasure ? ' I explained how 
they had pleasure in giving milk to their young, how 
they loved to eat the tender grass, and lie in the shade. 
She seemed to have another difficulty, and said, ' Why 
do cats want to kill mice ? 'I hey have no love ! ' " 
In closing the account of my stewardship, per- 
haps it will not be considered out of place for 
me to answer the question which has often been 
asked, and to which an answer ought to be given. 
It has been asked with great earnestness whether 
I think that Laura could have been made ac- 
quainted with the doctrines of the Bible at the 
time of my instructing her. I do suppose that 276 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
she could have understood them, and my opin- 
ion is founded on the following reasons. 
As soon as these doctrines were mentioned to 
her, she received them very readily. It was far 
more difficult to teach her many common things 
of life than to teach these truths, which indeed 
she learned so easily that we could not determine 
when and how she obtained her knowledge of 
them. Her soul seemed to be prepared forthem, 
receptive of them. Very many of the questions, 
for answers to which I referred her to Dr. Howe, 
could have been answered without difficulty at 
the moment of her asking them. We could not 
divine where she acquired much of the knowl- 
edge she had; hints from the blind girls seemed 
to suffice as a clew, and then she worked out the 
rest herself. She asked Dr. Howe, " What is a 
soul?" and received the idea at once. Could 
she not then have received the Biblical doctrines? 
A girl capable of asking such questions is capa- 
ble of receiving the replies. It may be she 
could not receive them all clearly ; neither did she 
receive all clearly in her other studies, but we did 
not delay the teaching on this account. 
That the influence of my enf »rced reticence on 
such subjects was disastrous, may readily be per- 
ceived. While she entirely understood that it 
was the wish of Dr. Howe, and therefore refrained 
from asking me questions save when her soul was LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
277 
so full it must find utterance, yet there was, es- 
pecially in the last year of my intercourse with 
her, an impatience in waiting that extended to 
other things. Iler mind was so full of these sub- 
jects that the most interesting lesson could not 
exclude them, and as has been seen in the pre- 
vious pages, when I supposed she was absorbed in 
our conversation on other topics, she surprised me 
with questions on religious topics^ for replies to 
which she must wait. 
In another direction the bad effects were ap- 
parent. I was unable to appeal to the highest 
motives. She was living under the old dispensa- 
tion, and had not even the example of Christ as a 
model; for until my last month with her, she did 
not even know his name. 
Could Dr. Howe have anticipated her mental 
development during his absence, he would doubt- 
less have left her under the charge of some per- 
son w'.io sympathized with his views and who 
could have satisfied her questionings; but it was 
my privilege only to give the intellectual training 
which should prepare the way for my more 
favored successor. 
I make these statements with no design to cen- 
sure Dr. Howe, but merely to answer questions 
regarding the difference of my opinions from those 
entertained by that eminent philanthropist. 278 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER XV. 
Laura was without any regular instruction from 
the 1st of May until the last of August, 1845. 
At this time Aliss Sarah Wight, who had taught 
several years in the girls' department of the Insti- 
tution, t<5ok charge of her. For the report of the 
next few years we are indebted to her journal, 
which bears ample testimony to the faithfulness 
with which she discharged her onerous duties. 
New arrangements were made by which Laura 
was kept constantly with her teacher, Dr. Howe 
having selected two or three of the blind girls, who 
were allowed to call upon her in her private room 
occasionally, for a play or chat. 
By this means she was prevented from receiv- 
ing any new ideas, except through the medium 
which ho approved. 
Miss Wight found that in the four months Laura 
had forgotten much with which she had been quite 
familiar, both in geography and arithmetic, which 
was not a matter of surprise, 
From this time no records of the details of her 
lessons were kept, but we can judge of her intel- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
279 
lectual improvement from the evidence of it which 
we find in the reports of conversation, and in the 
extracts from her own journal. Miss Wight's 
journal reports mainly her Bible study and the 
development of her moral and religious charac- 
ter. 
We make the following extracts : - 
"One day, I remarked to her that the first settlers 
of this country sometimes had difficulty in procuring 
enough to eat; whereupon she asked suddenly, ' What 
repast did one man eat?' She explained herself by 
adding, ' When there was but one man on the earth.' 
The answer was that there was fruit and berries. 
'But,' said she, 'when he was very small?' She 
paused awhile, and then added, ' I guess God took 
care of him, and gave him some milk.' 
"I was reading something in which a compass was 
mentioned ; upon which, she was desirous of knowing 
all about it. I showed her a magnet, and applied it to 
a toy in the shape of a swan floating upon the water. 
When she felt that the bird was attracted by the mag- 
net, her face grew very red, and she said, much sur- 
prised, 'It makes it live; it is alive, for it moves.' 
I then asked her if the bird ate or slept or walked or 
could feel. ' No,' she replied, but still seemed hardly 
convinced that the magnet did not give life to the bird, 
until she was shown its effect upon a needle. 
" This led to an explanation of attraction ; and she 
soon afterwards showed her disposition to apply all new 
words in as many senses as she can, by suddenly 
embracing me and saying, ' I am exceedingly attracted 
to you, because you are always so kind.' 280 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
" In one of our walks, after a long pause in the con- 
versation, she asked me, while blushing and laughing, 
' Do you think I shall ever be married with a gentle- 
man whom I love best and most?' I said, 'No.' 
When she had thought of all the objections, sho said, 
' Mrs. Davis is married and she is blind. I can sweep 
and fix things very nicely and do many things.' 
" Oct. 24. At eight o'clock to-day Laura came to 
me and said, ' Doctor wants you to teach me about 
motives. What are motives?' 
"After giving the meaning of the word, I referred her 
to a story that I read to her last evening. It was of 
a benevolent, kind-hearted little boy, who expended 
his money in purchasing little comforts for those who 
needed them, making it his happiness to do good to the 
poor and unfortunate. She was very much interested 
in talking of the character of the boy, and of his sister 
and mother. It was a good motive for George to give 
nice things to poor people. Doctor had a good motive 
to give us this nice large room to be so warm and com- 
fortable. He is very benevolent. But Jesus Christ 
was the most benevolent; we cannot be benevolent as 
he was. I cannot be benevolent and do kind things to 
crazy people, and blind and deaf people, and cure them. 
God is very benevolent, he does so many things to make 
people happy. I then tried to show her how she might 
be truly benevolent in little things, every day. ' I 
give away many things,' said she. I convinced her 
that it was not alway a proof of benevolence to give 
things away. During the whole lesson she was very 
serious and thoughtful, pressing my fingers closely, so 
that no letter should escape her. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
281 
" Oct. 25. Laura seemed to me rude and boisterous, 
and not easily restrained as usual. It was very dis- 
couraging to me, and I gave myself up to sad thoughts. 
Laura soon perceived it, and asked why. I told her 
she did not try, so much as I wished, to grow still and 
gentle, though we had talked so much about it. She 
sat still some time, and then said, ' I love Mrs. Smith 
best, she is so gentle.' This was evidently said to 
trouble me, and did not relieve me any. This is one of 
the very few instances where there seemed to be unkind- 
ness in the child's heart. But she soon repented. After 
dinner she was up stairs, and was gone for some time ; 
when at last she came down and found me, she said she 
had a nice present for me to make me more happy, and 
that she would try more to improve. She said this 
very sadly. I took her present and exerted myself to 
appear as cheerful as usual. The present she brought 
was a pincushion, one of her choicest treasures. 
" Lessons as usual. Talking with Laura about being 
kind and benevolent. She began to give me a long 
account of little kind things that she had done. After 
a time I told her that sometimes people did kind things 
that their friends might praise them and think they 
were very kind and benevolent. We talked of it some 
time, Laura's face growing more and more red, yet 
half smiling. I could see she was applying the remark 
to herself, as indeed she does everything that she hears 
of this kind. ' Why do I like to be praised ? ' she soon 
asked. I told her that every one did, and that it was 
right for us to like to have our friends love us, and 
praise us too, if we were good. Supposed the case of 
two little children, one of whom was very kind to his 282 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
sisters that his mother might call him good, and the 
other did the same because he was glad to see all happy, 
etc. Asked her which she thought was the best child. 
She hesitated a moment, and replied, ' The boy who 
wanted to see other children happy ' 
" Nov 4. Laura asked me, ' Why do I have two 
thoughts ? Why do- I not do what my conscience tells 
me is right? ' Told her I thought when she began to do 
wrong she was in play, and afterwards her firmness led 
her to continue to do wrong, though her conscience was 
telling her all the time she was wrong. 
" Nov. 10. Laura went to church with me in the 
morning. In the afternoon, I left Jane with her, with 
permission to stay a short time. When I returned, 
Laura did not welcome me as usual, and made some 
objection to a walk which I proposed ; but she was soon 
ready for it. I learned from Jane that Laura had 
done something that she (Jane) had promised not to 
tell me. I asked Laura why she was not willing that 
I should know everything that she did while I was 
away. She said, ' I was afraid you would reprove me.' 
I asked her if I ever spoke unkindly to her when she 
had done wrong. ' No,' replied she, very emphati- 
cally, ' you never blame me. Why did I pull the 
wire ? ' I answered that I thought curiosity and play- 
fulness made her do it; that it was not wrong to be 
curious and playful, but that it was wrong to try to 
conceal from me when she thought she had done mis- 
chief. ' I did not know it was to conceal,' said she. 
1 told her that it was best for me to know what she did 
and thought, that I might be able to advise her. ' I 
knew it was wrong to pull the wire.' Jane had told me LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
283 
also that Laura was unwilling that she should leave her, 
and made several very unpleasant noises. I alluded to 
this when talking to Laura, and she said, ' I was not 
impatient.' 'But,' said I, 'Jane said you made some 
bad noises.' ' I did n-,' she began to say hesitatingly, 
when I said, ' Did you not make noises ? ' and she replied, 
' I believe I did not refrain from making bad noises.' 
I was now obliged to leave her for a short time. When 
I came back, she was not inclined to say much, and 
seemed trying to force a smile. By this time, the head- 
ache which had followed me all day became quite 
severe, and I left her again for a wdiile to her reflec- 
tions. It is the first time that she has attempted to 
deceive me. She was afraid, perhaps, that she had 
done some injury to something. She could have no fear 
that I should speak severely to her, for I never blame 
her in the least. Generally, when she is doing or saying 
any little thing that I disapprove, I simply stop it at 
the time, and afterwards speak of the thing abstractly. 
She will apply my remarks to herself and to the cir- 
cumstance, but without any unpleasant excitement of 
feeling, and she remembers them a long time. 
" Many times she has said, ' I cannot be perfectly 
good, as Jesus Christ was.' I have told her that every 
one should try to be perfectly good, and never be will- 
ing to do wrrong even in a little thing; explained to 
her that perhaps it was a desire to appear .perfectly good 
which prompted her to conceal that which she was 
afraid was wrong. 
" When I spoke to her again, she said, ' I was pray- 
ing to God, and told him that I had been so wrong, and 
I asked him to forgive me and send me better thoughts. 284 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
I told him my motives were bad to conceal from you, 
and to tell you that I did not make impatient noises.' 
She then put her hand on my hot head and asked, 
' What made it worse?' I answered, ' Sad thoughts.' 
She said, ' I am sorry you were detained from being 
happy by a sad circumstance. I have told God that 
I will not do so wrong again.' 
" Die. 13. A good lesson in arithmetic, but Laura 
was not in her usual spirits. I said nothing, hoping it 
would wear off. After breakfast I told her that she 
said last night that she felt unkindly towards me and 
asked if she knew the cause of it, and if I said anything 
that troubled her. ' No, I think it was because I did 
not refrain from bad thoughts.' ' Do you know what 
made your thoughts bad? Was it because I showed 
you how you shook my arm?' 'No, I think my con- 
science was bad.' ' Our consciences are never bad, 
they will never tell us to do what we know is wrong: 
did you not know it was wrong?' ' Yes, but I did not 
obey my conscience, and that was the reason that I 
slapped you.' A few moments after she said, ' I am 
too old to be reproved.' ' But you are not too old to 
do wrong.' ' My mind can reprove me,' was her reply. 
I said, ' You do not wish to injure your teacher: why 
do you not tell her that you are sorry that you struck 
her ? ' She smiled and made no reply. I left her for 
half an hour to her own thoughts, and on speaking to 
her again, asked of what she had been thinking. 
' Praying to God, for he can help me best. I asked 
him to send me good thoughts.' She did not say this 
with her usual seriousness, but as if repeating words 
merely, and added, ' People told me always to ask God LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
285 
to help me.' I said, ' You struck your teacher who is 
always kind to you: are you not sorry?' No reply. 
' Do you think your thoughts are all good and your 
feelings all kind now ? ' Still no reply. Not liking to 
force an unwilling expression of sorrow from her, by 
depriving her of her lessons, and having often found 
that showing her some mark of kindness, or allowing 
her to do something for me, would completely subdue 
her bad feelings, I allowed her to give some account of 
the story read to her yesterday, and then to write in 
her journal. She wrote, that ' On Friday night she 
struck her teacher and that it was very unkind,' and 
brought it to me. I then asked her again if she knew 
that she had not told me she was sorry. She said, 
' Yes, I was just going to tell you that I am sorry, and 
that I have resolved to control myself. I shall never 
strike you again, 1 am so earnest to have my excellent 
teacher happy always. I hope you will not think of the 
bad thing any more, for you are my best teacher.' 
After dinner we did not stop as usual to speak to Mrs. 
S., and she asked why. Told her it was better for 
her to think than to talk, and besides my head ached 
badly. When I spoke of my head, the poor child threw 
her arms around my neck, and put her head on my 
shoulder saying, ' I am so sorry that your head aches to 
think so much about me. I promised Martha that I 
would always be kind to you. Did I hurt you very 
much?' It was really painful to see her distress, and 
I did the best I could to soothe her? 
" Dec. 15. Laura was very much perplexed by very 
simple things, and I was obliged to repeat a simple 
question many times at the risk of losing my own 286 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
patience. When the difficulty was overcome, she said 
with a triumphant air, ' I have persevered in being 
good, I have not been impatient any.' 
"Dec. 24. She said this morning, 'Last night I 
dreamed so strangely. I thought 1 was but fifteen 
years old and that I was very sick and was going to 
die. At last you and Doctor put me in the ground, and 
I was so happy to be in heaven : my soul was in heaven, 
but when you put the earth on me, it gave me life again. 
Who can tell me all about how I shall know when my 
breaths are going, and I am going to die? Did you go 
to see Adeline in Cambridge ? She was dead and they 
put her body in a box and put her in the ground. Why 
do they put people in the ground?' Told her they 
could not use their bodies any longer ; but that only the 
worn-out bodies were buried. She sat thinking some 
time and then said, ' Our souls do not die when our 
bodies are dead.' We then talked about the importance 
of taking good care of our minds if they lasted so long, 
and trying to make them good and honest and kind. 
We know the necessity of taking good care of our bod- 
ies, though they do not last long, etc. She added, ' Et 
is very solemn to think soberly about death, and how 
very good we ought to be.' Several times in the day she 
returned to the same subject. At one time she asked, 
' Arc you sure that heaven is much larger than this 
world?' and said, 'Mrs. C. told me all about heaven. 
She said it was much larger and wider and higher 
than this world, to make room for many souls Do 
you know about it? ' I answered that I did not know, 
but that God was kind and good to every one, and that 
if we were good we should be happy anywhere. With LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
287 
great apparent satisfaction she summed up the whole 
subject in these words, ' He is our Father^ and then 
asked, ' Why did Jesus come on the earth? ' I told her 
that he came to tell ns how much God loved us, and to 
teach us to become good. She said, ' He made many 
sacrifices for men, he was so kind.' 
" Christmas morning she said, ' We ought to remember 
and think much about Christ to-day, how good he was,' 
etc. 
" She has often amused herself during the past year by 
little exercises in composition. The following story, 
written during the absence of her teacher, will serve as 
a specimen of her use of language. The last sentence, 
though not grammatical, may be considered as the moral, 
and a very good moral of the whole. 
Lucy was nearly nine years old. She had excellent 
parents. She always did witli alacrity what her mother 
requested her to do. She told Lucy when it was time 
for her to go to school; so Lucy ran and put on her 
bonnet and shawl, and then she went back to her mamma. 
She offered Lucy a basket containing some pie and cake 
for luncheon. And Lucy went precisely at school-time 
and when she got to the house she took her own seat 
and began to study diligently with all the children. 
And she always conformed to her teacher's wishes. In 
recess she took luncheon out of her basket, but she gave 
some of it to her mates. Lucy had some books with 
pictures and slate in her desk. When she went home 
she found that dinner was all ready. Afterwards her 
mother took her to take tea with her friends. Lucy 
THE GOOD-NATURED GIRL. 288 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
was much delighted to play with her little cousins, Lucy 
and Helen; and they let her see their playthings. 
After tea Lucy was sorry to depart; and when she 
went to bed she thought she had made it pleasantly to 
all her friends with little joyful heart. 
" Jan. 7,1846. Laura was full of glee this morning. 
' 1 am so very happy. I have resolved to be so good. 
I am so happy to be alive.' Yesterday I commenced 
teaching her a Bible history. It will be exceedingly diffi- 
cult to give her an idea of the history recorded in the 
Old Testament without confusing all her ideas of right 
and wrong, justice and humanity " 
In the latter part of February the journal speaks 
of her as having been "obedient, generous, and 
self-denying; at times a little irritable for a mo- 
ment, but soon recovering herself," and again, "she 
has learned many new words and phrases, but lias 
not done as much as I expected in school. I have 
frequently omitted lessons when she seemed too 
nervous to attend to them." She continued to fail 
in health, and in May went with Miss Wight to 
Philadelphia to visit her former teacher. She had 
voluntarily adopted a diet of bread and milk, to 
which she strictly confined herself at each of her 
three meals. No delicacies could tempt her, 
although it seemed to all her friends that she was 
rapidly growing weaker in consequence of her 
persistence. She was interested in meeting old 
friends and in making new acquaintances, but soon 
became weary and languid. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
289 
It was decided on her return from the South to 
try the effects of her native air, and she went with 
her teacher to her home in Hanover. 
From the journal of her visit there, we quote 
the following: - 
" Laura appears very amiable and attentive to every 
one's wants, and exerts herself to do everything in her 
power to add to my comfort and happiness. She some- 
times asks me if she sets her brothers a good example. 
She evidently feels that she is an older sister. 
"It was pleasant to see her with Mr. Tenny; she 
seemed to have entire confidence in him. Each time 
he visited her she wished to go to the barn in quest of 
eggs as she was accustomed to do when a child. She 
took his hand and would go alone with him with a con- 
fidence 1 have rarely seen her manifest towards a gen- 
tleman. Though they never found any eggs, she never 
tired of the search. 
"One day she said, 'I will write some new things 
for my brothers to make them more wise.' She wrote 
rapidly on a slate the following: ' I hope that you love 
God very much, for he is so kind always, who supplies 
us with such beautiful flowers, and many other things 
in the world I love him extremely much, he is so 
benevolent. You must exert yourselves to think of 
him, how good and kind he is, and that he loves all of 
his children and to have them do what he wishes them. 
We will all be very happy with him, if we are always 
good and right, as long as wre live, always.' 
" August, 1846. Laura said, ' I dreamed last night 290 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
that I must die. I was very much afraid.' I talked 
with her until she became quite cheerful. 
'■'■Sept.l. Talked with Laura about our mutual 
dependence. Told her that God did not intend we 
should think only of ourselves, because he had so made 
us that we could not be comfortable and happy without 
the assistance and sympathy of those about us. She 
asked, ' Why did God make me if he knew I should 
have so many faults?' I replied, I thought he wished 
her to correct her faults, and enjoy a very happy life, 
and asked her if she had not lived many happy hours. 
' Yes.' ' And why are you not always happy? ' ' I do 
not always feel right and do right ' 
" She has seemed very well and happy to-day. At 
first she was unwilling to take the shower-bath (which 
was a new thing to her), but I told her it was thought 
good for her and I hoped she had courage enough to 
endure the disagreeable feeling for a minute. She 
laughed and said she was very brave, and went in reso- 
lutely. While we were walking she wished to tell me 
some curious dreams she had had recently. ' I dreamed 
I wrote a letter to God, and tried very hard to get 
some one to carry it. I told him that I wanted to 
come to visit him very much. I dreamed that I was in 
heaven once, and saw God with my eyes.'" 
Sho had been persuaded during the summer to 
ride a little upon a donkey, and now overcame 
her timidity sufficiently to mount a pony. She 
rode frequently, having a person to accompany 
her to hold the bridle, and enjoyed the exercise 
very much. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
291 
" Sept. 11. After Laura's ride on the pony, took her 
to be weighed, and found her weight to be but seventy- 
nine pounds. She seemed a little troubled by it, and I 
told her I thought if she ate a little meat and some vege- 
tables she would grow heavier and stronger also. ' I 
do not like meat,' was her reply. ' But will you not try 
to eat a little and learn to like it, if you do it only to 
please me?' ' No,'she replied with a most unamiable 
emphasis. I was no less surprised than grieved at such 
an answer, for heretofore, although she has frequently 
differed in opinion, she has been ready to yield to me. 
In all little things she obeys me without hesitation, or, 
' with alacrity,' as she often says. She is too old for 
us to expect her to render the blind obedience of a 
child, but her self-esteem will make her unhappy in her 
future life unless checked now. Iler situation has al- 
ways been one adapted to strengthen this feeling. She 
has a seat apart from the other pupils in the school- 
room, and she knows that she is an object of more inter- 
est than any of the other blind girls." 
During the autumn, with the return of cooler 
weather, her health improved and she resumed her 
lessons, and in December she was again at work 
in arithmetic, having advanced as far as Interest. 
She was also having lessons in grammar. 
" Dec. 23. Rev. Dr. Wayland came to see Laura, 
and asked her many questions. He read a story which 
she had written, as easily, he said, as if he had written 
it himself. He asked if he might take a copy of it for 
his son, and she told him she would send it to him for 292 
LA Uli A BRIDGMAN. 
a Christmas present. Before leaving the doctor gave 
her money to purchase a Christmas present for her- 
self. She decided that it would give her more pleas- 
ure to expend it in the purchase of presents for her 
friends. The afternoon was spent in the selection of 
presents. Among others she remembered a little girl 
who was sick, Lizzie who was deaf, Mrs. C.'s little girl 
who was lame. There is nothing more beautiful in 
Laura's character than the love and pity she shows for 
all the afflicted, however uninteresting they may be in 
other respects. When she met poor Harriet, the 
negro, she shrank from the touch of her hand, ' it was 
so bony and strange,' but when she knew that she was 
sick, she would remind me to go and see her, and was 
anxious that I should do everything I could for her, and 
herself bought nice fruit to send her. 
'"Dec. 30. In our walk to-day I checked her when 
she was making one of her noises. She asked if I 
remembered when she used to be impatient when she 
was told not to make a noise ; she said, ' I used to be 
impatient and look cross and say unkind things. I can 
be good and gentle so much easier than I coin'd a year 
ago.' I replied, ' We are a great deal happier now, 
that we do not have such things to trouble us.' And 
she said, 11 hope this (new) year we shall not have 
one unkind, wrong thing to make us unhappy.' Told 
her I thought she had improved much and hoped she 
would improve as much next year. 'Yes, more,' was 
her reply. She asked to-day, ' How can I became dis- 
tinguished ? ' " 
At the close of the year 1846, Dr. Howe 
writes: - LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
293 
"It was stated in the report of Laura Bridgman, 
which was made in January last, that her health had 
been failing during several months, and was then very 
feeble. I am sorry to say that it continued to grow 
weaker for some time, and has not yet become entirely 
re-established. 
" During most of the past year she has been weak 
and sickly. In the spring especially, she became very 
much emaciated, her appetite failed almost entirely, 
and she could hardly be persuaded to take nourishment 
enough to keep her alive. 
"She was placid and uncomplaining, and though 
never gay as in former years, she was never gloomy. 
She appeared to feel no fear or anxiety concerning her 
health, and when questioned closely about it she would 
answer that she was very well. Indeed, the change had 
come over her so slowly and gradually that she seemed 
to 1 »e hardly conscious of it, and showed surprise when 
it was alluded to. Sometimes, indeed, when she found 
that she was wearied by walking half a mile, she was 
forced to remember her former long walks of five and 
six miles, and to think about the change. 
"As she grew thinner and paler and weaker, she 
appeared to be laying aside the garments of the flesh, 
a id her spirit shone out brighter though its transparent 
veil. Iler countenance became more spiritualized, and 
its pensive expression told truly that, though there was 
no gloom, neither was there any gladness in the heart. 
" Her intellect was clear and active, and she would 
fain have indulged in conversation and study about 
subjects of a serious nature ; but she was sensitive and 
excitable, and the mental activity and craving were 294 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
perhaps morbid. Be that as it may, however, she was 
at a fearful crisis in her life, and it seemed to be our 
first duty to save that She was therefore not only 
diverted from all exciting trains of thought, but dis- 
suaded from pursuing her usual course of study. We 
were very desirous not to alarm her by showing the 
anxiety which was really felt about her ; and this object 
was gained so effectually that she probably did not 
discover her danger. She is always very observant, 
however, and ascertains the state of mind of those about 
her by reading parts of the natural language of the 
emotions, which we never observe, but which are as 
sure guides to her as the expression of the countenance 
is to us. It is almost impossible that her companions 
should feel particularly gay or sad, and withhold the 
knowledge of it from Laura. The natural language of 
the feelings is almost infinite. A common observer 
reads only the page of the countenance, the keener one 
finds meaning in tones of the voice, or, looking more 
closely, reads signs in the very shaking of hands ; but 
Laura not only observes the toi<es < f til l finge r language, 
she finds meaning in every posture of the body and in 
every movement of limb ; in the various play of the 
muscles she observes the gentle pressure of affection, 
the winning for^e of persuasion, the firm motion of 
command, the quick jerk of impatience, the sudden 
spasm of temper, and many other variations which she 
interprets swiftly and correctly. 
" With all these means of ascertaining the state of 
her teacher's feelings, and with the certainty that an 
untrue answer would never be given her, Laura would 
surely have learned that her life was thought to be in LzlWM BRIDGMAN. 
295 
some danger if she had ever been accustomed to dwell 
upon thoughts of sickness and death; but she had not, 
and therefore she walked without a shudder upon the 
brink of the grave. 
" The result was as I had hoped and expected that 
it would be, for I was more sanguine than others. The 
natural strength of her constitution, which had tri- 
umphed in that fearful struggle during her infancy, 
though at the expense of two of the most important 
organs of sense, had been carefully nurtured by con- 
stant exercise, simple diet, and regular' habits of mind 
and body, and it carried her safely through this second 
trial. After she had been brought so low that it 
seemed as if the tendency to disease could find no more 
resistance to overcome, it yielded at last, and then the 
vital powers began to rally slowly. 
" When the weather grew warmer, she began a course 
of sea-bathing and of exercise upon horseback. These 
occupied and amused her mind and strengthened her 
body; and she continued to grow better through the 
year, very slowly, indeed, but surely. She has now 
recovered some portion of her lost flesh ; and her appe- 
tite is so far restored that she eats a sufficient quantity 
of bread and milk, but does not like anything else. 
She does not wish to change her food at all, but when 
meal-time arrives, she sits down cheerfully to her simple 
bread and milk, morning, noon, and evening, and having 
finished that, she disregards all the dainties and the 
fruits with which the capricious appetite of invalids is 
usually tempted. Iler present diet is one of her own 
choice, and though it is not the best, and its sameness 
is unwise, we do not insist upon a change while she is 296 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
manifestly thriving, because it might do more harm 
than to indulge a caprice of appetite, not uncommon 
with delicate persons. 
" But the best sign of returning health is the change 
which has taken place in her animal spirits, nor is this 
change uninteresting in a moral point of view. Before 
her illness, she was not only a happy, but a merry child, 
who tripped cheerfully along her dark and silent path 
of life, bearing sportfully a burden of infirmity that 
would have crushed a stout man, and regarding her 
existence as a boon given in love, and to be expended 
in joy; since her illness, she seems to be a thoughtfid 
girl, from whom the spontaneous j >y of childhood has 
departed, and who is cheerful or sad in sympathy with 
the feelings of those about her. 
' ' I hope and believe that her health will be perfectly 
restored, although it is still very frail and easily de- 
ranged by any over-exertion of bod}' or mind. Per- 
haps a complete change may take place in her physical 
system, and her now slender form develop itself into 
the proportions of a large woman ; such changes are 
not unfrequent after such severe crises. At all events, 
with restoration of health will come a return to those 
studies and occupations which have been necessarily 
suspended. 
" She was just beginning to understand that, as she 
was getting freed from her obligations of unconditional 
obedience to those who had directed her childhood, she 
must come under no less unconditional obedience to the 
new monitor and master, the conscience, that was as- 
serting its rule within her; and the veneration and 
affection for human friends, which arc the first objects 297 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
of the awakened germ of the religious feeling,. were 
gradually tending upwards and expanding into worship 
and love of God. 
"This transformation of her soul, this disinthral- 
ment of its high and independent powers, was becom- 
ing perfectly clear to her by means of instruction, and 
would have changed what had been mere habit and 
blind obedience into conscious duty and stern principle, 
but the process was necessarily interrupted. Such in- 
struction would of course require the consideration of 
subjects which were to her of the most intensely excit- 
ing interest, and might have cost her life. 
" I know that many will say that I had already com- 
mitted a great error by deferring the consideration of 
these subjects so long, and that I should have tried to 
retrieve it by giving at once the knowledge which they 
suppose necessary to eternal salvation even at the ex- 
pense of mortal life To this I have only to answer, 
that I have gratefully received and carefully weighed 
all the counsel which has been given to me in the spirit 
of kindness, but that it has failed to alter my views of 
my duty. 
" A general review of her character and deportment 
during the past year gives rise to some agreeable reflec- 
tions. In former years, though she presented an ex- 
traordinary example of gentleness, truthfulness, and 
affection, she showed, like most children, occasional ex- 
cesses of feeling, which required her conduct to be under 
the regulation of others, so that she was not entirely 
a free moral agent. During the last year the reins of 
authority have been slackened ; she has been allowed to 
follow more freely her own inclinations, and though her 298 
ZAtAR.4 BRIDGMAN. 
teacher has been, as in former years, her constant com- 
panion, and doubtless exercised great influence over her, 
yet her society and companionship have been rather 
sought by Laura than imposed upon her. Opportunity 
has thus been given her to develop her individuality of 
character, and to exercise her moral powers by self- 
guidance. 
" It would have been practicable to keep her in leading- 
strings still longer, and by taking advantage of habit, 
to require unconditional obedience for years to come, 
though this might have been difficult, for she evidently 
inherits a strong self-will; but the time had arrived when 
she ought to begin to govern herself; she showed con- 
siderable capacity for doing so, and it would have.been 
wrong to keep her in subjection. 
" Not only was it right to give her considerable free- 
dom of action, but to have withheld it would have been 
injurious to her moral growth, by the loss of that exer- 
cise in self-government which prepares one for complete 
independence of thought and action. The result of 
leaving her in comparative freedom has shown that self- 
government, when the proper age for it has arrived, and 
the previous habits have been good, is as much better 
than foreign government, as walking by the aid of its 
own bones and muscles is better for a child than going 
in leading-strings. 
" Iler thoughts, as I remarked before, have been of a 
more serious nature, and her conduct more sober, during 
the past year, than in former times. This is probably the 
natural consequence of the lowered tone of her physical 
health, and not, as I have been able to discover, of any 
thought or fear of death. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
299 
" Already with returning health and strength there 
appear glimpses of her former gayety of heart; and 
though she may never again be the merry, thoughtless 
girl that she was, we may hope to see in her a happy 
and cheerful woman. She will no longer be the same 
object of public curiosity and interest that she has been, 
but she will not be the object of less care and affection 
to her friends so long as her frail life shall last." 300 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER XVI. 
The only record of the year 1847, we find in 
Miss Wight's journal, extending through the first 
six months. We select the following entries : - 
" Jan. 4, 1847. Laura said she should like to be 
excused from the shower-bath on Sunday as she wanted 
more time. She wished she had a Bible to read in her- 
self. I told her I could read to her from mine. She 
replied, ' But it is much better to read the Bible our- 
selves.' I soon convinced her that she could not under- 
stand it if she should attempt to read it alone, and she said, 
' I wish you would read to me every day in the Bible. 
How did God tell the first manabout himself?' Told 
her I did not know exactly, but that God gave men 
minds capable of thinking of him, and some very good 
men had many thoughts about God. She asked, ' And 
did they tell each other and each other, so that all the 
young children might know about God ? ' I added that 
at last Christ came, and he told the people much more 
about God. ' How long has God lived?' My answer 
puzzled her apparently. She sat holding my hand while 
thinking; she was trying to grasp infinity, and then 
asked, ' Why can we not think how very long God has 
lived ? ' 301 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
" Jan. 5. It was a bright, warm day, and as we walked 
Laura stopped and turned her face upward toward the 
sun, saj ing, ' It is very pleasant. Why does our heavenly 
Father let his sun shine on us in our wrong days? ' I 
do not know why she spoke of wrong days, unless 
because, half an hour before, she told me half impatiently 
that I spelled a word incorrectly. Of late she has not 
shown any of those little impatient feelings that we used 
to see so much when everything was not as she wished 
it. It is seldom now that she gives me one troubled 
thought. It seems as if she had no wrong thoughts, 
for she certainly does not express them in look, word, or 
act. She has seemed more quietly happy than I have 
ever known her before. 
"Jan. 10. Laura asked me as usual about the 
sermons that I had heard during the day, The sub- 
ject of the afternoon was ' forgiveness.' On hearing 
this, her first eager inquiry was, * How can I know if 
God has forgiven me, for I used to do wrong so often? ' 
I gave her an account of the sermon, which seemed to 
satisfy her. 
" Jan. 14. At noon commenced reading the second 
chapter of Matthew to Laura. The first eight verses 
occupied us closely for more than half an hour. She 
asked question upon question At last she began to grow 
nervous, and I took her to the school-room to divert 
her mind. She said as I closed the book, ' We shall be 
so happy to meet Christ when we go to heaven. I 
wish we could see him now here with us.' 
" Jan. 15. Finished reading the second chapter of 
Matthew. Laura was shocked at the perfidy of Herod 
in pretending that he wished to worship Christ, when 302 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
he wished to destroy him, and wTith his cruelty in order- 
ing the destruction of the infant children of Bethlehem ; 
she was much afraid that Herod would at last discover 
where the infant Jesus had gone. 
" Jan. 18. She asked to hear again the chapter that 
I had read, and in addition I read the account of 
Christ's visit to Jerusalem at the age of twelve years 
as recorded in Luke. She asked if he did right to 
stay away from his parents to make them sorrowful. 
" Jan. 29. Gave her a copy of the New Testament 
that she might read herself the fifth chapter of Mat- 
thew. It is a very slow process, for every sentence 
must be explained Almost every day when I have 
been explaining something, she tells me, ' Yes, I knew 
before ; you have told me many times.' Though she 
knows little of the form in which the Scriptures are 
written, she is familiar with their spirit. She was inter- 
ested in the blessing promised to the pure in heart. 
When I had told her what was meant by seeing God, 
and that the pure and good were more like God, 
could understand his character better, would think of 
him more, and love him better, she asked, ' Is God 
near our minds? Could we be as happy if he was not 
with us ? How do you know we could not live with- 
out him?' She read over two or three times, 'Ye are 
the salt of the earth.' She asked, ' What did Christ 
mean? We are not salt.' 
" Feb. 1. Laura received a letter from her mother 
containing intelligence of the death of her old friend, 
Mr. Tenny. As I read the letter her face was first 
red and then turned pale again. She said, ' I am very 
sad that my oldest friend is dead, that I never can see LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
303 
him again. But I think he is much happier now, for 
he was always so good and kind to everybody. She sat 
by me in silence, and then said half inquiringly, ' I 
think Mr Tenny can see us now.' She called to mind 
the many little kindnesses the poor old man had shown 
her, and thought of nothing else until she prepared to 
go to church with me. She had a crape badge which 
had been worn at the time of President Harrison's 
death, and wished to wear it 
"Feb. 3. Laura still thinks much of Mr Tenny. 
Uis death has sensibly affected her. Beside her regret 
for him, she feels the reality of death more than ever 
before. She asked, ' Do you think I shall be afraid 
when I am dying? I do not understand how people 
feel when they are dying.' 
" F(b. 6. I read and explained the Lord's Prayer. 
After this she wanted me to tell her about prayer, how 
we could pray, etc. I told her that we prayed for those 
things that we desired most earnestly to receive, and 
asked her what she thought we needed most, and should 
be most anxious to receive. Her reply was, ' To be 
sorry when we have done wrong, and for God to for- 
give us.' 'Do you think of anything'else ? ' 'Good- 
ness,' she added with emphasis. 
" Feb. 8. Laura went to church with me, and asked 
the subject of the sermon. I told her, Christ's tempta- 
tions. She said, ' Christ was never tempted to do wrong ! 
It is not true, I cannot credit it.' 
" Feb. 12. She went to a dentist to have a tooth 
extracted, and attempted to take ether to produce 
insensibility to pain, but she was much alarmed when 
she perceived that it was depriving her of the power of 304 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
motion and of thought; she fancied she was dying, and 
said she dreamed of God and heaven while she was 
without the power of motion. It was finally decided to 
take it out without the gas, and she bore it bravely. 
" Feb. 14. She wrote to her brother to-day, ' Do 
you like to endeavor to imitate Christ? Christ was 
very perfect, & had such a very beautiful character. 
My dearest teacher Wight teaches me six lessons every 
day, arithmetic, history, Bible & reading stories, 
grammar & writing journal, & other different things. 
I like to hear of Christ & his character, & our 
Father, the best of all in the world. Do you both learn 
to comprehend the Bible much better than last summer? 
I should like you to write to me all about your imitat- 
ing Christ. I am very sad not to see my oldest & 
dearest friend, Mr. Tenny, ever on this earth. I used 
to love & respect him very much. When 1 am in 
Hanover again I should miss him. It would appear 
very lonely to me also. I have the pin which he gave 
me when I visited you all. I used to wear it every day, 
& remember him by it constantly. Where is his body 
buried ? ' 
" Feb. 16. Dr. Howe spoke to-day of the improve- 
ment in Laura's character that has taken place the last 
year. This may be ascribed in part to the quiet life 
that she has led, and in part to the rule that I have 
always observed, of never allowing even the slightest 
fault to pass without some notice, at the time or after- 
ward. She has learned • that it is more blessed to give 
than to receive,' for she is evidently more pleased when 
she can bestow a present than when she receives one. 
Another reason for her improvement may perhaps be LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
305 
found in a remark she made to me the last time she 
manifested any impatience. 4 I thought quickly about 
Jesus Christ, how good he was, and then my good feel- 
ings came again.' 
o o 
44 March 24. To-day, for the first time, she seemed 
to be struck with wonder at the account of the miracles 
recorded as performed by Christ. Before this time she 
received all as a matter of fact, but to day in reading 
the eighth chapter of Matthew she asked, 4 How did 
Christ heal. the sick ? Did he give them medicine ? 
IIow could they get well so quickly? ' I replied that I 
could not tell how, that some good people thought that 
Matthew was mistaken, but that Christ was so much 
purer and better than any one else, he might have 
power that we do not know of. This seemed to satisfy 
her. Iler implicit faith in what she is told makes me 
tremble lest 1 should mislead her. 4 If Christ had been 
here when Jane Damon was sick, do you think he would 
have cured her? Would he have cured me when I was 
sick, so that I should not have been deaf and blind ? ' 
I tried to show her how Christ would do much more for 
us now than to cure our sickness of body, if we loved 
his character and tried to imitate it. 
44 April 1. Laura asked, 4 Why did God make us to 
be sick and suffer pain if he loved us?' I reminded 
her of the pain she had suffered from a slight burn, and 
told her that this pain might have saved her from much 
greater injury. Then we talked of the various ways in 
which life might be saved by attending to the warning 
that speaks to us so loudly through physical suffering ; 
of the effects of eating improper food, of neglecting 
exercise, bathing, exposure to cold air, etc. 306 
I.AURA BRIDGMAN. 
" April 2. While Laura was reading, I asked her 
to repeat twice a word that she had spelled incorrectly, 
and that I did not understand. She seized my hand 
and in her impatience put my finger between her teeth 
as if she would have bitten it, but suddenly recollecting 
herself, she kissed it and turned away her face, which, 
from being pale, became very red. In an instant she 
turned to me, saying, ' Will you please to forgive me, 
for I shall never do such a thing again. It is so natu- 
ral for all people to be impatient sometimes, except 
some very kind people who are never impatient. I 
think they try to imitate Christ. I feel impatient in my 
mind sometimes, but I do not let you know it.' I told 
her that probably every one felt it sometimes, but when 
we had learned to control the expression of it, the feel- 
ing could not last long. 'Are you ever impatient? 
But you never let your impatience act.' 
Easter Sunday. Talking of the sermon that I had 
heard, I was led for the first time to speak to Laura of 
the manner of Christ's death. ' Were the people not very 
unkind ? Why did not Christ escape ? ' were her questions. 
Tried to show her how Christ had manifested his love for 
men by persisting in teaching the truth, though he knew 
that the end of it must be a cruel death; also that 
while Christ lived his disciples hoped that he would 
help them to be free from the Romans, and that it was 
only after his ignominious death that they could realize 
that he was a teacher, and not a governor. 
" April 4. We read, 'But if ye forgive not men 
their trespasses, neither will you Heavenly Father for- 
give you.' She said, ' But I am sure our benevolent 
Father will forgive us if we do not forgive others.' This LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
307 
led to a long conversation on the subject of forgiveness, 
in what it consists, etc. She said, ' We shall be with God 
when we die.' • Yes.' ' But heaven is an immense place, 
much larger than this earth, for one of my friends told me 
so many years ago.' She clings to this idea of a place of 
habitation for happy spirits. I convinced her that the 
situation in which we were placed did not of itself make 
us happy or miserable, by appealing to her own experi- 
ence and that of others around her. She asked, ' How 
can I be sure that God is always with us?' 
May 1. Dr. Howe has decided to take Laura's 
religious instruction entirely into his own hands. She 
returned from her lesson to-day very eager to talk with 
me. ' Doctor says I must remember when I read the 
Bible that there are many mistakes in it. Do you 
believe there is any revelation? Doctor says some 
people do not believe it, but there surely is. Why do 
you not teach me as Doctor does about the Bible ? ' I 
replied that we did not think exactly alike about all 
things. 'Why not?' she asked, and seemed a little 
troubled. Her color changed and she looked very 
serious for a few moments, and then said, ' Why is 
your manner more diffident and timid than Doctor's 
when you talk to me about God and the Bible? And 
when you talk about wrong things you speak more 
gently and sadly, and not so firmly, as other people 
do.' 
"Junel. We left Boston for a visit to Hanover, 
and met Laura's father in Concord. In the course of 
the journey she made many inquiries about her old 
friend, Mr. Tenny. She asked me, ' Would you like 
to go with me to see the place where he was buried, for 308 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
I should like to go ? Do you think he was sad uot to 
see me again before he died? I shall miss him con- 
stantly. Do you think he can see us now, and know 
what we are thinking about?' I tried to give her 
pleasant thoughts and told her that her friend, who 
was so kind to her. was not in the ground, that he 
was still living, more loving than ever, and much hap- 
pier than when he was in his poor sick body. Again 
she asked, ' How can I know when I am going to die?' 
and with a shudder said, ' I hope I shall not be sick.' 
I talked quietly and gently with her of God's love and 
care for all things he had made ; told her how He took 
care of the birds and the bees, and all living things, and 
how sure we might be that he would do all that was 
best for us. She grew calm and even cheerful by 
degrees. 1 do not intend to talk with her now on such 
subjects, but under such circumstances it was unavoid- 
able. In the course of the conversation she said, 
' Heaven is above us over the sky. Can you see into 
heaven? Look, up - up.' I told her, 'We were in 
heaven now, when we were good and doing good.' 
' And about the bad ? How will God prevent the bad 
from going to heaven? ' I replied that those who had 
bad feelings could not be happy anywhere, and con- 
vinced her that no place or circumstances could make 
her happy, if she were conscious of doing or desiring 
any wrong thing. 
"Mr. Tenny remembered her to the last, and only 
a few weeks before his death he tried to write to her, but 
was unable to finish the letter. A day or two before he 
died he wished that he had money to buy a basket of 
an Indian woman for the deaf, dumb, and blind child. LAUB A BRIDGMAN. 
309 
" Almost all the pleasant remembrances which Laura 
has of the first part of her life seem to be associated 
with Uncle Asa, as he was familiarly known through the 
village. While her mother was absorbed in her house- 
hold duties, he carried or led her gently from one neigh- 
bor's to another ; over the hills in search of berries and 
nuts ; to the fields for apples ; to the barn for eggs ; to 
the brook to show her the running water; in short, he 
seemed to have found his happiness in trying to amuse 
this afflicted child. 
" The sight of Laura seems to recall him to the minds 
of all the people, and almost every one has some story 
to tell of ' the time when she was a little thing, and 
came to see them with Uncle Asa.' 
" June 29. We returned from Hanover to Boston. 
Laura enjoyed her visit very much, but made her prep- 
arations for leaving with great cheerfulness. 
July 11. Laura remained at home writing. After 
church I found her unusually nervous, even sad. Yester- 
day, as well as to-day, her mind has been full of thoughts 
of sickness, of death, of heaven, etc. For every one 
whom she meets she has a question ready. This seems 
to me unfortunate for her, as she is now I am afraid 
this uncomfortable state of mind has been brought on in 
part by the change which she has probably noticed in 
me. I have rather avoided such subjects instead of 
talking freely and naturally as formerly with her. I am 
sure it is best for Laura to be with one whose thoughts 
and feelings are so nearly right that the child can feel 
that they arc not intentionally concealed from her. I 
am sure that Dr. Howe can teach her infinitely better 
than I can, yet important as his instructions may be to 310 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
her, they cannot take the place of the words that she 
craves daily and hourly from a friend who is constantly 
with her. It is almost overwhelming when one thinks 
of all that is needed for the judicious training of one 
child, so much wisdom and so much goodness 1 
" July 12. Doctor tells me it is better that I should 
answer her questions upon all subjects, and not try to 
avoid conversing with her on any. 
"July 13. Laura's lesson in history was upon 
Thebes. She expressed her surprise that the people 
were so fond of fighting. ' Did the Thebans and Spar- 
tans and Persians know about our Father? I do not 
think they did, for they would not fight so much.' 
When speaking of God now she always says ' our 
Father.' When we talk of a beautiful flower, a pleasant 
day, a little infant, or anything that interests her, it is 
not uncommon for her to ask, ' Does it remind you of 
our kind Father in heaven?' She asked, 'Are there 
any people on the earth who are afraid to leave their 
bodies ? ' I reminded her again of that part of Christ's 
teachings that interested her so much when she read it, 
of God's care even for the sparrows. She asked, ' How 
long shall you live? I shall be very sad when you 
die.' 'Why did God clothe our spirits with flesh? 
Why did he give us eyes and ears and hands ? I want 
to read the Psalms, I can understand them so much 
better now. I wish you would resume your reading to 
me in the Bible, it makes me the happiest to know 
about Christ and God. I am very happy now, much 
happier than three years ago. I thank you very much 
for your good influence on me.' 
" Talking one day about the ancient Greeks, she LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
311 
said, ' I am glad we are so much better and happier than 
barbarians. We shall be much happier in heaven.' 
" 1 have observed several times of late a feeling of 
satisfaction with herself at her own improvement. I 
have tried to remove this in part by giving her exam- 
ples of the greatest goodness and excellence, that she 
may feel that there is yet something above her that she 
may attain, but her natural self-esteem, joined to the 
consciousness of possessing many right and kind feel- 
ings, often fills her heart with thankfulness that she is 
' not as other men are.' " 
" Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed 
lest he fall," was verified in Laura's case, for after 
months of exemption, she yielded again on two or 
three occasions to her besetting sin of anger, only, 
however, to reach greater depths of penitence, and 
to make new resolves never to be overcome again. 
From July, 1847, we find no notes by Miss 
Wight until October, 1847, but fill the gap by 
extracts from Laura's own journal, which she was 
in the habit of writing daily. 
Under date of Jan. 6, 1848, after noting the 
77 o 
occupations of the morning, she writes : - 
"In the p. m. we had a pleasant conversation for 
a while. As Miss W. was talking to me very kindly, I 
was so reckless as to disobey my best impulse. I felt 
an impatient feeling in my heart which made me wring 
my poor teacher's delicate hand. At last she left me 
alone. I took my work to occupy myself. I meditated 312 
LAVRA BRIDGMAN. 
upon Christ who accomplished much good for every 
one. I now owned that I had done wrong. At length 
I went to W. & kissed her, for her to know how sad 
I felt; I assured her that I would exert myself to culti- 
vate patience, & not have such bad feelings in the 
future She was very kind to soothe me. I finished 
the basket, & then she taught me two lessons as 
usual." 
She knew that her journal was read by Dr. 
Howe, but although always ambitious to appear 
well to him, and to do nothing to incur his disap- 
probation, she does not accompany this simple 
story of her fault by one word of extenuation. 
Tn this she was certainly superior to most children. 
At this time a little girl totally deaf and par- 
tially blind was a member of the school, and as 
much of her instruction was given by the finger 
alphabet, it was thought that it might be well for 
Laura to have an opportunity to help some one, and 
so she was appointed her teacher for an hour a 
day. How she performed the duties of her new 
office will be seen from her own reports. 
" Jan. 19. I instructed Lizzie a lesson from arith- 
metic with much pleasure. It seemed very funny and 
queer that I could teach a pupil so successfully." 
This was probably her first lesson. One day 
she wrote, - 
" When I was teaching her very earnestly, she men- 
tioned that she wished to have sport so much, but J LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
313 
insisted upon her studying till the recess arrived. She 
conversed with me about her comical dreams of Miss 
W. & I & her mother." 
Again, - 
"As I spoke to my favorite pupil she would not 
reply to me, for she did not have a pleasant feeling in 
her own heart. It appeared to me that she did not 
feel inclined to have her lesson at first, but in a little 
time she was evidently willing to recite her lesson to 
me." 
Another entry is, - 
" At twelve I instructed my dear pupil. As I ap- 
proached her, she denoted a very sweet and earnest 
expression upon her countenance to me, and it grati- 
fied my heart much." 
Still another is, - 
" As I approached my little pupil she did not feel in- 
clined to be studious and diligent. I taught her about 
England for a while. When I mentioned to her that 
Miss AV. considered that it would be the best plan for 
me to teach her a lesson in arithmetic, she said eagerly 
that I had promised to teach her geography. Lizzy 
was discontented & disappointed that I delayed teaching 
her geography." 
Iler journal entry for Feb. 25 is copied entire. 
It is the only time in which she speaks of her pri- 
vate devotions. 
" Maria came & entered to call me. As soon as I 
rose, I delayed the shower-bath, for the room seemed 314 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
excessively cold so that I felt a little apprehensive of 
being frozen. After I was thoroughly dressed I came 
into our tranquil parlour before I took my prayer. I 
took the precaution of locking the door, so that no one 
could come in to annoy me during my prayer. I knelt 
down by a chair to pray to God. I recited my lessons 
very diligently. At ten I taught my favorite pupil 
Lizzy a lesson in arithmetic, she appeared much more 
attentive and studious than usual in my opinion. After 
her lesson I communicated to her about my heavenly 
Father, with much pleasure and anxiety. She loved 
to make many inquiries of me about him I have had 
a very pleasant meditation. I thought much about God 
constantly; that when I do a sin in the least, my heav- 
enly Father is tormented & disapproves of me, & likewise 
rebukes me for doing an error. When I am doing 
any thing wrong he remonstrate(s) orwarn(s) with me. 
When I think of him I feel as though that he would 
forgive me, & send me a pure loving heart and happi- 
ness ; then I feel reverent, & love him. When I am 
released from my body, I should be much happier to be 
with God forever, than on earth. I should love to see 
his best son Christ with him incessantly. I shall be 
much wiser and better when I die, than I am in the 
world. When I think of him, it causes me to have 
much happiness, & love, & to have the best of feelings, 
and reflections, & impulses, & qualities, & to do the 
duty of my heavenly Father " 
She reports insubordination of her pupil and 
its punishment. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
315 
" March 1. I taught Lizzy a lesson at ten o'clock. 
She studied very industriously for a while. She then 
became so sportive that I was compelled to defer my 
instruction. As I assured Miss W. that L. said that 
she should not study, Miss W. considered that L. had 
better sit silently, for she was not faithful and innocent. 
I was obliged to read in my book by myself. I was 
very sorry to deprive L. of her long lesson." 
The unceasing care and attention bestowed on 
Laura had so prostrated Miss Wight that she was 
obliged to leave her for a rest of some weeks. In 
her entry May 11, Laura writes a very tender and 
loving tribute to her. 
" I thought if W. had a whole vacation as regularly as 
the (other) teachers & their pupils do, then she would 
regain her health & strength, so that she could have such 
a good resolution to instruct me much. I am sorry & 
anxious that she should have a vacation every time the 
other people do. It is likely that she would have en- 
joyed her instruction much afterwards. I do not trust 
(suppose) that she would have so perfect health, & so 
much strength as myself, for it is very unnatural to her. 
She can be very calm & cheerful instead of manifest- 
ing her activity & gayety: but I cannot tell how she 
looks in her sweet countenance. I wish I could discern 
her expression. I am willing that she should be sedate 
& much less emphatic, but I love to caress her very 
much indeed. My heavenly Father was so very kind to 
give me such a nice, beautiful friend, who has a very 
warm, affectionate, loving, humble, sociable, sympa- 316 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
thizing heart. I should love to have her visit me as 
frequently as she could, when we are separated from each 
other." 
She writes, - 
July 10. "I made many inquiries of W. about the 
Lord and his only beloved bon. I cannot be as perfect 
as the Lord, because it is impossible for anybody to imi- 
tate (equal?) him. I should be the happiest if I could 
strive to do as much good to every one as possible, when 
I am 20ty years old. I am extremely hopeful that my 
heart or mind will retain much love, & benevolence. & 
confidence, & faith, as long as I live. I should feel in 
my own heart that God was pleased to see how much I 
could strive to do the volition of him. I fear that I 
could not bear so much, when any one should be much 
vexed or irritable to me. How could I make them feel 
better and happier ? I should make an effort to comfort 
them by my patience & smiles. If they would not 
submit to follow my best example, or appreciate my 
character (intentions) for some time, I should not 
know what I could do. How could I acquire the art of 
making them cultivate their humility & patience ? It is 
very likely that they might cultivate them by seeing how 
patient & smiling I should be. I hope that I shall 
not be likely to find any one w'ho is unkind, & too hard- 
hearted and prejudiced against me. I could not utter 
(speak) to them or talk with them with my own fingers. 
I could not teach any ignorant people about goodness 
& love & humility, &c. 
" Aug. 3. Miss W. ceased to instruct me at quartei 
past 2 o'clock because I hit her face & also pinched hei 317 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
thumb backward. I was a very wrong and unjust 
scholar to hurt her so much I did not obey my best 
impulse, which was so very good not to allow me to do 
two wrong things I was exceedingly abashed, & guilty 
in my own heart. I felt that God had inflicted a great 
punishment upon me. It made me feel much ashamed & 
alarmed. I was afraid because I was so very (wrong) to 
disregard God, who was much displeased to see my bad 
feelings. He was very angry to see me do very wrong. 
My conscience was very great and strong; it kept 
reproaching me for many hours. I have been thinking 
much of God who was right & merciful to punish me 
for doing wrong. My poor heart was overwhelmed 
& tormented all day. When I repented much, my 
heart felt that God would forgive me much more than 
Miss W. could I am very hopeful that I shall not be 
likely to do her any harm so long as she is with me. I 
am so much ashamed & sad that I should do very WTong 
in the sight of W. She cannot trust me that I shall 
strive to cultivate patience & love as long as I live. I 
did not mean to hurt my lovely teacher so many times 
while I was her scholar. God can do me much good 
himself. lie can forgive me more than any one." 
A day or two later she writes, - 
" I have been thinking about our only creator, who 
made the earth, sun, animals, fruits, &c., which are very 
wonderful to us all. I am very glad that my mind was 
made to live forever in heaven with God. Why was it 
not made to die as the body ? 
41 Aug. 7. I have been thinking of God & Christ 
this p. m. I am highly delighted that God sent Christ 318 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
to reside on the earth, so that he might communicate 
many things to all the people. He was very religious 
to command the people to do right, & to do so much 
good to all. I cannot realize that Christ lived on the 
earth to do the will of God I shall have reverence 
toward God, if I think as much as it is possible of him. 
I feel in my own heart that he is coming to see me from 
heaven, when I am thinking so earnestly of him. It 
helps my heart to have much love & respect for him. I 
hope to love & respect him the more & more as long as 
my life. It is impossible for me to appreciate his 
character & his only beloved son. I love to think of 
him so very much better than anything else. I am 
extremely glad to know that he cannot forsake me, & 
that he can love me much more than I can love him. I 
ought to be very grateful to him who is so kind to 
chastise me for a sin, for he loves to do me good I can- 
not conceive how much mercy, & love, & kindness he 
has, because he is so very perfect. 
"Aug. 11. There is a very poor woman who has 
lost her husband. She has four or five children. They 
are not all very well. Iler husband was working 
beneath the earth a few weeks; who (he) was terribly 
hurt by the falling of the earth. The earth broke very 
suddenly, that hurt some of the laborers exceedingly 
indeed. I have much compassion upon the poor woman 
and her children. I am fearful that they have a scanty 
food or clothes. I rejoice much that it is so very warm 
that they do not need much clothing. I say to myself, 
if it was a cold season then the pdor family would have 
suffered very much from the cold & storm. How could 
the woman procure some wood to make a large fire, LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
319 
& a plenty of new clothes to protect her children from 
the cold? I suppose that some benevolent people 
would be very charming & bountiful, to give the poor 
so many necessaries as they could. I am grateful & 
happy that we have such quantity of food, & a great 
supply of clothes here. My heavenly Father is the 
most benevolent of any one in the world, who bestows 
everything upon us continually. I cannot conceive how 
very benevolent & kind he is, in my life." 
Occasionally she indulged in pleasant anticipa- 
tions both for herself and her teacher. Aug. 23 
she writes, - 
" This p. m. I have been thinking about Miss Wight 
& her little nice house. I shall be very hopeful that 
she will have a very nice house in her life. I cannot 
imagine who can console her whilst she dwells in her 
tiny house. If I should fulfil my promise in residing 
with her, I could give her all my aid. I could help her 
wash & wipe & put away all her dishes so very nicely. 
I could sweep my little chamber, & dust & fix it very 
nicely every day. I should love to assist her to select 
all the necessaries, much light furnishture, & many nice 
delicate dishes. She would have some small cups for 
the very best." 
Another day her anticipations are not so bright; 
she writes, - 
" Who could have all of my precious things when I 
die ? I may probably have many new friends as long 
as I live. I hope that they would endear themselves 
to me by love, kindness & benevolence. I cannot 320 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
imagine how much I could love & respect them. Could 
it not be very (in)convenient for them to make the 
letters with their fingers? Could they have as much 
time to converse with me as my old friends now? 
Could I anticipate much pleasure, & that I should be 
so very sociable & happy, & contented, & loving, when 
I lose all of my old friends? I should really mourn, & 
miss many of my very dear old friends very much. 
" Sept. 7. I have been thinking about my mother & 
brother A. I wish that I could dine with them to-day. 
I could probably have a better appetite with my dear 
family. We should find at mother's house a great pro- 
fusion of pies & pumpkins & squashes & baked sweet 
apples & other nice victuals." 
Occasionally she indulged in jokes, as in the 
entry for Jan. 19, 1849. She says, - 
" I think that the rat ought to be imprisoned for 
stealing my beautiful apple the other day. He ought 
to have a conscience on purpose to reprove himself very 
much. I must ask W. to please to teach him about 
doing right & wrong & (being) honest in the night. 
He would love her very much for her good influence. 
She must exert herself to devote her time to instruct 
the rat about goodness, etc." LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
321 
CHAPTER XVII. 
After the lapse of more than a year, Miss Wight 
resumes her journal, and continues it at intervals 
until near the close of 1849. 
" Oct. 12, 1848. While Mrs. F. was sitting with 
us this evening Laura said to her, ' Your voice sounds 
like a man's.' On being asked her reasons for thinking 
so, she replied that she saw, putting her hand on her 
throat. The lady has a deep voice." 
Speaking of her health, Miss Wight says : - 
" She has a good appetite and is in excellent spirits, 
or as she told me to-day, ' I have a hundred good 
spirits, but you have only ten.' 
" Nov. 4. In giving her a lesson to-day upon the 
origin of laws and government, and the penalties 
attached by men to the breaking of these laws, she 
asked with great earnestness, ' Why did our Father make 
men to do wrong and to suffer so much?' 
" She says much lately of being independent and 
earning her own living when she leaves school, but the 
thought of going home to live seems to have no place 
in her plans for the future. She grows continually 
more affectionate, more lovely, and at the same time more 
sensitive. 322 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
" Nov. 10. I had a very pleasant conversation with 
Laura this morning. She told me of her prayers ; how 
calm and happy it made her to pray. Iler prayer, as 
she repeated it to me, was beautiful from its simplicity 
and fitness. I wish I could recall her words, for the form 
of expression was very perfect, but I could not ask her 
to repeat it. She asked, ' Can you realize that God is 
with us and takes care of us constantly ? ' She spoke 
of death: ' I cannot imagine how my spirit can feel 
without my body. I do not know why I should not 
feel willing to die, but I do not feel willing.' But not- 
withstanding all these misgivings which arise in her mind 
occasionally as she thinks of the future, she feels that 
existence is a great blessing. She said, as often 
before, ' I am so glad that I was created! ' Indeed, 
when in health there is not a happier being in existence 
than she. She asked, ' Can we conceive how great and 
good God is ? ' ' How industrious he is ! ' she exclaimed 
when we had been talking of his goodness as mani- 
fested in the creation of all things around us ' Did you 
know that my heart has much more love for everybody 
than last year? I am very much happier. When I 
meet people and they kiss me so hard, they are so very 
kind to me and I laugh and feel so much more kind and 
loving.' " 
Under another date she says : - 
"Laura has become much interested in Free Soil 
principles, and few voters have made more earnest 
inquiries into the character of the candidates for the 
Presidency. It was with difficulty that I convinced her 
that a man might have some good qualities even though LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
323 
he were a slave-holder and were willing to fight, and 
indeed, I doubt whether I did really succeed -She 
asked why her father should not be a slave as well as 
the negroes. She could see no reason why one man 
who worked hard should not be a slave as well as 
another. 
" Nov. 16. She made a remark that made me real- 
ize, more then ever, her privations. ' I want to do 
right, but I cannot hear with my ears what everybody 
says about it; what they think is right and best to do.' 
She said this more seriously than she usually speaks of 
her own peculiarities. 
' ' Reading in Laura's journal that her heart was almost 
broken by the loss of a dear friend who had gone away. 
I asked her if I should get some glue to mend it. With 
a half-serious, half comic expression she replied, ' Time 
will be the best glue.' 
"Jan. 29, 1849. This morning I read one of Dr. 
Peabody's sermons to Laura. ' We know but in part.' 
She was much pleased that she could understand it so 
readily. She clasped the book with delight, and said, 
' I wish it was mine, for it would always fill my heart 
with love and goodness. I am so glad that Dr. (Howe) 
took so much trouble to find out how to teach me to 
give me the best education. If I had studied all the time 
I should have made more progress. Why did you not 
teach me when I was poor (thin) and had a cough?' 
"April 10. She said to-day, ' How glad I am that 
our minds are made to go thousands of miles to see 
our friends and be with them, though they are so 
remote.' (She had just parted with a friend to whom 
she was much attached and who was going to reside in 324 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
California.) A few moments after she asked, 'Will 
our minds all be alike, when they go to heaven away 
from our bodies? I think they will be exactly alike. 
How hard it is to think God has lived forever 1 If 
we were all alike we could not know each other. I 
think we shall know our friends and much better than 
we do here, but I have not naturally much confidence 
in God. Christ had the most confidence in God, he 
was willing to be killed. Do you think he feels like 
himself now in heaven ? Do we think as much of our 
only Father as we ought to? Does it not give you 
more love in your heart to think much of him? It 
does me.' 
"For a few weeks past I have been often struck 
with her apparent appreciation of unexpressed thoughts. 
Anything that interests me deeply seems to suggest a 
corresponding train of thought in her. It is so often 
the case that I can scarcely believe it to be the effect 
of accident merely. Her parting advice to her friend, 
Mrs. F., was, ' I hope you will be very happy & use- 
ful & loving & kind always; & also that you will 
have reverence & respect for all human beings. I 
feel in my heart that you will strive to do your duty to 
God, & it will please him so much to see you doing 
the most good to all in the world. I shall wish to hear 
of your happiness, & of the country, etc., so much. 
You must think of me & ask for my sympathy & 
confidence when you are troubled and homesick in 
mind & heart. Yrou must not think I shall forget 
you in my life if I do not write to you frequently.' 
" Apr I 26. She attended a wedding for the first 
time. She conducted herself with the most perfect pro- 325 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
priety and expressed her good wishes very gracefully, 
giving as well as receiving much pleasure. 
"'I his afternoon she alluded to the incident in her 
early childhood of throwing the cat into the fire. I 
asked her if she knew she was doing wrong at the time. 
She said, ' Not till my mother punished me, then I 
knew it was wrong.' " 
In August sho spent some weeks with her dear 
friends in Billerica, and while there, wrote a long 
letter to her brother Addison to whom she was 
much attached. She sympathized with him in his 
love of study, and indulged in dreams of a future 
time coming when she would be able to study with 
him. She appreciated her superiority in age, and 
occasionally assumed the position of adviser. 
She had just heard that he enjoyed using a gun 
sometimes. 
The following is a copy of the letter :- ' 
Billerica, Aug. 26, 1849. 
My Dearest Brother Addison: 
I wish you a very happy Sunday. I came to Bil- 
lerica last Friday, p. m. 1 was highly delighted to get 
a kind note from you. My little heart was filled with 
numerous delightful emotions. I did not approve of 
your killing the most huge bird. But he was so 
intensely cruel as to kill those poultry which existed 
very happily. If I were you 1 would hate to hurt any 
living thing, because my heavenly father is so infinitely 
kind & benevolent as to have all things in order. I 
am very grateful to him, for he presented my brothers 326 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
& sisters & numerous great blessings. God is al- 
ways very much displeased to see any one hurt birds, 
or anything that lives very happily. I am positively 
sure that it is very wrong for you & John to like to 
hurt or kill the happy creatures. I am extremely sad 
that you love such cruel fun so dearly in that way. I 
am very sure you would be much happier during your 
existence if you will only not be selfish & cruel to 
hurt or do any wrong thing in the world. I am very 
kind & amiable in my own heart. I wish to give you 
some very good instruction with all my heart. I love 
goodness very much. I wish you would strive to 
resist such temptations in hunting & hurting. Will 
you exert yourself to regard my great wishes? I do 
not doubt in the least it will increase your happiness if 
you would cultivate your benevolence and patience very 
resolutely. You must learn to control your bad habits 
entirely. It will strengthen your mind greatly Did 
you ever feel unkind or unamiable towards me in your 
heart while you staid with me ? I never allow myself 
to be vexed or impatient or unamiable. I hope you will 
always have much love and sympathy for your dear 
eldest sister & all human beings. I do not really 
censure you, but I wish to give you very good influence 
or instruction. 1 hope that you will be so very grate- 
ful to me for my advice. 
God is so infinitely good who sends us a very im- 
mense number of beautiful flowers, etc. I had very 
many roses, etc., this summer. They were so very 
sweet & elegant, that my desire was very great to 
fly & exhibit them to you all. I considered that 
you would admire them very much. I love beau- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
327 
Ties very dearly. I do not think you love beauties & 
goodness. I am very sad more frequently this year 
than I used to be. It is hard to explain the causes 
or cases. My mind seems rather weak and sad. I 
like sympathy very much in sorrow and joys. Did 
you have much confidence in me that I would fulfil my 
promise of writing you a letter? I knit you a chain 
with great pleasure last month, & hope you will like it. 
Will you please to wear it to remember me very kindly? 
I recite seven or eight lessons to Miss Wight regularly. 
Wight reads to me in the Bible for a while. Then she 
reads to me from my precious book, the title is " The 
King's Messengers." I have an hour to study till break- 
fast ; at quarter of seven. I study Algebra, Geometry, 
Physiology, N. Philosophy, History. Last month I 
implored Wight to please to teach me Algebra & 
Geometry. She said that it was very difficult for me 
to study them. G. seems very difficult for me to com- 
prehend it perfectly. 1 have a great deal of persever- 
ance & patience. I love to study G. & A. with very 
great zeal & alacrity continually. When I first studied 
G., Wight was very kind & patient to explain to me 
the meaning of all of those things so repeatedly for a 
week. I thought that it was impossible to understand 
G., but 1 rejoice very much to be able to puzzle out at 
last. You & I love studies so very much. I should 
love to come & study with you much, alone sometimes. 
I fear that you would drive me out of your presence. 
For 1 think you did not like to sit & commune with me 
in the least. You used to avoid me many times when 
I wished to be with you with my heart. All of my 
friends are very sociable & affectionate to me. It gives 328 
BRIDGMAN. 
me great pleasure to see them arouhd me. I think you 
like to receive letters from me better than to see or talk 
with me. . . . I shall delight much to have a long 
& full letter from you as soon as you are at leisure to 
reply to my letter. 1 send my very best love to you. 
Do write to me spry. I wish you a very sweet & 
happy eve. 
L. D. Bridgman. 
If any one avoid her or dislike to talk with her, 
she notices it very quickly, but in this respect her 
brothers, when young, were not unlike most 
children, who instinctively shrink from any one 
whom they perceive to have a natural defect or to 
be peculiar in any way, and she was at home with 
them so little they did not have time to overcome 
this feeling. 
In September we find her resuming her studies. 
" Sept. 17. Speaking of the importation of tea, coffee, 
and spices, she asked, Do you think they are impor- 
tant?' ' Not to me, I do not like to use them.' Looking, 
very thoughtful she said, ' But they were made : why 
were they created if they were not meant to be used ? ' 
At another time she inquired why her mother was not 
so fond of adorning her house as I was, and said, " I am 
more fond of beauties than of anything else in the world.' 
' Except goodness,' I suggested. With a smile she 
said, 1 I meant goodness was the greatest beauty of all.' 
" Sept. 18. She asked, ' Do you think we shall be 
homesick when we leave this earth as we are when we 
leave our homes ? ' LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
329 
" Sept. 19. She was very quick in algebra this morn- 
ing. There is a great difference in her at different times, 
and without any apparent reason. One morning the 
most trifling thing will be a stumbling-block in her way, 
and the very next day she will seem to grasp a diffi- 
culty of the same nature with ease. 
" Nov. 1. Her arithmetic lesson was not very good. 
From the beginning she has disliked this study. I told 
her that everything which gives the mind strength, even 
the study of arithmetic, increases our power to appre- 
ciate goodness, and will make our lives more useful and 
happy. To remind her of Jesus seldom fails to bring 
her into a right frame of mind. After this conversa- 
tion, I gave her another question, which she solved suc- 
cessfully. She asked why she was not naturally as 
good as other people. I told her we all had faults, and 
that I could see in her many good qualities. She re- 
plied, ' But you do not know how unamiable I am, for 
often when I try to smile, and you think I am amiable, 
I have impatient feelings in my heart.' Later in the 
day we talked of the difference between reason and in- 
stinct. I told her that reason could see the connection 
between cause and effect which instinct could not. She 
reminded me of the story of the elephant, who, on 
being pricked by a tailor, filled his trunk with water 
which he discharged upon the tailor. This seemed to 
her to show reason. 
" Nov. 6. She was very successful in arithmetic, 
and I asked how it was she was so bright. She said, 
' I think an angel came from heaven and made my 
mind more bright.' 
" Nov. 8. Laura is certainly improving. She has 330 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
surprised me all day by her quickness of apprehension 
and power of application. She has waked up, though 
it can hardly be said of such a mind as hers that it is 
ever asleep; but to-day, as I was talking to her about 
active and passive states of mind, she laughed, and said 
she could understand the difference very easily, for she 
knew it by experience. 
" Nov. 10. Finished the reading of Jarvis's Physiol- 
ogy, and now lay it aside for a few months, as I have 
found best to do with other books. After an interval 
of time she seems to look at the subjects in a new light, 
and things once difficult become easy to her." 
With these extracts wo close the journal of 
Miss Wight. 
We add one more leaf from Laura's journal of 
December, in which she tells of her plans for a 
Christmas party : - 
" I have had many very pleasant and comical thoughts 
to-day. I anticipate having (an) extremely pleasant 
festival time on Christmas. I should be most delighted 
to celebrate the day I would send a very cordial invi- 
tation to my dear family. I should wish Miss Wight 
to assist me to write many notes, for the purpose of 
inviting them, two days before. I can bear such exhil- 
aration with all my heart and mind. I must purchase 
a very big and elegant Christmas tree. I should be 
very much absorbed in business. I could suspend 
fruits & very tiny baskets containing sweetmeats on the 
branches of the trees. I shall wish to promote the hap- 
piness of my visitors as much as I could. I think that if LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
331 
one hundred of my friends assembled to our new spa- 
cious parlor, the room would be so Aery full indeed, & 
the air would be scanty or breathed up totally. I could 
have a very big table & have it set very richly. I 
could have all kinds of pies, & cake, & fruit on the 
table. Afterward I should like to make my visitors laugh 
very heartily by my most comical remarks. I could ask 
Mr. P. to loan me his musical box, that my friends 
may have the pleasure of hearing very sweet & loud & 
soft sounds, as long as they liked We shall sit up till 
eleven or twelve in the eve. How can I assign a plenty 
of beds to them? I shall be impelled (compelled) to 
deposit some bed clothes on the floors for them to repose 
themselves upon. One of them might be compelled to 
immerse into my little bathing closet. She will be very 
much exhausted from standing so long a time. She will 
be apt to nod her head all night. She would not find 
herself half so much refreshed in the morning, as if she 
had slept in bed. Some of the friends will have to 
sleep on my shelves. I should be very sad to compel 
them to sleep so uncomfortably and uneasily. I am 
enjoying this castle in the air very much. I am natu- 
rally very fond of mirthfulness." 
In the above extract she alludes to a music box. 
She sometimes had this box loaned to her and took 
much pleasure in placing it in a chair, and then 
putting her feet upon the rounds of the chair so 
that she ' could feel it play.' 
Miss Wight continued to teach Laura until the 
spring of 1850. Five years of uninterrupted 
teaching, of a kind which drew most heavily upon 332 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
the nervous system, had so prostrated her that 
she was obliged to resign her charge. That it was 
a sad trial to both teacher and pupil need not be 
told after the preceding record. 
Some months later Laura was obliged to bid her 
a long farewell as she sailed for a new home in 
the Sandwich Islands, and to relinquish also the 
bright hopes she had so long cherished of helping 
her take care of "some nice little house," and 
living always with her. 
In Dr. Howe's Eighteenth Report, made Jan- 
uary, 1850, he speaks of the position which Laura 
held before the world at this time, as follows : - 
" Iler progress has been a curious and an interesting 
spectacle. She has come into human society with a 
sort of triumphal march; her course has been a per- 
petual ovation. Thousands have been watching her 
with eager eyes, and applauding each successful step, 
while she, all unconscious of their gaze, holding on to 
the slender thread, and feeling her way along, has 
advanced with faith and courage towards those who 
awaited her with trembling hope. Nothing shows more 
than her case the importance which, despite their useless 
waste of human life and human capacity, men really 
attach to a human soul. They owe to her something 
for furnishing an opportunity of showing how much of 
goodness there is in them ; for surely the way in which 
she has been regarded is creditable to humanity. Per- 
haps there are not three living women whose names are 
more widely known than hers ; and there is not one who LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
333 
has excited so much sympathy and interest There 
arc thousands of women in the world who are striving 
to attract its notice and gain its admiration, some by 
the natural magic of beauty and grace, some by high 
nobility of talent, some by the lower nobility of rank 
and title, some by the vulgar show of wealth ; but none 
of them has done it so effectually as this poor blind, deaf, 
and dumb girl, by the silent show of her misfortunes, 
and her successful efforts to surmount them. 
" The treatment she has received shows something 
of human progress too ; for the time was, when a child, 
bereaved of senses as she is, would have been regarded 
as a monster and treated as a burden and a curse, even 
among the most civilized people of the world; she 
would, perhaps, have been thrown into the river, or ex- 
posed upon the mountain to wild beasts. But now 
there are millions of people by whom it is recognized as 
a duty and esteemed as a privilege to protect and 
cherish her, or any one in like situation. 
" There is something, perhaps, in the rarity of such 
cases of manifold bereavement, something in the fact 
that she is the first person who ever came out of such a 
dark and silent prison to tell us plainly of its condition, 
something of pride in the proof which she gives in 
the native power of the human soul; but still, bating 
all this, the amount of tender sympathy in her misfor- 
tunes and of real interest in the attempt to lighten them, 
which has been shown by thousands of sensitive hearts, 
is most gratifying to reflect upon." 334 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
We depart from our chronological order to re- 
late some items of interest occurring during the 
last few years which have not been reported in the 
journals. We shall be able to give only a frag- 
mentary history of her subsequent life, no further 
record having been kept, 
In the summer of 1846, after an absence of a 
year, I returned to Boston to reside, and Laura 
was made happy by having another place to visit. 
Nothing ever gave her more pleasure than to be 
left alone and allowed to examine things at leis- 
ure ; and having once been led through my house, 
she required no further assistance in her explora- 
tions, but was soon familiar not only with the 
rooms, but with closets and bureaus. Iler great 
gentleness and delicacy of touch made it entirely 
safe to trust her with the most valued treasures, 
and I never knew her to injure anything. 
One day she proved to me that she knew more 
about my possessions than I did myself. She 
asked me to give her a piece of silk for some pur- 
pose, and when told I had only a few pieces that 
were like my dresses, and could not spare them, LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
335 
said, "You are mistaken, in the closet in the 
third story there is a box, and it has in it some 
pieces that are not like your dresses." I sent her 
to find them, and to my surprise she was right. 
Nothing could be misplaced in the house without 
her perceiving it. 
She was always pleased with children and liked 
to hold an infant in her arms, and her joy was 
great when she was told there was a baby in our 
house. She watched its growth and development 
with the greatest interest, and was very happy to 
bring a present of the tiniest shoes to be found. 
In her journal of Jan. 23, she writes of baby's 
first visit to her : " I was very pleasantly detained 
by visitors. Mrs. L. and little Mary came to spend 
the p. m. with us. I was so highly delighted to 
have such pleasant company. I derived so much 
pleasure from giving so constant attention to my 
cunning pet. I led her about the work room and 
our room. I loved to carry the child in my arms 
about very much. I willingly let her hear my 
musical box play for a while. When I took it away 
from her it caused her to cry instantly, because 
she disliked to give the music up. We went to 
the shop to put the child on the scales and to let 
the blind boys see her. I was very sorry to have 
her go home." 
After hearing of the death of little Mary, she 
wrote in her journal: "I had a great many sad 336 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
thoughts in my mind to-day, my dear friend's only 
little daughter has died. I used to love & caress 
her when she was a very little babe very much, as 
if she was my own child. I used to call her my 
little pet, etc." She wrote the following letter 
without suggestion from any one : - 
Sept. 28, 1849. 
My Dear Mrs. L.: 
I was very much surprised to hear of the decease of 
your darling last Tuesday. I hoped she would recover 
very soon. I trust that your little Mary is much 
happier at her new home than she was on earth. I am 
very positive God and His beloved Son, Christ, will 
educate your child much better than men could in this 
world. I can scarcety realize that the school is so 
excessively beautiful in heaven. I can sympathize with 
you in your great affliction. I cannot help think- 
ing of your trouble and little Mary's illness. I know 
very certainly that God will promote her happiness for- 
ever. I loved her very dearly, as if she were my own 
daughter. I shall miss her very much every time I 
come to see you. I send my best love to you and a 
kiss. I am very sad for you. 
Yours, L. B. 
I 
After Miss M ight left, she had no regular les- 
sons. Some of the blind girls were asked to talk 
with her at certain hours, but, with the oversight 
of the matron, she was left to occupy her time as 
she liked. She had reached the age of twenty-one, 
and her intellectual development was such that it LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
337 
was not considered necessary she should have a 
person entirely devoted to her. At one time 
the experiment was tried of employing a young 
person about her own age as companion, but 
without satisfactory result; she preferred to be 
alone. The books in raised type were her com- 
panions, and the Bible was her special delight. 
She found more time now to devote to her work, 
and as there was always a ready sale for everything 
she could make, she was stimulated to do even 
more than was best for her health. She enjoyed 
visiting her old teachers and a few other friends, 
with whom she carried on a regular correspond- 
ence. 
She sympathized warmly with her friends in 
affliction, and her letters written on such occasions 
are very touching. 7 Some of these arc kindly 
loaned me for publication. The extracts are cop- 
ied as they came from her pencil, save that the 
punctuation is somewhat changed to make the 
sense more apparent. 
Sunny Home, Jan. 25th, 1853. 
My Dear Sister, Miss Rogers: 
I received your most kind letter last Thursday, with 
the greatest of pleasure. ... I was so sadly & 
violently surprised to hear of (the death of) your 
lovely sister Mary, last Nov., the same day of my 
arrival from my dear home. I sympathize with you 
very truly in your greatest afflictions. I wish very 
much to console you. I rejoice so greatly for your 338 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
heart's sake that Harriet is with you. She is in E's 
place now. She will be your own constant companion, I 
hope. She will be of such a great comfort to you as the 
sun (that) shines. I did not dream that you would be 
attacked by an other loss so suddenly. (Alluding to 
the death of a little sister previously.) I know of 
course that your darling Mary is much happier in see- 
ing her own little Ella, at a new home which belongs to 
God. M. loves you so much more than while she dwelt 
on this big world. Mary watches you much more, & 
knows how you feel in her loss. She will however 
smile upon you like an Angel. 
God will educate her with much more love & 
beauty & meekness, than these men (could do) who are 
most religious & benevolent on the earth. 
Christ will treat M & E so very justly & with great- 
est refinement, & also will have such a beautiful influ- 
ence upon them both forever. M. is very truly happy 
to live with Ella & other friends You will always miss 
Mary very sorrowfully, but I delight so highly in the 
thought of her being delivered from her sufferings, by 
God, who was absolutely merciful & lovely. Mary 
used to smile upon you very sweetly always. I love 
her excessively, as if she were my own Sister. I can- 
not believe of the idea that you wish Mary to return 
back for your own comfort & pleasure. . 
It was her habit, after she was without a teacher, 
to keep in her mind long lists of words, and bring 
them to me for explanation. On the occasion of 
her visits she was jealous of every interruption, 
whether from children or visitors, and often rec- LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
339 
ommended that the former should remain in the 
nursery, and the latter be told I was engaged. 
She could not afford to lose a moment from con- 
versation. Those who were now about her at the 
Institution had had comparatively little experi- 
ence in talking with the fingers; she was always 
patient with the slowest talker, yet it was a pleas- 
ure to her that she could make her fingers fly once 
more, and be understood. She liked to- consult 
me about her clothing, and in brief to come as a 
daughter to a mother. On one occasion I had led 
her to her chamber and bade her good night. Hear- 
ing her moving about for an hour after, I went to 
see what she was doing. On opening the door 
cautiously I saw that bed, chairs, and table were 
covered with the articles of a wedding trousseau 
which she had found in the bureau drawers. I 
said to her, '* It is eleven o'clock. Why have you 
so many clothes about?" She replied, "I was 
going to ask you to-morrow to go with me and buy 
a great many yards of cotton, and I want you to 
cut it into many things. I do not like the pat- 
terns I have, and I knew your nice things were in 
these drawers, so I have been trying them all on; 
those that I like are on the table, and I will put 
the others away." It was with difficulty that I 
could answer her as seriously as she felt the occa- 
sion required, but I promised to do as she wished 
the next day if she would go quickly to bed. 340 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
On another occasion a clergyman arrived unex- 
pectedly as we were leaving the tea-table. I left 
Laura abruptly, to prepare a cup of tea for him 
before he went to perform a wedding service, for 
which he had travelled some distance. When I 
returned to her, I explained to her the cause of my 
absence, saying, "Prof. P. has gone to marry a 
couple." She was standing, and at once raised 
herself on her toes, and with a look of the great- 
est disgust on her face, thrust out her arm to its 
full length, and spelled with her fingers "f-o-o-1." 
For an instant I was puzzled to find a reason for 
such severe condemnation and unusual display of 
feeling, but on thinking of my sentence, I per- 
ceived that while I had made use of a common 
expression, it was one with which, perhaps, she 
had never met before, and therefore had under- 
stood me that he had come to Boston to be mar- 
ried himself, and to a couple of wives. It was 
not strange that her sense of propriety should be 
outraged. -V 
In the summer of 1852 she returned to her 
father's house in Hanover with the understanding 
that this was to be her permanent home. She had 
always enjoyed her visits there, but now, when 
the novelty had worn off, she became very lonely, 
and missed sadly her old surroundings. In the 
large family in which the greater part of her life 
had been passed, there was always some one LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
341 
with whom she could have a social chat. She was 
interested in everybody, and to an incredible 
extent knew what was passing about her. The 
transition to the quiet life of a small family was 
more than her sensitive nature could bear. In the 
winter following she lost all inclination for food, 
but complained of nothing, and probably did not 
know the cause of her increasing debility. At 
last she was confined to her bed, and Dr. Howe 
was notified of her condition. He found her 
almost at death's door, but with no disease save 
homesickness. He sent a lady to bring her back 
to the Institution, which was accomplished with 
difficulty, and as she was carried into her old room, 
and laid upon her bed, she looked as though her 
spirit had already fled. She began to improve 
immediately, but required much care for a long 
time. For many years she continued to occupy 
the same room, and was a happy member of the 
family. She went into the school-room at certain 
hours, when she could share the instruction in 
writing, etc., given to the blind girls. " > 
She has always manifested strong likes and dis- 
likes. A pleasing young girl of sixteen, who had 
become temporarily blind, was carried to the 
Institution. Laura conceived a violent affection 
for her which developed singularly. She ap- 
pointed herself both guardian and nurse, and 
refused to allow any one else to do anything for 342 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
her, showing much jealousy if it was attempted. 
At last, to make sure of no interruption, she locked 
herself into the room with her, and for many hours 
no one could gain admittance. She is especially 
attracted to those who have a gentle, timid nature, 
■which she discovers at once. Her ability to read 
character is very remarkable, and she is rarely 
mistaken. When it is remembered that this is 
done at the fingers' ends, it would not be strange 
if this statement were received with incredulity, 
but every one who has known her intimately will 
attest its truth. As has been said, " She observes 
the tones of the finger language," and these are as 
pronounced to her as those of the voice are to our 
ears. She knows how different people laugh, and 
often speaks of the sweet smile of one and another. 
It may be thought that she must be always feeling 
of the face, and thus make herself disagreeable ; 
but this is not so, she rarely touches it, and yet 
judges correctly. There wras at one time in the 
house a very gentlemanly young man who was not 
blind. lie wTas well dressed, and his appearance 
did not betray the deficiency of intellect wThich 
really existed. Laura had not met him until the 
day he was introduced to her. He could not speak 
with his fingers, so it was merely a shaking of 
hands that passed between them. Instantly after 
she dropped his hand she raised hers, letting the 
fingers hang down, and said to the person who 
introduced her, " Is he a fool? " LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
343 
One day she called to see a friend to whom she 
was attached and met her husband for the first 
time. He was a man highly esteemed, but very 
reserved and distant in manner. She shook hands 
with him and asked, " Has he many friends? Is he 
greatly beloved in his own family ? Is he severe ? " 
It was a cause of surprise to those who word 
constantly with her that it so often happened that 
while sitting quietly at work, apparently absorbed 
by her own thoughts, she should ask some question 
directly bearing upon the subject of general con- 
versation, to which no one had given her any clew. 
This led to the remark, " Laura always knows our 
thoughts." 
She takes notice of dress, and likes to examine 
it sufficiently to get an idea of the pattern, but 
shows her good taste by choosing for herself both 
material and style which are appropriate. She had 
desired to have a silk dress, and was much pleased 
on receiving one from a friend on her return from 
Europe, its value being enhanced from the fact 
that she could speak of it as her " dress from 
Paris." This was not because Paris is the head- 
quarters of fashion, but because there was, to her 
mind, something akin to romance pertaining to 
everything she had learned in geography. She 
had wished also for a watch. This may seem to 
be a superfluity for a deaf and dumb and blind per- 
son, but she easily learned to tell the time, and 344 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
enjoyed using one which was loaned to her, always 
placing it under her pillow at night, and claiming 
that it waked her at the right time in the morning. 
A few years since, through the generosity of a 
couple of friends, she was presented with a watch 
in a hunter's case, the crystal being removed that 
she might have more ready access to the hands. 
She has derived much enjoyment as well as com- 
panionship from it. 
From the fact of her having been the recipient 
of such special care and attention during all her 
life, we should hardly think her blameworthy if 
she should be thoughtless of others and careful to 
guard her own interests ; but on the contrary, she 
has an affectionate disposition, and nothing has 
delighted her more throughout her life than to be 
able to assist a friend or to send some comfort to 
a poor person. At the time of the famine in Ire- 
land her sympathies were much moved, and she 
purchased, with the proceeds of her own industry, 
a barrel of flour, which was sent to the sufferers. 
About the year 1855 it was suggested to Laura 
fhat she write an account of events which she 
could remember in her life at home, before she 
came to the Institution. We copy extracts from 
this paper, trusting that the quaintness of her style 
will give interest even to a twice-told tale : - 
" I shall like very much indeed to write the life of my 
childhood. I can remember of a great many circum- LAUE A BRIDGMAN. 
345 
stances & events which occurred in my earliest days. 
I was born in Hanover, N. H., the 21st of Dec. 1829. 
I had one brother named Milo, & two first sisters 
Mary & Frances Collina. They all left my lovely home, 
& went to a spiritual land to live with my heavenly 
Father. I never knew them except what I have heard 
about since then. Mary & Frances were attacked by 
the perilous fever scarlet, which was a cause of their 
death. Little Milo was born with the nature of great 
weakness ; he was carried from his dear mother's sight 
in the arms of an angel, when three months old. 
. . . I was two years & a few months old when I 
was in the calamity of a raging fever, which was scar- 
let, I was very sorely ill for three long weeks. . . . 
I could not take a morsel of bread or cracker, neither 
could swallow throughin my little throat for a few long 
weeks, except that I drank some very nourishing liquid, 
crust coffee. I was not conveyed in one's arms out of 
doors, even for an instant, for three or four months. I 
recollect very distinctly how much I used to lay (lie) 
in a nice old cradle on account of the illness & weak- 
ness. I liked to have some one rock me along in it 
extremely continually. . . . One day I was repos- 
ing my little body in that snug cradle, a spark of coals 
with fire flew very lightly upon my neck, & the flame 
of fire spread to my chin (so) that it rendered (made) 
both of my neck & chin grow closely, but the inflamma- 
tion went off, & it caused a scar on the skin. My dear 
mother kept watching over me in another person's 
lap on the occasion of suffering. I kept sobbing very 
hard unconsciously. I took some sugar saturated with 
some peppermint, I liked very much, for a sort of 346 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
medicine. ... I was born in fragile health. I 
was very fond of all sorts of tricks in my childhood. 
I had a good deal of distress with my eyes for months, 
they would not bear the rays of light an instant, from 
which I tried to prevent. I put up my hands over my 
ill eyes, & rush(ed) into a very snug bedroom for a 
bit of darkness. The nerve was painful that effectually 
made a great shower of tears in my eyes, which finally 
gushed out at once. It was from ignorance of the fact, 
that I imagined, that the sun always shone beneath, 
through the floor in my mother's kitchen upon which I 
reflect with my eye, near her right window. I was 
perfectly unwise, & very unfortunate about the wisdom 
of God & his beloved Son Jesus. I did not have such 
a doll at the earliest period of my childhood. My 
mother knew nothing about dolls for many long years. 
I never had play-toys for amusements, or a pleasure 
except what I contrived to find in her house for myself 
to play. I had many pleasant times in sporting. I 
could not articulate, or see, or hear. (Afterwards) I 
had a very funny doll made of a lot of rags, which 
pleased me very much indeed, that homely doll was 
bound very nicely & smoothly. I had some neat 
clothes for the doll to dress in. I never gave the doll 
a name, for I did not know of the fact that such dolls 
could receive any name, & also, I was not educated 
how to use my little fingers. My mother was not 
capable of learning the finger alphabet for numer- 
ous long years. We never had a dream of the inven- 
tion for a way to spell a shortest or easiest word with 
the fingers in the world. I used to make some signs 
for my mother, what I wished her to know of, it was LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
347 
not a least shadow between her and I, as she could 
comprehend all signs I made. . . . I had a small 
thin plate for my own, it was a gift from an old man 
named Mr. Asa Tenny whom I always loved & 
respected so greatly, my first and old benefactor. The 
nice tin plate has the finger alphabet printed in raised 
letters around on the edge. I occupied my plate at the 
table frequently. I could not have practised in reading 
the blind (raised) letters with my fingers for various 
reasons, until I was brought up to an education, when 
I was almost eight years old. . . . Mr. Tenny was 
always very patient and kind and gentle tome. He 
used to stroke my face with his finger for caress, & also 
let me know him. He had a most original manner of 
taking hold of my arms before I could have touched his 
hands & recognized him. As I felt bis hat upon his 
head, I knew him instantly always. The hat was very 
common, so plain & sleek & durable, it seems to have 
felt to my fingers like a piece of paste board. Mr. T. 
always dressed in most simple & refugal (frugal) 
clothes. I had two little chairs, one of those chairs had 
rockers & they both had arms. I sat in them a good 
deal which I enjoyed exceedingly. ... I derived 
a great pleasure from walking & rambling & sporting 
with Mr. T. daily. He used to go with me out of the 
doors in search of eggs very frequently. I liked so 
much to grope in hollowed nests with my little hands, 
seeking for a single e-g. Mr. T. commanded me not 
to rob the poor hen of her very last egg, by a gesture 
which I understood so clearly, but I did not know the 
reason why he left one egg remaining undisturbed in 
the position. He influenced me with something like 348 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
geography, which was, that I flinged sand, stones & 
gravels & branches of aged trees into the brook. I 
enjoyed that game extremely. He would conduct me 
to call on his friends as often as was his conven- 
ience, or my mother approved of my going with him. 
He was my first benefactor on this earth. He was stout 
& firm to lift me up in his big arms a long distance 
from place to place. I admired very much to be 
carried in his arms like a babe. We went out to pluck 
lots of different berries at any rate (to any amount?) 
that we pleased. I was always disposed to subsist on 
them, mixed with most luxurious milk & white or 
brown-bread or crackers. Mr. T never liked to scold 
me for doing a little thing which was really wrong 
according to his opinion. He never inflict(ed) a pun- 
ishment upon me in his life." 349 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
CHAPTER XIX. 
In 1855 she made the acquaintance of Katie 
Hill, a blind girl who had just arrived from Ger- 
many, and had become a member of the school. 
She was especially attracted to her because, in her 
early years, she had been much attached to the 
wife and children of our German music-teacher. 
They had returned to the Fatherland, and this 
girl was at once received with affection for their 
sake. 
At this time Laura was in the habit of convers- 
ing with the blind girls freely, and very soon taught 
her the linger alphabet. Katie had had little 
opportunity for acquiring knowledge of books, not 
having been at any school for the blind, but she 
had learned to love the Saviour, and "had done,'' 
as she expressed it, "some missionary work." In 
conversing with Laura it was very natural to her 
to talk of Christ, and the ideas which she gave 
her were different from any she had previously 
received. In her visits to me she talked much 
about her " new sister Katie," and told me of what 
she was learning from her. She wrote a very 
interesting letter to her old friend Mrs. II. in 350 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
Germany, telling her how much she loved her new 
German friend and of what she had taught her. 
Unfortunately this letter, which she brought to 
me to forward, was not copied, and the original 
has not been preserved, but several persons to 
whom it was read by me, remember it distinctly 
as a very remarkable letter. 
In her occasional visits to me she always spoke 
freely of her interest in reading the Bible, but the 
great Teacher led her to an appropriation of its 
truths through deep sorrow. 
In 1860 she heard of the sudden death of her 
eldest sister. I did not see her at this time, and 
know of her experience only through others. 
There seems to have arisen first a spirit of rebel- 
lion against God, and she continued for months to 
cherish bitter feelings, and to shun conversation 
on religious topics, which had previously been 
her delight. Just how long this state of mind 
lasted we have no knowledge, but the following 
O' o 
letter shows the conflict ended, and an entire 
change of feeling : - 
Sunny Home, Mar. 10, 61. 
My very dear Miss Rogers : 
I am so happy to devote a little time to write you a 
letter this lovely day. Behold what manner of glory & 
love & grace our holy God hath bestowed upon us. 
We can appreciate his kindness. Let us thank him for 
whatsoever he gives us with all our hearts. May the LAURA BRID 7MAN. 
351 
Lord be with you forever & ever. Grace be with you. 
Amen. 
This is a prayer for my true friend from me. I am 
better this morn. I have not been well much of the 
time this Winter & in the Fall But I am much hap- 
pier in mind concerning God & his begotten Son, Jesus 
Christ. I profess religion since last spring most fer- 
vently. I devote a great deal of my time to studying 
the sacred Bible. I rejoice so highly that God has 
helped me how to comprehend his works in many ways. 
I can not comprehend some of his works, but a part of 
his gracious work. I read in the blessed Bible daily, 
which I prize the most of all books in this world. My 
spirit is much stronger than my bodily strength. . . . 
I wish much to meet you once more. I would be so 
joyful to pass many long weeks with you. Please to 
let me know about your leisure for a visit from your old 
pupil L. B. 
I am in such raptures on account af my chosen friend 
Wight, who is expected home in July with her family. 
Miss M. saw Mr. Wight in town last week; he pro- 
posed to her that I should go to Wayland & visit Mrs. 
Bond as soon as she recruited her rest. Ue longs for 
her. Yours truly. 
L. Bridgman. 
Iler old teacher, Miss Wight (Mrs. Bond), 
returned from the Sandwich Islands with her fam- 
ily in 1861, after an absence of five years. Laura 
was not told of her arrival, but was summoned 
from the dinner-table to see a friend. She shook 
hands with her, not recognizing her for an instant, 
7 O o 352 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
but the next moment she sprang from the floor in 
her delight, and fell nearly fainting into her arms. 
I ill a \ i. .t to Hanover in the summer of 
1863, she was baptized and received to member- 
ship in the Baptist Church, with which her parents 
were connected. Later in the year, while visiting 
her friends in Billerica, she talked much about her 
recent baptism, and was asked to write an account 
of it. She complied with this request, prefacing 
it with an account of her feelings on the death of 
her sister. 
Jan. 8, 1864. 
My very dear Friend : 
I am most happy to have the utmost pleasure to 
write you a sketch concerning myself. 
One Sabbath day of February 4th long years ago 
(1860), I heard from myoid homestead by the interpre- 
tation of my dear friend, Miss Moulton. She received a 
letter concerning my oldest sister Mary from my dear 
mother. As Aliss Moulton had reported a fate of death 
of my precious sister Mary, I burst into a bad cry, my 
heart ached so painfully; it was broken with a great 
crush. Many tears rushed with a heavy shower from 
my eyes. 1 could hardly spell a word with my fingers 
for many hours. My soul was cumbered and cast 
down. In spirit I was unable to bear such vast afflic- 
tions, it was the great torment of my heart, which 
caused me a great trial, to suffer the loss of my dear 
sister Mary. Miss Moulton was so kind & attentive to 
me in such distressing pain & sorrow in spirit. She 
took me with all her strength from her sitting-room up LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
353 
to my cozy room. It was hard for me to guide myself 
alone, fori trembled of great agitation and pain, but the 
Lord was good & merciful, & a firm staff to my comfort. 
He was my gracious and holy guide. I was not a Chris- 
tian at that time. Miss Moulton put me on my cozy bed, 
and did so ifiuch for my comfort. She wiped the tears 
from my face, though they ran so freely from my eyes. 
... I had a very sorrowful Sunday, contemplating the 
prospect of death of my dear sister Mary all the day 
long. I was indisposed to relish my meals, on account 
of the idea of my suffering sorrow & affliction for weeks. 
It seems as if there could never be peace or hap- 
piness in the vast world, that I might obtain to my 
soul for a great while. I did not feel reconciliation to 
my Heavenly Father or his blest son Jesus, whose 
grace, & mercy, & love (was shown) in calling Mary 
forth unto a land of bliss & glory, I loved my sister so 
dearly. I could not trust in God and Jesus, as much 
as I do now. 1 dwelt in a condition of unhappiness & 
despair, many weeks. My head was laid upon a pillow 
of grief and lamentation many nights. My slumber was 
brittle and frail, as my head was heavy laden with vari- 
ous notions concerning my loved Mary. I wrote a let- 
ter to my poor mother consoling her in her anguish, etc. 
While I wrote it my tears gently rolled from my eyes, 
& my heart ached sadly. Miss Moulton came to com- 
fort my broken heart, by repeating some verses of 
the fourteenth chapter of John, one Sabbath in April, 
after the death of Mary. I began to review a (the) 
subject of my Saviour Jesus & baptism. I did not feel 
inclined to ask my mamma any questions concerning 
baptism. I only asked mother, how a person was bap- 354 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
tized with water. In May, it came to pass that I thought 
more and more of my Redeemer & baptism. I abode 
with my mother a month in a new house, and then I 
departed from my poor mother. My dear brother John 
escorted me to Thetford, Vt. I staid with my dear 
cousin Emily for more than three months. I attained 
much enjoyment of conversing with my cousin about 
such sacred things. I thought how delightful it might 
have been to my soul if I could be baptized in the pure 
water by the minister w'ho usually preached the Holy 
Ghost to the blest church in Thetford, Vt. But my 
dear God did not approve of my doing that away from 
my home. I felt fearful at times from these thoughts 
concerning the performance of baptism I thought that 
there was danger of sinking my head beneath the water, 
& I might be drowned in the depth of water. I did 
not feel strong and confident sufficiently for being in a 
grave. In June three years ago (1860), on my abode 
with cousin Emily I was permitted to meet a certain 
woman by the loving kindness of my Saviour. My 
heart promptly received her in the holy name of my 
Saviour Jesus Christ, who opened my heart, & illu- 
mined it with his light. He put his nature upon me so 
that I should leave all evil things, & love good things 
by the spirit of the grace of Jesus our Saviour. I felt 
so cold & impure in heart, I wished to run away from 
my cousin, one day when the woman was present with 
her. My cousin claimed (wished) me to remain with 
her on purpose to get acquainted wfith that beloved wo- 
man. By mercy & love of God, he ordained that pious 
lady & I to be true friends. She is my blessed and 
adopted grandmother now. In the fall I had much LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
355 
delight in a religious conversation with my dear 
adopted sister, & her husband, & my dear mother. 
One sunny p. m. in July two years ago, I visited my 
adopted sister Mrs. H. We had a very solemn happi- 
ness with a talk in the library with Mr. H , a most excel- 
lent minister. We transacted some business concerning 
the sacred ordinance. My sister Mrs. Herrick called 
upon me the first Saturday of July (18G3), she inter- 
preted some sentiments to me for the reverend. Shortly 
after dinner I accompanied my mother to his house a 
few rods from my home. I had a happy call there, 
till it was time for us all to go to the holy sanctuary, 
to attribute prayers & holy communion to the Almighty 
Father. The holy church agreed to vote me a member. 
The Gth of July, the first Sabbath, my cousin Mary 
called to see me once or twice Sunday. I went with her 
& my mother to Mr. Herrick's house at noon. I was 
so glad to meet a few ladies there, I was w'aited upon 
by those ladies in preparation for baptism. I could 
hardly help myself undress, & dress myself. Mr. II. 
welcomed me so gladly at his house. I was guided 
to the brookside by my mamma & Mrs. Huntington. 
Mr. H. sent for me one of his chairs to sit by the side 
of the brook, while holy prayer was being addressed. 
Two students sang a hymn 112. I believe that the 
first line of the hymn is 
" In all my God's appointed ways." 
I did not feel inclined to talk with my fingers at the 
blessed ordinance, but I was so happy to have my 
mother or any person speak to me. My soul was over- 
whelmed with spiritual joy and light in the presence of 
God and his blest son Jesus Christ. I could hardly 356 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
smile, for I felt solemnly happy. I could reflect (upon) 
the victory of God & my Saviour. Therefore a glo- 
rious light shone in my head. My soul was cast 
into the hand of my dear Saviour by faith. As Mr. 
II. took me by the hand crossing the pure water, I felt 
a thrill of crying for joy, though not one drop of a tear 
fell in sight from my eyes. I acknowledged the hand of 
my God was laid upon my trembling soul, also how 
merciful & loving he was within me. I did not have 
any fear nor trouble in the least, because my trust & 
hope were in my Redeemer. My dear father & a gentle- 
man aided me up out of the water, & I sat in the chair 
with the wet clothes, on utterance of another prayer. 
I went to church & the holy communion. Mr. II. gave 
me the right hand of fellowship in God. It was a most 
glorious & pious Sunday, ever more for me to retain 
(remember). I have written this for you, my dear 
friends, Eliza & Elvira Rogers. 
After the death of her father and the consequent 
breaking up of the family, she had some anxious 
thoughts about her future support, but was relieved 
by an arrangement which Dr. Howe made, where- 
by a home in the Institution was secured to her. 
On my return to this country, after an absence of 
two years and a half, she wrote me the following 
letter, expressing her gratitude : - 
Hanover, Nov. 26, 1871. 
My Dear Friend Mrs. Lamson : 
I had a long letter from Miss R. two weeks since, & 
was highly delighted to hear about your return. I have LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
357 
planned for departing for Lebanon next Saturday, to 
visit my sisters. I rejoice in the mercy of God for 
his kind providence, that a home at the Inst, is de- 
signed for my abode as long as I would like. Mother 
had a cordial & welcome letter from Dr H. last winter. 
I shall be entirely welcome to the Institution, & devolve 
upon their kind care & so it is no pay for my board, but 
it is an expressive ( ?) home for me since my dear father 
is above the heavens. Next Tuesday is three years of 
his death in peace of our Savior, so he has been in a 
glorious world three years long. My home here is 
broken up. I cannot enjoy this life so much. I wish 
much to see you & talk constantly with you. Do be 
prompt to call on my birthday 21st of December or 
sooner. I long to see you at Inst. I dread the cold 
climate of N. II. Give my best regards to Mr. L. & 
love to the dear ones. God bless you. Believe me 
y our ever loving friend, 
Laura. 
Until 1876 she had lost by death no one who 
had ever stood in the relation of teacher to her, 
and I doubt if she had ever thought that any of 
us might die before herself. Dr. Howe had for 
months been in failing health, and she had seen 
but little of him for a year. He had been absent 
from Boston much of the time, and when at home 
was too weak to bear the excitement of talking 
with her. She was told that he was very ill and 
that it was feared ho could not live. A few hours 
before his death it was thought that it might be a 
o o 358 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
comfort to her to visit him, and she was led beside 
the bed on which he lay unconscious. Very gently 
she passed her hand over his face ; her tears flowed 
freely, but she did not allow herself to make a 
sound. She realized fully the loss she was to sus- 
tain. For many years of her early life in Boston 
she had been a member of his private family, and 
had felt as if she were his child, and when in later 
years her home was with the blind, she had 
daily expected his kind greeting and words of 
cheer, and now, as she took leave of him, she knew 
that she had lost her best earthly friend and 
greatest benefactor. 
A few days after she wrote to me as follows : - 
S. Boston, Jan. 30, 76. 
My Dear friend : 
I am sitting in the love of our heavenly Father who 
is ever good to bless us with his sun to-day. I am in 
my sunny cosy room this a. m. Your letter came to 
me with much welcome & joy. There is a good deal 
(of) comfort in much sunshine, though it tries my feel- 
ings in thought of never meeting & grasping my best 
& noble friend Dr. Howe on earth. The path seems 
so desolate & void without sight of him to us all. But 
Jesus is all & in all. He fills our way with light & sun- 
shine. I think much of Dr. II. day & night, with 
sorrow, & gratitude, & love, & sincerity. . . . 
Iler health was seriously affected by her sorrow, 
and when she left us the following summer to go LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
359 
to her mother, it seemed doubtful if she lived to 
return. 
Another sorrow followed closely, in the loss of 
her beloved friend and teacher, Miss Rogers. 
With characteristic thoughtfulness of others, she 
requested me, on my last visit to her, to write 
Laura of her extreme illness, and thus prevent the 
shock of the sudden announcement of her death. 
In my letter, which was accidentally delayed a fort- 
night on its way, I suggested to Laura that she 
should send a last message to her dear friend. She 
wrote at once the following letter, which was only 
received by her friend a few days before her 
decease : - 
Hanover, June 25, 1876. 
My very dear Miss Rogers : 
I received a letter from Mrs. Lamson yesterday, but 
it was forgotten since its arrival, several weeks ago. I 
was at Lebanon visiting my dear sisters for more than 
two weeks then. I am very sorrowful for your dear 
sisters and parents, who feel so grievously afflicted with 
the idea of missing you at the gracious calling of the 
loving Father. You shall receive a crown of eternal 
life from heaven. You will have a holy home forever. 
Your sisters & parents will be comforted by the God of 
comfort. God is very gentle in all his dealings with 
those who love & hope & trust him. 
We shall all meet in a glorious world where there is 
no sorrow nor pain nor parting. I joy of meeting Dr. 
Ilowe & my dear father & friends. My mother & I join 
in ardent love & sympathy to you & the family. I 360 
laura bribgman. 
should like to have a little token from you, for its sake 
in remembrance of my dearly loved friend & teacher. 
Truly your loving friend, 
L. D. Bridgman. 
To a sister of Miss Rogers she wrote the follow- 
ing letter:- 
S. Boston, April 22, 1877. 
My Dear Friend Elvira : 
It is a rainy & languid morning. I thank you truly 
for a nice letter which you wrote to me last summer. 
You must come to see me shortly, as I anticipate to 
leave here first week of June, & go to Troy, N. II., to 
visit the wife of my parents' old & excellent minister 
for some weeks. I ought to have replied to your wel- 
come letter long, long ago, but have been so procrasti- 
nate, & also so ambitiously busy, & had many ill spells 
too. I do not enjoy strong health as lam growing old. 
I long to fly to my everlasting home with God. It is 
life's weary journey for me to bear until death take 
place. You & I shall be happy to meet dear Miss 
Rogers in a holy home which is heaven. ... I 
presume, of course, that you call on your poor & lonely 
parents very frequently. Who is with them in the 
absence of their dear daughter, E. R. ? I realize how 
hard it is for them to miss h<3r during their old age. 
But it is short ere they will go to the glorious world 
above. You may like to dwell in their house & keep 
house for your own, & console the old people with your 
society. Please to remember me kindly to Mr. G. & 
your relatives. I should be so happy to call on you & 
friends in Billerica. Let me hear from you as soon as 
you get my letter. I feel so tired continually beyond LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
361 
my strength. I was sickly last spring until in Aug. I 
was much more like my own self, although it seems as 
if I might not live many years, I feel so frail God 
cares for me & I trust in his loving providence & in his 
tender mercy. I shall be hoping to see you soon. I 
miss Dr. Howe so sadly & loved him as a father. 
Truly your loving friend, 
Laura Bridgman. 
Ono more incident showing her kindness of heart 
deserves mention. She was invited to visit some 
friends, and on arriving at their house, found 
them away from home. On their return, they ex- 
plained what had seemed to her discourteous, say- 
ing they had been to visit a little boy, the son of 
a clergyman, who had lately met with a sad acci- 
dent ; while jumping on a car he had had both feet 
taken off. Her sympathies were so much excited 
that she could think of little else. On returning 
home she interested the blind pupils, and a contri- 
bution of ten dollars was sent by them to the little 
sufferer, to assist in the purchase of artificial feet. 
She wrote to him a note of sympathy. 
Jan. 2, 1877. 
Dear Little Fellow, 
Whom I pity most sorrowfully. God is gentle in his 
dealings towards them who are sorely afflicted. Cast- 
ing your care on God for he cares for you. Be of good 
cheer. I hope that you may be blessed with a kind 
providence as long as you live. God will make your 362 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
life his care. You will promote much happiness of 
others by the Holy Spirit You will be a devout disci- 
ple of our blest Savior. He will redeem you from evil 
& cleanse you with His precious blood. I heard of you 
with grief & sympathy, last evening. I came to visit 
Mr. & Mrs. Heywood yesterday. I wish you many 
happy new Years. 
Laura D. Bridgman. LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
363 
CHAPTER XX. 
In a life so quiet as that of Laura has been for 
the last eight years, there is little to furnish fur- 
ther material for the journalist. She spends the 
summer and early autumn with her relatives and 
friends in New Hampshire, and for the remainder 
of the year her home is at the Institution, in one 
of the four cottages which arc occupied by the 
blind girls. Here she is under the kind care of 
Miss Wood, and enjoys making herself useful by 
assisting in some light work about the house. 
Her room has a window towards the south, and 
she often dates her letters "Sunny Home," show- 
ing her appreciation of the blessing of sunshine. 
She takes pleasure in decorating it with the little 
things which have been given her, and in asking 
her intimate friends to make their visits there, so 
that she can display them. 
Her habits of industry which were formed in 
childhood are a b'lessing to her now, and she never 
finds time hang heavily upon her hands. 
Through the kindness of friends she has received 
gifts of books and magazines printed in raised 364 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
type at the different presses of the country, and 
these, with the Bible and Memoir of Dr. Howe, 
form her little library, and are a source of great 
enjoyment to her. She has made many friends, 
chiefly ladies who have been so much interested 
in her as to learn to converse in the manual alpha- 
bet. Occasional calls from them and an exten- 
sive correspondence add much to her pleasure. 
She sews, knits, crochets lace, mats, and other 
fancy articles, which she sells to visitors with her 
autograph attached, thereby increasing her in- 
come. 
Her appearance is that of a very delicate per- 
son, and she impresses all who see her by her ap- 
parent frailness, though for the last year she has 
been in better health than for some time previous. 
The regular life she leads, with its freedom from 
care and anxiety and excitement, has given her 
strength to overcome sickness which threatened to 
be serious. She has never been a sound sleeper. 
Some of her expressions previously quoted may 
lead the reader to think that she is inclined to 
despondency, and thus convey a false impression 
of her mental condition. 
It is true that she has, even from the days of 
her childhood, enjoyed telling of her illnesses, 
and receiving the sympathy of her friends, but 
with so few subjects for thought as she has in 
comparison with others, it would be remarkable LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
365 
if her own feelings did not form the first topic of 
conversation. She turns afterward to other sub- 
jects of mutual interest, enjoys a joke, and 
appreciates a witty remark. 
She speaks sometimes of the long walks we used 
to take, and the thought that she has not equal 
strength now causes her to utter a sound indicating 
regret, but she does not seem to dwell upon it, or 
to be made unhappy by it for any length of time. 
The remainder of her life will be shadowed by 
her late bereavement, but we have seen in her 
letters the light of her earnest faith shining 
through the darkness. 
Those who have constant intercourse with her 
bear testimony to the great change that has taken 
place in her character. She never manifests 
anger now and is always kind and gentle. In 
speaking with me lately of her former experience 
and of the frequency with which she gave way to 
passion, she said, "Sometimes I feel tempted to 
anger, but I can resist it now. God gives me 
strength." 
She has written, within a few years, two compo- 
sitions which she calls "poems." The first is on 
"Light and Darkness." As she has access to very 
little poetry in the books she can read herself, 
and she seems not to have aimed at any imitation 
of this, we think she must have taken the general 
idea from some parts of the Bible. 366 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
Light represents day. 
Light is more brilliant than ruby, even diamond. 
Light is whiter than snow. 
Darkness is night like. 
It looks as black as iron. 
Darkness is a sorrow. 
Joy is a thrilling rapture. 
Light yields a shooting joy through the human (heart). 
Light is sweet as honey, but 
Darkness is bitter as salt, and more than vinegar. 
Light is finer than gold and even finest gold. 
Joy is a real light. 
Joy is a blazing flame. 
Darkness is frosty. 
A good sleep is a white curtain, 
A bad sleep is a black curtain. 
In bringing these notes to a close, let me ex- 
press the hope that they will be the means of 
gaining for Laura many appreciative friends. Few 
lives of men or women could bear the test of such 
scrutiny as hers has received, which indeed would 
not have been justifiable for the satisfaction of 
curiosity, but only for its value to the scholar. 
In her declining years she will be tenderly cared 
for by those to whose trust she was committed by 
him who was so many years her friend and protec- 
tor ; and when the arm of an earthly friend can no 
longer be her support and guide, and she walks 
" through the valley of the shadow of death," may 
she " fear no evil," but rest on the arm of Him 367 
LAURA BRIDGMAN. 
whom she sincerely loves and who has promised to 
be her leader to the heavenly home of which she 
writes in the following poem : - 
HOLY HOME. 
Heaven is holy home. 
Holy home is from everlasting to everlasting. 
Holy home is summerly. 
I pass this dark home toward a light home. 
Earthly home shall perish, 
But holy home shall endure forever. 
Earthly home is wintery. 
Hard it is for us to appreciate the radiance of holy 
home because of blindness of our minds. 
How glorious holy home is, and still more than a beam 
of sun ! 
By the finger of God my eyes and ears shall be opened. 
The string of my tongue shall be loosed. 
With sweeter joys in heaven I shall hear and speak and 
see. 
With glorious rapture in holy home for me to hear the 
Angels sing and perform upon instruments. 
Also that I can behold the beauty of Heavenly home. 
Jesus Christ has gone to prepare a place for those who 
love and believe him. 
My zealous hope is that sinners might turn themselves 
from the power of darkness unto light divine. 
When I die, God will make me happy. 
In Heaven music is sweeter than honey, and finer than 
a diamond. 
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. O T I n m.., a n.. APPENDIX. 
Oliver caswell's first lesson. 
For the benefit of any future case of similar afflic- 
tion, I have thought it desirable to describe minutely 
the first lesson given to Oliver Caswell, a deaf, dumb, 
and blind boy who entered the Institution at South 
Boston, Sept. 30, 1841, at the age of twelve years, hav- 
ing lost his senses when three years and four months 
old by scarlet fever. Lucy Reed, also deaf, dumb, and 
blind, had been received in the previous February, but 
remained only five months, having returned to her 
home two months previous to Oliver's arrival. 
Not having become acquainted with Laura until she 
had been two years and a half under instruction, I was 
much interested in watching Lucy's progress, the 
course of training being the same as that which was 
adopted for Laura, and which has been described in 
the preceding pages. Four months elapsed before 
Lucy attached any significance to the process she was 
required to go through several times a day, of feeling 
the letters in raised type composing the various labels, 
which were placed upon a few common objects, and 
moving her fingers in certain directions to correspond 
with them. Iler ungoverned will and stolid indiffer- 
ence were undoubtedly serious obstacles to her progress, 
but it had taken more than two months before Laura 370 
APPENDIX. 
received the idea, although she was a most interested 
scholar. After a careful study of our work with Lucy, 
it seemed to me that the introduction of the raised let- 
ters at the beginning of the training was entirely use- 
less, and resulted only in a serious complication of the 
whole matter. No one would teach a little child to 
read until it had learned to talk, so the deaf and blind 
child should only be taught to spell the names of ob- 
jects on the fingers, and not to read the raised letters 
at the same time ; the attention being thus concentrated 
on this one point, I believe the desired result would be 
far more speedily attained 
I had often expressed the wish that one more such 
child might be brought to us, that my theory might be 
tested, and on this Sept. 30th I was male happy by a 
summons from Dr. Howe, and the announcement that 
such a child had arrived, and I might begin my experi- 
ment at once, while he was absent m the city. 
That there need be nothing to distract attention, I led 
the boy into a room where we could be undisturbed, 
and seated myself beside him upon a sofa. He first 
wished to find what manner of person I was, and I 
gave him all the opportunity he desired to examine the 
arrangement of my hair, to feel of my face, dress, chain, 
breastpin, rings, etc., until his curiosity' was satisfied. 
Next he examined the sofa on which we were seated, 
and then rested quietly. Now was my time to attract 
his attention. I led him to a door, and placed his hand 
upon the key which was in the lock. He made the mo- 
tion of turning it, nodding with a quizzical look, all 
which meant plainly, Yes, 1 know what a key is for, did 
you suppose I did not? Taking the key from the door, APPENDIX. 
371 
we returned to the sofa. Now he was curious to know 
what was to come next. I placed his hand upon the 
key, then lifting it, moved the fingers in the positions 
for the letters k-e-y, repeating it several times. Then 
I placed my hand in his and let him feel that I moved 
my fingers in the same way. By tapping his hand he 
understood that he was to repeat it himself; he succeed- 
ed in making k, but needed assistance on the other 
letters, which was given by letting him feel me make 
them again. On the second trial he spelled the word 
without assistance. The expression on his face now 
indicated, I wonder what all this means. Next I took 
a mug from a table near by, and placed it in his hand. 
Again he nodded and raised it to his lips, tipping it as 
a sign of drinking. Laying his hand upon it, as I had 
done before with the key, I moved his fingers to make 
the letters m-u-g, repeating it with my own fingers, his 
hand resting on mine so that he could feel the motions, 
and then asked him by a sign to do it himself. After 
three efforts he was successful, and showed pleasure in 
receiving a pat upon his head as a sign of approbation. 
Then I returned to the key. He had forgotten those 
letters, but after feeling me make them once, succeeded 
in spelling it. Turning back to the mug, he remembered 
two letters, and after a few trials more, spelled each 
correctly without assistance. All this time his face 
wore a puzzled look mingled with indifference, which 
would perhaps have triumphed at this point but for his 
spirit of obedience, which prompted him to do as he 
perceived I wished. These two words learned, he sat 
back upon the sofa as if to say, This is enough of such 
nonsense. Just then I drew a pin from my dress and 372 
APPENDIX. 
handed it to him. He made the sign of sticking it into 
his coat, and listlessly returned it to me. I lifted his 
hand, which he had lain quietly on his knee, and 
spelled with my fingers p-i-n. With a nervous movement 
and an expression of face quite unlike anything he 
had exhibited before, he tapped my hand, showing his 
wish that I should repeat it, and then, without waiting 
to make the letters himself, with a look of intense ear- 
nestness, he sprung from the sofa and drew me to the 
table, placing his hands upon it, and then rapping my 
fingers. As I made the letters t-a-b-l-e, he perceived 
that they were unlike those he had learned for the key, 
mug, and pin. 11 i s countenance became radiant. He led 
me rapidly about the room, putting my hands on differ- 
ent objects, and feeling me spell the names. A half- 
hour had passed since we took the key from the door, 
and he had received the idea which it had taken four 
months to give to Lucy Reed and nearly three months 
to Laura. The success of the experiment was far be- 
yond my expectations. Had we saved a month's time 
it would have been a great gain ; but the work was done, 
when I supposed it only commenced. Once having 
received the idea that objects have names, and that by 
movements of our fingers we can communicate them, 
the remaining work is simply to acquire a knowledge of 
those movements. In teaching a deaf, dumb, and 
blind person, the Frenchman's maxim is eminently 
true, " C'est le premier pas qui coute." 
It will be noticed that in selecting the words to be 
taught, care was taken that they should be as short as 
possible, and that no letter used in the name of one ob- 
ject should be repeated in that of another. This is APPENDIX. 
373 
very important, as the first idea which the mind receives 
is probably the difference in the words, and by making 
any part of them similar we make this less striking. 
Let no one who undertakes a similar work be dis- 
couraged, if, in following the .steps above described, it 
takes weeks or even months to attain the desired result, 
but in no case can the labels be of assistance.