Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet

“ Behold these immortal minds!—Some of them are before you; the pledges, we trust, of multitudes who will be rescued from the thraldom of ignorance: pursue, in imagination, their future progress in time, and in eternity, and say, my hearers, whether I appreciate too highly the blessings, which we wish to be made the instruments of conferring upon the deaf and dumb? ”

“ The instruction of the deaf and dumb, if properly conducted, has a tendency to give important aid to many researches of the philanthropist, the philosopher, and the divine.—The philanthropist and the philosopher are deeply interested in the business of education. The cultivation of the human mind is paramount to all other pursuits; inasmuch as spirit is superior to matter, and eternity to time. Youth, is the season in which the powers of the mind begin to develope themselves, and language, the grand instrument by which this developement is to take place. ”

“ While the hearts of its inhabitants expand in charity towards others, and the labours of their hands are united in one common object, they learn together the pleasure of doing good,—they find, at least, one green spot of repose in the desert of life, where they may cull some fruits of paradise, and draw refreshment from streams that flow from the river of God. ”

“ Now it is beyond all doubt, that great improvement has been made in the mode of instructing children in the use and power of language. To what extent these improvements may yet be carried, time alone can determine. The very singular condition in which the minds of the deaf and dumb are placed, and the peculiar means which are necessarily employed in their instruction, may furnish opportunities for observation and experiment, and the establishment of principles, with regard to the education of youth, which will not be without essential service in their general application. ”

“ While we seek, therefore, to sooth the distresses and dispel the ignorance of the unfortunate objects of our regard; while we would unfold to them the wonders of that religion, in which we profess to believe; and set before them the love of that Saviour, on whom all our hopes rest; let us be grateful to God for the very superior advantages which we enjoy; consider how imperfectly we improve them; be mindful, that after all we do, we are but unprofitable servants ”

“ Yes, my hearers, godliness hath the promise of this life, as well as of that which is to come. The spirit of christian benevolence, is the only one which will change, completely, the aspect of human affairs. ”

“ The most important advantages, however, in the education of the deaf and dumb, accrue to those who are the subjects of it, and these are advantages, which it is extremely difficult for those of us, who are in possession of all our faculties, duly to appreciate. He, whose pulse has always beat high with health, little understands the rapture of recovery from sickness. ”

“ Do our efforts for doing good, however humble may be their sphere of influence, proceed from a wish that thus we may be made the instruments of advancing that happy period, when the heathen shall be given to Christ for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession; when, through the influence of his Gospel, and the efficacy of his grace, "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;" ”

“ The lamp of reason already lights its infant eye; the smile of intelligence plays upon its countenance; its little hand is stretched forth in significant expression of its wants; the delightful season of prattling converse has arrived ”

“ What discoveries may be made respecting the original notions of right and wrong, the obligations of conscience, and, indeed, most of the similar topics connected with the moral sense. These hints are sufficient to show, that aside from the leading and more important uses of giving instruction to the deaf and dumb, their education might be made to subserve the general cause of humanity, and of correct Philosophy and Theology. ”

“ But there is a sickness more dreadful than that of the body; there are chains more galling than those of the dungeon—the immortal mind preying upon itself, and so imprisoned as not to be able to unfold its intellectual and moral powers, and to attain to the comprehension and enjoyment of those objects, which the Creator has designed as the sources of its highest expectations and hopes. ”

“ Let us not fail then to make a suitable improvement of this occasion, by inquiring, whether our benevolence towards men, springs from love towards the Saviour of our souls; whether our humanity is something more than the offspring of mere sympathetic tenderness ”

“ He, who has always trod the soil, and breathed the air, of freedom, cannot sympathize with the feelings of ecstacy, which glow in the breast of him, who having long been the tenant of some dreary dungeon, is brought forth to the cheering influence of light and liberty. ”

“ That town, whose character is one of benevolence and good-will towards the unhappy, enjoys, in the opinion of all the wise and good, a reputation more exalted, more valuable, more noble, than it can possibly gain by the most extensive pursuits of commerce and the arts ”

“ He portrays, by the strongest and boldest figures, the joy that will be diffused throughout the earth, when the Gospel of Jesus Christ shall have been proclaimed to all people, and its principles made the universal rule of thought and conduct. He would thus teach us the intimate connexion, even in this world, between holiness and happiness, and excite our efforts towards hastening on the latter day glory of the church, by placing before us the advantages that will result from it. ”

“ He enters upon the duty which has thus devolved upon him, not reluctantly, yet with diffidence and solicitude, principally fearing that the cause of the deaf and dumb may suffer, and yet hoping that God, in whose hands the feeblest instruments are strong, will deign to make our meditations not only productive of benefit to the unfortunate objects of our pity, but of eternal good to our own souls. ”

“ On its hallowed ground, a respite is given to political and religious warfare;—men lay down the weapons of contention, and cherish, for a season at least, the divine temper of peace on earth, and good will towards men. ”

“ They know the value of the gift that is offered them, and are not reluctant to quit the delights of their native home— (delights doubly dear to those whose circle of enjoyment is so contracted,) nor to forsake the endearments of the parental roof, that they may find, in a land of strangers, and through toils of indefatigable perseverance, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge! ”

“ How many questions, also, may be solved, concerning the capability of man to originate of himself, the notion of a God and of a future state, or, admitting his capacity to do this, whether, as a matter of fact, he ever would do it. ”

“ They feel that they are fellow pilgrims in the same wilderness of cares and sorrows, and, while they look to that country to which they are all hastening, while they tread in the footsteps of Him who went about doing good, how quickly do their differences of opinion soften ”

“ How much light also, may in this way, be thrown upon what are supposed to be the original truths, felt and recognised to be such by the mind, without any reasoning process. Many speculations, too, which now are obscure and unsettled, respecting the faculties of the human mind, may be rendered more clear and satisfactory. ”

“ Nor, we trust, will motives be found wanting for future exertions in behalf of these children of misfortune. It is always more blessed to give, than to receive.—Efforts of charity, prudently and usefully directed, never fail abundantly to repay those by whom they are made. ”

“ It should be matter, therefore, of encouragement to us, that the establishment, which is now ready to receive within its walls the sons and daughters of misfortune, however humble may be its sphere of exertion, is not overlooked in the economy of the Redeemer's kingdom ”