I shall not now speak to you of splendid buildings, of glorious monuments of human ingenuity, of renowned heroes, or of brilliant festivals. What I saw to day interested me, and I am sure would have interested you, much more than all such objects united; I mean, the _institution des sourd-muets_ (that humane establishment for the instruction of the deaf and dumb), first founded under the care of the abbé l’Epée, and now conducted by his worthy successor, the abbé Sicard. Having tickets offered me for an extraordinary meeting, which took place this morning, I willingly availed myself of the opportunity, and at ten o’clock repaired to _la rue St. Jacques_, where, in a former convent, this beneficent establishment is carried on. Here I found a large assemblage of respectable persons, who all listened, with pleasure and attention, to the simple, plain, and unaffected manner, in which the abbé Sicard explained his method of giving to the deaf and dumb the means of expressing their thoughts. “As foreigners,” said he, “unacquainted with the language of the country which they visit, are supposed stupid and ignorant by the uninformed, so the deaf and dumb are often considered as idiots, because they are deprived of one sense. No,” continued he, “they are not idiots; they have ideas as well as you, and only want an organ to express them.” He then went on to state, that in most educations children are taught first to speak, and then, _sometimes_, to think; whereas, in his plan, he began first by teaching his pupils to think, and then proceeded to instruct them how to express what they had so thought[29]. To exemplify both his plan and his success, he examined Massieu, his favourite and ablest pupil, a young man, about twenty or twenty five years old. As soon as the abbé expressed, by his gestures, any particular passion, Massieu instantly wrote the word appropriate to the peculiar feeling, and then explained the meaning of the word he had written, with a vivacity of action, and a variety of countenance, which I never before witnessed in any human being. He next wrote on the wall, with great rapidity, the chain of ideas, by which the abbé Sicard regularly advances his scholars, from the expression of a simple thought, to one of greater import. Thus, beginning with the word “voir,” to see, he ended, going on by regular steps, with the word “examiner,” to examine; beginning with “idéer,” (a word created by Massieu, but answering to “_avoir idée_,” or to have an idea), he ended with “approfondir,” to search into; and beginning with “vouloir,” to will, he ended with “brûler,” to burn with passion. Massieu expressed, with wonderful fire, the meaning of each progressive passion, in the changes of his countenance, which, when animated, is uncommonly fine.