DEAFNESS.
[To THE EDITOR Of THE SPECTATOR:I
SIR,--IfftIly of your readers, whilst perusing the interesting letters of your correspondents on this subject, will have called to mind the striking eulogy and defence of the ear as compared with the eye, forming part of that remarkable prose-poem," The Fire Gate- ways of Knowledge," by Dr. George Wilson • " The ear," he says, " is in some respects a more human organ than the eye, for it is the counterpart of the human voice: and it is a sorer affliction to be cut off from listening to the tongues of our fellow-men, than it ie to be blinded to the sights on which they gaze. Those who are born, or early Itecome deaf, sire far more isolated all their lives from their hearing neighbours, than the blind are from those who see.. . . Our interest in earls other far exceeds, and ought to exceed, our interest in the world, and from all this human sympathy the deaf are almost totally cut off. The deaf, unless they have a great aptitude for such occupations as employ the eye and band, are far more narrowed in their circle of studies, and much more solitary than the blind." After a touching quotation from Dr. Kitts, and the tracing of a comparison between Milton and Beethoven, Dr. Wilson sums up: "The ear is accordingly an organ which we can worse afford to lose than the eye; and one, therefore, which should be all the more eared for." One needs only, further, to remember Napoleon's injunction to the lady Who would have made a heavily-laden porter step off the footpath to alismr of ]ear uninterrupted passage- " Respect the burden, Madam "—to ensure the right treatment of
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