The music of the blind pupils has always been employed with the
greatest success in public festivals, playhouses, balls,
coffeehouses, and many public and private assemblies. It is
impossible to form an adequate idea of the decided taste of the blind
for music, and of the consolation which it affords them. Deprived of
their eyes, they seem to become all ears.
No sooner had M. HAÜY rendered public his first essays, than the
learned, and especially the members of the _ci-devant_ Academy of
Sciences, stamped them with their approbation, as appears by a Report
signed by some of the most distinguished of that body, such as
DESMARETS, LA ROCHEFOUCAULT, CONDORCET, &c. Professors of the arts,
cultivated by his pupils, such as printing, music, &c. were equally
eager to acknowledge to what an astonishing degree the blind had
succeeded in appropriating to themselves the enjoyment of those arts.
Three of the first master-printers in Paris certified the
intelligence and skill of the blind pupils; and a concert was
executed by them to the no small satisfaction of the _ci-devant_
Academy of Music.
Persons of every degree now wished to be spectators of the result of
these essays. Lewis XVI sent for the Industrious Blind, their
machinery, &c. to Versailles; he visited them when at work, and
inspected their several performances, attended by all the royal
family, princes of the blood, ministers, ambassadors, &c. After
having procured the inhabitants of that town this interesting sight
for several successive days, he rewarded the blind with marks of his
favour and encouragement.
The government, which succeeded to the monarchy, shewed no less
interest in the progress of M. HAÜY'S undertaking. The different
legislatures, which have successively governed France, promoted it by
various decrees. In proportion as the number of the pupils increased,
so did the resources of their industrious activity. By a law which
was solicited by M. HAÜY, and which excited and kept up a singular
emulation among his pupils, the blind, in preference to the
clear-sighted of equal merit, were admitted to the various secondary
employments of the establishment. From that period, the first blind
pupils, formed by M. HAÜY, being promoted to the functions of
teachers, transmitted with success to young blind children, sent for
instruction, from different parts of the Republic, the first elements
of education given them by himself and assistants. By virtue of this
law, the office of house-steward was intrusted to LESUEUR, a blind
pupil who had already discharged it with credit at a banker's. It
will scarcely be believed, no doubt, that a blind man can be a
cashier, receive money coming in, either from the public treasury, or
from the industry of his brothers in misfortune; make of it a
suitable division; buy commodities necessary for life and clothing;
introduce the strictest economy into his disbursements; by means of
his savings, procure the establishment the implements and machinery
of the Industrious Blind; in times of real scarcity, make use of the
productions of the labour of the grown blind, to maintain the young
blind pupils, and that, with all these concerns on his hands, his
accounts should always be ready for inspection.
M. HAÜY informs me that out of fifteen or twenty of his old pupils,
whom he has connected by the ties of marriage, ten or twelve are
fathers; and that they have children more fortunate than the authors
of their days, since the enjoy the benefit of sight. But the most
interesting part of these connexions is, that the blind father (on
the principle of the plan before-stated) teaches his clear-sighted
son reading, arithmetic, music, and every thing that it is possible
to teach without the help of the eyes.
Raised work, or relief, is the simple and general process by means of
which M. HAÜY forms his pupils, and there are a great number of them
whose abilities would excite the pride of many a clear-sighted
person. For instance, in addition to the before-mentioned LESUEUR,
who is an excellent geographer and a good mathematician, might be
quoted HUARD, a man of erudition and a correct printer; likewise
CAILLAT, a capital performer on the violin, and a celebrated
composer. For vocal and instrumental music, printing, and handicraft
work, there might be noticed thirty or forty, as well as ten or
twelve for knowledge relating to the sciences.
It may not be improper to observe, that M. HAÜY always first puts a
frame into the hands of his pupils, and that he has made a law, to
which he scrupulously adheres, not to lean too much towards the
_agreeable_ arts, unless the pupil manifest for them a peculiar
disposition.
Hence you may form an idea of the proficiency which these
unfortunates attain under the auspices of the benevolent M. HAÜY. In
the compass of a letter, or even of several letters, it is impossible
to develope proceedings which it is more easy to put into execution
than to describe. The process alone of printing in relief would
require a vast number of pages, and some plates, in order to make it
perfectly intelligible; but the greater part of what composes these
branches of instruction is amply detailed in a work, which I shall
communicate to you, entitled "_Essai sur l'Éducation des Aveugles_,
_par_ Valentin Haüy, _auteur de la manière de les instruire_,"
printed under the sanction of the _ci-devant_ Academy of Sciences.
By a law on public education, passed in July 1796, several
establishments were to be founded in favour of blind children, in the
principal towns of the Republic; but, in consequence of the political
changes which have since occurred in the government, it has never
been carried into execution.
In October, 1800, the Consuls decreed that the _National Institution
of the Industrious Blind_ should be united to the Hospital of the
_Quinze-vingts_, together with the soldiers who had lost their sight
in Egypt. M. HAÜY is shortly to be honoured by a pension, as a reward
for the services which he has bestowed on those afflicted with
blindness. At the present moment, he is engaged in founding a second
establishment, of a similar nature, which is to take the name of