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I do not believe that Laura Bridgman is so happily organized as many other children; I think she has some constitutional disturbing forces which do not affect others. Nevertheless, I am confident that for many years she has never varied from the truth, nor swerved from the right, unless under the influence of what were, to her, strong temptations. That such temptations were not kept from her is my fault, or the fault of those circumstances which keep us all so far from perfection.

We must not bind upon her, or upon other children, greater burdens than they can bear; but if we will act upon the principle, that the mind can be trained to perceive moral relations as quickly as it does material relations, we shall enable her and them to walk uprightly through life. I will illustrate my meaning by a reference to the process of training the mind to the study of arithmetic.

There are certain immutable relations of numbers, and by long and close attention to these the mind sees, as it were by intuition, what before was incomprehensible. A child at first does not understand the relation between two and three, or that, when united, they make five; but by dissecting the five, -- by counting upon his fingers, -- by taking five objects and putting three in one heap and two in another and then uniting them, or in other ways, the relation is demonstrated to the child, and his mind ever after assents to it as a matter of course. But it is by no means a matter of course at first; and the mental faculty by which the relations of number are perceived requires greater or less training according to its natural capacity.

It is certain that 333 multiplied by 555 make 184,815; and one whose natural faculty for perceiving the relations of numbers is extraordinarily active, or one that has been long and carefully trained, will see it as quickly as we perceive that three and two make five. Not so, however, with a common and untrained mind; such a one would have to dissect the numbers as the child dissects five, and arrive at the result by two or more lines of proof, before there would be a certainty of the correctness of the result.

Now the moral relations of things are not less certain and immutable than their numerical relations. We think we see the right and wrong on certain questions intuitively and without training; but we have to go through very much the same exercise of the faculty by which we see it, as we did before we perceived the relation between two and five. On other subjects, where the disturbing force of interest, prejudice, or passion interferes, we cannot see the true moral relations of questions at once, any more than we can at first see the result of 333 multiplied by 555; but by careful training of the conscience with the intellect we can at last attain to it.

A merchant will tell by a glance at the balance-sheet what is his share of the year's profit of his house; a process for which a schoolboy would require his slate and pencil. But perhaps there have been transactions of doubtful morality during the year's business, which the well trained conscience of a schoolboy would solve at a glance, but which the merchant could hardly decide even with the aid of a moral slate and pencil.

By observing such principles as these, and by being mindful always that Laura has a conscience, which, like the consciences of most children, if not yet fully developed, may be so trained as to be firmly relied upon, her teachers and friends may reasonably expect, that, when grown to maturity, she will show great firmness of character.

Let it not be supposed that the foregoing instances of unamiable conduct are given as specimens of Laura's general conduct; so far from it, they are very uncommon exceptions to her usual kind and conscientious deportment. I give them for two reasons; because I would faithfully describe what so many are interested to see in all its lights, and because the lesson may be useful to others.

It is a curious case, this of Laura's. A poor blind and deaf girl, of humble history and humbler hopes, -- unconscious of being the object of special regard, and yet every act and word carefully noted down, and more eagerly looked for by thousands in various parts of the world than those of purple-born princesses! And yet it may not be a solitary case. It may be that each one of us is watched over with tender interest by guardian spirits; -- that "all our faults are observed, conned and scanned by rote and set in a note-book," not, perhaps, "to be cast in our teeth," but to serve the great purposes of truth and good.

Could Laura be suddenly restored to her senses, and clothed with our faculties and intellect, which so far transcend hers, she would stand amazed to find herself the centre of so much observation; she would look fearfully and anxiously back to recall all her past thoughts and deeds, and perhaps painfully repent that some of them had not been better. So it may be with us, when the clog of the flesh shall be removed from those faculties and powers that so far transcend those of the body. We may find that what we whispered in secret was heard through the universe, -- what we did in the darkness was seen as at noonday. But it is better for her and for us that it should be as it is; that we should shun the wrong, not because others may punish us, and do the right, not because others may reward us, but because the one is good and the other is bad.