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M. Bebian has availed himself of its facilities to explain the use of the articles, the formation of abstract nouns, and the degrees of comparison. It is easily applicable to the exhibition of passions and emotions, by imitating the traces of their effects in the countenance and attitude. By means of allegory, it may be applied to the illustration of notions still more refined. There exists no subject, however removed from the domain of sense, to the elucidation of which its aid may not be invoked. Systems have been built upon the use of this instrument alone. It has been made the basis even of religious instruction. It was by means of pictures and diagrams, that Father Vanin, an instructor at Paris before the time of De l'Epée, attempted even to expound the mysterious doctrines of the Incarnation, and of a Triune God. The result of his efforts was, however, very unsatisfactory. M. Saboureux de Fontenay, one of his pupils, afterwards highly distinguished under the tutelage of Pereiré, speaks thus of the effect produced upon his own mind. 'I believed that God the Father was a venerable old man, residing in the heavens; that the Holy Ghost was a dove, surrounded with light; that the Devil was a hideous monster, dwelling in the depths of the earth, &c. Thus I possessed sensible, material, mechanical ideas of religion.'

Such a recital might shake our faith in the utility of emblematic explanations, as applied to moral or religious notions, did we not perceive that the result in this case was the natural consequence of the original error, which made design the great instrument of instruction. A proper distinction must be observed in the mode of its use; according to the nature of the subject, with regard to which it is employed. Whatever is material may be directly explained by design; and this instrument may, here, be implicitly relied on with security. That which pertains to the intellectual and moral world, can only be illustrated by visible metaphorical representations; which though liable to mislead when made the principal dependence, impart, nevertheless, a very happy light to difficult notions, when used as accessory to other more certain means.

The great utility of design consists in the economy of time, which it introduces into the system of instruction; and in the certainty and precision, which (whenever employed not in an emblematic, but an absolute sense) it imparts to the ideas conveyed. A picture is not necessarily limited to the definition of a single word. It may represent a proposition. It may be made to explain the different usages of language; and here is one of the great advantages, which this instrument possesses, for the instructer.

The use of design in the education of the deaf and dumb, is a subject which has not yet received from teachers the attention which it merits. The resources, afforded by this instrument, have not been fully developed, nor well understood, even by those who have employed it most in practice. (11) The Abbé de l'Epée rejected it entirely. In this country it has been principally employed, in defining the nomenclature of visible objects. A system of designs, judiciously chosen and judiciously arranged, is exceedingly to be desired. The task of preparing such a series, is not indeed one of small magnitude. Of all the attempts which have been made, and the plans which have been proposed in Europe, no one seems to have met with universal approbation. Hardly has any one found an advocate beyond the original proposer. Still an imperfect system is better than none, and we cannot refrain, here, from recommending to the instructers in America an effort in concert, to supply the deficiency.

The language of action is of essential importance in the education of the deaf and dumb. No system can dispense with the employment of this instrument. Its necessity, as a first means of communication, between the master and the pupil, is an axiom; and is the substance of the first fundamental principle of the art. Still no question has been more vigorously discussed, than that of the extent to which this means should be employed in instruction, and of the degree of development which should be given to it as a language.