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When any new object was given to her she first felt every part of it, moving the ends of her fingers over it with peculiar minuteness and delicacy. She then applied it to her upper lip, on which she rubbed it for some time, as if there was the seat of a more nice sensibility of feeling, and after smelling it, all of which she did with much apparent eagerness and delight, she immediately placed it in her sister's hands, still retaining hold of it herself, and with her fingers directing her sister to the same process of touching and smelling through which she had just passed, and the pleasure of which she seemed to wish to enhance by making it a social one.

Speaking of a fear of strangers, and especially men, which Julia had, and which could be traced to a dread of her physician, who had applied painful blisters to various parts of her body during her illness, Mr. Gallaudet says:

When I saw her this fear had very considerably abated; ... she freely felt us, rubbing our hands with her own, which she afterwards applied to her nose, as if still retaining on them the peculiarity of our smell, which by this curious mode of transmission she seemed to acquire with wonderful accuracy. An experiment that we several times repeated furnished satisfactory evidence of this.

We put our watches into her hands. While doing it, she rubbed our hands with one of her own, which she immediately applied to her nose, in order to determine to whom the object belonged. Then she passed through her usual process of feeling and smelling the watches, with their appendages, and of soliciting her sister to do the same. After she appeared to be satisfied with doing this, each of us attempted to take from her the watch which did not belong to him. She invariably perceived the deception, would not suffer the wrong commutation, as she might deem it, to take place, but returned to each his own watch. . . . New clothes are highly gratifying to her. . . . She has sometimes a disposition for sport, particularly in the way of playing off tricks of youthful merriment on her brothers and sisters. . .

After detailing some incidents, Mr. Gallaudet expresses the opinion that a certain amount of instruction might be imparted to this unfortunate child -- claiming, however, much less important results than were actually attained when Julia came, a few years later, under his care in the school he established at Hartford. After having gained much useful knowledge in school, Julia Brace lived happily for many years in the institution at Hartford, performing certain duties in an exemplary manner, and enjoying the society of a circle of friends to whom she was warmly attached, and with whom she communicated with considerable facility through the medium of the language of signs. She never attained to any great proficiency in verbal language.

On the 12th of February, 1816, Mr. Gallaudet left Edinburgh for London, where he spent a couple of weeks before proceeding to Paris. It was during this stay in London that he made the acquaintance of Major-General Macaulay and his brother Zachary, the father of the great historian.

With Zachary Macaulay, who was then the editor of the Christian Observer, Mr. Gallaudet formed an intimate and valued friendship which was broken only by the death of Mr. Macaulay. Many long letters, on subjects of public, as well as private, interest passed between the two friends, one of which will be found at the end of this chapter.

Mr. Gallaudet arrived in Paris on the 9th of March. Within three days he was cordially received by the Abbe Sicard, then at the head of the Royal School for Deaf-Mutes, and offered every possible facility for the achievement of the object he had been vainly pursuing in Great Britain.

The benevolent Abbe permitted Mr. Gallaudet to have access to the several classes of the school, beginning with the lowest and proceeding in regular order through those of higher grade.

He also arranged that Mr. Gallaudet should have private lessons from his distinguished pupil and assistant Massieu.

For two months this work of training went diligently forward. On the 20th of May an important incident occurred, which is recorded as follows in Mr. Gallaudet's diary:

In a conversation had with Clerc this day he proposed going to America with me as an assistant, if the Abbe Sicard would give his consent. I think of addressing the Abbe on the subject.

Clerc was a young deaf-mute about his own age, who had been a favorite pupil of Sicard's, and was then teaching a class in the Paris institution. He was a man of more than ordinary ability, well versed in all Sicard's methods of instruction.

His proposal to accompany Mr. Gallaudet to America was most opportune, for the latter was beginning to feel somewhat impatient to return to his native land, and begin the work for which he had been so long endeavoring to prepare himself.

Mr. Gallaudet lost no time in seeking the Abbe's consent to part with Clerc, sending him the following letter within twenty-four hours after Clerc had offered to accompany him to America.