These disadvantages are the natural consequences of the colloquial dialect of the deaf and dumb being wholly unconnected with their written language. Hence their knowledge of words is usually far in arrear of the expansion of their ideas, whereas, with children who hear, the reverse is often the case. If by any means similar to those we have proposed, words could be made, to any considerable extent, colloquial among the former as they are among the latter, the difficulty would soon in a great measure disappear. Still, when the deaf and dumb want words to express their ideas, they have signs for those ideas. If those signs could be fixed on paper, and arranged in a certain order, whether logical or conventional, vocabularies could easily be constructed capable of rendering the same assistance to the deaf mute which the Latin student derives from the common double lexicons of that language.

It has been proposed to form such a vocabulary by the aid of a species of symbolic or ideographic writing parallel to the signs of the deaf and dumb. But, after all, design forms the only language capable of being fixed on paper, which a deaf mute can learn without pains-taking instruction from his teacher. Hence the employment of any species of symbolic or ideographic writing, would only impose on the instructor the task of teaching two written languages instead of one.

The want of a dictionary of the English language adapted to the use of children, whether deaf and dumb, or hearing and speaking, has recently been, in part, supplied by a little volume bearing the name of the late able principal of the American Asylum. The plan of this compilation is excellent, and we hope soon to see it carried out on a more extensive scale.

Though the present article has already become much longer than we had intended, we have gone over but a smal. part of a field on which volumes have been written, and on which much yet remains to be written. The reader who should be led by curiosity or personal interest in the instruction of the deaf and dumb, to inquire farther into the subject,

*The School and Family Dictionary and Illustrative Definer. By T. H. Gallaudet and Horace Hooker. New York,

1841.

is referred to the publications cited at the head of this article, to the Encyclopedia Americana, and to the celebrated work of Baron Degerando,-"De l'Education des Sourds-Muets de Naissance."

ARTICLE II.

REVIEW.

The Works of Nathanael Emmons, D. D., late Pastor of the Church in Franklin, Mass., with a Memoir of his Life. Edited by Jacob Ide, D. D. Six Volumes. Boston. Published by Crocker and Brewster. 1842.

THE first of these volumes contains a brief Autobiography of the late Dr. Emmons; an "Additional Memoir," by his Editor and Son-in-law, Dr. Ide; a further delineation of his character, in a "Lecture, read before the Senior Class in the Andover Theological Seminary," by Prof. Park; also a series of sermons, the most of them Ordination Sermons, on subjects connected with "the Christian ministry." The remaining volumes consist almost entirely of Sermons. Those in the second volume are on "Social and Civil Duties." Those in the third are chiefly funeral discourses, and are collectively entitled "Instructions to the Afflicted." The sermons in the fourth and fifth volumes are doctrinal, and are so arranged by the Editor as to constitute a regular system of theology. The sermons in the sixth and last volume are of a miscellaneous character.

Dr. Emmons was born, April 20, 1745, in the town of East Haddam, Conn. He was the sixth son, and the twelfth and youngest child, of his parents. He was averse to labor, but loved learning; and after much entreaty, obtained permission of his father to commence the study of languages, at the age of seventeen. He was fitted for Yale College in about ten months; and though his class contained some distinguished scholars, as Dr. Lyman, Dr. Wales, Gov. Treadwell, and Judge Trumbull, yet, in the judgment of his classmates, he was accounted worthy, at the close of his

collegiate life, of the most honorable appointment which they had it in their power to confer. Being destitute of property, he engaged, for several months, in the business of teaching; after which he entered upon the study of theology, first with Rev. Mr. Strong, of Coventry, father of the late Dr. Strong, of Hartford, and afterwards with Rev. Dr. Smalley, of Berlin. Dr. E. was blessed with pious parents, who, he says, gave him much good instruction in piety and virtue, and restrained him from all outward acts of vice and immorality. He was the subject of frequent and deep religious impressions, almost from childhood; but seems not to have experienced a change of heart, until after he began to study for the ministry. The account which he has left us of his impressions and feelings, preceding and accompanying this most important change, is highly satisfactory, and must be given in his own words:

"It had always been my settled opinion, that saving grace was a necessary qualification for a church member, and much more for a minister of the gospel. Accordingly, when I began to read divinity, I began a constant practice of daily reading the Bible, and of praying to God in secret. With such resolutions, I entertained a hope that God would very soon grant me his special grace, and give me satisfactory evidence of this qualification for the ministry. Nor did I ever indulge a thought of preaching, unless I had some good reason to believe I was the subject of a saving change; for I viewed a graceless minister as a most inconsistent, criminal, and odious character. All this time, however, I had no sense of the total corruption of my heart, and its perfect opposition to God. But one night there came up a terrible thunder storm, which gave me such an awful sense of God's displeasure, and of my going into a miserable eternity, as I never had before. I durst not close my eyes in sleep during the whole night, but lay crying for mercy with great anxiety and distress. This impression continued day after day, and week after week, and put me upon the serious and diligent use of what I supposed to be the appointed means of grace. In this state of mind I went to Mr. Smalley's, to pursue my theological studies. There I was favored with his plain and instructive preaching; which increased my concern, and gave me a more sensible conviction of the plague of my own heart, and of my real opposition to the way of salvation revealed in the gospel. My heart rose against the doctrine of divine sovereignty, and I felt greatly embarrassed with respect to the use of means. I read certain

A

books, which convinced me that the best desires and prayers of sinners were altogether selfish, criminal and displeasing to God. I knew not what to do, nor where to go for relief. deep sense of my total depravity of heart, and of the sove. reignty of God in having mercy on whom he will have mercy, destroyed my dependence on men and means, and made me almost despair of ever attaining salvation, or becoming fit for anything but the damnation of hell. But one afternoon, when my hopes were gone, I had a peculiar discovery of the divine perfections, and of the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, which filled my mind with a joy and serenity to which I had ever before been a perfect stranger. This was followed by a peculiar spirit of benevolence to all my fellow men, whether friends or foes. And I was transported with the thought of the unspeakable blessedness of the day when universal benevolence should prevail among all mankind. I felt a peculiar complacence in good men, but thought they were extremely stupid, because they did not appear to be more delighted with the gospel, and more engaged to promote the cause of Christ. I pitied the deplorable condition of ignorant, stupid sinners, and thought I could preach so plainly as to convince every body of the glory and importance of the gospel. These were my views and feelings about eight months before I became a candidate for the ministry."

The religious sentiments of Mr. Emmons, at the time when he entered college, were of an Arminian character; but of these he was thoroughly cured, during his collegiate life, by the instructions of a tutor, and by the study of Edwards on the Will. He left college a Calvinist, of the old school, and put himself under the instruction of Mr. Strong, who was known to be of the same sentiments. He was here directed to the study of Willard's and Ridgely's expositions of the Assembly's Catechism, and other books of the like stamp, by which means he became thoroughly grounded in the old Calvinistic explanations and doctrines.

Dr. Smalley was under the imputation, at this period, of having broached or advocated some novelties in religion; and why Mr. E. was induced to exchange the instructions of Mr. Strong for those of the "New Divinity" teacher, does not appear. The kind of intercourse which he held with his new instructor, and the effect which his teachings produced upon him, he has himself described; and the passage is too interesting to be omitted:

"When I first went as a pupil to Dr. Smalley's, I was full of old Calvinism, and thought I was prepared to meet the Dr. on all the points of his new divinity. For some time all things went on smoothly. At length he began to advance some sentiments which were new to me, and opposed to my former views. I contended with him; but he very quietly tripped me up, and there I was at his mercy. I arose and commenced the struggle anew; but before I was aware of it, I was floored again. Thus matters proceeded for some time; he gradually leading me along to the place of light, and I struggling to remain in darkness. He at length succeeded, and I began to see a little light. From that time to the present, the light has been increasing; and I feel assured that the great doctrines of grace which I have preached for fifty years, are in strict accordance with the law and the testimony."

It was while this doctrinal struggle was going on between the teacher and his pupil, that Mr. E. was the subject of that deeper spiritual conflict which has been described above, The change in his theological opinions, and his supposed change of heart, were very nearly coincident.

Having become a convert to the opinions of his instructor, Mr. E. was destined soon to encounter another difficulty. In October, 1769, he appeared before the South Ministerial Association in Hartford County, to be examined for license to preach the gospel; when it appeared that several of the more aged ministers were opposed to his teacher's sentiments, and of course to his. He had a long and critical examination upon the disputed points; and when the question of his license was at length put, several of the ministers voted against it, and one remonstrated against it in writing. The difficulty between the ministers was afterwards adjusted; but the talk and bustle growing out of it served to render young Emmons (to use his own expression) "a speckled bird." preaching as a candidate between three and four years,—one evidence, among many, that the most respectable candidates did not find it easier to obtain settlements in this country, from fifty to a hundred years ago, than they do now-he was crdained over the second church in Wrentham, (now Franklin) Mass., in April, 1773. His pastoral relation to this people continued, without interruption, to the day of his deatha period of sixty-seven years; for more than fifty of which he discharged personally and statedly the duties of his office

SECOND SERIES, VOL. VIII. NO. II.

4.

After