SIR WALTER SCOTT ON THE DEAF & DUMB.
Reading edition
ir Walter Scott in his novel "Peveril of the Peak," uses the following language as to the deaf and dumb of his day:—"All knowledge is gained by communication, either with the dead through books, or more pleasingly through the conversation of the living. The deaf and dumb above are excluded from improvement, and surely their institution is not enviable that we should imitate them." Aristotle considered the deaf and dumb as incapable of acquiring knowledge; while St. Augustine insisted that they could not be instructed in the holy faith of the Catholic Church. Could the worthies come back to this world they would be slightly amazed at the practical refutation of their prophecies.
