As De Quincey when he thought of Fdny always thought of roses, and when he thought of roses always thought of Fanny, so 1, when I think of Helen Keller, always think of the planet Mars, and when I think of the planet Mars, always think of Helen Kelle)
"Assuming: that there are intel-agent bunton beings on the planet. 'Morg; amd assuming that we could get a mnessaye through, what could the Martians make of it? It would be like ant\English message in the 'Morse code to a foreigner who knew no -word' of any language but his own, How vill we talk to Mars?
And ifa child is both deaf and blind how shall we talk to her? It Seems impossible, But it is not im-Possible, The pact is right: "Love will find out way." Helen Kelle the age of seven, was deaf and. blind, yet a woman, 'a very wonderful woman, reached her soul and taught hereto read and think and speak, writes Robert Blatchford in "Johns? London's weekly."
Ifa child is deaf, but can soe, she may be taught by signs. If she is blind, but can heary she may be taught by sounds; But how could anyone but a: genius solve the prolems of communication with one who could neither hear nor see?
"Helen Keller, who lost sight and hearing when a baby, was actually taught to read and write and think land speak and become the author of two fascinating books, written in a gmiceful literary style. It locks like miracle. The miracle wes worked wonderful Ann Mansfield Sullivan. "She gave the seven- year-fold Helen Keller a doll. She took tthe child's hand and in the finger Janguage of the deaf and dumb, spelt out the word doll. Seems easy! But Helen did not know what words for letters were; did not know that things had names. She had never Soon a word in print, or felt ft in Brailte, or heard it spoken, Wonder ful Ann Sullivan had to teach her, slow and patient experiment, that certain sequence of taps, or pressures, meant the thing Helen re-agnized by touch but did not know by name, The teacher relied solely upon the association of ideas. Slowly ft dawned upon the pupil that certain Just as ® poppy ain finger touches implied
"rats" and and "bone." Well, there Helen Keller, aged' seven imprisoned in silence and arkness, and there was wonderful Ann Sullivan with her marvellous sympathy, her divine love, and angelic patience holding the Tittle hand and spelling out the word doll, Which of us would have had the faith and the courage to begin and continue and finish such s task? Think of it. And this is how the deaf and blind. infant began her autobiography after her invincible teacher had made a woman of her "tt is with a kind of fear that begin to write the door is open. She is in touch with the world. She can begin to read, to think, to understand. I find Miss Sullivan's letters very interesting and very moving. They are <o warmly human, Helen had taught that the manual word "doll" meant the thing she knew and played with. 'When her father brought a dog into the room she knelt by the animal and "began' to manipulate its claws.' He was making the signs Yor the word doll. She was trying to teach the dog to spell.
These letters reveal Miss Sullivan the most selfless friend a child jeould need. She accomplished wonders and had reason tobe proud; but it is always to Helen she gives the praise. Helen's diligence, Helen's quickness, Helen's goodness and jeapacity are her theme. So remark-efforts to hoop abreast of her progress. 'That is how Miss Sullivan spoke and thought of her achievement, "And, while honouring. the teacher for' her modesty and devotion, we cannot overlook the fact of the pupil's brilliance. Within that! dark shell there was an inestimable! Jewel, and brave, patient, clever Ann Sullivan discovered it, brought it to the light, and polished it.
Keeping in sight the afflicted, the helpless, unruly child, ore is amazed by her' almost incredible develop-mont. She learnt to read and write and speak, She went to school and college. 'She was very good at pure! mathematics.' She studied Sweden-borg and wrote a eulogy of him. She seems to have understood him, which fine intellect, she grew up to writer of] distinction, Dudley Warner said of her that she is one of the purest human beings ever born." That true. One feels her crystalline purity in all she writes and does, and her religion resembles her, for} ft is clean and simple and sweet. Asked to define luve, she said: why, that is easy. "It is what] everyone feels for everyone else."
Mr. Paul Sperry, in the preface to Hodder and Stoughton's new! edition of Helen Keller's "My! Religion," says: "Helen Keller is loved the world over. Her accomplishments in the face of unique) difficulties have stirred our sense of the heroic, Her patient struggle! and convincing triumph touch our hearts." Yes, as we watch the bewildered blind and deaf child grope we seo her win out of] labyrinth into light of day, we are touched and thrilled. In the story of her life we rend of Teasons and her studies, her ions and advance, with admiration and surprise. In her first letter she writes: "helen write anna wrote, Helen Keller, after her devoted teacher had brought her out of the land of darkness and the house of bondage. Ann Sullivan fount tthe child: blind and deaf and damp, ignorant, passionate and stubborn, and made of her a cultured and ware woman, as pure as any. in stream and sweet as any book, "The, Story, of My Life ing the letters of Miss Ann Sullivan, ip. which are~ giv §Mumninafing and appealing notes on the steady, progress of the little optive. towards the Tight:—T must write you a Tine this morn ME iigpenat"ielee a taken, the Heeond Bread atop inher education, a Mont end {hed the mesuat alphabet That is so great a stage that we can understand the teacher's use of talies. Once the pupil knows that james stand for things and that james are made ut, of letters, the george will give helen appleblossom simpson will shoot bird jack wilh give helen stick of candy doctor will ive mildred medicine mother will make mildred new dri Twelve years later she writes:—
1 passed in all subjects: 1 offered and with credit. in advanced Lat But T must. confess Thad the second day of my.
ons. They' would not allow to read any of the papers 0 the papers were copied for me in Braille. worked well in the nearly a0 well in mathematics Imagine it. Eyeless and carless little Helen Keller reading Loti Greek and. German, writing in her letters of Homer and Virgil and Goethe, and Shakespeare and Carlyle; little "benighted' Helen Koller giving lectures, studying literature, writing "books, understanding Swedenborg. And with it all the afflicted, spoilt child grew in grace," Hard fortune ard "many difficulties failed to embitter her.
She is a gifted, cultured, much-loved id loving woman, clean of all envy and uncharitableness and pride. All the world loves and honours her and she hag mo cited her golden favours.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.