Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	speak_v	word_n	2,711	5	3.7885	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60202	The deaf and dumb man's discourse. Or A treatise concerning those that are born deaf and dumb containing a discovery of their knowledge or understanding; as also the method they use, to manifest the sentiments of their mind. Together with an additional tract of the reason and speech of inanimate creatures. By Geo. Sibscota.	Sibscota, George.; Deusing, Anton, 1612-1666.	1670 (1670)	Wing S3748B; ESTC R203573	28,715	98

might be capable of all Arts it must necessarily follow that she Created him without any Language that he might learn them all We also find that many men are more apt to learn other Languages than the Hebrew and that many Europaeans attain the true pronunciation of some Hebrew words with no small difficulty which could not be if the Hebrew were our natural Language for all things do voluntarily tend to that which is natural to them 29. We conclude therefore that they who are born absolutely Deaf though their organs are fit for the prolation of words which frequently happens yet they are for the major part Dumb that is they cannot pronounce significative words because they could not learn any Idiom by the Ear For it is very rarely known that they are taught to Speak by any such particular art as Peter Pontius made use of which out of Vallesius we have before mentioned 30. But in the mean time we do no way contradict but agree with Laurentius when he ascribes it to another cause why all those that are Deaf are generally Dumb or at least speak with difficulty taken from the mutual conjunction of the Nerves For this we lay down as another cause why Deaf men born are Dumb and so really dumb that they are altogether incapable of speaking articulate Words For that communion of the Nerves consists not in this that because the Nerve of the fifth Conjugation which is the auditory Nerve and the Nerves of the sixth Conjugation which are those belonging to the Speech or rather of the seventh for this is the Nerve of the Tongue are mutually joyned together within themselves before they are dispersed into their proper parts as Peter Apponensis in in his Explanation of the propos'd Problem is of opinion or because that the same Nerves are originally invested with the same Tunicle which in the judgement of others is no lesse repugnant to it self for the Nerves of either of the prementioned Conjugations are found by a sufficient and long interval originally distant and it cannot be said that they have any other common Tunicle than what all other Nerves are covered with viz. the Pia Mennix from which far-fetcht communion of the Nerves we may also inferr that those that are Deaf are Blind and those that are Blind Dumb. 31. But that Conjugation of the Nerves is well demonstrated by Laurentius which is also mentioned by Bauhinus in the third Book of his Anatomy c. 22. 60. and others that the Nerve of the fifth Conjugation commonly called the auditory Nerve hath several branches issuing from it the larger whereof is expanded to the Ear and the membrane of that most exquisite sense and carries all sorts of Sounds to the Brain the lesser extends to the Tongue and Larynx and is there embraced by the seventh Conjugation 32. And from this Communion of the vessels proceeds the sympathy between the Ear the Tongue and Larynx and the very affection of those parts are easily communicated one with the other Hence it is that the pulling of the Membrane of the Ear causeth a dry Cough in the party which Avicen takes notice of and that is the reason most deaf Men at at least those whose deafness ariseth from the ill-affection of the Nerves of the fifth pair are Dumb or else speak with great difficulty that is are not capable of framing true words or of articulate pronunciation by reason of the want of that convenient influx of the animal spirits and for this cause also it is that those that are thick of Hearing have a kind of hoarce speech 33. In like manner if there be any evil defect which usually consists in the inward structure of the Ear and the Palat which makes them speak through the Nose as we have before mentioned out of Aristotle there follows a deafness and withall an impediment of Speech the organ of speech being vitiated but not simply because a Language cannot then be learn't by hearing But contraily if the only structure of the Ear be defective or only that branch of the fifth pair which is carried to the Ear be preternaturally affected the Hearing may be hindred or Deafness may arise but the impediment is but by Accident because that when Words cannot be heard or received by the Ear they cannot be learnt 34. But if the Hearing be prejudic'd by the defect of the Tympanum or by any particular Membrane that is over it that is a peculiar Accident for in this case there happens to be a thickness of Hearing which is nearest of kin to Deafness rather than an absolute Deafness it self And in such cases those that are deafish use to hearken with their Mouth or to suck in Words and Sounds with gaping and so to pronounce without trouble those very words by the help of those organs subservient to Speech which they learnt by Hearing and such are by no means to be call'd Dumb persons 35. But the Sound flows to the inward part of the Ear or the very organ of Hearing by the help of the little Cartilagineous Pipe which is conveyed from the second passage of the Ear to the Mouth and Palat being appointed to convey the Excrements of the Ear through the Mouth like an Aquaeduct By the benefit of this Conduit-pipe it is that we can exactly apprehend our own Words when both our Ears are stopt so also if we hold a Stick in our Mouth and therewith touch any musical instrument we hear the sound thereof more exactly and if you are desirous to know whether there be any person approaching near you in the Night time place one end of the Staff on the ground and hold the other with your Teeth you hear then far better though at a great distance 36. By the same Pipe when we blow our Nose or hold our Breath by stopping of the Ears and shutting the Mouth we are sensible that the air finds a passage into the Ear by which the Membrane of the tympanum is struck with the outward sound and sometimes prejudiced thereby if it be very violent and by this it is that Smoakers puffing up their Cheeks having taken in the fume of Tobacco send it out at their Ears so as that they seem to Breath at the Ears Therefore the Opinion of Alcmaeon is not ridiculous who held that she-Goats did Breath thorough their Ears as Aristotle hath it in his first Book de Hist Animal c. 11. And to Physicians this conveyance doth insinuate that masticatory Medicines are not to be slighted in the inward pains of the Ears SECT III. Of their way of Understanding that are Born Deaf 37. BEfore we come to the third point of what is to be dicuss'd concerning the propos'd Problem we must Contemplate a little further on those that are Born Deaf and see with what Knowledge they are endued since men usually gain the major part of what they know by Hearing 38. First those persons that are Born Deaf and have the Visive faculty

deaf may learn to speak For so Valles Philoso Sacr. cap. 3. reports that one Peter Pontius a Monk of the Order of St. Benedict and his Friend taught those that were born deaf to speak by no other way than instructing them first to write pointing at those things with his finger that were signified by those Characters and then putting them forward to that motion of the Tongue that did correspond to the Characters 18. But if by those that are dumb we understand such as have Organs fit for the forming of words but yet understand no language nor ever learn't such words as express the conceived sense of the mind it is undeniably true that many that are born Deaf are also Dumb who never were instructed in any Tongue or signicative words by the forementioned artifice or some such kind of means 19. Therefore as to the cause why those that are born Deaf are also Dumb at least for the generality Albertus Magnus in his 4. Book de Anim. Tract 2. C. 2. saith that those that are Deaf from their Nativity are also Dumb because they could learn no Idiom by the sense of Hearing And Sanctor in Art Medic. approves of this opinion Galen part the 2. Question 4. as also Bartholinus in the 3. book of his Anatomy c. 9. referring the cause of deafness to the Drum of the Ear who saith that those who from their birth are thus affected are also for the most part Dumb because they can neither conceive in their mind nor utter with their Tongue those words which they never heard 20. But Laurentius contradicts this opinion in the 11th Book of his Anatomy and the 11th Question where he saith I do not allow of that vulgar conceit that the reason why those that are Deaf are mute because they can learn no language and because Hearing is the Sense of Learning for then saith he if that be the only cause why Deaf Men are Dumb First Why do they breath out their sighs and groans which are naturall passions with so much difficulty Sccondly whether or no might not those that are Deaf frame words and speches to express the sense and conceptions of the mind if they could pronounce them as well as those who were the first Inventors of them 21. But in truth we may give this answer to Laurentius his first argument that it is a fallacy to say that Deaf Men groan and sigh with difficulty because original deafness hath no manner of communication with the parts subservient to respiration But Laurentius his mistake seems to be grounded upon what Aristotle writes in his 4th Problem Section 11. That deaf Men breath not without violence by which Aristotle doth not mean a violent or difficult respiration which belongs to the Lungs and Breast but a vehement spiration or breathing through the Nostrils whereupon he addes that the Nostrils become more large by the passage of the Spirits and that 's the reason they cannot speak but through the Nose And so also in the second Problem saith he Those that are deaf want but little of being dumb and those that are dumb speak through the Nose for their Spirits are driven that way because they cannot speak 22. Now where there is a kind of ineptitude to speech in deaf Men occasioned by some defect appertaining to the Palate as well as the Organ of Hearing they breath not without difficulty and because their Spirits do bend their course more towards the Nostrils by reason of the wideness of their passage besides that they breath out a kind of voice with their mouths as Aristtole speaks concerning Elephants in the 4. Book de Hist Anim. c. 9. yet that sound they make with their Nose resembles the hoarseness of a Trumpet 23. To Laurentius his second argument it may be replyed although man by nature though deaf is arm'd with reason to make him fit for invention yet as Plato teacheth it is not the property of a vuigar Genius to impose names upon things much less is it in the power of every person to invent an elegant speech or peculiar Tongue to make the conceptions of the mind intelligible 24. He that first gave creatures their names to wit Adam was in his integrity and in the supernatural state of innocency instructed with such wisdome as transcends the capacity of prevaricated nature The confusion of various Tongues was afterwards supernaturally sent by God at the building of the Tower of Babel and then the variety of Idioms did gradually proceed from the commixture of Tongues or had some other rise by the common use and consent of men Yet those that are mute can find out a way whereby to explain the sense of their mind to others as well as if they had the faculty of speaking which is analagous to speech as shall be manifested in i'ts proper place 25. But possibly some persons beleive that if deaf men had in them that aptitude of Organs whereby they might be capeable of speaking that they should use some native Language or speech which Nature their School-Mistress should instruct them for since Sermocination is essential to man as subordinate to reason so it is not improbable that where the Organs are so adapted there must be granted external speech To which we answer that 't is true the very faculty of sermocination which is subservient to them in the declaring the sense of their mind by those significations that are set forth by words whatsoever they be is essential to man yet the names of things and so consequently the Languages themselves or the Idioms of speech are not to be learn't by nature but by instruction exercise and custome 26. And really if any certain speech did depend upon nature as every individual person of mankind hath one and the same nature so all Nations whatsoever would use one and the same Tongue But the contrary is known experimentally Therefore their opinion is altogether vain and foolish who being ignorant of Philosophy would needs oblige themselves and others to this persuasion that if a Child were taught no Language in his Infancy but left to his own conduct he would speak Hebrew that is he would make use of this Language by the meer instinct of Nature which is a conceit altogether inept and foolish 27. Vallesius in the forequoted place makes a good objection to this phantastical opinion saying If Speech were connatural to men as many other things are it would be so though they learnt any other Language and consequently all men would understand two Tongues For if the Speech in which a man was first instructed doth not hinder his learning another since many men can speak two three or four Languages much lesse can that which is natural be impeded by that which is acquisititious 28. Nay rather if one Tongue were natural to man they could not be docible of all the rest because that which is internal obstructs the externall Therefore as Nature made Man without Knowledge that he

intire they may gain the Knowledge of all Visible things as visible and may frame those universal conceptions of them by the abstraction of the Mind as well in this case as where the Hearing is perfect Nay farther and these persons as well as all other men in general may proceed from things Visible by the light of the Understanding to the Knowledge of the Invisible mysteries of the Deity so that they are left inexcusable as well as any other persons whatsoever if they do not glorify God and return him thanks for Benefits receiv'd Of these the Apostle speaks Rom. 1. v. 20 21. 39. Furthermore if those that are Born Deaf are also Blind although they are depriv'd of the knowledge of many things which come within the compass of the Senses nor can arive at the knowledge of God by the outward Book of Nature as the other yet they may obtain the knowledge both of God and themselves by those notions that are grafted in their minds And it is very probable that those whose Intellects are less disturbed in Contemplation by the appearance of corporeal things the implanted Seeds that are in them of the Knowledge of Divine and immaterial Beings do easily break forth into action as we our selves are more apt for the search and Contemplation of Divine things the less we are distracted by outward objects and the fancies that result from them 40. Certainly it is not at all consentaneous to reason that the rational Soul or Mind is altogether unactive in such persons and lies as it were lurking in the lethargy of a benumm'd security or that they do not according to their capacity incline their minds to the Knowledge of the Deity by virtue of that innate light that is in them as well as the Celestial Angels and Divels since the Soul is to be reckoned in the number of Intelligences though perhaps placed in the lowest rank of Intelligences and in reality is not so deeply plunged in matter or matterial functions by reason of its defect of Sight and Hearing 41. But what is to be thought of those who are born Deaf as to their Knowledge in things that concern the Mystery of our Salvation These things as they are too sublime either for Universal Humane or Angelical knowledge cannot be found out or understood by those notions implanted in the mind And as Faith comes by Hearing according to the Apostle where this is wanting it may possibly seem very agreeable to truth that there can be no Faith and therefore no saving knowledge and the consequence is undeniable since no man can be saved without Faith 42. Oh this is indeed a very hard saying which shipwracks the Soul Truly since those that are born Deaf are no more guilty of neglecting the means of their Salvation than Infants concerning whom however the Sacred Pages advise us to be more charitable what reason I wonder can there be why we should think God less merciful to them who are also born of faithful Parents than to Infants We will leave the disquisition of their Faith or the manner thereof to Divines Hath God therefore who according to his Will hath elected some on t of all Mankind corrupted by the Fall to be Vessels of mercy and others Vessels of his wrath strictly registred all those that are born deaf in the number of those that are Vessels of wrath Yet God's Promise and Covenant belongs to these as much as to the children of the faithful 43. The Holy Ghost in truth is the chiefest cause of Faith who begets it in our hearts by the preaching of the Word and consequently by Hearing This is the ordinary way of God which he commands us to follow he that neglects this is excluded from Faith by his own fault Yet God is not wholly tied up to this one way of operation He hath extraordinary ways which we are ignorant of and he will not reveal to us Yet God made use of peculiar means to bring St. Paul to the christian Faith and made him of a Persecutor of the Church become an Apostle Acts. the 9. He proceeded after another manner to the conversion at least in part of the Eunuch of Candace the Aethiopian Queen Acts the 9. viz. By the reading of the Word of God 44. And shall we judge that no persons can be saved that live where there is no publike preaching of Gods Word and so by consequence where the mind gains no spiritual knowledge by Hearing May we not affirm that by diligent reading and co-operation of the Holy Ghost Faith may be engendred in the Souls of the Godly Now therefore if this means be without Hearing why may not God manifest other ways that so at least his operation may not be confin'd to the hearing solely 45. But let us examine whether there are not other means appointed by God by which those that are originally deaf may attain the knowledge of divine Mysteries sufficient for salvation There is no necessity why speech which is usually acquir'd by Hearing should precede writing but speech useth to be in the first place by reason of it's facility for those that have all their senses perfect are more apt to speak than write But where there is a defect of Hearing they may begin with writing and so by writing come to speaking as is manifrst by the fore-cited example out of Vallesius Now external speech is a kind Messenger or rather representation of the internal or of the intellect it self They therefore that are born Deaf may by writing inform their minds with the knowledge of those things which must be obtained by hearing in others whose senses are all perfect and so they may make use of writing in leiu of speaking which is otherwayes attained by Learning and they as Vallesius speaks in his third chapter de Phil. Sacr. Do gain the knowledge of Divine things by the sight which others do by hearing which I my self saith he can testify in those Scholars which my friend Peter Pontius undertook who first taught them that were born Deaf to write or to express the conceptions of their mind by writing and then to speak 46. The same reason there is for those that are born Deaf if Dumb also they may by writing understand things although no external writing is subsequent to speech for the speech in Man conduceth not to the gaining of knowledge to themselves but only to communicate the Conceptions of their own mind to others This is clear by an example taken out of Pel. Platerus who in the first book of his Observations pag. 118. reports that a certain person who was born Deaf and Dumb could with Chalk draw out his mind in a Table-book which he carried continually about him and understand what others writ therein 47. But as writing or the reading thereof may serve in stead of speech by which the Conceptions of the mind are laid open to the sight as well as they are by speech to the Ear so there may