The Writings of Laura Bridgman, Part I [pp. 355-373]

358 The Writings of Laura Bridgmian. [Oc
monest abbreviations, also, have been ex- [Here "as " —" so that "; two or three tim
panded. in one of the later books of her Journal s
The record begins with her attack of scar- uses "as" somewhat similarly for "that."]
let fever in i832, and comes down to her was not conveyed out of the house for an i
visit to Mrs. Morton, her first teacher, in the stant for 5 months, till June or July. I w
winter of I84i. The sketch is dated by saturated with very bad sores on my chi
some hand other than Laura's, February 20th, and neck and on my lowest right leg a
i854. If that date be correct, the author other parts of the body.
was at the time of writing a little more than "As soon as I began to get a little bett
twenty-four years old, and had been some- it delighted my Mother very highly, who h
thing over sixteen years at the Institute. been so gloomy watching me constantly.
Her style and her mastery of idiom, though used to recline in a very nice and comfor
more perfect than in her journal, except to- able cradle for a great number of month
ward the very last, had not become finally I enjoyed myself so very much in lying i
fixed, and what is here found must not be my nest. Many of different persons we
taken as her highest attainment in these very attentive and tender and patient to
matters. whilst I resided with my Parents until I a
-Errors of three kinds are to be expected tained not exactly the eighth year.
in her writings: first, simple graphical errors, "I fancied having a veil drawn along
such aseveryone makes, which are not surpris- poor head when ever I lay myself in t
ing in the manuscript of one that could not cradle. The light was so very brilliant a
revise what she had written, nor see the be- striking that I could not bear to see the r
ginning of a sentence from the end; second, flection of the sun shine an instant once, b
errors of simple ignorance, inexperience, or cause my tiny eyes were very weak and pa
misinformation, arising from her misunder- ful many months. [Referring probably
standing of her teachers, or from a too gen- this "reflection "-i. e., the sunshine on t
eral application of some of the rules of lan- floor-Laura says in the sketch quoted
guage; and third, errors resulting from men- Mrs. Lamson: "It was from ignorance
tal peculiarity, if any such exist. Numerous the fact that I imagined that the sun alwa
examples of the first and second classes will shone beneath, through the floor in my mo
be found in the following extracts: er's kitchen upon which I reflect with m
eye, near her right window."] It made t
- "THE HISTORY OF MY LIFE. tears flow from my eyes like a heavy show
I dropped down my head into my little hand
"I should like to write down the earliest as the ray of the light stung my eyelids li
life extremely. I recollect very distinctly a sharpest needle or a wasp, my poor he
how my life elapsed since I was an Infant. and e es continually tormented me so tha