Gentlemen,

Your Cordial Friend and Servant,

_Dan. Foot._

* * * * *




TO THE READER.


Candid Reader,

_In these few Pages, I expose to thee openly and ingenuously, by what
means I can learn the Deaf, (and because they were born so) the Dumb
to speak articulately_, and easily to understand others also when they
are speaking, so as they may be able both to read, and to understand a
Book, or Letter, and to discover their own Minds, either by Speach or
Writing.

How important a Benefit is this? How advantageous is the not hearing
supplied by this Art? If Envy, or the detestable greedy Desire of
Gain_ _could have prevailed with me, I had retained this Art, as lockt
up in my own Breast. But alass! How miserable is the condition of the
Deaf? How lame and defective is that Speach, which is performed by
Signs and Gestures? How little are they capable to receive of those
things which concern their eternal Salvation? Who doth not