"  Q.  With  a  child  of  what  age  would
you  compare  him  in  respect  to  knowl-
edge?

"  A.  With  a  child  two  or  three  years
old."    Hall's  Trial  of  Freeman,  p.  343.
To  illustrate  this  great  imbecility  and
ignorance,  it  may  be  mentioned,  that,
thougli  the  prisoner  knew  and  could  call
by  name  the  letters  of  the  alphabet ;  and
though,  notwithstanding  this,  he  could
not  read  a  word ;  yet  he  really  believed
he  could  read,  would  take  a  book  in  his

216


hand  and  say  over  words  and  sounds
which  were  not  words,  just  like  an  infant
two  years  old.  He  could  with  diflBiculty
count  to  between  twenty  and  thirty ;  but,
when  he  reached  the  end  of  his  knowl-
edge, he  would  count  right  on  wrongly,
not  imagining  he  was  not  right.  He
thought  he  once  saw  Jesus  Christ  in  the
Sabbath  school.  And  this  dead  flat  of
ignorance  and  stupidity  was  enlivened
by  no  green  mound  of  intelligence  and
wisdom.  He  seldom  or  never  asked  a
question,  related  nothing  without  prompt-
ing, and  seemed  entirely  indifferent  to
his  fate,  even  not  to  know  the  nature
of  the  peril  in  which  he  stood ;  though,
when  the  keeper,  one  night,  forgot  to
bring  him  the  bed  which  should  separate
him  from  the  cold  stone  floor  of  his  cell,
whereto  he  was  chained,  he  could  call
for  it ;  and  he  could  ask,  whenever  he
needed,  his  visitors  for  tobacco.
