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16 - Story of My Life by Helen Keller · Story of My Life

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  Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen of the Story of My Life. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. The Story of My
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  Speaker 1: Life by Helen Keller, Chapter sixteen. Before October eighteen ninety three,
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  Speaker 1: I had studied various subjects by myself in a more
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  Speaker 1: or less desultory manner. I read the histories of Greece, Rome,
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  Speaker 1: and the United States. I had a French grammar in
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  Speaker 1: raised print, and as I already knew some French, I
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  Speaker 1: often amused myself by composing in my head short exercises,
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  Speaker 1: using the new words as I came across them, and
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  Speaker 1: ignoring rules and other technicalities as much as possible. I
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  Speaker 1: even tried without aid to master the French pronunciation, as
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  Speaker 1: I found all the letters and sounds described in the book.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, this was tasking slender powers for great ends,
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  Speaker 1: but it gave me something to do on a rainy day,
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  Speaker 1: and I acquired the sufficient knowledge of French to read
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  Speaker 1: with pleasure La Fontaine's Fables lu Mes des Saint Malgray Louis,
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  Speaker 1: and passages from Ataly. I also gave considerable time to
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  Speaker 1: the improvement of my speech. I read aloud to Miss
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  Speaker 1: Sullivan and recited passages from my favorite poets which I
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  Speaker 1: had committed to memory. She corrected my pronunciation and helped
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  Speaker 1: me to phrase and inflect. It was not, however, until
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  Speaker 1: October eighteen ninety three, after I had recovered from the
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  Speaker 1: fatigue and excitement of my visit to the World's Fair,
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  Speaker 1: that I began to have lessons in special subjects at
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  Speaker 1: fixed hours. Miss Sullivan and I were at that time
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  Speaker 1: in Hulton, Pennsylvania, visiting the family of mister William Wade.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Irons, a neighbor of theirs, was a good Latin scholar.
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  Speaker 1: It was arranged that I should study under him. I
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  Speaker 1: remember him as a man of rare, sweet nature and
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  Speaker 1: a wide experience. He taught me Latin grammar principally, but
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  Speaker 1: he often helped me in arithmetic, which I found as
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  Speaker 1: troublesome as it was uninteresting. Mister Irons also read with
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  Speaker 1: me Tennyson's in Memorium. I had read many books before,
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  Speaker 1: but never from a critical point of view. I learned
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  Speaker 1: for the first time to know an author, to recognize
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  Speaker 1: his style as I recognized the clasp of a friend's hand.
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  Speaker 1: At first, I was rather unwilling to study Latin grammar.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed absurd to waste time analyzing every word I
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  Speaker 1: came across noun genitive, singular, feminine, when its meaning was
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  Speaker 1: quite plain. I thought I might just as well describe
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  Speaker 1: my pet in order to know it order vertebrate division,
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  Speaker 1: quadruped class, mammalia, genus, feeliness, species, cat, individual, tabby. But
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  Speaker 1: as I got deeper into the subject, I became more interested,
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  Speaker 1: and the beauty of the language delighted me. I often
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  Speaker 1: amused myself by reading Latin passages, picking up words I understood,
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  Speaker 1: and trying to make sense. I have never ceased to
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  Speaker 1: enjoy this pastime. There is nothing more beautiful, I think,
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  Speaker 1: than the evanescent, fleeting images and sentiments presented by a language.
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  Speaker 1: One is just becoming familiar with ideas that flit across
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  Speaker 1: the mental sky, shaped and tinted by capricious fancy. Miss
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  Speaker 1: Sullivan sat beside me at my lessons, spelling into my
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  Speaker 1: hand whatever mister Iron said, and looking up new words
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  Speaker 1: for me. I was just beginning to read Caesar's Gallic
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  Speaker 1: War when I went to my home in Alabama. End
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  Speaker 1: of chapter sixteen