(in every animal possessed of a nervous apparatus. Taking care, therefore, not to suppose more than there actually is, let us pursue our historical developement of the nervous functions.

The infant grows, his limbs are formed. Two external senses, which as yet do not appear to have furnished any perception, begin to modify the encephalon which is now in a condition to respond. The infant fixes his eyes on objects, he follows their motions, and if you turn his back, he turns round his head to keep his eyes in the direction of the luminous rays which have escaped him it is an instinct more perfect that induces him to execute this motion. Moreover he is attentive to noise; that is, by a like instinct he moves farther off, or he approaches as well as he can, or keeps his body motionless to perceive the impression of the human voice, or the sound of instruments, &c. These are two new senses brought into action, and the child that had before only touch and taste, has now eye sight and hearing.

That acquisition does not seem immediately to produce any new action: but now it is observed that when his immediate wants are satisfied he no more falls into a sleep, he begins to observe himself, and aided by the signs of his nurse he marks the inconvenience of uncleanliness, and learns to get rid of it. His smiles of pleasure accompany the satisfaction of his wants, and the caresses of his nurse. He puts himself now in relation with the beings of his own kind. He seeks to handle the bodies which he sees, and tries to imitate the sounds he has heard. A new want has now arisen, curiosity. The desire of moving, necessarily accompanies this. The infant exerts his muscles of locomotion not only to bring objects within his reach, but to approach them, although this is done very often ineffectually. He is determined to this by an internal impulse purely instinctive, even when he has no object in view, no end to serve, he bestirs, he agitates himself, he is never at rest unless while sleeping, or while some new object rivets his attention and gives it a new direction.

But let us stop a little at this power of calling off the attention from a sensation. It did not exist before. Here then is a new faculty in the brain which has been developed with the senses of hearing and seeing. No doubt it is so; and this new faculty is nothing more than a greater developement of instinct, dependant on the augmentation of the

encephalon, which is not merely enlarged, but begins to be well marked out in regions where it was heretofore but roughly sketched. These regions are the different points of the anterior portion which corresponds to the frontal bone.

In proportion as this part of the brain becomes more distinct, the expression of the physiognomy is heightened; the eyes and even the motions of the muscles of the face, and the complexion, announce that the child has ideas analogous to some of our own. For expression is not a being—an entity taking its station in the face, but it is property belonging to this part of the body, of making known to an observer that the person observed possesses ideas. The most expressive physiognomies, disclose nothing to persons of weak minds.

Here then are the first lineaments of intelligence, which henceforward are marked. We should have looked for

them in vain in the young child who furnished so many proofs Jensile

of sensibility; I beg the reader not to lose sight of this, and he will see that sensibility, intelligence, and instinct, are very different things. In fact, the action of the nerves on the motions of the heart and vascular system, with which they are developed, constitutes the first degree of nervous action: the second is manifested when the brain, stimulated either by the internal senses, or by the limbs when they are bent, pressing upon some of the viscera, and in some manner which we may suppose unfavourable to the regular progress of the animal economy, produce motions in the locomotive muscles of the child in the womb. The infant just born, gives evident proofs of sensibility, but only by the expression of pain; and executes also some instinctive actions: this is the third degree of nervous action. Lastly, the fourth to which we now come, seems to be prepared by the developement of agreeable sensations, never perceived until now: this is the period when intelligence shows itself, by giving birth to attention, by acts of observation, and by the faculty which the infant henceforward possesses to put off action solicited by instinct, and of the first necessity, to execute others enforced by external impressions.

Still this intelligence is as yet, extremely limited; and it would be a great mistake to consider it as equal to that of the grow up man. The infant as yet, has no ideas but of material bodies; nothing proves that he is able to analyse and abstract their attributes. He seems much more advan

ale

pleasure, unless from the impressions of material objects; these alone, agitate agreeably his nervous system. To eat' and to drink, to take much exercise, to see new objects, and satisfy a wandering curiosity; to put his limbs in action, which nature orders him to do; to try his strength, and to compare it with that of others, not only for the purpose of exercising it, but to obey the want of that self satisfaction which shows itself but as yet only in outward actions, such are the customs imperiously demanded by instinct; and to which, youth, not yet arrived at the age of puberty, always returns, whatever pains you may take to turn him from them. The pleasures of reflection are as yet unknown to him, excepting those which he obtains by stratagem, which he substitutes to strength, whenever he wishes to act upon one stronger than himself. This kind of pleasure has more attraction for him than that of kind actions; unless indeed, he finds in these, the means of exercising his predominant faculties; this would be the case for example, in protecting a young person weaker than himself, whom he would plague the instant after. In general, he prefers mischief to doing good, because by this means he satisfies his vanity, and he finds in it more excitement, which is necessary to him, at whatever price. This is the reason that we see him so often amuse himself by breaking to pieces inanimate objects: and he finds a double pleasure, founded on the desire of self satisfaction, to find resistance yield to him, and to excite the anger of reasonable persons; this seems to him a victory that he enjoys deliciously whenever he can escape by flight from merited punishment. On the same principle of action, he delights in torturing animals; and he would enjoy the same pleasure in torturing individuals of his own species, if he were not restrained by fear; for the desire of self preservation is very strongly marked in him. Compassion does sometimes restrain him; but this is a feeling not much developed at this age in the male sex: we find it more frequently, and more distinctly marked in young girls. I know that all the acts of young people before the age of puberty, are not distinguished by this depravity: the character of goodness which marks many persons afterward, begins to appear before the epoch of reason; but the great majority are such as I have described; and the more vigorous young boys are, and the more lively do they feel the want of expending their force by external motion, the

stronger is their tendency to do wrong: there is scarcely a child that does not make a bad use of his strength upon others who are weaker than himself; this is his first movement; but the cries of his victim stop him, when he is not naturally ferocious, until a new instinctive impulse induces him to commit the same fault.

To correct these propensities, which reason, and experience of the unhappy consequences attending them, would never correct, or correct too late, two methods have been adopted. The instinct of self preservation is brought into play by the punishments which terrify the child, and turn against him the consequences of his bad actions: endeavors also are used to turn him aside from selfish gratification in these pernicious indulgences, to render him more susceptible of those pleasures which attend praises obtained by docility, kindness, goodness, attention to his duties, effects of study, memory, and intelligence.

This last faculty is put in requisition by anticipation, in explaining the notion, of good and evil, justice and injustice, merit and demerit. These are most useful ideas, which are as yet confused in a child of that age, and applicable at will to his petty passions, but which are rectified by being presented accurately drawn out by the labors of philosophers and sages. We succeed in this task in proportion only to the developement of those parts of the brain that belong to intellect.

While we exhaust our unproductive efforts to hasten the developement of intelligence in the child, and inspire him with a taste for serious objects, a new function establishes itself, and nature performs without effort, what art would have attempted in vain. The organs destined for the production of the species become developed, and the encephalon receives an impulse which is calculated to carry it to its last degree of growth and energy. The young man perceives a prodigious change in his manner of seeing things. So soon as he has received the influence of this new sense, a wandering kind of inquietude seizes him; the eyes of the other sex excite within him instinctive movements that he feels with surprise. If we examine the state of his intellect, we shall find that he has discovered new ideas in words that he thought he well understood, but had never suspected before; he sees relations, bearings and order, where he before observed only differences, multiplicity, and confusion. Ideas