One of these indications of superiority, is the lively and
agreeable impression produced on the soul of the child,
by objects which are entirely foreign to the instinct of
preservation, and corporeal enjoyments — those incite-
ments to beings less richly endowed. From the age of
six or seven months, he shows himself capable of admira-
tion; and brilliancy of colors, as well as harmony of
sounds, cause him transports of joy. Source of the arts,
the pure sentiment of beauty is accorded to the feeble child
who has no idea of utility ; and curiosity, the first germ
of a love of science, is soon displayed in him. These two
noble inclinations have thus a disinterested origin, which
we too often permit them to contradict.
Scarcely has the second year commenced, than another
prerogative of the human species offers itself to our vieW.
OT THE SOUL IN INFANCV. 315

At the appearance of striking objects, the child pronounc-
es the name he has heard given to them, and his design
in this novel exercise seems at first to be only his pleas-
ure. But when he has once discovered the use of lan-
guage ; when he has ascertained that these words, which
he leves to pronounce, are a means of ^making himself
obeyed, all his feculties are exerted to acquire the pos-
session of this means. His proj^ress in the art of speak-
ing now becomes astonishing; its rapidity would even be
inexplicable, if, in respect to it, the child was not endowed
with faculties far superior to adults, as AL Itard, a skil-
fiil physician, has demonstrated. To study the process
by which he begins to make use of the various parts of
langiiage, is calculated to throw light upon the progress
of his intellectual development.
