114 



appeftts to ettcrease in dimensions to six ; and if gradually 

 removed from distance to distance, reduces its size till it to- 

 tally vanishes, being seen in it? tru« dinaensions but once in 

 its progress which takes place at the barrier m question. 



Beyond this boundary, tfee eye ©f the dnfant ha« not yet 

 learned to penetrate. It mflst previously become so imti- 

 mately acquainted with at least one particular object, that it 

 will recognise it at a moderate distance ; or, to speak more 

 consonantly with the sensations of the child, it ?must be able -fco 

 recognise it for the same object, although at one time it ap- 

 {)ears 'large, ated at another small. The first step in the ac- 

 iq'Sisition of this knowledge is the discovery, tiiat the visible 

 anfd tangible object is the same. One of the earliest occix- 

 pations of the infant is -to press with its hand the bosoiaaof 

 its mother. The prominency which is familiar to the touch, 

 can'not long be concealed from the eye. The gradual bright- 

 tiess and shading soon become signs of the figure of the ob- 

 ject ; and the sight, under the tuition of the feeling, learns to 

 distinguish the round and the angular from the coloured flat- 

 ness peculiar to its own powers of perception. In his pro- 

 gress he insensibly becomes acquainted with the features of 

 his mother — rejoices to behold them softened into smiles — 

 and gives the first proof of his sympathy, that grand founda- 

 tion of our moral attributes, by a respondent smile. At rest 

 in his cradle he follows the countenance, now become so in- 

 teresting to him, with an attentive eye. It lessens as it re- 

 Cedes ; it enlarges as it advances ; and perhaps with the de- 



