ANIMALS. 397 



dividual object cannot be acquired, without the 

 same effort which, when grown up, is employed 

 upon the most abstract idea : every thing the 

 child hears or sees, all the marks and characters 

 of nature, are as much unknown, and require the 

 same attention to attain, as if the reader were set 

 to understand the characters of an Ethiopic ma- 

 nuscript ; and yet we see in how short a time the 

 little student begins to understand them all, and 

 to give evident marks of early industry. 



It is very amusing to pursue the young mind 

 while employed in its first attainments. At about 

 a year old, the same necessities that first engaged 

 its faculties, increase as its acquaintance with 

 nature enlarges. Its studies, therefore, if I may 

 use the expression, are no way relaxed ; for 

 having experienced what gave pleasure at one 

 time, it desires a repetition of it from the same 

 object ; and in order to obtain this, that object 

 must be pointed out : here, therefore, a new ne- 

 cessity arises, which very often neither its little 

 arts nor importunities can remove; so that the 

 child is at last obliged to set about naming the 

 objects it desires to possess or avoid. In begin- 

 ning to speak, which is usually about a year old, 

 children find a thousand difficulties. It is not 

 without repeated trials that they come to pro- 

 nounce any one of the letters, nor without an 

 effort of the memory that they can retain them. 

 For this reason, we frequently see them attempt- 

 ing a sound which they had learned, but forgot : 

 and when they have failed, I have often seen their 

 attempt attended with apparent confusion. The 



