134 



A HISTORY OF 



seeing, like the rest of the senses, requires a 

 habit before it becomes any way serviceable. 

 All the senses must be compared with each 

 other, and must be made to correct the de- 

 fects of one another, before they can give just 

 information. It is probable, therefore, that if 

 the infant could express its own sensations, it 

 would give a very extaordinary description 

 of the illusions which it suffers from them. 

 The sight might, perhaps, be represented as 

 inverting objects, or multiplying them ; the 

 hearing, instead of conveying one uniform 

 tone, might be said to bring up an interrupted 

 succession of noises ; and the touch apparently 

 would divide one body into as many as there 

 are fingers that grasped it. But all these er- 

 rors are lost in one common confused idea of 

 existence ; and it is happy for the infant, that 

 it then can make but very little use of its sen- 

 ses, when they could serve only to bring it false 

 information. 



If there be any distinct sensations, those of 

 pain seem to be much more frequent and 

 stronger than those of pleasure. The infant's 

 cries are sufficient indications of the uneasi- 

 nesses it must, at every interval, endure ; 

 while, in the beginning, it has got no exter- 

 nal marks to testify its satisfactions. It is not 

 till after forty days that it is seen to smile ; 

 and not till that time also the tears begin to ap- 

 pear, its former expressions of uneasiness be- 

 ing always without them. As to any other 

 marks of the passions, the infant being as yet 

 almost without them, it can express none of 

 them in its visage ; which, except in the act of 

 crying and laughing, is fixed in a settled se- 

 renity. All the other parts of the body seem 

 equally relaxed and feeble; its motions are 

 uncertain, and its postures without choice ; it 

 is unable to stand upright ; its hams are yet 

 bent, from the habit which it received from 

 its position in the womb ; it has not strength 

 enough in its arms to stretch them forward, 

 much less to grasp any thing with its hands; 

 it rests just in the posture it is laid ; and, if 

 abandoned, must continue in the same po- 

 sition. 



Nevertheless, though this be the description 

 of infancy among mankind in general, there 

 are countries and races, among whom infancy 

 docs not seem marked with such utter imbe- 

 cility, but where the children, not long after 

 they are born, appear possessed of a greater 



share of self support. The children of Ne- 

 groes have a surprising degree of this prema- 

 ture industry : they are able to walk at two 

 months ; or, at least, to move from one place 

 to another: they also hang to the mother's 

 back without any assistance, and seize the 

 breast over her shoulder, continuing in this 

 posture till she thinks proper to lay them 

 down. This is very different in the children 

 of our countries, that seldom are able to walk 

 under a twelvemonth. 



The skin of children newly brought forth is 

 always red, proceeding from its transparency, 

 by which the blood beneath appears more 

 conspicuous. Some say that this redness is 

 greatest in those children that are afterwards 

 about to have the finest complexions ; and it 

 appears reasonable that it should be so, since 

 the thinnest skins are always the fairest. The 

 size of a new-born infant is generally about 

 twenty inches, and its weight about twelve 

 pounds. The head is large, and all the mem- 

 bers delicate, soft, and puffy. These appear- 

 ances alter with its age ; as it grows older, 

 the head becomes less in proportion to the rest 

 of the body ; the flesh hardens ; the bones 

 that befon 1 birth grew very thick in propor- 

 tion, now lengthen by degrees, and the human 

 figure more and more acquires its due dimen- 

 sions. In such children, however, as are but 

 feeble or sickly, the head always continues too 

 big for the body ; the heads of dwarfs being 

 extremely large in proportion. 



Infants, when newly born, pass most of 

 their true in sleeping, and awake with crying, 

 excited either by sensations of pain, or of 

 hunger. Man, when come to maturity, but 

 rarely feels the want of food, as eating twice 

 or thrice in the four-and twenty hours, is 

 known to suffice the most voracious : but the 

 infant may be considered as a little glutton, 

 whose only pleasure consists in its appetite ; 

 and this, except when it sleeps, it is never 

 easy without satisfying. Thus nature has 

 adapted different desires to the different periods 

 of life ; each as it seems most necessary for 

 human support or succession. While the ani- 

 mal is yet forming, hunger excites it to that 

 supply which is necessary for its growth ; when 

 it is completely formed, a different appetite 

 takes place, that incites it to communicate 

 existence. Thuse two desires i .ke up the 

 whole attention at different periods, but are 



