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A HISTORY OF 



The growth of the mind in children seems 

 to correspond with that of the body. The 

 comparative progress of the understanding 

 is greater in infants than in children of three 

 or four years old. If we only reflect a mo- 

 ment on the amazing acquisitions that an in- 

 fant makes in the first and second years of 

 life, we shall have much cause for wonder. 

 Being sent into a world where every thing 

 is new and unknown, the first months of life 

 are spent in a kind of torpid amazement ; an 

 attention distracted by the multiplicity of ob- 

 jects that press to be known. The first la- 

 bour, therefore, of the little learner is, to 

 correct the illusions of the senses, to distin- 

 guish one object from another, and to exert 

 the memory, so as to know them again. In 

 this manner a child of a year old has already 

 made a thousand experiments ; all which it 

 has properly ranged, and distinctly remem- 

 bers. Light, heat, fire, sweets, and bitters, 

 sounds soft or terrible, are all distinguished 

 at the end of a very few months. Besides 

 this, every person the child knows, every in- 

 dividual object it becomes fond of, its rattles, 

 or its bells, may be all considered as so many 

 new lessons to the young mind, with which 

 it has not become acquainted, without re- 

 peated exertions of the understanding. At 

 this period of life, the knowledge of every 

 individual object cannot be acquired without 

 the same effort which, when grown up, is em- 

 ployed upon the most abstract idea: every 

 thing the child hears or sees, all the marks 

 and characters of nature, are as much un- 

 known, and require the same attention to at- 

 tain, as if the reader were set to understand 

 the characters of an Ethiopic manuscript: 

 and yet, we see in how short a time the little 

 studept 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 ac- 

 quaintance with nature enlarges. Its sudies, 

 therefore, if I may use the expression, are no 

 way relaxed ; for, having experienced what 

 gave pleasure at one time, it desires a repe- 

 tition of it from the same object ; and, in or- 

 der to obtain this, that object must be pointed 

 out ; here, therefore, a new necessity 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 ob- 

 jects it desires to ppssess 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 pronounce any one of the letters ; nor with- 

 out an effort of the memory, that they can re- 

 tain them. For this reason, we frequently see 

 them attempting a sound which they had 

 learned, but forgot ; and when they have fail- 

 ed, I have often seen their attempt attended 

 with apparent confusion. The letters soon- 

 est learned, are those which are most easily 

 formed ; thus A and B require an obvious dis- 

 position of the organs, arid their pronuncia- 

 tion is consequently soon attained. Z and R, 

 which require a more complicated position, 

 are learned with greater difficulty. And this 

 may, perhaps, be the reason why the children 

 in some countries speak sooner than in others; 

 for the letters mostly occurring in the lan- 

 guage of one country, being such as are of 

 easy pronunciation, that language is of course 

 more easily attained. In this manner the 

 children of the Italians are said to speak 

 sooner than those of the Germans ; the lan- 

 guage of the one being smooth and open ; 

 that of the other, crowded with consonants, 

 and extremely guttural. 



But be this as it will, in all countries chil- 

 dren are found able to express the greatest 

 part of their wants by the time they arrive at 

 two years old ; and from the moment the ne- 

 cessity of learning new words ceases, they re- 

 lax their industry. It is then that the mind, 

 like the body, seems every year to make slow 

 advances; and, in order to spur up attention, 

 many systems of education have been con- 

 trived. 



Almost every philosopher, who has written 

 on the education of children, has been wil- 

 ling to point out a method of his own, chiefly 

 professing to advance the health, and improve 

 the intellects at the same time. These are 

 usually found to begin with finding nothing 

 right in the common practice ; and by urging 

 a total reformation. In consequence of this, 

 nothing can be more wild or imaginary than 

 their various systems of improvement. Some 

 will have the children every day plunged in 



