180 A HISTORY OF 



partially. Infinitely superior to all others in the power* .*/ the un- 

 derstanding, he is also superior to them in the fitness and proportions 

 of his form. He would, indeed, have been one of the most mise- 

 rable beings upon earth, if with a sentient mind he was so formed as 

 to be incapable of obeying its impulse ; but Nature has otherwise 

 provided ; as with the most extensive intellects to command, she has 

 furnished him with a body the best fitted for obedience. 



In infancy,* however, that mind and this body form the most help- 

 less union in all animated nature ; and, if any thing can give us a 

 picture of complete imbecility, it is a man when just come into the 

 world. The infant just born stands in need of all things, without the 

 power of procuring any. The lower races of animals, upon being 

 produced, are active, vigorous, and capable of self-support ; but the 

 infant is obliged to wait in helpless expectation ; and its cries are its 

 only aid to procure subsistence. 



An infant just born may be said to come from one element into 

 another : for, from the watery fluid in which it was surrounded, it 

 now immerges into air ; and its first cries seem to imply how greatly 

 it regrets the change. How much longer it could have continued in 

 a state of almost total insensibility in the womb, is impossible to tell : 

 but it is very probable that it could remain there some hours more. 

 In order to throw some light upon this subject, Mr. Buffon so placed 

 a pregnant bitch, as that her puppies were brought forth in warm 

 water, in which he kept them above half an hour at a time. How- 

 ever, he saw ne change in the animals thus newly brought forth ; 

 they continued the whole time vigorous ; and, during the whole time, 

 it is very probable that the blood circulated through the same chan- 

 nels through which it passed while they continued in the womb. 



Almost all animals have their eyes closed,t for some days after 

 being brought into the world. The infant opens them the instant of 

 its birth. However, it seems to keep them fixed and idle ; they 

 want that lustre which they acquire by degrees ; and if they hap- 

 pen to move, it is rather an accidental gaze than an exertion of the 

 act of seeing. The light alone seems to make the greatest impres- 

 sion upon them. The eyes of infants are sometimes found turned to 

 the place where it is strongest ; and the pupil is seen to dilate and 

 diminish, as in grown persons, in proportion to the quantity it re- 

 ceives. But still the infant is incapable of distinguishing objects ; the 

 sense 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 defects 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 

 extraordinary description of the illusions which it suffers from them 

 The signv 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 errors are lost in one 



Buffon, vol. iv. p. 173. t Buffon. vol. iv p. 173. 



