ANIMALS i81 



confused idea of existence ; and it is happy for the infant that it can 

 then make but very little use of its senses, 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 uneasiness it must, at every in- 

 terval, endure ; while, in the beginning, it has got no external marks 

 to testify its satisfactions. It is not till after forty days that it is seen 

 to smile ; and not till that time also, that tears begin to appear, its 

 former expressions of uneasiness being always without them. As to 

 any other marks of the passions, the infant being as yet almost with- 

 out them, it can express none of them in its visage ; which, except 

 in the act of crying and laughing, is fixed in a settled serenity. All 

 the other parts of the body seem equally relaxed and feeble : its mo- 

 tions 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 position. 



Nevertheless, though this be the description of infancy among 

 mankind in general, there are countries and races among whom in- 

 fancy does not seem marked with such utter imbecility, but whure 

 the children, not long after they are born, appear possessed of a 

 greater share of self-support. The children of negroes have a sur- 

 prising degree of this premature 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 tho 

 breast over her shoulder ; continuing in this posture till she thinks 

 proper to lay them down. This is very different in the children oi 

 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 chil- 

 dren than 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 

 arge, and all the members delicate, soft, and puffy. These appear- 

 ances alter with its age ; as it grows older, the head becomes less in 

 oroportion to the rest of the body ; the flesh hardens ; the bones, 

 ihat before birth grew very thick in proportion, now lengthen by 

 degrees, and the human figure more and more acquires its due di- 

 mensions. 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 time in sleeping, and 

 ^wake with crying, excited either by sensations of pain or of hun 

 ger. Man, when come to maturity, but rarely feels the want of food >xs 

 eating twice or thrice in the four and twenty hours is known to sufi.^ 

 the most voracious : but the infant may be considered as a little glu* 



