4€0 tHE PHILOSOPHY 



when another child Is prefented to It ; both inftantly, pre- 

 vious to the poffibility of inftru<Stion or habit, exhibit the 

 moft evident expreffions of joy. Their eyes fparkle, their 

 features and geftures demon ftrate, in the moft unequivoca- 

 ble manner, a mutual attachment, and a ftrong defire of ap- 

 proaching each other, not with a hoftile intention, but with 

 an ardent afFeftlon, which, in that pure and uncontaminated 

 flate -^f our being, does honour to human nature. When 

 farther advanced, children who are ftrangers to each other> 

 though their focial appetite is equally ftrong, difcover a mu- 

 tual Ihynefs of approach. This fhynefs or modefty, how- 

 ever, is foon conquered by the more powerful inftinfl of 

 affoclation. They daily mingle and fport together. Their 

 tiatural affe£l:Ions, which, at that period, are ftrong, and un- 

 biaffed by thofe felfifti and vicious motives which too ofteri 

 conceal and thwart the intentions of Nature, create warm 

 friend {hips that frequently continue during their lives, and 

 produce the moft beneficial and cordial effects. When we 

 thus fee with our eyes, that the aftbciating principle appears 

 at a period much more early than many of our other InftintSls, 

 who will liften to thofe writers who choofe to deny that man 

 is, naturally, an aflociating or gregarious animal ? 



With regard to the advantages we derive from aflbcia- 

 tlon, a volume would not be fufficient to enumerate them. 

 Man, from the comparatively great number of inftindls with 

 Sffhich. his mind is endowed, neceffarily poflefTes a portion of 

 the reafoning faculty highly fuperior to that of any other ani- 

 mal. He alone enjoys the power of communicating and ex- 

 prefling his ideas by articul:xte and artificial language. This 

 ineftimable prerogative is, perhaps, one of the greateft fecon- 

 dary bonds of fociety, and the greateft fource of improvement 

 to the human intelle£l. Without artificial language, though 

 Nature has beftowed on every animal a mode of exprefl^ng 

 its wants and defires, its pleafures and pains, what an humil- 



