OF NATURAL HISTORt. 4-73 



not corrupted by improper imitations, Nature has made us 

 much more prone to good. 



Artificial language, which we learn entirely by imitation, 

 diftinguiflies us, more than any other circumftance, from the 

 brute creation. The proper ufe of it likewife forms the chief 

 difference between one man and another •, for, by language, 

 one man difcovers a fuperiority of knowledge and of genius, 

 while others exprefs by it nothing but borrowed or confufed 

 ideas. In an idiot, or in a parrot, it marks only the moft ab- 

 }eCz degree of ftupidity. It fliows the incapacity of either to 

 produce a regular chain of thinking, though both of them 

 be endowed with organs capable of expreffing what paffes 

 within their minds. Men whofe fenfes are delicate, and 

 whofe minds are eafily affected, make the beil aclors, and the 

 beft mimics. Children, accordingly, are extremely alert in 

 imitating the adlions, the geftures, and the manners, of thofc 

 with wham they affociate. They are dexterous in perceiv- 

 ing ridiculous figures and reprefentations, which they imi- 

 tate with eafe and propriety. Hence we perceive, in the 

 education of children, the infinite importance of regulating 

 the principle of imitation. 



The education of the inferior animals, though iliort, is al- 

 ways fuccefsful. By imitation, they foon acquire all the 

 knowledge poffeffed by their parents. They not only de- 

 rive experience from their own feelings, but, by imitation, 

 they learn and employ the experience of others. Young 

 animals model their actions entirely upon thofe of the old. 

 They fee their feniors approach or fly when they perceive 

 particular objedls, hear particular founds, or fmell certain 

 odours. At flrft, they approach or fly v.'ithout any other 

 determining principle but that of imitation. Afterwards, 

 they approach or fly fpontaneoufly, becaufe they have then 

 acquired the habit of approaching or flying, whenever they 

 feel the fame or flmilar fenfations. Many inflin^ls, as terror 



