MENTAL AND CORPOREAL. 283 



agents; but he is obliged to pass through a long 

 intellectual minority, and to be subject to unre- 

 mitting, and rigid moral discipline, before he be 

 fully prepared to act for himself. x 



We accordingly find, that contrary to other 

 animals in which the organs of sense are very 

 early developed, his birth is distinguished by no 

 otherphenotnenon, than the ordinary appearances 

 of vitality. He can neither hear, see, nor know 

 where to find his food, and only very partially 

 (if at all) feel the application of external substan- 

 ces ; the crying, upon the admission of air into 

 his lungs, being only an instinctive action to 

 promote their expansion ; while before any of 

 the above faculties are discovered, a variety of 

 other animals have reached their fullest degree 

 of perfection. 



As he advances in growth and strength, vision 

 begins to open to him the surrounding objects, 

 and light and colours attract his attention, but 

 without any consciousness of their distinction, 

 or of the cause of the amusement they afford him. 

 His taste, before indifferent to the flavour of any 

 substance, now begins to teach him to reject the 

 nauseous and to prefer the palatable ; and his 

 sense of hearing, at first deaf to every noise, 

 awakens his attention to sounds, the louder the 

 more attractive ; while he soon becomes feelingly 

 alive to the painful sensations which mechanical 

 applications, or internal causes, may produce. 



