1802. ] 
of the Inftitute is yery ccmprehenfive ; 
embracing all the arts and feiences which 
were formerly diftin&ly cultivated by dif- 
ferent academies. It is compofed of 144. 
Members refident in Paris, and of an 
equal number {pread over the departments, 
together with learned foreigners who afio- 
ciate, to the number of twenty-four. It 
is divided into three Clafles :—I. Phyfical 
‘and Mathematical Sciences—II. Moral 
and Political Sciences—III. Literature 
and the Fine Arts. Each of thefe is fub- 
divided into Seétions: each Clafs meets 
twice in the decade, and public meetings 
are held four times in. the year.  Prize- 
queftions are propofed, learned and phi- 
lofophical papers read, inventions ex- 
amined, difcoveries recorded, &c. &c. and 
in fhort, every thing which tends to bring 
the arts and fciences to perfection it is the 
object of this fociety to promote. The 
Library of the National Inftitute contains 
about 16,000 volumes, including the 
tran{actions of moft of the former French 
academies, and of many foreign literary 
focieties: it poffcffes alfo a valuable col- 
Je&tion of machines and models. 
With the following naked lift of the 
remaining Libraries I fhall clofe my pre- 
fent letter: —Bibhotheque du Tribunat—Du 
Sénat Confervateur—Du Prytanée Francais 
—Du Conservatoire de Mufique—Da Tri- 
bunal de Caffation—Du Confeil de TP Ecole 
des Mines—de 1 Ecole Polytechnique—De 
L’ Ecole de Santé—and \attly, la Bibliotheque 
@’Hifloire Naturelle, in which are to be 
feen, among other herbals, thofe of Tourne- 
fort and Vaillant. 
(To be continued. ) 
er 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
A LETTER concerning the recent 1M- 
PROVEMENT and prefent STATE of the 
SAVAGE of AVEYRON, from CITIZEN 
‘ITARD, PHYSICIAN fo the INSTITU- 
TLON of the DEAF and DUMB at PARIS, 
tO DR. REID, PHYSICIAN fo the ¥INS- 
BURY DISPENSARY, LONDON. 
Paris, 5th Germinal, Year to. 
SIR, ' 
| HAVE received the letter which you 
have done me the honour to addrefs to 
me, and likewife the engraving which it 
enclofed. Accept my acknowledgements 
for thefe two agreeavie prefents, but more 
elpecially for the tranflation which you 
have given to the public of my litle 
work. ~ 
It is unfortunate for Vittor* that the 
- —- 
“The name given to the young -fa- 
Vages 
Letter on the Savage of Aveyron: re 
lively and rational intereft which he has 
infpired among the Englith, is not felt in 
a fimilar degree by the Parifians, who are 
unable to comprehend why this child does 
not reafon, at his age, quite as well as 
other children, 1 publifhed my work with 
the hope of explaining the evident and 
palpable caufe of this circumftance. ‘They 
have not underftood me, or rather they 
have pretended not to underttand me. One 
of the greateft crimes of this unforiunate 
being confifts in having, by his original 
want of education, contradicted the opi- 
nions of agreat number of our philofophers, 
who adopt the creed of the milanthropic 
citizen ot Geneva, which intulcates that 
man in the pure ftate of nature is in his 
higheft ftate of perfection. Another of 
his faults is, having deceived, by the 
early developments of his mind, the too 
precipitate judgment of fome men, who, 
though defervedly celebrated, ought not 
to be looked up to as infallible. Never 
will Victor be able to wafh away thefe ir- 
reparable crimes, and I prefume.that it is 
merely by way of punifhing him for them, 
that they are continually propofing to con- 
fine him in a mad-houle. 
Hitherto he has been under my ma- 
nagement, and the recent fuccefs which I 
have experienced has encouraged me to 
perfevere in my attention to his education. 
He begins to defcribe tolerably well all 
the letters of the alphabet, and to copy 
Various geometrical figures, which I draw 
upon a board-in his prefence. I may be 
allowed to predict, from the progrefs 
which he has already made in the faculty 
of imitation, that he will, at leaft, become 
a good copyift. A circumflance highly 
favourable is, that he has already becoine 
extremely curious ; one can do nothing in 
his room without his obferving ic with 
the moft marked attention. This taculty,as 
well as that of judgment and compariion, 
exercifed on vifible objects, have been won« 
derfully improved. He has in his cham- 
ber fix or feven little boxes, . containing 
glafs beads of different colours, and about 
the fize of a pin’s head: by way of giving 
him a leffon of attention and difcernmeni, 
I every day empty thele little boxes, mix 
together all the beads, and then make him 
feparate them into as many different heaps. 
as there are different colours, and replace 
them in their refpeStive boxes. I have 
derived very great advantage from this 
exercite. 
Since the publication of my work [ 
have confiderably added to our modes of 
mutual communication, by the means of 
mannal figns, By this means I cai make 
hire 
